Tell President Obama and Secretary Kerry: You can't ignore us. You must reject Keystone XL

President Obama and the State Department just wish you would go away.

That was the message they sent yesterday to the 36 activists who sat in and risked arrest in Boston, and the hundreds of folks who came out in support.

First, they tried to intimidate us from showing up at all, with threats of federal charges carrying sentences of up to 30 days in jail, a $5,000 fine, and likely four or five court appearances. Then, when not a single person backed down from taking action, they refused to arrest the peaceful protestors, despite their sitting in and blocking two entrances to the State Department office over the course of two hours.

But the brave stand of the 36 dignified and peaceful protestors in Boston sent the president and secretary of state a different message: You have to face us. And we aren't going anywhere until you reject the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all.1,2

You can send that message too, by joining the local Pledge of Resistance sit-in being planned near you. Click here to find yours.


If you don't have an action near you, you can still chip in to support this massive organizing effort to build a wave of resistance to Keystone XL.

Over 75,000 of us have signed the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance. We are ready to commit mass civil disobedience if the State Department recommends the White House grant TransCanada a presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

And to show the White House that these 75,000 pledgers mean what they say, CREDO, Rainforest Action Network and the Other 98% have organized actions in Chicago where 22 of us were arrested, in Houston where 13 were arrested at the front door of TransCanada’s corporate offices, in D.C. where dozens risked arrest at the State Department, and now in Boston to send a message directly to Secretary Kerry.

One woman traveled all the way from Florida to Boston to send the message in Secretary Kerry's hometown, that as head of the State Department, he must live up to the commitments he has made to fight climate change.

Secretary Kerry has rightly called climate change the biggest "long-term threat" to our national security.3 And the Keystone XL pipeline is one of the biggest long-term threats to our climate.

We will not be silent if Secretary Kerry and his State Department try to claim in their upcoming final evaluation of Keystone XL, as they did in their sham first draft, that its approval carries "no significant impact" -- when Secretary Kerry so clearly knows the dangers of "game over" for the climate.

Build the resistance to Keystone XL – be part of your local Pledge of Resistance sit-in.

It is a testament to our growing power that two years after everyone thought the Keystone XL pipeline would certainly be approved, it still has not been. We hope we never have to trigger the Pledge of Resistance and start a wave of civil disobedience that will sweep the country, but we must be ready to do so if we are going to stop the White House from approving this pipeline.
The time for delays has passed. The recent comprehensive (and restrained) report from more than 900 of the world's top scientists stated unequivocally that we have only a few decades to stop burning carbon.4 But those building pipelines do so to keep them in operation for far longer than that.

We cannot afford to allow a foreign corporation to transport dirty tar sands oil across our nation so it can ship it to Asia, making massive profits while our planet burns.

President Obama must reject Keystone XL. And it's up to us to keep building pressure on him until he does. That's why we're letting the president know that tens of thousands of us will be risking arrest if his administration recommends approval of Keystone XL. Will you let him know that you'll be one of them?

Sign up to be a part of your local sit-in to show President Obama he must reject Keystone XL.

Or chip in to keep this massive organizing effort building.

Thanks for fighting Keystone XL.

Elijah Zarlin
CREDO Action


1. "More photos from the sit-in in Boston
2. "Activists Stage Sit-In During Keystone XL Pipeline Protest," Boston Magazine, 9/16/13
3. "Kerry Pledges To Confront Climate Change: ‘I Will Be A Passionate Advocate’ Of Action," Think Progress 1/24/13
4. "IPCC: 30 years to climate calamity if we carry on blowing the carbon budget," Guardian, 9/2713

Photo credit: Kayana Szymczak
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