A further 52 people were arrested at the White House on August 22 for taking part in an ongoing sit-in. They are trying to push President Barack Obama to stand up to Big Oil and deny the permit for a huge new oil pipeline.
Obama will decide this year on TransCanada’s permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. This would send 900,000 barrels a day of the world’s dirtiest oil to US refineries, allowing further development of the Alberta tar sands in Canada.
The pipeline would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Mining oil from tar sands creates three times more carbon emissions than conventional oil extraction.
In total, 162 people have been arrested since the protest began on August 20.
On August 22, demonstrators came to Washington, DC from across the country. They were willing to spend their vacation in handcuffs to send a message to a president they feel has abandoned their values and his promises to take on climate change.
Lori Fischer, the co-director for Nebraska Environmental Action Coalition and a member of Nebraska Farmers Union, travelled with five other Nebraskans and was arrested on August 22.
Before her arrest, she said: “If the government is going to refuse to step up to the responsibility to defend a liveable future, I believe that creates a moral imperative for me and many others …
“Our land, water, and the future of our children are at stake. I feel our leaders need to take seriously their responsibility to pass on a healthy and just world to the next generation. I am going to Washington to remind them.”
The same day as the protest, the New York Times editorial board reiterated its opposition to the pipeline, writing: “The State Department] should acknowledge the environmental risk of the pipeline and the larger damage caused by tar sands production and block the Keystone XL.”
[Abridged from www.tarsandsaction.org .]