VIDEO: DC Occupiers Take Aim At EPA

By Lisa Kellman

Occupy Washington DC protestors carried crosses and laid three wreaths in front of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) building Thursday to mock memorialize the death of clean air and environmental justice.

Protestors accused the EPA of supporting the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline and failing to fully implement regulations within the Clean Air Ac.

“The environment is central to everything we’re fighting for,” said Occupy Washington DC organizer Kevin Zeese. “The government’s corruption and lack of oversight is letting the EPA get away with mucking up the environment.”

The protestors blamed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and President Obama for bowing to corporate pressures and failing to protect the environment.

They blew whistles and chanted, “Blow the Whistle on Lisa Jackson.”

The changes proposed to the Clean Air Act would regulate cross-state smog pollution and other environmental hazards. However, reforms have stalled in Congress.

Republicans and some Democrats from energy-producing states have argued that new rules would destroy millions of jobs. Such lawmakers have instead called for boosting domestic oil production, a move the protestors said would do more harm to the environment then create jobs.

“They’ll be hiring 2,000 people in each state to do work for about three months…the figures on employment are totally wrong on that [Keystone] pipeline,” said Ann Wright a protestor and retired U.S Army Colonel.