Congress is trying to fast track the controversial Keystone XL project. A debate on the pipeline is scheduled to take place today (Friday, November 14) in both the US House and the Senate. Both houses of the Republican led Congress are expected to approve the bill.
While the President has indicated he will veto the bill, there are steps that could be taken by the GOP to override his decision.
Republicans do not seem to care about the consequences or the costs. NASA’s top climate scientist, Jim Hansen, said that fully developing the tar sands in Canada (a necessary step in the development of the pipeline), would mean“essentially game over” for the climate. According to White House statistics, additional emissions from the tar sands pipelines could equal $128 billion in climate costs over the pipeline’s projected lifespan. By 2100 the costs of failing to reign in emissions from fossil fuels will surpass the costs of carbon reduction by $8 trillion.
Thus far a number of protests have succeeded in delaying the pipeline. Reports show that these delays have already prevented at least $17bn in new investments in the Canadian tar sands. These investments would have had the equivalent carbon output of 735 coal-fired power plants.
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