Tar Sands Blockade

Tar Sands Blockade used nonviolent direct action to stop construction of the pipeline throughout East Texas including banner drops, lockdowns, and tree sits.

[3][4][5] Naomi Klein attributes the origin of the term Blockadia, which describes a global anti-extractivist movement to the hour-long documentary Blockadia Rising (2013) that Tar Sands Blockade produced to describe the dangers of tar sands extraction and highlight their direct actions.

[6] TransCanada, a multinational corporation, was building the Gulf Coast Project section of the Keystone XL with the go ahead from the Obama administration in 2012.

Anti-pipeline activists and environmental organizations claimed that probable pipe spillage would threaten groundwater, ecosystems, surrounding lands, employment, and the economy.

[10] A whistleblower, Evan Vokes, came forward about TransCanada in mid-October, 2012, to confirm allegations of regulatory non-compliance.

Four tree-sitters of the Tar Sands Blockade at their tree village in Winnsboro, Texas . The "You Shall Not Pass" banner is addressed to TransCanada's pipeline construction workers.