Pipefitters and plumbers union join Keystone pipeline supporters and hail new State dept report

A new U.S. State Department report is the latest evidence that the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada should be approved, supporters say. Monday a union representing pipefitters and plumbers has written to U.S. President Barack Obama urging him to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

The United Association represents 52,000 workers in Canada, some of whom will be responsible for building the pipeline and maintaining it once it’s complete.

Keystone XL demonstration, White House,8-23-2011 photo Josh Lopez

The draft report, issued Friday, finds there would be no significant environmental impact to most resources along the proposed route from western Canada to refineries in Texas. The report also said other options to get the oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries are worse for climate change.

The pipeline plan has become a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over climate change. Republicans and business and labor groups have urged the Obama administration to approve the project as a source of jobs and a step toward North American energy independence

Environmental groups have been pressuring the president to reject the pipeline, saying it would carry “dirty oil” that contributes to global warming. They also worry about a spill.

According to Marty Durbin, executive vice-president of the American Petroleum Institute:

“The latest impact statement from the State Department puts this important, job-creating project one step closer to reality.”

The top Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, said the new report “again makes clear there is no reason for this critical pipeline to be blocked one more day.”

“Americans are already suffering from the consequences of global warming, from more powerful storms like Hurricane Sandy to drought conditions currently devastating the Midwest and Southwest,” said Daniel Gatti of the group Environment America.

Production of oil from Canadian tar sands could add as much as 240 billion metric tons of global warming pollution to the atmosphere, Gatti said, a potential catastrophe that would hasten the arrival of the worst effects of global warming.

Gatti and other opponents said development of the vast tar sands is far from certain, despite assurances by the project’s supporters.

“Tar sands can be stopped, and we are stopping it,” Gatti said, citing a rally in Washington last month attended by an estimated 35,000 people. Project opponents also have blocked construction in Texas and Oklahoma and have been arrested outside the White House gate.