Oil pipeline draws protest

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Two men held up a human-sized cardboard cutout of President Barack Obama in front of the SUB Friday morning. A crowd of about 100 faced the cutout and pointed their fingers at the faux United States leader.

“President Obama, stop the pipeline,” the crowd shouted three times.

Then, as attendees held up placards and signs, 11 protesters and a dog fell on their backs on the ground and pretended to gasp for air.

Albuquerque residents gathered on campus that day to protest the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The protest, organized by environmental group 350.org, was part of a series of 216 protests nationwide.

Tom Solomon, co-leader of 350.org New Mexico, said the organization planned the protest to demand that the president halt the project, which would pump oil extracted from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, down to oil refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

“It’s being held to make it clear to President Obama that there’s grassroots public opinion that he should cancel the Keystone pipeline,” Solomon said. “That’s his decision to make. He has to say yes if we’re putting a pipeline in the U.S.-Canadian border, and we want him to say no.”

The construction of the pipeline has four phases. The first phase of the pipeline, stretching from Alberta to Illinois, was completed in the summer of 2010, and the second, which creates a stretch of pipeline splitting off from Nebraska to Oklahoma, was finished in early 2011.

Obama approved the third phase in March, which creates a section of pipeline from Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast, and it is set to start operating in 2014. The fourth phase, which would pipe oil from Alberta to Nebraska, is still awaiting approval from the president.

Solomon said the pollution that will be caused by the Keystone pipeline will affect the entire country.

“It goes through many, many states,” he said. “It is not a pipeline that goes through New Mexico, but the carbon pollution that will be released if we burn all that buried oil tar sands is going to affect the climate for the entire planet. The people of this nation have a say in a decision that he alone can make.”

The pipeline is a “major, potentially fatal blow to climate change on this planet,” Solomon said. He said the pipeline adds 150 parts per million to the U.S.’s carbon emissions. And the country already emits 400 parts per million, 50 parts beyond what is considered to be the “maximum safe level,” he said.

“If we add 150 parts per million more through the tar sands, it’s game over for the planet,” he said. “It would be disastrous for the entire planet. You will not be able to recognize the planet in a hundred years.”

Jim Mackenzie, a volunteer with 350.org, said the protest also aims to call onto UNM for support beyond just halting the Keystone pipeline. He said 350.org is working on a divestment campaign on campus to urge the University to give up its fossil fuel holdings.

“The carbon released from burning fossil fuels is stressing the planet and its living things in a major way. We need to change and (the University) is blocking change. There’s a moral imperative that we identify this as the problem.”

And giving up fossil fuel also has economic advantages for UNM, he said.

“If we look into the future, it’s not going to be very far that carbon is going to be regulated,” he said. “When that happens, the value of these holdings that the University owns is going to decrease. You want to sell those while they’re high and not when they start to slide.”

Denise Fort, a research professor at UNM Law School who spoke at the event, said she is “angry” about the construction of the pipeline and about climate change in general.

Fort said that although local environmental organizations don’t have enough money, they should focus on recruitment to strengthen their cause.

“We have the people on our side. Obviously we don’t have the money on our side,” she said. “It seems that we only have each other. I encourage everybody to build community. We are the fire department. We are the ones who are going to put this fire out and no one else.”

Solomon said 350.org started planning the protest last month because it projected that Obama will issue a decision on the fourth phase by November. But because of concerns from the Environmental Protection Agency, the president will have to postpone his decision to as late as January, he said.

Solomon said he is “cautiously optimistic” that Obama will stop the construction of the pipeline in the future.

“I am optimistic that he is a reasonable and intelligent man and has two children that he wants to grow up in a safe world,” he said. “I think he’ll make the right call.”