The day after the Republican National Convention of 2012 concluded, Ryan appeared today at a rally in Richmond Virginia in stifling 100-degree August heat on an airport tarmac, and local climate activists greeted him with a clear message to pass on to his running mate Mitt Romney: No Keystone XL Pipeline.

While candidate Romney spent the day reaching out to Americans affected by flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, recalling the damage done by Hurricane Katrina and the risk of stronger storms hitting the Gulf Coast and mid-Atlantic as the climate changes, Ryan addressed a sizable swing-state crowd. As he began to bring up the issue of energy and speak about Virginia’s coal reserves and the need to use it, local activists took a stand for the climate and unfurled a banner for the candidate to read.

Romney has promised that if elected one of his first acts would be to approve the entire pipeline proposal, spelling gameover for the global climate, allowing dangerous amounts of greenhouse gas pollution to enter the atmosphere and multiplying the risk of sea level rise to Virginia’s coast. Though it meant our bold demonstrators were unceremoniously ushered from the airport, we can say with certainty that the candidates got our message!

We came to bring climate into the conversation, and we were very effective. It will take a steady stream of committed people asking tough questions of our candidates to make sure that the leaders who run the country know that the Keystone XL pipeline would be a climate catastrophy and must not be built.

The successful Richmond action was part of CCAN’s Election Climate Response Team – sign up today to be a part of similar actions at future candidate events!