Robert Redford speaks out against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline; asks the President to stand up for the "energy future you know we deserve"
Posted October 18, 2011 in Moving Beyond Oil
In a New York Times video opinion piece posted today, Robert Redford gives an impassioned pitch to the President to deny the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. In a three minute interview, interspersed with beautiful images of the Great Plains and of wind, solar and other renewable energy, he concludes, ”It’s the 21st Century, we’re not about to turn back now. Mr. President, stand up for American workers and our land. Stand up for energy security. Stand up for the energy future you know we deserve. Say no to the Keystone XL pipeline. “
The massive dirty energy pipeline would bisect the United States, cutting across the sensitive Sandhills and Ogallala aquifer in the Great Plains, the breadbasket of America. Redford describes the land threatened by Big Oil – land that evokes “the majesty of our country and spirit of our people” - and says the pipeline would carry the dirtiest oil on the planet, and firmly wed our energy future to “the destructive ways of our past”. He continues that it would promote one of the most damaging industrial practices ever devised and points out that a failure could contaminate nearly 5 million gallons of fresh water, recalling the recent oil disasters in the Gulf of Mexico, the Yellowstone River, and the North Sea. He asks why would we risk a repeat of these spills, for what? To further enrich the oil companies that posted a profit of over $67 Billion in the first half of this year alone? He then raises the specter of pipeline failures on other pipelines built and operated by Canada’s pipeline giant, TransCanada.
Redford takes on the major arguments put forward by TransCanada head on - that there is no way it will leak, that technology is so advanced that the pipeline can be operated safely, that they will leave the environment better off than when they started. To that he quips “Are you kidding?” And he continues that another argument you may hear is that the pipeline will generate jobs. He says, “Sure, it will create a few thousand jobs but then what? By deepening our dependence on oil, the pipeline will be a job killer”. He continues that the pipeline job promises are a “pipe dream” and a cynical attempt to pit workers against the environment. He points to better jobs in clean energy, citing the fact that nearly 3 million Americans already work in the clean energy sector building wind mills, solar energy, and energy efficient cars and buildings, and says “that to me is the future”.
I will always think of Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid. He defined the West for me when I was young. So it is great to hear his voice on this issue, defending the Great Plains and grassy Sandhills. And it is no surprise that he is speaking out and addressing the President directly, as he has long been an outspoken defender of our public lands and for clean energy.
Ultimately the decision is the President’s decision, even though the process has been delegated to the State Department under an Executive Order. But the State Department process has been corrupted by its close relationship with TransCanada and with its contractor Cardno Entrix, which wrote a highly faulty environmental review.
Another New York Times piece today focuses on the pipeline company, TransCanada, and its use of eminent domain threats to bully landowners to turn over their land. As Redford says, the President should stand up and protect these people and their land. And he should stand up to protect all of us from the certain climate destruction that this pipeline and expansion of the tar sands would bring. The time has come for the President to step in and take responsibility for this decision.
In 2008, the President promised to “end the tyranny of oil” but has done little to stand up to Big Oil. Please take the time to watch this great video and then ask the President to stand up to Big Oil by going to NRDC’s action site, StopTar.org.
Comments are closed for this post.
Comments
Jennifer Hosterman, Mayor, Pleasanton, CA — Oct 19 2011 07:57 PM
Good job, Liz! I couldn't prouder of our work, collectively, to derail this project which is clearly not in the best interests of the American people. Thank you.
Liz Barratt-Brown — Oct 19 2011 09:51 PM
Mayor Hosterman, you and other mayors are so critical to this effort. Thank you for your strong voice on this!
Rick Beauchamp — Oct 20 2011 03:10 AM
Redford is so miss-informed too sad. What he really wants is China to bid for and get Alberta Oil. He wants the US economy to bottom out and be at the mercy of hostile regimes. He wants American construction jobs not to happen. He wants American Oil processing jobs not to happen and he wants all the offshoot industries to suffer too.
But He does want you to come see the movies he is making most probably created using petrochemical products.
Trying to force a non-dependence on oil before other technologies are ready for prime time is foolish.
Matthew Murphy — Oct 26 2011 12:12 PM
Howdy. I think that your organization should know the following. The corporate and banking ' daisy chain ' in Canada that leads to Keystone XL. EPCOR, owned by the City of Edmonton, Alberta, is, in it's publicaly traded guise, also the owner of Capital Power which owns Trans Canada. Capital Power is also the largest builder and supplier of wind turbines to the Government of Ontario. The financing for the Canadian portion of Trans Canada/Keystone came from the Royal Bank of Canada and the Toronto Dominion Bank, both private banks. Both of those financial institutions { No Canadian Banks required a bail-out during the current ecconomic crises-something many Canadian's take a foolish pride in } have been increasing their financial services into the American market. There is a legitimate and growing opposition to the wind farms in Southern Ontario as they have been imposed upon rural populations { in the recent Provincial election-Ontario- several Members of Provincial Parliament-MPP- were not re-elected including the Minister of the Environment, John Wilkenson., Perth/Wellington. The City of Stratford, Ontario is in that riding. The Mayor of Stratford also has a private consulting company that has been the advisor to Epcor/Capital Power in it's effort to gain control of the city of London, Ontario's utilities { worth an estimated $ 5 billion }. The local media{ Stratford } has yet to touch on this potential conflict of interest by it's Mayor. I have a meeting with him tommorrow. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt but I find it strange that his consulting company, which has no findable internet presence, was hired by a company based in Alberta. You should also know that the Royal Bank is nearing completion on an enormous data processing center in Stratford. If you think that America's political system is rife with coruption you are correct but you should know that big busness, banking and government are in bed in Canada to an even deeper extent and none of the Canadian media, almost entirely owned by 6 families , even begin to approach the ideal of objectivity. Please feel free to get back in touch with me. I left a similar message on the voice mail of the Sundance Institute last night. I think that your organization may wish to initiate a boycot of both the RBC and TD and any of it's manifestations in the United States. A possible boycot of both Alberta and Ontario, please only as a last resort, may, ultimately, be necessary as well. One of Canada's ' sacred cows ' is the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Before 9/11 around 35 to 40 % of it's attendees were Americans and the largest majority of them are Liberal Democrats. I'm will try to get that institution- which I depend upon to make my living-realizes that it's in it's long term best interest to not be aligned with anything that has to do with the Keystone Pipeline. I will let you know, soon, wether decency will prevail but you should also know that some corporate sponsors of the Festival are, yep, RBC, TD, and, at leats several years ago, Trans Canada pipelines and, a biggy, Union Gas.
Thank you
Matthew
' the busker '
Murphy