On Friday, the State Department launched a 45-day official public comment period on the Obama administration's latest sham review of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The clock is now ticking on what will likely be our last chance to officially weigh in on the "game over for the climate" Obama Tar Sands pipeline, before the president makes his decision later this year.

The recently released Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that is the subject of these comments ignored the pipeline's significant risk for toxic spills, ignored its catastrophic impacts on our climate,¹ and ignored the clear consensus among financial analysts and oil executives who agree Keystone XL will make the difference in tar sands development.²

We need a response that will make clear to the Obama administration that Americans oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.

That's why we've set a goal of collecting 200,000 public comments against Keystone XL, the most public comments we've ever delivered during a single official comment period on an environmental issue. Click here to submit your comment telling President Obama to reject Keystone XL.

This assessment was simply a vehicle for the White House to see if we would be silent in the face of its misguided and cynical reasoning: that we should let the bankers and the oil companies profit while the planet inevitably burns. That Canadian tar sands are going to get burned anyway, so while the government's chief climate scientist's assertion that Keystone XL will spell 'game over' for the climate may be true,² it is is essentially irrelevant.

This is coward's logic. And we will not be silent in the face of it.

To be honest, it's not clear if any amount of pressure through official channels will be enough to get the administration to change course. After yet another fatally flawed review of Keystone XL, and perhaps more shockingly, the revelation last week that the State Department is once again farming out its analysis to oil industry contractors paid by the likes of TransCanada,⁴ ExxonMobil and Koch Industries⁵, our faith in the Obama administration to listen to either science or the public is diminishing.

That's why we have escalated our tactics by launching the Pledge of Resistance to Keystone XL where nearly 50,000 people have already committed to engage in civil disobedience if President Obama takes the next step toward approval of Keystone XL.

But we have to do everything in our power to stop this thing. And that means going as big as we can during this official comment period, to convince President Obama to reject Keystone XL - so we do not need to escalate our tactics against it, and so we have a better shot at preserving a livable climate. Please submit a public comment urging President Obama to reject Keystone XL, and ask your friends to do the same.

1. "Another flawed environmental review on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline," NRDC, 3/1/13

2. "Keystone Pipeline Decision May Influence Oil-Sands Development," Bloomberg,3/7/13

3. "Game over for the climate," James Hansen, New York Times, 5/9/12

4. "'State Department' Keystone XL Report Actually Written By TransCanada Contractor ," Grist, 3/6/13

5. "Critical Part of Keystone Report Done by Firms with Deep Oil Industry Ties," Inside Climate, 3/6/13

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/kxl_seis/?r=13093920&id=56087-1647563-TDrx7mx