Tell President Biden: No Climate Test
Opponents of fossil fuels will not be satisfied with stopping Keystone XL — they will go further and attempt to implement a climate test for all pipeline projects. This would have a devastating impact on our brothers and sisters working on pipelines across the country.
Add your name to our petition calling on President Biden to prevent a climate test and allow our work to upgrade and modernize pipelines to reduce emissions and grow energy infrastructure across the country.
Dear President Biden:
Local 798 has over 6,000 hard-working and highly skilled union workers that rely on the upgrade and modernization of energy pipelines across the country for family-sustaining wages. The loss of the prospective man hours on Keystone XL was devastating to my family and those of my fellow members. I understand that fossil fuel opponents are taking this apparent win one giant step forward and calling for a climate test on all future pipelines. This action would be based on an ill-informed, inaccurate, out-of-date and unsupportable opinion, not to mention the impact this would have on the skilled labor force across the country.
The irony is that natural gas has significantly reduced emissions by displacing coal-fired electricity. In the United States, switching from coal to natural gas for electricity is estimated to be responsible for 19 percent of the reduction of CO2 emissions that has taken place in the U.S. since 2007. In fact, pipelines in the United States that today are being used to transport oil and natural gas will transport renewable natural gas and Hydrogen tomorrow. As a result, the modernization and upgrade of pipelines allows this energy network to remain a key piece of our infrastructure as the country continuously progresses to renewable energy sources.
In addition, the impact on emissions of any single pipeline is insignificant. For example, using the climate model developed with the help of the EPA for Keystone XL, that large scale project would have created an average temperature rise of 1/100,000 of a degree per year. In fact, transporting oil by pipeline may actually lower emissions. The U.S. State Department, in its review of Keystone XL, found that transportation alternatives to pipelines could significantly increase annual CO2 emissions due to transport impacts.
The effect of pipelines on climate change is negligible at worst and positive at best, based on their ability to actually reduce emissions and support the transport of renewable energy sources in the future. Climate change tests are unnecessary and will add to the regulatory barriers, compliance costs and delays that pipelines face today.
Signed,
Supporter of the American Energy Industry