Two busloads of opponents of the proposed Bakken oil pipeline across Iowa protested outside the state’s Utility Board offices Thursday.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement organized the demonstration and delivered a box full of letters objecting to the plan.
Longtime Des Moines social activist Frank Cordaro was among the protesters.
“Today we’re at the utility folks, the folks who are supposed to be protecting this state," he says. "And we’re here to tell them don’t let dirty oil come to our state.”
A half dozen union members stood across the street from the demonstrators holding signs in support of the project. They see it as a job creator.
The proposed pipeline would stretch more than 1,100 miles from the oil fields of North Dakota to a refinery in Illinois, and deliver 570, 000 barrels of oil a day.
