Tag: direct action

Oklahoma: Two Activists Lockdown to Protect Cross Timbers from Tar Sands

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tejasTwo Protesters Lock Themselves to Equipment to Protect the Cross Timbers from Tar Sands

Press Contact: Eric Whelan, gptsrmedia@gmail.com, 405-863-2888

Monday, April 29th: Spaulding,OK Earlier this morning two Texas residents locked themselves to machinery being used to construct TransCanada’s dangerous and controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in Spaulding, OK through Muscogee Creek Nation land by treaty. Benjamin Butler and Eamon Treadaway Danzig took action today to prevent the Cross Timbers bioregion from being poisoned by this inherently dangerous tar sands pipeline, just as the surrounding wetlands and residential areas have been poisoned as a result of Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline rupture near Mayflower, Arkansas. The Gulf Coast Project is the Southern segment of TransCanada’s 7 billion dollar Keystone XL pipeline, which is slated to transport toxic diluted bitumen from Cushing, OK, to Gulf Coast refineries in Houston and Port Author. Recent Tar Sands spills in Minnesota and Arkansas, as well as an explosion at a Tar Sands refinery in Detroit have highlighted the urgency in stopping Tar Sands extraction and transportation.

Butler and Danzig are acting as a part of Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, a growing coalition of groups and individuals dedicated to stopping the expansion of Tar Sands infrastructure throughout the Great Plains. Their actions follow the escalating number of work-stopping actions that have occurred in Oklahoma this past month.  Both anti-extraction activists cite concern of the effect a spill will have in the Cross Timbers bio-region that they call home. Their action comes in the wake of the rupture of Exxon-Mobile’s Pegasus pipeline which spilled Tar Sands bitumen in neighboring Mayflower, Arkansas. In addition to the high rates of sickness that the surrounding community displayed, the spill in Arkansas has polluted Lake Conway and has had devastating effects on local wildlife. The permanent effect on people’s livelihoods and the health of affected ecosystems remains to be seen.

“This pipeline is essential for continued tar sands exploitation which poses an imminent threat to the health of indigenous communities near the point of extraction, fence-line communities around the toxic refineries, and ultimately the health of every living being along the route,” said Benjamin Butler, who was born at Tinker Air force Base in Oklahoma. “I believe in a more beautiful world, one where the profits of a corporation don’t outweigh the health of the people and the planet.”

“These companies come through with false promises and leave sickness and devastation in their wake,” said Eamon Danzig of Denton, TX. “People in Mayflower experienced fainting, nausea, and nosebleeds from the benzene gas which separates from the diluted bitumen in a spill and hovers above the ground. Leaks, ruptures, and other accidents on tar sands pipelines are so commonplace and inevitable that I can’t let this pipeline be built through the Cross Timbers.”

The Tar Sands megaproject is the largest industrial project in the history of humankind, destroying an area of pristine boreal forest which, if fully realized, will leave behind a toxic wasteland the size of Florida. The Tar Sands megaproject continues to endanger the health and way of life of the First Nations communities that live nearby by poisoning the waterways which life in the area depends on. This pipeline promises to deliver toxic diluted bitumen to the noxious Valero Refinery at the front door of the fence-line community of Manchester in Houston.

Currently, there is staunch resistance to the expansion of Tar Sands infrastructure—Lakota and Dakota peoples in “South Dakota” have sworn to protect their land and people from the Keystone XL, lifelong Oklahomans and Texans are consistently halting construction of the inherently dangerous Keystone XL, and the Unis’tot’en Camp has entered the third year of their blockade of the Pacific Trails Pipeline.

Seattle:Tar Sands Protestors Chain Themselves To Canadian Consulate Doors

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RT seattleContact:
Annie Lukins: (206)708-4872 annielu@uw.edu

Tar Sands Protestors Chain Themselves To Canadian Consulate Doors

Seattle, WA: Two Seattle residents have chained themselves to the doors of the Canadian Consulate in downtown Seattle today protesting proposed pipelines that would bring Canadian tar sands to American refineries.

“We used to look up to Canada as an environmental leader, but promoting extreme energy like tar sands has soiled that reputation forever,” said Carlo Voli, a 47 year old Edmonds resident, as protestors poured fake oil over Canadian and American flags. Voli and Lisa Marcus, a 57 year old Seattle resident and grandmother, have U-Locked their necks to the doors of the consulate’s conference room.

Participants are protesting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and proposals to increase the number of tankers carrying tar sands through the Salish Sea. More than fifty people have been arrested at similar protests around the country this past month. 1

“We’re here to expose the collusion between the tar sands industry and the Canadian government,” explained Rachel Stoeve, a recent University of Washington graduate who was holding a banner outside the cheese factory, “The Canadian government and the tar sands industry are working together to bring tar sands to our communities. They’re not doing it for our benefit; they’re doing it for profit,”

Canadian Diplomats have come under criticism around the world for their aggressive promotion of the tar sands industry. The Harper Administration also provoked the indigenous rights movement Idle No More when they opened up native lands to development. In March Environmental Defense, a Toronto based group, released nearly one thousand pages of internal e-mails from Canadian diplomats outlining a strategy to promote the Keystone XL pipeline with American journalists.2 Last year an internal memorandum released by Post-Media news revealed the Harper government had deployed a network of Diplomats to lobby Fortune 500 companies in order to counter an environmental campaign targeting the tar sands.3 In Europe, the Canadian government has attempted to undermine the European Union’s “Fuel Quality Directive” with a lobbying campaign that Friends of the Earth described as “possibly the most vociferous public relations campaign by a foreign government ever witnessed in the EU.”4

While the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline has become a headline issue for environmentalists around the country, Seattle residents point out that Canada’s tar sands are already impacting the Salish Sea. All five of Washington’s refineries currently process tar sands materials, transported by Kinder-Morgan’s Trans-Mountain pipeline and oil tankers.5 THe Kinder-Morgan has proposed twinning the Trans-Mountain pipeline nearly tripling its capacity from 300,000 barrels per day to 850,000 barrels per day.6

“”There is no safe method for tar sands transport. Kinder Morgan’s plans could bring up to 360 tankers through the Salish Sea7 and the Department of Ecology still has no plan to deal with a tar sands spill. It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” warned Rachel Stoeve

The Department of Ecology estimates a major oil spill could cost the state’s economy $10 Billion and 165,000 lost jobs as well as wipe out Washington’s resident Orca population.

“We’ve had enough of politicians on both sides of the border acting as mouthpieces for the fossil fuel industry. It’s time for ordinary people to put their bodies on the line to protect our region and our climate from extreme energy,” said Voli.

Photos available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94446910@N03/

In solidarity with the Unist’ot’en March 30 Global Day of Action, supporters demonstrate and deliver message to Chevron Global Headquarters in San Ramon, CA

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* *

Contact: Annie Banks

Phone: 415-728-1134

Email: anniembanks@gmail.com

In solidarity with a global day of actions happening all over North America on March 30, a group called Anti-Colonial Queer Action (ACQA) traveled from San Francisco to San Ramon, CA (Ohlone Territories), where Chevron has its
global headquarters, to demonstrate against fracking pipelines on Unist’ot’en and Wet’suwet’en territories and deliver a message from the Unist’ot’en to Chevron.

ACQA hoisted a banner that stated “No Fracking Pipelines on Indigenous Territories,” to the flagpoles outside of Chevron’s compound at 6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd. Afterwards, members of ACQA read out and delivered a letter, written by Unist’ot’en spokesperson Freda Huson.

The letter outlines the Unist’ot’en’s inalienable rights to their lands and to defend their lands. Chevron Corporation and all associated investors have acquired 50% ownership of the proposed Pacific Trail Pipeline project,
a project which has already been evicted from Unist’ot’en lands. The letter is a warning of trespass to anyone who is infringing upon traditional Wet’suwet’en territory.

“The Unist’ot’en Camp is a resistance community created to ensure that no pipelines will ever cross Unist’ot’en traditional territory. They act to protect the land and the increasingly unstable climate, to do what is best for future generations.” - “Stop Fracking Chevron” flyer

Chevron’s impacts reach from up north in Unist’ot’en territory down to the Bay Area and around the world. In the Bay Area, Chevron’s emissions from their Richmond refinery are responsible for impacting the health of
frontline communities, which are primarily communities of color. Impacted communities around the Bay Area have been organizing against the harms from Chevron’s toxic emissions.

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Read the Unist’ot’en’s letter here:
http://calamites.resist.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Chevron-Letter.pdf

Stop Fracking Chevron Flyer here:
http://calamites.resist.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Chevron-Flyer.pdf

Unist’ot’en Camp website: http://unistotencamp.com/

Anti-Keystone XL Protests Erupt Across Country

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WI-light-brigadeAnti-Keystone XL Protests Erupt Across Country With More Planned Soon – Thirty-Seven Arrested Already

—For Immediate Release—

MEDIA RELEASE: March 20, 2013

Press Inquiries: Ron Seifert, Tar Sands Blockade, 940-268-5375, kxlblockade@gmail.com

Over 30 protests as part of Week of Action to Stop Tar Sands Profiteers held by over 50 grassroots organizations take on corporate investors bankrolling the toxic Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013- One month after the largest climate rally in U.S. history urged President Obama to deny the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline’s northern segment, protesters in dozens of cities throughout the U.S. are confronting KXL’s corporate backers directly.

Thirty-seven have been arrested over the last ten days for disrupting business as usual at TransCanada and their investors’ offices, with more are planned before the week is over.

The March 16-23 Week of Action to Stop Tar Sands Profiteers, in solidarity with Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance’s Direct Action Camp in Ponca City, Oklahoma, is endorsed by over 50 grassroots environmental organizations around the country. Organizers seek to expose green-washed corporations like TD Bank, a top shareholder in TransCanada, and force them to divest from the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

“Its encouraging to see people around the country taking action to stop tar sands profiteers,” said Ron Seifert, spokesperson for Tar Sands Blockade. “No longer will we allow them to build KXL and invest in toxic projects that endanger the health of low-income and communities of color. We will not allow “business as usual” to continue.”

Here are a few highlights from the Week of Action so far:

Check www.tarsandsblockade.org for live updates from actions around the country. At least 18 more actions are planned between now and Saturday, March 23rd, including six more actions against TD Bank in New York City, Washington D.C., Montpellier, VT, Newark, DE, New Haven, CT, and Asheville, NC.

One of the largest events of the week will be tomorrow, Thursday, March 21 in Oklahoma. Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance is taking action to physically stop KXL construction. Read more here: http://gptarsandsresistance.org/

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