Today, NOKXL Pledge of Resistance protesters are carrying out a sit-in in front of the Massachusetts State Department offices in hopes of catching the attention of Secretary of State John Kerry, and eventually, President Obama. The NOKXL protesters – an acronym for No Keystone XL Pipeline – are fervently against the Keystone XL Pipeline project, a plan that would build a 1,179 mile-long pipeline extending from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska.
The pipeline would be able to transport 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily through the U.S., and as the Keystone XL Pipeline site argues, “create jobs,” “enhance energy security,” and “minimize environmental impact.”
The United States depletes about 15 million barrels of oil daily. To help fuel this demand, Keystone XL Pipeline advocates argue that it would allow the United States to import more oil produced in North America “by companies that employ thousands of American and Canadian citizens, under strong government regulation that is in place to protect the environment and respect human rights,” thus reducing our country’s foreign oil imports from “unstable regions of the world.”
But the NOKXL protesters disagree. To convey the magnitude of their opposition to the pipeline, the protesters marched through Causeway Street earlier Monday morning, and have planned their largest sit-in yet in front of the State Department today. The NOKXL Pledge of Resistance has gained the backing of over 75,000 Americans as well as three social and environmental justice organizations: CREDO, Rainforest Action Network, and the Other 98%.
The NOKXL Pledge of Resistance protesters argue that, if implemented, the pipeline would do more harm than good. For starters, the pipeline would be carrying tar sands bitumen, which would require chemicals to be added to it to loosen it up and help it flow through the pipeline, all at the risk of the toxic mixture spilling out of the pipeline. In addition, oil production would take place in the Alberta oil-sands, an immense carbon reserve. Developing these sands would mean stimulating even more carbon dioxide production that would negatively impact our climate. The Pledge of Resistance insists that the Keystone XL project would actually raise gas prices in the Midwest, and that the oil would be shipped overseas anyway, and wouldn’t help reduce the United States’ foreign oil imports in the end.
In an effort to persuade the president to prevent the effectuation of the Keystone XL pipeline, NOKXL Pledge of Resistance argues that President Obama’s decision to either follow through with or discontinue the pipeline will affect his reputation in supporting the environment. The organization has trained around 1,000 activists to locally conduct civil disobedience demonstrations, and has previously conducted sit-ins in Houston and D.C.
For more information on the Pledge of Resistance against the Keystone XL pipeline, click here.
