Keystone veto first step for healthier Earth

On Jan. 18, President Obama rejected a plan to extend the Keystone XL pipeline, a massive project that would have pumped oil from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, down to Texas, where the oil would have been refined and exported. It was the right decision for the indigenous Canadians whose lands were being destroyed by tar sands extraction; it was the right decision for millions of Midwesterners whose water supply would have been threatened by the pipeline; and it was the right decision for the planet as a whole. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that the pipeline would cause 1.15 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime, and environmental activist and journalist Bill McKibben reports that if all the oil from the tar sands was burned, it would increase the earth's temperature by an entire degree.

However, Obama didn't necessarily make this decision for the right reasons. In a statement after his decision, the president made no mention of the environmental degradation the pipeline would have caused. He claimed that he made the decision for entirely political purposes, saying that Congress did not give the State Department ample time to review the pipeline. (Congressional Republicans had given the president a Feb. 21 deadline to decide on Keystone, hoping to force him into approving the project.) Additionally, the president left a door open for TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone pipeline: Obama voiced general support for TransCanada's proposed oil pipeline between Cushing, Oklahoma and the Gulf of Mexico.

Make no mistake: Obama was under tremendous political pressure to approve Keystone XL, and his decision represents a great victory for human health and the environment. But for Obama to veto Keystone only to pave the way for future pipelines is not what 12,000 people were asking for when they protested TransCanada's pipeline in front of the White House on Nov. 6. I, along with many other Vassar students, was among them.

What were protestors looking for, then, when we traveled to D.C. to protest? We surely weren't looking for the continuation of the same political game where our leaders only pretended to act in the best interest of the American people. We protested in the hope that humans would not ruin the planet in their insatiable search for oil; we protested in the hope that pristine Canadian forests would not be decimated for the sole intent of mining the resources below the soil; we protested in the hope that a complete veto of the pipeline would pave the way for an energy policy in the United States that would not obliterate the earth for the sake of human consumption. We wanted to embolden Obama. We wanted to tell the president that since we have spent our time fighting for the health of the planet and the safety of its citizens, so should he.

It is high past time for Obama to support the people of the United States over corporate interests. The American people should not have to obey the whims of oil companies that forsake human wellbeing for profit. The president's rejection of Keystone is a good first step—it was bold of Obama to kill the pipeline when the American Petroleum Institute was threatening "huge political consequences" if the pipeline wasn't approved—but we still need the president to take initiatives on a federal level to protect the environment and the climate.

Despite the flaws in Obama's reasoning and his encouragement of a second pipeline, his decision dealt a blow to TransCanada. American citizens stood their ground and showed that tremendous public pressure can encourage the president to do the right thing. In addition to the Nov. 6 rally, 1253 people were arrested in anti-pipeline demonstrations at the White House over the summer, and tens of thousands of people signed various petitions opposing Keystone, many pledging to stand in front of bulldozers and earth-movers to physically stop the pipeline if it were approved. This public pressure will not stop until the president recommits himself to the environment. As late as October, energy investors were entirely sure that Obama would approve Keystone XL. If people had not risen up, then TransCanada would be tunneling their pipeline through the heart of the United States at this very moment.

We will keep fighting. We will rise up tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and whenever the sanctity of life and the health of this earth is threatened.

This victory against TransCanada is not the end of the road, but the beginning. If the people of the United States rise up with conviction and say that we do not want a future constrained by dirty energy, then we will get it. Oil companies' pursuit of profit will never stop, and neither will their onslaught against the environment. This is why the Keystone battle is part of a larger picture: if we can tell one oil company that we will not stand for its abuses, then we can send that same message to all oil companies.

Last week, Obama made the right decision by killing Keystone XL. Now we need him to take the Keystone battle to the next level and seek the best way forward for the American people: invest in clean energy, divest the United States of her dependence on fossil fuels and combat climate change. Initiative from the president will show that he is ready to fight the hard battles for the betterment of the earth, and with Obama as our ally the citizens of all nations can stop environmental degradation, safeguard the health of all people, and show Big Oil that it does not control our future.

—Gabe Dunsmith '15 is a member of the Vassar Greens.