Energy

Protestors Swamp LNG Meeting

January 31, 2015 Kyle Spurr, www.dailyastorian.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Oregon

Local activists opposed to a project that would ship liquefied natural gas from the Skipanon Peninsula near the mouth of Columbia River crammed into the Warrenton Community Center Tuesday night for a public meeting, hosted by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The activists, dressed in red T-shirts that said “I am not an LNG acceptable risk,” were mostly part of Columbia Riverkeepers, an advocacy group against the proposed Oregon LNG project. The controversial project, which the activists protested before the public meeting, relies on multiple permit approvals being considered by the Oregon DEQ, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development

Groups Sue To Stop Secret Toxic Crude Oil Operation

January 31, 2015 EarthJustice, www.earthjustice.org Resist! Energy, Environmental Justice

Community and environmental groups filed suit today over the expansion—orchestrated mostly in secret—of a crude oil operation in Kern County that could lead to a 1,000 percent increase in the amount of crude imported by rail into California each year. The newly opened Bakersfield Crude Terminal in Taft, Calif., has the capacity to receive two 100-car unit trains a day of volatile crude oil from the Bakken shale formation as well as heavier, highly toxic tar sands. Screen Shot 2015-01-31 at 8.35.46 AM Today’s lawsuit was filed against the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District for the piecemeal permitting process that allowed one of the largest crude oil operations in California to expand largely in secret, without environmental review of the risks posed by importing millions of gallons a day of toxic, explosive oil from North Dakota and Canada.

Ecosystem Sues Over Fracking

January 30, 2015 Melissa Troutman, www.publicherald.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Law

For the first time in United States history, an ecosystem — a watershed, to be exact — has filed to defend itself in a lawsuit. The suit aims to reverse a local ban on the injection of fracking wastewater. Little Mahoning Watershed in Indiana County, Pennsylvania recently filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit to defend its own rights to exist and flourish. But watersheds can’t hire lawyers or speak, so how can one defend its rights, and do watersheds even have rights? The Little Mahoning Creek waterway flows through Grant Township, where elected officials unanimously passed a “Community Bill of Rights Ordinance” in June 2014 which declared “the rights of human and natural communities to water and a healthy environment,” including what’s commonly called the “Rights of Nature.”

The Corrupt Revolving Door Of Fracked Gas Energy

January 28, 2015 Marie Cusick, www.cetology.org Educate! Corruption, Energy, Environment, Pennsylvania, Revolving Door

Less than a week after Governor Corbett left office, his top energy adviser has accepted a new job with Pennsylvania’s largest gas industry trade group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition. Patrick Henderson, who made $145,000 a year as Corbett’s Energy Executive, will now become the MSC’s Director of Regulatory Affairs. “These are truly exciting times within the energy industry,” Henderson wrote in an email to StateImpact Pennsylvania. “I very much look forward to partnering with the coalition and its members to advance what is a shared commitment to developing our energy resources in a safe and responsible way.”

Virginians Don’t Take Kindly To Dominion’s Bullying Ways

January 23, 2015 Anne Meador, www.cetology.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Media, Virginia

As a native of southwest Virginia, I have been watching the fierce opposition to the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines with amazement and pride. With little shale gas reserves, Virginia has remained relatively untouched by the fracking bonanza so far. Many states on the East Coast have quickly succumbed to the siren song of “jobs and tax revenue” promised by the gas companies fracking the Marcellus Shale. Likewise, pipeline companies try to sell the same bill of goods to the gullible. Conservative Virginia is largely pro-business and pro-industry, suspicious of liberal environmentalists. Dominion’s big bucks have got all the state’s politicians in its pockets. It would make sense if these new fracked gas pipelines were met with little resistance.

8 Fracking Protesters Arrested At Wolf Inauguration

January 21, 2015 Marie Cusick, www.stateimpact.npr.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Fracking

Anti-fracking protesters followed through on their promise to disrupt Governor Tom Wolf’s inauguration ceremony Tuesday. Eight people were arrested after they interrupted Wolf’s speech by shouting and whistling from the audience– urging him to ban fracking. Six of the people arrested were Pennsylvania citizens. One was from Ohio and another person was from New Jersey. All were charged with disorderly conduct by the Capitol Police. Several hundred more protesters were kept about 100 yards away from the ceremony and loudly chanted “Ban fracking now!” throughout the program. Despite Wolf’s positions, anti-fracking activists remain hopeful they can make their case to him. They recently formed a new coalition called Pennsylvanians Against Fracking in an effort to push for a statewide ban. “We believe that we’re dealing with somebody who is open to reality and who wants to make the right decisions,” Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum says of Wolf.

Join The Movement To Protect Earth: This Is Why We Fight

January 21, 2015 Dallas Goldtooth, www.theguardian.com Strategize! Energy, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights

The Oceti Sakowin, the traditional name for my Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota peoples, are rising up to protect Mother Earth. We are mobilizing a resistance that could prove to be the game changer in the fight to stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and help shut down the tar sand projects in northern Alberta. Our resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline and other tar sand infrastructure is grounded in our inherent right to self-determination as indigenous peoples. As the original caretakers, we know what it will take to ensure these lands are available for generations to come. This pipeline will leak, it will contaminate the water. It will encourage greater tar sands development, which, in turn, will increase carbon emissions.

Mining Company Sues Environmental Activists For Defamation

January 21, 2015 Tamsyn Burgmann, www.huffingtonpost.ca Organize! Canada, Energy, Environment, Law

Criticism of a proposed mine by an environmental group and allegations of defamation by the project's owner have landed both parties in British Columbia Supreme Court. Taseko Mines Ltd. (TSX:TKO) launched the lawsuit after the Wilderness Committee made claims during a 2012 public comment period that the New Prosperity mine could destroy Fish Lake. The proposed gold and copper mine, 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, was undergoing a federal environmental assessment when the statements were made. Taseko lawyer Roger McConchie told court on Monday the company's civil complaint is based on five articles published by the non-profit organization, which were emailed to supporters and posted online starting in January 2012.

Seneca Lake Protesters Declare: ‘We Are Planting Our Flag’

January 21, 2015 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Resist! Energy, Environment, MLK, New York (NY), Seneca Lake

Twenty people were arrested blocking the entrance to Texas-based energy company Crestwood Midstream on Monday, bringing the total number of arrests since the actions began late October to 200 people. The group is protesting plans to turn the region's salt caverns into a storage facility for gases extracted during fracking operations. Despite strong local opposition and what the group says are "grave" geological and public health concerns, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently approved construction of the storage infrastructure on the west side of Seneca Lake. With the Martin Luther King Jr. Day demonstration, the diverse group of protesters paid homage to the lessons learned from the civil rights movement.

Bold Nebraska Promises To Fight Trans Canada Eminent Domain

January 21, 2015 Mark Hefflinger, www.boldnebraska.org Resist! Energy, Land Rights, Nebraska, Oil & Gas

On the same day a Montana community is trucking in clean drinking water after a pipeline leak spilled tens of thousands of gallons of oil into their water supply, Canadian oil company TransCanada has served Nebraska families with eminent domain papers to take their land and put Nebraska’s water supply at risk of even worse tar sands spills with the construction of its Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Eminent domain was never intended to be used for private gain, yet that is what Nebraska lawmakers are letting TransCanada do to landowners today. Nebraska’s eminent domain law sides with oil companies over the farmers and ranchers who are the backbone of our state’s economy.

Ruptured Pipeline Pumps Shale Oil Along Yellowstone River

January 20, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Oil Spill

A pipeline rupture in Eastern Montana on Saturday, which spilled up to 50,000 gallons of Bakken shale crude oil into the Yellowstone River, has local residents worried that their water supplies may now be contaminated. According to a statement (pdf) released by Bridger Pipeline Co., which operates the Poplar Pipeline, the breach occurred approximately nine miles upstream from Glendive, Montana. The company claims that no more than 1,200 barrels, or 50,000 gallons, of crude oil were released and stated that an "unknown amount of that total has spilled into the Yellowstone River." It was not immediately clear whether their estimates have been independently verified.

In US, There Are Twice As Many Solar Workers As Coal Miners

January 20, 2015 Kirsten Korosec, www.readersupportednews.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Labor, Solar Energy

SolarCity, the largest installer of residential solar systems in the U.S., nearly doubled its workforce last year, hiring 4,000 people to do everything from system design and site surveys to installation and engineering. The hiring spree at SolarCity isn’t slowing; it’s picking up speed as the company attempts to install twice as many rooftop solar systems than last year and readies its 1.2 million-square foot factory in New York, which is scheduled to reach full production in 2017. SolarCity SCTY -2.21% plans to eclipse 2014’s hiring numbers, CEO Lyndon Rive tells Fortune. In 2016, SolarCity will hire “quite a bit more” than it will in 2015, Rive says, though he didn’t provide specific numbers.

Cuban Province On Way To 100% Renewable Energy

January 18, 2015 Laura Guevara-Stone, www.billmoyers.com Create! Climate Change, Energy, Environment

While Cuba is an island full of sun, rivers and windy coasts, only four percent of the island’s electricity is generated from renewable energy. The island hopes to soon change that, with a goal of generating 24 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030, and Granma is leading the way. Granma province (pop. 836,000), located in the eastern part of the island, is home to the Sierra Maestra, and is named after the boat from which Fidel Castro and his rebel soldiers disembarked to begin the Cuban Revolution. The Cuban government wants to make Granma province 100-percent renewably powered, a project the Cubans call “The Solarization of Granma Province,” as a model the rest of the island can follow. They are well on their way.

Tribes In Three States Ask Obama Veto KXL

January 17, 2015 Kate Sheppard, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Energy, Environment, indigenous, Keystone XL, Law

An association representing 16 American Indian tribes in three states along the Keystone XL pipeline route sent a letter to President Barack Obama this week urging him to reject the pipeline permit application. The association represents tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska, and is also seeking a meeting with Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to discuss their concerns about the pipeline. John Steele, chairman of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association and the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, notes in the letter that TransCanada, the company seeking to build the pipeline, is still awaiting recertification from the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. The company received certification for the pipeline from the PUC in June 2010, but because construction did not begin within four years of obtaining that permit, TransCanada had to file for recertification.

Moms Fighting Against The Fracked-Gas Industry

January 17, 2015 Fearless Summer, www.facebook.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Fracking

13 mothers and grandmothers are risking arrest as part of the ongoing nonviolent blockade of a fracked-gas storage facility at Seneca Lake in New York. Crestwood Midstream, a Houston based energy firm, is trying to store billions of cubic feet of fracked-gas in salt caverns underneath the lake. But to date 180 people have been arrested for blocking the entrance to Crestwood's facility. By fighting back against this storage facility, these moms are fighting to make sure that those in power make energy choices that protect our children's future. Learn more about this campaign here: http://www.wearesenecalake.com/

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