United States: Urge President Obama to Block Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline
This pipeline from Canada’s Tar Sands to the Gulf Coast threatens water sources, cultural sites, agricultural lands, animal life, and public health.
On Tuesday the Senate defeated a bill that would have given the green light to the Keystone XL pipeline that oil companyTransCanada has lobbied to build to channel tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast of the US.
The Ihanktonwan Oyate/Yankton Sioux General Council of South Dakota passed key resolutions in April to affirm their opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
According to Native News Network, an April 4th Resolution declared that consultation with tribes by the State Department in regards to the pipeline project has been flawed and has not lived up to standards established in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Protests are ramping up again against the Keystone XL project after the US Department of State released a draft of a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) covering the pipeline route from Nebraska to the Canadian border. The proposed pipeline remains under review at the State Department, and will take comments for 45 days. Obama recently announced
TransCanada, the company that wants to build an oil pipeline from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries, said Wednesday it has revised its proposed route through Nebraska to avoid environmentally sensitive areas, reported Huffington Post.
The following was blog entry was posted by Rocky Kistner of the National Resource Defense Council
April 3, 2012
In the Dakotas, members of the proud Lakota Nation rose in protest this week to join a 48-hour hunger strike in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline-and all tar sands pipelines-they say will destroy precious water resources and ancestral lands in the U.S and in Canada.
Local authorities in Cushing, Oklahoma forced Native Americans protesters of President Obama’s pro-Keystone speech to hold their event within a cage constructed in Memorial Park, miles away from the president’s event.
The Indigenous Environmental Network had the following report:
We’d like to thank all those who took action against the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline bill in the US Senate last week. Activists across the country called, tweeted, and facebooked their senators encouraging them to vote against a transportation bill that included approval for the construction of the tarsands pipeline. We especially applaud the courage of the Lakota community on Pine Ridge Reservation for their heroic efforts to block the tran
Late Monday afternoon five Lakota tribal members were arrested when they formed a blockade to prevent trucks carrying equipment for the Keystone pipeline across the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation. Some 75 members of the Lakota tribe arrived to the town of Wanbli, South Dakota, responding to a call to action from KILI Radio, a community radio station of Pine Ridge Reservation.
TransCanada announced on Monday that the company will proceed with the construction of the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline, the segment that would extend from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf of Mexico. Since this segment would not cross the Canada-US border, it does not require US government approval. TransCanada plans to begin construction despite a lack of approval for the northern leg of the pipeline.
Tomorrow’s vote in the Senate could reverse Obama’s decision and greenlight construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. During the next 24 hours, Native Americans, environmentalists, and concerned citizens are joining together to send an urgent petition to senators to block efforts to revive the pipeline.
Land Acknowledgement
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