KXL

CORE MESSAGE 

Helping Big Oil make billions selling Canadian oil overseas is not a jobs plan.

Connect: We need leaders who are more serious about protecting the interests of the American people than the interests of Big Oil companies.

Define: Helping a foreign company transfer oil through America so it can sell Canadian oil overseas is not a jobs plan.

Expose: Washington Republicans voted repeatedly to sabotage our economy by throwing millions of Americans out of work. Now they're trying to dress up a payoff to their Big Oil campaign donors as an effort to help American workers.

Discredit: They finally found a "jobs plan" they like. Sure, it doesn't hire many people -- and it puts family farms and rancher jobs at risk -- but Big Oil will make billions.

Bottom line: We should never mistake the interests of Big Oil for the interests of the American people or our economy.

Tweet: KXL Pipeline = CYA Pipeline (GOP's pathetic attempt to cover for laying off millions)

Tweet: we shld never mistake Big Oil's interests for the national interest. Keystone's a moneymaker for Big Oil, not a real jobs plan for Americans

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

"Keystone will create 20,000 jobs."

• Of course that's what Big Oil's estimates show. The only independent study of Keystone found that it could create as few as 50 permanent jobs in the U.S., along with a maximum of 4,500 temporary jobs.
• The pipeline could actually kill more jobs than it creates. It would raise gas prices in the region, laying off thousands in trucking and tourism. And a rupture in Keystone would devastate farms and ranches along the pipeline, just like the BP Oil spill devastated Gulf fishermen.
• Helping a foreign company transfer Canadian oil across America just so it can be sold overseas is not a jobs plan. But it's a great plan for Big Oil to make billions.

"Obama is putting politics before jobs -- he's just trying to please environmentalists."

• Here's what partisan politics looks like: Washington Republicans using Keystone to sabotage a payroll tax cut for 160 million working Americans.
• Keystone is about Washington Republicans protecting the profits of Big Oil while trying to hurt the President politically -- not about jobs.
• As one Washington Republican put it, "the fact that the president doesn't like it makes me like it even more." That's the very picture of putting politics first.

"If this pipeline isn't built, China will get our oil."

• Let's be clear about the purpose of this pipeline: to help a foreign company sell off Canadian oil to other foreign countries. TransCanada even refuses to promise that the oil will be used in the U.S. 
• Canada is determined to sell its oil off to China with or without Keystone. This pipeline won't stop China from getting Canada's oil or guarantee any for America. So what's the point of putting thousands of American jobs and our nation's biggest aquifer at risk for it anyway?

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Keystone project is sponsored by a foreign corporation that wants to build a 1,700 mile pipeline cutting across America to move Canadian oil to Gulf Coast ports, where it will be processed and sold to foreign countries.
• The only independent study not funded by Big Oil found that the Keystone pipeline would create at most 4,500 temporary positions and as few as 50 new permanent pipeline jobs in the U.S.
• The pipeline's hidden costs could kill more jobs in the long run by increasing gas prices in the region and damaging family farms, ranches, the local tourism industry, and the trucking sector.
• TransCanada, the oil company behind the pipeline, admitted KXL will drive up the price of heavy crude in the region -- actually increasing gas and diesel prices by 10 to 20 cents more per gallon and sending billions from American consumers to Canadian and multinational oil interests.
• Keystone is 20 times the size of the Exxon pipeline -- and we already know what damage even a small spill can do to nearby families and businesses.
• From 2005 to 2010, the five biggest oil companies raked in over $500 billion in profits while laying off over 11,000 American workers.
• Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell is the Senate's biggest recipient of oil and gas money this election cycle, and Speaker John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House, has taken in almost half a million dollars from the industry over his career.
• Clean energy is the fastest growing industry in the U.S. today and creates three times as many jobs as fossil fuels. In fact, analysts believe that developing new clean energy technologies like wind and solar could support 20 million jobs by 2030 and generate trillions of dollars in revenue.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.