Activists at W.H. to protest pipeline (Politico)

Activists fighting a proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline brought their message to the White House on Sunday: Their support for President Barack Obama next year is not a foregone conclusion.

Organizers estimated 12,000 people surrounded 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in three rings to protest TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Chants of ?Yes we can! Stop the pipeline!? were audible across Lafayette Park.

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Obama 2008 T-shirts and buttons were common, worn alongside ?No XL? gear, designed to drive home the point that these organizers are the president?s key constituency.

?What I think this is doing is showing Obama that the environment is not the path of least resistance,? Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said.

How much of the message the president received is unclear: Obama was out golfing most of Sunday, arriving back at the White House at 4:30 p.m.

Decisions over the last six months, including September?s?choice to pull back on pending EPA ozone standards, ?proved to the environmental community that President Obama really can?t be trusted on environmental issues,? Pica said. ?And without active political pressures, his instincts are to make the wrong decision.?

The 1,700-mile pipeline would stretch from Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas. Though State Department approval was once thought a foregone conclusion, protesters said recent indications are that the administration is getting their message.

And they said at the protest that no matter the decision that Obama makes, the pipeline will not disappear during the election. Rather than turning out to support Obama, activists would continue to push the president; instead of knocking on doors,, student and retired activists will continue challenging the campaign and interrupting fundraisers, organizers said.

?Probably a lot of us are going to vote for him,? Natural Resources Defense Council Founding Director John Adams admitted, given alternatives in the GOP field. ?But enthusiasm is ? quite important to elections. And ? this crowd ? they care about this issue.?

No doubt the administration faces a party divided on the pipeline.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), the only member of Congress present at the rally, said the Democratic caucus is likely too split on the issue to take an official position. But he is pushing for more members to join him in sending a second opposition letter to the White House before the planned Dec. 31 decision deadline.

And Maryland State Delegate Heather Mizeur, an Obama appointee to the executive committee at the Democratic National Committee heard push-back when she brought the issue to the group?s September meeting.

?There was some concern expressed that we not put the president in a difficult position from within the party. And I reminded them that this president has asked us to do that,? Mizeur said. ?The president who I voted for in 2008, and the president who I think still lives in that White House, has asked us to do this.?

The pipeline has seen increased attention since August, when 1,253 protesters were arrested at the White House in an act of civil disobedience meant to draw attention to the pipeline.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1111_67717_html/43516910/SIG=11mh64fp8/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67717.html

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