Keystone XL pipeline action alert

[amorYcohetes]

I've been getting a bunch of emails today about the oil companies trying to bring back the plan for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, even though Pres. Obama rejected it on the U.S. side.  They are trying to get 500,000 signatures at least to do an action in Congress tomorrow.  Here is one of the places you can sign, if you are interested.  This project would worsen an already bad situation for many tribes in the U.S. and Canada, regarding environmental conditions, and the People being able to control their own land and resources, vs. the corporations.

I found an article about the issue from an indigenous perspective in South Dakota's Native Sun News.  Excerpt below and link here.
Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline to carry tar-sands crude-oil mined in the boreal forest of Alberta Province across 1,700 miles of the Great Plains, through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

“It’s a 1,700-mile snake that’s trying to bore itself into Mother Earth, and its whole purpose is to spit black venom into the water our future generations are going to be drinking,” Poor Bear said.

The Canadian oil company built another tar-sands crude-oil pipeline from Alberta through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois more than a year ago when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton succeeded in winning a motion to dismiss four Sioux tribal governments’ federal lawsuit to stop it for violating historic preservation, trust and treaty law.

Since then, the Oglala Lakota Tribe, Sicangu (Rosebud) Lakota Tribe, the United Tribes of North Dakota, and treaty councils have signed resolutions opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline for the same reasons mentioned in the lawsuit against Keystone I, as well as concerns over water pollution from spills.

U.S. and Canadian indigenous constituents submitted the Mother Earth Accord to Clinton and President Barack Obama in opposition to the oil company’s current proposal in October. The White House subsequently accepted the State Department’s recommendation to reject TransCanada’s 4-year-old Presidential Permit application.

[earthw7]

we are fighting for our lives now for our culture the land for very existence

[Defend the Sacred]

Concise, compelling notice from the Indigenous Environmental Network. Includes the Mother Earth Accord:

http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1411234651

Some of the twitter feeds on the action:

http://paper.li/aimeefausser/1319344024

[Defend the Sacred]

Our letters and petitions are being delivered to Senate right now:


http://twitpic.com/8jy2tj

Fastest-breaking news via Twitter feed: #noKXL

There's still time to call the Senate and add your voice, or remind your Senator to look at the letters and petitions. Get the phone number for your Senator here: http://act.350.org/call/kxl-senators/

[Defend the Sacred]

The fight continues with direct action and blockades on Pine Ridge. Make sure to check out the powerful video of the elder woman speaking.

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/03/lakota-arrests-underway-halting-xl.html

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2012/03/debra-white-plume-oglala-lakota.html

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

really hard to hear the video. but we all have to do whatever we can to stop this vile poison.

[Defend the Sacred]

The annoying ringtone stops after a bit.

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

Making news here too!  There's also a video at the bottom of the article, it's the same one
with the ringtone. Kathryn, I was talking about the other video there are too many other
people talking that it was hard to hear the woman. But then again, I have a head cold, so
maybe it was just my own ears.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/03/06-3

Published on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 by Common Dreams
"This Is Our Land:" Lakota Form Human Blockade to Stop Tar Sands Trucks
- Common Dreams staff

Lakota members yesterday formed a human blockade to stop trucks carrying tar sands equipment through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The action resulted in the arrest of 5 protesters.

Photo by Andrew Iron Shell Brenda Norrell reports:

    PINE RIDGE, S.D. -- Lakotas on Pine Ridge Indian land in South Dakota were arrested as they blockaded tarsands pipeline trucks from entering their territory on Monday, March 5.

    Lakota human rights activists Alex White Plume, Debra White Plume, Sam Long Black Cat, Andrew Iron Shell and Terrell Eugene Iron Shell were arrested late Monday. They were charged with disorderly conduct and taken to the jail in Kyle, S.D.

Yesterday afternoon, KILI Radio 90.1 FM issued a call to action to have others join the blockade of the pipeline trucks:

    ACTION ALERT PINE RIDGE SD: Calling all Lakota Men on the Pine Ridge Reservation to come to Wanblee SD.
    XL Pipeline trucks are being held there at the border by our Lakota Oyate, OST Police and State Troopers in an effort to keep them from entering our territory. Even the state troopers told the trucks they have to turn around and cannot bring their...pipeline or other materials on to our reservation. The XL Pipeline trucks are refusing to turn around claiming they have corperate rights that supercedes any other laws. Olowan Sara Martinez, Debra White Plume, Grandma Marie Randall and others are there holding their ground.

Native News Network reports that the trucks had attempted to pass through reservation land in an effort to avoid paying the state of South Dakota thousands for using the state highway:

    At issue was there were two trucks that appeared to be hauling pipes through the reservation on their way to Canada. The new trucks that were delivered in Texas from South Korea were carrying pipes used for tar sands pipeline. Totran Transportation Services, Inc., a Canadian company apparently wanted to avoid paying the state of South Dakota $50,000 per truck or $100,000 to use its state highways. Instead Totran Transportation thought they would use the roads on the reservation.

    Some 75 Lakota thought otherwise.

Native News Network adds that the trucks may meet continued blockades on the roads if they again attempt to use tribal roads:

    The Oglala Nation and all American Indian tribes in South Dakota have adamantly opposed the Keystone XL pipeline that was routed through the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations that would cross the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System in two places.

    Late Monday, it was reported the Eagle Butte Indian tribal council met to decide to form a human blockade on their reservations if the Trotran convoy attempts to come through their reservation which is north of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Steven McFadden writes that this action "could become an international focal point:"

    The vast earth-changing Keystone XL pipeline project — ripping up the tar sands of the Northlands and then pumping the toxic goo thousands of miles over fertile but fragile land to the Gulf of Mexico — was supposed to be on hold. But TransCanada, the foreign-owned corporation, continues aggressively to shove, spurt and snake parts of the pipeline forward.

    This developing confrontation between Native peoples – who from their traditions understand that they bear responsibilities as keepers of the earth — and the huge multinational corporate XL Pipeline complex, could become an international focal point.

In this video uploaded by NativeImpact, we hear the voice of a 92-year-old tribe member speaking to a police officer as the trucks are being stopped. She says, "This is our reservation and this is our community." Speaking to the other Lakota nearby, she urges them, "This is your foundation -- protect it."

[amorYcohetes]

When I type the word "tar" into google tonight, the first autocomplete suggestion I get is "tar sands."  Good that so many allies have joined together over the past days, weeks, months, and years to bring so much public attention to the pipeline threat.
Although I didn't get to my local vigil, I hear solidarity vigils were held at many Canadian consulates today. 

Colorlines also has some coverage of the actions in S. Dakota.

[aya]

another place to take action
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/826/280/502/

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

Pipeline bill FAILED!    Senate voted no.

And a nice article here:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/08-13

Women Lead Charge for Another Keystone XL Victory
by Bill McKibben

Today was... quite a day. The bell that people struck last August when they sat in at the White House to block the Keystone Pipeline was still resonating. Not loudly -- the oil money in Congress muffled the sound. But loudly enough that we squeaked through by a 4-Senator margin, defeating a Republican amendment mandating the pipeline's construction.

A year ago almost no one had heard of the pipeline. Even four months ago, a poll of 300 "energy insiders" still found 97 percent predicting it would get its permit. But it didn't -- TransCanada can of course re-apply, but that will be another battle, down the road. For now, people power (the largest civil disobedience action in 30 years, 800,000 messages to the Senate in a single day, bodies encircling the White House shoulder to shoulder five deep) overturned the odds.

And though most Americans don't know it, today is also International Women's Day, appropriate in this case because many of the very strongest fighters against this project right from the beginning were women of unusual distinction.

I was reminded of that earlier this week, when Debra White Plume was arrested on the Lakota reservation for blocking trucks carrying giant equipment up to the tar sands. She's an eloquent fighter, part of the large crew of indigenous leaders who were the first to sound the alarm about the tarsands and have been at the center of the battle ever since. But this time she wasn't outside the White House or at a Congressional hearing -- she was on a lonely reservation road with a small crowd of other people facing down giant semis and tribal police. You need to read her full account of what happened, both because it's powerful and because she's a great writer. My favorite passage:

    On the ride home from jail, I shared with my children my jail time, they were curious what the cell looked like and what I did in there for 3 hours. I told them it was empty, nothing in there but a toilet, not even drinking water. I told them I just paced back and forth, and read the grafitti scratched into the walls that said "this cell is 11 by 6," "Tristan loves Luke," "Angel and Wildflower have outlaw love," and "I used to work here, now I am IN here." My teens were sad, but understood why this happened, and they were glad me and their Poppa were coming home.

I thought of Women's Day again in the afternoon, when the votes in the Senate were being tallied and we were all doing the digital equivalents of biting our nails (refreshing Twitter, mostly). After the drama of the arrests and of encircling the White House had died down some, the hard work of maintaining this victory in the oil-soaked Congress fell to a small corps of Capitol Hill environmentalists. A few were men -- Jeremy Symons from National Wildife Federation, Jason Kowalski from 350.org -- but at the center were several indefatigable women, like Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters, Susan Casey-Lefkowitz from the National Resources Defense Council, and Lena Moffitt from the Sierra Club.

The work they did was not glamorous -- it was absolutely necessary, however.Day after day they tracked how each Senator was leaning, figured out which arguments would persuade which staffer, carted around briefing books, gave powerpoints, convinced donors to call the pols they'd funded. I don't think I could do it -- the constant match of their conviction against the cynicism that rules so much of Washington seems tougher for me to endure than my three days in Central Cell Block. But they did it with quiet grace, and they won

And in the end, the two events -- on the Lakota Reservation, and on the Hill -- were the perfect summation of the whole Keystone campaign. The most grassroots of activists meshed easily and powerfully with the most entrenched of Washington enviros; there was no bickering or infighting -- people seemed naturally to take the parts they were good at and trust others to do likewise, from Jane Kleeb running the Nebraska fight to Kenny Bruno coordinating the funders. Everyone worked toward a common goal with the resources they had at hand, and together we made them enough.

Just enough, mind you, and our victory may not last forever. But today big oil actually lost something big. If you want to understand how, all those women are the place to start.
© 2012 Bill McKibben


All are heroes, especially the Lakota. Earth is blessed to have them, and may they
be equally blessed in return!  Thank You! 

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

Here is Debra White Plume's full account that was mentioned in the article above.

http://www.unitedprogressives.org/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1304:united-progressives-lakota-activist-tells-story-of-standoff-with-xl-pipeline-trucks&catid=193:press-release&Itemid=80

Heavy Haul Stop for Mother Earth and Tribal Land Rights

By Debra White Plume

On Monday, March 5 we were called by a lady from Wanblee village that was forced to pull completely off the highway as the huge semi-trucks hauling  enormous pieces of equipment took up the whole highway. I was sewing new kitchen curtains when she called.

The two trucks were hauling equipment called "treater vessels" from Houston, Texas to Alberta Canada. These treater vessels arrived in Texas in August 2011 from South Korea. The papers the truck drivers gave us say that the treater vessels weighed 229,155 pounds each. The individual value of each vessel is $1,259,593.

The truck drivers said they were given their route by corporate headquarters in Canada. The route was worked out with the State of South Dakota, according to the truckers. They said they were told by South Dakota that if they go on the route they did they could avoid paying South Dakota the fee of $50,000 per truck, so they came down Highway 44 through Interior, Potato Creek and Wanblee.

Wanblee was the site of the heavy haul stop. Oglala Sioux Tribal Vice President Tom Poor Bear was with us. He called state government officials in Pierre and they verified that yes they gave that route to the corporation to cross Indian lands.

Apparently, the treater vessel is used to separate gas and oil and other elements. The device is also used to provide intense heat. Our Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, along with the Oglala Sioux Tribe, have both passed legislation against the Keystone XL oil pipeline and have adopted the Mother Earth Accord which calls for a moratorium on the tar sands oil mine as destructive to water, Mother Earth, all animals and human beings. Whatever these treater vessels are and where ever they were going, they are much too huge, heavy and hazardous to be on our roads.

There were about 75 people at the site. Approximately 20 cars parked in front of the semi-trucks, who were accompanied by about a dozen pickups with flags displaying wide load warnings, etc. They also had their own electric trucks traveling with them in order to push up the power lines in their path.

The trucks were too enormous to turn around. The tribal police arrested us as we did not want the trucks to proceed across our land. We were told the tribal police were going to escort the heavy haul caravan to the reservation border and direct them to the state highways, we found out later that they indeed had done the escort.

Alex White Plume, Sr. and I, along with Sam Long Black Cat, Andrew Iron Shell, and Terrell Iron Shell were all arrested by the tribal police. We were all handcuffed and charged with disorderly conduct, as the police said there were no other charges to bring against us. We were taken to Kyle jail.

We stood our ground for our land, our treaty rights, our human rights to clean drinking water and our coming generations. We did this in solidarity with the First Nations people in Canada who are being killed by the tar sands oil mine, which is so big it can be seen from outer space, it is as big as the state of Florida. It didn’t matter where the heavy haul was going, either to the tarsands oil killing fields, or another oil mine, we didn’t want it crossing our lands, until the Tribal Police could get there and determine under whose authority they got onto the Reservation.

OST Vice President Tom Poor Bear and Alex White Plume of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council stated they will work together to create enforceable laws that prevent any future heavy hauls of equipment through the Pine Ridge Reservation, as well as another piece of legislation that will specifically prohibit tarsands oil mine equipment from our lands. President John Steele was in Washington, DC and the tribal council representatives for the Eagle Nest District where Wanblee is located could not be found, the tribal police were asking for them, but the local folks could find them.

The oldest person there was Marie Randall, age 92. Renabelle Bad Cob Standing Bear in her wheelchair was there as well. These ladies gave everyone a big heart to be strong! People from the village brought pots of soup, fry bread, cases of water, doughnuts, and coffee. Many stayed for the rest of the day.

When the tribal police gave a warning to move off the highway or be arrested, five of us did not move. All five of us were arrested. Tribal attorney Sonny Richards was at the jail in Kyle and he did the paper work necessary to get us all released. We felt it was important to send a message to the corporations that it is not going to be just business as usual when they encounter Lakota Oyate (people, nation) in their huge, dangerous vehicles.

The truck drivers said they did not know they were crossing a Indian reservation, and would let their corporate office in Canada know that this was a route to avoid as there were road blocks set up to stop them.

After we were released from the jail, there was a crowd of people waiting for us, who offered us soda pop and cigarettes. Several people had bond money ready to bond us out! They offered us rides home, and that was fortunate, because we did not have our cars there. What gave everyone a silent chuckle was that Alex’s pickup truck actually was stalled there, in front of the heavy haul caravan. Of course there were mechanics in the crowd (Lakota mechanics are wizards who do magic!) who helped get the truck started in time to move it before it got towed away.

On the ride home from jail, I shared with my children my jail time, they were curious what the cell looked like and what I did in there for 3 hours. I told them it was empty, nothing in there but a toilet, not even drinking water. I told them I just paced back and forth, and read the grafetti scratched into the walls that said “this cell is 11 by 6”, “Tristan loves Luke”, “Angel and Wildflower have outlaw love”, and “I used to work here, now I am IN here”.  My teens were sad, but understood why this happened, and they were glad me and their Poppa were coming home.

There are so many Lakota people ready to stand up for Mother Earth, and for our rights to have our own laws on our own lands. It was a good feeling to be in solidarity with so many relatives and friends! As it is, reservation road repair funds are in short supply, so to allow such massive vehicles go thru, endangering other vehicles, is just not good common sense. It is not over, tribal officials are very concerned about the backroom deal made between these corporations and the state of South Dakota, and have assigned tribal attorneys to delve deeply into this blatant abuse of tribal sovereignty. Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council will be meeting soon on the Yankton lands, be sure there will be some action on this as well in the coming weeks!

So, with the spring season and bright sun coming soon, today I can get back to sewing my kitchen curtains!

[aya]

 

[Sparks]

Just received in email newsletter: https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/keystone-is-xl-is-dead

‘Keystone XL is dead!’
Dallas Goldtooth wrote on Twitter: “We took on a multi-billion dollar corporation and we won!!”

The Keystone XL pipeline project is officially terminated, the sponsor company announced Wednesday.

Calgary-based TC Energy is pulling the plug on the project after Canadian officials failed to persuade President Joe Biden to reverse his cancellation of its permit on the day he took office.

The company said it would work with government agencies “to ensure a safe termination of and exit from” the partially built line, which was to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.

“Through the process, we developed meaningful Indigenous equity opportunities and a first-of-its-kind, industry leading plan to operate the pipeline with net-zero emissions throughout its lifecycle,” said François Poirier, TC Energy’s president and chief executive officer in a statement.

The pipeline has been front and center of the fight against climate change, especially in Indigenous communities. Native people have been speaking out, organizing, and in opposition of the project for several years.

“OMG! It’s official,” Dallas Goldtooth, Mdewakanton Dakota and Diné, wrote on Twitter regarding Keystone XL’s termination. “We took on a multi-billion dollar corporation and we won!!”

Construction on the 1,200-mile pipeline began last year when former President Donald Trump revived the long-delayed project after it had stalled under the Obama administration.

It would have moved up to 830,000 barrels of crude daily, connecting in Nebraska to other pipelines that feed oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Biden canceled it in January over long standing concerns that burning oil sands crude would make climate change worse.

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau objected to the move, but officials in Alberta, where the line originated, expressed disappointment in recent weeks that he didn’t lobby harder to reinstate the pipeline’s permit.

Attorneys general from 21 states had sued to overturn Biden’s cancellation of the contentious pipeline, which would have created thousands of construction jobs.

This is a developing story.