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For Immediate Release
May, 07 2013, 01:24pm EDT
Contact:
Molly Haigh, 907-750-1999, molly@fitzgibbonmedia.com
Keystone XL Pipeline Could Cost $100 Billion Per Year in Health and Environmental Damages
EPA Asks State Department for Total Cost to Society of KXL, Oil Change International Spells it Out
WASHINGTON
Oil Change International today uncovered that the full cost of the Keystone XL Pipeline to society could be upwards of $100 Billion per year in damages to health, property, ecosystems, and the climate. The new study was released after the EPA requested the State Department provide a more detailed review of the actual cost of the pipeline to society as a part of their SEIS.
See the study from Oil Change International: https://bit.ly/KXLCost
More than one million people submitted comments opposing the pipeline during the public comment period for the pipeline in addition to the EPA.
"Americans are fed up with footing the bill for corporate pollution. The Keystone XL Pipeline will cause billions of dollars in damages every year that no one wants to pay," said Oil Change International's Research Director Lorne Stockman. "TransCanada is proposing a massive wealth transfer from our own pockets to Big Oil-- we will pay in hospital visits, rebuilding after super storms, and in clean up efforts in communities like Mayflower and Kalamazoo. That's outrageous, and President Obama should reject this pipeline immediately as a lose-lose gamble."
The study backs up the mounting concerns of many Americans after a series of costly spills and destructive storms, including the tar sands spills in Mayflower, AR and Kalamazoo, MI as well storms from Sandy to Irene to Katrina where taxpayers were left to foot many if not all of the costs.
The 100 billion dollar figure was calculated using estimates of the pipeline's total carbon footprint, 181 million metric tons per CO2e per year, and a social cost of carbon of $532 per ton. The exact social cost of carbon pollution is hard to pinpoint, but the study lays out the full range of possiblilities which you can see here: https://bit.ly/KXLCost
The study concludes: "If the President Obama's State Department counted the social cost of carbon from Keystone XL it would surely find it in the national interest to deny the pipeline's permit."
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
(202) 518-9029LATEST NEWS
Sanders Spurns Melania Trump's Vision of Robots 'Replacing Teachers'
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US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday rejected First Lady Melania Trump's vision of a near-future in which artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots do the work of human school teachers, arguing that society should instead do better by its human educators.
The wife of President Donald Trump entered Wednesday's gathering of the Global First Ladies Alliance accompanied by Figure 03, an AI-powered "general purpose humanoid robot" developed by the Sunnyvale, California-based company Figure.
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Responding to Trump's remarks, Sanders (I-Vt.) said Friday on social media: "Call me a radical, but NO."
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Trump and Macron also warned about the dangers technology poses to children in remarks that came the same week that a New Mexico jury ordered tech titan Meta to pay a $375 million penalty for endangering youth and jurors in a landmark social media addiction trial found that Meta and YouTube harmed a child user of their platforms.
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom—who is believed to be a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination—also slapped down the idea of robot teachers, as did ordinary social media users.
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Nerdeen Kiswani, the co-founder of the Palestinian rights group Within Our Lifetime, emphasized on Friday that public threats and violent rhetoric from a sitting Republican congressman and a Zionist organization had preceded the news that there was an active plot to assassinate her.
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In January, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement in which Betar said it would dissolve its New York operations and stop its “widespread persecution of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish New Yorkers” who disagree with its stance on Israel and Palestine.
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Kiswani has also been targeted by Fine, a notorious anti-Muslim bigot who responded to a satirical post by the organizer last month about dogs being "unclean" by saying, "If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”
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As Israel ramps up its devastating invasion of Lebanon, Rep. Rashida Tlaib has introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives aimed at blocking US support.
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Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, introduced two resolutions on Friday. The first calls on the US to use its leverage to end Israel's land and air assaults against Lebanese territory, denounce efforts at territorial expansion, and investigate alleged crimes against humanity.
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