Encircling the White House to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

A public outcry halts the proposed tar sands pipeline

Not long ago, approval of the Keystone XL pipeline seemed assured. The oil industry wanted to build a 1,700 mile pipeline to transport tar sands oil from Canada’s Boreal forest across the United States to Texas, where it could be refined for export. The pipeline would allow increased production of one of the dirtiest, most polluting forms of oil on the planet and carry it across American rivers and aquifers to a global market. But NRDC and our allies fought back.

Ranchers, farmers, and business leaders all along the route of the proposed pipeline spoke out against the unnecessary dangers it posed to their land, water and our climate. More than a thousand people were arrested at the White House, led by Bill McKibben and Tar Sands Action.

And on November 6 communities from around the country joined together in Washington, D.C. to demand that President Obama take action to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. NRDC staff, including our co-founder John Adams, joined the gathering of over 10,000 people, who encircled the White House to ask President Obama to stop the pipeline.

Just days later, President Obama announced that the State Department would start over and conduct a new review of the Keystone XL proposal that would consider environmental concerns, including climate change. The proposal for a pipeline has become a political fight, pitting the oil industry against Americans concerned about our dependence on oil, the safety of the pipeline and our climate.

Words and Images from the November 6th White House Action

Blogs

li>Victorious in the Unity: The Movement that Stopped the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline
• The Power of Personal Action: Thousands Gather at White House to Say No to Keystone XL Pipeline
• Tar Sands Pipeline Protest at the White House: A Huge Success and an Historic Turning Point
• More than 10,000 people encircle the White House asking the President to say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

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Watch this New York Times video op-ed by Robert Redford criticizing the Keystone XL pipeline.

Keystone XL Job Number Wildly Inflated: According to the U.S. State Department the pipeline would create at most 6,500 temporary construction jobs, and would leave only "hundreds" of permanent jobs, according to TransCanada itself. Keystone XL pipeline backers’claims of hundreds of thousands of jobs are unsubstantiated.

Keystone XL is a tar sands pipeline to export oil out of the United States: Keystone XL would divert Canadian oil from refineries in the Midwest to the Gulf Coast where it can be refined and exported. Many of these refineries are in Foreign Trade Zones where oil may be exported to international buyers without paying U.S. taxes.

Nebraska's Pipeline Revolt: Cornhusker fans booing in their own stadium provided an unexpected opening for foes of the Keystone XL pipeline, who take their fight to the White House this weekend.