CIEL President & CEO Carroll Muffett:
“Today, President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, joining millions of people across the country and around the world who have long since recognized that massive investments in fossil fuels are, and must be, a thing of the past. It is those millions who have won this victory for people and the planet, and to whom all of us owe a debt of gratitude. Today’s decision comes one week after Shell disclosed the $8 billion cost of its failed Arctic gamble, and one day after ExxonMobil received the first of what will likely be many subpoenas into what it knew about climate change and when. Call them turning points, watersheds, or simply mile-markers, the message is the same: there is no future in fossil fuels. As we look ahead to Paris, we encourage President Obama to embrace that reality, and to use his leadership to pave the way to a post-carbon economy and a safer world.”
Note:
In December 2010, Friends of the Earth, CIEL, and Corporate Ethics International filed a FOIA request for communications between Paul Elliot, a lobbyist for TransCanada, and the State Department. Because Mr. Elliot worked for then-Secretary of State Clinton as national deputy director of her presidential campaign, there was concern of bias in the state department review of TransCanada’s application. After initially denying the request for documents, the State Department reversed its position, although it didn’t specify when any documents would be released, or if there were any documents at all. In May 2011, FOE, CIEL, and CEI filed suit to compel the State Department to specify if it had documents for release, and when they would be delivered. Disclosed documents ultimately revealed questionable communications between State Department personnel and revealed that the firm hired by the State Department to review the pipeline had extensive prior business dealings with TransCanada. For a full timeline see: http://www.foe.org/projects/climate-and-energy/tar-sands/keystone-xl-pipeline/timeline