By Markus Schmidt
About a dozen climate-minded activists rallied outside Sen. Mark R. Warner’s Richmond office on Main Street on Monday, urging the Democrat to vote against the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Warner recently told President Barack Obama that he supports the pipeline but hopes the project’s construction can be tethered to more effective energy efficiency policies.
In a letter to the president, Warner pushed for “a truly bipartisan consensus (that) included construction of Keystone with the appropriate environmental reviews, inclusion of the energy tax cuts and tax provisions that would continue to allow wind and solar and other renewable energy production to continue in this country.”
Obama has repeatedly rejected the construction of the pipeline.
Rally organizer Emily Heffling of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network said the pipeline would lead to higher emissions of greenhouse gas with potentially devastating impact on Virginia.
“The Chesapeake area ranks third in the nation in vulnerability to sea level rises caused by climate change, so this will affect all Virginians,” Heffling said.
The pipeline would transport petroleum products from Canada and the northern United States to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Several environmental groups have expressed concerns about the project that include possible spills, threats to landscapes and wildlife and a significant increase of the production of climate-affecting fossil fuels.
Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said Monday that the State Department recently released a report that found no environmental reason that the pipeline shouldn’t be built, and the administration has indicated it will announce a decision shortly.
“Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands … the Canadian government is committed to it,” Hall said.
Hall added that Warner previously had voted against political efforts to short-circuit the environmental and regulatory review of the pipeline.
But Hall did not say if Warner would vote for the construction of the project. “It would depend on the specific wording and intent of any legislation he may be asked to vote on,” he said.
The organizers of the rally said that while Warner has been vocal on his concern about climate change, they want guarantees that he stands with them in opposing the pipeline.
“This is an issue that isn’t going away,” Heffling said.
Warner was in Washington on Monday, but the group handed a letter to his office staff.
Hall said Warner’s office will respond to the effort.
