Keystone XL Protest: Activists 'Blow The Whistle' On Congress

Barely a week after President Obama rejected the contentious Keystone XL pipeline proposal and his relationship with environmentalists reached a "high water mark," protesters once again took to the streets of Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, environmentalists staged a rally to "blow the whistle" on members of Congress who have received contributions from the fossil fuel industry.

According to a press release, the protest, which was held on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building, was led by 500 individuals dressed as referees, a marching band, Senator Bernie Sanders and representatives of several environmental groups.

Bill McKibben, 350.org founder and a leader of Wednesday's rally, said in the press release:

We're going to 'blow the whistle' on the corruption that passes for business as usual on Capitol Hill, where people take money from companies whose interests they vote on. If this happened at the Super Bowl it would be a national scandal; we've got to make sure it’s seen that way in our political life too.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also spoke at the rally, hammering Congress for fossil fuel subsidies.

He said, "The most profitable corporations in the world do not need subsidies from the American people. We need to end Big Oil subsidies and tax breaks, and I'm going to introduce legislation to do it," according to a 350.org press release.

According to Reuters, as of Monday, rally organizers had not announced specific lawmakers they planned to target.

Along with 350.org, the rally was organized by Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club, among others.

Last week, the Obama administration announced that it would not approve a permit for TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta's oil sands deposits to refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Obama stressed that his decision was centered around Republican insistence on a "rushed and arbitrary deadline" to approve the pipeline.

Protests against the Keystone pipeline in front of the White House in August and November resulted in over one thousand arrests and helped raise awareness for the environmentalists' cause. For a look back at these and other protests against the pipeline, click here.

Below, check out images from the January 24 congressional protest in Washington, D.C.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[rwikert]

03:57 PM on 02/10/2012

By all means publish a list of Members of Congress who support the pipeline. I want to send a contribution to some of them. Anybody who spits in the eye of the wacko environmentist left wingers is a friend of the Middle Class.

[thinkabtit39]

01:41 PM on 02/10/2012

I wonder how much money Obama gets from oil companies? And he will still vote yes on this in the long run.

[Maxwell Silver]

03:30 PM on 02/10/2012

I love how people just reach whatever conclusion they wish by whatever means they can, be it fact or fiction.

[thinkabtit39]

05:03 PM on 02/10/2012

Look at the facts and see how much money he has taken from big oil. And bet ya that he will still push it , or it will get the go ahead by the next president.

[sglahn817]

05:47 PM on 02/09/2012

The real threat is population growth. Global warming is just one of its many symptoms.

[sglahn817]

05:44 PM on 02/09/2012

Since when is the right to deduct a cost of doing business, such as oil companies drilling wells, a subsidy?

[Prairiewinds]

04:43 PM on 01/25/2012

Here are a few environmental truths to think about:
1. It doesn't matter how cheap a fuel is, how good your job is or how much money you make if you cannot breathe the air or drink the water.
2. We live on a fragile little rock all alone out here. Everything--minerals, water, air, space and yes, petrochemicals are finite resources. You can't run next door for a cup of water or of copper. Even though we won't suddenly run out of things, their recovery will become more and more difficult. Addiction to past fuel sources will have diminishing rewards.
3. It is profoundly easy to do damage to the environment and always very difficult if not impossible to repair damage done. Our planetary cannibalism has never made an ecosystem or construction site better than it was originally. I used to warn people that when we tear up the earth, we are scratching the face of God, our only real god, the planet earth.

And before the conservative clowns laaugh, I spent thirty years trying to restore and reclaim lands disrupted by resource extraction or development.

[grappler1987]

10:59 PM on 01/24/2012

Pipelines are safer than rail. Canada is preferred to OPEC.

Build the pipeline.

[Skippy the Bush Kangaroo]

12:11 AM on 01/25/2012

So shipping bitumen at high temperatures through defective pipe manufactured in India by Welspun is a winner ......

Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline LLC et al v. Welspun Global Trade LLC et al - Document 29

http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txsdce/4:2010cv02813/786031/29

[Skippy the Bush Kangaroo]

12:21 AM on 01/25/2012

Kinder Morgan Louisiana Pipeline LLC et al v. Welspun Global Trade LLC et al - Document 29

http://tinyurl.com/8xtbppz

[pmoschetta]

02:52 PM on 01/25/2012

You're missing the point of the article, grappler1987, so I will add a link that might help explain it further:

http://lezgetreal.com/2012/01/surprise-boehner-owns-stock-in-keystone-related-companies/

[chad gilbert]

07:56 PM on 01/24/2012

Keystoned will be shipped by rail and Buffett stands to make billions.....

[grappler1987]

10:58 PM on 01/24/2012

I do believe you are correct.

[pmoschetta]

02:53 PM on 01/25/2012

While Boehner stands to make millions since he is heavily invested in the companies affliated with the pipeline

http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201201180004

[iknowscottyknows]

07:31 PM on 01/24/2012

While the occupartiers are masturbating, the pipeline is being built and will bring oil to the Gulf.

[judiann111]

05:19 PM on 01/25/2012

Ever hear of the Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey?

[Theo White]

08:03 PM on 01/25/2012

We haven't finished the cleanup from the last time we sent oil to the gulf.

[artleads]

07:17 PM on 01/24/2012

Very impressive and much needed activism. Thanks and congratulations to the 500.

[MrStat1]

07:12 PM on 01/24/2012

I'm sure they all made themselves "feel good". But it will accomplish nothing.

[ILoveFiction]

03:40 AM on 01/25/2012

Made you look!

[kburgoyne]

06:42 PM on 01/24/2012

Why does Keystone need to go to the warm water ports in the Gulf of Mexico if the oil is intended for US consumption? The reason is because "for US consumption" is a political lie. The ultra-dirty crude is, and always has been, destined for sale onto the world market to the highest bidder -- it's NOT for US consumption unless the US consumer wants to be the highest bidder just like for all the existing oil on the world market.

If Keystone was actually for US consumption, it would be far far cheaper to simply route the oil to existing midwestern refineries using EXISTING pipelines that ALREADY have surplus capacity. The US people should be absolutely and completely FED UP with being LIED TO by corporations in order to be exploited by those corporations.

[pirx]

03:29 PM on 01/25/2012

The Alberta bitumen is presently shipped via pipeline (http://www.pipeline101.com/Overview/crude-pl.html) to midwest US refineries that are processing all the crude they can handle. (Midwest refinery utilization 95%, Gulf Coast utilization 85%).The excess supply of bitumen is actually depressing to price of crude in the midwest, resulting in lower prices for the US consumer. WTI (west texas intermediate) the benchmark crude oil price for US transactions is selling almost 10% lower than North Sea Brent. These crudes historically trade within a few percent of each other.

Adding pipeline capacity to the gulf will eliminate the surplus that is depressing the price of WTI. Gulf cost refiineries will process the crude and sell the much more valuable fuels on the world market. US prices will increase.

[judiann111]

05:24 PM on 01/25/2012

It's been a looooooooooooooonnnnnngggggg. sloooooooooooooow wake up process but finally all #$%% is breaking loose!

[beauwulff]

06:15 PM on 01/24/2012

Why don't the Canucks route this disaster-in-the-making across their own territory to the port at Vancouver? Oh, I think I just answered my question.

[mudshark12]

01:25 AM on 01/25/2012

You sure did.

The Canadians are going to be sorry as soon as they realize all the water used in refining is rendered worthless by the contamination and then their water table will get polluted as they AND the local animals start dying from cancer. It's a win-lose-lose-lose.

[rybalaw]

06:06 PM on 01/24/2012

I have no problem with the Keystone so long as it is routed away from the Sand Hills and the Ola gala Aquifer. The portion that goes from Cushing, OK to the Gulf Coast is definitely needed and will be built by someone else if Transcanada doesn't build it. There is a need for pipelines to carry what has just been discovered in North Dakota (Balken Shale) either to the Chicago Refineries or to the Gulf Coast Refineries. Had I been the President I would have coopted the GOP Gov. of Nebraska with a White House visit and said yes but not that route. I would have followed the old american west maxim sometimes repeated by former Gov. Richardson of New Mexico that Whiskey's for drinking and waters for fighting with regard to the acqifer

[TierraDelFuego]

05:41 PM on 01/24/2012

Listen dahlings, if the Canadians are so hot for this project, let them build their own refineries. Right? But no bobbikins, they are well aware of the environmental hazards and do not want to deal with the consequences. Simple, let the silly Americans deal with the problems and run a pipeline south across the border. The Canadians have a stable government unlike the US where Congress is owned and paid for by Wall Street and corporations. It's simple dahlings, just ask uncle Newt or cousin Mitts, they will tell you the manipulated "facts." So everyone stand up and sing, "Oh, Canada!"

[bigjakeIII]

05:46 PM on 01/24/2012

canadian income tax for corporations - 16%
american income tax for corporations - 35%
apparently they didn't buy enough.

[kburgoyne]

06:50 PM on 01/24/2012

The effective tax rate for large US corporations is far closer to 0%.

[Bodine666]

07:03 PM on 01/24/2012

Effective tax rates for American Corporations, those that actually pay taxes - 0% - 14%

GE got huge tax refunds. False news parent company got over $2 Billion in tax refunds.

The rate on the books does not matter. It's what they pay that counts. More than 30 of the most profitable American corps paid more for lobbying than they paid in taxes.

You can take that hogwash to the fans of false news. Rational people simply don't buy it.

[Spartacus2]

05:21 PM on 01/24/2012

The eco-fanatics have scored another victory in their war against common sense, prosperity and the poor. The oil that would have been carried by the XL pipeline will continue to be transported as it is now --- on freight trains which are far more likely to have a spill than a pipe. And the rail company that carries that oil, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, just happens to be owned by Obama's good pal Warren Buffet. What a cowinkydink! The consequences of the eco-fanatics' bullying? Crony capitalism is rewarded, Warren Buffet gets richer, Obama pays back a buddy (and expects a kickback in donations for his upcoming campaign), the poor pay higher fuel prices, the poor suffer higher inflation for everything they need because of higher energy costs, and the environment is more at risk. This is a classic example of Regressives creating the exact opposite results of those they claim to support. But it is always thus with Regressivism.

[rybalaw]

06:13 PM on 01/24/2012

Not yet There is another chapter to the keystone XL and besides does it matter whether the tar sand oil is refined in Whiting, Indiana or Port Arthur, Texas or whether it gets to Gulf Coast via Chicago or Via the Keystone. There is all sorts of speculation as to what Keystone's competitors might do if Keystone does not get built in business section of the Houston Chronicle

[pmoschetta]

03:08 PM on 01/25/2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/29/us-enbridge-northerngateway-environment-idUSTRE7AS1YO20111129

http://blog.nwf.org/2011/11/breaking-news-enbridge-tar-sands-oil-spill-disaster-in-the-kalamazoo-river-is-worse-than-originally-reported/

Two MAJOR reasons environmentalists are against the pipeline

[kburgoyne]

06:52 PM on 01/24/2012

Yet another dinosaur who can't see beyond dirty carbon fuels.

[Spartacus2]

03:33 PM on 01/25/2012

Yet another eco-fanatic that is willing to let the poor freeze in the winter and starve all year long while continuing to enrich their political allies. Hey, if you can live with yourself, that's on you.