{"id":34129,"date":"2012-12-30T10:06:56","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T15:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=34129"},"modified":"2012-12-30T10:06:56","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T15:06:56","slug":"environmentalists-set-high-climate-policy-expectations-for-john-kerry-as-secretary-of-state-pipeline-rejection-tops-the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/environmentalists-set-high-climate-policy-expectations-for-john-kerry-as-secretary-of-state-pipeline-rejection-tops-the-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmentalists Set High Climate Policy Expectations For John Kerry As Secretary of State: Pipeline Rejection Tops The List"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nLeading national environmental organizations and climate policy experts reacted quickly to the December 21 nomination of Senator John Kerry as the next Secretary of State, stating clearly what their expectations of him are: decisive action on climate change, including full rejection of the Keystone Pipeline; establishing the United States as a world leader in international climate policies; and, overall, making climate change one of his very top foreign policy priorities.<\/p>\n
Friends of the Earth<\/em>\u00a0President Erich Pica, speaking within hours after the nomination announcement,\u00a0said<\/a>: \u201cwe expect Senator Kerry to make clear his commitment to making climate change the signature issue<\/em> of the State Department under his leadership.”<\/p>\n Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters<\/em>, called Kerry a \u201ctrue leader on climate change,\u201d citing the Massachusetts Senator’s 91% lifetime environmental voting score, and noting his career-long committment to “policies which are good for the planet.” (See the LCV national scorecard, which rates ALL members of the US House and Senate on their environmental voting record, here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Larry Schweiger, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation<\/em>, noted that \u201cKerry understands the urgent need for U.S. leadership and global cooperation to tackle climate change and speed the transformation to a clean energy economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the statements singled out one issue — the Keystone XL ‘Tar Sands’ Pipeline — as the primary test of Kerry\u2019s commitment.\u2028 \u2028\u201cIt goes without saying,” said Pica, “…that as Secretary, the first major challenge of the senator\u2019s leadership at the State Department will be his involvement in the decision to reject TransCanada\u2019s request to construct the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline… it is inconceivable that he would do anything other than reject the pipeline permit given that tar sands will otherwise become a \u2019carbon timebomb.\u2019”<\/p>\n Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, said: \u201cAs Secretary, Senator Kerry will face numerous issues that are crucial to both the security of our nation and the future of our planet, including critical decisions on the Keystone XL pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n The Keystone Pipeline (KXL) has remained highly controversial, as proponents (the oil industry and their political backers in Congress<\/a>) and opponents each dig in. Despite increasingly brazen and diverse protest tactics (read about the human blockade<\/a>, the tree sit-in<\/a>, or the college fossil-fuel divestment campaign<\/a>), TransCanda has begun construction on the ‘southern leg’ of the pipeline in Texas.<\/p>\n The issue will soon become highly visible, again, for both President Obama and Kerry, with increased implications for US foreign policy. A major anti-KXL rally in Washington, DC is being planned for February 18 by the popular climate-action organization 350.org; organizers are not disclosing details but are claiming the rally will be larger than their biggest one to date \u2013 the rally, in November 2011, at which \u00a012,000 people circled the White House<\/a> in protest of the pipeline.<\/p>\n