League Thanks President for Veto of Legislation Approving KXL Pipeline

The League joined coalition partners on a letter thanking President Obama for his veto of legislation that would force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

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The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington DC, 20500

February 25, 2015

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of our millions of members and activists across the country, we write to thank you for your veto of S. 1, the bill that would force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.  

In exercising your authority, you are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with scientists and economists, Nobel Laureates, youth, conservation organizations, and many others that want a clean energy future rather than to turn back the clock and abet the expansion of the dirtiest oil on the planet.  You are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Native Americans, ranchers, and farmers along the route that have put their lives on hold for years to battle this pipeline and bring its risks to light. 

You said in your Georgetown University speech in 2013 that, “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.”  We agree and are confident that your next step is to find it is not in the national interest. 

We thank you at this historic moment for your veto, for your leadership, and fundamentally for looking out for the young people that will inherit the planet we leave behind.  As you said so eloquently in your State of the Union speech,  “No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” 

  350.org Alaska Wilderness League American Rivers Bold Nebraska Center for Biological Diversity Chesapeake Climate Action Network Clean Coalition Clean Water Action CREDO Defenders of Wildlife Earth Day Network Earthjustice Environment America Environmental Defense Fund Forest Ethics Friends of the Earth Friends Committee on National Legislation Green for All Greenpeace US Hip Hop Caucus Indigenous Environmental Network International Forum on Globalization Kids vs. Global Warming Labor Network for Sustainability League of Conservation Voters League of Women Voters National Audobon Society Native American Rights Fund Natural Resources Defense Council Ocean Conservancy Oil Change International Physicians for Social Responsibility Public Citizen Safe Climate Campaign Sierra Club Southern Alliance for Clean Energy SustainUS The Climate Reality Project Union of Concerned Scientists