Tomorrow morning at the densely traveled Santa Monica intersection of San Vicente Boulevard and 26th Street, at least 100 protestors, representing a half-dozen environmental groups, are planning to hook a thumb around the ear of President Obama – on a fundraising tour – and tell him, “Don’t dare approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.”
Activists from the Sierra Club, Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, 350.org, Tar Sands Action Southern California, CREDO, the Center for Biological Diversity, Burbank Green Alliance, and Wilder Utopia have pledged their presence.
Says Orange County organizer Jack Eidt of Tar Sand Action SoCal of the 11 a.m. protest:
“We will ask him not to betray our children with a broken promise of climate leadership. And we will call on him to reject the Keystone.”
Does Mr. Eidt think his fellow protestors can edge close enough to the Obama traveling party to make an audio dent in his day?
“Whether he hears our voices directly or learns about what we are doing from the media, our biggest issue is letting the President, the State Dept., and the world, know we are here.
“We are following them wherever they go. We will remind them the President has promised to do something about climate change. We are going to hold him to that.
“A bunch of other things need to be done. But the first step in getting off fossil fuels is to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline,” a long controversial project that would transport tar sand bitumin from Canada through Middle Western states, down to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Mr. Eidt described Mr. Obama’s five-year environmental record as “a mixed bag.”
“The President has not done a good job on what we consider important things,” said Mr. Eidt. He is distressed because Mr. Obama has approved the lower half of the route, which he fears may be preparatory to doing the same with the upper half.
“The influence of Big Oil makes full approval of the pipeline a real possibility.
“The way we, the public, can counteract that is with boots on the ground.
“When we show up (to protest), we can’t put our money into the process but we can put our bodies into the process.”
Mr. Eidt said does “not” think Keystone is a done deal.
“President Obama alone, without consulting the Congress, could reject the project because of the climate impact,” he said.
Why hasn’t he blocked it?
“There is so much money in politics,” said Mr. Eidt, “that makes it really difficult for him to say no, particularly before the election last year.”
But now Mr. Obama is safe from the voters.
“Yes, he is,” said Mr. Eidt, “but there always is the political calculus that you have to deal with the money that is there.”
Mr. Eidt may be contacted at jack.eidt@wilderutopia.com
