Harry Reid to Hillary Clinton: Drop Keystone XL Pipeline Plan

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Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have gained a new ally in the fight to prevent this disastrous oil boondoggle from moving forward: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Dโ€“NV).

Earlier this month, Sen. Reid sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to abandon the pipeline and instead focus on renewable energy. The Washington Post provided an excerpt of Reidโ€™s letter toย Clinton:

The proponents of this pipeline would be wiser to invest instead in job-creating clean energy projects, like renewable power, energy efficiency or advanced vehicles and fuels that would employ thousands of people in the United States rather than increasing our dependency on unsustainable supplies of dirty and polluting oil that could easily be exported.

This is the first time that Reid has publicly addressed the Keystone XL issue, and that signals a very powerful friend to the opponents of the pipeline. Already, some labor unions and Democratic lawmakers have thrown their support in favor of the pipeline, maintaining that the project would create much-needed jobs, despite evidence to the contrary.

Earlier this month, Congressman Henry Waxman (Dโ€“CA) called on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to investigate the Koch brothers’ interests in the Keystone XL pipeline, as the majority of the members on the Energy Committeeย have received campaign contributions from Koch Industries and itsย employees.

The fact that Reid chose to single out Clinton on the issue shows that he is paying attention to the issue very closely. DeSmogBlog has put together some excellent pieces detailing Clintonโ€™s ties to the lobbyists pushing theย pipeline.

Reid is one of the few Democrats in Congress, along with Waxman, to speak out against the pipeline. Other Congressional Democrats have actually written a letter to the President, urging him to grant an immediate Presidential Permit to get the pipeline in production. That letter pleased TransCanada so much that itย provides a link to it on the TransCanada website.

The next several months will bring more heated discussion about the wisdom of building another pipeline to feed our global oil addiction. Why is it that nobody seems to be paying much attention to the job-creating clean energy projects that Harry Reid and countless others are pressing Congress and President Obama toย deliver?

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Farron Cousins is the executive editor of The Trial Lawyer magazine, and his articles have appeared on The Huffington Post, Alternet, and The Progressive Magazine. He has worked for the Ring of Fire radio program with hosts Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mike Papantonio, and Sam Seder since August 2004, and is currently the co-host and producer of the program. He also currently serves as the co-host of Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV, a daily program airing nightly at 8:30pm eastern. Farron received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of West Florida in 2005 and became a member of American MENSA in 2009.ย  Follow him on Twitterย @farronbalanced.

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