Washington, D.C. — Christy Goldfuss, Vice President for Energy and Environment Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement in response to the State Department’s approval of the Keystone XL pipeline:
By approving the Keystone XL pipeline, President Donald Trump once again offered another hollow promise and prioritized corporate profits and foreign interests at the expense of the environment and public interest. President Trump has given a green light to a foreign company to send a pipeline made with foreign steel through America’s breadbasket in order to transport foreign oil to the Gulf Coast for export to foreign countries.
The Keystone XL pipeline is bad for Americans and bad for the planet. The pipeline will expedite production of Canadian tar sands crude, the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive crude oil on the planet. Meanwhile, the planet continues to shatter temperature records year after year, with 2016 marking the hottest year ever recorded. President Trump also is trampling on the livelihoods of American farmers and ranchers who will lose their land to eminent domain or face the risk of a devastating oil spill.
Today, President Trump also broke a promise he made in his first address to Congress: That U.S. pipelines will be made with U.S. steel, which even the Trump administration has acknowledged is not possible. That is why CAP will be sending a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request to the State Department to request documents related to this false promise and efforts to proceed with this ill-advised project.
For more information or to speak with an expert on this topic, please contact Tom Caiazza at [email protected] or 202.481.7141.