Appalachian Coalfield Leaders Join Tar Sands Pipeline White House Protest

[kpete]

Source: Huffington Post

In an extraordinary act of solidarity, Blanton and other Appalachian coalfield leaders will join the growing climate justice sit-in at the White House today, calling on President Obama to deny the TransCanada Keystone pipeline permit. Hansen, who has defined the pipeline decision as a litmus test for the Obama administration's commitment to dealing with climate change, was arrested earlier this week.

"If this pipeline is built and they continue to mine tar sands the climate that I have enjoyed over my lifetime in Kentucky will forever be changed. It is already changing, and our people are drinking poison water and breathing unhealthy particles from the extraction, transporting, processing and burning of coal," Blanton said. "We must take back our democracy and demand that decisions be made based on sound science, just as the president said he would. There is nothing sound about building a pipeline across our country."

No one understands the reckless devastation from tar sands operations better than coalfield residents, especially affected residents in central Appalachia. Strip mining, in fact, takes place in 24 states across the country. If the White House can't end the disastrous pipeline or mountaintop removal mining -- an egregious operation that provides less than 5 percent of our national coal production and has unleashed one of the most urgent humanitarian crises in our country -- any just transition to a clean energy future seems dim.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/keystone-xl-protests_b_943266.html

[SoapBox]

1. Is Obama even listening to people or is this just part of his GO-BPer side?

...money from oil that he cannot resist?

[Cool Logic]

2. "... calling on President Obama to deny the TransCanada Keystone pipeline permit. "

Undoubtedly, someone is confused; for the US in not a monarchy, nor is Obama a King.

and then...

"We must take back our democracy and demand that decisions be made based on sound science,...

And what democracy would that be...?

Is she talking about the same "democracy" that Article 4, Section 4, defines as a Republic?

[Supersedeas]

3. Jobs vs. residents and environmental impact...it is a GOP balancing test.

Short term jobs and large corporate profits vs. long term living conditions

[atheistprogress]

4. Is there a reason we need a pipeline,

and not just build a factory up there to refine these sands?