100+ of our friends took over TransCanada’s Keystone XL headquarters in Houston, Texas. You can help shut down work in TransCanada’s offices by flooding the phone lines all today to tell them we don’t want their dirty pipeline in anyone’s backyard. Scroll down all the way to the bottom and read from bottom to top for the events as they happened.
UPDATE: 5:00 pm: Protesters line up to force TransCanada and other dirty energy industry employees to drive through “gauntlet of shame” on their way out of the building.
UPDATE: 4:46 pm: Instead of working, TransCanada employees are standing on the other side of their glass wall and taking photos.
UPDATE: 4:40 pm: Half a dozen mounted police arrive, impromptu dance party begins. Police do not participate.
UPDATE: 4:21 pm: Police force blockaders back onto the street. Everyone is outside except the police liaison. Livestream:
UPDATE: 4:17 pm TransCanada spokesperson Dodson appears in the lobby, sees the blockaders, and retreats through a door.
UPDATE: 4:15 pm: Over a dozen police arrive on the scene with bags full of plastic zip-tie handcuffs. Blockaders chanting “No tar sands! No way! Not ever, not today!”
UPDATE: 4:11 pm: Over fifty blockaders inside TransCanada headquarters in Houston march pipe dragon around, stage die-in.
UPDATE: 4:09 pm: Activists in Milwaukee, WI protest at the headquarters of Michels Corporation, one of the main contractors building the Keystone XL pipeline.
UPDATE: 4:06 pm: Over fifty people storm the lobby of a second TransCanada building in Houston, the TransCanada headquarters at 717 Texas St.
UPDATE: 3:00 pm: Massachusetts students still locked inside TransCanada office in Westborough, MA.
UPDATE: 1:20: Massachusetts students lock themselves inside TransCanada office to protest big oil’s attempt to lock us into climate disaster with Keystone XL. Here’s their statement on why they took action today:http://january7th.wordpress.com/
Also, this photo just came in from 350 Maine, where activists gathered in front of TD Bank, one of the main financiers of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline:
UPDATE, 12:45 PM: Solidarity actions across the country are planned for today and tomorrow. Here’s an early photo from Detroit, via mikedolsx on Instagram:
UPDATE, 11:55 AM: Two arrests confirmed so far. First was at rendezvous site for the action, where someone was arrested for ‘impeding an investigation.’ We’ll have more updates when we know more.
A pipeline dragon has arrived at TransCanada’s offices! This is what we’ve come to slay:
