It\’s Getting Hot In Here

Monstrous loads are headed down the Snake and Columbia River right now!

Exxon is currently barging massive (as in, longer than a hockey rink and heavier than the statue of liberty) tar sands equipment up the Columbia and Snake rivers to the port of Lewiston, ID. The oil industry wants to drive these huge loads of Korean mining equipment up widened scenic northwest highways to Alberta’s tar sands, to trigger massive expansion of one of the most destructive industries on earth. (See this article for a fantastic overview of the heavy haul project and its awful destructiveness)

It doesn’t seem to matter to Exxon that a federal judge has halted other shipments in their tracks in Idaho, or that concerned citizens, a U.S. Representative, and First Nation communities have voiced serious concerns about the destructive impact of the heavy hauls and the corresponding expansion of the tar sands in Alberta. Exxon thinks they can do whatever they want to increase their bottom line, even if it means blatant disregard for the will of us little people. They want to open this scenic corridor for huge, destructive traffic, and keep it open for decades to come. Such arrogance should be shocking, but unfortunately seems to be business as usual for tar sands companies.

If you’re in the Northwest, spread the word about Exxon’s arrogant behavior. Let your members of congress and local elected officials know that Exxon’s actions are unacceptable. If you’re near the Snake or Columbia Rivers and see these massive shipments go by, document them!

This is a guest post from Gabe DeRita, cross-posted from the Sierra Club’s Climate Crossroads blog.

**** UPDATE: 9/3 Gap, Levi- Strauss and Timberland have not specifically committed to eliminating “tar sands oil” from their fuel sources, but each have committed in their own way to reducing the environmental and social impacts of their fuels. Any action to reduce environmental and social impacts of fuel choices must consider the significant impacts of tar sands, and give preference to suppliers who avoid it, but these companies are not specifically targeting tar sands fuel for a boycott. Walgreens, however, has made an explicit move away from tar sands oil, and has directed its suppliers to source non-tar sands fuels. ****

The pen is mightier than the sword, but the purse may sometimes be mightier than the pen. Major US corporations are adding market pressure to the growing wave of opposition against tar sands expansion, giving tar sands producers a fresh reason to consider the consequences of their poor environmental street cred.

Whole Foods Market and Bed Bath and Beyond joined a list of six major Fortune 500 companies, including Gap, Timberland and Levi Strauss, committed to reducing or eliminating tar sands oil from their businesses. Walgreens also recently announced it will avoid purchasing tar sands oil to fuel its distribution network.

Federal Express also voiced concerns over the ‘environmental and social impacts’ of the fuel it sources, and committed to address them. Being the dirtiest fuel on earth, tar sands oil certainly makes the short list for these categories.

Continue reading ‘Fortune 500 Companies Flex Market Muscle, Reject Tar Sands’

Today, emergency response teams in the gulf are torn between two disasters: the ongoing cleanup of the BP disaster and a new oil geyser spewing into the Gulf near Jefferson Parish, LA. In Michigan, teams are still working to contain a spill from a ruptured pipe that threatens the Kalamazoo River. Horrifying images are emerging from China, where an emergency worker nearly drowned in oil while working to contain a spill that now covers over 150 square miles off the coast of China.

At the same time as these pipelines are spewing toxic oil into bodies of water around the country and around the globe, the State Department has pushed back its decision on permitting the Keystone XL project, a huge pipeline carrying extraordinarily toxic tar sands oil from Canada down to the gulf coast. On its proposed 1700-mile path, this pipe crosses over numerous bodies of water and productive farmland, and, were a spill to occur, could contaminate the largest aquifer in the Great Plains.

This week, the EPA released comments on the project’s draft environmental impact statement, compiled by the State Department. In these comments, the EPA highlights the document’s inadequate consideration of pipeline safety and spill response issues.

Continue reading ‘Second Spill in the Gulf: State Dept. Delays Tar Sands Decision’

Yesterday the EPA publicly released its courageous, strongly worded comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.  The comments rated the draft “inadequate” and requested that a revised Draft EIS with substantial new information be circulated for full public review. Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, detailed more than 30 different pieces of additional information necessary to “fully inform decision makers and the public,” about the environmental impact of the pipeline. These additional pieces of information included calculations of greenhouse gas emissions from increased tar sands extraction and studies of the public health and environmental justice impacts of increased tar sands refining in the US.

Map of the proposed route of Keystone XL

The Keystone XL pipeline, if approved, would transport toxic, high carbon tar sands oil from strip mines in the Canadian province of Alberta to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas. Community groups, impacted landowners, and environmental organizations from all points along the proposed route have forcefully voiced opposition to increased US reliance on a fuel that is incredibly toxic and carbon intensive at every stage of its life cycle.

The EPA today joins this growing chorus of concerned voices, and with this request for more information, has temporarily stopped the clock on any final decision about the pipeline. If the State Department complies with the EPA’s request, a revised Draft EIS would be open to another period of agency and public comment, and could even be elevated to the Council on Environmental Quality in the White House.For the full comments (seriously, read them, they’re fantastic!) go here. Here are some of the highlights of information requested by the EPA:

Continue reading ‘EPA Issues Bold “Game Changer” in Tar Sands Pipeline Battle’

After more than a year of letter writing, petition signing, legislative call-in days, public hearings, lobby days and a huge conference, all involving thousands of people around the state, today the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act (for the hardcore legislative fans out there, the text of the bill can be found here) by a vote of 154 to 0. This bill requires reductions of carbon emissions of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 and between 10% and 25% by 2020.

From here, the bill, which has already passed the senate, returns there for some final merging of the house and senate versions, and heads to Governor Deval Patrick’s desk for signature. This is a HUGE victory in the state of Massachusetts, and a huge victory for the our state network, Massachusetts Power Shift, which has been a major force in pushing this bill forward. In April, MAPS held a conference and lobby day in Boston, attracting hundreds of students and adults from around the state and including high profile speakers Sen John Kerry and Rep Ed Markey.

Congrats to everyone involved in this campaign! Here’s to starting a new school year with new, bigger, more inclusive and world-changing campaigns. In the words of my favorite tv president, The West Wing’s Jed Bartlet, “What’s next?”

For decades, Cleveland, Ohio, has been the perfect symbol of a greying US economy. Consistently ranking as one of the poorest cities in the country, Cleveland has been home to massive manufacturing shut downs, declining population, and a brain drain, not to mention one of the most infamous environmental disasters in US history, the burning of the Cuyahoga river.

Given its history, Cleveland would be the last place most people would look for the beginnings of a green revolution. In fact, even as a Cleveland native, I arrived home from the East Coast for a summer of environmental organizing expecting to find a disorganized and ineffectual movement, if one existed at all. I couldn’t have been more wrong. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen firsthand the quiet building of a green economy.

Here’s one example of what I’m talking about. I woke up this morning to a press release from Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), announcing the $600,000 grant from the state of Ohio to fund the school’s Green Academy, a program aimed at training residential building contractors and builders in green building techniques. The program kicks off in the fall, and the curriculum will spread statewide by the spring of 2009. Over three years, Tri-C will train over 300 builders and contractors in green design and energy efficiency. Continue reading ‘A Rust Belt Revolution’