KFTC members stand in solidarity at Tar Sands pipeline protest

Several KFTC members have been arrested along with over 800 other climate change activists as part of a two week long strategy of civil disobedience against a proposed oil pipeline that would stretch from Canada across the Midwest U.S.  Participants have been staging an ongoing sit-in outside of the White House to urge Obama to pull his support of this pipeline project.

Environmental blogger Jeff Bigger wrote a piece about the solidarity action between Appalachian coalfield residents and those directly affected by the pipeline.

In an extraordinary act of solidarity, Blanton and other Appalachian coalfield leaders will join the growing climate justice sit-in at the White House today, calling on President Obama to deny the TransCanada Keystone pipeline permit. Hansen, who has defined the pipeline decision as a litmus test for the Obama administration's commitment to dealing with climate change, was arrested earlier this week.

"If this pipeline is built and they continue to mine tar sands the climate that I have enjoyed over my lifetime in Kentucky will forever be changed. It is already changing, and our people are drinking poison water and breathing unhealthy particles from the extraction, transporting, processing and burning of coal," Blanton said. "We must take back our democracy and demand that decisions be made based on sound science, just as the president said he would. There is nothing sound about building a pipeline across our country."

You can show your support for this action by visiting tarsandsaction.org and signing their petition to President Obama.