Texas: Blockaders Stand Their Ground Against Keystone XL Pipeline
November 18, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Since the last week of September, dozens of environmental activists along with local landowners in East Texas have been attempting to blockade construction of the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline. This section of the pipeline would carry tar sands oil extracted in Alberta, Canada, from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf of Mexico coast. The blockade actions are concentrated near Winnsboro, two hours from Dallas, but have also occurred in other parts of the state.
Last year 1,200 people were arrested in civil disobedience actions at the White House calling for President Obama to reject the entire Keystone XL pipeline. If built, this pipeline would greatly increase the flow of tar sands oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast for shipment. The actions in Texas have been joined by other opposition to the tar sands, such as recent protests against other proposed pipelines from Alberta through pristine wilderness to British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada.
Tar sands oil is some of the dirtiest, most carbon-polluting on the planet—and carbon in the atmosphere is the main cause of global warming. Extraction of tar sands oil is itself greatly destructive to the environment and indigenous peoples' lands in Alberta. And the Alberta tar sands reserves represent a huge pool of carbon, which, if burned, would further exacerbate the warming of the planet. This global warming is already causing great harm around the world, including more frequent and damaging extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods, and droughts—and it poses an urgent threat of catastrophe to ecosystems and life on earth.
Tar Sands Action, which organized the protests in DC, called Keystone XL a "fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent." Climatologist James Hansen has said that if the tar sands reserves are fully extracted and burned, it would be "game over for the climate."
The current protests in Texas are called by Tar Sands Blockade. Blockaders have been sitting in trees to try to stop construction of the southern part of the pipeline, which is cutting a swath through Texas forests and farmland. Others have chained themselves to construction equipment and protested in other ways to call attention to and try to stop this pipeline from going through.
TransCanada, the builder of the pipeline, working with local authorities has turned the sites surrounding the protest into a police state. The courts granted TransCanada the right of eminent domain to force landowners to sell land for constructing the pipeline. TransCanada has hired local police to be private security and try to suppress the protests. Activists have been pepper sprayed, Tasered, and brutalized. People who have tried to resupply tree-sitters with food and water have been harassed and arrested. Tree-sitters have endured threats and taunts and been denied food and water by these "security forces." The company is videotaping activists, and is seeking an injunction to stop the protests and force activists to pay damages for the "crime" of seeking to protect the land and save the planet.
In their lawsuit, the company called these courageous people standing up for the planet "eco-terrorists." Police have even handcuffed and detained reporters, including from the New York Times, to prevent them from interviewing tree-sitters. Despite this, the Times article on the protest didn't even report the arrest of their own journalists.
To this point, at least 35 people have been arrested, including actor Daryl Hannah, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, and a local landowner. All kinds of charges have been put on the protesters, including some felonies and resisting arrest charges against people doing non-violent civil disobedience.
Obama helped jump-start the building of this southern portion of Keystone XL. He personally went to Cushing, Oklahoma, in March to announce his approval for the project, saying, "And today, I'm directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles, and make this project a priority, to go ahead and get it done."
Despite all the suppression, the protests have been continuously joined by new people. Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson Ron Seifert said on Democracy Now! that stopping Keystone XL "is a necessary condition for our collective future. If it goes online and starts moving over 800,000 barrels a day of this incredibly energy-intensive dirty fuel to the Gulf Coast refineries, we're not going to have a viable future on this planet."
The significance of the increasing resistance to environmental destruction manifested by these protests is deeply underscored by the devastation and wrecking of lives wrought by Superstorm Sandy on the people of the Atlantic coast and the crimes of the system in Sandy's wake. The tar sands blockades should be supported and spread.
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.