From Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts

Contact:  John Andrews, Co-Chair, Tel. 781-862-6498, [email protected]

Green-Rainbow Party Opposes Pipeline Politics and Pipeline Projects

At its State Committee Meeting on Saturday, January 19, 2013, the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts unanimously endorsed the Tar Sands Pipeline Protest Rally and March, sponsored by a coalition of environmental organizations, to be held in Portland, Maine on January 26, 2013.

Scott Laugenour, recent Green-Rainbow candidate for the Massachusetts legislature, noted, "The capture of our politicians by corporate money is the biggest environmental threat we face today. As the only political party that opposed tar sands drilling in the last legislative and presidential elections, we call for an end to pipeline politics as well as pipeline projects. We also call for real solutions like an emergency Green New Deal to create the clean energy jobs we need right now - solving the climate and jobs crises at once. "

Sarai Zelada, a Campus Greens student organizer at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst added, "If we want to stop the destruction of our future by fossil fuels, we must stop supporting the politicians and parties who accept fossil fuel money and enable this predatory industry. We are going to send a powerful message starting now to the politicians supporting the tar sands pipeline by organizing to carry our protests from this pipeline rally into the voting booth over the coming months and years."

The Green-Rainbow Party also endorsed the Tar Sands Pledge of Resistance initiated by the coalition organizing the Jan. 26th rally. The Pledge is as follows:.

"We Pledge to Resist Tar Sands in the Northeast. WE BELIEVE... That tar sands oil is a high-carbon, spill-prone, inherently dangerous product that dramatically elevates the impacts to global climate change and risks catastrophic and irremediable environmental damage to local communities; That these risks cannot be properly resolved, nor can they be mitigated through regulation by any government agency; That Enbridge and Portland Montreal Pipeline and their major shareholder ExxonMobil have turned a deaf ear to the demands of New Englanders, scientists, economists, environmentalists, and ordinary citizens who have tried to block the transport or use of tar sands through New England. HENCE... If these corporations pursue transporting tar sands through any part of New England, we pledge to join with others to engage in nonviolent acts of protest, including demonstrations and other nonviolent actions, as our conscience leads us. We make this pledge in order to prevent the destruction and poisoning of New England’s water, air, and food systems, on which life, health, and economic prosperity all depend -- including those of future generations."

The Green-Rainbow Party is the Massachusetts affiliate of the Green Party of the United States, which is committed to the principle of environmental sustainability. Green Parties put the health and welfare of people and the planet before short-term profits for corporations.