Faith Leaders, Native Americans, Students, Celebrities: Obama Should Say No To Biggest “Carbon Bomb” in North America
Contact:
Mike Tidwell at 240-460-5838
Jamie Nolan at 410-463-9869
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chanting and singing, a swarm of protestors flooded a main entrance to the Ronald Reagan building in downtown Washington today, demanding President Obama reject the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Opposed by top scientists and riddled with charges of lobbyist abuses, the proposed pipeline is a symbol of corporate excess and global warming danger, demonstrators declared.
Over 1,000 people joined the noontime event that coincided with a final U.S. State Department hearing on the pipeline inside the Reagan building. President Obama will soon decide whether to approve the $7 billion pipeline, which would increase carbon emissions equal to adding six million cars to America’s roads.
“The protest today over this ridiculous oil pipeline is more evidence that average Americans are fed up with ‘business as usual,’” said author and spokesperson Bill McKibben of tarsandsaction.org. “From the street protests on Wall Street to the tar sands protest in D.C. today, the message is clear: We demand better from Obama and the rest of our government.”
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) was a lead organizer of today’s event, joining groups and leaders as varied as the Indigenous Environmental Network, Greenpeace USA, retired Army Brigadier General Steven Anderson, and former NHL hockey star Mike Richter.
“Sometimes it takes a while, but Washington is finally waking up to the real voices of real citizens,” said CCAN director Mike Tidwell. “Today’s protest shows again that a historic push is underway for clean-energy solutions across the Chesapeake region and across the country.”
More than 1,200 protestors were peacefully arrested outside the White House in August and September in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, drawing widespread public attention. The next major step in the pipeline campaign comes on November 6th when thousands of demonstrators plan to encircle the White House in a giant “O of hope” exactly one year before the 2012 presidential election.
Learn more about Keystone XL at www.tarsandsaction.org.
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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) is the first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. With more than 80,000 supporting members, CCAN’s mission is to build and mobilize a powerful grassroots movement in this unique region that surrounds the nation’s capital to call for state, national and international policies that will put us on a path to climate stability. Learn more about the Chesapeake Climate Action Network at www.chesapeakeclimate.org.
