It’s Getting Hot In Here

The reports of King Coal’s demise appear to be exaggerated. At least for now.

After a year of fighting for coal export terminals proposals in Washington, coal companies are moving south into Oregon.  Last week, it was announced that port officials at the Port of St. Helen’s, OR approved proposals to allow coal export terminals on the Oregon coast.

King Coal’s plan is take the coal being mined from leases in Wyoming and Montana, being opened up by the Obama’s Administration’s energy plan, transport it by rail to ports in the Pacific Northwest and ship it overseas to Asian markets for big profits. There are already active efforts in the Washington port towns of Longview and Bellingham.

The Port of St. Helen’s agreements with Houston-based port logistics company Kinder Morgan and Australia-based coal company Ambre Energy would ship up to 38 million tons a year and is the first proposal to be approved in Oregon.  It’s also reported that the ports in Coos Bay, OR are also in talks with unnamed coal companies about coal export terminal development.

Earlier in the year, Oregon’s Gov. John Kitzhaber had stated no coal would be exported through the state without a “open vigorous public debate.” It’s pretty clear that King Coal and the Oregon political establishment don’t want that at all. Continue reading ‘King Coal Ups The Ante In Oregon’

via movieposter.com

In the 1974 classic Roman Polanski neo-noir film Chinatown, private detective Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson) discovers one of LA’s dirty secrets.

He finds that wealthy developers are legally stealing precious water from poor struggling farmers in California’s central valley to hydrate the wealthy homes of Beverly Hills and a rapidly growing Los Angeles.  It’s a sorted tale of corrupt local politics, exploited natural resources, an earlier version of the 1% vs. the 99% and seemingly the “future” of the city.

In a similar vein, despite growing green consciousness in southern California, the city of Los Angeles has another dirty secret and it is called coal. Furthermore, the electricity that the residents of L.A. are using everyday from coal is being burned at the expense of struggling Native communities in the American Southwest.

Despite a resolution passed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council to get L.A. off of coal, the Los Angeles Water and Power Department (LAWPD) still purchases almost half of its power from coal plants in Arizona and Utah.  The resolution has led to two coal plants being shut down, but the LAPWD is still heavily invested in utility companies like Southern California Edison.

And while California itself has very few coal plants and no coal mines, it keeps its homes air conditioned and lights on through plants hundreds of miles away spewing pollution into the airways and waterways of the Southwest. This addiction has a particularly harsh impact on communities in the Four Corners area of New Mexico and Arizona as the Navajo Generating Station is located on Navajo land.  Furthermore, companies like St. Louis based Peabody continue to mine coal reserves on the same land. Continue reading ‘L.A.’s Dark Secret’

via understory.ran.org

Originally posted on the RAN Understory

by Mike G.

RAN activists took to the streets of San Francisco last night and turned every Bank of America ATM in the city into an Automated Truth Machine.

The activists used special non-adhesive stickers designed to look exactly like BoA’s ATM interface. But instead of checking and savings accounts, these new menus offered a list of everything BoA customers’ money is being used for, including investment in coal-fired power plants, foreclosure on Americans’ homes, bankrolling of climate change, and paying for fat executive bonuses.

Here’s a full map showing all 85 ATMs we made a little more truthful last night. Continue reading ‘Bank of America ATMs In San Francisco Turned Into Truth Machines’

Cross-posted from the Earth Quaker Action Team

Quaker Environmentalists Hold Trial Inside PNC Over Investments in Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Bank branch closed for three hours as PNC refuses to meet with Earth Quaker Action Team

25 environmentalists and members of the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) held a public trial inside the main lobby of PNC Regional Headquarters on Thursday, charging PNC with “Impersonating a Green Bank”.

“PNC promotes itself as an environmentally responsible bank, but the truth is they are the nation’s #1 financier of corporations that practice mountaintop removal coal mining, which has destroyed over 500 mountains and led to thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act.” said Jonathan Snipes, acting as lead prosecutor in the case.

The trial, which featured a robed judge, prosecution, defense, and a full jury, caused the bank to close its customer branch for the duration of the event, which lasted a little over three hours. Four members of EQAT, acting as bailiffs for the court, stood in front of a row of management elevators and refused to leave the bank when directed to do so by PNC Security, demanding that the Regional President J. William Mills come down to the lobby and answer the charges on behalf of the bank. Continue reading ‘Quakers Hold Trial Inside PNC Bank Over Investments in MTR Coal Mining’

It’s not at the White House or Obama for America rallies. It’s on the highways and byways of Wild Idaho. While hundreds sat in at the White House for “a very civil disobedience” at the White House, Wild Idaho Rising Tide lived up to their name by stepping up the campaign against massive tar sands truck shipments with rowdy protests and street blockades.

The so-called “heavy hauls” or “megaloads” are carrying huge pieces of equipment (the size of a house) shipped over from South Korea to Portland, OR and then floated up the Columbia and Snake Rivers to Lewiston, ID. In Lewiston, they have waited for a green light to complete the journey to Alberta. The megaloads have been challenged in the Montana and Idaho courts and regulatory channels for over a year on the grounds of environmental and community impacts. Exxon found a loophole by reducing the size of the equipment before they sent them off to Alberta.

In the midst of the Tar Sands Action hoopla, our friends in Idaho began their actions. Five were arrested the first night (early in the morning of Aug. 26) blockading the road where the megaloads were rolling. The next day, two more were arrested while monitoring and gathering data on the trucks.

Since then, the trucks move with a large police detail to protect them. It’s also been learned that Exxon is paying the overtime for state police to protect the heavy hauls.  That information should quell any doubt people might have about who really controls the government and politicians. Continue reading ‘Ordinary Heroes Standing Up To Big Oil In Wild Idaho’

tipping point  (tɪpɪŋ point) — n  the crisis stage in a process, when a significant change takes place

This last week, I went to Washington D.C. and joined the Tar Sands Action which was the biggest environmental mass action in a generation.  Over a thousand were arrested calling on Obama to deny the permits for the Keystone XL pipeline which would cut down the middle of America’s heartland from Alberta to oil refineries on the Texas coast. The pipeline will carry billions of gallons of oil extracted from Indigenous land in northern Alberta.

The Tar Sands Action is a “tipping point” for the climate movement that I’ve been calling a “Camp Casey” moment. If you remember Camp Casey in 2005 was when anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who’d lost a son in Iraq, began an encampment at Bush’s ranch in Crawford,TX. It was a “tipping point” in the war. It cracked Bush’s popular support for the war and led to political routes in 2006 and 2008, and the sacking of War Sect. Donald Rumsfeld.  And it helped trigger a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq (at least for now.)

The sit-ins at the White House seem to have caused a major shift for the climate movement.My arrest day (August 29th, the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, no less) included going to jail with climatologist James Hansen, a large interfaith contingent (Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist), leadership from non-profits like Greenpeace and 350.org and lots of ordinary folks from many generations and many walks of life. Continue reading ‘Drawing A Line In The Tar Sands’

UPDATE from Wild Idaho Rising Tide: “Last night the city of Moscow was a police-state, with close to 30 police officers lining a 3-block radius in downtown. We’ve been tipped off that Exxon put in a phone call to the City police department and is now paying the force’s overtime pay. The load was not blocked and people are just sick to their stomach. A community meeting is being planned and we need as much help as we can get.”

The fight against the tar sands is hot!

In the past week and half, over 700 people have been arrested sitting in at the White House in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. Also today, Indigenous Canadians took action at the Canadian embassy in Washington D.C. More actions are planned everyday until Saturday and it’s beginning to spread around the world with solidarity actions in Cairo and Durban, South Africa.

And in Idaho, Wild Idaho Rising Tide has already taken multiple actions blocking the tar sands megaloads bound for Alberta.

Last week, 9 were arrested fighting the megaloads. More actions are planned. 67 more loads will be rolling and they need some help!

Oil companies like Exxon are transporting massive pieces of oil extraction equipment from South Korea to Portland Oregon via ship, up the Snake and Columbia Rivers by barge to Lewiston Idaho and plan to truck them to Alberta over Idaho and Montana’s scenic highways and byways. The megaloads have been fought in the legal and regulatory arenas in ID and MT. Exxon has used every trick and loophole in the book to move that equipment. Now they are moving and Idaho’s residents are responding with non-violent direct action.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide put out this call for support today:

“Keep up your creativity and resolve under pressure, dear comrades! Allies elsewhere, we are under escalating siege and need you by our sides, either physically or fiscally. Please come to Idaho or contribute your aid to our resistance of another 67 transports that build tar sands hell.“

Contact Wild Idaho Rising Tide at wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or on Facebook

They need support funds and people to help plan and carry out creative non-violent direct action.  Please support however you can. Continue reading ‘Red State Rebels: Idaho Residents Call for Support & Solidarity Against Tar Sands Megaloads’

UPDATE: Three more Wild Idaho Rising Tiders were arrested blocking more tar sands equipment shipments in Coeur d’Alene, ID.  Nine have been arrested so far this week fighting the megaloads.

They spill, they drill and we fight back with the only currency we have—our bodies, our minds and a fighting spirit.

Hundreds have been arrested sitting in at the White House this week and Alberta’s Indigenous communities have been fighting Big Oil’s development of tar sands for quite some time , but today residents in Moscow Idaho crossed a line of their own.

Last night in the wee hours of the morning, as the first megaloads were beginning to roll, six men and women with Wild Idaho Rising Tide sat down in front of the massive vehicles to stop their passage through the highways and byways of the Northern Rockies to Alberta.

A few weeks ago, after many legal and political battles Exxon announced they were re-routing their shipments through the Port of Pasco in Washington (down river from Lewiston, ID) and ship reduced size pieces of equipment. While it was seen as a victory for the long term community campaign against the oil giant, Exxon still is moving the reduced size hauls through Idaho.

Moscow resident Brett Haverstick said- “Big Oil intends to clear-cut and strip mine a place the size of Florida, and simultaneously destroys native communities and entire watersheds. I feel obligated to speak up and say this is wrong.” Continue reading ‘Breaking: Idaho Residents Arrested Blocking Tar Sands Megaloads Bound for Alberta’

Today, over a hundred marched,  with fifteen arrested, as the Midwest Rising! Convergence took the streets of St. Louis to protest Bank of America and Peabody Coal.

The arrest action occurred in a downtown St. Louis intersection that connects Bank of America’s regional offices and Peabody’s world headquarters.

Peabody is the world’s largest coal company and operates massive mines in states like Wyoming and Montana. The coal goes to power plants in the U.S. and overseas markets. They are currently trying to build coal export terminals along the Washington coast to ship the coal to Asia.

Peabody has also recently taken a $61 million tax credit from the city of St. Louis, $2 million of that cash will be taken from the city’s schools.

Bank of America is the largest forecloser of homes in the nation and the largest financier of coal. Bank of America execs have taken over $35 million in bonuses and compensation even as the troubled financial institution took government bailouts.

Midwest Rising was a convergence for climate and economic justice that brought together a diverse coalition of groups fighting home foreclosures in cities like Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburgh, communications workers on strike against Verizon Wireless, local labor organizers, Appalachian activists fighting mountaintop removal and climate justice activists from around the world.

In the morning, Midwest Rising activists also organized four decentralized actions at the corporate headquarters of Arch Coal and Monsanto, a Verizon Wireless store and the St. Louis Board of Education. By mid-morning, the Appalachian-Arch Coal contingent joined the striking communications workers at the Verizon store singing “solidarity forever” and telling the story of the new Battle of Blair Mountain.

Corporate America attempted to disrupt Midwest Rising as one company contacted the conference center trying to get the venue canceled, another pressured the transportation company to not deliver activists downtown in rented buses for Monday’s rally and they assembled a small army of police and private security to protect the Peabody and Bank of America buildings. There were also heavy police presences at Arch and Monsanto.

At one point a Rising Tide activist confronted a St. Louis police officer, who followed them into a coffee shop, and asked if he worked for “Peabody or the City of St. Louis. To which the officer replied “Peabody. And you. But they pay me more.”

Continue reading ‘Fifteen Arrested Taking Action Against Banks and Big Coal in St. Louis’

Last week, I wrote about the action camps planned this month that will be challenging the root causes of climate change, i.e. the fossil fuel industry, in the Midwest, Southeast and Pacific Northwest.

But August is already sizzling with small groups of environmental and Indigenous rights minded people stepping up and putting their bodies on the line to protect those places most near and dear to their hearts.

Last Thursday, in New Orleans about 100 people rallied at BP’s Regional Command Center to protest the oil giant’s continued lack of accountability in cleaning up one of the worst corporate disasters in U.S. history- the Gulf Oil Spill. As the event’s call to action put it “The Oil is Still Here and so are We,” and Louisiana residents are mobilizing to fight back against the poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico by BP.

Three were arrested staging at sit-in at the front entrance of the office during the rally. Cherri Foytlin, a Louisiana resident, an oil worker’s wife, a mother of six and one of the arrested said “They’ve told us we can’t cross this line or we’ll be arrested. Well they crossed the line a long time ago when 11 men died and they sprayed poisons into our water and made cleanup workers sick. Now fishermen can’t put food on the table and people are still sick. We’ve had enough. It’s time for us to cross the line now.”

Last year, BP spilled billions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and has created an environmental and public health crisis throughout the Gulf States. For their part, the BP Support Network (aka the complicit politicians in both parties) seem to have the company’s back as the tax payers are footing the bill for any cleanup efforts and British Petroleum continues to operate in the Gulf.

Meanwhile in Northern Arizona, Native Americans are struggling to defend San Francisco Peaks, sacred to 13 area Native American Nations, from the Snowbowl Ski Resort. The Snowbowl Ski Resort is already destroying the sacred mountain with the clear cutting of grandmother trees, as a pipeline is put in to bring sewage water to the ski resort for snowmaking. Native American medicine men gather healing plants and conduct ceremonies on San Francisco Peaks. The healing herbs would be contaminated by sewage water snow. Continue reading ‘Thus Far and No Further: Gulf Coast and Arizona Activists Fight Back’