Keystone Pipeline Protesters Block Chicago Federal Building

Pro­test­ers block­ade Chicago’s Met­calfe Fed­er­al Build­ing in the first action of the No KXL cam­paign, Jun 17, 2013..

Pro­test­ers block­ade Chicago’s Met­calfe Fed­er­al Build­ing in the first action of the No KXL cam­paign, Jun 17, 2013.. (Pho­to: @whitjones via Twit­ter)

Jun 18th, 2013

Over 20 anti-Key­stone pro­test­ers were arrest­ed Mon­day morn­ing for blockad­ing the doors to a Chica­go fed­er­al build­ing as part of new­ly launched call to action that declares “if you don’t act, I will.”

The demon­stra­tion was the first action orga­nized by the group No KXL who are launch­ing a civ­il dis­obe­di­ence cam­paign aimed direct­ly at Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and his pend­ing deci­sion to per­mit con­struc­tion of TransCanada’s Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline. …

Accord­ing to the NOKXL web­site, over 60,000 activists have pledged to par­tic­i­pate in sim­i­lar actions intend­ed to pres­sure Oba­ma into block­ing the pipeline.

The protest came just days after the Globe and Mail report­ed that at least 2.5 mil­lion gal­lons of tox­ic flu­id have spilled from an oil and gas oper­a­tion in North­ern Alber­ta. The drill site in ques­tion is oper­at­ed by Hous­ton-based Apache Corp.