Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance

11 Senate Democrats to Obama: Approve Keystone XL

WASHINGTON (AP) – Eleven Senate Democrats, including six who face contested races this year, urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline by the end of May.

The five-year review of the Canada-to-Texas pipeline has been “exhaustive in its time, breadth and scope” and has taken longer than reasonably justified, the senators wrote to the president.

Approval of the pipeline is needed to ensure pipeline operator TransCanada does not miss another construction season, the senators’ letter said.

But politics likely is a larger factor.

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Jodi Rave Spotted Bear

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is the founder and director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck, N.D. and the Fort Berthold Reservation. Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press. She's been awarded prestigious Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships at Harvard and Stanford, respectively. She also an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project fellow. Her writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. Jodi currently serves as a Society of Professional Journalists at-large board member, an SPJ Foundation board member, and she chairs the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. Jodi has won top journalism awards from mainstream and Native press organizations. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.