Protesters Win Pipeline Delay

              Image by 350.org via Flickrby Brooke Jarvis, on Yes! magazine: http://www.yesmagazine.org

The Keystone XL pipeline started out as a fairly obscure infrastructure project that most observers expected to win quick and easy approval.

But through months of determined protest, opponents of the pipeline (which would carry oil from Canada’s tar sands to refineries in the Gulf Coast) stirred up a national debate about the wisdom of building it.

And today, they’re celebrating a victory: The State Department (which must approve the pipeline since it crosses an international border) announced that it will delay approval of the project by at least a year until it can study alternative routes.

The pipeline isn’t dead, but the delay is very bad news for the developer, TransCanada - whose CEO was quoted warning that any delays might kill the project - and very good news for the thousands who have worked to keep the project from being rubber-stamped.

To get the issue on the public’s radar, more than 1,200 people volunteered to be arrested outside the White House in August; just last week, thousands of protesters encircled the building completely. Opponents also sent some 300,000 comments to the State Department and filled public hearings for months.

To read further, go to: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/brooke-jarvis/protesters-win-pipeline-delay?utm_source=wkly20111111&utm_medium=yesemail&utm_campaign=titleJarvis