A groundswell of liberal activists including actress Daryl Hannah, climate junk scientist James E. Hansen, Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune, civil rights veteran Julian Bond and Robert Kennedy Jr. were arrested at a White House protest today.
The activists oppose the Keystone pipeline.
A vast majority of Americans support the pipeline.
The Washington Post reported:
When President Obama spoke about climate change in the State of the Union on Tuesday night, he failed to mention the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which aims to transport heavy crude oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast and which needs his approval for a construction permit.
But that controversial project — which ranks as one of the top climate decisions the president will have to make this year — took center stage Wednesday as 48 activists engaged in civil disobedience at the gates of the White House.
Shortly after noon, D.C. police began arresting the protesters, who included actress Daryl Hannah as well as prominent climate scientist James E. Hansen, Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune and civil rights veteran Julian Bond. Some of the activists tied themselves to the gates with plastic handcuffs; others sat and refused to budge despite officers’ repeated requests.
Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, which has helped galvanize significant grass-roots opposition to the plan, said Obama cannot ignore that the carbon-intensive process of extracting crude from Alberta’s oil sands will destabilize the planet.
