Around 75 Macalester students participated in a protest against the Alberta Clipper Pipeline on Thursday, April 3rd. The protest was sponsored in part by Minnesota 350, a climate change organization based out of Minnesota, and was organized by a group of five Macalester students as a result of a semester’s worth of planning. The outcry against the Alberta Clipper pipeline went on in downtown St. Paul in freezing temperatures.

“The judge has to decide and then the Public Utilities Committee can accept or deny the proposal, but [the PUC] usually sides with the judge,” MPIRG member and protest organizer Harrison Beck ’16 said. “The PUC board is all appointed by governors and usually makes their decision before public hearings.”

This means that the issue of the pipeline expansion would likely be decided before the public had a chance to input their opinion.

David Baldus ’16 worked with the Heart of the Beast Theater to provide paper machê costumes for the protest leaders. Baldus had never been involved with a political and environmental project like this protest but was deeply affected.

“There was a guy who had just graduated from Northfield, obviously from a blue collar family,” says Baldus. “[He] gave a speech about the unions and how this isn’t the environment versus jobs because there’s no honor in working to cause harm for your brothers and sisters.”

““The best part of going to the protest Thursday was that [it] really re-energized me about my studies—like climate change,” Jesse Meisenhelter ’16 said. “Normally in my classes we study all these things that I care about a lot but don’t get the real world connection that the protest gave me.”

The hope is that Macalester students will stay engaged with the pipeline issue.

“I hope that, with the events that we held on campus, and the protest itself, that we planted some seed,” said Baldus.