Cushing, OK - March 22 - Today President Obama will make a speech in Cushing, OK on his Administration’s work to fast track the permitting of the southern leg of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline:

Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org who has led protests against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, issued the following statement:

“Barack Obama has done a little more than his predecessors about climate change. But nowhere near enough. And no movie producer, fifty years from now, will be able to resist a scene that explains the depth of our addiction to oil: the president coming to the state that just recorded the hottest summer in American history, in the very week that the nation has seen the weirdest heat wave in its history, and promising not to slow down climate change but instead to speed up the building of pipelines.

It's clear that the power of the oil industry drives political decision-making in America--that's why we need to go after them directly. The first step is an effort to remove the subsidies that they and the rest of the fossil fuel industry enjoy.”

350.org is helping coordinate protests at Ohio State University this afternoon, where students will call on President Obama to stop Keystone XL, fracking, and other "extreme energy" projects. Last August, 1,253 people were arrested at the White House to push President Obama to stop Keystone XL. More than 12,000 people surrounded the White House last November to stop the pipeline, leading to an administration commitment to delay a permit for the project.