Climate Action News: Keystone XL provokes largest climate protest in US history

Christian Holz Posted On February 14, 2013

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Keystone XL Provokes Largest Climate Protest in US history

Last week, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, met with America’s newly appointed Secretary of State to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline, trade, energy security and the environment, among other things.

With immense pressure from Mr. Baird, TransCanada, and both pro-pipeline and anti-pipeline groups, the fate of the controversial Keystone XL sits heavy on John Kerry’s shoulders. Awaiting approval from the State Department’s environmental assessment and the White House, Kerry says the ongoing federal review of the project will be ‘fair, transparent, and accountable.’

The pipeline would help expand the exploitation of what many consider one of the dirtiest oil source on the planet. Keystone XL plans to carry Canada’s carbon-intensive tar sands oil almost 2,000 miles from Alberta through the American mid-west to the Gulf Coast of Texas. Opponents of the pipeline say that the extraction and consumption of the oil would significantly increase global warming and deepen North America’s addiction to dirty fossil fuels. In his meeting with Mr. Baird, Kerry did not indicated his stance on the pipeline but says that he will be “a passionate advocate on this not based on ideology but based on facts and science”. Mr. Baird, on the other hand, true to the government’s approach to climate change as PR problem instead of a pollution problem, repeated the government’s well–debunked talking points. The two agreed to ‘stay in touch’ on Keystone over the coming months.

Since then, President Barack Obama made his 2013 State of the Union address where he stressed that meaningful progress on climate change and strong economic growth can, and should, go hand in hand. In a message to Congress, he urged for the implementation of a market-based solution to climate change. Most notably, he said that, “if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.” In declaration, he vowed to take executive actions now, and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.

So what does this mean for Keystone XL?

Obama’s speech, while addressing his thoughts on climate change, did not make a commitment either way with regards to the pipeline. Meanwhile, anti-pipeline protesters aren’t going to sit by idly and hold their breath – they’re gearing up for major action. Yesterday, over 48 activists, including leading environmentalists like Bill McKibbon and actress Daryl Hannah, were arrested while protesting the pipeline. This action was just a taste of what reporters are anticipating to be ‘the largest climate-change protest in US history.’ This Sunday, on Presidents Day, thousands will gather at the White House for a colossal protest organized by the US branch of the Sierra Club, 350.org and others. The action, called Forward on Climate, has attracted participation and endorsement from one hundred thirty-five organizations, including Climate Action Network Canada. Following several pipeline protests over the past year, this one will take a different form. For the first time in the Sierra Club’s 120 year history, it has lifted its ban on the use of civil disobedience. This comes as a surprise from one of the oldest environmental groups in the US. Defending this strategy, Executive Director of the Sierra Club US, Michael Brune, explains why the group feels that this approach is warranted, and necessary: “F or civil disobedience to be justified, something must be so wrong that it compels the strongest defensible protest…We are watching a global crisis unfold before our eyes , and to stand aside and let it happen — even though we know how to stop it — would be unconscionable.”

Mr. Kerry will be watching to see what happens this Sunday. While pro-pipeline supporters and Prime Minister Harper have called the pipeline a ‘no-brainer’, the environmental movement has made Keystone XL ‘the surrogate for the oil sands, and thus a litmus test for the President’s commitment to climate change.‘