'You Shall Not Pass': Activists Take to the Trees to Stop Tar Sands Pipeline | Common Dreams

'You Shall Not Pass': Activists Take to the Trees to Stop Tar Sands Pipeline | Common Dreams
photo: Tar Sands BlockadeEight people are engaged in a direct action on Monday to thwart the construction of the tar sands-carrying Keystone XL pipeline in Texas.
The activists with Tar Sands Blockade have scaled trees in an attempt to stop TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, from clear cutting an area near Winnsboro, Texas to make way for the pipeline.
TransCanada crew has begun clear cutting toward the activists, but so far there has not been a confrontation.
“Today I climbed a tree in the path of Keystone XL to demand TransCanada stop construction of this dirty and dangerous pipeline. This pipeline is a disaster for everyone it touches, from the cancer tar sands extraction is causing indigenous communities, to the water poisoned by inevitable tar sands spills, to the landowners whose land has been seized, and to everyone that will be affected by climate change,” said Mary Washington, one of the Tar Sands Blockade members sitting in a tree.