This is an archive of WNV’s coverage of the movement against the Keystone XL pipeline (2011-2015).
“We don’t know how many people it takes to encircle the White House, but we’re about to find out,” Bill McKibben told a crowd of over 12,000 gathered in Lafayette Square on Sunday afternoon. Such a prospect would have been hard to imagine eleven weeks earlier, when McKibben was standing in the same park with… More
Just arrived in Washington DC for today’s big tar sands action. Over 10,000 people are expected to encircle the White House and show President Obama that there will be much to reckon with if he doesn’t reject the Keystone XL pipeline. In a few minutes, Bill McKibben will address the rally gathering in Lafayette Square…. More
A lot has happened since 65 people (myself included) were arrested in front of the White House on August 20th during a protest of the planned 1,400-mile pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. For starters, over a thousand more people from across the country were arrested in the subsequent… More
Ever feel like you aren’t where you should be? It’s okay, we all do. Yet, sometimes, we feel, without a single doubt, we are in precisely the right place at precisely the right moment. A meticulously-planned civil disobedience uprising demanding climate justice and the honoring of the rights of indigenous people, felt just like that…. More
Here’s a moving video summary of the two-week Tar Sands Action that ended last Saturday. Of course, it didn’t really end—just “phase one.” As last mentioned on this blog, Bill McKibben and the other organizers are planning something big on October 7th or 8th, when the State Department has its final hearing on the pipeline…. More
Although the White House has not yet made any official statement regarding the two-week Tar Sands Action that came to an end in Washington DC yesterday with a total of 1,252 arrests, President Obama’s decision to abandon a new air pollution rule on Friday spoke volumes. He affirmed his willingness to ignore the advice of… More
The Tar Sands Action that’s resulted in over 1,000 arrests in front of the White House for the better part of two weeks will be wrapping up Saturday with what’s expected to be the largest sit-in yet. A rally that’s been separately organized by the Sierra Club, 350.org and Interfaith Power and Light will also… More
Since the start of Saturday’s Tar Sands Action in Washington DC, 275 people have been arrested in front of the White House—with nearly 2,000 more expected to follow—as part of an effort to pressure the president into rejecting a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. Already, there are signs that it’s… More
On Saturday, Waging Nonviolence editors Eric Stoner and Bryan Farrell were arrested while reporting on and participating in the Tar Sands Action against the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which Bryan wrote about last week. They will be held longer than expected—until today, we’re told. I received a phone message from Bryan on Saturday night,… More
Starting Saturday, farmers, ranchers, Gulf Coast residents, faith leaders and climate activists from across the United States and Canada will be marching on the White House, holding sit-ins and risking arrest every day for two weeks.