Downsizing XL

News in Brief by PN

On 15 February, Washington DC police arrested 48 protesters in front of the White House, including Robert Kennedy Jr, former US president John F Kennedy’s nephew, and actor Daryl Hannah, at a demonstration against the massive XL pipeline project, which threatens to carry oil from Canadian tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico. Demonstrators had used zip-ties to attach themselves to the White House fence.

US president Barack Obama has suspended the project for an investigation into the pipe’s potential health and environmental concerns, but the environmental protection agency’s administrator, Lisa Jackson, has reportedly told ‘sources’ that the president will sign off on the project soon.