HOUSTON -- A protest movement aimed at construction of the Keystone XL pipeline is spreading throughout east Texas as activists broaden their attacks against the controversial project.

Yesterday near Winona, Texas, three members of the group Tar Sands Blockade barricaded themselves inside a section of pipe that will become part of the line running from Cushing, Okla., to Houston-area refineries. The group said its team members sealed themselves into the pipe in a way that would make it almost impossible for law enforcement to safely remove them. The three reportedly were arrested yesterday afternoon.

This latest action follows moves last week against refining company Valero Energy Corp. at one of its facilities in Houston. Tar Sands Blockade says civil disobedience efforts, including a hunger strike by one of its colleagues, are aimed at pressuring Valero to end financial support for the Keystone XL project.

Though it's being developed primarily as a conduit for crude oil from the Canadian oil sands projects to Gulf of Mexico coastal refining infrastructure, the southernmost portion of the pipeline in Oklahoma and Texas is in high demand today by companies wishing to alleviate a glut of crude oil stored at the Cushing terminals.

But protesters insist that the line poses a danger to communities and the environment located near it. Once the full Keystone XL pipeline is built, the activists say, they're worried that the heavier-grade bitumen-derived crude oil will corrode the line, causing a leak.

The site of yesterday's protest in Winona was strategically chosen, Tar Sands Blockade said.

"Using a blockading technique never implemented before, Matt Almonte and Glen Collins locked themselves between two barrels of concrete weighing over 600 pounds each," the group said in a release.

TransCanada, the company building Keystone XL, said three protesters were involved in the action.

"Located 25 feet into a pipe segment waiting to be laid in the ground, the outer barrel is barricading the pipe's opening, and neither barrel can be moved without risking serious injury to the blockaders," the protesters said. "The barricaded section of the pipeline passes through a residential neighborhood in Winona, TX. If TransCanada moves ahead with the trenching and burying of this particular section of pipe, it would run less than a hundred feet from neighboring homes."

Safety concerns

TransCanada is pleading with the protesters to stop their activities, worried that they are becoming increasingly dangerous. TransCanada holds legal rights of way on the Keystone XL route, and protesters have been arrested on trespassing charges.

"Our first concern is always for the safety of our workers, law enforcement and even the protesters," company spokesman David Dodson said in an email. "These types of actions are putting many people's health and safety at risk, and we hope that people will reconsider what they are doing before someone is hurt."

Last week in Houston, area activists Diane Wilson and Bob Lindsey Jr. joined the protest effort, locking themselves to oil tanker trucks that Tar Sands Blockade says were headed toward a Valero refining operation. As of yesterday, a Tar Sands Blockade spokesman said, Wilson was still in jail but Lindsey had been bailed out and was now engaged in a hunger strike aimed at getting Valero officials' attention.

Pipeline opponents assert that Valero is one of the largest investors in Keystone XL and thus a fair target for the protests.

Tar Sands Blockade also recently attempted another tree protest near Nacogdoches, with young activists situating themselves in platforms 50 feet above the ground in the Piney Woods. The group tied the platforms to some construction equipment at a site where the pipeline will cross the Angelina River, rigging them to collapse if workers moved the equipment or tampered with the lines (EnergyWire, Nov. 20).

Police eventually got to the protesters safely and arrested at least one of them.

The protest movement is seeking more support from local communities. On Saturday, it hosted what it called "a family-friendly community bike ride and educational event" in Nacogdoches. It has also been enlisting support from student environmentalists at Stephen F. Austin State University and a couple of locally based anti-Keystone XL groups.