So far, ten of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have signed the “NoKXL Pledge” and have promised that on Day One in office, the controversial Keystone XL pipeline permit will be revoked.
Bennet, Biden, Booker, Bullock, Buttigieg, Castro, de Blasio, Delaney, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar, Messam, O’Rourke, Ryan, Sanders, Sestak, Steyer, Warren, Williamson, Yang have all signed the pledge.
As Common Dreams states, the #NoKXL Pledge specifically urges the Democratic presidential candidates to pledge to:
- Immediately revoke the unilateral permits issued by President Trump for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines;
- Direct all federal agencies (State Department, FERC, Army Corps) to submit these two projects — as well as all-new energy infrastructure projects — to a true climate test;
- Reject any project that will exacerbate our climate crisis; and
- Protect property rights from eminent domain abuse and honor U.S. treaties with sovereign Tribal Nations.
Since the beginning of the public’s awareness of this pipeline, Democratic candidates, elected officials, environmentalists, and activists have all made it clear building new fossil fuel infrastructures is hazardous to the land and contributes to climate change.
In March of this year, President Trump, on an “Executive Memorandum,” granted a permit for TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline project. “The pipeline would pump the dirtiest of fossil fuels, tarsands, from where it’s mined in Alberta, Canada, across 1,179 miles of critical bodies of water, Tribal treaty lands, and family farms and ranches in Nebraska, South Dakota and Montana — to Gulf Coast refineries, from where it would be exported to overseas markets,” says Bold Nebraska.
As president of the U.S., one should stand with the rights of citizens and not be influenced by the giant corporations looking to instill harm on U.S. soil.
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