Over 400 members of Minnesota's Building Trades unions, including three state presidents and Harry Melander, President of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council, gathered on the State Capitol steps for a rally in support of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Rick Terven, Executive Vice President at United Association, gave a rousing fifteen minute speech exhorting pipe-fitters, teamsters, laborers, operating engineers and electrical workers to contact the Department of State. "Four times this project has been reviewed and four times the conclusion has been the same. We will build Keystone safe and it will be reliable."

More from around the web on the new State Department draft analysis of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which, again, proved the economic benefits and lack of negative environmental impacts from the pipeline?  First to the Washington Post:

In its 2,000 pages, the report dismantled the case that nixing the Canadian pipeline must be a priority for anyone concerned about climate change, explaining anew that accepting or rejecting the project won’t make much difference to global emissions, U.S. oil consumption or world oil markets.

And from the Bismarck Tribune:

“After 41/2 half years, and a total of four environmental reviews, the Keystone XL pipeline project is perhaps the most thoroughly studied and long-delayed project of its kind in U.S. history,” [Sen. John] Hoeven said. “The... more »

During a conference call with reporters on the Keystone XL pipeline, we made them aware of a new poll from Nebraska, where a public hearing on this important energy project was scheduled. The 2012 Nebraska Rural Poll found support for the Keystone XL at 65 percent with people living in non-metropolitan areas – which include counties the pipeline would cross. The poll’s executive summary:

"Most rural Nebraskans are in favor of building the Keystone XL pipeline, but think it should be built on an alternate route that avoids the Sandhills and Ogallala aquifer."

Indeed, pipeline builder TransCanada has spent months addressing that caveat, rerouting the project around environmentally sensitive areas. The scheduled public hearing is an important step in advancing the Keystone XL in Neb... more »

The post below was originally seen on Oil Sands Fact Check.

A giant inflatable pipeline moving down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue made some headlines over the weekend as opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline and oil sands sought influence over President Obama’s decision on the project, likely to be one of 2013’s most anticipated.

Unfortunately, the demonstration – as well as the larger argument over the 1,700-mile pipeline – focused on a false choice when it comes to the Keystone XL: jobs vs. the environment. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

This was clearly articulated by the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department last week when it called on the president to approve the pipeline, while directly challenging opponents’ claims that the Keystone XL and oil sands are “... more »

Who could have imagined the day would come when the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) crafted a report focused on relieving Americans’ “pain at the pump”? 

But there it is: the same group that once stated “there’s nothing we can do to control the price of gas in America” released a paper this week outlining the ways in which Keystone XL pipeline is apparently poised to make prices at the pump go higher – as if higher gas prices were something the group actually opposed. 

Of course, we know the truth about NRDC’s position on gas prices – that they support policies that increase the cost of fossil fuels to discourage their use. What’s tougher, though, is determining how the group came up with a methodology allowing it to argue, in effect, that greater supply of secure sources of... more »