The much anticipated US State Department’s environmental impact statement for the Keystone pipeline has been released, prompting concerns from environmentalists over whether this lays the path for approval by US President Barack Obama. The proposed pipeline would carry as many as 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta tar sands oil through Canada and the United States for processing and transportation.
US scientist Dr Michael Mann has expressed his concern that the US president may make the wrong decision using the excuse of what is “best for the country.”
See the VIDEO below.
In June 2013, US President Obama said he would do what was in the best interest of the United States:
“I know there’s been, for example, a lot of controversy surrounding the proposal to build a pipeline, the Keystone pipeline, that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands down to refineries in the Gulf. And the State Department is going through the final stages of evaluating the proposal. That’s how it’s always been done. But I do want to be clear: Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interest. And our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward. It’s relevant.”
But are these just words?
Dr Mann says the US government’s latest plans for seven “Climate Hubs” in rural areas across the US are a good step, but he fears Obama’s policies are still leading to climate disaster.
Dr. Mann is the author of “Dire Predictions” and “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars. He was a Lead Author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001 and was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003. He has received a number of honors and awards including NOAA’s outstanding publication award in 2002 and selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002. He contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union in 2012 and was awarded the National Conservation Achievement Award for science by the National Wildlife Federation in 2013. He made Bloomberg News’ list of fifty most influential people in 2013. He is a Fellow of both the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.
