Dear Congressman Lynch,
On Friday, in response to the Keystone dirty oil cabal the U.S. Senate expressed non-binding support for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Since you are just one of a very few Democratic members of Congress to support the Keystone pipeline, it is clear to us that climate change is on the ballot in the Massachusetts Senate race. Therefore, we think it is important to know what information you have been provided with by the supporters and lobbyists pushing Keystone.
In Friday’s Boston Globe, you reiterated your support for building a pipeline by a foreign oil company, TransCanada. You did not state this in the Globe, but you must know that the Keystone pipeline will pump dirty Canadian tar sands oil across 2,000 miles of Midwestern U.S. agricultural farmlands, rivers, and stream to refineries on the Gulf Coast for export to countries like China. And that it will accelerate the development of the Tar Sands and, through it, the climate change that threatens the Commonwealth.
The latest facts to come out about Keystone have further convinced us and a vast majority of Massachusetts voters that the Commonwealth’s next senator should oppose Keystone. Keystone supporters will not prohibit the export of Keystone’s dirty oil overseas, meaning that the pipeline will do little to increase energy independence. Likewise Keystone’s own consultant disclosed that the pipeline will create only 35 permanent U.S. jobs – and we don’t anticipate any Massachusetts.
Your support for a pipeline that will increase profits for a foreign oil company but not support U.S. energy independence may be in the best interest of oil company executives in Canada, but it is not in the best interest of Massachusetts residents.
Given those clear arguments against Keystone, it is important for voters to have transparency regarding the information Keystone’s have provided to you in order to win your support for Keystone and TransCanada. In light of the fact that you are running to be a Senator from Massachusetts, and not a Senator from Canada or the Senator of TransCanada, the voters of Massachusetts deserve to know which lobbyists and representative of those organizations supporting Keystone you and your office have met with, when those meetings occurred and what information they shared with you.
Will you please make this information public so that the voters can see what information was provided to you and whether it was consistent or inconsistent with the facts we know about Keystone?
Sincerely,
NextGen Committee
Craig Altemose, Executive Director, Better Future Project*
Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Conference Minister and President, Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ*
*Affiliation for identification purposes only. All are signing only as private individuals without any organizational backing.
…Jim Antal definitely has the Conference’s backing on environmental issues generally. In 2009 we were the first church body in the US to call for policies to reduce carbon below 350 ppm. This year the Conference Board of Directors has sent a resolution to the General Synod calling for divestment from fossil fuel companies.
The Boston Globe reported yesterday that President Obama “is preparing to tell federal agencies for the first time that they should consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways.”
I’d like Mr. Lynch tell us whether he is aware of how much additional CO2 will be added to the atmosphere from the oil delivered by this contemplated pipeline, what the climate change impact of that additional CO2 will be, and how he reconciles his support of the pipeline with that impact.
It appears to me that he is already disregarding a directive of President Obama, and the primary campaign has hardly begun. Mr. Lynch gives every indication of looking, swimming, and quacking like a conservative Republican — starting with his apparent eagerness to yet again oppose an initiative of President Obama.