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HOUSTON (AP) —
Actress Daryl Hannah (Read Daryl Biodata here) of "Splash" fame was arrested in northeast Texas on
Thursday, along with a 78-year-old landowner as the pair protested an
oil pipeline designed to bring crude from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
"They've arrested Daryl Hannah and a rural Texas great-grandmother," said Paul Bassis, Hannah's manager.
Hannah
and landowner Eleanor Fairchild were standing in front of heavy
equipment in an attempt to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline
on Fairchild's farm in Winnsboro, a town about 100 miles east of
Dallas. They were arrested for criminal trespassing and taken to the
Wood County Jail, Bassis said. Hannah also faces a charge of resisting
arrest, according to jail records.
Hannah has long opposed
TransCanada's construction of the $7 billion pipeline, which is designed
to transport heavy tar-sands crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Texas'
Gulf Coast refineries.
"It is unfortunate Ms. Hannah and other
out-of-state activists have chosen to break the law by illegally
trespassing on private property," David Dodson, a spokesman for
TransCanada Corp., said in an email. He also said protesters were
"putting their own safety and the safety of others at risk."
Bassis
said he spoke to the actress Thursday evening and that there was "a
strong indication" that both women would be kept overnight at the local
jail.
"The streets of Winnsboro will be much safer tonight now
that they've gotten that 78-year-old great grandmother off the streets,"
Bassis said.
Hannah — who has starred in dozens of movies,
including "Kill Bill" and "Splash" — also was arrested in August 2011
while protesting the pipeline in Washington. She was one of several
hundred prominent scientists and activists arrested that month.
They
argue the pipeline would be unsafe because it would be carrying heavy,
acidic crude oil that could more easily corrode a metal pipe, which
would lead to a spill. They also say refining the oil would further
contaminate the air in a region that has long struggled with pollution.
TransCanada
says its pipeline would be the safest ever built, and that the crude is
no dirtier than oil currently arriving from Venezuela or parts of
California.
The issue became politically charged when
congressional Republicans gave President Barack Obama 60 days to decide
whether TransCanada should be granted the necessary permit for the
pipeline to cross an international border before snaking its way 1,700
miles south to the Texas coast.
Obama, saying his administration
did not have enough time to study the potential environmental impacts,
denied the permit in January.
However, he encouraged TransCanada
to reroute the northern portion of the pipeline to avoid an
environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska. He also promised to expedite
permitting of a southern portion of the pipeline from Cushing, Okla.,
to the Gulf Coast to relieve a bottleneck at the Cushing refinery.
TransCanada
began construction of that portion of the pipeline this summer after
receiving the necessary permits. Some Texas landowners, joined by
activists from outside the state, have tried through various protests to
stop or slow down construction. Yahoo News
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