Keyra Sedgwick has become the latest celebrity to speak out against the construction of the 1,600-mile Keystone XL pipeline. The 46-year-old actress, star of the hit series "The Closer," urges President Obama in a new PSA to reject TransCanada's permit for the project.

 

"Everyday I take it for granted that when I turn on the faucet, clean water will come out, but the tar sands pipeline threatens to change all that in America's heartland," she says.

 

Running through or near several sensitive habitats and vital watersheds, the Keystone XL would transport more than half a million barrels of oil a day from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, across the border, and across six states in the U.S., to the major U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. According to some estimates, it would create more than 250,000 jobs and provide $100 billion in annual spending to the U.S. economy. But critics say the monetary benefits are not worth the environmental risk.

 

"If they have a leak, well, 40 percent of what's running through that pipeline is carcinogens," one Nebraska rancher told the L.A. Times. So they say they'd only ruin a little bit of the aquifer. Well, a little bit's too much. This is our lifeblood here, this water."

 

President Obama must decide on the fate of the project before December. You can view Sedgwick's PSA below and find out more about the environmental consequences of the pipeline here.