WASHINGTON -- Senior pastor the Rev. Sarah Campbell was at home Monday on her day off in Minneapolis when she got a call from the American Petroleum Institute asking her to participate in a survey about whether she supported the Keystone pipeline.
Minneapolis pastor launches her own anti-Keystone pipeline effort to Sen. Klobuchar's office
Minneapolis pastor launches her own anti-Keystone pipeline effort to Sen. Klobuchar's office
By allison.sherry@startribune.com
November 18, 2014 at 11:46PM
The question struck Campbell as funny since, just the day before, she told her parishoners at the Mayflower Church to urge their federal elected representatives to vote against the pipeline, which will carry crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
On the phone, Campbell told the surveyor, "I'm absolutely against it. We need to keep it in the ground," she said, but then decided she was curious where the call would take her if she answered another way. "And then I said, 'just a minute, maybe I'm in favor of it'. And she said, 'Ok, let me put you through to Sen. Klobuchar's office.'"
Klobuchar's office received more than 600 calls in the last two days from people both supporting and asking her to vote against the pipeline. The measure was handily passed by the House last week, with three Minnesota Democrats supporting it.
Campbell, who is against the pipeline because of her concern of climate change,helped organize her own call-a-thon to Klobuchar's office. They had about 25 members of the 750-strong church call the office in Minnesota. Another faith-based organization called the Interfaith Power and Light sent an additional 75 faxes.
On the Senate floor Tuesday, the Keystone measure failed by one vote. Both Klobuchar and Franken voted against it.
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