Congrats to bird lovers everywhere, the Keystone XL pipeline has been rejected!

NRDC is thrilled to share the news that the Keystone XL pipeline has been rejected by the Obama administration. This pipeline would have locked the United States into a dependence on expensive and dirty oil and generate a massive expansion of the tar sands oil operations in Canada. This is great news for billions of songbirds, who migrate to and from Canada’s boreal forest and nest there annually. Tar sands oil processing plants devastate the boreal landscape and create toxic tail ponds which kill birds. The Alberta tar sands are found under a region of Boreal forest and wetlands similar in size to Florida. Tar sands extraction would fragment and destroy the Boreal forest, killing nesting migratory birds and many other species. Toxic waste from the mining operations is stored in vast man-made dams, called tailings ponds that already cover fifty square miles. Thankfully, the Obama administration has rejected this disastrous  pipeline, acting in the best interest of the American people and our fine feathered friends. NRDC’s president, Frances Beinecke was quoted in a lead CNN.comstory on the announcement, saying the President’s “decision represents a triumph of truth over Big Oil's bullying tactics and its disinformation campaign with wildly exaggerated jobs claims”, and by rejecting the pipeline, “Obama put the health and safety of the American people above the interests of the oil industry.” Congratulations to everyone on this tremendous victory for birds!

See the video of Robert Redford thanking the President for the Keystone XL decision and pushing back against Big Oil:

http://youtu.be/aCHNoUcxRvY