7 Arrested After Chaining Themselves to a Truck to Protest Oil Pipeline

Only yesterday, East Texas witnessed a protest staged by several ordinary folks who fear that the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline will ultimately damage their homes and communities.

It is either because work on this pipeline will require that other structures be brought down in order to accommodate for it, or because of the environmental risk associated with this project.

In order to at least temporarily keep workers from moving forward with their daily routine, protesters decided to chain themselves to a truck which apparently was responsible for delivering materials to various construction sites.

Although local authorities stepped in and arrested seven of the people who decided to resort to such extreme measures in order to sabotage work on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the protesters can take pride in having achieved at least some level of satisfaction.

As explained by several members of the for the Tar Sands Blockader (i.e. the “official” name for the group responsible for this protest), “Today we closed the tar sands pipe yard for 5 hours. And because the authorities were forced to dismantle the truck to make arrests, we completely cut off all transportation of pipes to the southern segment of Keystone XL construction for the whole day.”

What is interesting is that, according to sources, the people who took part in this protest have very little in common, except for the fact that they are dead set against the construction of this new oil pipeline.

“Again, we witness the power of bringing together those battling corporate eminent domain abuse and those fighting to defend our natural commons from the unconscionable harm of surface mining and catastrophic climate change,” the group commented on these most recent events.

For those unaware, the Keystone Pipeline System, of whom the Keystone XL Pipeline is just a part, is meant to help transport synthetic crude oil and diluted bitumen from the province of Alberta, Canada to various regions in the US.