‘Environmental genocide’: Native Americans quit talks over Keystone XL pipeline [View all]

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http://rt.com/usa/native-americans-keystone-pipeline-475/



‘Environmental genocide’: Native Americans quit talks over Keystone XL pipeline
Published time: May 18, 2013 14:00
Edited time: May 19, 2013 07:58

Leaders from 11 Native American tribes stormed out of a meeting with US federal officials in Rapid City, South Dakota, to protest the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which they say will lead to ‘environmental genocide.’

Native Americans are opposed to the 1,179-mile (1,897km) Keystone XL project - a system to transport tar sands oil from Canada and the northern United States to refineries in Texas - for various reasons, including potential irreversible damage to sacred sites, pollution, and water contamination.

Although the planned pipeline would not pass directly through any Native American reservation, tribes in proximity to the proposed system say it will violate their traditional lands and that the environmental risks of the project are simply too great.

Russ Girling, CEO of TransCanada, the company that hopes to build the pipeline, has promised in the past that Keystone XL will be “the safest pipeline ever built.”