Across the United States on Monday, protesters took to the streets in hundreds of rallies urging President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. The actions in at least 44 states followed a State Department report claiming the pipeline’s northern leg would have a minimal impact on the local environment and climate change. Environmentalists disagree, saying plans to pipe 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta’s tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast would accelerate global warming and threaten communities along the pipeline’s route. Here in New York City, Bill McKibben of 350.org and Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign spoke out on Monday night at a vigil at Union Square.