Oil & Gas

Small Texas Town Banned Fracking, Then Oil Industry Stepped In

September 8, 2015 Adam Briggle, www.salon.com Resist! Fracking, Law, Oil & Gas, Texas

By Adam Briggle in Salon - It was 6:30 a.m. on June 1 in Denton, Texas, and we had come to defend our fracking ban. Last November, Denton citizens voted in a landslide to ban hydraulic fracturing (an oil and gas well stimulation technique that can be invasive and toxic). The ban was our last option after years of trying to accommodate an industry that refused to compromise. In January 2013, we passed rules to keep fracking away from residential areas. But in September of that year, they kept on fracking less than 200 feet from homes. Gas well operators and industry representatives claimed they didn’t have to follow local rules, because they held more than 11,000 acres of Denton territory that were grandfathered under old laws written long before the impacts of fracking were understood. Without the ban, we feared our local regulations would be trampled again and again. It would be spell mass neighborhood industrialization across our town.

Colorado Coalition Urges Community Rights

September 7, 2015 Simon Davis-Cohen, www.theleap.thischangeseverything.org Create! Colorado, Community, Living Wage, Oil & Gas

By Simon Davis-Cohen in This Changes Everything - In Colorado, local governments cannot raise the minimum wage, pass rent control laws, or ban fracking. A system of state “preemption”—a favorite tool of the fossil fuel industry—stands in their way. Local activists have long been outspoken about this legal barrier to keeping fossil fuels in the ground. Now, a coalition embodying a range of economic and environmental justice fights is coming together to directly challenge the basis for state preemption: On August 17, a statewide initiative was launched by Coloradans for Community Rights to do just that. It may be the first time that anti-extraction and workers’ rights movements have allied behind a concrete political tactic in modern US history. The “Colorado Community Rights Amendment,” which needs some 99,000 signatures to qualify for the 2016 ballot, disrupts preemption by granting local governments a constitutional right to raise state standards—empowering them to boost the minimum wage, bolster environmental protections, and strengthen tenant rights, for example.

Rock Your Mocs To the MN Federal Court House

September 7, 2015 Honor The Earth, www.youtube.com Resist! Earth, Environment, Oil & Gas

Follow Honor the Earth - "White Earth Nation v. Kerry. Plaintiffs, including the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, Honor the Earth and the Sierra Club, charge that the US State Department secretly approved Alberta Clipper aka the “switcheroo project,” skirting the environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) and the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”). The State Department’s action has allowed Enbridge to switch lines at the border from the Alberta Clipper Line to an expanded and improved, (but aging) Line 3. The l6 mile border segment moves oil between the Clipper line and the Line 3 segment to, ostensibly, according to plaintiffs, avoid federal law. " When: Thursday, September l0 at 9:00 am

Another Serious Reason To Oppose Gas Pipelines

September 7, 2015 Francis Eatherington, www.registerguard.com Educate! Environment, Oil & Gas, Pipeline, Safety

By Francis Eatherington in Register Guard - With wildfires raging across Oregon, it has become even more urgent for Gov. Kate Brown and U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley to oppose the liquefied natural gas export terminal and pipeline proposed for our state by a Canadian energy company. The Stouts Creek fire, one of the largest current blazes, is affecting at least 17 miles of the route that the Pacific Connector pipeline would take to bring natural gas from Canada and the Rockies to Coos Bay for liquefication and export to Asia. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an agency that must approve the proposed project and that is closely tied to the oil and gas industry, failed in its draft environmental impact statement to adequately consider the added risks of piping a highly explosive substance through our increasingly fire-prone state.

Enbridge Line 9B Site In Port Hope Disrupted By Protesters

September 4, 2015 Karen Longwell, www.northumberlandnews.com Resist! Environment, Oil & Gas

By Karen Longwell in Northumberland News - About 15 protesters disrupted work at Enbridge’s Line 9B pipeline Wednesday morning. Protestors from the group Rising Tide Toronto arrived at the site on Morrish Church Road, north of Wesleyville, around 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 2. The group set up signs demanding an end to the tar sands and fracking, a procedure to extract oil and gas through creating fractures in rocks by injecting fluid into cracks to force them further open. The 10 staff members working on the site were sent to work on other sites after the protestors arrived, confirmed Enbridge communications manager Graham White.

Mass. Senate Pres. To Hand Deliver Pipeline Testimony In DC

September 3, 2015 Mary Serreze, www.masslive.com Resist! Massachusetts, Oil & Gas, Pipeline

Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, said Tuesday he will travel to Washington to hand-deliver testimony gathered from Massachusetts residents on Kinder Morgan's proposed Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline. Rosenberg said he will meet with Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur on Sept. 30. "I can't think of anyone better to speak with about the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline, the concerns of western Massachusetts residents, and energy policy in general. I certainly appreciate her willingness to meet with me," Rosenberg said in a statement. The public testimony will be that delivered at a Sept. 10 session at Greenfield Community College. Rosenberg organized the public hearing after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refused to reschedule its own session concerning the environmental impact of the pipeline.

Month After Massive Spill Canadian Pipeline Suspended

August 31, 2015 CBC News, www.cbc.ca Resist! Canada, Oil & Gas, Oil Pipeline

By CBC News - Alberta's Energy Regulator (AER) says "deficiencies" in documentation and pipeline monitoring prompted the decision to suspend 95 pipelines operated by Nexen Energy at an oilsands site. The suspension comes a month after a pipeline owned by the companyspilled 5 million litres of water, sand and bitumen nearby. Pipeline operators in Alberta are required to keep records on how they monitor pipelines, according to Bob Curran, AER's director of public affairs. Curran said a letter from Nexen to the regulator indicated "deficiencies in the documentation of their monitoring systems" and "a lack of some monitoring activities" at the Long Lake oilsands facility, south of Fort McMurray. "What we need is documentation, at the very least, to assure us that these activities have taken place," he said.

Soil Not Oil International Conference

August 31, 2015 Soil Not Oil, www.soilnotoilcoalition.org Create! Earth, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Oil & Gas

By Soil Not Oil - Inspired by Dr. Vandana Shiva’s book, Soil Not Oil, the 2015 Soil Not Oil International Conference examines the crisis on food security while highlighting the role of oil-based agro-chemicals and fossil fuels in soil depletion and climate change. The conference will focus on practical carbon farming solutions including cover crops, planned grazing, compost application on range land, tree planting and other holistic land use practices. “We are pleased to host this important gathering in the San Francisco Bay Area, the heart of the organic food industry,” said Richmond-based John Roulac, founder and CEO of organic food leader Nutiva. “To secure a livable planet we need to both de-carbonize energy and re-carbonize our soils via regenerative agriculture.“

Hawaii’s Governor Dumps Oil & Gas For 100% Renewables

August 29, 2015 Juan Cole, www.thenation.com Create! Climate Change, Hawaii, Oil & Gas

By Juan Cole in The Nation - At the Asia Pacific Resilience Innovation Summit held in Honolulu, Hawaii, this week, Governor David Ige dropped a bombshell. His administration will not use natural gas to replace the state’s petroleum-fueled electricity plants, but will make a full-court press toward 100 percent renewables by 2045. Ige’s decisive and ambitious energy vision is making Hawaii into the world’s most important laboratory for humankind’s fight against climate change. He has, in addition, attracted an unlikely and enthusiastic partner in his embrace of green energy—the US military. Ige said Monday that LNG (liquefied natural gas) will not save the state money over time, given the plummeting prices of renewables. Moreover, “it is a fossil fuel,” i.e., it emits dangerous greenhouse gases. He explained that local jurisdictions in Hawaii are putting up a fight against natural gas, making permitting difficult.

Spate Of Oil Field Deaths Prompts Study Of Workplace Hazards

August 27, 2015 Jennifer Golan, www.revealnews.org Educate! Oil & Gas, Public Health, Worker Rights and Jobs

The oil boom in North Dakota and elsewhere has helped the U.S. become the world’s leading energy provider and has captured the attention of Hollywood producers. It also has claimed the lives of dozens of oil field workers. Now, that fallout from the boom is drawing renewed attention from government scientists. In the largest study of its kind, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which investigates the causes of workplace health problems, said it intends to examine the factors that cause injuries and accidents in the oil fields in an effort to improve safety. Scientists from the institute will distribute questionnaires starting next year to 500 oil field workers in North Dakota, Texas and one other state that will be determined in the coming months.

TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Too Much Risk

August 27, 2015 Matthew Abbott, www.conservationcouncil.ca Resist! Canada, Oil & Gas

By Matthew Abbott in Conservation Council - The Energy East Pipeline project, a proposal of Alberta-based TransCanada Corporation, would make gamblers of us all. A single tanker spill of oilsands bitumen in the Bay of Fundy — currently the only export harbour for the cross-country bitumen pipeline — could irreparably damage the two industries that have been the cornerstone of the economy in this region for generations: fisheries and tourism. With an estimated 5,000 New Brunswickers working in fisheries alone, by welcoming the Energy East pipeline our province is gambling thousands of existing jobs for the prospect of short-term construction work that would leave the Bay of Fundy and those who rely upon it at risk for the long term.

Fracking Fight Heats Up In Ohio

August 24, 2015 Tish O'Dell, www.alternet.com Resist! Fracking, Law, Ohio, Oil & Gas

By Tish O'Dell in AlterNet - With the oil and gas industry already reveling in a recent Ohio Supreme Court decision stripping local control on fracking and other extraction activities away from communities, the Secretary of State has now handed the industry another victory, opening the door for fracking infrastructure projects to spread even faster across Ohio. In a decision issued August 13, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted blocked citizens from voting on Home Rule Charter initiatives which include provisions on fracking infrastructure development. In response to Husted’s decision, this week the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Secretary of State on behalf of community members in Athens, Medina and Fulton Counties seeking to restore the initiatives to the November ballot.

Records Show US Involvement In Mexico Oil, Gas Privatization

August 23, 2015 Steve Horn, www.desmogblog.com Educate! Hillary Clinton, Imperialism, Mexico, Oil & Gas

By Steve Horn for Desmog Blog - New records obtained by DeSmog shed further light on the role the U.S.government has played to help implement the privatization of Mexico's oil and gas industry, opening it up to international firms beyond state-owned companyPEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos). Obtained from both the City of San Antonio, Texas and University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA), the records center around the U.S.–Mexico Oil and Gas Business Export Conference, held in May in San Antonio and hosted by both the U.S.Department of Trade and Department of Commerce, as well as UTSA. They reveal the U.S. government acting as a mediator between Mexico's government and U.S. oil and gas companies seeking to cash in on a policy made possible by the behind-the-scenes efforts of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's U.S. State Department.

Picturing The End Of Fossil Fuels

August 22, 2015 Bill McKibben, www.commondreams.org Strategize! Environment, Fossil Fuels, Oil & Gas

By Bill McKibben in Common Dreams - When they say a picture is worth a thousand words, writers rebel (or they write 1,500 words). I mean, pictures are great, but they can’t get across complicated concepts. Except when they can. Which would be the summer of 2015, on two separate occasions. Early in the summer, on the West Coast of the United States, “kayaktivists” in Seattle Harbor surrounded Shell Oil’s giant Polar Pioneer drilling rig, trying to keep it from getting out of the harbor. They didn’t succeed in that, of course—the Coast Guard cleared them out of the way—but they did succeed in reminding everyone of the scale of the destruction Shell has planned. The sight of those small, many kayaks against that one brute drilling platform brought home the existential nature of the struggle: it’s all of us, the little guys, against the immense, concentrated wealth and power of the biggest companies on earth.

Hands Across Our Land Stands Firm On Cove Point

August 21, 2015 We Are Cove Point, www.wearecovepoint.org Resist! Cove Point, Environment, Oil & Gas

By We Are Cove Point - In protest of the construction of Dominion’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal at Cove Point, 40 people gathered at the tip of Cove Point on August 18. This was part of Hands Across Our Land, an event that saw people whose communities are impacted by the natural gas industry come together across nine states in a show of unity and mutual support. The participants at the Hands Across Our Land event on Cove Point were mostly local to Lusby, but they were joined by a core organizer against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline from Richmond, Virginia; a family who’s lived with and fought the depths of fracking in Dimock, Pennsylvania; a community activist who’s worked tirelessly against gas infrastructure in and around Providence, Rhode Island; and others from across Maryland and Virginia.

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