WASHINGTON - Fresh arrests on Aug. 21 marked a second day of protests at the White House by environmental activists who said they were staging a two-week sit-in in a bid to halt the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Demonstrators from the Tar Sands Action group and a coalition of local and national groups are hoping a campaign of civil disobedience will push President Barack Obama to deny a permit for a new pipeline stretching from Canada to the US Gulf Coast.
"Saturday's arrests and overnight jailings are already lighting a fire," Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said on Aug. 21.
"More people are now inspired, determined, and committed to join," said Tidwell in a statement from jail, after he was arrested on Aug. 21.
Tar Sands said on its Web site that 50 people were arrested on Aug. 21 at a sit-in outside the White House front fence on Lafayette Square when they declined a request by U.S. Park Police to move. They joined the more than 50 people detained a day earlier.
The current number of arrested peaceful demonstrators has reached 162. We must be the change NOW! Please visit my blog for a list of petitions to stop the Keystone Mega-pipeline. I just compliled all the petitions to stop Keystone I could find on my blog. http://kim-hunter.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteKeystone oil co. has a record of 12 spills in 12 months. One still not cleaned up on tribal land in NE BC.
Yup, got my gruff up about this one for sure!