Dozens In US Capital Arrested During Protest Of Oil Pipeline
Dozens of people were arrested in front of the White House Saturday after staging a rally to protest a 1,700-mile oil pipeline that TransCanada Corp. (TRP, TRP.T) wants to build from Canada to Texas.
In sweltering August heat, about 70 people lined up in front of the White House's north entrance, chanting and holding signs that urged President Barack Obama to block construction of the pipeline by denying TransCanada a permit.
The sit-in marked the first day of a two-week protest against the Keystone XL pipeline, scheduled to coincide with U.S. efforts to determine whether to approve the controversial project.
The U.S. Park Police quickly moved tourists out of the way and sectioned off the area with yellow police tape. After three warnings, the police started to arrest participants one by one. The police tied the protesters' hands behind their backs and ushered them to into a police wagon parked nearby.
Among those placed under arrest was Gus Speth, former chair of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality under President Carter and co-founder of the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.
In an interview with Dow Jones, Speth said the pipeline would be used to transport a type of crude oil--known as tar-sands oil--that would encourage a continued reliance on fossil fuels and emit harmful pollution into the air.
"If we hook up the Alberta tar sands to America's insatiable lust of gasoline, I worry that you can just kiss the planet good-bye," he said before his arrest.
Speth and other protestors said the Obama administration's handling of the Keystone XL pipeline proposal would be one of the most important environmental decisions of the president's first term.
TransCanada said the pipeline expansion--which would cross six U.S. states, including Montana, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas--would provide jobs to Americans in a tough economy and supply oil at a time when global sources are unstable.
"The real issue here is that the U.S. needs crude oil," TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha said. "They must make a decision: Import conflict-free crude oil from Canada or import it from repressive regimes [in places] like the Middle East or Libya."
The U.S. State Department is currently reviewing the pipeline proposal to determine whether its construction serves the best interests of the country. The department has said it will make a decision on the project by the end of the year.
-By Tennille Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires; tennille.tracy@dowjones.com
