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NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2010
Stop tar sands imports
Chicago--Dozens of demonstrators gathered at a downtown hotel Aug. 5, where President Obama appeared at a Democratic Party fundraiser, to call on him to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada, to halt the expansion of dirty tar sands oil imports, and to stop the dumping of refinery by-products of dirty tar sands oil into Lake Michigan. It was a creative and colorful contingent, with signs and puppets.
On the heels of the greatest oil spill in U.S. history in the Gulf of Mexico, and a million gallon oil spill in Michigan, the U.S. government is still considering a $7 billion investment in the dirtiest fuel source available: tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada. This oil emits three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil in production alone. The tar sands industry is devastating to local populations, including indigenous and poor communities whose environment and water will be destroyed.
We need a different kind of energy future, and the current plan to double imports of tar sands oil would be a wrong turn, one we don't need and can't afford. Serious questions have already been raised about the wisdom of this by Rep. Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Then and now we say: President Obama, block the Keystone Pipeline!
Our signs calling on Obama to stop these practices received a very positive response from passersby. But it was also clear that people were reading them carefully to make sure they weren't similar to the racist signs of the Tea Partiers massed across the street. They had slogans like "Where's the birth certificate?" That garbage doesn't fly well on the streets of downtown Chicago.
One of them crossed the street to argue with us. It was interesting to hear his theories about a 5,000-year-old planet Earth and the uselessness of scientific knowledge.
--Participant
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