Tar Sands Pipeline Fails Presidential Test

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2013 - President Obama said today he would not okay the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline unless it "does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution."

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, director of the international program with the Natural Resources Defense Council, made the following statement:

“The president made it emphatic: he won't green light a tar sands pipeline that means more carbon pollution, more climate chaos, more drought, heat, fire and floods.

“We already know that producing tar sands from this project would generate more carbon pollution than conventional oil. The State Department's own analysis compares the difference to adding nearly 4 million cars to the road.

“The only way this project passes the president's test is to claim that just as much tar sands crude would be produced without the pipeline - that there might be some other way to ship it out of Canada. That can't happen, as more and more evidence affirms.

“This is why we need the State Department to conduct a full and thorough review. That will show that the tar sands pipeline is a bad idea. It would have a disastrous impact on our climate. And it needs to be denied.”