America is being sucker punched. If Keystone XL is approved, the Koch Brothers stand to make $100 billion while the USA is left out in the cold. That’s because oil transported by this pipeline would go through our country, only to be exported worldwide to countries like China. This is a great deal for the oil industry, Koch brothers, China and investors, but a terrible deal for the American people.

via NextGen Climate

Here are the facts.

Keystone XL is designed to help exploit tar sands in Alberta, Canada. Developing tar sands is called the “most destructive project on earth” because of the excessive carbon pollution it produces. Tar sands is one of the dirtiest, costliest, and most destructive fuels in the world. Extracting and refining emits 82% more greenhouse gases compared to conventional oil. This pipeline represents a long-term commitment, locking us into developing more dirty oil when we should tackle climate change.

We cannot treat the Earth like a business in liquidation.

Oil derived from tar sands in Alberta would then be transported by the pipeline all the way to Texas for refining. Unfortunately, Keystone XL would run over a major aquifer that provides drinking water for millions of Americans, along with 630 other bodies of water. Just last week, a TransCanada gas pipeline exploded near Winnipeg, Alberta. These are the folks who we are supposed to trust for Keystone XL.

West Virginia was a blip compared to the disasters we could expect.

The fact is pipeline ruptures happen all the time. Tar sands are more corrosive, toxic, and difficult to clean up than conventional crude. Detection is a huge challenge. The latest technology to detect pipeline ruptures is only successful 20% of the time, and TransCanada has already stated it will refuse to use state-of-the-art detection equipment on Keystone XL. We must stop the transport of 800,000 barrels a day of tar sands in Canada to Texas.

We must stop corporations from poisoning America for a quick profit.

After this dirty source of energy is extracted and transported, it will be exported to other countries. Gulf Coast refiners have already detailed a strategy to their investors to export tar sands oil from Keystone XL out of the United States. As this oil saturates the global market, many states in the Midwest won’t have access. It’s been calculated that Americans in this part of the country could pay as much as 40 cents more per gallon of gas, costing US consumers $3-4 billion per year in higher gas prices.

We should not transport oil through America, then pay more ourselves.

As for Keystone XL creating countless jobs – that’s a joke. As President Obama has stated, “there is no evidence that that’s true. The most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline, which might take a year or two, and then after that we’re talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 jobs.” Indeed, the latest reports show Keystone XL would create just 35 permanent jobs.

It is not worth killing our planet to create a handful of jobs.

So where is this push for Keystone XL coming from? Simple: the Koch Brothers own over two million acres of land in Alberta, the source of tar sands oil exported by the pipeline. That’s how they stand to make $100,000,000,000.00 in profit. No wonder over 1,000 reports in support of Keystone XL have been made by think tanks that receive funding from the Koch brothers. Their oil profits go right back into funding climate denial, including Tea Party groups. The scary part is folks believe their lies.

We’re being used. Keystone XL helps the Kochs, not America.

Keystone provides a direct link between Canada and China with no benefit for the United States. The Koch brothers and big oil are happy to help transport dirty tar sands oil and line their own pockets with money. Will we help foreign countries burn more fossil fuels? Will we endanger the globe with accelerated climate change? Are we going to allow them to use America like this? This pipeline takes us in the wrong direction at a time when we must embrace a clean energy economy.

If we do not act now to reduce carbon emissions, we will face irreversible and catastrophic climatic changes. It is our moral obligation to protect future generations from this calamity. We must fight back against big oil and special interest groups that continue to spread misinformation. Now is the time to make our voices heard.