Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline

Join the Blockade of the Keystone Pipeline

by Chris Hedges

Published on Monday, October 15, 2012 by TruthDig.com

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/join_the_blockade_of_the_keystone_pipeline_2012

The next great battle of the Occupy movement may not
take place in city parks and plazas, where the security
and surveillance state is blocking protesters from
setting up urban encampments. Instead it could arise in
the nation's heartland, where some ranchers, farmers
and enraged citizens, often after seeing their land
seized by eminent domain and their water supplies
placed under mortal threat, have united with Occupiers
and activists to oppose the building of the Keystone XL
tar sand pipeline. They have formed an unusual
coalition called Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). Centers of
resistance being set up in Texas and Oklahoma and on
tribal lands along the proposed route of this
six-state, 1,700-mile proposed pipeline are fast
becoming flashpoints in the war of attrition we have
begun against the corporate state. Join them.


The XL pipeline, which would cost $7 billion and whose



southern portion is under construction and slated for



completion next year, is the most potent symbol of the



dying order. If completed, it will pump 1.1 million



barrels a day of unrefined tar sand fluid from tar sand



mine fields in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Tar sand



oil is not conventional crude oil. It is a synthetic



slurry that, because tar sand oil is solid in its



natural state, must be laced with a deadly brew of



toxic chemicals and gas condensates to get it to flow.



Tar sands are boiled and diluted with these chemicals



before being blasted down a pipeline at high pressure.



Water sources would be instantly contaminated if there



was a rupture. The pipeline would cross nearly 2,000



U.S. waterways, including the Ogallala Aquifer, source



of one-third of the United States' farmland irrigation



water. And it is not a matter of if, but when, it would



spill. TransCanada's Keystone I pipeline, built in



2010, leaked 12 times in its first 12 months of



operation. Because the extraction process emits such a



large quantity of greenhouse gases, the pipeline has



been called the fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the



planet. The climate scientist James Hansen warns that



successful completion of the pipeline, along with the



exploitation of Canadian tar sands it would facilitate,



would mean "game over for the climate."







Keystone XL is part of the final phase of extreme



exploitation by the corporate state. The corporations



intend to squeeze the last vestiges of profit from an



ecosystem careening toward collapse. Most of the oil



that can be reached through drilling from traditional



rigs is depleted. The fossil fuel industry has, in



response, developed new technologies to go after



dirtier, less efficient forms of energy. These



technologies bring with them a dramatically heightened



cost to ecosystems. They accelerate the warming of the



planet. And they contaminate vital water sources.



Deep-water Arctic drilling, tar sand extraction,



hydraulic fracturing (or hydro-fracking) and drilling



horizontally, given the cost of extraction and effects



on the environment, are a form of ecological suicide.







Appealing to the corporate state, or trusting the



leaders of either party to halt the assault after the



election, is futile. We must immediately obstruct this



pipeline or accept our surrender to forces that, in the



name of profit, intend to cash in on the death throes



of the planet.







Nine protesters, surviving on canned food and bottled



water, have been carrying out a tree-sit for more than



two weeks to block the path of the pipeline near



Winnsboro, Texas. Other Occupiers have chained



themselves to logging equipment, locked themselves in



trucks carrying pipe to construction sites and hung



banners at equipment staging areas. Doug Grant, a



former Exxon employee, was arrested outside Winnsboro



when he bound himself to clear-cutting machinery.



Shannon Bebe and Benjamin Franklin, after handcuffing



themselves to equipment being used to cut down trees,



were tasered, pepper-sprayed and physically assaulted



by local police, reportedly at the request of



TransCanada officials. The actress Daryl Hannah, along



with a 78-year-old East Texas great-grandmother and



farmer, Eleanor Fairchild, was arrested Oct. 4 while



blocking TransCanada bulldozers on Fairchild's



property. The Fairchild farm, like other properties



seized by TransCanada, was taken under Texas eminent



domain laws on behalf of a foreign corporation. At the



same time, private security companies employed by



TransCanada, along with local law enforcement, have



been aggressively detaining and restricting reporters,



including a New York Times reporter and photographer,



who are attempting to cover the protests. Most of the



journalists have been on private property with the



permission of the landowners.







I reached climate activist Tom Weis nearly 1,000 miles



from the blockade, in the presidential battleground



state of Colorado by phone Friday. Weis is pedaling up



and down the Front Range, hand-delivering copies of an



open letter--signed by citizens, some of whom, like



Daryl Hannah, have been arrested trying to block the XL



pipeline--to Obama and Romney campaign offices. He has



been joined by indigenous leaders, including Vice



President of Oglala Lakota Nation Tom Poor Bear, and in



Denver by members of the Occupy Denver community.







Weis last fall rode his bright-yellow "rocket trike"--a



recumbent tricycle wrapped in a lightweight aerodynamic



shell--2,150 miles along the proposed Keystone XL



pipeline route. He was accompanied by Ron Seifert, now



a spokesperson for the Tar Sands Blockade. Weis'



"Keystone XL Tour of Resistance" started at the



U.S.-Canada border in Montana and ended 10 weeks later



at the Texas Gulf Coast. He recently produced a



15-minute video in which he interviewed farmers,



ranchers and indigenous leaders who live in the path of



the project.







"Keystone XL is being built as an export pipeline for



Canada to sell its dirty oil to foreign markets," he



said. "This is not about energy security; it's about



securing TransCanada's profits."







Weis cited a report commissioned by Cornell University



that concluded that the jobs estimates put forward by



TransCanada were unsubstantiated and that the project



could actually destroy more jobs than it created.







Barack Obama delayed, until after the election, a



decision on permitting the northern leg of the pipeline



after a series of civil disobedience actions led by



Bill McKibben's 350.org in front of the White House a



year ago, as well as fierce opposition from ranchers in



states such as Nebraska. The president, by announcing



the delay, put an end to the widespread protests.



Obama, however, flew to Cushing, Okla., in March to



call for the southern leg of the pipeline to be



fast-tracked. Standing in a pipeline yard, he said,



"I'm directing my administration to cut through the red



tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles, and make



this project a priority, to go ahead and get it done."



Obama's rival for the presidency, Mitt Romney, was no



less effusive in his support for Keystone XL, saying to



a Pittsburgh audience in May: "If I'm president, we'll



build it if I have to build it myself."







Grass-roots organizing along the proposed pipeline has



grown, especially as the project began to be put in place.







If completed, the 485-mile southern leg, from Cushing



to Nederland, Texas, would slice through major



waterways including the Neches, Red, Angelina and



Sabine rivers as well as the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer,



which provides drinking water for some 10 million



Texans. The southern section of the pipeline is now the



focus of the Tar Sands Blockade.







The invasive extraction of tar sands and shale



deposits, as well as deep-sea drilling in the Arctic,



Alaska, the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico,



has been sold to the U.S. public as a route to energy



independence, a way to create millions of new jobs and



a boost to the sagging economy, but this is another



corporate lie. The process of extracting shale oil



through hydraulic fracking, for example, requires



millions of gallons of chemically treated water that



leaves behind poisoned aquifers and huge impoundment



ponds of toxic waste. The process of extracting oil



shale, or kerogen, requires it to be melted, meaning



that tremendous amounts of energy are required for a



marginal return. The process of tar sand extraction



requires vast open pit mining operations or pumping



underground that melts the oil with steam jets. Tar



sand extraction also releases significantly more



greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil



drilling, meaning an acceleration of global warming.



Drilling in the Arctic, with its severe weather, costs



as much as half a billion dollars per well. These



processes are part of a desperate effort by



corporations to make profits before a final systems



collapse. Droughts are already sweeping the Midwest.



The battle between farmers and fossil fuel corporations



for diminishing water sources has begun. Yet our ruling



elite refuses to face the stark reality of climate



change. They ignore the imperative to find other ways



of structuring our economies and our relationship to



the environment. They myopically serve a doomed system.



And, if left unstopped, the cost for all of us will be



catastrophic.







Weis, a former congressional staffer, expects the last



section of the pipeline to be authorized by the



president once the election is over.







"It is critical that people understand that completion



of the southern leg of Keystone XL--which President



Obama and Gov. Romney both fully support--would give



TransCanada a direct line from Alberta's landlocked tar



sands mine fields to refineries in Texas for export



overseas," Weis explained. "By tapping into Keystone I,



which has already been built, the southern leg of



Keystone XL would open the floodgates to tar sands



exploitation in Canada. At a time when the climate is



already dangerously destabilizing before our eyes, I



can't believe we're even having this conversation."







He described Obama's and Romney's "failure to stand up



to this corporate bully" as a "failure to defend



America."







"It is unconscionable to put the interests of a



transnational corporation before the health, safety and



economic well-being of the American people," he said.







Weis sees the struggle to halt the Keystone XL pipeline



as a symbolic crossroads for the country and the



planet. One path leads, he said, toward decay. The



other toward renewal.







There comes a time when we must say to the ruling



elite: 'No more,' " he said. "There comes a time when



we must make a stand for the future of our children,



and for all life on Earth. That time is here. That time



is now." (c) 2012 TruthDig.com Chris Hedges







Chris Hedges writes a regular column for Truthdig.com.



Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was



for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The



New York Times. He is the author of many books,



including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What



Every Person Should Know About War, and American



Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.



His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of



Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.