The protesters demand Obama not approve the Keystone XL Pipeline
Organizers estimate the recent march in Washington DC for climate change action was the largest such march in US history. The protesters specifically want Obama to block the construction of the new Keystone XL Pipeline that would bring oil to the US from Canada. Inside Climate News explains:
As many as 40,000 protesters from 30 states descended on the White House on Sunday and demanded that President Obama kill the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline. By the estimates of organizers, it was the biggest protest march for climate change action in the nation's history.
In about 18 cities from Boston to Los Angeles, thousands more participated in solidarity rallies—and helped garner unusual nationwide media attention for an issue that has typically slipped under the local media radar.
National environmental activists have made the Keystone XL a test of Obama's climate promises, as well as the cornerstone issue of a mushrooming grassroots movement to turn climate action into a moral issue. The pipeline would carry crude from the Canadian tar sands to Texas refineries and deepen U.S. dependence on a form of oil that produces more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil.
