Day of Action shuts down Keystone XL Construction

Day of Action Sees Dozens Walk On to Work Site as the Nacogdoches Community Rallies with Affected Landowners at Lake Nacogdoches to Protect Fresh Water Supply from Toxic Tar Sands

NACOGDOCHES, TX – MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2012 8:00AM – Today, four peo­ple locked them­selves to heavy machin­ery used along the Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline route. They were joined by sev­er­al oth­ers form­ing a human chain to block the move­ment of heavy machin­ery onsite, while more than 30 peo­ple walked onto the same con­struc­tion site to halt work ear­ly this morn­ing. Mean­while, three oth­ers launched a new tree block­ade at a cross­ing of the Angeli­na Riv­er, sus­pend­ing them­selves from 50 foot pine trees with life lines anchored to heavy machin­ery, effec­tive­ly block­ing the entire­ty of Key­stone XL’s path. Today’s Day of Action is in sol­i­dar­i­ty with local landown­ers strug­gling to pro­tect their water and land from TransCanada’s tox­ic tar sands pipeline.

Key­stone XL would cross 16 large rivers in Texas, includ­ing the site of today’s lat­est tree block­ade, the scenic Angeli­na Riv­er. Nes­tled amongst 50 foot pine trees in forest­ed bot­tom­lands, the tree block­aders have set­tled in for a long stand­off in pro­tec­tion of their fresh drink­ing and agri­cul­tur­al water. The waters down­stream feed into the pop­u­lar Sam Ray­burn Reser­voir, the largest lake entire­ly with­in the state of Texas, renowned for its angling oppor­tu­ni­ties and com­pe­ti­tions.

“Tar Sands Block­ade stands with all com­mu­ni­ties affect­ed by the Cana­di­an tar sands. From indige­nous nations in Alber­ta, Cana­da to the besieged refin­ery neigh­bor­hoods of the Amer­i­can Gulf Coast where the tar sands will be refined, there’s a groundswell of resis­tance demand­ing an end to tox­ic tar sands exploita­tion. Today’s events sim­ply mark the lat­est in our sus­tained, com­mu­ni­ty-based civ­il dis­obe­di­ence cam­paign, and many more com­mu­ni­ties are des­tined to rise up to defend their homes from TransCanada’s fraud, bul­ly­ing, and reck­less endan­ger­ment of their lives and fresh water,” insist­ed Ron Seifert, a Tar Sands Block­ade spokesper­son.

Includ­ed amongst the Angeli­na tree sit­ters is local Stephen F. Austin State Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent, Lizzy Alvara­do, 21, an Austin-born, third-year cin­e­matog­ra­phy major. Lead­ing out­door excur­sions for oth­er local youth and hav­ing helped found the Nacog­doches Rat Skulls, an all female cycling-advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion, Alvara­do is an active mem­ber of the Nacog­doches com­mu­ni­ty.

“I climbed this tree in hon­or of all the landown­ers who have been bul­lied mer­ci­less­ly into sign­ing ease­ment con­tracts and who were then silenced through fear by TransCanada’s threat of end­less lit­i­ga­tion. That’s not what this coun­try stands for in my mind, and if we don’t take a stand here to secure our rights now, then it will keep hap­pen­ing to every­one,” pro­claimed Alvara­do. “What’s hap­pen­ing isn’t just threat­en­ing my community’s drink­ing water but it will threat­en that of all com­mu­ni­ties along the pipeline’s path.“

While these mul­ti­site actions halt­ed Key­stone XL con­struc­tion this morn­ing, local com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers ral­lied at Lake Nacog­doches to fur­ther high­light the threats Key­stone XL pos­es to the community’s water­shed and pub­lic health. These events around the Nacog­doches area coin­cide with a week’s worth of events in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Tar Sands Block­ade. Sched­uled to occur in over 40 com­mu­ni­ties around the world, these actions high­light the urgent need to address the cli­mate cri­sis.

Some actions have tar­get­ed pol­i­cy mak­ers or finan­cial insti­tu­tions bankrolling dirty ener­gy projects while oth­ers ral­lied to address the dam­age done by Hur­ri­cane Sandy through com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­ing and con­nect­ing extreme weath­er to extreme extrac­tion. Yes­ter­day in Wash­ing­ton, DC, more than 3,000 gath­ered at the White House to call on Pres­i­dent Oba­ma to reject the per­mit for the north­ern seg­ment of TransCanada’s Key­stone XL pipeline. Oth­er actions are sched­uled to hap­pen today and lat­er this week.

Tar Sands Block­ade is a coali­tion of Texas and Okla­homa landown­ers and cli­mate jus­tice orga­niz­ers using peace­ful and sus­tained civ­il dis­obe­di­ence to stop the con­struc­tion of TransCanada’s Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline.

“From the Sandy-dec­i­mate streets of New York City to these piney woods here in East Texas, com­mu­ni­ties are resist­ing dan­ger­ous cor­po­ra­tions like Tran­sCana­da. These sol­i­dar­i­ty actions are part of a bur­geon­ing move­ment of ordi­nary folks com­ing togeth­er in their neigh­bor­hoods, schools, and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters to draw the con­nec­tions between extreme extrac­tion like tar sands exploita­tion and extreme weath­er like the droughts dev­as­tat­ing farm­ers and ranch­ers all over Texas and the Mid­west. Today we ral­ly to build a future where all peo­ple and the plan­et are healthy and thriv­ing,” said Kim Huynh, a spokesper­son for the Tar Sands Block­ade.

UPDATE: 8:15 am – Police offi­cers arrive on site at Angeli­na Riv­er tree block­ade

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UPDATE: 8:40 am – Police threat­en­ing to cut sup­port lines for tree block­aders

Chero­kee Coun­ty Sher­iffs have been caught on tape mak­ing mul­ti­ple threats to cut the sup­port lines of the tree block­ades, which could be poten­tial­ly fatal for Lizzy and the oth­er block­aders occu­py­ing the tree-sits.

UPDATE: 9:10 am – All con­struc­tion stopped at site of lock down; work­ers have com­plete­ly left site

Work­ers intend­ing to con­tin­ue con­struc­tion of the Key­stone XL pipeline have com­plete­ly aban­doned all plans to work today at the site of our lock down and have left the site. A crew of block­aders will main­tain a pres­ence there while rein­force­ments are being sent to the new tree block­ade to sup­port Lizzy and the oth­er block­aders whose lives are being threat­ened by the police.

UPDATE: 9:30 am – Tran­sCana­da work­ers return to lock down site with police offi­cers and video equip­ment

Tran­sCana­da work­ers were over­heard telling the police that they want the block­aders out. Police are call­ing for rein­force­ments and get­ting out flex­i­cuffs.

UPDATE: 9:40 am – One per­son detained at lock down site, placed in flex­i­cuffs

The police have detained one per­son sup­port­ing the block­aders who locked them­selves to heavy machin­ery this morn­ing. Hear from the block­aders them­selves why they decid­ed to take action:

UPDATE: 10:15 am – Police pep­per spray two peo­ple locked down; one per­son arrest­ed on the ground at tree block­ade

Police have sprayed pep­per spray onto the skin of two peo­ple locked to heavy machin­ery on the Key­stone XL pipeline ease­ment as sup­port­ers and local media watched from the road. The block­aders who were pep­per sprayed respond­ed by singing loud­ly and are in good spir­its. Mean­while, at the tree block­ade, one per­son was arrest­ed on the ground for tres­pass­ing on the ease­ment.

UPDATE: 10:40 am – Sol­i­dar­i­ty actions take off in Min­neapo­lis and San Fran­cis­co

Sol­i­dar­i­ty actions took off this morn­ing with a ban­ner drop over­look­ing Min­neapo­lis. In San Fran­cis­co, demon­stra­tors ral­lied out­side the Cana­di­an Con­sulate in the finan­cial dis­trict, demand­ing that Cana­da with­draw its sup­port for the Key­stone XL Pipeline, and gath­er­ing strength for the con­tin­ued push to hold recent­ly elect­ed US politi­cians account­able to the will of the Amer­i­can peo­ple to com­bat cli­mate change.

UPDATE: 10:55 am – Sec­ond sup­port­er arrest­ed at lock down site; police putting hand­cuffs on block­aders locked to machin­ery

A sec­ond per­son sup­port­ing those locked to heavy machin­ery has been arrest­ed by the Chero­kee Coun­ty Sher­iff Depart­ment, while offi­cers have hand­cuffed the free hand of those locked down. The police are tam­per­ing with the lock box­es but seem unsure about how to remove the block­aders.

UPDATE: 11:10 am – Sol­i­dar­i­ty action in Palm Beach, FL results in arrests in front of Deutsche Bank

A sol­i­dar­i­ty action in Palm Beach, Flori­da tar­get­ing Deutsche Bank, a major financier of the Key­stone XL pipeline, has result­ed in the arrest of mul­ti­ple pro­test­ers. The pro­test­ers demand­ed that Deutsche Bank “refuse to facil­i­tate any future invest­ments in Big Oil, start­ing with the con­struc­tion of the Key­stone XL Pipeline.”

UPDATE: 11:15 am – Two block­aders extract­ed from lock down; two more hold­ing strong despite police bru­tal­i­ty

The police have just extract­ed the two block­aders they had pep­per sprayed ear­li­er this morn­ing. Both indi­vid­u­als had their eyes swollen shut because of the pep­per spray. After they were removed from their lock down device, the block­aders went limp and were dragged away by police. This brings the total num­ber of arrests so far today to five. Please make a gen­er­ous dona­tion to help get them out of jail quick­ly and to sup­port their legal defense.

UPDATE: 11:25 am – Police pep­per spray remain­ing two block­aders, drag­ging away arrest­ed block­ad­er who went limp

Police have pep­per sprayed the remain­ing two block­aders locked to heavy machin­ery and con­tin­ued to bru­tal­ize the two block­aders who were already arrest­ed. They were seen drag­ging one block­ad­er who seemed in extreme pain and unre­spon­sive face down along the ground by his shoul­der and shov­ing him into the back of a police car while refus­ing to clean pep­per spray out of the eyes of the oth­er arrest­ed block­ad­er or pro­vide him with water.

UPDATE: 11:40 am – Remain­ing two block­aders extract­ed after being pep­per sprayed

All four block­aders that were locked to heavy machin­ery have now been arrest­ed after being pep­per sprayed and bru­tal­ized by Chero­kee Coun­ty Sher­iffs. This brings the total num­ber of arrests so far today to sev­en, with two sup­port­ers at the ground block­ade and one sup­port­er at the tree block­ade also being arrest­ed. Donate now to help get them out of jail and to sup­port their legal defense.

UPDATE: 11:55 am – Sher­iffs shak­ing tree-sit life­line; sit­ters refus­ing to come down

Sher­iffs shook the sup­port line for one of the tree-sits, even after being repeat­ed­ly informed that the ropes are crit­i­cal sup­port lines and must not be tam­pered with. Lizzy and the oth­er tree-sit­ters are refus­ing to come down, even with their lives endan­gered by the police. In response, sher­iffs cleared sup­port­ers out from under­neath the tree-sits and the one in charge was seen hav­ing a long phone con­ver­sa­tion next to a life­line.

UPDATE: 12:45 pm – “Com­mon­luck The­ater of Dra­mat­ic Nour­ish­ment” tar­gets Tran­sCana­da lob­by­ing firm

In a beau­ti­ful dis­play of non­vi­o­lent resis­tance, the “Com­mon­luck The­ater of Dra­mat­ic Nour­ish­ment” deliv­ered cook­ies and oth­er treats to the San­ta Clari­ta, Cal­i­for­nia office of McKen­na, Long, and Aldridge, the main lob­by­ing firm for Tran­sCana­da, in an attempt to change their hearts, “Grinch style”. The stark con­trast between the tac­tics of our move­ment and the tac­tics of those in pow­er could not be more abun­dant­ly clear, with this action com­ing on the heels of sev­er­al block­aders being bru­tal­ized and arrest­ed by Chero­kee Coun­ty Sher­iffs ear­li­er today. Pleasecon­sid­er a dona­tion to the legal fund to sup­port those who were met with vio­lence just for stand­ing up for the health of their com­mu­ni­ties.

UPDATE: 1:10 pm – Ground sup­port­ers block­ade cher­ry pick­er to pro­tect tree-sits; police retal­i­ate with reck­less pep­per spray and arrests

Chero­kee Coun­ty Sher­iffs brought in a cher­ry pick­er to try and extract the three tree block­aders. In response, a cou­ple dozen ground sup­port­ers stood in front of the truck with the cher­ry pick­er and pushed up against it in an attempt to stop it. The truck dri­ver refused to stop until they hit one of the sup­port­ers and almost dragged him under­neath the vehi­cle. In an effort to dis­perse the crowd, police began indis­crim­i­nate­ly spray­ing peo­ple in the face with pep­per spray, includ­ing a 21 year old woman from Nacog­doches and a 75 year old woman with a heart con­di­tion. The offi­cer who pep­per sprayed sup­port­ers is refus­ing to iden­ti­fy him­self. Two more of the ground sup­port­ers have been arrest­ed, bring­ing the total for today to nine. Donate now to sup­port these brave block­aders stand­ing up for their com­mu­ni­ties in the face of bru­tal police repres­sion.

UPDATE: 2:00 pm – From coast to coast, sol­i­dar­i­ty against the Key­stone XL

In Burling­ton, Ver­mont, and Fair­fax, Cal­i­for­nia, activists dis­played ban­ners decry­ing Key­stone XL’s role in the ongo­ing cli­mate cri­sis. “As com­mu­ni­ties con­tin­ue to rebuild in the wake of Super­storm Sandy, it should be obvi­ous that the expan­sion of fos­sil fuel infra­struc­ture is unac­cept­able,” said Sara Mehal­ick of Ris­ing Tide Ver­mont. “From Transcanada’s Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline, to Ver­mont Gas’s scheme to pump gas under Lake Cham­plain, to ExxonMobil’s plans for a New Eng­land tar sands pipeline, our right to a liv­able plan­et is under attack.”