protest will hit Washington, D.C. in April, and it's bringing together two unlikely allies.
On
April 22, the Cowboy Indian Alliance -- a group of of ranchers, farmers
and tribal communities living along the proposed route of the Alberta
to Nebraska oil pipeline -- is going to ride to Washington, D.C. and set
up camp near the White House for their
campaign. They'll host anti-Keystone XL events for several days, and
will conclude their stay with a march to the White House on April 27.
The Alliance
, and welcomes any allies to join them.
This
rally gives a voice to the communities that would be most impacted by
Keystone XL, and their message is clear -- to protect
now and for future generations. The Keystone XL would cross several
rivers and the Ogallala Aquifer, which would put wildlife, public water
supplies and
, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
“Dirty
tar sands threaten our climate, and they threaten the health and
well-being of the people who live along the proposed Keystone XL tar
sands pipeline route," said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune
in a press release. "For these families, nothing short of their water,
land, and their children's safety is at stake.”
The State
Department -- which is responsible for approving or rejecting the
800,000 barrel per day pipeline because it crosses an international
border -- recently ended a final 30-day public comment period. Activists
have mounted increasing pressure on the Obama administration to reject
the project, delivering over
on March 7 following a series of mass arrests in front of the White House earlier that week.
Loudly
denouncing the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, about 1,000 people —
most of them students — marched from Georgetown to the White House
Sunday. Once there, hundreds fastened themselves to the fence outside
the White House, while hundreds more stood with them, waiting to be
arrested. By the end of the day, roughly 400 had been taken into
custody.
Their
message for President Obama: Our demographic helped vote you into
office, and we oppose the pipeline. Do you stand with your constituents,
or do you stand with the fossil fuel industry and its legion of
lobbyists?
“The president is the
decision-maker. The ball’s in his court. We really have to make it clear
to him that it’s his decision — and if he makes that decision, that’s
on his shoulders,” said Brian Thompson, who traveled to DC from the
University of Vermont.
Bill McKibben of 350.org on Why the White House Wants to Approve Keystone
The
protest came within a month of two controversial State Department
reports on the TransCanada pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels
of crude oil from the Alberta tar sands in Canada to refineries on the
Texas Gulf Coast every day. The
first report
found that regardless of whether the US government allows the pipeline
to be constructed, Canada’s tar sands oil will be extracted and burnt,
and, thus, the pipeline itself will not significantly hasten climate
change. The
second report
found no conflict of interest in the first, even though the contractor
who prepared it had previously done work for TransCanada, the company
behind the pipeline.The protest — called “
XL Dissent”
— was organized by students at a number of colleges with support from
environmental and activism groups, including Bill McKibben’s 350.org,
the Energy Action Coalition and DC Action Lab. Many of the student
groups that traveled to the protest originally formed to encourage their
school administrations to divest from fossil fuels, another rallying
issue for 350.org.
Aly
Johnson-Kurts, left, a Vermont coordinator with 350.org, speaks with
other protest organizers as students march toward the White House.
(Photo: John Light)
The turnout at the protest surprised
even the event’s organizers. “This is way more than we expected at the
beginning. It spiraled beyond anything we could have imagined,” said Aly
Johnson-Kurts, a Vermont coordinator with 350.org who is taking time
off from Smith College. Over 80 colleges from 42 states, from Louisiana
to Maine, were represented. A separate, West Coast demonstration — “XL
Dissent West” — took place in San Francisco on Monday: About 100 people —
mostly students from Bay Area schools — attempted to occupy the State
Department building in San Francisco, but guards locked the doors before
most of them were able to enter. Nine students managed to get in, and
were arrested after occupying the building for about an hour.
“I
think the movement has done a really amazing job bringing together
activists and environmentalists from all over the country,” said
University of Pennsylvania student Emily Belshaw, who marched in DC
holding a large, papier mâché Mother Earth designed by Spiral Q puppet
theater in Philadelphia. “In the next couple months I’d like to see a
continuing bond throughout the country between environmentalists at
colleges, bringing youth together.”
University
of Pennsylvania student Emily Belshaw holds a papier mâché Earth,
designed by Spiral Q puppet theater in Philadelphia, at the Keystone XL
pipeline protest. (Photo: John Light)
Belshaw chose not to get arrested, because she needed to accompany the Earth puppet at all times.
The
marchers gathered on Georgetown University’s campus and marched from
there through a sleepy residential neighborhood, pausing outside
Secretary of State John Kerry’s house and then continuing toward the
White House through wide commercial avenues, blocking traffic on their
way. Once there, students used plastic zip ties to strap themselves to
the fence outside the president’s mansion. Others, lacking zip ties,
stood with them, leaning against the fence. About 30 students spread out
a large, black piece of plastic — an “oil spill” — on Pennsylvania
Avenue in front of the fence, and lay down in it. Reporters and
photographers from an array of media organizations —
Politico,
Reuters,
The Washington Post — jotted notes and snapped photos.
As
police gave a series of warnings to clear the area or be arrested,
students chanted, urging Obama to reject the pipeline, and sang songs,
many of them harkening back to the civil rights movement and other
social movements of the previous century — “
This Little Light of Mine,” “We Shall Overcome.” After five warnings, police officers and SWAT team members began arresting students.
The
mood was, for the most part, genial. “We love you,” students chanted to
the officers, who in some cases checked that the students had ID cards
before cuffing them. One officer brought a student a jacket, another
shook hands with a protestor waiting to be arrested.
But the
arrests took four hours, during which time the temperature dropped and
it started to sleet — the cusp of the storm that paralyzed DC Monday —
as students continued to chant their message for Obama.
Brian
Thompson, from University of Vermont, and Sydney Katz, from Hampshire
College, at Georgetown University, before marching to the White House.
(Photo: John Light)
“I hope Obama will reject the Keystone
pipeline, and set a precedent for rejecting fossil fuel infrastructure
projects on the basis of climate,” said Johnson-Kurts. “This is our
future we’re talking about, and it’s on the line with every fossil fuel
project that he approves.”Brian Thompson, from University of
Vermont, and Sydney Katz, a student at Hampshire College, wore yellow
shirts at the DC action showing a blazing sun and reading, “As the heat
rises, so do we!” The two knew each other from growing up in Oakland,
Calif., where months of drought followed recently by days of
rain and mudslides
may be evidence of the planet’s increasingly extreme climate. “It’s all
connected — the drought in California, the flooding in England,” said
Thompson. “It’s all part of the big picture.”
