Speaking before an audience at the Center for American Progress' 10 year anniversary event in Washington, D.C., former Vice President Al Gore laid down the gauntlet, describing the Keystone XL pipeline as an "atrocity" that "should be vetoed."
"This should be vetoed. It is an atrocity. It is a threat to our future," Gore said, according to Politico.
Gore then went on to compare the desire for the tar sands oil the pipeline would transport to that of a drug addict. "Junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and legs give out," he said. “We are now at the point where we’re going after these ridiculously dirty and dangerous carbon-based fuels. And we’ve got to stop that.”
Gore delighted the progressive crowd at the CAP event, listing off a bevy of facts and figures about the threat of climate change.
“You think I’m passionate about this? You’re damn right I’m passionate about this,” said Gore, who got a standing ovation. “I do love this country, damn it. And our country is in very deep trouble.”
Gore lamented the broad “dysfunction” in Capitol Hill. “It’s pathetic,” he said.
Earlier in the event, Carol Browner, Obama’s former top climate change adviser, said she thinks the president will ultimately reject Keystone.
“I think at the end of the day he will say no, but there will be some twists and turns before we get there,” Browner said.
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