NextGen Climate Action To Air New Keystone XL Ad During President Obama's Tonight Show Appearance

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Tom Steyer's NextGen Climate Action announced it will air a new television advertisement about the Keystone XL pipeline tonight during President Barack Obama's appearance on NBC's The Tonight Show.

The ad, featuring an oil-soaked TransCanada CEO Russ Girling character sliding down the pipeline, highlights the TransCanada's misleading statements about the economic benefits of the Keystone pipeline:

• TransCanada has refused to commit to keeping the pipeline's oil in the United States, debunking the myth that it will end U.S. dependence on foreign oil: http://youtu.be/VucRPHJtvGU.
• Rather than decreasing U.S. energy prices, a report by Consumer Watchdog found that the Keystone pipeline will increase U.S. gasoline prices, especially in the Midwest. The report can be found at http://bit.ly/16GpGBY.

A preview of the ad, produced by Portal A, can be found at: http://youtu.be/PKAMeCpz-Jw

"We know The Tonight Show will draw many of President Obama's supporters, which provides an opportunity to showcase the bad business deal that TransCanada is pushing on the American people," said Tom Steyer, president and CEO of NextGen Climate Action. "We want to reinforce what President Obama has been saying – the Keystone pipeline will not bring the jobs or economic benefits that TransCanada touts in its lobbying propaganda. And it certainly fails the President's test of not contributing significantly to harmful emissions."

Steyer and NextGen Climate Action launched "We Love Our Land" (https://www.facebook.com/StopKeystoneXL) in June 2013 out of concern that the pipeline was a 40-year investment to shipping the world's dirtiest oil to economic competitors such as China. Most recently, the pipeline's future has come into question because Environmental Resource Management, a State Department contractor charged with performing an Environmental Impact Statement, was found to have lied on its mandatory conflict of interest form about its association with TransCanada according to evidence collected by Friends of the Earth and The Checks & Balances Project (http://bit.ly/12E2ItU).

SOURCE NextGen Climate Action