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Montana

Mass Fish Die-Offs Are New Normal: Climate Change Shuts Down Montana River

September 19, 2016 Alexis Bonogofsky, www.truth-out.org ,
By Alexis Bonogofsky for Truthout - Early in the morning on August 19, 2016, Chad Jacobson, a 36-year-old Montanan, lifelong fisherman and soon-to-be father received a text message from a friend who is one of Montana's many fly-fishing guides. "Can you believe they shut down the Yellowstone?" said the text. Jacobson grew up in a family of fishermen and makes it a priority to get out on the rivers as often as possible throughout the year. He was stunned.

How Montanans Stopped Largest New Coal Mine In N. America

April 5, 2016 Nick Engelfried, www.wagingnonviolence.org , , ,
By Nick Engelfried for Waging Nonviolence - Montana communities won a victory against one of the world’s biggest coal companies earlier this month, when Arch Coal abandoned the Otter Creek mine – the largest proposed new coal strip mine in North America. The story of how the project imploded is one of people power triumphing over a company once thought to be nearly invincible. To many observers, the Otter Creek project once seemed unstoppable.

How Montanans Stopped Largest New Coal Mine In N. America

March 26, 2016 Nick Engelfried, www.wagingnonviolence.org , ,
By Nick Engelfried for Waging Nonviolence - Montana communities won a victory against one of the world’s biggest coal companies earlier this month, when Arch Coal abandoned the Otter Creek mine – the largest proposed new coal strip mine in North America. The story of how the project imploded is one of people power triumphing over a company once thought to be nearly invincible. To many observers, the Otter Creek project once seemed unstoppable. It certainly appeared that way in 2011, the year I moved to Missoula, Montana for graduate school.

Financial Despair, Addiction & Rise Of Suicide In White America

February 8, 2016 Chris McGreal, www.theguardian.com , ,
By Chris McGreal for The Guardian - “I am in such pain every night, suicide has on a regular basis crossed my mind just simply to ease the pain. If I did not have responsibilities, especially for my youngest daughter who has problems,” he said. The 56-year-old former salesman’s struggle with chronic pain is bound up with an array of other issues – medical debts, impoverishment and the prospect of a bleak retirement – contributing to growing numbers of suicides in the US and helping drive a sharp and unusual increase in the mortality rate for middle-aged white Americans in recent years alongside premature deaths from alcohol and drugs.

Montana Activists Victory: Keeping Coal In The Ground

November 1, 2015 Alexis Bonogosky, www.truth-out.org , ,
By Alexis Bonogosky for Truth Out - To avoid catastrophic climate change, a recent study in the journal Nature found that 92 percent of coal reserves in the United States must stay in the ground to keep global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius. Montana has the largest amount of recoverable coal in the United States, close to 120 billion tons - almostone-quarter of known US reserves. Arch Coal, a major US coal mining and processing company, has been pushing hard to gain access to Montana's coal reserves since 2010. "Montana could be the energy capital of the United States if the state government and the state's community desire that to happen," Arch Coal CEO Steven Leer told the Billings Gazette in 2010 after his company leased 1.5 billion tons of coal in the Otter Creek Valley in southeast Montana.

Montana’s Fossil-Fuel Resistance Centers On Stewardship Of Land

September 9, 2015 Sarah Van Gelder, www.truth-out.org , ,
By Sarah Van Gelder in Truthout - There are two visions for Montana, I'm finding. One includes resource extraction, ecological sacrifice zones, short-term boom-and-bust economics, and long-term damage to soil, air, water, and health. It's a familiar pattern of colonization: powerful outside interests make big profits, often rolling over local interests. They promise jobs, some sharing of the wealth with local elites, and some taxes. But the reality is often boom-and-bust cycles creating jobs that bring in outsiders and corruption, while locals are left to deal with long-term degradation, like at the enormous, toxic Berkeley Pit located in the center of Butte, Montana. The new vision is a rediscovery of what it means to be indigenous to a place. Indigenous is a quality of mind and a form of culture that does not belong to any one group. It grows out of a commitment to land, water, family, and community. Rediscovering this part of our heritage may be our best hope.

Police: Rainbow Gathering An Extreme Hazard

February 2, 2015 Keila Szpaller, www.missoulian.com ,
The Missoula Police Department got the nod Wednesday to have the mayor sign off on a Homeland Security grant proposal – one that names the Rainbow Family as an "extremist" hazard in western Montana. The $254,930 grant will purchase a mobile communications vehicle the Missoula police will share with other law enforcement and emergency responders in seven western Montana counties, according to Assistant Police Chief Scott Hoffman. The city's contribution is $29,200. According to police, the Montana Department of Military Affairs' Disaster and Emergency Services division already approved the city's application.

2nd Crude Pipeline Spill In Montana Wreaks Havoc On Yellowstone

January 23, 2015 Nate Schweber, www.america.aljazeera.com , ,
When an oil pipeline burst in July 2011 and poured 63,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River 200 miles upstream from Dena Hoff’s farm of wheat, beans and corn on the Great Plains in Glendive, she felt disgusted. When it happened again Saturday, she felt terror. This pipeline breach was underneath the Yellowstone River, just a few feet from her sheep pasture. The new spill poured out some 50,000 gallons of crude oil. Leaders of this small riverside farming and ranching community in northeastern Montana warned residents not to drink their tap water, because benzene, a carcinogen, was found in the municipal water system. Oil slicked the river for dozens of miles, almost to the border with North Dakota. Hoff’s property smelled sickeningly like diesel.

Montana Excludes Best Options For Lowering CO2 Emissions

October 7, 2014 Eric Whitney, www.mtpr.com , ,
"People are worried about any changes in energy production might change the cost that they pay in their homes for energy or might make businesses cost prohibitive to run here in Montana. We need to dive in and look at those numbers," she said. "On the flip side, we also heard that if we do this right this could save rent payers money, so we look forward to that homework ahead" The cost question was raised last night by David Hoffman, director of external affairs for PPL Montana, the company that runs the Colstrip power plant. DEQ’s Stone-Manning disputed that number, saying any change in the price of electricity as a result of the EPA emissions target is impossible to calculate. That’s because the state has laid out five different options for meeting the target, and each would result in different costs and savings.

Brad Pitt To Help Build 20 LEED Platinum Homes For Tribes In Montana

June 23, 2014 Beverley Mitchell, www.inhabitat.com , , ,
The Make It Right nonprofit founded by Brad Pitt is partnering with the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes of Fort Peck, Montana, to build sustainable homes, buildings and communities on their reservation. In addition to 20 LEED Platinum certified homes, the project will develop a sustainable master plan for the entire reservation, which covers thousands of acres and is home to more than 6,000 Native Americans. Make It Right was set up in 2007 to provide housing for people in need. All Make It Right projects are LEED Platinum certified, Cradle to Cradle inspired, and designed by renowned architects in collaboration with the community involved. For the current project, architects and designers from GRAFT, Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative, Architecture for Humanity, Method Homes, and Living Homes spent four days meeting with tribal members before developing their designs. Currently, more than 600 people are waiting for housing on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Overcrowding is a chronic problem, with multiple families commonly living together in two-bedroom homes due to lack of accommodation.

Tar Sands Megaloads Protested in Missoula, MT

January 24, 2014 Staff, www.wildidahorisingtide.org , , , , , ,
Montana Indian Peoples Action, along with Blue Skies Campaign, Northern Rockies Rising Tide, Spokane Rising Tide, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide, protested, prayed, and round-danced against a “megaload,” a colossal piece of tar sands processing equipment that Omega Morgan hauled on Reserve Street through Missoula, Montana, on Wednesday morning, January 22 [1-4]. Bringing together residents of Missoula and other communities in Montana, Idaho, and Washington affected by tar sands transportation projects, the approximately 50 protesters stood in solidarity with the Nez Perce and Shoshone-Bannock tribes in Idaho, the Confederated Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes in Oregon, and especially the First Nations people in Canada, who oppose tar sands mining and its pollution and devastation of their ancestral homelands in present-day Alberta.

Momentum Builds For Action To Stop Coal Train Strain

January 23, 2014 Blue Skies Campaign, , www.blueskiesmt.com , , ,
The rail yard is an existing public health hazard that should not exist so close to residential areas, and bringing more coal trains through would make the problem even worse. This is the message we’ll send on February 22nd, when residents and allies will rise up for rail line justice in Missoula. This will be a peaceful, respectful display of opposition to coal train pollution. It starts at 2pm on Feb 22nd, with a rally outside the Missoula County Courthouse (200 W. Broadway St). After hearing from inspiring speakers, we’ll march along a section of rail line, ending at the Madison/Duncan Street crossing. There, where a heavily used residential street intersects with the railroad tracks, we’ll hold a creative action to illustrate the effect thirty extra coal trains will have on the Missoula community. Together, we’ll send a message to state officials that rail line communities deserve to be heard in decisions over coal exports.
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