January 7th, 2013

Tar Sands Blockade, the group that’s been fighting the progress of the Keystone XL pipeline through Texas, fanned out across the country on Monday, launching protests in corporate offices of TransCanada, the operator of the tar sands pipeline.

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November 19th, 2012

From Green Right Now ReportsTar Sands Blockade, a coalition of landowners and environmentalists opposed to the tar sands pipeline, reported that police have arrested 12 protesters in East Texas for trying to stop the construction of the intercontinental pipeline.

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October 31st, 2012

Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, has been arrested in Texas while helping protesters of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Stein, who was being detained at the Wood County Jail, was helping resupply members of the Tar Sands Blockade who’re encamped in the trees trying to stop the path of the pipeline through East Texas.

Before being detained by local authorities — joining dozens of protesters who’ve been arrested for civil disobedience against the pipeline project — Dr. Stein issued a statement linking Keystone XL to the climate change that’s causing havoc with the U.S. economy and environment.

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October 18th, 2012

Readers of this website already know that there’s a major standoff over the Keystone XL pipeline in unlikely East Texas.

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October 11th, 2012

Another protestor of Keystone XL pipeline has taken to the trees in East Texas.

Inspired by a handful of kindred spirits who’ve been expressing their opposition to the pipeline via a tree blockade a few miles away, Kevin Redding, 22, of Austin, climbed into the timber at the West End Nature Preserve just outside Mt. Vernon, Texas.

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September 28th, 2012

Keystone XL pipeline protesters braced for a showdown with construction crews today in East Texas, where at least 8 protesters have been encamped since Monday in a ‘tree village’ built to block the path of the pipeline.

The Tar Sands Blockade protesters have been thwarting the progress of the pipeline through East Texas by locking themselves to equipment or sitting in front of tree-clearing machinery. They’ve slowed work crews at various points along the southern segment of Keystone XL, between Cushing, Okla., and Port Arthur, Texas.

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September 25th, 2012

Tree sitters have brought West Coast-style civil disobedience to the heart of the Lone Star state.

Starting bright and early Monday, and continuing today, eight people have perched in tree houses in a so far successful attempt to thwart the progress of the Keystone XL pipeline through Texas.

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September 5th, 2012

Landowners and activists have again forced a temporary work stoppage on the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas.

This morning three members of the Tar Sands Blockade group latched themselves to tree-clearing machinery, stopping work crews from creating the path for the transcontinental pipeline.

It was not immediately known if police had been called to the scene, as they were to a similar scene of civil disobedience by the group in late August.

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August 29th, 2012

Texas residents who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline were arrested after they chained themselves to pipeline construction equipment in Polk County on Tuesday.

The seven protesters, five men and two women, were trying to thwart the progress of the pipeline through Texas, the last leg of the 1,700 mile project that would bring tar sands oil from Alberta to refineries near Houston. They oppose the pipeline because they believe it will be unsafe and could leak harming aquifers and farm land. Many of the protesters, part of the Tar Sands Blockade, also oppose the tar sands project because it will add to the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling climate change.

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August 22nd, 2012

It’s often assumed that Texans, like the majority of their lawmakers, favor oil drilling and the expansion of the oil industry.

And it’s often true. But a small, scrappy group of protesters that has risen up against the construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas and Oklahoma are showing that such stereotypes are just that.

Their protests began last week, with small groups brandishing protest signs at work sites, where pipeline operator TransCanada has begun laying the Southern portion of the 1,700 mile transcontinental pipeline from Alberta to the Houston area.

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