Sierra Club leader tells Moyers: Keystone XL ‘so horrendous’ we lifted our ban on civil disobedience

The executive director of the Sierra Club told Moyers and Company that the Keystone XL pipeline project was big enough for him to break the environmental organization’s 120-year policy against engaging in civil disobedience.

Michael Brune said he took part in a protest outside the White House because Keystone XL was “so horrendous, it’s so wrong, and it’s being proposed at such an important time that we don’t want to leave any tool on the table. We want to make sure that every single opportunity we have to shut down this pipeline, we’re taking.”

Brune explained his rationale shortly before he and about 50 other people, including actress Daryl Hannah and social rights leader Julian Bond, were arrested for handcuffing themselves to the White House gates. He said the demonstration intended to challenge President Barack Obama’s actions to meet his rhetoric when it came to addressing climate change, pointing to Keystone XL as something that would exacerbate the problem.

“This pipeline would guarantee that we’re locked in to the most carbon-intensive fuel source on the planet for the next half-century,” he said.

Watch footage of Brune taking part in the White House protest, posted Thursday by Moyers and Company, below.

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