Keystone XL pipeline faces opposition from ‘historic union’ of Canada, U.S. Indigenous tribes

Members of American Indian Movement (AIM) in Colorado protest Keystone XL pipeline and tar sands.

Blackfoot Confederacy and Great Sioux Nation leaders signing declaration against pipeline Wednesday in Calgary

By Blake Nicholson, The Associated Press, May 16, 2017

Tribes representing tens of thousands of Indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada will sign a declaration against the planned Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Leaders of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Canada and the Great Sioux Nation and Ponca tribe in the U.S. plan to sign their declaration at a ceremony Wednesday at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary — the city where pipeline developer TransCanada Corp. is based.

Some Chase branches in Seattle closed by protests over pipeline loans

Pizza is delivered next to Native American leaders and climate activists demonstrating inside of a Chase Bank location, in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, in Seattle, Washington, U.S. May 8, 2017. REUTERS/David Ryder

By Tom James, Reuters, May 9, 2017

Native American leaders and climate activists protested at several Chase branches in Seattle on Monday, forcing them to close temporarily as demonstrators demanded the bank not lend to projects like the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Ranchers and Tribes Unite Once Again to Fight Keystone XL

Amos Hinton and Mekasi Horinek of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma talk with farmer Art Tanderup during the 2014 planting of sacred Ponca corn on the Tanderup farm. Courtesy Mary Anne Andrei/Bold Nebraska

A unique alliance among tribes, ranchers, and other landowners in Nebraska regroups to resist fossil fuel development like the Keystone XL

Devi Lockwood, YES! Magazine, May 9, 2017

A week after tens of thousands turned out in support of science and just before thousands more took to the streets for the People’s Climate March, a quieter walk was held at what might be considered ground zero of the country’s energy debate. On April 29, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska headed south on a 273-mile remembrance walk beginning in Niobrara, Nebraska, and scheduled to culminate 12 days later in the small village of Barneston. The event will commemorate the Ponca’s forced removal from their traditional lands in the 1870s—lands that today are again under dispute to make way for the Keystone XL pipeline.

S. Dakota Governor wants new powers to prepare for Keystone XL protests

Police arrest a protester against the Dakota Access Pipeline near Cannonball, North Dakota, December 2016.

by Bob Mercer, Rapid City Journal , Feb 26, 2017

As the protest camp along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline emptied out last week in North Dakota, legislators in South Dakota began considering a potential state law aimed at punishing possible protesters over another oil pipeline.

TransCanada asks U.S. to delay Keystone XL pipeline review

Map of proposed Keystone XL pipeline

Company may be waiting for a more favourable political climate, analyst says

CBC News, Nov 2, 2015

TransCanada Corporation has asked the U.S. State Department to pause its review of the presidential permit application for the Keystone XL pipeline.

The company sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, saying it believes there is sound precedent for making the request to pause the review.

That adds a new wrinkle to one of the biggest Canada-U.S. political irritants of recent years, involving a proposed pipeline from Alberta to Texas.

In the pipelines’ path: Canada’s First Nations lead resistance

Women warriors at a tire fire blockade on Hwy 11, Dec 2, 2013, during resistance to SWN exploratory work for fracking in Mi’kmaq territory (New Brunswick).

Christopher Curtis, Montreal Gazette, September 4, 2015

Serge Simon steps out of his truck, saunters across Route 148 and into the bushes.

He hops over a broken lath fence, landing in the shrubs on the other side of it. As he presses forward, Simon makes a show of quickly ducking, as though some wayward farmer just fired a rifle blast overhead.

“We’re trespassing,” says Simon, flashing a mischievous smile. “But the way I see it, this is Mohawk land anyway. If anyone sees us, maybe they’ll freak out and think the natives have come to take back their territory.”

Obama would veto Keystone bill, White House says

Members of American Indian Movement (AIM) in Colorado protest Keystone XL pipeline and tar sands.

Republican-controlled U.S. Congress eager to flex muscles on energy file

By Pete Evans, CBC News,  Jan 6, 2015

The White House says U.S. President Barack Obama would veto any legislation that tries to fast-track the Keystone XL project even as Republican lawmakers tabled a bill that would do just that in Washington today.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said he does not expect Obama would sign any legislation that reaches his desk that would unilaterally approve the project, a 1,900-kilometre pipeline that would bring 800,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil to U.S. refineries every day.

US Senate Votes Not to Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline

Members of American Indian Movement (AIM) in Colorado protest Keystone XL pipeline and tar sands.

By Tim McDonnell, Mother Jones, Nov. 17, 2014

A controversial bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline failed in the US Senate Tuesday evening. It received 59 “aye” votes, just shy of the 60 needed to send the bill to President Obama’s desk. The fight isn’t over yet; Republicans have said they plan to prioritize approving the pipeline once they take control of the Senate next year.

Below the headlines last week about President Obama’s major climate agreement with China, another environmental story was gaining steam: a vote in Congress to force approval of Keystone XL, a controversial pipeline that would carry crude oil from Canada down to refineries on the Gulf Coast. On Friday, the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of the pipeline, as it has done numerous times in the past. The Senate is expected to vote on an identical bill today. Previous Keystone legislation has always stalled in the Senate due to opposition from Democrats. But the vote Tuesday will likely have more Democratic support than ever before, making it the closest the pipeline has yet come to approval.

Keystone pipeline foes energized as tumbling crude prices pinch oil sands

Members of American Indian Movement (AIM) in Colorado protest Keystone XL pipeline and tar sands.

Jim Snyder, Financial Post/Bloomberg News, October 27, 2014

Falling oil prices have energized opponents of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

U.S. benchmark crude has tumbled 10% this month, closing at $81.01 a barrel in New York trading last week, and further declines are forecast. At $75, a government analysis said producers may be discouraged from developing Canada’s oil sands without pipelines like Keystone.

“It changes the narrative quite a bit,” Anthony Swift, an international lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, said of the tumble in crude prices.

Northern Gateway is not alone: 5 more pipelines to watch

From Keystone XL to Trans Mountain – 5 pipeline systems that could help move oil out of Alberta

By Max Paris, CBC News, June 17, 2014

It’s decision day for the Northern Gateway pipeline. In Ottawa, camera positions are being marked out, pencils sharpened and microphones tested. All eyes are fixed on the clock, waiting for markets to close, so today’s announcement doesn’t ruffle any financial feathers.

But Northern Gateway isn’t the only pipeline that could remake the face of North America’s energy supply and roil the continent’s political waters. Here is a list of five more — some well-known, others not so much: