Posted on 02/26/2014 12:23:41 PM PST by jazusamo
Sen. Barbara Boxer wants to add a new element to the Keystone XL oil pipeline debate: its effects on health.
The California Democrat claims negative health effects from the proposed pipeline's development were ignored by the State Department's environmental impact review.
"The Environmental Impact Statement was woefully inadequate when it came to exploring human impacts of the pipeline," Boxer said Wednesday at a press conference held with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and anti-Keystone XL activists and environmentalists. She said Keystone will add pollutants to the air that will increase the likelihood of peopel getting cancer or heart disease.
"I do believe the public health impacts are something that average people can really relate to because they know cancer is the second leading cause of death in this country — heart disease is number one -— and all of this filthy air contributes to both of those," she said.
Boxer and Whitehouse will send a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry detailing the health impacts of the pipeline, which they hope he will consider when determining whether Keystone XL is in the nation's best interests.
The State Department is currently in the national determination phase of its review, which lasts for 90 days. While the department's environmental analysis said the pipeline developed by TransCanada would not significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions, Boxer claims more information is needed on the human impacts.
"As tar sands oil flows to our gulf coast refineries it will increase toxic pollution that already plagues communities like Port Arthur Texas, which is near many refineries that will process tar sands," Boxer said.
Boxer said hearings on the topic are a possibility but nothing is set in stone. Her goal is to get President Obama and Kerry's attention.
Advocates of the pipeline say it would not exacerbate pollution and would provide a safer alternative than railcars for transporting crude oil. Those supporting the pipeline, which would carry crude from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to Gulf refineries, argue opponents are simply trying to delay an already dragged out process.
"Keystone XL clearly passes President Obama's climate test, so opponents are scrambling to find any other way to slow down the process," said Katie Brown, spokeswoman for industry-supported group Oil Sands Fact Check, in a statement.
Boxer made the push one day after fellow Democrat Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) said the Government Accountability Office told him it would probe the process of State's environmental analysis for the pipeline.
A GAO spokesmen said Grijalva's request will go through the normal review process, which takes a few weeks. Boxer mentioned she plans to formally back Grijalva's request to have the GAO conduct an investigation.
Obama recently told governors gathered at the White House that a decision on the $5.4 billion project would be made in "a couple of months."
Perhaps she is upset that she hasn’t figured out a way to hustle any money out of it...yet.
Boxer is an idiot.
Utterly shameless.
She’d eat a plate of sh!t on camera and claim it tasted like pizza if they told her to.
Even if dangerous, wouldn’t it be far less dangerous than running thousands of trainloads of tank cars? How many people does Boxer want to kill with train cancer?
Boxer should shut up and let senators from the effected states speak for themselves. Since when did California get to tell the rest of the country what to do?
Sounds like an end-stage desperate lie. She must have inside info that it’s going through.
Just like the Trans Alaska Pipeline wiped out the caribou.
Idiocy is the root cause of Marxism.
Ah shaddap, sanator Babs, no one is interested in your damn lies.
Uhm, Babs...Babe...
You know this is a load of Shiite.
If your husband owned any rights of way on Keystone you would be touting its curative effects on cancer and requesting studies on how it and other pipelines might be of benefit for all kinds of maladies including birth defects and stupidity.
Hell, Think of all children and we could lessen their exposure to Windex....
Warning: Barbara Boxer may have an adverse effect on your I.Q.
When they learned how to spell affected, which was caused by certain effects.
Luv it here but, the morons running it have no shame.
They are too stoopit to know any different...
Boxer is dumber than a sack of hammers...
I hope your right about that info, if so she’s saddened. She’s got to be the Cynthia McKinney of the senate.
“Boxer is an idiot.”
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Plus 1
So, is Ms. Boxer a Chemical Engineer or an Oncologyst?
You’re dead on the mark on both counts!
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