Anti-oil protesters arrested for blocking trains in Washington state
Source: Reuters
World | Sat Jun 18, 2016 5:53pm EDT
Anti-oil protesters arrested for blocking trains in Washington state
Police arrested 21 protesters on Saturday for blocking BNSF Railway Co. [BNISF.UL] freight trains in Vancouver, Washington, on a line that transports oil and coal in the Northwest, protesters and a railroad spokesman said.
The Fossil Fuel Resistance Network, conducting its first protest, blocked the tracks for about three hours before police handcuffed and detained 21 people who refused to leave.
Hoisting signs reading "I Stand Against Oil Trains" and "Ban the Bomb Trains," about 100 demonstrators participated, network spokesman Jessie Braverman said by telephone from the protest site.
She said the protest was in "direct response" to a June 3 derailment of a Union Pacific train that spilled 42,000 gallons of crude and started a fire in the town of Mosier, Oregon, along the Columbia River, which marks the border between Washington and Oregon.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-protest-washington-idUSKCN0Z40TQ