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Enviros, celebs plan W.H. protest

A group of environmentalists and liberal celebrities are organizing civil disobedience protests at the White House against a proposed oil pipeline - with the emphasis on "civil."

In an open letter, actor Danny Glover , activists Bill McKibben , James Hansen , David Suzuki and others ask for volunteers willing to risk arrest at the White House from mid-August to Labor Day.

But they don't want downtown Washington to look like Vancouver after the Stanley Cup Finals.

"We will do it in dignified fashion, demonstrating that in this case we are the conservatives, and that our foes - who would change the composition of the atmosphere are dangerous radicals," the letter states. "Come dressed as if for a business meeting - this is, in fact, serious business."

At issue is the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline that would run from the Canadian oil - or tar - sands to the Gulf coast. Environmentalists have lobbyied against it because of concerns over the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions linked to the use of oil sands-based crude oil, as well as worries about potential spills and the impact on low-income and minority communities.

The decision currently rests with the State Department, which is reviewing the environmental impacts of the plan and is expected to make a call on the project by the end of the year.

"This is one issue where the president has total control - he has to grant or deny the necessary permits. Congress can't get in the way," said environmental activist Bill McKibben in a statement. "It's where Obama can get his environmental mojo back."

To that end, the organizers want the protesters to support the current White House occupant.

"And another sartorial tip," the letter states, "if you wore an Obama button during the 2008 campaign, why not wear it again?

"We very much still want to believe in the promise of that young senator who told us that with his election the 'rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal,'" it adds. "We don't understand what combination of bureaucratic obstinacy and insider dealing has derailed those efforts, but we remember his request that his supporters continue on after the election to pressure the government for change. We'll do what we can."

House Republicans have been pushing to get the pipeline approved; the Energy and Commerce Committee is set to vote Thursday on a bill (H.R. 1938) that would expedite the project's approval. To call this project a horror is serious understatement. The tar sands have wrecked huge parts of Alberta, disrupting ways of life in indigenous communities - First Nations communities in Canada, and tribes along the pipeline route in the U.S. have demanded the destruction cease. The pipeline crosses crucial areas like the Oglalla Aquifer where a spill would be disastrous - and though the pipeline companies insist they are using 'state of the art' technologies that should leak only once every 7 years, the precursor pipeline and its pumping stations have leaked a dozen times in the past year. These local impacts alone would be cause enough to block such a plan. But the Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous. How much carbon lies in the recoverable tar sands of Alberta? A recent calculation from some of our foremost scientists puts the figure at about 200 parts per million. Even with the new pipeline they won't be able to burn that much overnight - but each development like this makes it easier to get more oil out. As the climatologist Jim Hansen (one of the signatories to this letter) explained, if we have any chance of getting back to a stable climate "the principal requirement is that coal emissions must be phased out by 2030 and unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, must be left in the ground." In other words, he added, "if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over." The Keystone pipeline is an essential part of the game. "Unless we get increased market access, like with Keystone XL, we're going to be stuck," said Ralph Glass , an economist and vice-president at AJM Petroleum Consultants in Calgary, told a Canadian newspaper last week.

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