“threatens to pollute freshwater supplies in America’s agricultural heartland and increase emissions in already-polluted communities of the Gulf Coast.” Bill McKibben, a longtime environmental activist who founded 350.org to focus on climate change, spearheaded what became a worldwide campaign to pressure Obama to deny the Keystone XL pipeline permit. McKibben and the entire environmental community saw the Keystone project as undermining the positive impact of nearly all of the Obama administration’s new environmental protections.15
To call public attention to Keystone, McKibben and 350.org began civil disobedience in front of the White House on August 26, 2011. McKibben drew publicity by being among the first to be arrested. The crowd of protesters grew from 300 in the first week to well over 1,000, with 1,254 people committed enough get arrested. By the following week hundreds of thousands of people had sent in petitions opposing Keystone to the White House and the State Department. Participants in the protests included such “unusual suspects” as ranchers, members of indigenous groups, and even many representatives of labor unions. Wisely making sure that everyone knew that it was the president who should be targeted over Keystone, McKibben announced, “President Obama can stop this climate killing disaster with the stroke of a pen,” and vowed: “We will be outside the White House hoping we can inspire the president to live up to the promises that so inspired us in his 2008 campaign. And without Congress in the way, this is the clearest test he’ll ever have.”16
As pressure on Obama over Keystone was building, the president made the shocking and unexpected announcement on September 2, 2011, that he was reversing the EPA’s proposed new restrictions on smog. As seen in the account of the 1997 Clean Air Act struggle, reducing smog is a top priority for many national and local environmental groups. All were outraged by Obama’s action. In March the EPA’s independent panel of scientific advisers had unanimously recommended strengthening the smog standards. The panel had concluded that the evidence was “sufficiently certain” that the range proposed in January 2010 under Obama’s EPA would benefit public health. Now Obama was citing the regulation’s alleged negative impact on jobs to justify ignoring the scientific experts whose assessments he had long pledged to follow.
“The Obama administration is caving to big polluters at the expense of protecting the air we breathe,” said Kate Geller, press spokesperson of the League of Conservation Voters. “This is a huge win for corporate polluters and huge loss for public health.” Even Al Gore, who had rarely publicly criticized the president up to that time, wrote on his blog, “Instead of relying on science, President Obama appears to have bowed to pressure from polluters who did not want to bear the cost of implementing new restrictions on their harmful pollution—even though economists have shown that the US economy would benefit from the job creating investments associated with implementing the new technology. The result of the White House’s action will be increased medical bills for seniors with lung disease, more children developing asthma, and the continued degradation of our air quality.” The green reaction was echoed by broader progressive organizations like MoveOn.org, whose executive director, Justin Ruben, said, “Many MoveOn members are wondering today how they can ever work for President Obama’s re-election, or make the case for him to their neighbors, when he does something like this.”17
Among those quoted in the New York Times story on Obama’s reversal was Bill McKibben, who found the president’s move “flabbergasting,” adding, “Somehow we need to get back the president we thought we elected in 2008.” McKibben’s words were clearly aimed at influencing Obama’s decision on Keystone. National environmental groups did not mobilize against Obama’s reversal on the smog regulations, because his action was entirely unexpected. But after the president disregarded the scientific experts on smog, the environmental movement went into high gear to prevent him from backing a project that would bring 3 million barrels of tar sand oil into the United States each year; this hardly comported with Obama’s promoting a national shift from oil to renewable resources.
Jobs versus the Environment
Keystone backers portrayed the pipeline as a jobs creator. But estimates of how many permanent jobs would actually be created varied widely. An expert on Fox Business News estimated the project could create “one million high paying jobs.” And conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh told listeners that the pipeline would create 200,000 jobs when completed. But an independent study by Cornell University researchers found that only 2,000 to 3,000 jobs would be created, and that they would be temporary construction jobs. When asked by CNN about the contrasting job estimates, TransCanada vice president Robert Jones denied that thousands of permanent jobs would be created and instead placed the number in the hundreds. Despite the inflated job claims, the endless repetition of false jobs projections created a stiff challenge for environmentalists in persuading a president running for reelection on a jobs platform to deny the pipeline permit. Obama had used the jobs issue to justify reversing smog regulations, and many feared he would apply the same reasoning to back Keystone.18
McKibben recognized organized labor’s need for jobs, but told labor leaders in early September 2011 that, for environmentalists, the Keystone pipeline was “our Wisconsin.” He was referring to labor’s recent occupation of the Wisconsin Statehouse to prevent legislation ending collective bargaining for public employees; just as unions saw the Wisconsin fight as a life-or-death struggle, they should understand the depth of green feeling about the pipeline. The AFL-CIO ultimately stayed neutral on the pipeline, as opposition from the nation’s two largest public transit unions balanced strong support from the Building Trades Council. On November 6, more than 12,000 people encircled the White House to demand that President Obama stop the pipeline. As the crowd linked hands to surround the executive mansion, demonstrators chanted, “Yes, we can / stop the pipeline,” evoking the 2008 campaign rallying cry that Obama borrowed from Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers’, “Sí, Se Puede.”19
On November 10, 2011, President Obama announced that he was delaying a decision for twelve to eighteen months, pending further State Department review. Pressure from environmental groups had clearly paid off. As McKibben described the development in his email announcing the victory, “Six months ago, almost no one outside the pipeline route even knew about Keystone XL. One month ago, a secret poll of ‘energy insiders’ by the National Journal found that ‘virtually all’ expected easy approval of the pipeline by year’s end. As late as last week the CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] reported that TransCanada was moving huge quantities of pipe across the border and seizing land by eminent domain, certain that its permit would be granted. A done deal has come spectacularly undone.” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune attributed Obama’s decision to “people power,” noting that “the earth moved in Washington, D.C., today” and that “without such a strong, organized, and righteous movement, we never would have prevailed.”20
McKibben, Brune, and other environmental leaders recognized that Obama might simply delay Keystone’s final approval until after the election. He could use the temporary denial to secure environmentalist support for his reelection campaign, then uphold the pipeline during his new administration. But they also believed that a State Department review would almost certainly find the pipeline impact report deficient, making the project as proposed unlikely to ever be built.
GOP Plan Backfires
But there would be yet another twist to the story. As part of a December 2011 deal on extending popular payroll tax cuts, Republican pipeline supporters demanded that Obama make a decision on Keystone within two months of the budget agreement. Although initially opposed to such a rider to a debt ceiling measure, Obama angered environmentalists by reversing course and agreeing to the two-month deadline. Sierra Club president Michael Brune described the inclusion of Keystone in the tax deal as “bullshit.” McKibben made sure that anger over the reversal targeted Obama: “People literally put their bodies on the lines and they thanked the president when they took him seriously. And the president said he was acting on principle and that it was important and if that resolve lasts five weeks and that’s it, if all it takes is Newt Gingrich getting
