150 Major Democratic Donors Urge Obama to Reject Keystone Pipeline

Where money talks louder than science, the letter from the donors won't go unnoticed, the week before Prime Minister Harper is to visit Washington.

By David Sassoon, InsideClimate News

In the latest show of force by opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, a group of 150 major Democratic donors sent a letter Friday to President Obama, urging him to reject the controversial application from TransCanada for permission to send more than 800,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast.

The signatories comprise business leaders, philanthropists and celebrities—including clean energy entrepreneurs Vinod Khosla, Jigar Shah and Steve Kirsch, long-time Obama bundler Wendy Abrams and actress Blythe Danner.

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"We urge you to proclaim with clarity and purpose that our nation will transition away from carbon-based fossil fuels to job creating clean energy," the letter said. "As challenging as this may be, the costs pale in comparison to the human consequences of unchecked climate disruption."

Betsy Taylor, president of Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions, who organized the effort over the last few weeks, has been working with a growing network of donors for the last year. She said the majority of donors who signed the letter gave the maximum allowable amount to the Obama campaign and the Democratic party in both 2008 and 2012, and a number of them also bundled or raised additional funds. They have also raised the Keystone issue directly with the president, with the Obama for America campaign, and with administration officials, she said.

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http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130510/150-major-democratic-donors-urge-obama-reject-keystone-pipeline

Donors Depart Mark Zuckerberg’s Group

Multiple high profile donors have pulled out of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's new political group, Fwd.us. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and David Sacks, chief executive of the social networking company Yammer both left the group Friday, according to Reuters.

Fwd.us was launched in April to help executives in the technology industry lobby on immigration reform, education and scientific research.

The group recently launched a ad campaign praising conservative politicians who back immigration reform for supporting the Keystone XL pipeline, which is opposed by many environmental activists. Fwd.us said the ads were designed to bolster those politicians in their home districts. As a result of the ads, several progressive groups launched a boycott of Facebook's ads platform.

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http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/donors-depart-mark-zuckerbergs-group