U.S. State Department Signs off on Controversial Tar Sands Pipeline

The U.S. State Department approved a controversial pipeline project today that, once built, will carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, into the northern United States. Environmental groups and Native Americans who have been fighting the Alberta Clipper pipeline plan are already preparing a legal challenge. "The State Department has rubber-stamped a project that will mean more air, water and global warming pollution, particularly in the communities near refineries that will process this dirty oil," said Earthjustice attorney Sarah Burt. The pipeline will run from Canada, across northern Minnesota, through the Chippewa National Forest, to Superior, Wis., a Great Lakes port and terminus for other U.S. pipelines bounds for Chicago and elsewhere. The groups planning legal action — Earthjustice, Indigenous Environmental Network, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Sierra Club — say the permit decision for the pipeline contradicts Obama's promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to cut the nation's addiction to oil while investing in a clean energy future...SolveClimate