Inside The Pipeline

 

 Courtesy of Tar Sands Blockade

Activists Glen Collins, front, and Matt Almonte, back, blockade themselves inside the TransCanada Pipeline wearing gas masks to
protest the poisonous tar sands that will be passing through the pipe if the KXL is completed.

Two Tar Sands Blockade protesters sealed themselves inside the TransCanada Pipeline in Smith County, Texas today, and at the intersection of County Roads 357 and 362.  They used concrete barrels as "plugs."

Below, a youtube from the group taped inside the pipe, with activist Matt Almonte making a statement on why he is there, and joined by fellow protester Glen Collins.

 

Photos here from Tar Sands Blockade website.

Local Station KLTV reports the Sheriff's Department called in, forcibly removing the protesters.  Both Glen Collins and Matt Almonte were arrested, along with a third Keystone activist, Isabel Indigo Brooks, and following their acts of civil disobedience.  They were charged with criminal trespass, resisting arrest, and illegal dumping.

Video from KLTV below, including an interview with Keystone Blockade spokesperson Ron Seifert who states,

"The land owners here feel like their homes have been taken illegally, that TransCanada has bullied people all over Texas into signing contracts. That it's using its pipeline for private profits, not for any public use or public good, so these blockaders feel very justified in doing whatever it takes to advocate for these landowners and to protect our collective future, our water and our resources from the deadliest form of energy that we have on the planet right now: these dirty tar sands."

 He also adds,

"Today's blockaders are also acting in concert with other Tar Sands participants down in Houston who are on hunger strike outside the Valero refinery where tar sands fuel is expected to be received and refined through this pipeline."

  KLTV.com-Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville, Texas | ETX News