From the Sierra Club:

Tell the State Department: Oil companies aren’t above the law! TAKE ACTION!

Dear Friends,

A shocking backroom deal between the State Department and a Canadian oil pipeline company just green-lit what amounts to a new Keystone XL.

Enbridge — the company responsible for the largest-ever oil spill on U.S. soil — has come up with an illegal scheme to nearly double the capacity of its Alberta Clipper tar sands pipeline and bypass the legally-required environmental reviews.

Even more outrageous, the State Department has indicated that it will allow this scheme to move forward and look the other way while Enbridge blatantly circumvents the law!

Take action now to force Enbridge to obey the law. Tell Secretary of State Kerry to stop this scheme and conduct a comprehensive environmental review.

If Enbridge is allowed to skirt the law, it will nearly double the capacity of the Alberta Clipper tar sands pipeline, bringing it close to the capacity of the climate-killing Keystone XL. The scheme makes a mockery of the permitting process by switching the tar sands crude to a connected pipeline — Line 3 — right before it crosses the border, then switching the tar sands back to Alberta Clipper right after the border, all to circumvent the State Department’s critical environmental review process.

This backroom deal between Enbridge and the State Department could result in up to 800,000 barrels of tar sands flowing into the United States each day — an unacceptable risk for our land and water and a disaster for our planet.

Tell Secretary of State Kerry that no one is above the law and that this illegal tar sands switcheroo scheme must be stopped.

If the State Department and President Obama want to prove they take climate action seriously, they will prevent any increase in tar sands transport through the United States until the full cumulative environmental impacts of these pipelines are assessed, as required by law.

After the cumulative impacts are studied, it will be clear that these oil projects fail President Obama’s climate test, and the administration will have no choice but to reject this expanding web of dirty tar sands pipelines. Take action today to ensure they do just that.

Thanks for all you do to protect our future,

Kate Colarulli
Sierra Club Beyond Oil Associate Campaign Director

P.S. Multiply your impact! After you take action, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues! You can also help spread the word on your social networks with the links below: