RICHMOND — Two people were arrested Monday during an otherwise peaceful protest at the Kinder Morgan Terminal.
The protesters, estimated by police to be at about two dozen or less, blocked all three gates to the terminal during a demonstration against the company’s planned expansion of the Trans Mountain Tar Sands Pipeline in California, Richmond police spokesman Lt. Felix Tan said.
A similar protest on July 24 also resulted in two arrests, but Tan said they were not believed to be the same pair arrested Monday. The two arrested Monday were linked arm and arm and used tools for mountain climbing to attach themselves to the gate.
Emergency crews removed them, Tan said. They were arrested on suspicion of delaying a peace officer’s duty and blocking a roadway, he said.
The protests continued after the arrests and was peaceful and orderly, Tan said.
The protesters, from Rainforest Action Network and Diablo Rising Tide, maintain that refining the crude oil in Richmond would worsen air pollution in local communities and that the tar sands crude could permanently damage the environment if it spilled.
