This week it has been announced that a major rally surrounding the White House is being planned by environmental activists in November. It seems as if more and more people are joining the environmental cause, pushing for Obama to stick to his campaign promises of a future with cleaner energy (a goal that is the complete opposite of the tar sands pipeline project). We have been talking about alternative energy in class and the necessity of decreasing our dependence on oil for our future. The pipeline would further solidify our dependence on oil, making even more of a problem when the oil sands are depleted, which will be in the next few years. It also does not solve our dependence on foreign oil, because the reserves of oil sands are not sufficient enough to sustain the United States for more than a few years. Hopefully Obama will make the right decision (the hard decision) to reject the pipeline and lead the nation towards a future in sustainable energy.
The two articles this week highlighted the growing environmental opposition to the pipeline as the deadline for the decision draws near. The article from Business Weekly highlighted the legal action that environmental groups are seeking against the pipeline with somewhat of a conservative viewpoint, since businesses are for the most part in favor of the pipeline. It is unclear whether such probes of the pipeline would be successful in disrupting its construction, but it is another step in the direction of rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline. The article from the Huffington Post talked about the support that the environmental movement is getting from David Strathairn, who stressed the promises that Obama made at the beginning of his campaign for a future of sustainable energy. Both articles mentioned the rally in November, which will be a major event for the environmentalist opposition to the pipeline.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-28/environmental-groups-seek-probe-of-keystone-xl-pipeline-review.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/david-strathairn-keystone-pipeline_n_1048671.html