President Obama may have other things on his agenda—immigration, gun safety reform and budget battles—but Democratic donors and environmentalists across the country aren't letting him forget the pending decision on the Keystone Pipeline. The debate over the pipeline has been fraught with conflict for more than a year now, with proponents arguing that it will create thousands of jobs in a time of need, and opponents saying it's a step in the wrong direction due to its harm to the environment.
The decision on Keystone isn't likely to come until the end of the summer, which means the White House and the State Department, which has final say on the pipeline, will be under significant pressure from both sides in the coming months.
On Monday, The Sierra Club's Michael Brune joined the NOW with Alex Wagner panel to discuss the latest developments with the pipeline and the stepped-up efforts from Democrats to pressure the President into rejecting the pipeline.
Brune called the Keystone Pipeline a "huge priority" for the environmental community, seeing the final decision on the pipeline as a "line in the sand" and a "key test of the president's commitment to really fight climate change with both fists."
"Now what you're seeing is big Democratic donors as well as former administration officials realizing what farmers in Nebraska have understood for years," Brune said, "which is that this pipeline is dirty, it's dangerous and it's unnecessary and it shouldn't be built," Brune said.