Tag: Keystone XL pipeline

Reject and Protect: Tell President Obama to Reject Keystone XL

Tomorrow, the Cowboy Indian Alliance rides into Washington, DC. This powerful coalition of farmers, ranchers, and tribal communities on the frontlines of the Keystone XL fight is coming to President Obama’s doorstep and setting up camp from April 22-27th. The creative line up of Reject and Protect actions will show the president the real stakes of approving Keystone XL — and the people he’ll have to answer to if he chooses to approve this disastrous tar sands oil project.
All pipeline fighters are invited to join the events, and you won’t want to miss the final tipi ceremony and march on Saturday, April 26th. Sign up here to join the mass Saturday action. Want to be a part of the movement but can’t make in into DC? You can watch the opening ceremonies and events throughout the week via live-stream here.
Last week, President Obama announced he won’t decide on the pipeline until after a Nebraska Supreme Court Case about the pipeline’s route is decided. While the delay is a victory for pipeline opponents — every day that more tar sands oil stays in the ground is a victory — it’s also a sign that the president isn’t ready yet to outright reject the pipeline, as the evidence shows he must. Rejecting Keystone XL would keep 1,000,000,000 barrels of tar sands oil in the ground and have the equivalent climate impact of closing 51 coal plants. It’s estimated that Keystone XL could leak 91 times over its lifetime into some of the most sensitive water tables in North America, posing a direct threat to the farmers, ranchers and tribes who rely on clean water for their livelihoods.
That’s why these brave Keystone XL fighters are coming to DC, and that’s why we’re joining them in their call for president Obama to reject the pipeline and protect our land, water and climate.
As the week wraps up on Saturday, thousands of people opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline will converge on the National Mall for a tipi ceremony and march, in which we’ll deliver a hand-painted Tipi in President Obama’s name to the Museum of the American Indian. The tipi will represent our hope that he will reject the pipeline, and our promise that we will protect our land and water if he chooses to let the pipeline move forward.
You’ll have a chance to leave your own fingerprint on the hand-painted tipi, and literally be part of the historical record. Will you be a part of this historic Reject and Protect action with us? Sign up here.

Here’s a look at some of the inspiring events throughout the week. You can see a full schedule of events here.

Camp David-to-DC Climate March Culminates with White House Rally, Calling on Pres. Obama to Keep His Promises

Grandparents and youth who just walked 100 miles in ‘Summer Heat’ to call on President Obama to stop Keystone XL are welcomed by hundreds of supporters at White House rally

WASHINGTON, DC—On Saturday, grandparents, parents and youth culminated a 100-mile, eight-day march from Camp David to DC by rallying with hundreds of supporters in Lafayette Park across from the White House. They called on President Obama to keep his promises to children now and to future generations by rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and moving toward independence from all fossil fuels.

Keystone XL pipeline

#Walk4Grandkids Day 8: NO KXL!

From July 19th to July 26th, grandparents, parents and young people, from age 15 to 78, journeyed together on a eight-day trek from Camp David to the White House. After 100 miles of sweat and blisters through this summer’s worst heat wave, the Walk for Our Grandchildren reached DC today. Dozens gathered downtown at the headquarter of ERM to expose corporate influence in the US Department of State’s analsysis of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Tomorrow, we will reach our ultimate goal – the White House, calling upon President Obama to demonstrate substantive leadership on climate by rejecting the KXL.
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#Walk4Grandkids Day 4: Voices From the Trail

The following is a Day 4 update by Elisabeth Hoffman, who’s on the trail of the Walk for Our Grandchildren, July 19th-July 27th.
For our children, we would do anything.
From the mundane to the extraordinary, we have done what ever was necessary to protect, clothe, educate, and help them grow.
Parents on the 2013 Walk For Our Grandchildren baby-proofed the house, stayed up all night with sick children, coached, and volunteered in schools. Some gave up lucrative jobs to work from home for their children or to go sledding on snow days. Those memories are now the fuel that moves them onward step by step to Washington, DC.
Bill Ramsey of Asheville, NC instilled a love of nature in his children with summer backpacking and camping trips. But they also participated in protests, including once when his oldest son, then two years old and out of view in a backpack, was inadvertently arrested with him at a farm workers’ strike. “They’ve seen me, day after day, working and acting as if we can create change,” he said. Bill now walks for his grandchildren, age eight and three.
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Camp David to the White House: The first three days of extreme heat and high spirits

I’ve walked thirty miles across Maryland the past three days in the middle of the worst heat wave of the year. The heat index has soared well above 100 each day, causing the corn fields and forests to shimmer in the distance. My feet, meanwhile, are so tender I’ve literally begun applying duct tape to the balls of my feet to ward off blisters.
And I couldn’t be in higher spirits. Why? Because today I get to do it all over again with 60-70 inspiring climate activists from across the country as part of the “2013 Walk for Our Grandchildren.” For eight days, from July 19-27th, we are walking 100 miles from the gates of Camp David — the presidential retreat in western Maryland — all the way to the White House. Our goal: Tell President Obama to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and accelerate solutions to global warming.
Already, we’ve walked through the “green tunnels” of the Catoctin Mountains. We’ve marched across soybean farms and into towns with one stoplight. We camped one night on a Civil War battlefield. What keeps us going with bandaged feet and evaporating pounds are the stories we hear along the way. We met farmer Shelly Wolf who says the weather in rural Frederick County Maryland is unrecognizable compared to when she and her husband bought their farm 58 years ago. The snow back then would shut down their country road for a week at a time. Now it barely snows. And today it’s not just the heat waves but the summer humidity! Insufferable, she says. There was nothing like it during her childhood.
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#Walk4Grandkids Day 3: Reinforcements arrive

The following is a Day 3 update by Greg Yost, who’s on the trail of the Walk for Our Grandchildren, July 19th-July 27th.
Reinforcements arrive.
After spending the last two days walking down roads and through valleys where Confederate and Union troops maneuvered 150 years ago, it feels only natural to think of the huge influx of new walkers this evening as fresh troops arriving just in time for our offensive to recapture the future from fossil fuels. Our forces have more than tripled since Friday at Camp David.
We’re in Harpers Ferry, WV, itself a place pregnant with Civil War history and meaning. Steve Norris, one the Walk’s originators, made those connections for us as we gathered for orientation in a beautiful field now dotted with our tents on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River.
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#Walk4Grandkids Day 2: Standing with Myersville

The following is a Day 2 update by Greg Yost, who’s on the trail of the Walk for Our Grandchildren, July 19th-July 27th.
“I say, ‘Shut up, legs!'”—German cycling hard man Jens Voigt on his secret to his success.
Toes, feet, calves, knees. We received quite an education today in the lower anatomy and its surprising potential for creating human misery. But the 2013 Walk For Our Grandchildren is never intimidated. We say, “Shut up, legs!” and on we go!
Our first stop today was Myersville, MD, the site of a proposed gas compressor station on the edge of town.
This is an interesting story. What happens when a corporation runs headlong into a town with an activated citizenry that just doesn’t roll over for them? Dominion Transmission, Inc.(DTI), a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, wants to site a key piece of fracking infrastructure in Myersville as one link in a chain allowing them to move fracked gas from the Marcellus Shale to an eventual export terminal at Cove Point, MD. And this is a pretty good idea, too. Or at least it is if you’re DTI.
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#Walk4Grandkids Day 1: Heat! Blisters! Sweat and sore muscles!

The following is a Day 1 update by Greg Yost, who’s on the trail of the Walk for Our Grandchildren, July 19th-July 27th.
Heat! Blisters! Sweat and sore muscles!
Exhaustion? Yeah, there was some of that, too…Man, what a fantastic first day we had.
The 2013 Walk For Our Grandchildren got off to a roaring start today from Camp David and tonight is 11 miles closer to its White House goal.
We’re walking 100 miles to carry a message from every dried up, burned, flooded, hurricaned, and sick-and-tired-of-climate-inaction corner of this country to President Obama. We demand substantive leadership climate NOW starting with a final and unequivocal rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Basically, President Obama, no more ifs, ands, or buts. Climate change is the most pressing issue this nation has ever faced. Lead or get out of the way.
And who is delivering this feisty message? WE ARE! Today we were 22 strong with critical back up from our support team keeping us supplied with snacks and cool water. We’ll be in Harpers Ferry, WV on Sunday where our numbers will grow to 75 or more. As we move closer to DC, numbers will swell yet again with hundreds joining each day as day walkers.
Interested? Go to http://joinsummerheat.org/maryland and sign up to get more information on where and when to meet us. Also, check out http://joinsummerheat.org/dc for the latest on two actions we’re initiating in DC on Friday, July 26th and Saturday, July 27th. Get to DC if you can and get active. This is a great way to do it.
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Amid ‘Summer Heat’ Wave, Grandparents Begin 100-mile Walk from Camp David to the White House

Walkers from 11 to 78 will carry intergenerational call for bold climate action

CAMP DAVID—With heat indexes soaring above 100 °F, several dozen grandparents, parents and young people set off today on a 100-mile, eight-day trek from Camp David to the White House. United by their sweat and their determination to confront the growing crisis of climate change, marchers are calling on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline and to take further steps to leave fossil fuels in the ground.

“At 63 years old, nothing could deter me from this long, sweaty journey, because nothing is more important for the future of my five grandchildren than addressing climate change,” said Kendall Hale, a grandmother from Asheville, North Carolina. “I’m walking because I want to leave them a legacy of clean wind turbines and solar panels crisscrossing our nation, not toxic tar sands oil and fracked gas pipelines.”

This first-of-its-kind “Walk for Our Grandchildren” will include activists from across the region and across the country, ranging in age from 78 to 11, marching during the statistically hottest period of the year: late July. The walk began today near the presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland, which is named after President Dwight Eisenhower’s grandson. Walkers’ ranks are expected to swell to hundreds by the time they near Washington, DC on July 26.

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Why I’m Walking From Camp David to DC

This is one in a series of posts sharing the stories of grandparents, parents and young people who are joining the Walk for Our Grandchildren, July 19th-27th.
This week-long, 100-mile walk will bring an intergenerational message of hope from Camp David to the White House to demand that President Obama reject the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline and confront the growing crisis of climate change. You can join us for a day on the trail, or join walkers and thousands of others for a culminating rally at the White House on July 27th. Click here to learn more and sign up.

I’m making the 100-mile “Walk for Our Grandchildren” trip from Camp David to the White House because nothing in my 51 years has made me happier than having a son.
Sasha Tidwell is 16 years old now. He is an honor student, an Eagle Scout, and a starting pitcher for his varsity baseball team. Before Sasha was born, I thought I knew what happiness was. I had climbed peaks in the Alps, written three books, and shaken hands with the Dalai Lama. Life was pretty full. Then Sasha was born. It was May 30th, 1997.
At that moment I was lifted onto a cloud of joy – far above the old world below – and I have never come back down. I watched him take his first step, read his first book (Berenstain Bears), ride his first skateboard, and – last week – drive his first car. Through all the skinned knees and book reports and muddy shoes on the carpet, I have always known that being with him and being his father made me the happiest person I could ever be. Life was pretty much perfect.
Except for the sadness. Every day, mixed deeply into the joy, is a sadness: Our climate is changing. The seas are rising. Storms are getting bigger.
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