Direct Action Protest Temporarily Shuts Down Utah Tar Sands Project

onJun 28, 2014 @ 11:35 PDT

An environmental group called Women of Action Against Violent Extraction (WAAVE) shut down U.S. Oil Sands’ mining operation in Utah temporarily on June 16, citing tension around whether the project’s permits are legal.

The women swarmed a bulldozer on the site and asked the operator to stop working. A two and a half minute YouTube video posted June 19 by PeacefulUprising.org shows the bulldozer operator asking them to talk to his supervisor.

The protest was at the U.S. Oil Sands project at PR Spring on the Tavaputs Plateau in eastern Utah, about 50 miles west of Grand Junction, Colorado. The project is the first tar sands mine in the U.S.

Three protest groups, Peaceful Uprising, U.S Tar Sands Resistance and Canyon Country Rising Tide, have set up a permanent protest vigil at the site and are encouraging such direct action protests of the project.

By Anne Landman

us/Inside the Struggle to Dismantle America’s Greenhouse Gas Data

ByRachel Santarsiero

onAug 18, 2026 @ 05:00 PDT

New accounts show the oil and gas industry trying to weaken methane reporting while saving the federal emissions system it relies on.

Big Oil Could Face ‘Catastrophic Outcomes’ Without Republican Supreme Court

BySarah Hofmann

onAug 17, 2026 @ 14:21 PDT

At the American Legislative Exchange Council’s annual meeting, members of Leonard Leo’s network explain why the right-wing court majority is crucial for protecting oil companies from climate lawsuits.