Elizabeth May to John Kerry on Keystone

Support Elizabeth's Letter to John Kerry | Green Party of Canada

lizabeth May has written to US Secretary of State John Kerry to urge him to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

- Keystone hurts the Canadian economy:
The Keystone pipeline -- along with the other proposed pipelines across
the country -- would carry unrefined bitumen mixed with “diluents”
(dilbit). These projects would make Canada's economy even more dependent
on the export of unprocessed fossil fuels, leaving us in a vulnerable
position when the carbon bubble bursts.

- Keystone doesn’t promote North American energy security:
As proposed, the diluents which are added to make dilbit would come
from Saudi Arabia,  so dilbit would not be the 100% Canadian product
being advertised. Since the diluents which are added to make dilbit
would come from Saudi Arabia, shipping raw bitumen by pipeline would do
nothing to unplug North American from Middle East energy dependency.

- Keystone won’t replace rail transportation:
We can do the math -- if Stephen Harper succeeds with his plan to
increase oil sands production to 6 million barrels per day (mbd), then
even with Keystone’s capacity of 0.8 mbd and Enbridge’s 0.5 mbd we would
be well short of transporting it all by pipeline. In fact, bitumen
transport by rail would have to increase, creating an even larger load
on our already struggling rail infrastructure

- Keystone limits our ability to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions:
There is no doubt, based on the US State Department’s report, that
Keystone will lead to growth in the oil sands. And that is what this
issue is about. Reaching Stephen Harper’s goal of 6 mbd is simply not
possible without Keystone XL. At Copenhagen, Canada promised to reduce
CO2 emissions from our 2005 level of 737 megatons (MT) to 607 MT by
2020. Under Stephen Harper’s leadership our emissions are on track to be
734 MT -- all progress on emission reduction at the provincial level is
being wiped out by oil sands growth.

Canada needs a domestic energy strategy and a real climate plan that makes sense.

Add your name in support of Elizabeth’s letter to John Kerry. Together we
can send a message to the Obama administration that this pipeline is in
neither of our countries’ best interest.