True Climate Stories

Rivet’s Bill Latka produced this project for the Environmental Media Association. It’s a movie trailer style spot called Keystone Horror, starring Amy Smart (Butterfly Effect) and Ed Begley Jr. (Arrested Development) that dramatizes a real event – an oil pipeline burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, spilling almost 200,000 gallons of crude oil in someone’s backyard. The urgent message is that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is not only bad for the climate, but it would make a lousy neighbor.

President Obama has a chance to say no to the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline – a large new pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the refineries in Houston, TX. Some say this is good for energy security and the economy, but the reality is that the oil will be sold on the world market, and after the pipeline is built, will create few jobs. James Hansen, climatologist with NASA, says that if the Keystone XL pipeline is built, it’s essentially “game over for the planet” as the production of gasoline from tar sands is many times more carbon intensive than traditional crude oil production. Plus, there are far better sources of energy than this most toxic form of fossil fuels.

Bill Latka produced the spot in Los Angeles. Asher Levin directed.