Something big is happening

Dear friends—

After a remarkable couple of weeks in DC, we have our work cut out for us.


By now you know what we accomplished: 1,253 arrests, according to some journalists the biggest civil disobedience action since 1977, and the most sustained since the epic campaigns of the civil rights movement. That was enough to take a regional issue and make it a national and even global one (many thanks to our friends, who picketed American and Canadian embassies on every continent).


Together we managed to make the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline the central environmental test for the administration, and to inform everyone who’s paying attention that Barack Obama will get to make the call by himself, without Congress in the way. In other words, you’ve laid the groundwork for a mighty victory—now we have to make it pay off.

The President will be making a final decision about the pipeline in about two and a half months - 90 days after the final State Department report - and we need to get to work if we're going to convince him to reject the pipeline.

Here’s the plan:

Our main efforts will be to keep the focus on the President, even as we engage the State Department hearing process and other technical aspects of the debate. We don’t want the President to be able to hide from the decisions he's making.

And we’re not going to do him the favor of attacking him. Instead, we’re going to pay him the dangerous compliment of taking his words from 2008 seriously. Remember this is the president who once declared: “Let's be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil"

We're still planning something big for October 7th or 8th - the 7th is the date of the last State Department hearing in Washington, DC - but first we need to go back into our communities to keep building this movement. The White House is going to be watching to see if our sit-in was an isolated incident or whether there really is a movement of people across this country rising up to stop the pipeline.

First, we need to tell the story of what just happened in Washington by meeting with folks in our communities to talk about our experiences. This could be as simple as a small gathering in your home, or as elaborate as you'd like. Your story is the most powerful tool you have to keep building this movement. A few of our organizers got together to make a PowerPoint slideshow that you can use in a meetup, and if you'd like to host an event in your community to spread the word, sign up here: www.tarsandsaction.org/take-action/meet-up

Second, all around the United States, people will be going to Obama campaign offices in polite but firm fashion to remind him that we took him seriously—that he shouldn’t have said it if he didn’t mean it. Watch this video that just arrived from Seattle to get a sense of what we have in mind: http://youtu.be/lAfqFraOE0s. We’ll be trying to coordinate this work from city to city—if you’re willing to help in your town, and are certain you can deliver a calm, firm message, sign up here: http://www.tarsandsaction.org/take-action/office-visits/

For those of you in Canada, there's another critical next step for you to take: a coalition of groups similar to this has come together to lead an action on September 26th on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Sign up at ottawaaction.ca for more information

That’s our plan for now. I want to make sure that we use this opportunity to strengthen our connections with each other, and make this a true movement. This is your opportunity to start taking a leadership role in this campaign.

We’ll be giving you updates on plans for the 7th of course, and letting you know what's up. We have no guarantee we’ll succeed, but thanks to you this fight is very much on!

-Bill McKibben for tarsandsaction.org

PS - I wanted to make sure that you saw this amazing video capturing the last two weeks of our action. A must-see: http://youtu.be/dj6gN8u5flM




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Josh Fox: Why I Got Arrested - Message for Tim DeChistopher

Jamie September 2, 2011 at 4:35 pm

It’s late and I am pretty wiped out, but before I have to resume shooting Gasland 2 and running around the country tomorrow I want to set down a few words about why I chose to be arrested at the Tar Sands Action sit in at the White House today.First of all, the mining tar sands for oil is incredibly destructive.  It can and must be stopped. I felt that standing against it, shoulder to shoulder with climate justice activists and fracktivists was a moral imperative.






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Keystone Pipeline Infographic: 'Built To Spill'

First Posted: 8/29/11 07:05 PM ET Updated: 8/29/11 07:11 PM ET   
Source: Huffington Post
   
The construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, planned to run from the Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico, has caused quite a stir. And now it's also led to the creation of a very detailed infographic.

Currently, thousands of protesters are conducting a two week sit-in at the White House to push President Obama to deny the permit for the oil pipeline. According to Tar Sands Action, over 300 people have been arrested to date.

On Friday, the State Department found that the pipeline would have "no significant impact" on the environment and suggested that the project move forward. Over the weekend, an interview aired of a former State Department official saying that Clinton would likely approve plans for the pipeline.
Earlier this month, an editorial in The New York Times opposed the pipeline, reading, "We have two main concerns: the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain, and the fact that the extraction of petroleum from the tar sands creates far more greenhouse emissions than conventional production does."

In a Tar Sands Action Press release, NASA’s Dr. James Hansen said, “If Obama chooses the dirty needle it will confirm that the President was just green-washing all along, like the other well-oiled coal-fired politicians, with no real intention of solving the addiction.” Hansen was among the protestors arrested at the White House Monday morning.     

Check out the infographic below:
CLICK TO ENLARGE

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Tar Sands - Obama is back, can you call now?

Hey- This is breaking news. President Obama just got back from his vacation and was greeted by over 140 people sitting in at the White House this morning to protest the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. This is by far the biggest day of the Tar Sands Action, and the biggest sit-in at the White House in memory. The group includes Dr. James Hansen, NASA's most important climate scientist, and Phil Radford, the Executive Director of Greenpeace, plus dozens of faith leaders from every possible religious tradition. They're still out there now, sitting in, and I think we should let our President know that they're not alone. If we reach out to him now, he'll know that there is a movement behind them, and that will make us much harder to ignore. Can you call the White House and tell President Obama to stand with us and oppose the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline? The White House: 202-456-1111 Then, report your call by clicking here: http://www.tarsandsaction.org/report-call/ Thanks for everything you're doing to make this action a success.

VIDEO - Tar Sands Action - Josh Fox

Aug 19, 2011
VIMEO


Tar Sands Action/ Josh Fox from JFOX on Vimeo.


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Dozens More Arrested in Oil Pipeline Protest

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Source: CBSNews.com

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A U.S. Park Police officer handcuffs and arrests a protester over a proposed pipeline to bring tar sands oil to the U.S. from Canada, in front of the White House in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

(CBS/AP)

WASHINGTON - Arrests are beginning anew outside the White House as police remove dozens of protesters who are hoping to convince President Barack Obama to block TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline.

Fifty protesters remain in jail after being arrested outside the White House on Saturday, the opening day of a two-week civil disobedience campaign. They're expected to be released Monday night.

By noon today, police began arresting more demonstrators, including 68-year-old Patricia Warwick of Toronto.

A 65-year-old woman from Massachusetts who's celebrating her birthday was also arrested.

Protest organizers say a total of 46 will be arrested and will join their colleagues in jail by day's end.

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Background on proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline

Dozens were arrested outside the White House on Saturday after staging a sit-in to protest the proposed $7 billion pipeline that would boost U.S. dependence on Canadian oil sands.

Thousands of opponents of the pipeline plan to get arrested, in protests over the next two weeks that they hope will help persuade the Obama administration to kill the project.

The State Department is set to issue a final environmental impact report this month on the Keystone XL pipeline project that would bring oil sands petroleum from Alberta to Texas refineries. The department hopes to make a final decision on the TransCanada Corp line by the end of the year.

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