From Kate:

103 U.S. Mayors have signed a letter to Obama asking him to reject the Keystone Pipeline project. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede are among those 103.

Trans-Canada claims the pipeline is beneficial and needed:

The U.S. consumres 15 million barrels of oil each day and imports 10 to 11 million barrels per day. Industry forecasts predict oil consumption will continue at these levels for the next two or three decades…

We should be encouraging folks in the U.S. not to rely so much on oil, not continuing to feed our reliance on oil by negatively impacting local communities.

Mayors Rybak and Brede are demanding that President Obama work with the communities that could be affected by the Keystone Pipeline Project, rather than against them like big oil companies want.

The letter argues that the pipeline, which would run from Canada to Mexico, needs more reviewing to analyze the impact on local communities’ efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The high carbon project’s present environmental review has too many gaps for us to accept it at this point.

One of the most terrifying gaps is that leaks happen. The mayors are urging President Obama to remember the 30 leaks that polluted the U.S. and Canada this year alone.

So let’s take a moment to thank Mayors Rybak and Brede for standing up for local communities trying to protect our environment against big oil.

For more information about why stopping the Keystone pipeline is so important, head over to our partner organization Bold Nebraska‘s website. They are doing tremendous and important work on this issue.

 

Photo credit: Flickr