June, 24 2009, 02:26pm EDT
Clinton, State Deptartment Asked to Stop World's Dirtiest Oil
Future Generations to Secretary of State: Stop Canadian Tar Sands Pipelines at Border, Protect our Clean Energy Economy; Hillary Cartoon Ad in Roll Call, Tar Sands Delivered to State Department
WASHINGTON
Hillary Clinton's power as U.S. Secretary of State to stop proposed
pipelines from crossing the U.S. border has put her at the center of
the rapidly escalating controversy over oil from Canada's Tar Sands.
Today,
that controversy came to the State Department's front door.
ForestEthics delivered vials of Canadian Tar Sands sludge as well as
red roses--to counteract the smell of the Tar Sands sludge--to Secretary
of State Clinton and other high-ranking State Department officials,
urging them not to issue permits for pipelines that would cross from
Canada into the United States.
The vials feature labels
playfully riffing on Shakespeare's 'rose by any other name' line by
adding that 'dirty oil by any other name would be as risky'. Outside
the State Department, ForestEthics offered passersby a 'clean energy
smell test', with glass vials of the Tar Sands' gooey substance on hand
for the public to smell.
"Secretary Clinton can protect our
national interest by stopping Canadian pipelines for the world's
dirtiest oil," said Aaron Sanger of ForestEthics. "Future generations
are counting on her to support our clean energy future: every state in
the union has made investments that would be compromised by increasing
dependence on dirty fossil fuels."
Secretary of State
Clinton's likeness appeared in a full-page political cartoon-based ad
run today in Roll Call by ForestEthics and Sierra Club. In the
cartoon, a young girl anxious about a huge pipeline labeled 'World's
Dirtiest Oil' asks Secretary Clinton: "Is this my clean energy
future?" Download the Ad at www.ForestEthics.org/tar-sands-hillary-clinton.
The
Secretary of State possesses the authority to issue permits for all
pipelines crossing into the United States, and faces decisions on
several pipelines that would carry oil from Canada's controversial Tar
Sands.
Tar Sands oil production generates 3-5 times the
greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil; production of Tar Sands
oil destroys fresh drinking water, pollutes the air, and razes some of
the world's last remaining Endangered Forests. Dirty Tar Sands oil
cannot be made clean by technological solutions.
"In addition to
our wishes that Secretary Clinton deny new Tar Sands pipeline permits
from Canada, we also wish her a speedy recovery from her elbow
surgery," added Sanger. "We all know that a Secretary of State needs to
use some elbows from time to time."
Founded in 2000, ForestEthics is a nonprofit environmental organization with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile. Our mission is to protect Endangered Forests and wild places, wildlife, and human wellbeing--one of our focus areas is climate change, which compromises all of our efforts if left unchecked. We catalyze environmental leadership among industry, governments and communities by running hard-hitting and highly effective campaigns that leverage public dialogue and pressure to achieve our goals.
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