I’ve been out all day on a family errand, so this is a quick and dirty post to encourage you to head on over and submit a comment about the Keystone XL.
Here’s a framing to copy & paste — or (better yet) to paraphrase:
As a former smoker, President Obama knows about overcoming a powerful addiction.
And America has known for decades how seriously we are addicted to fossil fuels; it’s long been a staple of presidential rhetoric, if not of presidential action.
Our nation’s addiction to oil and coal is profoundly damaging to our planet’s health; the State Department’s absurd dismissal of the pipeline’s impact on the climate sounds remarkably like a heavy smoker’s raspy contempt for an oncologist’s advice.
The dirty crude of the Canadian tar sands needs to stay in the ground for the same reason that countless smokers, including the President, have finally overcome their dependency: because life is preferable to the alternative.