A worker cleans up oil in Mayflower, Ark., on Monday, days after a pipeline ruptured and spewed oil over lawns and roadways.
Credit Jeannie Nuss / AP
Oil covers the ground around a slide in Mayflower, Ark., on April 1, days after a pipeline ruptured and spewed oil over lawns and roadways.
Credit Jacob Slaton / Reuters/Landov
Spilled crude oil is seen in a drainage ditch near evacuated homes near Starlite Road in Mayflower, Ark., on March 31. An Exxon Mobil pipeline carrying Canadian crude oil was shut off after it ruptured March 29, causing an evacuation of 22 homes.
Amber Bartlett was waiting last Friday for her kids to come home from school. One of them called from the entrance to the upscale subdivision near Little Rock, Ark., to tell her the community was being evacuated because of an oil spill. Bartlett was amazed by what she saw out her front door.
"I mean, just rolling oil. I mean, it was like a river," she says. "It had little waves in it."
David Daniel, an east Texas landowner, was so determined to block the Keystone XL pipeline from coming through his forest that he built an elaborate network of treehouses eight stories above the ground.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
Daniel started building the tree village back in March and says that his background as a circus performer helped in creating the elaborate web of platforms and tension lines. This was Daniel's last stand in a long battle with TransCanada, the company that's building the lower portion of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
Ron Seifert, a spokeperson for the Tar Sands Blockade, sneaks through the woods in an attempt to avoid being spotted by TransCanada security. For 80 days two dozen protesters with the Tar Sands Blockade took turns living up in the trees.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
The Keystone XL pipeline now cuts through Daniel's property and the crystal-clear stream, which Daniel used to drink from, is cloudy and murky.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
The tree-sit didn't stop the pipeline but it did cause TransCanada to move the pipeline 100 feet away from the proposed easement.
Credit Laura Borealis/Tar Sands Blockade / Flickr
The Tar Sands Blockade protesters hang banners from a 100-foot-long catwalk. There are a total of seven structures suspended in the canopy of the trees with more than 500 feet of wire connecting them.
Credit Laura Borealis/Tar Sands Blockade / Flickr
The protesters spent most of their time in the trees sleeping and reading.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
Grace Cagle, a 22-year-old protester, rappels down from the tree village. She spent a total of 17 days in the trees and was arrested once, and spent the night in jail.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
Jimmy Wooley, a private security guard hired by TransCanada, watches over the construction.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
TransCanada's flood lights run throughout the night.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
David Daniel, an east Texas landowner, was so determined to block the Keystone XL pipeline from coming through his forest that he took to his trees and built an elaborate network of treehouses eight stories above the ground.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
Grace Cagle, a protester with the Tar Sands Blockade, has spent a total of 17 days up in the trees.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
David Daniel, an east Texas landowner, built an elaborate network of treehouses in an attempt to stop the Keystone XL pipeline form coming through his property.
Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
The stream that runs through Daniel's property is now cloudy and murky.
An east Texas landowner was so determined to block the Keystone XL pipeline from coming through his forest that he took to his trees and built an elaborate network of treehouses eight stories above the ground.
"It popped into my head a long time ago, actually," says 45-year-old David Daniel. "If I had to climb my butt on top of a tree and sit there, I would. It started with that."
It turned out to be Daniel's last stand in a long battle against the Keystone XL, a pipeline project that would bring oil from Canada all the way to refineries in the Texas Gulf Coast.
LAMAR COUNTY - The oil company received approval from the Army Corps of Engineers this summer to construct the Gulf Coast leg of its pipeline project that begins in Cushing, Oklahoma.
The legal fight against TransCanada in its quest to build an oil pipeline to the Gulf Coast is also brewing in Beaumont, where some rice farmers have challenged the company’s condemnation efforts.
SALTILLO - Opponents of TransCanada’s Gulf Coast leg which will run through Northeast Texas are declaring victory after a Wednesday protest near Saltillo.
PARIS - Lamar County Judge Bill Harris has ruled against landowner Julia Crawford, saying Wednesday night that TransCanada has the right to eminent domain.
PARIS - Supporters of landowner Julia Crawford are expected to fill a Lamar County courtroom Friday morning in the latest hearing concerning TransCanada.
HOUSTON - TransCanada is now in a position to start construction on the Gulf Coast leg of their oil pipeline, after receiving approval of the third and final permit needed from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Associated Press reports.
