CANCEL KXL: Halt All Keystone XL Construction Due to Coronavirus Public Health Emergency
Target: TC Energy (TransCanada), AFL-CIO, LiUNA, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Mayors & County Boards
Promise to Protect – UPDATE – April 3, 2020
As the public health emergency from the novel coronavirus forces social distancing and community lockdowns, TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) is about to endanger thousands of workers by sending them into rural and Tribal communities along the path of its proposed Keystone XL pipeline that are unequipped to handle the public health threat, in addition to the increased crime and sexual violence — especially targeting Indigenous women — arising from pipeline worker “man camps.”
TransCanada continues to move ahead against all good judgment, and in spite of the company not having even secured all the necessary federal, state and local permits for the Keystone XL project — which is also facing three federal court challenges to various permits, and lawsuits from landowners in Nebraska fighting eminent domain seizure of their land.
A growing number of cities and corporations around the world are cancelling construction projects, to protect workers and local communities from the public health threat, including the cities of Boston and San Francisco, all Disneyland parks, and repairs to the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
With researchers reporting that especially younger people may by “asymptomatic” and both feel and appear completely healthy, they may still be highly contagious despite displaying no symptoms.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is projecting that as many as 214 million people in the U.S. could become infected with the novel coronavirus, and as many as 1.7 million may die.
This is a time when we must recognize the health and safety of everyone — especially the most vulnerable and marginalized communities — is integral to the health and safety of our entire country. That’s why we are all making sacrifices to protect our friends, families, and neighbors.
There is absolutely no need to risk the health and safety of construction workers or rural communities right now for a foreign corporation’s tarsands export pipeline project. TC Energy must immediately today halt all “pre-construction” activity on the Keystone XL project — and recall all workers it has already dispatched into the small rural and Tribal communities of Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Furthermore, we call on TC Energy to start prioritizing the health and well-being of its workers during this public health threat, and provide full support for unemployed workers. Click here and below to ADD YOUR NAME and LEARN MORE!
(Photo: Faith Spotted Eagle (right) and members and supporters of Brave Heart Society and the Yankton Sioux Tribe inside a solar-equipped tiny house built to take on tour of proposed KXL “man camp” locations to raise awareness about MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women). The tour has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus public health emergency. Photographer: Jen Cohen)
ARCHIVE: ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY MESSAGE
It’s been a little over a year since we launched the Promise to Protect. Together, we stopped Keystone XL for yet another year, but despite our victories in court, we must be ready to mobilize.
As with Dakota Access, we know fossil fuel companies like TransCanada will stop at nothing to try and finish their black snake.
This video takes you to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, which is less than half a mile from the pipeline’s proposed route. Communities here have been fighting Keystone XL for a decade, and we need your support now more than ever.
Everyday for the last several years we’ve stopped TransCanada and kept tar sands in the ground. We’re going to keep stopping them.
CLICK HERE to Join the Promise to Protect and commit to traveling to the pipeline route to engage in peaceful, creative resistance to Keystone XL when the call is put out by frontline communities to help stop this Black Snake. We will make a series of stands along the route – nonviolent but resolute displays of our continued opposition to a project that endangers us all. Join native and non-native communities in the Promise to Protect the land, water, and climate.