On Monday morning, about 40 members of Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands gathered near Stockbridge, Mich., where they clung to bulldozers and protested the expansion of an oil pipeline. Of these protestors, 11 were arrested and four face felony charges, Ingham County Sheriff’s Maj. Joel Maatman said.
They were arraigned Tuesday afternoon in the 55th District Court. The four with felony charges have been charged with resisting and obstructing police, which is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. They all face a misdemeanor trespassing charge as well.
Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands, or MI CATS, is an activist group that works toward stopping all transportation and refining tar sands oil. The members arrived on the site at about 6 a.m., before the construction workers had arrived. It took members of the MSU Police Department and Michigan State Police around 90 minutes to detach the four members holding on to the bulldozers.
Those attached to the bulldozers using homemade devices, including pipes wrapped with heavy axle grease and chicken wire, according to the Lansing State Journal.
It was six hours total before things were safe to resume, Maatman said. The two officers from the MSU Police Department that responded are specially trained in removing people who attach themselves to things, MSU Police Assistant Director Tony Kleibecker said.
“From my perception is was a minor inconvenience,” Maatman said. “There was a money loss and certain equipment couldn’t be used, but the pipeline has continued to be worked on.”
The pipeline, which will total about 285 miles after this expansion, is being built by Enbridge Inc. Enbridge Inc. was responsible for a pipeline rupturing in July 2010, which dumped over 800,000 gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River.
MI CAT members worry that the pipeline will spill again, and if it does spill, the health effects will be devastating, East Lansing resident William Lawrence said.
“They will be pumping more oil than before,” Lawrence said. “I hope other people will continue to fight and take action.”
MI CATS member and Saline, Mich. resident, Chloe Gleichman, said they had been looking at the repercussions for other protestors around the nation, but this was the first time this type of action had been taken, so they were unsure of what to expect. The group collectively owes about $12,000 in bond money and is trying to raise the money through fundraising. She said they have raised about $3,000 so far.
“It was definitely a good day for MI CAT,” Gleichman said. “Enbridge is only concerned about its bottom line and will kill lives and do whatever it can just to make a profit.”
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