UMW Student Interviewed by the Guardian About Tar Sands Activism

University of Mary Washington junior Abbie Rogers was recently interviewed by U.K. news outlet the Guardian, following her arrest in late August outside of the White House at a protest of the Keystone XL pipeline project.

The proposed pipeline will carry crude oil to refineries in Texas from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada.

In the article, titled, “Keystone XL pipeline debate moves to Nebraska as final decision looms,” Rogers was quoted about President Barack Obama’s impending decision on the pipeline.

“If Keystone XL goes through under his watch I think young voters are really going to have to make a decision whether or not they want to continue with an administration that seems to compromise early and often and that has done a lot that wasn’t change – or at least nothing to the extent we felt we were being promised,” she said to the Guardian.

About the interview, Rogers said, “It was pretty painless… I’m happy that Suzanne [the journalist] took the time to talk to me.”

Rogers is passionate about the tar sands project, and said that the pipeline is part of a larger problem.

“It’s about something so much bigger than the pipeline,” she said. “It’s about climate change. It’s about dirty energy in general.”

Rogers, an officer with the campus ecology club, is partaking in another protest at the White House on Sunday. She, along with 50 or more students and faculty members, will join roughly 10,000 others and join hands around the White House, Rogers said.

President Barack Obama suggested on Tuesday that he would make a final decision regarding the Keystone XL pipeline next year, according to news outlets, including CBS.

 Photo courtesy of Josh Lopez.