On the 6th of November, an estimated 12,000 people surrounded the White House, all the way around and at least three deep, demanding that President Obama deny the permit for the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline to cross the US-Canadian border.
Organizers had printed 4,000 orange stop the pipeline vests, but there were so many protesters the majority did not have them because supplies ran out!

This is the same Keystone XL pipeline that over 1,200 people were arrested in front of the White House from August 20 to September 3 in earlier protests against. Obama has now promised to make the decision on the permit, a State Department function, himself. Environmental activists are warning Obama to refuse the pipeline's permit, or risk losing the 2012 election as dismayed environmentalists stay home in droves.

Only twice since the April 16, 2000 IMF protests has the White House been fully surrounded by protesters. Once was an ANSWER rally years ago in the early days of the Iraq war, the other was today's protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.

background

The Alberta tar sands contain so much oil they've been called "a second Saudi Arabia."The only thing is, the bitumen in the tar sands is not all the way to being oil, and the current extraction processes use up to 80% of the oil's energy value just in getting it out of the ground. Already 40% of all natural gas consumption in Alberta is to feed existing tar sands oil refining-and that's without the pipeline!

Native American communities whose land is being destroyed by the destructive mining processes used to extract this oil were the first to speak out against the Keystone XL pipeline, and caught the attention of climate scientists. These scientists have concluded that if all the oil in the tar sands is burned, it's "game over" for stopping catastrophic climate change!