It’s Getting Hot In Here

After years of building the movement against liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure, challenging LNG projects in the courtroom, rallying, lobbying, and direct action, climate activists working on LNG in Oregon are at last seeing some big and tangible indications that the end is near for high-carbon LNG in the Northwest.  In May we finally defeated the Bradwood LNG terminal on the Columbia River – at least for the time being.  And just yesterday news came out that the Palomar LNG pipeline, originally supposed to deliver imported LNG from the Bradwood terminal to another pipeline bound southward for California, has been put on-hold for an indefinite period.

This is a testament to the hard work of activists who have been building up the pressure on policymakers and on companies involved in the Palomar pipeline, letting them know Oregonians have no interest in seeing another high carbon fuel (with a life cycle footprint nearly equal to that of coal) threaten our region’s clean energy economy.  As readers of this blog may remember, near the end of May close to 300 people rallied outside the shareholder’s meeting of NW Natural Gas, challenging the company to withdraw its support for Palomar.  Barely over a month later, the permitting process for Palomar has been put into a state of ”indefinite delay.”  Coincidence?  I think not.

Palomar is not dead yet, and it won’t be until the project is officially cancelled.  But until then Oregon activists will continue to keep up the pressure – and the delay of the permitting process is an encouraging sign that Palomar’s days are numbered. 

For more information about what yesterday’s announcement means for the fight against LNG in Oregon, please see my post that ran on BlueOregon.com this morning.  Now is a moment to celebrate this important milestone toward victory for one of the hardest-fought climate campaigns in the Northwest.

In 2009 I arrived in Detroit for my first visit to the city and a Zero Waste Communities Conference. Arriving in the middle of the night, I woke up early the next day to meet other Zero Waste advocates and attend workshops and panels on how to transition cities and towns from places that belch unwanted and used-up materials and pollution, into communities that responsibly reduce waste and reuse resources.

We looked, and easily found, opportunities in shutting down trash incinerators and all other types of incinerators. Conference participants imagined operating vibrant recycling and reuse centers that could employ between six to ten times more people than incinerating or landfilling.  This is in addition to the incalculable benefit of a sharp reduction in exposure to carcinogenic chemicals and asthmatic triggers. The conference filled me with information and we ended the 2009 conference by taking action together. Targeting the world’s largest trash incinerator, graciously hosted by the financially destitute City of Detroit, we partnered with the local Zero Waste Detroit Coalition and brought a busload of school children to City Hall, held a small press conference, and supported local activists who went inside for a meeting about the incinerator.  The trash incinerator’s 20 year contract would be up within the year and after decades of local opposition to burning, massive job losses in the city, and migration out of the industrial heartland, it seemed that beyond the smog, just out of sight, the stars were aligning. Public and political will to end incineration in Detroit was growing. This could be IT, I thought. Continue reading ‘Building Up Detroit, Bringing Down the Incinerator’

It’s not just the beaches in Louisiana that are at risk because of dirty energy.

Right now, in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo, locals are in a David vs. Goliath fight against a 300 MW coal fired power plant. The proposed site for the plant? A pristine strip of beach on the edge of a rainforest that overlooks the Coral Triangle, one of the world’s most bio-diverse marine environments.

There hasn’t been a worse spot to build a power plant since the infamous Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos tried to build a nuclear plant next to an earthquake faultline at the base of a volcano in the 1980s.

If the coal plant is built, it will have a devastating effect on Borneo’s environment and local communities.

Continue reading ‘Pollution in Paradise: Coal Plant Threatens Borneo’

Cross-posted from www.solutionaries.net courtesy of Summer of Solutions Twin Cities participant Brianna Besch.

Last Sunday afternoon my day was rudely interrupted when the power went out. It was off for less than three hours but for that time I felt completely incapacitated, disconnected from the rest of the world and lost, not being able to do anything productive. Though logically I knew it was true these three hours demonstrated, more then all of the facts and figures I have learned, just how dependent we are on power to function on a most basic level.

This realization was quite timely, just after our visit to rural, Western Minnesota and one of the largest wind farming areas in the country. Minnesota is leading the country in wind power. Driving by farms of corn and beans we could see hundreds of wind turbines all around, it almost seemed like the cute baby .75MWs were slowly growing into larger adult 1.5MW turbines as we continued down the road. While impressive from a distance I was not prepared for the sheer magnitude of a wind turbine up close.

Continue reading ‘The Answer is Blowing in the Wind’

Meet Galen von Wodtke, the 11-year-old candidate for Governor of Vermont. A sixth grader at Guilford Central School in Guilford, VT,  Galen is undeniably the best clean-energy candidate out there. A resident of Vermont for precisely 11 and 3/4 years, he is more than qualified to run the state. And he cares about young people’s issues, like climate change and clean energy. It’s our future, after all.

Unfortunately, it’s currently illegal for 11-year-olds to run for Governor of Vermont, but the Race to Replace Vermont Yankee campaign, a student-run campaign aimed at turning out the youth vote for the 2010 Governor’s election, isn’t letting that stop them. Whoever is elected governor this November will have the power to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, VT and establish the plans to replace it with 100% clean electricity from within the state. That’s why young people across the state need to get energized about this election. Young people are overwhelmingly clean energy voters, but our track record at getting out to the polls and making the candidates hear our voices is underwhelming to say the least.

 That’s why we’re runnning a candidate like Galen – to show young people that it is our future at stake in this election, and we can have a governor who represents our voices and opinions. If we’re loud enough and bold enough, every candidate for Governor — Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Progressive – will feel the pressure from the youth clean energy movement and stand up for the clean energy future that we need so badly.

Galen is ready to go. He knows that climate change puts his future and the future of Vermont at stake. He wants to be able to ski Vermont’s peaks and eat Vermont maple sugar when he grows up. He wants to bring thousands of clean energy jobs to Vermont – jobs that will keep young people in the state and help revitalize Vermont’s economy. And he wants to do it all before he reaches puberty. 

But he can’t do it alone. Young people across the state (and country) need to be sure they get out and vote this year for clean energy candidates. If you’re in Vermont, check out www.racetoreplace.org to get involved and pledge to vote. And if you need to register, go to www.rockthevote.com and make sure your voice is heard.

Longtime social justice and climate activist and the policy director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Ted Glick, is facing up to three years in jail for dropping a banner in the Hart Senate Building.

No, really.  For hanging a banner in a building.

Last fall, Glick unfurled two banners saying “Green Jobs Now” and “Get to Work” from the Hart Senate Office Building’s 7th floor into the atrium. The U.S. Attorney is looking to triple the amount of time you get for the offense to teach Glick (arrested 16 times in the past since the Vietnam War) and others like him (or us) a lesson.

Reports TruthDig: “Glick says he is being punished for not accepting a plea bargain which would have carried a mandatory 30-day jail sentence. He refused the deal because he was “unwilling to accept that anyone should go to jail for 30 days for hanging a banner.” Continue reading ‘Climate Activist Faces 3 Years in Prison for….. Dropping a Banner?’

Cross-posted from www.solutionaries.net courtesy of Summer of Solutions Twin Cities participant Martha Pskowski.

I love eating fresh veggies and fruits when I know where they grew and who grew them. There is a large assortment of photos of me at various ages crouched in a strawberry field with my hands and face stained red. I’ve got some tomatoes and peppers and herbs going in the backyard here.

So it might be disconcerting to hear I’ve felt a lot of resentment for the local food movement. As the “eat local” push was gaining momentum the enormity of climate change was consuming me. The local food movement I experienced up to this summer was mostly white, relatively privileged and, as I perceived it, somewhat self-indulgent. Modern agriculture isn’t the only root of climate change, so why pour all your effort into an alternative only a few people can afford?

I got off the phone last night with Annie Young, an Environmental Justice (EJ) organizer for the Harrison Neighborhood Association (HNA). I had written the start of this post and then taken a break for dinner when she called. While my opinions on local food have evolved significantly in my weeks here, that conversation with Annie put the last nail in the coffin of my previous views.

Continue reading ‘The next step for environmental justice.’

Tomorrow, July 2nd, is the deadline for public comments on the Keystone XL pipeline that could bring 900,000 barrels of tar sands to American refineries each day. Tar sands are the dirtiest fuel we use, creating 3 times the greenhouse gases as conventional oil, contaminating entire rivers and watersheds from leaking toxic tailings lakes and devastating an area of Canada the size of Florida.

Last August, the State Department approved the permit for the pipeline, but they opened up the process to receive comments from the public.  From the perspective of the State Department, this pipeline is in the public interest, bringing in oil and jobs.  However, they fail to fully account for the massive impact that tar sands oil has on the climate, the pollution created by refining tar sands into gasoline and the danger the pipeline poses to landowners and communities along the pipeline route.

The good news is that public opposition is rally to stop the pipeline.  Continue reading ‘ACT: Tell the State Dept. to Stop the Tar Sands Pipeline’