Cross-posted from the Coal Export Action

On Saturday, as part of the international Connect the Dots day of action organized by 350.org, activists in Missoula, MT highlighted the connection between dirty money, government, and climate change.  At the Missoula Farmers Market, organizers from the Blue Skies Campaign, Occupy Missoula, and other local groups enacted a creative street theater routine to draw attention to the Montana Land Board’s support for Arch Coal at the expense of ordinary people and the climate.

In 2010, the Montana Land Board voted 3-2 to lease coal tracts in the Otter Creek area to Arch Coal.  Developing Otter Creek for coal mining would set off one of the largest carbon bombs in the world, facilitating construction of the Tongue River Railroad, and the opening of vast additional tracts of land to mining.  With a quarter of US coal reserves sitting under Montana soil, this is truly one of the most important fights on the planet.

Help diffuse this carbon bomb: join the Coal Export Action this summer!

Fortunately, Land Board members – all of whom are statewide elected officials – still can stop mining at Otter Creek.  It will take massive public pressure to make them do so, though.  The ones who can really diffuse this bomb are the Montana people.

Thus the inspiration for Saturday’s street theater, which showed what it will take to keep Montana’s largest coal reserves underground.  During a tug-of-war match between the people of Montana and pro-coal members of the Land Board, climate activists discovered pro-coal politicians couldn’t be budged as long as they remain tied to the coal industry by dirty money.

In the theater skit, the people of Montana eventually solved the dilemma by cutting a rope tying Land Board members to an immovable rock representing Arch Coal (meanwhile, an Arch Coal lobbyist offered Governor Brian Schweitzer and other Land Board members coal).  And though this creative action was all in good fun, the message is deadly serious: we really do need to cut the link between state politics and giant energy companies.

Later this year, we have a chance to do just this at the Coal Export Action, a weeklong sit-in at the Montana Capitol.  People from communities throughout the region affected by mining, transportation, and export of Montana coal will peacefully risk arrest to convey the moral seriousness of our demand.  Together, we will steer Montana and the Northwest toward a prosperous, clean energy future – and keep Montana’s coal reserves safely in the ground.

Want to stop the real Montana Land Board from igniting this carbon bomb?  Sign up to join or help organize the Coal Export Action here!

Today Michigan State students took action to push their school to go 100% renewable. Here’s what my friend David Pinsky had to say about their situation last week:

“The Michigan State University (MSU) T.B. Simon coal plant is the largest on-campus coal plant in the country.

The MSU coal plant burns 200,000 tons of coal every year, and is one contributor to the 31 annual deaths in the Lansing area due to coal-fired power plants.

Since 2009, hundreds of MSU students have been waking up and saying “today I am going to shut down our campus coal plant!” For nearly three years, two student groups, MSU Greenpeace and MSU Beyond Coal, have been working tirelessly to pressure their administration to shut down the coal plant and transition to 100% clean energy.

Following relentless grassroots organizing from students, the administration finally responded – with an unambitious energy transition plan that calls for 40% clean energy by 2030. The plan also contains false solutions such as burning biomass and natural gas. Greenpeace and Sierra Club energy experts have concerns about the methodology used to create the plan. The ultimate goal of the plan is 100% clean energy. However, with a current timeline that extends to 2030, meeting not even half of the 100% goal, MSU students are calling on the MSU Board of Trustees to reject the current energy transition plan.

On April 13th, the MSU Board of Trustees has the power to reject this unambitious plan and demonstrate leadership on clean energy…. ” Read the rest of Davids blog on Quitcoal.org

This is part of a week of action and students around the country are taking action in solidarity, you can too.

You can tweet about this using the hashtag #quitcoalmsu

We, the millennial generation, have a reason to be angry. We are less likely to find employment than our parents and more likely to end up with staggering amounts of student loan debt. My graduating class, the class of 2011 left school with an average of $22,500 in student loan debt*. As a recent grad saddled with a total slightly greater than this, I feel the sum lurking nearby as I buy groceries, mail my rent check, or silently debate whether I am really sick enough to miss a day of work. Yes, anger is justified, but unless we do something constructive with these feelings, our financial burdens will not get lighter. We must learn to organize.

The 99% Spring trainings happening across the country this March and April will give us a chance to do just that. I attended a Training for Trainers event this weekend because I am tired of feeling like there is no way out of the vicious cycle of indebtedness I entered into when I decided to get a college degree. At the event I met a 25 year old man who had been hit by a car on his way to work three years ago and completed his shift that day because he didn’t have insurance to pay for a hospital visit. He now suffers from chronic pain that he isn’t sure will ever leave him.

I am hosting a training with friends in Bellingham, WA later this April because we young people have got to stick together and demand that the government, financial institutions, and potential employers stop making decisions that force the long term costs of short term gains onto our already encumbered shoulders. From energy decisions that destroy the environment to laws that prevent women from accessing essential preventative care, our “leaders” have clearly demonstrated that they do not have our best interests at heart.

I am asking all of you now to join me. If you have been on the fence about hosting a training on your campus or participating in one in your community, vote with your feet and take action. If you believe that learning how to affect real change through strategic action is an important skill for you and your friends to have, register to host a training this April on your campus or in your community. If you have questions hop on the 99% Spring National Student call this Thursday at 8pm ET.

We have the opportunity to reshape our country into a nation that invests in affordable quality education, that makes decisions about energy and the environment based on long term impacts, and in which young people are in positions to advocate for these things for themselves in both the public and private sectors. Take this opportunity, get trained, and take action to bring this vision into reality.

This piece is cross-posted from Coalexportaction.org

 If there’s one thing the climate movement learned from the fight against the tar sands, it’s that the fossil fuel industrial complex has weak spots that can be turned into pressure points for effective campaigns.  From direct actions to stop the “heavy hauls,” to mass action against Keystone XL, the freedom-from-tar sands movement has applied pressure in places where Big Oil is constrained by geography or the political process.

Though they haven’t won every time, activists fighting the tar sands (including good friends of mine) have cost Big Oil millions, derailed or delayed key parts of the tar sands project, and given us a real chance at defeating one of the worst planetary disasters in history.  It’s time for the Freedom From Coal movement to do the same thing.

When it comes to coal, our most effective pressure points aren’t trucks or pipelines, but they are no less real.  Coal barons dream of turning North America’s biggest coal deposit, the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming, into an industrial mining zone.  Just as Big Oil needs the Keystone XL pipeline to transport tar sands crude to the US, coal industry leaders are counting on a key project to realize their plans.  That project is the Otter Creek mine.

Help stop King Coal’s anchor project: join the Coal Export Action this summer! 

For those who don’t know, Otter Creek is located just east of the Tongue River, south of Miles City, Montana.  Arch Coal executives want to turn Otter Creek into one of the continent’s biggest coal mines, but that’s just the beginning.  Otter Creek is considered an “anchor project,” which would facilitate the transformation of vast additional areas into a mining zone.

Why is Otter Creek so special?  It provides official justification for building the Tongue River Railroad, which is fiercely opposed by ranchers whose land would be transected.  Without this railroad, coal barons have no way to transport the huge quantities of coal they want to move from the Powder River Basin, to the international export market via the West Coast.

Otter Creek is also special because, unlike most coal tracts in Montana, it is on state land.  That means we don’t have to appeal to Obama’s BLM or to private landowners to stop the project.  The most important decision makers are members of the Montana State Land Board: five elected officials who are, in theory, accountable to Montana citizens. Despite strong public opposition, the Land Board voted once to grant Arch Coal a lease over Otter Creek.  The Board now has a chance to revisit that disastrous decision.

Last month, a court ruled the Land Board retains authority to say “no” to coal mining at Otter Creek.  Of course, as things stand now, there’s almost no chance the Board will do that.  Three out of the five members have made it clear they’re willing to see the land mined.

That’s why, this August, hundreds of Montanans will converge in the state capital for a full week of mass direct action, to create a crisis of morality for members of the Land Board.  Faced with such a large number of their constituents, many of whom are willing to risk arrest to convey the seriousness of the issue at hand, we hope the Land Board will choose to take up Otter Creek again at their August 20th meeting, and withdraw permission for Arch executives to pillage Montana’s land, water, and climate.

If members of the Land Board won’t decide to re-visit Otter Creek on their own, we’re happy to bring it up ourselves at their August 20th meeting.  And if they attempt to ignore us, well…there are creative, non-violent, and dignified ways that, with enough people, you can make sure an issue at a public meeting can’t easily be dismissed.

Though the call for the Coal Export Action came from Montana, we invite all those impacted by expanding coal projects – from existing coal fields in Wyoming to port towns in Oregon and Washington – to join us in Helena and stand in solidarity with ranchers, working class communities, and students who stand to lose most if the Otter Creek mine moves forward.  This is a fight Montana probably can’t win on our own; we need a convergence of regional movements to keep this coal in the ground.

Help build the mass movement that will keep Powder River Basin coal in the ground, protecting our region from coal mining, transport, and climate change.  It’s time to reclaim our power of self-determination for our communities.  Join the Coal Export Action today.

With recent news that utilities will transition off ten more coal plants, US activists can claim to have put 100 aging, dirty coal plants on the path to retirement.  This is a milestone in what is becoming one of the most successful environmental campaigns in history: the push to clean our air and slash carbon emissions by phasing out the US coal fleet.

We’ve won victories of mammoth proportions.  Now it’s time to make sure these wins are not undermined, and that coal kings don’t simply export their dirty product abroad.  This won’t be easy, because they are even now pushing plans to ship coal from the Powder River Basin and other areas overseas.  As a movement committed to the dream of clean power for all, we cannot let them succeed.

That’s why I hope you’ll join what could be the most exciting initiative yet to stop coal, the Coal Export Action.  Register to join this summer’s Coal Export Action here!

Inspired by last year’s Tar Sands Action and the Occupy movement, hundreds of people affected by coal exports will converge this August in the Montana state capitol.  Using disciplined, non-violent, and creative direct action, we will do our best to bring an end to business as usual in the building where members of Montana’s State Land Board work. 

The Montana Land Board (which includes the governor and four other officials) can stop the Powder River Basin from becoming an industrial mining zone by rejecting the proposal that makes vastly expanded coal mining seem feasible: the Otter Creek mine project.  Unfortunately, a majority of Board members have chosen to side with the coal industry.  They’ve turned their backs on ranchers fighting to protect their land from coal mines, working-class communities affected by pollution from coal trains, and college and high school students who demand a shift away from coal because we know our futures depend on it.

These plants are some of the dirtiest in the nation, and are probably part of the reason I, and so many others, grew up with asthma. What’s more, their impact on the climate will shortly be eliminated and I hope that means the demand drives further renewable energy production.  Below are many links where you can learn more, but a huge debt of gratitude goes out to the organizations who have been fighting these, and for those who mobilized the American public to get stronger rules at EPA. In particular, the communities of Pilsen and Little Village have been dealing with the health effects of Fisk and Crawford and have been fighting for their closure for some time.

Here’s more: P.E.R.R.O, Washington Post, Greenpeace , Sierra Club,  Chicago CBS, Chicago Sun Times, Reuters, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

This weekend saw one of the most far-reaching bursts of coal-related activism the region has witnessed, as residents of three states participated in a weekend of action to stop coal exports, and called for further action.  In places like Olympia, Washington; Missoula, Montana; and Eugene and Portland, Oregon, Northwest residents visited elected officials, staged banner-drops from local landmarks, and rallied their communities to reclaim our future from fossil fuel giants.

In Portland on Sunday, members of the Cascade Climate Network and Portland Rising Tide scaled a billboard for a banner drop, while forty people gathered below spelled out “No Coal Exports” and “Export CEOs.”

From the Greenpeace website:

“Breaking news: This morning, six North Carolinians built and ascended two 20-ft tall tripods in front of Duke Energy’s headquarters with a banner between them that read “Duke Energy: no dirty rate hikes” wearing t-shirts that said, “Be a good neighbor.”

The protest follows yesterday’s announcement from Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford that the organization has opened a campaign against Duke Energy, and a dramatic protest on top of the 400-foot stack of an Asheville coal plant earlier this week. Earlier this month, Greenpeace flew an airship over Cincinnati with the message “Dump Duke.” In Cincinnati, residents are deciding whether to keep buying energy from Duke, or explore cleaner alternatives.”

Images on Flickr

From one of the activists, Monica Embrey:

“…I have never lived in a community where so many people are suffering from the health impacts of coal. From children who have to miss recess because of the severity of their asthma to the parents who are battling cancer, the impact of the four dirty, coal fired power plants that surround Charlotte is unacceptable.

Early this morning Greenpeace activists entered the coal-burning Asheville Power Station owned by Progress Energy (soon to be owned by Duke Energy). Activists have locked down to the coal loader and have scaled the 400 foot tall smoke stack. Banners read: Duke and Progress Energy:  Stop Destroying Mountains.

Images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceusa09/sets/72157629244871679/with/6869572913/

Follow the Action: http://quitcoal.org/

WATCH: SMOKESTACK BANNER:
http://vp.mgnetwork.net/viewer.swf?u=434e0a46a7ce102faba2001ec92a4a0d&z=SPA&embed_player=1

News here: http://www.mountainx.com/article/40327/BREAKING-Greenpeace-activists-breach-security-at-Lake-Julian-power-plant

http://www2.wspa.com/news/2012/feb/13/trespassers-smokestack-wnc-plant-ar-3221450/

Mass mobilization works.  And in 2012, it’s time to apply this lesson to what may be the biggest carbon bomb of them all: a proposal to export US coal from the Powder River Basin to the international market.

If you’re not familiar with coal export proposals, you can get the miserable truth about the issue here.  For now, suffice to say large-scale coal export projects seem to be an even bigger threat to the climate than the Keystone XL pipeline.  In states like Montana, both Republicans and Democrats in statewide office seem bent on blowing up this carbon bomb, and have ignored the protests of environmental groups.

Lobbying, petitioning, and talking about “green jobs” have all failed to stop mine-for-export proposals moving forward (though all these tactics have helped build the movement we’ll need to win).  I believe the only thing that can keep Montana and Wyoming coal in the ground is a mobilization that includes large-scale direct action.  It’s time to do here what Occupy Wall Street did in Zuccotti Park, and what the Tar Sands Action did on President Obama’s doorstep.  We must reclaim power over our communities, and chart the course ourselves to a cleaner, more just future.

This isn’t going to be easy.  There are no really large urban areas in the northern Intermountain West, making mass mobilizations difficult to organize.  However, there is a growing movement within these states to protect our communities from the coal industry.  We know we have the support of activists in the not-so-far-off Pacific Northwest proper, who are organizing to stop proposed coal terminals on the West Coast.  And with a livable planet hanging in the balance, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

In 2012, we can channel the power of mass mobilization into the places where it will be most effective, throwing off the stranglehold of fossil fuel industries over our communities while opening up space for clean energy and green jobs.  With direct action sweeping the country, and ever more people in the West waking up to the impacts of coal export proposals, there couldn’t be a better moment.

I know I’m excited.