Oil

State Department Takes Illegal Action To Support KXL Pipeline

September 18, 2014 Lisa Song, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Keystone XL, Oil, Pipeline, State Department

A Canadian pipeline company's plan to bring more tar sands oil into the United States without waiting for a federal permit is drawing resistance from environmentalists who say it's skirting the law. Last week, 18 green groups sent a letter to the U.S. State Department asking the agency to "take immediate action to halt this illegal increase in tar sands crude oil imports until it completes its ongoing environmental review." Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) expressed similar concerns in a separate letter to the agency. The issue highlights uncertainties in the way international pipelines are regulated, and the growing opposition to tar sands oil, which releases 17 percent more greenhouse gases than conventional crude and is harder to clean up when it spills into water. The pipeline in question is the Enbridge-owned Alberta Clipper. It delivers 450,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day from Hardisty, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin, where it's shipped through other pipelines to refineries in the Midwest and South. The Alberta Clipper carries the same type of oil that would flow through the proposed Keystone XL.

North Dakota Farmers Fight Oil Boom Contamination

September 8, 2014 Laura Gottesdiener, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! North Dakota, Oil, pollution, Water

Last summer, in a wet, remote section of farm country in Bottineau County, landowner Mike Artz and his two neighbors discovered that a ruptured pipeline was spewing contaminated wastewater into his crop fields. “We saw all this oil on the low area, and all this salt water spread out beyond it,” said his neighbor Larry Peterson, who works as a farmer and an oil-shale contractor. “The water ran out into the wetland.” It was August, and all across Artz’s farm the barley crop was just reaching maturity. But near the spill, the dead stalks had undeveloped kernels, which, the farmers knew, meant that the barley had been contaminated weeks earlier. Soon after, state testing of the wetlands showed that chloride levels were so high, they exceeded the range of the test strips. The North Dakota Department of Health estimated that between 400 to 600 barrels of wastewater, the equivalent of 16,800 to 25,200 gallons, had seeped into the ground. Wastewater, known as “saltwater” because of its high salinity, is a by-product of oil drilling, which has been a boom-and-bust industry in North Dakota since at least the 1930s. Far saltier than ocean water, this wastewater is toxic enough to sterilize land and poison animals that mistakenly drink it. “You never see a saltwater spill produce again,” Artz said, referring to the land affected by the contamination. “Maybe this will be the first, but I doubt it.”

Movie: The Yes Men Are Revolting

September 7, 2014 Thom Powers, www.tiff.net Educate! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Movies, Oil

The Yes Men Are Revolting chronicles the past five years of pranksters Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (not their real names), the infamous activists known for duping the media with their impersonations of corporate shills and government stooges. At this stage of their career, the Yes Men have climate change at the top of their agenda, which takes them to Washington, Copenhagen, Uganda, and the Albertan tar sands. Laura Nix and the Yes Men team up as directors, recording every step of Bichlbaum and Bonanno's journey as they meet with collaborators and pull off their witty stunts. Their planning and execution is filled with anxiety and improvisation, some pranks fizzling while others turn into media whirlwinds — and one case brings a threat of legal action more serious than any the Yes Men have ever encountered before.

Save The Arctic!

September 6, 2014 Greenpeace, www.savethearctic.org Petitions and Online Actions Arctic, Climate Change, Oil, Peace

The Arctic ice we all depend on is disappearing. Fast. In the last 30 years, we’ve lost as much as three-quarters of the floating sea ice cover at the top of the world. The volume of that sea ice measured by satellites in the summer, when it reaches its smallest, has shrunk so fast that scientists say it’s now in a ‘death spiral’. For over 800,000 years, ice has been a permanent feature of the Arctic ocean. It’s melting because of our use of dirty fossil fuel energy, and in the near future it could be ice free for the first time since humans walked the Earth. This would be not only devastating for the people, polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there - but for the rest of us too. The ice at the top of the world reflects much of the sun’s heat back into space and keeps our whole planet cool, stabilising the weather systems that we depend on to grow our food. Protecting the ice means protecting us all. To save the Arctic, we have to act today. Sign now.

Michael Klare, Oil Rush In America

September 5, 2014 Michael T. Klare, www.tomdispatch.com Educate! Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Oil

Whatever you may imagine, “peak oil” has not been discredited as a concept, a statement no less true for “peak fossil fuels.” Think of them instead as postponed. We are, after all, on a finite planet that, by definition, holds a finite amount of oil, natural gas, and coal. Sooner or later, as such deposits get used up (no matter the new techniques that might be invented to extract more of the ever tougher stuff from the earth), we will reach a “peak” of production from which it will be all downhill. That’s a simple fact to which, as it happens, there’s a catch. Here, according to the New York Times, is the key finding from the latest leaked 127-page draft report of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which manages to use the word “risk” 351 times, “vulnerable” or “vulnerability” 61 times, and “irreversible” 48 times: “The report found that companies and governments had identified reserves of these [fossil] fuels at least four times larger than could safely be burned if global warming is to be kept to a tolerable level.”

Breaking: Activists In Richmond Halt Oil Tankers

September 4, 2014 Eddie Scher, www.risingtodenorthamerica.org Resist! Climate Change, health, Oil

Today more than a dozen Bay Area citizens chained themselves to a gate at the Kinder Morgan rail terminal in Richmond to stop operations. The citizens risked arrest to protest mile-long oil trains that threaten the safety of area residents and are a massive new source of air and carbon pollution in the region. Among the demonstrators were residents of Richmond, Rodeo, Martinez, and Benicia, all towns that currently see dangerous oil trains moving through residential areas. Earlier this year the regional air quality agency, known as the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, changed an existing permit to allow oil trains at the rail facility. Demonstrators contend that the agency broke the law when it modified the existing permit without additional environmental and safety review.

Protect Sacred Water: Final Action At Localize This!

September 4, 2014 Staff, www.backbonecampaign.org Organize! Coal, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Oil, Water

To roll back these perilous misdeeds we need a vibrant movement that stirs our hearts, stokes our spirits, compels us to take meaningful action to protect what we love and reminds us of our responsibility to fight for the world our children deserve. An immensely important aspect of the work is to honor, highlight, and support the leadership exemplified by those who have been careful stewards to this beautiful land for centuries before the exploitation and extraction of it ensued. Backbone strategically designed our 6th annual Localize This! action camp to practice and model the good approach to alliance building that Backbone Campaign and our collaborators have been engaged in. At this year's Localize This! we went to school on how to be good allies with Natives.

Oil Train Halted By Mother Suspended Above The Tracks

September 3, 2014 Bill Moyer, www.BackboneCampaign.org Resist! Blockade, Energy, Environment, Gas, Oil, Oil Trains

Five local residents have stopped work at a Burlington Northern Santa-Fe Rail Yard in Everett by erecting a tripod structure on the outbound railroad tracks, directly in front of both a mile-long oil train and a coal train. Seattle resident Abby Brockway - a small business owner and mother - is suspended from the structure 18 feet above the tracks while four other residents are locked to the legs of the tripod. The group is demanding an immediate halt to all shipments of fossil fuels through the Northwest and calling on Governor Inslee to reject permits for all new fossil fuel projects in Washington, including proposed coal and oil terminals.

Louisianans Ask For Protections From Big Oil

August 29, 2014 Jessica Hodge, www.earthjustice.org Create! EPA, Louisiana, Oil, Texas

Twenty-four residents representing eight Louisiana communities traveled to Galena Park, Texas, on August 5, 2014 in support of a refinery rule recently proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will force petroleum refineries to reduce toxic air emissions. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in partnership with Advocates for Environmental Human Rights organized a group of community residents who have suffered both physical and psychological health problems from toxic chemical exposure due to emissions from nearby refineries in their community. There are currently 142 petroleum refineries in the United States. Exposure to toxic air pollutant emissions can cause upper respiratory problems and can increase the risk of developing cancer. Louisiana residents had an opportunity to testify at the public hearing to urge EPA to move forward with stricter refinery emissions standards to control toxic air emissions being released in their communities. Dorothy Felix, president of Mossville Environmental Action Network (MEAN) in Mossville, LA, testified that there are already 14 large industrial plants in her community and Sasol, a gas to liquid plant, wants to build another facility in her community. She said, “In fact, a section of Mossville is being relocated due to ground water contamination.” Residents in her community were tested for dioxin exposure and test results revealed that some Mossville residents had three times the national average of dioxin in their blood levels. Ms. Felix appealed to the EPA to protect them, saying: “You are the agency in place that has the power to protect fenceline communities.We want you to strongly enforce regulations so that we human beings in the current and future generations can have a healthy and safe environment to live in.”

Ohio River Fuel Oil Spill Closes Waterway

August 20, 2014 Lisa Cornwell, www.AP.org Educate! Ohio, Oil, pollution, Water

A 15-mile stretch of the Ohio River closed after a fuel oil spill reopened to river traffic on Tuesday with some restrictions as containment and cleanup continued. River traffic in that area must get Coast Guard clearance and maintain a safe speed, agency spokeswoman Lt. Katherine Cameron said. The area was closed to all traffic, including barges carrying commercial goods, after the spill from a Duke Energy power plant in New Richmond. The spill at the W.C. Beckjord Station happened at about 11:15 p.m. Monday during a routine transfer of fuel oil from a larger tank to smaller ones and was stopped within about 15 minutes, Duke spokeswoman Sally Thelen said. The spill at the plant 20 miles southeast of Cincinnati was considered medium-sized, a designation that applies to inland leaks between 1,000 and 10,000 gallons of oil, Cameron said. Authorities earlier estimated about 5,000 to 8,000 gallons of oil spilled, but the Coast Guard and Duke Energy later Tuesday lowered those estimates to up to 5,000 gallons. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that the federal agency had taken the lead as on-scene coordinator and was directing the cleanup efforts being carried out by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy.

Public Pressure Stops Plan To Ship Crude Oil Through Hudson Bay

August 17, 2014 Chinta Puxley, www.ctvnews.ca Resist! Energy, Environment, Oil, Oil Trains

Omnitrax had argued the plan to transport oil across hundreds of kilometres of remote rail line built on permafrost was safe and would help create much-needed jobs in the North. But the proposal was vehemently opposed by aboriginal groups, environmentalists and the government of Manitoba. Community consultations were "important factors" in the company's decision to back away from the plan, Tweed said. "We listened to them. I share some of their concerns," he said. "I'm not saying we can't do it. I'm just saying right now, as the president of a company that's looking to grow, we need to focus on the grain market." The northern rail line has been plagued by derailments that have intermittently forced the suspension of both freight and passenger services. That bolstered the argument among detractors that shipping oil along the rail line was too risky to the environment and the safety of those who live in the region.

Air Strikes In Iraq Largely About Oil

August 14, 2014 John B. Judis, www.newrepublic.com Educate! Foreign Policy, Iraq, Oil, Wars and Militarism

Last night, President Barack Obama announced that he was authorizing American airtstrikes in Iraq. He described his intervention as a “humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain” and as an effort “to protect our American personnel.” One word that he didn’t mention is “oil,” but it lies near the center of American motives for intervention. The United States is conducting airdrops to aid the Yazidis who have fled the advance of Islamic State militants, but it is conducting airstrikes around Erbil, which is to the east. There are American consular personnel in Erbil, but they could be evacuated if necessary. What Obama left unsaid was that Erbil, a city of 1.5 million, is the capital of the Kurdish regional government and the administrative center of its oil industry, which accounts for about a quarter of Iraq’s oil. The Kurds claim that if they were to become an independent state, they would have the ninth-largest oil reserves in the world. And oil wells are near Erbil.

How To Stop A Pipeline With Music

August 7, 2014 Ben West, www.huffingtonpost.ca Resist! Elections, Music, Oil, Pipeline

What role does a concert like the Salish Sea Summer Gathering hosted by the Tsleil Waututh Nation play in stopping an oil pipeline? Bringing together art, music and culture is actually really important in the work to protect our coast. First Nations and non native people working together is not only important for healing the wounds of history but also for collectively plotting a course forward. Stopping a multi-billion dollar mega-project is fundamentally a battle for the hearts and minds of the majority of people and a festival like this one can go a long way towards building a vitally important social movement and spreading awareness. We will never have as much money as Texas-based Kinder Morgan, run by billionaire (and former Enron executive) Richard Kinder, but we do have people power on our side and to succeed it must continue to grow. Cates Park, or Whey-ah-Wichen, is the perfect location to hold this Summer Gathering. To get a sense of what's at stake, you just have to look out from the park across to the Kinder Morgan terminal behind Burnaby Mountain. It's these beautiful waters, which the Tsleil-Waututh have lived on for millennia, that Kinder Morgan wants to put at risk with up to 400 giant tankers per year filled with tar sands diluted bitumen heading for export. First Nations lawsuits based on land and title rights are one of the strongest tools that are being used to stop pipeline projects. Building a greater respect and understanding within non-native communities regarding our contractual (treaty) and moral obligations to First Nations is important. Concerts like this one play a big role in helping facilitate that process. As non-native allies we have a responsibility to help spread this kind of understanding. A good way to start is inviting your friends to the Summer Gathering on Sunday.

Army Corps To Disclose Oil Pollution From Dams

August 6, 2014 Nigel Duara, www.startribune.com Educate! Environment, Law, Oil, pollution, Water

For the first time in its history, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will have to disclose the amount of pollutants its dams are sending into waterways in a groundbreaking legal settlement that could have broad implications for the Corps' hundreds of dams nationwide. The Corps announced in a settlement Monday that it will immediately notify the conservation group that filed the lawsuit of any oil spills among its eight dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers in Oregon and Washington. The Corps also will apply to the Environmental Protection Agency for pollution permits, something the Corps has never done for the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. The settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Portland ends the year-old consolidated lawsuit by the conservation group Columbia Riverkeeper, which said the Corps violated the Clean Water Act with unmonitored, unpermitted oil discharges from the eight hydroelectric dams. No one outside the Corps knows how much pollution is being flushed into waterways every day. The agency doesn't have to track it and, before Monday, no one with sufficient authority compelled them to do so. The settlement reflects the recent tack of the EPA regulating the environmental impacts of energy. The agency recently came up with regulations of mountaintop removal for coal and fracking for oil and gas.

Move Toward Single Employee Train Crew Increases Risks

July 27, 2014 Ron Kaminkow, www.railroadworkersunited.squarespace.com Educate! Environment, Gas, Oil, Oil Trains, Railroads

Single employee train crews are unsafe and dangerous for the crews that operate them, other railroad workers, those living along the tracks, motorists and pedestrians, for the community in general and society at large. Combining both current jobs (conductor and engineer) into one will mean more crew fatigue, less focus, more distraction and a decline in operator situational awareness. The loss of that second pair of eyes and eyes would result in a decline in safety on the railroad and would be a detriment to national security and public safety. Single employee trains crews are unsafe and inefficient in all but the most routine and straight forward railroad work. For many if not most tours-of-duty, they would present complex challenges for the train’s lone operator. Single crew operations will result in a loss of valuable informal education of train crews both new and old, and lead to less capable and knowledgeable crew members in general as a result. Finally, loneliness, isolation and a loss of comradery and spirit would be the inevitable result, bringing with it mental problems, job dissatisfaction, and staff turnover.

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