Letter the Editor - Stop the Keystone XL Pipe LIne

This Sunday 4000  or more people will be surrounding the White House in an action to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline from being built.  I was one of the 1253 citizens arrested in the Tar Sands Action that took place earlier in DC.  Now I’m returning Sunday, November 6^th, exactly one year to the day before the election next year, to take part in this follow-up action.  Why would someone living in Mt. Shasta, where heaven meets earth, bother?  Because stopping the pipe line is crucial for the climate.  The President can stop this off-loading of sludge from the Alberta, Canada Tar Sands.  This is because the pipe line, that TransCanada is pushing to build, crosses our international border.  Thus, it is an issue for the State Department to decide.  The President who told us that under his leadership the oceans would stop rising and the US would kick its dependency on oil, now has an opportunity to act on what he promised.  The Keystone XL Pipe Line, if built, will carry Tar Sands oil 1700 miles across the US to Gulf Coast refineries.  Never mind that it will leak as it crosses some of America’s most sensitive aquifers that millions of us depend upon for drinking and agriculture.   Once this sludge is refined there is no guarantee that it will be available for US consumers.  It will be sold tax free to the highest bidder.  But burning it will be the ultimate disaster for the earth’s climate.