Keystone XL opponents celebrate victory over tar sands pipeline

On the 6th of November, President Obama formally rejected TransCanada's permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to cross the US-Canada border. After 7 years of struggle, the resistance is catching fire, and pipeline after pipeline is being rejected. With other pipelines in Canada also being stopped and oil prices plunging, tar sands projects are being cancelled and investment funds for "unconventional oil" are drying up. Protest WORKS, and on the evening of Nov 6 activists gathered in front of the White House to celebrate victory in what has been a long and difficult battle. There are those who say that resistance is futile. There are those who say protest is a waste of time. To them the question now becomes simple: Why has the Keystone XL not been pumping deadly tar sands "oil" over the border since at least a year before the oil prices went down? Why are so many pipelines in Canada being stopped after relentless resistance in First Nations communities? Why is Harper out of office, and why are tar sands projects being cancelled? This fight may not be all the way not over. There are other pipelines, and if the GOP takes over the White House and both houses of Congress we may well have to fight this very same pipeline again. For now though, we celebrate victory over corporate power and prepare for the battle to come against ratification of the TPP trade agreement and against the related TTIP and TISA (Trade In Service Agreement) deals that along with the TPP would reverse the victory won over the WTO 16 years ago at and after Seattle.