Green America strongly commends President Obama for his wise decision, announced  to reject the dangerous Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed pipeline would extend nearly 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast.

This Canadian project poses severe consequences for human health and the environment while further entrenching the dirty fossil fuel economy and failing to generate lasting jobs. Investment in clean energy generates 3-4 times as many jobs as investments in fossil fuels.

“This is the right decision, a brave decision, and one that shows the President took into account profound concerns about the pipeline’s impacts on health, climate change, the environment, and the need to build a clean energy economy that can create lasting U.S. jobs,” said Fran Teplitz, Green America’s director of strategic outreach.

Last November, the Obama Administration pushed the deadline on its pipeline decision into early 2013, determining that current impact studies on the pipeline were insufficient. A fair and measured period of scrutiny for the proposed pipeline is exactly what Big Oil and Republicans in Congress don’t want, because this project fails on every score. Congressional Republicans pushed legislation in December designed to force a presidential decision on the pipeline in February 2012.

“The President made the right call today,” stated Alisa Gravitz, Green America’s executive director. “Green America and our allies will continue to work to oppose tar sands pipelines at every turn. We will continue to lend our voice and our organizing power to this issue which has dire consequences for Native communities, the earth, and the clean energy future that the times demand we create,” she affirmed.

Proponents of the pipeline tout it as a major job creator. Data show, however, that the Keystone XL pipeline can actually be a jobs killer in the U.S., through pipeline spills and increased fuel costs in the Midwest as current tar sands oil gets diverted. Moreover, with a significant portion of the Keystone XL oil intended for the export market, there is no credibility to the claim that tar sands oil represents a “friendly” oil source for the United States.

President Obama has used his decision-making power on the Keystone pipeline in a prudent and sensible way that will benefit current and future generations. Big Oil should not determine the direction of our energy future when we need a new direction based on clean and renewable power.

Green America is a national membership organization that uses the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society

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