Foreign Policy Blogs

Keystone XL – The Pressure Builds

Keystone XL - The Pressure Builds

I’ve written about or referenced the Keystone XL project and the Alberta tar sands a fair number of times, including at this post for DeSmogBlog.  The picture shows protesters at the White House last summer.  The folks at 350.org led the demonstrations there and are organizing another action for November 6th.

The pipeline and the tar sands have been getting a lot of press lately, including this eloquent editorial at the NY Times:  Say No to the Keystone XL in which they note the crux which is “…the larger question of whether this country should keep conducting business as usual — that is, succumbing to the status quo of politics and big oil — or whether it will seriously grapple with the reality of climate change.”  The Times has also been doing some good, old-fashioned reporting, including this hard-hitting piece on conflicts of interest in the environmental review.  The Washington Post had this summary of the politics and that the White House is feeling the pressure.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has been a leader in the fight against the tar sands oil and the Keystone XL pipeline.  One of their long-time board members, Robert Redford, had this video op-ed at the NY Times.  It brings the Keystone XL into pretty clear focus.

 

 

 

Author

Bill Hewitt

Bill Hewitt has been an environmental activist and professional for nearly 25 years. He was deeply involved in the battle to curtail acid rain, and was also a Sierra Club leader in New York City. He spent 11 years in public affairs for the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation, and worked on environmental issues for two NYC mayoral campaigns and a presidential campaign. He is a writer and editor and is the principal of Hewitt Communications. He has an M.S. in international affairs, has taught political science at Pace University, and has graduate and continuing education classes on climate change, sustainability, and energy and the environment at The Center for Global Affairs at NYU. His book, "A Newer World - Politics, Money, Technology, and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis," will be out from the University Press of New England in December.



Areas of Focus:
the policy, politics, science and economics of environmental protection, sustainability, energy and climate change

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