On Monday, Aug. 29, I was arrested in Washington, D.C., for protesting the development of a pipeline that I believe will trigger far-reaching, immoral environmental and cultural damage. 

The sit-in was one day in a two-week rolling action coordinated by a group of concerned people trying to raise awareness about tar sands oil and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline: a 1,700-mile pipeline oil companies want to dig through North America from northern Alberta to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.  

Large American oil companies and their allies in Congress, as well as the Canadian government, have been pressuring the Obama administration to approve the $7 billion, 36-inch pipeline. Keystone XL would double the amount of oil being shipped through TransCanada pipelines, from 591,000 barrels to 1.3 million barrels each day. This fall, President Obama will either grant or deny a permit for the project, thus deciding if this pipeline is “in our national interest.”

I, along with hundreds of thousands of others, believe the construction of this pipeline would be devastating, dangerous and immoral. I believe it should not move forward for several reasons. 

The extraction of tar sands oil results in significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil. Tar sands oil from Canada is not liquid crude; it is oil in solid form called bitumen mixed with sand. Turning tar sands into liquid crude oil is a costly and elaborate process and far more energy intensive than refining conventional oil.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, producing Canadian tar-sands oil generates 82 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than does the average barrel refined in the United States.

Then there’s the ecological and cultural impact. The extraction process has already resulted in the creation of more than 60 miles of toxic holding ponds that ruin traditional ways of life, kill birds, destroy habitat for caribou and other migrating animals and pollute waterways. The Alberta tar sands construction zone is the largest human development project on earth. The devastation can be seen from space.  

Earlier this month, 20 climate scientists, including NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen, sent a letter to Obama urging him to block the pipeline.  “The tar sands are a huge pool of carbon, but one that does not make sense to exploit,” they wrote. “It takes a lot of energy to extract and refine this resource into useable fuel, and the mining is environmentally destructive. Adding this on top of conventional fossil fuels will leave our children and grandchildren a climate system with consequences that are out of their control. It makes no sense to build a pipeline system that would practically guarantee extensive exploitation of this resource.”

Heather Milton Lightening, one of the Tar Sands Action trainers and Indigenous Environmental Network organizers, reminded our group that First Nations tribes have been fighting this pipeline for years. The land and water that have supported their livelihood for generations has been polluted and destroyed beyond restoration. The Canadian government has promised to restore ancestral lands but already acknowledge the landscape is beyond repair.  

I believe it is immoral to continue tar sands oil development and the construction of the pipeline. For over 100 years, fossil fuel extraction has exploited the poorest and least politically powerful communities around the world to fuel industrialization and “progress” for the rich. Oil development has made governments and corporations rich, yet the people still suffer. Rich or poor, those of us in the United States have benefitted from this devastation. It is time to use our power to stop further extraction destruction from projects like the Keystone XL pipeline.  

I also realize that a certain amount of hypocrisy exists when I chose to fly across the country to protest oil development. Yet  the climate movement cannot be strong unless people show up. A large and growing number of people from around the world act out every day in opposition to an unjust system that rewards corporate power over basic human rights. I hope that adding my voice to growing resistance around the world boosts all movements.  

When I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, I thought I was voting for a man who was on my team. A team that believes we can invest in the future of the economy and Earth at the same time. That corporations have ruled in D.C. for too long and it is time for D.C. to work for Americans. That we have a duty to our children and grandchildren to begin to turn the tide against fossil fuels and rise with an innovative, sustainable way of life. 

When he accepted the Demo-cratic nomination, Obama promised “the rise of the oceans would begin to slow and our planet begin to heal.” He has done little to live up that statement. I am truly disappointed with his environmental record, and I went to Washington to register my discontent.  

This country has a strong tradition of civil disobedience, dissent and resistance. Our democracy can’t exist without people standing up to our leaders demanding change. I have two young boys who are beginning to understand the unjust world we live in. It gets more and more difficult to explain our current way of life, knowing the harm it causes. 

I hope other Islanders will join me in the coming years as we as a community make changes in our current habits, advocate new ways of life and resist the power that keeps change from happening.  

— Jen Williams, a Vashon resident, recently climbed Mount Rainier as part of a protest against coal.