Keystone XL pipeline is essentially dead!!!

This.  Is.  Huge.  What we have just witnessed is true democracy at work.  As of several months ago, the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline was all but certain to be approved.  The company who's behind the project, TransCanada, was even in the process of moving pipeline pieces to the proposed route as of last week.

Then, today, Barack Obama announced that the proposal needed to go back to the State Department for a thorough re-assessment of the impacts of the pipeline.  This will delay any decision for more than a year, and if done to the standards requested by Obama, should result in tossing out the pipeline plan.  Obama specifically cited the need for the environmental assessment to include climate change effects if the tar sands are tapped (the effects would be catastrophic, fyi).

So what brought about this seismic shift, when the State Department was weeks away from recommending approval?  People power.  In September, 1253 people were arrested for protesting the pipeline in front of the White House.  Then, on Sunday, over 12,000 people surrounded the White House with signs reminding Obama about his campaign promises to take on climate change.  Dozens of congressmen and congresswomen wrote to Obama about their concerns.  Nine Nobel Peace Prize winners declared their opposition to the pipeline.  College campuses around the country held rallies against the pipeline.  And Obama listened to us.