Below is the email we just sent to our USA list about how the US Chamber of Commerce is teaming up with the corporations behind the Keystone XL Pipeline to promote one of the dirtiest campaigns ever. In the US but didn't get this email? Sign up here.
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Dear friends,
Things just got interesting.
A few months ago, we launched a campaign to expose the truth about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: that it's just a front-group for corporate polluters, blocking climate action at every turn.
Then, last week, we teamed up with our allies to launch an entirely different campaign to stop the new Keystone XL pipeline–a dangerous project that would pump a million barrels of dirty tar sands oil from Canada every day.
Now, these two campaigns are coming together: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce just announced the "Partnership to Fuel America," which they claim will promote energy policy that will keep America "clean." The first major initiative of this partnerhship is a campaign to promote the Keystone XL pipeline–one of the dirtiest projects on the entire planet. Seems ridiculous? That's because it is.
This polluter partnership is just a scheme to let dirty energy companies distort the truth. Their game-plan is to deceive the country through an "AstroTurf" campaign (AKA fake grassroots) that will try to green-wash tar sands oil and pass it off as clean energy.
We can't let them get away with such a baldly corrupt plan. The Keystone XL pipeline will threaten communities, pour a catastrophic amount of carbon into the atmosphere, and keep us hooked on fossil fuel when we should be transitioning to renewable energy.
Keystone XL is the fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet, and we're going to do everything we possibly can to snuff it out.
Here's our 3-part plan to fight back:
1) We're petitioning President Obama to reject the permit for the pipeline. Already, nearly 30,000 people have signed on–but we'll need many more to make a big impact for our high-profile petition delivery in DC. Please sign on (and pass it along!) today: www.350.org/take-a-stand
2) We're spreading the word about a civil disobedience campaign being planned in DC this August. If you're ready to escalate your committment to this movement–or know someone who is–please check out www.TarSandsAction.org
3) We're planning hard-hitting activism in all the states that the Keystone pipeline passes through. We'll be dominating public comment hearings to oppose the pipeline, recruiting local chambers of commerce to take a stand to stop the tar sands, and on September 24th we'll be coordinating big rallies for the Moving Planet day of action to make sure that our elected officials know just where their constituents stand.
We know it's been a tough year: the weather's getting weirder, the political situation is getting grimmer, and it's sometimes hard to see just how we'll get out of this mess.
But know this: the world needs you now more than it ever has before, and this movement is capable of amazing things when we work together.
Let’s get 'em,
May Boeve – 350.org
P.S. We like to think social media tools were invented for moments like this — please mobilize your networks with a few clicks on Facebook and here on Twitter.