Lockdown Halts Keystone XL Work in Oklahoma 29th April

Spauld­ing, OK- Mon­day, April 29th, 6:15 AM- Ear­li­er this morn­ing two Texas res­i­dents locked them­selves to machin­ery being used to con­struct TransCanada’s dan­ger­ous and con­tro­ver­sial Key­stone XL tar sands pipeline in Spauld­ing, OK through Musco­gee Creek Nation land by treaty. Ben­jamin But­ler and Eamon Tread­away Danzig took action today to pre­vent the Cross Tim­bers biore­gion from being poi­soned by this inher­ent­ly dan­ger­ous tar sands pipeline, just as the sur­round­ing wet­lands and res­i­den­tial areas have been poi­soned as a result of Exxon’s Pega­sus pipeline rup­ture near Mayflower, Arkansas.  Recent Tar Sands spills in Min­neso­ta and Arkansas, as well as an explo­sion at a Tar Sands refin­ery in Detroit have high­light­ed the urgency in stop­ping Tar Sands extrac­tion and trans­porta­tion.

But­ler and Danzig are act­ing as a part of Great Plains Tar Sands Resis­tance, a grow­ing coali­tion of groups and indi­vid­u­als ded­i­cat­ed to stop­ping the expan­sion of Tar Sands infra­struc­ture through­out the Great Plains. Their actions fol­low the esca­lat­ing num­ber of work-stop­ping actions that have occurred in Okla­homa this past month.  Both anti-extrac­tion activists cite con­cern of the effect a spill will have in the Cross Tim­bers bio-region that they call home. Their action comes in the wake of the rup­ture of Exxon-Mobile’s Pega­sus pipeline which spilled Tar Sands bitu­men in neigh­bor­ing Mayflower, Arkansas. In addi­tion to the high rates of sick­ness that the sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ty dis­played, the spill in Arkansas has pol­lut­ed Lake Con­way and has had dev­as­tat­ing effects on local wildlife. The per­ma­nent effect on people’s liveli­hoods and the health of affect­ed ecosys­tems remains to be seen.

“This pipeline is essen­tial for con­tin­ued tar sands exploita­tion which pos­es an immi­nent threat to the health of indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties near the point of extrac­tion, fence-line com­mu­ni­ties around the tox­ic refiner­ies, and ulti­mate­ly the health of every liv­ing being along the route,” said Ben­jamin But­ler, who was born at Tin­ker Air force Base in Okla­homa. “I believe in a more beau­ti­ful world, one where the prof­its of a cor­po­ra­tion don’t out­weigh the health of the peo­ple and the plan­et.”

“These com­pa­nies come through with false promis­es and leave sick­ness and dev­as­ta­tion in their wake,” said Eamon Danzig of Den­ton, TX. “Peo­ple in Mayflower expe­ri­enced faint­ing, nau­sea, and nose­bleeds from the ben­zene gas which sep­a­rates from the dilut­ed bitu­men in a spill and hov­ers above the ground. Leaks, rup­tures, and oth­er acci­dents on tar sands pipelines are so com­mon­place and inevitable that I can’t let this pipeline be built through the Cross Tim­bers.”

The Tar Sands megapro­ject is the largest indus­tri­al project in the his­to­ry of humankind, destroy­ing an area of pris­tine bore­al for­est which, if ful­ly real­ized, will leave behind a tox­ic waste­land the size of Flori­da. The Tar Sands megapro­ject con­tin­ues to endan­ger the health and way of life of the First Nations com­mu­ni­ties that live near­by by poi­son­ing the water­ways which life in the area depends on. This pipeline promis­es to deliv­er tox­ic dilut­ed bitu­men to the nox­ious Valero Refin­ery at the front door of the fence-line com­mu­ni­ty of Man­ches­ter in Hous­ton.

Cur­rent­ly, there is staunch resis­tance to the expan­sion of Tar Sands infrastructure—Lakota and Dako­ta peo­ples in “South Dako­ta” have sworn to pro­tect their land and peo­ple from the Key­stone XL, life­long Okla­homans and Tex­ans are con­sis­tent­ly halt­ing con­struc­tion of the inher­ent­ly dan­ger­ous Key­stone XL, and the Unis’tot’en Camp has entered the third year of their block­ade of the Pacif­ic Trails Pipeline.

UPDATE: 11:27AM : Eamon and Ben are both being charged with tres­pass­ing. We need $500 to get them out of jail.

UPDATE:  Eamon has been charged with tres­pass­ing and is being held on a $250 bail in the Hugh­es Coun­ty Jail. We are still wait­ing to find out Ben’s charges.

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UPDATE: 9:18 AM: Lock box has been cut in half with jaws of life. Ben and Eamon have been tak­en into cus­tody by the police.

UPDATE: 9:12 AM: Using jaws of life on the lock box

UPDATE: 9:08 AM: More police and firetruck has arrived

UPDATE: 8:12AM: Anoth­er sher­iff has arrived. Failed at saw­ing

UPDATE: 8:05AM: Pri­vate secu­ri­ty has giv­en the sher­iff a hack­saw. The sher­iff is saw­ing at the lock box

UPDATE: 8:02: Sher­iff talk­ing to Ben and Eamon. The sher­iff is inspect­ing the lock box

UPDATE 7:51AM: Hugh­es Coun­ty Sher­iff has arrived

UPDATE: 7:43 AM: Pri­vate secu­ri­ty try­ing to con­vince Ben and Eamon to unlock

UPDATE: 7:36 AM: More work­ers arriv­ing on site

UPDATE: 7:30 AM: Pri­vate secu­ri­ty has arrived on site. Head of secu­ri­ty has informed us that he is a retired sher­iff of Hugh­es Coun­ty.

UPDATE: 6:20 AM: Work­ers on site