Green Party Blasts Obama's Tar Sands Keystone XL Pipeline Approval - Help Save Our Environment!!

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

> Contacts:

Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell

202-904-7614, [email protected] Starlene Rankin, Media

Coordinator, 916-995-3805, [email protected]

Green Party leaders blast President Obama’s approval of

the tar sands pipeline and withdrawal of EPA smog

regulations, calling White House policies a capitulation to

Republicans and corporate lobbies:

• Greens promote Green New Deal: real action to curb

global warming and end oil addiction, create new jobs in

energy conservation, alternate energy development, and

public transportation.

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to

speak on global warming and other ecological issues:

http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-ecological.php

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders strongly criticized

President Obama’s recent decisions on the controversial

tar sands pipeline and EPA smog regulations, calling his

support for the Keystone XL Pipeline and withdrawal of

smog standards reckless and dangerous to public health

and the environment.

“More respiratory disease, more dependence on fossil

fuels, more greenhouse gases released into the

atmosphere — these will be the results of President

Obama’s latest capitulations to the oil industry and

Republicans.

The President is trying to appease anti-regulation

ideologues and climate-change deniers in the GOP and

corporate lobbies that place profits ahead of public safety,”

said Audrey Clement, co-chair of the Green Party of the

United States and a member of the party’s Eco-Action

Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/ecoaction/index.php).

Greens noted that President Obama alone, without

approval from Congress, has the power to approve or

reject the tar sands pipeline from Alberta, Canada.

Party leaders expressed admiration and gratitude to the

protestors arrested during the White House

demonstrations against approval of the tar sands pipeline

(http://www.tarsandsaction.org).

“The courageous actions at the White House represent the

voice of conscience confronting the dark forces of

environmental destruction,” said Jill Stein, co-chair of the

Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts

(http://www.massgreens.org). “I am so proud to see that

America has so many people willing to put themselves on

the front line of the battle to save our future”.

This action is a defining moment.

It is the point at which the environmental community stops

accepting inaction and excuses, and starts insisting that

our government do the right thing.

That courage to speak up clearly and not be silenced is

critical for starting to save our imperiled planet.“
 

NASA’s Dr. James Hansen, one of the nation’s top climate

scientists, said that development of tar sands in Alberta,

Canada, would be “game over” for efforts to curb climate

change (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/29/idUS257590805720110829).

Mining oil from tar sands creates three times more carbon

emissions than conventional oil extraction, and the oil will

be transported by the hazardous 1,700-mile long Keystone

XL Pipeline to refineries in Texas.

Despite such warnings, the State Department gave the

project a green light in its environmental impact statement,

dismissing the threat of sharp increases in carbon

emissions.
 

Greens said that President Obama’s concern for the

revenues of oil companies and the financial burden

created by anti-smog regulations reflected an

administration that measures the health of the US

economy by corporate profits rather than by how many

new jobs are created, how many Americans move out of

unemployment and poverty, and how the US is meeting the

challenges of global warming.
 

“Green candidates have called for a ‘Green New Deal’ with

a plan to create millions of new jobs in conservation and

conversion to safe, clean energy, the promotion of

technologies to reduce air pollution — such as anti-smog

devices — and expansion of public transportation to

reduce car traffic.

Such measures will help the US recover from the 2008

economic meltdown.

Unfortunately, President Obama has retreated from his

2008 nomination speech promise that during his

presidency the ‘rise of the oceans will begin to slow, and

the planet begin to heal.’

He has capitulated to the corporate myth that

environmental standards are job killers.

In fact, they are job creators because they spur innovation

and investment in cleaner technologies,” said Howie

Hawkins, co-chair of the Green Party of New York State

(http://www.web.gpnys.com) and candidate for Common

Councilor of Syracuse.

“Obama is ignoring the tar sands pipeline protesters and

the whole movement to stop global warming.

Street protests alone without a political alternative to vote

for will just leave the protesters taken for granted by

Obama and the Democrats again.

We can multiply the power of the protests by mounting an

electoral insurgency behind the political party that is

dedicated to preserving the planet — the Green Party,” Mr.

Hawkins added. (More on the Green New Deal:

http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/08/11/62-green-candidates-endorse-green-new-deal)

Greens cited numerous other Obama Administration

environmental retreats and capitulations: an industry-

coddling response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico; paralysis in global

climate protection negotiations and promotion of

emissions-trading schemes that will grant polluting

industries licenses to continue polluting; refusal to ban

mountaintop removal mining; endorsement of ‘clean coal’;

approval of new nuclear power plants (despite the

Fukushima disaster in March 2011) paid for by taxpayers

for the benefit of energy companies that don’t want to

assume the high cost and high liability; plans to expand

off-shore drilling with new operations in Atlantic coastal

waters.

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191

• Green candidate database and campaign information:

http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml

• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml

• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers

• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus

• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php

“The Tar Sands Action (smile)” By Ted Glick, September 5,

2011: http://www.tedglick.com/columns/102.html
 

Press conferences, forums, and other events at the Green

Party’s 2011 Annual National Meeting in Alfred, NY,

broadcast and archived on the Green Party’s Livestream

Channel: http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

• 2011 Annual National Meeting http://nygreenfest.org
 

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the

Green Party of the United States (Summer 2011 issue now

online): http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

~ END ~

> “Green Party Calls For “Green New Deal” Jobs Creation Act” @ Before It’s News:

/story/1083/017/Green_Party_Calls_For_Green_New_Deal_Jobs_Creation_Act.html