MD activists arrested in DC pipeline protest
More than 20 Washington-area environmental activists - including some from Maryland - were arrested outside the White House today as protests continued against building a 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico to carry oil wrested from the tar sands of Alberta.
The arrests came on the third day of a series of protests planned through Sept. 3 urging the Obama administration to reject the $13 billion project. TransCanada Corp. is seeking US approval to complete the 36-inch Keystone XL pipeline, which it says will boost American energy security by linking Canadian crude oil with US refineries and sea lanes.
But activists contend the project will lead to oil spills, and that extracting oil from the tar sands will devastate vast forested Canadian habitat and greatly increase climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions. Protestors sported signs supporting development of more wind energy instead.
Mike Tidwell, head of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, was arrested Saturday along with about 60 others. Among the protest's leaders is Gus Speth, a Vermont Law School professor who ran the United Nations Development Programme in the 1990s and was President Jimmy Carter's top environmental adviser.
(Photo courtesy Chesapeake Climate Action Network)
Comments
Can you explain why they are being arrested? I thought the 1st amendment allowed for peaceful assembly?
TW: Tidwell told me he was charged with failure to obey a lawful order. People apparently are not allowed to congregate along the White House fence, and are arrested if they don't move along when told to do so by police.
Posted by: SJN | August 22, 2011 5:53 PM
Looks like the protests are still going strong for another day. Bill McKibben is the activist who just spent two nights in jail after protesting outside the capital building with Tar Sands Action, the group calling for an end to the pipeline deal with Canada. Democracy Now! interviewed him today about the Keystone XL pipeline protests after his release. You can watch the interview here: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/23/over_160_arrested_in_ongoing_civil
Posted by: Jenny | August 23, 2011 1:04 PM
We are losing the battle to stop this. I just recieved this (http://www.grist.org/list/2011-08-26-state-department-backs-keystone-xl-pipeline ) and cannot believe it will actually happen in our own backyards!
To those of you who cannot attend the protest, please take 1 or 2 minutes of your time and sign this petition against the Keystone XL Pipeline. http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-tar-sands-oil-keystone-xl-pipeline?share_id=nnqcnaXRHM&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter
It is for your future and the future of many generations to come. Step forward and be heard! Mother Nature has spoken so many times the past few weeks. What are you waiting for? Speak up for your Earth!
Posted by: Roberta Glacken | August 26, 2011 1:46 PM