It’s Getting Hot In Here

Direct action as a tactic for confronting the fossil fuel industries is sweeping the United States – and recently took the form of a creative protest immediately after Power Shift West in Eugene, Oregon.  Right after the official Power Shift conference ended, youth activists embarked on an un-permitted march which visited three outposts of industries and government entities that threaten a stable climate and the livability of our planet.  Held in solidarity with the Tar Sands Action in DC that same day, the march was designed to springboard the type of movement-building solutions needed to truly address the climate crisis.

The first stop along the march route was Safeway – a corporation using oil from the Canadian Tar Sands to fuel its vehicle fleets.  Unlike companies including Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond, Safeway has not taken any significant steps to phase out tar sands oil – even after being pressed to do so by environmental groups like ForestEthics.  Since Safeway doesn’t seem to believe its customers care about the impact of the tar sands, we decided to prove them wrong by “returning” dozens of paper bags from Safeway, complete with a giant receipt of purchase.

Next we paid a visit to Bank of America, the biggest financier of coal in the United States.  In the Pacific Northwest, Bank of America is funding companies that are pushing coal export terminals and other destructive coal industry infrastructure.  Every B of A branch is essentially a climate crime scene; so in recognition of this fact, participants in the march strung caution tape and warning signs between the pillars at the Eugene branch.  A die-in outside the bank, some messages scrolled in chalk, and a bit of creative street theater rounded out the B of A action.

Our last stop was at the Eugene Democrats campaign office headquarters, where march participants pledged dozens of volunteer hours to fight for clean energy over the next year.  Calling on the Obama administration to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and harness the power youth activists ready to devote their time to a candidate who stands up for the climate, we joined with thousands of people across the country who are ready to see the President take the kind of bold stance that will re-energize his base for the 2012 elections. Continue reading ‘Youth Confront Fossil Industries in Eugene’

This guest post was contributed by Eric Jensen, a student activist at Western Washington University

Wednesday night, outside of a heated local candidates debate about a proposed massive coal export terminal just ten miles from Western Washington University, a group of students with the Western Action Coalition decided to have a little fun while calling attention to the issue.

The coal terminal, proposed by SSA Marine and it’s minority owner Goldman Sachs, would ship coal from open pit mines in Wyoming through Bellingham, Washington and out of a port at Cherry Point, eventually reaching East Asian markets. The terminal poses a significant threat to communities near WWU: coal dust and coal runoff from open freight cars are a concern to anyone near the tracks; thriving forest would be stripped from the land at Cherry Point; and 80 acres of uncovered coal could degrade the spawning grounds of an endemic herring population, which forms the bottom of the marine food chain. The impacts are as diverse as the communities that would be affected by them.

An action organized by the Western Action Coalition with Earth First! Whatcom focused attention on some of the impacts, while calling the WWU student community to take action with their ballots this week.  Olivia Edwards, a junior studying environmental science dressed as a Salmon. Unconvinced by SSA’s arguments, she said “there are still a multitude of questions that need to be answered and that deserve to be addressed.”

Demonstrators distributed literature endorsing county council and mayoral candidates that will stick up for a sustainable economy for Bellingham and beyond. They called for electing Pete Kremen, Christina Maginnis, and Alan Black for Whatcom County Council and Dan Pike for Bellingham Mayor – all of whom have been endorsed by Washington Conservation Voters.

Continue reading ‘Bellingham Students Speak Out for a Clean Energy Future’

Right now concerned students and community members in Bellingham, Washington are working to stop one of the most deadly new fossil fuel projects in the world: a coal export terminal that would send tens of millions of tons of coal brought in by train to global export markets.  To build their group and strengthen of the movement they seek to create, these passionate activists are raising funds to send a delegation to this month’s Localize This! Action Camp.  But they need our help: with twelve days to go before the fundraising deadline, the group has set a goal of raising $1,200.  If you can pitch in, please visit their fundraising web page here.

Why donate to this effort, when so many worthy causes are out there?  The answer, quite simply, is that the fight against coal exports is one of the most important in the climate movement.  If even one proposed coal export terminal like the one moving forward in Bellingham goes through, it will be a disaster for the climate, facilitating construction of some of the largest coal plants in the world and displacing renewable energy investments in developing countries.

But this tragedy doesn’t have to happen.  Members of communities targeted by coal export proposals are already organizing to stop export terminals from being built and re-claim power over the energy future of their communities.  So far these efforts have been very successful in shifting the debate around coal and turning coal export terminals into a sticky issue for politicians.  Now these activists need our help bringing their movement to the next level.

Though there are now several proposals to build coal export terminals in both Washington and Oregon, the one in Bellingham has progressed further than any other toward applying for permits it needs to move forward.  If we can defeat this project, it will send a positive message all up and down the West Coast.  The work of organizers in Bellingham is thus a critical piece of the worldwide effort to reclaim community power from the coal industry.

I can’t think of a better cause to give money to right now.  If you’re able, please consider donating to help Bellingham activists grow the movement for a cleaner future in Washington.

When some people think of solutions to the climate crisis, they picture wind turbines blowing in the breeze or solar panels on a rooftop.  But for me, the best solution is a group of passionate people coming together to directly confront the biggest challenge of our time: re-claiming our political and social power from the fossil fuel industries .  That’s just what happened this past weekend, when a group of student activists from throughout the Northwest got together to start a new chapter in our region’s journey to fossil fuel independence.

Together we formed the Coal Action Network, a grassroots organization aimed at challenging coal projects throughout the greater Northwest – and perhaps beyond.  Though the name Coal Action Network is new, student efforts to shift the Northwest away from coal are not.  Working in partnership with environmental nonprofits, students have already helped put the only existing coal plants in Oregon and Washington on the path to retirement.  When the Boardman Coal Plant and TransAlta Coal Plant are gone from the grid, our region will have eliminated its two biggest sources of carbon pollution, opening up space for clean energy to grow.

These victories never would have happened without countless individuals who took a stand, and were willing to say “No more” to the coal industry.  With two major achievements down already, we are turning to the next big challenge: protecting our rivers and bays from becoming an international coal export zone.  We are already working in solidarity with impacted front line communities who are fighting coal export infrastructure in their back yards.

Today everyone from President Obama to BP is willing to talk about technological energy “solutions.”  But what about the original democratic solution that formed the foundation of every successful social movement in history: a community of principled individuals willing to stand up for justice?  Technology will of course play a vital part in the transition away from fossil fuels, but wind turbines and solar panels will not on their own stop destructive coal infrastructure proposals.   Just as leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and the India liberation movement won by refusing to cooperate with oppression, we must do the same – and we must remember ignoring the problem is tantamount to participating in it.  That’s why I’m so excited to see this new chapter of solidarity with impacted communities beginning in the Northwest.

Continue reading ‘Introducing: Coal Action Network Northwest’

This blog post was cowritten by Monica Christoffels, student activist in Eugene, Oregon and Anastasia Schemkes, Green Transportation Organizer at the Sierra Club Cascade Chapter. 

More than 50 students from around the Pacific Northwest joined hands across the coast of Samish Island, WA in recognition of the second annual Hands Across the Sand international day of action against oil drilling. With the island’s lush forest behind them, they looked out on a serene Puget Sound – their view only to be interrupted by the looming smokestacks of the Anecortes Oil Refinery.

These students stood in solidarity with thousands of Americans across the country in sending a message to our elected officials and fellow citizens: we must do all we can to move America beyond oil.

With toes touching the water and eyes fixed on the ominous smokestacks, the students dug their feet deeper into the sand, becoming more determined to stand against America’s dangerous addiction to oil and for clean energy solutions.

These 50 students were attendees of the Sierra Student Coalition’s Northwest SPROG, one of six summer organizing training programs to be held around the country this summer. They spent a week at a camp on Samish Island, WA learning organizing skills such as messaging and framing, tactics and strategy, campaign planning and articulating a compelling narrative that inspires others to act.

Northwest SPROG attendee Monica Christoffels felt compelled to organize Hands Across the Sand event this year because she wanted to remind people of how much is at stake in the clean energy future.

“I took part in Hands Across the Sand last year, when the BP oil spill galvanized hundreds of thousands of people from literally every corner of the globe, all linking together to protest offshore oil drilling.” Christoffels said.

This year, Hands Across the Sand came at a moment of opportunity to weaken the stranglehold oil has on our economy. This summer, the Obama Administration is working on new efficiency standards for cars – and we need to call on our leaders to increase fuel efficiency as one way to reduce our nation’s dependence on oil.

The White House is set to announce new fuel efficiency standards for 2017-2025 this September. The highest standard under consideration, 62 miles per gallon, would cut the average car’s oil consumption by half – reducing America’s dependence on oil by over 44 billion gallons per year.

“Hands Across the Sand shows me that people all over the world are ready for a clean energy future, and gives me hope that we can achieve that someday.” Christoffels continued.

The youth that attend SPROGs around the country every summer – including those at NW SPROG this year are not only ready for a clean energy future, they are the ones helping create it.

With the tools they learned at SPROG and the same passion that brought them together on the beach, the students at NW SPROG are among those pushing their communities, local leaders and the Obama Administration to make “someday” right now – we can start with 60mpg by 2025.

Tell the Obama Administration you want higher fuel efficiency standards, visit Go60mpg.org.

If so-called world “leaders” won’t lead on climate change, global citizens will.  If governments in the world’s most powerful countries insist on stoking global warming by approving massive new fossil fuel projects, then it’s up to groups of concerned people to hold polluters accountable ourselves.  In the last few months I’ve been encouraged to watch as more and more climate activists have begun using creative direct action to sidestep the government delay tactics that have stalled progress on climate issues for so long, and started peacefully confronting corporate polluters directly.

That’s what happened this past weekend, as activists across the world participated in the second International Day of Action Against the Tar Sands.  As you may know, the Canadian Tar Sands in Alberta are the world’s most destructive industrial project, and one of the fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions on the planet.  While the Canadian government’s oil fever has unleashed tar sands extraction, the US is by far the biggest consumer of tar sands oil, and European banks have pitched in to fund tar sands activity.  Further development of the tar sands will threaten the world’s ability to bring climate change under control – and since governments aren’t acting to stop it, citizens and consumers are stepping in.

On Saturday people in twenty US cities took action to expose the companies driving demand for the tar sands – including fruit producers Dole and Chiquita, which use tar sands oil to fuel their huge trucking fleets.  From New York to Los Angeles and from Seattle to Boston, activists unfurled banners outside of supermarkets and staged creative actions by banana produce stalls calling attention to Dole and Chiquita’s involvement in the tar sands.  This comes after months of work by groups like Forest Ethics that have been trying to get the companies to engage in talks about their tar sands-soiled produce.  Dole and Chiquita haven’t responded, prompting activists to take public pressure to the next level.

In my home state of Oregon, a group of volunteer activists walked into a Safeway in Portland, unfurled a banner by a kiosk full of Chiquita bananas, and acted out a short skit alerting store customers to the problems with the tar sands.  While a store security guard shouted angrily and threatened to call the police, a spokesperson for the group politely explained they were only there to make a point about Chiquita and Safeway’s corporate irresponsibility, and would soon be leaving.  No confrontation with police ended up taking place, and Safeway shoppers looked on with interest as the group filed out of the store.

While US activists were pressuring the companies using oil from the tar sands, organizers in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere took action against governments, banks, and other institutions that are pushing the tar sands forward.  What’s notable about these actions is that while the issue at hand is deadly serious, photos compiled by event organizers show activists who are smiling, cheerful, and ready to remain nonviolent in thought and attitude as well as in action.  The same holds true for many other creative direct actions happening with increased frequency across the US and around the world.

More people than ever before seem ready to use the power of nonviolence to directly confront the institutions standing in the way of sustainability, democracy, and a livable future.  I hope Chiquita, Dole, and other corporate players behind the tar sands are paying attention.

It’s called the Self Express: and the catchy name isn’t the only unusual thing about the 38-foot bus which a group of Northwest students and recent graduates are converting into a living space that will transport them across the country this summer.  By the time it’s finished, the former 1989 school bus will be ready to run entirely on used vegetable oil, and will be outfitted with a solar panel installation on the roof.  For the bulk of the summer it will serve as a temporary home for six youth activists determined to show that sustainable living in the twenty-first century is both possible and practical.

The Self Express project is a grassroots effort launched by youth organizers based at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon who have a vision for a better future.  Traveling across the US in an essentially carbon-neutral vehicle, they plan to create a real-life example of community-oriented living.  The group intends to connect with local nonprofits and charities in locations they visit across the United States, performing service and volunteer work that gives back to the community.  They will also travel to and participate in key events in the US climate movement happening over the next few months. 

“I’m really interested to see what’s going on in our country,” says Katie Kann, a recent graduate of Linfield College who will be setting out on the Self Express later this month.  “I’m tired of only hearing about the negative stuff in the news, stuff that makes me sad. I want to see the good things that fellow citizens are doing to help people and improve quality of life across our country.”

In this way the Self Express project connects the hands-on solutions work needed to jumpstart a transition to a clean economy with the political organizing and activism that’s essential to building the sustained movement that will get us off fossil fuels for good.  Considering the scale of the challenge we’re facing, it’s neither logical nor useful to argue about whether climate activists should be addressing problems or building solutions.  We urgently need to do both these, things, which is why youth organizers aboard the Self Express will be connecting with community solutions projects while also facilitating communication between grassroots groups fighting fossil fuel infrastructure. Continue reading ‘Youth Activists Prepare for Community-Building Journey’

This morning a group of climate activists in Portland, Oregon gathered at the base of one of the city’s busiest bridges, to urge morning commuters to help put the final nail in the coffin of the Palomar natural gas pipeline.  The pipeline’s main backer, NW Natural Gas, is holding its annual shareholder meeting this afternoon.  This presents a great opportunity to call the company out on its support for a piece of fossil fuel infrastructure that would carve through stands of old growth in Mt Hood National Forest, cut across salmon-bearing streams, and add to the region’s dependence on fossil fuels.  As one of our banners proudly proclaimed, NW Natural must learn that Oregonians won’t let the Palomar project move forward – not now, and not ever.

You can help stop the Palomar Pipeline by sending a message to NW Natural’s board of directors right now.

Earlier this spring, climate activists in Oregon celebrated NW Natural Gas’ withdrawal of its original application to build the Palomar Pipeline.  This was and remains a major victory for our movement, but NW Natural is already plotting to bring back a scaled-down version of the pipeline.  Palomar was originally supposed to bring imported LNG (liquefied natural gas) to the western half of the US, by connecting a proposed LNG terminal on the Columbia River to existing gas pipelines.  Now the terminal associated with Palomar is dead, and NW Natural seems to have given up the western half of their project.  But the company is discussing submitting a new application for a shorter Palomar Pipeline as early as next year. Continue reading ‘Protecting Oregon from a New Palomar Pipeline’

On Friday two bank branches in downtown Portland, one belonging to Bank of America and the other to Wells Fargo, were visited by around 30 activists concerned about the banks’ investments in dirty energy projects.  If you didn’t already know, both banks are major lenders to Arch Coal, the second biggest coal company in the United States.  Along with Austrialia-based Ambre Energy, Arch is responsible for  a proposed coal export terminal on the Columbia River which would send tens of millions of tons of coal abroad each year through a port in Longview, Washington.  Arch also owns the Otter Creek coal mine in Montana, which the company hopes to use as a source of coal to be exported.

Train loads of coal on their way from Otter Creek and other mines to the proposed coal port in Longview would expose Northwest residents to coal dust, diesel fumes, and noise pollution.  It’s thus only fitting that on Friday two of Arch Coal’s major financers got a taste of what it feels like to have a coal train arrive on your home turf.  A multi-car human ”coal train” assembled by Reed College students burst through the doors and made the rounds of the bank lobby area, temporarily disrupting business as usual inside.  Climate activists chanted “Hey hey, B of A: Stop investing in coal today!”  And later, “Hey hey, Wells Fargo: You say coal, we say no!”  Here’s what it looked (and sounded) like:

Just in case bank customers and employees were unclear about the reasons for the visit, a representative of the group read aloud a statement explaining how Wells Fargo and Bank of America are enabling Arch Coal’s dirty energy binge.  Bank managers were also handed a letter from Reed College students asking the banks to pull their financing of coal export projects. 

To me one of the best things about Friday’s action, which was a joint project of Portland Rising Tide and the Greenboard student group at Reed College, was the positive reception we got from people while marching from Portland’s Pioneer Square to the two bank branches, and even once inside the banks.  Though I’m sure the action ruffled a few feathers in the banks’ management (that is sort of the point, after all), many customers seemed downright intrigued.  We even got some interested smiles from bank customer service employees – who are not responsible for their employer’s decision to invest in coal, and may not even know the company they work for is financing coal export projects.

At no point on Friday did the atmosphere become seriously tense or antagonistic.  Though Bank of America apparently had got word we were coming and posted a security guard outside, the guard made no attempt to stop us from entering the bank, and never challeneged the right of activists to express their displeasure with the Wall Street player’s invetsments.  Yet while Friday’s action turned out to be a fun time for most people involved, the message climate activists were delivering is deadly serious. 

To residents of the town of Longview and other communities impacted by coal export terminals and associated rail traffic, the fight against Arch Coal and Ambre Energy is no laughing matter.  Organizers in these frontline communities are actively resisting the export proposal, and we activists in urban centers like Portland owe it to them to do our part.  Sometimes this means working directly with frontline communities like the one in Longview.  Sometimes it means zeroing in on the companies financing coal projects and holding them accountable.

That, of course, is exactly what Rising Tide and Reed College students did on Friday.  Though we’re a long way from ending the destructive financing of Big Coal, a couple of bank branches in  Portland certainly got the message that afternoon.  And oh, yeah – now that Reed students have a human coal train costume in storage, downtown banks just might expect to see it again….

As fast as the world’s biggest coal companies move to make the Pacific Northwest an export zone for their deadly product, people across the region are organizing to prevent coal exports from Northwestern ports.  From impacted community members, to students who are watching their future go up in flames as China burns vast quantities of US coal, concerned residents of the Northwest are uniting for a clean energy future.

The Northwest has already made great strides.  On Thursday the Washington legislature passed the Coal-Free Future Act, which will phase out coal combustion in the state (albeit much more slowly than many of us wish).  This builds on an agreement reached in Oregon last year to close that state’s only coal plant (again, we’re working to bump up the timeline).  But even as the Northwest closes the book on its own coal plants, the likes of Arch Coal, Ambre Energy, and Peabody are looking to ship coal abroad.

On Earth Day the Rainforest Action Network and youth organizers at Evergreen State College delivered over 7,000 petitions to Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, asking her to oppose coal exports.  Students also dropped off a list of six Washington colleges and universities where student governments are endorsing goals for a coal-free future, including a commitment to build no new coal export terminals in the state.   Closer to proposed terminal sites, students and community members are building a movement  to prevent export projects going through.  On Saturday I joined representatives of the Sierra Club and a group of thirteen students from Portland’s Reed College, who travelled to Longview, Washington to learn about the impacts of coal exports first-hand. 

On a warm spring morning we met with members of Landowners and Citizens for a Safe Community, a grassroots organization fighting a proposed coal export terminal.  Millenium Bulk Logistics, the US branch of Australia’s Ambre Energy, wants to export up to 60 million tons of coal yearly out of Longview to markets of China and elsewhere.  Arch Coal, the second biggest US coal company, has a 38% stake in the project.  If Millenium gets its way, Longview will see five coal trains charge into town every day, each consisting of 125 cars.  This drammatic increase in rail use would tie up traffic and restrict access to the community’s only hospital.  As Longview residents have begun to quip (and it isn’t a joke), how many babies will be born in the backs of cars that get stuck waiting for the latest coal train to pass through town?

Continue reading ‘Tracing Coal Exports’ Deadly Impacts’