OFFSHORE DRILLING: Greens hit streets of D.C. to protest as Senate panel waits its turn

In the debate over new oil and gas leasing, whose voice is the loudest? Hundreds of activists made the case for the anti-drilling movement in Washington, D.C., yesterday, using drums, songs and chants to protest the Interior Department's 2017-22 oil and gas leasing program. The program -- now in draft form -- would allow up to 13 oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic. "The oil and gas industry is shivering in their boots right now," the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. of the Hip Hop Caucus shouted to a crowd carrying elaborate homemade signs and miniature windmills. "It has been shown that organized people beat organized money every single time." The rally spanned a noisy two hours, beginning in front of the White House and ending at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It was the latest from the "keep it in the ground" movement, which has brought together dozens of small and large environmental groups that believe new drilling will thwart efforts to keep the global temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, 350.org, the Alaska Wilderness League and many other organizations have led the call to arms...more