Stop Tar Sands Profiteers Week of Action a Huge Success

Mosiac_bigger-590x1024

Mosiac_bigger-590x1024

Over 50 grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions across the US and Cana­da held 50 actions from March 16th to March 23rd to demon­strate that TransCanada’s Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline is a tox­ic invest­ment.

Here’s an overview of what hap­pened every day along with details at the bot­tom of this post:

March 16, 17: Week of Action Kicks Off With Cre­ativ­i­ty Across The Coun­try
March 18: Block­ades and Bikes From Coast to Coast
March 19: TD Bank Slammed as Tar Sands Prof­i­teer
March 20: Tran­sCana­da Office Shut Down – Big Banks Called Out For Bankrolling Coal & KXL
March 21: Twen­ty Arrest­ed at Two Sep­a­rate KXL Protests in DC — Hun­dreds March with Idle No More in Seat­tle
March 22: Asheville Pro­test­ers Shut Down TD Bank, Four Arrest­ed. Two arrest­ed at TC office in West­bor­ough
March 23: Over 60 Peo­ple Block­ade Chevron Tar Sands Refin­ery in Utah — NYC and DC Call Out TD Bank

Over 50 actions and events hap­pened this week to direct­ly con­front the cor­po­rate prof­i­teers bankrolling the Key­stone XL pipeline and the broad­er tar sands indus­try. These actions come at a crit­i­cal time as investor con­fi­dence in Alberta’s tar sands is wan­ing due to major delays and resis­tance to Key­stone XL’s con­struc­tion time­line.

The Key­stone XL project has become a flag­ship issue for the U.S. cli­mate move­ment and has spurred dozens of acts of civ­il dis­obe­di­ence and the largest cli­mate ral­ly in U.S. his­to­ry. But while 45,000 marched on the White House Pres­i­dent Oba­ma was golf­ing with oil exec­u­tives and the south­ern seg­ment of KXL in Texas and Okla­homa was still being built.

It’s becom­ing increas­ing­ly clear that we can­not rely on cor­po­ra­tion-fund­ed politi­cians to oppose cor­po­rate excess; we must engage this destruc­tive indus­try direct­ly. That’s what we’ve done in Texas, and it’s work­ing: in Feb­ru­ary, Tran­sCana­da report­ed low­er fourth-quar­ter earn­ings and admit­ted that the south­ern por­tion of Key­stone XL (the Gulf Coast Project) was way behind sched­ule and only 45 per­cent com­plet­ed. By show­ing up at their offices and putting a stop to “busi­ness as usu­al,” we can show tar sands investors that their lives would be eas­i­er and their busi­ness­es more secure if they invest­ed in projects that don’t endan­ger our com­mu­ni­ties’ health and the chance for a liv­able cli­mate.

We’ll be post­ing links and updates here through­out the Stop Tar Sands Prof­i­teers Week of Action as actions hap­pen!

Grass­roots activists from over 50 orga­ni­za­tions are unit­ing to send a strong mes­sage to the indus­try that Tran­sCana­da and its finan­cial back­ers must rethink their invest­ments in tar sands, the dirt­i­est fuel on the plan­et. We will demon­strate to com­pa­nies bankrolling KXL that their invest­ments are as tox­ic as the tar sands they want to pump through the pipeline. Activists are march­ing, hold­ing ral­lies, giv­ing train­ings, and phys­i­cal­ly dis­rupt­ing “busi­ness-as-usu­al” for those who seek to prof­it from the exploita­tion of mar­gin­al­ized peo­ple and the destruc­tion of our col­lec­tive future.

Some of the top tar sands prof­i­teers fac­ing protest this week: Tran­sCana­da, TD Bank, Valero Corp., and John Han­cock Life Insur­ance Co., to name a few.

Week of Action Updates:

Sat­ur­day and Sun­day, March 16 & 17 — Week of Action Kicks Off With Cre­ativ­i­ty Across the Coun­try

  • Activists in New Orleans block­ade two bus-loads of oil exec­u­tives includ­ing BP, Shell, Valero, and oth­er investors in tar sands and extrac­tion indus­tries.
  • Stun­ning tar sands ban­ner drop in Grand Coun­ty, Utah
  • Over 100 peo­ple hold “Funer­al for Our Future” in TransCanada’s West­bor­ough office – 25 arrest­ed
  • Over­pass light brigade in Wis­con­sin sends a bright mes­sage with lights: “Block Key­stone XL!”
  • Orga­niz­ers hold “Stop the Pipeline” ban­ners and march in the tra­di­tion­al St. Patty’s Day Parade in Boston
  • Train­ings and pre­sen­ta­tions on tar sands in Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Musi­cians sang #NoKXL themed songs in the Boston sub­way and passed out lit­er­a­ture

Mon­day, March 18th — Day 3: Block­ades and Bikes From Coast to Coast

  • Direct action train­ing camp in Okla­homa to stop KXL host­ed by Great Plains Tar Sands Resis­tance
  • Twelve peo­ple arrest­ed for blockad­ing a frack­ing pipeline in upstate New York
  • Port­land, Ore­gon takes bike tour of the city’s worst pol­luters
  • Dozens ral­ly out­side Nation­al Geo­graph­ic build­ing where Sec­re­tary Ker­ry was speak­ing in Wash­ing­ton, DC
  • Over 40 ral­lied out­side Michels Cor­po­rate office in death cos­tumes in Kirk­land, WA

Tues­day, March 19th — Day 4: TD Bank Slammed As Tar Sands Prof­i­teer

  • Three peo­ple lock them­selves inside a TD Bank in Wash­ing­ton, DC
  • Over three dozen ral­ly at TD Bank in Upstate New York this last week­end
  • Ban­ner drop pro­mot­ing the Week of Action appears in Okla­homa City
  • Dal­las-Fort Worth com­mu­ni­ty teach-in host­ed by local Uni­tar­i­an Uni­ver­sal­ists
  • Con­cerned cit­i­zens in Hous­ton pres­sure the City Coun­cil to sue Valero for pol­lu­tion vio­la­tions
  • Orga­niz­ers ral­ly next to rail line trans­port­ing tar sands in Newark, Delaware for refin­ing
  • Com­mu­ni­ty teach-in and film screen­ing in Houston’s tox­ic East End

Wednes­day, March 20th — Day 5: Tran­sCana­da Office Shut­down. Big Banks Called Out For Bankrolling Coal and KXL

  • Activists shut down work at Tran­sCana­da office in Oma­ha, Nebras­ka
  • Dozens of cli­mate jus­tice activists in Mont­pe­lier, Ver­mont ral­ly at TD Bank and close their accounts
  • Rain­for­est Action Net­work Boston Fights BAC (Bank of Amer­i­ca Cor­po­ra­tion)!
  • Hud­son Val­ley Earth First and the Green Team TD Bank Action in White Plains, New York

Thurs­day, March 21st — Day 6: Twen­ty Arrest­ed for #NoKXL Actions in Wash­ing­ton, DC – Hun­dreds March with Idle No More in Seat­tle

  • About 15 inter­faith lead­ers arrest­ed for civ­il dis­obe­di­ence at the White House
  • Five arrest­ed for occu­py­ing the lob­by of Valero in Wash­ing­ton, DC
  • Cre­ative sol­i­dar­i­ty ban­ner drop in Van­cou­ver
  • Over­pass light brigades in Gainesville and Tam­pa Bay, Flori­da dis­play mes­sages “No Key­stone XL”
  • Hun­dreds march with Idle No More Seat­tle against coal export ter­mi­nals
  • Ban­ner drop in Cush­ing, Okla­homa at the icon­ic “Pipeline Cross­roads of the World” sign
  • Hous­ton ral­lies at the cour­t­house to put Valero and Tran­sCana­da on trail along­side pol­luters like BP
  • North Texas Light Brigade lights up an over­pass with a mes­sage against tar sands
  • Idle No More Port­land drops ban­ner at ESCO head­quar­ters

Fri­day, March 22nd — Day 7:  Six Arrest­ed for Actions At Tran­sCana­da, TD Bank, John Han­cock Life Insur­ance Offices

  • Over 60 peo­ple shut down a TD Bank branch in Asheville, NC
  • Vet­er­ans For Peace and oth­ers enter TransCanada’s West­bor­ough Office – Two arrest­ed
  • Dozens ral­ly at John Han­cock Life Insur­ance in Los Ange­les
  • Pro­tes­tors out­side Dal­las, Texas call out John Han­cock Life Insur­ance for fund­ing a dead­ly pipeline
  • Newark, Delaware ral­lies to “Move Your Mon­ey” from TD Bank
  • Activists in Boul­der, Col­orado did a ban­ner hang over an over­pass
  • Bike brigade in Port­land, Ore­gon tours the city’s worst pol­luters
  • Activists in Den­ver ral­lied out­side the Governor’s man­sion and held a non­vi­o­lent direct action train­ing
  • Gath­er­ing for World Water Day in Port­land, Ore­gon to pro­tect it the Sacred Water from tar sands
  • Valero Cor­po­rate HQ in San Anto­nio tak­en over by the com­mu­ni­ty

Sat­ur­day, March 23rd — Day 8: Over 60 Peo­ple Block­ade Chevron Tar Sands Refin­ery in Utah — NYC and DC Call Out TD Bank

  • Over 60 Salt Lake City res­i­dents block­ad­ed the entrance to a Chevron tar sands refin­ery and turned away six trucks
  • Dozens in New York City hold a “Divest from TD Bank Day of Action!”
  • Activists in Wash­ing­ton, DC close off anoth­er TD Bank branch
  • Orga­niz­ers with Red Lake Block­ade of Enbridge in North­ern Min­neso­ta observe sol­i­dar­i­ty
  • Mem­phis, Ten­nessee res­i­dents ral­ly out­side a Valero refin­ery that explod­ed sev­er­al months ago
  • New Haven, Con­necti­cut Takes Action at Their Local TD Bank
  • Ban­ner drops in New Orleans
  • Idle No More and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions hold a big non­vi­o­lent direct action train­ing in San Fran­cis­co