Keystone XL pipeline protest marks first civil disobedience by Sierra Club
Keystone XL pipeline protestors tied themselves to a White House fence Thursday, calling on President Obama to block the construction of a pipeline extension that would carry oil product from Canada to refineries in Texas.
Police arrested high-profile activists and celebrities, including actress聽Daryl Hannah, longtime聽civil rights leader Julian Bond, and Sierra Club executive director聽Michael Brune.
The demonstration marked the Sierra Club's first act of civil disobedience in the environmental advocacy organization's 120-year history.
It is also the first salvo in an escalating public battle between pipeline supporters and opponents. On Sunday, Keystone XL opponents are scheduled to hold a climate change protest on the National Mall in Washington. Organizers say they expect tens of thousands of people to attend. And they're billing it as the largest climate rally in US history. Can it work?
鈥淔or civil disobedience to be justified, something must be so wrong that it compels the strongest defensible protest,鈥� the Sierra Club's Mr. Brune said in a statement late last month. 鈥淲e are watching a global crisis unfold before our eyes, and to stand aside and let it happen 鈥� even though we know how to stop it 鈥� would be unconscionable."
History is full of nonviolent protests against everything from segregation to dictatorship, but they've met with mixed success.
"Dramatic protest events are only effective to the extent that they can mobilize people to do other things聽besides聽civil disobedience," said David Meyer, professor of sociology and political science at University of California, Irvine, and author of "The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America."聽"When you scan the headlines, they鈥檙e not talking about Keystone. They鈥檙e talking about guns, immigration, and sequester, sequester, sequester. This is a way to get back on the agenda." 聽
Bill McKibben, a founder of the environmental group 350.org, was also arrested during Thursday's protest.
鈥淲e really shouldn't have to be put in handcuffs to stop KXL 鈥� our nation's leading climate scientists have told us it's dangerous folly, and all the recent Nobel Peace laureates have urged us to set a different kind of example for the world, so the choice should be obvious,鈥� Mr. McKibben said in a statement. 鈥淏ut given the amount of money on the other side, we've had to spend our bodies, and we'll probably have to spend them again.鈥�
Supporters of the pipeline aren't standing still.聽In anticipation of Sunday's rally, the oil and gas industries have mobilized advocacy efforts of their own. Last week the聽American Petroleum Institute commissioned a poll of聽1,001 registered voters across the country, concluding that聽69 percent of American voters favor building the Keystone XL pipeline.
鈥淭he Keystone XL wraps new American jobs and energy security into a single common sense package," API president and CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement. "That鈥檚 why voters overwhelmingly back it, and that鈥檚 why the nation needs it and why the administration should approve it."聽
