House Passes Back-Door Attempt to Force Tar Sands Pipeline Approval

By Natural Resources Defense Council

21 May 12

NRDC: "House leadership creating roadblocks instead of creating jobs."

he House of Representatives today passed a back-door attempt that would force lawmakers to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline as part of an unrelated transportation bill - once again holding the legislation for improving our roads, bridges and public transit hostage to partisan ideology.

The following is a statement from Natural Resources Defense Council Legislative Director Scott Slesinger after the House passed a motion to instruct transportation bill conferees to include a tar sands pipeline provision in final legislation:

"Instead of working to approve a bipartisan transportation bill that would improve daily life in communities around the country while creating jobs, the House voted to dig in its heels and keep pushing to add a provision that would kill the transportation legislation.

"This is just another case of the House leadership creating roadblocks instead of creating jobs.

"The American public continues to be the victim of this willful intransigence, all for the benefit of one private foreign company."

For more information on why the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is not in our nation's best interest, please see: http://www.nrdc.org/energy/keystone-pipeline/

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Livingston, Montana, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.