In a 24-hour period beginning at 11am CT yesterday, a coalition of over 40 organizations and businesses — from CREDO Mobile to Bold Nebraska to Patagonia — launched a 24 hour “signature bomb” with the goal of sending the Senate over 500,000 messages opposing Keystone XL and urging Senators to block any amendments that would reverse the President’s pipeline rejection. The goal was surpassed with a total number reaching over 770,000. Those signatures are being hand-delivered to Senator Reid and Senator McConnell today.
“Congressional Republicans might make sweetheart deals with Big Oil,” said Jane Kleeb, Director of BOLD Nebraska and a leader of the movement against Keystone XL. “But folks in the Heartland and across America are focused on keeping this pipeline from risking Americans water supply, our climate, and our clean energy future.”
The news of surpassing the initial goal of 500,000 was welcomed, however the best part of the news was the 500,000th person to sign the petition was Alayna Yael Cohen, a Nebraskan!
Alayna Yael Cohen, a law student at the University of Nebraska, explained why she is fighting the pipeline, “Put simply, the Senate Republicans have no business pushing for this pipeline until the risks are adequately addressed and some light is shed on the huge discrepancy between the potential for jobs as estimated by a corrupt firm contracted by TransCanada and that estimated by every other independent study. To proceed with the pipeline could be an environmental and economic disaster that no number of new jobs could ever make up for.”
Despite the fact that President Obama denied the pipeline permit, Members of Congress are attempting to resurrect the project to use as a political talking point. Since TransCanada has not yet reapplied for a permit and since any proposed route still threatens the Ogallala Aquifer, one has to wonder why Congressional Republicans continue to meddle in a private sector’s business rather then allow them to proceed within the existing legal structures for foreign oil pipelines.
