Contact: Jamie Henn, [email protected], 415-890-3350
Opposition to the project picks up momentum after 398 students were arrested at the White House last weekend protesting the pipeline
Boston, MA — A large crowd of Keystone XL pipeline opponents will rally outside of President Obama’s fundraising event in Boston this evening to push the President to reject the controversial pipeline project.
Last Sunday, over 1,200 students joined XL Dissent, a protest and sit-in outside the White House that led to the arrest of 398 young people. A large crowd of students from Massachusetts took part in the protest and many of them will be outside the fundraiser tonight.
“The first vote that I ever cast was for Obama in 2012- a vote that I eagerly cast because I believed in Hope and Change,” said Evan Bell, a Tufts student who was arrested at the White House and will protest outside President Obama’s fundraiser tonight. “Since then Obama has betrayed my vote, and that is why I, along with over 1000 young people, registered my dissent last weekend at his home. Obama has to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, and if he won’t listen to the science, he has no choice but to listen to us. We told him in DC, now we must tell him in Boston, and everywhere he goes: Reject Keystone XL. This is not his legacy that is on the line, it is our lives.”
Who: A large crowd of students, community members, and environmentalists, supported by XL Dissent, 350 Massachusetts, and 350.org.
What: A rally outside of President Obama’s fundraiser in Boston to protest the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Where: 100 West 2nd Street, Boston, MA
When: Wednesday, March 5, 6 PM
Why: The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would be a 1,700 mile conduit for over 800,000 barrels a day of tar sands oil, the dirtiest fuel on the planet, from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Tar sands oil produces far more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude, leading scientists to label Keystone XL “a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet.” Keystone XL puts ranchers and farmers along the pipeline route at risk from spills and disasters, as well as endangers our entire climate. In order to be built, Keystone XL requires a Presidential Permit because it crosses our international border with Canada. President Obama is expected to make a final decision on the project sometime this Spring. Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested in acts of civil disobedience protesting the project and tens of thousands have taken to the streets in Washington, DC and around the country to push President Obama to stand up to Big Oil and say no to Keystone XL.