And now for your local hippy treehugger report

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**Frazzled**

http://www.chron.com/business/article/Protesters-in-Texas-climb-trees-to-block-pipeline-3891002.php

Protesters in Texas climb trees to block pipeline work
Monday, September 24, 2012 | Updated: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 7:39am Comments 10 E-mail Print Page 1 of 1

Protesters display a banner Monday in northeast Texas that voices their opposition to the southern portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Protesters did not disrupt any work Monday, TransCanada spokesman David Dodson said.
A group standing on tree platforms and branches attempted on Monday to head off work in northeast Texas for the southern portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Stationed as high as 80 feet above the ground on land near Winnsboro, eight protesters held a banner reading "You Shall Not Pass" as they waited in the path of contractors for TransCanada, which is building the pipeline.

Protesters did not disrupt any work Monday, but they were in the planned route of crews clearing foliage and trees for the pipeline, TransCanada spokesman David Dodson said.

What TransCanada calls the Gulf Coast Project is the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline proposed to carry crude from Canadian oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The federal government has not approved the northern leg from Alberta into the United States, which requires a State Department OK because it would cross an international border. In rejecting a permit earlier this year, the government said the plan needed more study.

Dodson said easements similar to ones for water and electric lines allow TransCanada to build on private property.

Ron Seifert, a spokesman for activist group Tar Sands Blockade, said the protesters were in position on the easement.

"Those participating strongly believe that at this point doing nothing is a much greater risk than taking action," Seifert said. "They believe that stopping this pipeline is a necessary condition for a viable future on planet Earth."

Monday evening, Tar Sands Blockade reported on its website that the tree-clearing work finished for the day before reaching what the group called its "tree village."

Demonstrators argue that TransCanada's pipeline will boost an especially energy-intensive and environmentally damaging form of oil production in Canada, Seifert said. The pipeline also will bring more fossil fuels to the market, increasing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and other users, he said.

"It will unleash the floodgates to the largest carbon bomb in North America," Seifert said.

Dodson said, however, that TransCanada does not produce oil and that the pipeline will not influence demand for fuel from refineries.

"The usage creates the demand for the refinery and not the other way around," Dodson said, citing oil consumption as the driver of oil production and pollution from oil.

He added that the pipeline has had to comply with 57 conditions that no other project has had to follow, and that it will be "the safest pipeline ever built."

The land where the protesters gathered Monday is owned by Texas resident David Daniel, who operates a website, stopeminentdomain abuse.net, that protests TransCanada's use of his land through eminent domain.

He said through a spokesman that he had no knowledge of the blockade effort and had no comment on it.

TransCanada's pipeline will be buried 4 feet in most places. It will be above ground in Texas only at the pipeline's six pump stations and dozens of mainline valves, Dodson said.

**Mattman154**

Huh... Didn't even know Texas had trees.

**Frazzled**

Mattman154 wrote:
Huh... Didn't even know Texas had trees.

East Texas and the Gulf Coast has big honking pine trees. Other areas have monster sized oaks.
Now West texas - no. Not much lives in West Texas.

Austin has lots of cedar and pinoak. Cedar is evil. Its like if the devil's armpit or New Mexico (but I repeat myself) became incarnate in tree form.

**KalashnikovMarine**

Mattman154 wrote:
Huh... Didn't even know Texas had trees.

Or hippies for that matter.

**kronk**

We're a red state, but we have some blue neighborhoods and stuff.

**whembly**

kronk wrote:
We're a red state, but we have some blue neighborhoods and stuff.

Isn't Austin "blue"?

**kronk**

Yeah. We keep most of them there.

**Frazzled**

whembly wrote:
kronk wrote:
We're a red state, but we have some blue neighborhoods and stuff.

Isn't Austin "blue"?

Austin prides itself on trying to outblue Berkeley. However many of the old things are now gone and we just have hippy treehugger city council blowing money on a new solar farm (which is being protested by other tree huggers) and of course the latest rail scheme. They've kind of shifted from being Berkely to being little LA (without the mind numbing level of violence). We still have hippy hollow, Barton Springs, Eyor's Birthday, the awesomesauce that is Oasis, and of course the walking vomitorium that is Sixth Street. However, Leslie is gone, the Zilker Park Trail of Lights is a shadow of itself, the crazy hippy light street is gone. Town Lake races are gone. Most of the minibreweries are gone. SXSW has become a corporate LA style event.

We still have the bats now that I think about it. As long as we have the bats. They are not the heroes we want, but the heroes we deserve.

**d-usa**

Austin is building a nice race track that should create enough exhaust to choke hippies to death though.

**Jihadin**

Imagine the outcry if Canada said "To Hell with this" and China becomes their numbuh one export for oil --->insert insanity laughter<---

**IronWarLeg**

When I lived in Bailey's Prairie we had the largest live oak in Brazoria County, was 28 ft in circumference. If my horse stood behind it you couldnt see him unless he flicked his tail. They had to put steel cables from the lower branches to the main trunk to support their weight.

So yes Texas has some big ass trees, not redwood big, but still big

Apparently the biggest in Texas was a live oak a on goose island tthaat was 9 ft wide, in 2003 the largest in Texas is a different tree in brazoria county that's 10.25 ft wide and 36 ft in circumference, which makes the one we had no longer the largest in brazoria county..

Damn things have changed since I left lol

**Bran Dawri**

Jihadin wrote:
Imagine the outcry if Canada said "To Hell with this" and China becomes their numbuh one export for oil --->insert insanity laughter<---

Why, then they'll have to make new pipelines going from Canada to China. That means more work for me, so I won't be going out of a job anytime soon. I say go for it, Canada!

**Kilkrazy**

Mattman154 wrote:
Huh... Didn't even know Texas had trees.

Soon it won't.

**Frazzled**

Bran Dawri wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
Imagine the outcry if Canada said "To Hell with this" and China becomes their numbuh one export for oil --->insert insanity laughter<---

Why, then they'll have to make new pipelines going from Canada to China. That means more work for me, so I won't be going out of a job anytime soon. I say go for it, Canada!

Since the Obama snub they have been looking into doing that actually. I know I would.

**Ouze**

kronk wrote:
Yeah. We keep most of them there.

The way this was phrased conjures images of tall fences, watchtowers... grot-prods.

**KingCracker**

Hippies blocking work?! I can "fix" this problem for you. You simply need one of these

And an "accidental" oops moment like this

And presto, work resumes

**kronk**

Ouze wrote:
kronk wrote:
Yeah. We keep most of them there.

The way this was phrased conjures images of tall fences, watchtowers... grot-prods.

Nah. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

We put hippy concerts and station Smart Car PayNGo at major intersections across Austin.

We then place leaflets for the above at Starbucks, Urban Outfitters, and Farmers' Markets.

Finally, we play Metallica and Lynard Skynard really loud in select Houston neighborhoods.

It works itself out...