The legendary singer Neil Young has spoken out against the extraction of tar sands oil in Canada and its export to the United States through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Speaking to a National Farmers Union rally on Capitol Hill, Young described his recent visit to a tar sands community in Alberta, Canada.

Neil Young: “The fact is, Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima. Fort McMurray is a wasteland. The Indians up there and the native peoples are dying. The fuels all over — there’s fumes everywhere. You can smell it when you get to town. The closest place to Fort McMurray that is doing the tar sands work is 25 or 30 miles out of town, and you can taste it when you get to Fort McMurray. People are sick. People are dying of cancer because of this.”

President Obama is expected to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline within the next several months. In a bid to win Obama’s approval, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently offered to work on a joint plan to reduce carbon emissions if the Keystone is built.