Activists promise to fight Trump in courts and streets
From the scythe US President Donald Trump swings into his predecessor's environmental legacy fly promises of rebellion.
The activists whom Barack Obama helped try to commandeer the economy now suffer from advanced stages of discombobulation.
Typical are responses of groups and politicians appalled by Trump's moves to advance the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects, both stymied by Obama's administration.
"Apparently, millions of people all over this country, all over this world, marching, speaking out, was not enough to get through to Donald Trump and to the oil oligarchs that are gradually taking over our federal government," Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told supporters in front of the White House the day Trump acted on the pipelines. "We're going to have to make sure that that message is repeated-and probably a little bit louder."
Amplification of activist noise leavens statements from environmental groups and their leaders.
"We will fight this with whatever we have, in the courts and in the streets," said 350.org's Bill McKibben in an article on the Sierra Club website.
In the same article, Jane Kleeb of Bold Alliance, a Nebraska network of pipeline opponents, said, "Donald Trump is up for a big fight if he thinks he's going to get any foreign steel and foreign oil through the Nebraska plains and the Ogallala Aquifer."
In a note after the article, the Sierra Club makes the conflict personal. "Stop him," it says. "Show Trump that we will not back down. We will stand with our allies and fight him every step of the way."
Separately, in response to TransCanada's notice of reapplication for the Keystone XL permit, Greenpeace Senior Campaigner Mary Nicol said, "Any proposal is sure to be met with massive civil disobedience and challenges in court."
Trump, brash and controversial as he is, won an election against a candidate who would have extended Obama's environmental zealotry.
And zealots, with their all-knowing penchant for demonstrations and lawsuits, act oblivious to what happened.
Bob Tippee | Editor
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.