Vigil held on Donald E. Davey Bridge
A group of protesters lined the Davey Bridge between Edgecomb and Wiscasset to ask that President Barack Obama stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. BEN BULKELEY/Wiscasset Newspaper
A group of protesters lined the Davey Bridge between Edgecomb and Wiscasset to ask that President Barack Obama stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. BEN BULKELEY/Wiscasset Newspaper
On Tuesday, Jan. 13 a group of protestors walked across the Davey Bridge to urge President Barack Obama to say no to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The Edgecomb event, which also featured a vigil, was one of many vigils being held in Maine and across the United States. Nationally, 350.org, the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, and CREDO have put out the call for all people opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline to turn out and demand that Obama reject this planet-destroying project.
In Maine the Sierra Club Chapter-Maine and 350 Maine are coordinating the vigils.
Andy Burt, of Edgecomb, a member of 350 Maine and 350 Lincoln County, took part in the vigil.
She said she was participation because "the Keystone XL pipeline would pose significant risks from carbon pollution to the environment and health of Americans and Canadians alike, while providing citizens with no economic benefits. Research has shown only a handful of permanent jobs would result from constructing this pipeline that would carry some of the most polluting fossil fuels over America's breadbasket and pristine water sources, to the Gulf Coast where they would be refined and sold on the world market. I can't stand by silently and watch a healthy future for my children, grandchildren and entire ecosystems of the Earth vanish at the hands of corporate greed."
In February 2014 the U.S. State Department issued an Environmental Impact Statement that did not thoroughly take into consideration the impacts the pipeline would have on global climate change. Soon afterwards, President Obama suspended the permitting process until there was a decision by the Nebraska Supreme Court on a possible route through that state.
On Friday, Jan. 9 not one of that court's seven judges stated that the route was constitutionally determined, they split on what to do about it; and, as a result, TransCanada's route for the pipeline was not thrown out. The State Department is likely to restart the permitting process for the pipeline.
On Tuesday, Jan. 13 Burt said the opportunity to deny the Keystone Pipeline was a way for Obama to draw a line in the sand to end climate change.
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