Maryland State Senator Paul Pinsky (D-Hyattsville) Arrested at White House Friday over Tar Sands Keystone XL Pipeline

Maryland State Senator Paul Pinsky (D-Hyattsville) Arrested at White House Friday over Tar Sands
Pipeline

WASHINGTON, DC – Maryland state Senator Paul Pinsky (D-Hyattsville) was arrested Friday at the White House as part of a growing civil disobedience campaign to stop the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. Pinsky is the highest-ranking elected official in the DC region to join this two-week-old protest so far. The demonstration has seen more than 900 people arrested from across the nation, including scores from the Capital region.

Pinsky, a highly respected environmental legislator, has expressed extreme concern that the tar sands pipeline would accelerate climate change and harm efforts to promote offshore wind energy development in Maryland and Virginia.

“As a fellow Democrat and as an elected official, I’m here to ask President Obama to please stop this worst-case fossil fuel project,” said Pinsky, sponsor of several major clean energy bills in the Maryland General Assembly. “This is a pivotal moment. Do we move toward wind-powered electric cars or condemn ourselves to dirty automobiles run on tar sands oil?”

The Keystone XL pipeline would cost $7 billion to build and would run 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to Texas refineries, passing through six U.S. states while posing the threat of major oil spills. The pipeline would increase carbon pollution equal to adding six million
cars to America’s roads.

“Congratulations to Senator Pinsky for speaking for thousands of state and local legislators all across the country who work daily for clean energy at home and expect the President of the United States to do the same,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action
Network. “Leaders at all levels in this country increasingly understand that this pipeline is simply unacceptable.”

Attending the pre-arrest rally at the White House Friday – showing their support for Pinsky’s action – were Maryland Senator Jamie Raskin (D-Takoma Park) and Montgomery County (MD) Councilmember George Leventhal (D-at large).