Students and Vermonters Rally Against — and For — the XL Pipeline

On Tuesday, January 13, about 45 people gathered in front of Mead Chapel for a “rejection rally” against the Keystone XL pipeline, joining over 130 rejection rallies nationwide.  Encouraged by 350.org and 350 Massachusetts, rallies took place all across the country in the wake of Nebraska’s decision to allow the pipeline to pass through.

The purpose of the ‘rejection’ rallies was to continue to show opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast in the hope that President Obama will veto Congress’s decision to allow the pipeline.

Middlebury’s rejection rally was lead by a combination of individuals and groups on campus, including Sunday Night Group, Divest Midd, Zane Anthony ’16.5 and Emma Ronai-Durning ’18.

“I helped organize this rally because I think it’s really important that Middlebury be part of a national movement against the Keystone pipeline,” said Michael Shrader ’18. “While this one is not necessarily local, the affects are global and affect us here at Middlebury, so people have a right to know more about it.”

In addition to students, a number of protesters in the crowd were members of local communities and organizations.

“I definitely support the cause here,” said Jennifer Vyhnak, a resident of Bristol and an environmental activist. Vyhnak condemned the “dinosaur fuels” of the past, and stressed the need to usher in a new era of green energy.

“We really need to be supporting the energies of the future, the energies that do as little harm as possible, and allow us to live on this good earth with respect for one another,” she said. “It feels like its time. It’s time for us to grow up.”

In contrast, Phil Hoxie ’17 and the College Republicans held a rally in support of the pipeline and in support of the jobs it would create. The rally was called ‘Students 4 Jobs’ on its Facebook page.

“We want to reassure people who have dissenting views that there are other people who share [them],” Hoxie said, “and that they are worth expressing – especially in an academic context.”

One of the signs that the students opposing the pipeline brandished irked Hoxie.

“I was kind of upset by ‘Middlebury College rejects Keystone XL’ as a blanket statement,” he said. “That’s supposed to cover the whole student body. It doesn’t. [We] are here to remind the students of Middlebury that there is a dissenting opinion, which is very important in any debate. It’s important to have two sides.”

The rejection rally began on Mead Chapel steps with opening remarks by several students.  Michael Schrader ’18 stated their purpose of the rally as “urging President Obama to stand up against the interest of foreign oil companies” by vetoing the Keystone XL pipeline.

“Tar sands development spells increased pollution, greenhouse gasses, heavy metals, polluted aquifers, and climate chaos,” Schrader said.
He encouraged people to rally for the good of all Americans.

“Not just Americans,” a voice yelled from the crowd, to cheers and clapping. “All kinds of people!”

“We’ve all been fighting this pipeline for a ridiculous number of years,” Hannah Bristol ’14.5 said in her opening remarks. “We’ve had the largest climate march in history – and then beat that record and had another largest climate march in history,” Bristol added to laughter and more cheers.

“Many of us here have been arrested. I don’t know how we can possibly say  any louder that this pipeline is bad news. But the Republicans in Congress don’t seem to get the message,” Bristol said.

Phil Hoxie ’17.5 disagreed, and stated that the pipeline would relieve a strained American economy.

“The green energy market is not a competitive market,” he said when asked about funding green energy instead.

“I want to see incentives for companies to invest in greener technologies – companies like Tesla, by boosting demand for those items, not necessarily through [direct investment].”

Alexander Khan ’17, who was unable to make the event, agreed with Hoxie in a prewritten statement: “The pipeline will provide jobs which in turn with strengthen our economy. Only with the help of a robust economy will the United States be able to solve the problems that the world faces.”

Most importantly, Hoxie stressed that no matter what the United States did, the tar sands were likely to be used regardless.

“Whether the United States builds this pipeline or not, that oil is coming out of the ground and there’s no way for anybody to stop that,” Hoxie said.

The Chinese will buy it up in a second. The Canadians are still waiting for their ideal situation – for the pipeline to go through the United States, for it to be refined in the United States, and be sold through the port of Louisiana to it’s final destination, wherever that may be.”
Participants in the rejection rally certainly did not believe their efforts were in vain; the excitement among the demonstrators was palpable.

Many of them were demonstrating for the first time to such an event.

Max Greenwald ’18 acknowledged that he normally doesn’t show up to rallies like this, because Middlebury is such a “liberal and environmentally conscious school.” However, something caused him to change his mind.

“I saw some people were actually having a counter rally to this,” he noted, referring to the ‘Students 4 Jobs’ rally that had occured minutes before the march began.

“Clearly there is some division on this issue, so I thought I’d show my support.  You can’t always expect someone else to do it. When you see crowds on TV supporting something that you care about, you have to be one of those people in the crowd if you expect your movement to gain any momentum.”

As students and townspeople milled about by Mead Chapel sharing stories of their inspiration to attend the rally, and their experiences with past climate activism at events locally and in Washington DC.  Ross Conrad, a local beekeeper, attended the rally.

“I feel like I need to apologize for my generation because we have failed to deal with this issue and we’re dumping this on your laps, and that’s not right,” Conrad said.  Conrad likes the format of these local rejection rallies, rather than one centralized rally.

“Everything’s going to have to be more localized, more decentralized, if we’re going to be better stewards of this earth, in my view,” Conrad said.

Anthony and Ronai-Durning led the procession down Mead Chapel hill with a banner that read “Middlebury Rejects KXL” with a picture of a pipeline dripping black oil. The crowd consisting of students and members of the Middlebury community followed behind in groups of twos and threes carrying candles and signs.  As they walked down to Old Chapel, people chanted “Barack Obama, yes you can!  Stop the dirty pipeline plan!” and “Tar sands kill! Pipelines spill!”

In front of Old Chapel, the procession stopped to for a photo with their signs, as did many other rejection rallies.  The rejection rallies across the country followed a very similar format, as most were developed from a toolkit provided by 350.org.  The picture “will join a national mosaic of these pictures, banners, et cetera to be broadcast to various larger news outlets,” Anthony said.

Following the photo, the procession walked back up Mead Chapel hill chanting and into Proctor.  The procession walked into the serving area and through the dining hall.  On Proctor Terrace, the group gathered for one last picture and dispersed.