***UPDATED 6:00PM/9:00PM – Everybody Loves a Winner!
Ok, we’ve had some stellar coverage today! Here’s a breakdown of folks who have covered us so far (and we’ll be adding to this list in the coming days, too):
- Kim Murphy at the L.A. Times covered our protests in the context of the struggle against the, as of today re-routed northern leg of KXL, which traverses Nebraska and still endangers the uniquely critical Ogallala Aquifer!
- Tyler’s ABC television affiliate, KLTV, covered today’s action with a glowing evening on-air news brief! Watch:
- Tyler’s CBS television affiliate, KYTX, also covered today’s action. Their story is from a mid-day news segment. You can view it here:
- Jennifer A. Dlouhy wrote a blog for Fuel Fix on how today’s actions in Saltillo fit into the overall KXL/tar sands picture with the news coming out of Nebraska. Her story was then picked up by the Beaumont Enterprise with a funny headline: “Protesting Texans block TransCanada pipeline equipment”
- The Dallas Observer’s Brantley Hargrove posted about today’s action in their UnFair Park blog!
- Scott Parkin posted a blog about it all at It’s Getting Hot In Here!
- KERA 90.1, North Texas’ NPR station, made their listeners aware of today’s action throughout the day during their hourly local news briefs!
- Scott Harvey at KETR Tyler, Texas A&M College Radio, share our victorious news to the greater Tyler collegiate body today!
- WFAA Channel 8 covered today’s protest in their mid day news brief on-air!
- EcoWatch again made us their top story of the day!
***UPDATE – 1:00PM: WE WON!
Another Delay, Another Victory!
It’s after lunch now, so we’re gonna follow the lead of our contractor and police friends and call it a day! But don’t believe for a second that we’re hangin’ up our hats!
Our 3rd action has been a huge success, and we’re only going to continue standing up for our friends and neighbors by calling fraud what it is – fraud. Tar Sands-sourced diluted bitumen slurry is not crude oil. It’s an exotic, radically toxic hydrocarbon surface-mining product that we will not permit to travel across our homes and freshwater sources without a fight!
Onward with keepin our homes safe!
***UPDATE – 11:00AM: WE WON? All Law Enforcement Has Left the Scene!
Their civil parting words: “Whatever you do make sure everyone’s safe.”
WE WON! Guess they realized our brave Blockaders aren’t the real criminals! The few workers on site are filing out as well. We’ll be holding down the fort just to be sure!
***UPDATE – 10:45AM: Police Are Accusing Blockaders of Equipment Theft
That’s a pretty strange way to ‘steal’ something, isn’t it, Shannon?
Don't be silly, now...
***UPDATE – 9:30AM: 3 Hopkins Co. Sherrif’s Deputies Arrive on Scene more than 2 Hours after the Fact
Threats of criminal trespass charges are being discussed, but our brave Blockaders are holding strong!
***UPDATE – 9AM: 20 Workers Show Up, Are Turned Away from Site!
7 trucks with 20-25 workers showed up at the site to meet their Foreman only to be turned away. One truck with a ditch witch continued on to the easement. ALL truck plates were out of state plates including Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. Local jobs anyone?
7AM – BREAKING! 3 Blockaders Locked to Equipment Halt Work at Another Keystone XL Site!
Landowner advocates lock selves to feller buncher machines in KXL easement’s path of destruction!
SALTILLO, TEXAS – September 5, 2012, 7AM – Three landowner advocates and climate justice organizers have locked themselves to feller buncher machines used for clearing large trees in the path of the Keystone XL pipeline. Today’s action has halted work on a segment of TransCanada’s illegitimate pipeline outside of Saltillo, TX. As promised, Tar Sands Blockade’s rolling campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience pushes forward.
Five blockaders total are currently risking arrest to stop work on this segment of the Keystone XL pipeline. Contractors discovered their presence early in the work day, and work at the site was called off shortly thereafter. Texas-born blockaders have united with neighbors from other states to support rural and neighboring communities threatened by the toxic pipeline’s diluted bitumen slurry.
Tar Sands Blockade’s landowner solidarity actions hit home with 22 year old Houston-born blockader, Sarah Reid. “This pipeline affects me, my friends and my family directly. The toxic contents threaten the water we drink, the air we breathe.” Reid, who traces her Texan ancestry back to Obedience Smith, the first female settler to own land in Texas, continues, “Out in East Texas, the landowners I’ve met are honest, hard working people who have been taken advantage of by TransCanada. They’re people who just want to protect themselves and their families.”
The sense that legal means have failed to curb the landowner abuse inherent in the current eminent domain process is palpable. Gary Lynn Stuard, 54, of Dallas is no longer willing to wait for regulatory reform or judicial intervention: “We have exhausted all of the traditional avenues, and it’s not enough. It’s unjust that a multinational company can seize people’s property by proclaiming themselves a “common carrier” – that’s eminent domain abuse. It’s theft, and these peoples’ homes and land shouldn’t be ruined while decisions on what to do are put off.”
Blockaders Pose during Saltillo Solidarity Action
Mikey Lowe, 24, traveled from California to raise awareness of the tar sands carrier’s deception. “I feel that eminent domain has really gone too far. I really want to show [the world] what’s going on,” he shared.
Former Quinlan resident, Beverly Luff, 23, is primarily motivated by the threat that tar sands surface mining and extraction pose to the future of a livable climate. “The more people ignore it, the worse it will get. There’s only one planet, and we can’t afford to let dirty business interests cheat to win in East Texas or elsewhere.”
Shannon Locked to Feller Buncher
Tar Sands Blockade is a coalition of Texas and Oklahoma landowners and climate organizers using peaceful and sustained civil disobedience to stop the construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Today’s action comes on the heels of last week’s outside of Livingston, TX in which seven blockaders were arrested when four locked themselves to a truck delivering pipe segments to a Keystone XL construction site. Their successful nonviolent action stopped activity in the pipeyard for the day. In response, TransCanada claimed its pipeline was not to carry anything other than “crude oil,” which is factually inaccurate at best.
“TransCanada commits fraud when it lies about the substances in its toxic tar sands slurry pipeline,” explains Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson Ron Seifert. “East Texans have been documenting TransCanada’s deceit for over four years now. Rural and neighboring families have been treated as nothing more than collateral damage by industry, political and regulatory leaders on all sides of the aisle. The truth is TransCanada will do or say anything to ram this pipeline through, regardless of who gets hurt along the way.”
Stay with our LiveBlog for updates throughout the day!
