WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—who serves on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is a member of the Senate Select Committee on the Climate Crisis and the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, and wrote the Keep It In the Ground Act to end fossil fuel extraction from public lands and waters—released the following statement today, as President Joe Biden officially terminated the Keystone XL pipeline lease granted by the Trump administration:
”The Keystone XL pipeline would have certainly led to more pollution, dirtier air, contaminated water, and a dangerous acceleration of climate chaos. The climate crisis is torching and flooding homes and businesses. It’s taking away the livelihoods and way of life who people who depend on healthy forests, farmland, oceans, and rivers. It’s undermining our national security and future prosperity and driving the spread of parasites and illnesses.
“We simply cannot afford to build infrastructure that will lock in more pollution and worsen this crisis for decades to come. My dad was a union machinist, and I appreciate how important the jobs are on a project like Keystone XL. There’s no shortage of construction work to do. America’s infrastructure is failing and suffering from years of underinvestment and neglect. So let’s create good-paying, union-friendly jobs building the infrastructure that drives prosperity, not pollution.”
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