Pipelines

Newsletter – People Act Where US Fails On Climate

November 12, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Climate Change, climate crisis, COP23, Energy, Food and Agriculture, health, Oil and Gas, Pipelines, Poverty, Refugees, Renewable Energy

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. The climate crisis is upon us. It seems that every report on climate conditions has one thing in common: things are worse than predicted. The World Meteorological Report from the end of October shows that Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) are rising at a rapid rate and have passed 400 parts per million. According to Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, "the changes we’re making today are occurring in 100 years, whereas in nature they occur in 10,000 years." The United States is experiencing a wide range of climate impacts from major hurricanes in the South to unprecedented numbers of wildfires in the West to crop-destroying drought in the Mid-West.

Activists Paint Anti-Pipeline Mural Outside Wells Fargo

November 10, 2017 Nuala Sawyer, earthfirstjournal.org Resist! Art, Pipelines, Protests, Wells Fargo

By Nuala Sawyer of Earth First - The Wells Fargo and Co. headquarters at 420 Montgomery St. had a colorful awakening Monday afternoon, as hundreds of activists armed with paint created a large mural on the pavement outside. The group successfully shut the street down around noon, and in the span of about two hours, painted a 35-foot blue and black “thunderbird woman” on the asphalt, with “Water is Life!” emblazoned across the top. “It was kind of a collaboration between a whole bunch of people,” Northern Ontario-based artist Isaac Murdoch tells SF Weekly. “We’ve talked about coming down to the area for a while, so we put some feelers out.” Those feelers resulted in collaborations between Bay Area group Idle No More, 350.org, and members of Greenpeace. Someone loaned Murdoch and his crew a warehouse to make their stencil, and “it came together quite easily,” he says. Murdoch and arts collective Onaman have done their fair share of art around the country, in Standing Rock and at other locations, but this was the first piece they’d painted on the street. And they had lots, and lots, of help. Around 200 people turned out for the event — more than Murdoch had anticipated. “It was the people that made this really beautiful. We were just this one big family — even just for an hour and a half. It’s really really cool. It was all sorts of people, all different kinds. We were singing songs, we were so glad to be there. It was phenomenal.”

Environmentalists Gaining Enemy In Fight Against Natural Gas Pipelines

November 7, 2017 Mark Hand, thinkprogress.org Educate! Clean Energy, Environmental Justice, Fossil Fuels, Pipelines

By Mark Hand for Think Progress - The electric utility sector’s top lobbying group is teaming up with fossil fuel trade associations as part of an effort to intensify the industry’s campaign against citizen and environmental groups opposed to fracking and new natural gas pipelines. A senior official at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) said at a recent conference in Pittsburgh that her trade group has grown “very aware of the ‘Keep It in the Ground’ movement” as its member companies have become more reliant on natural gas. These activists are opposed to the extraction of all fossil fuels, not just coal, said Karen Obenshain, senior director of fuels, technology, and commercial policy, according to Matt Kasper, research director at the Energy and Policy Institute, who attended the conference. (Kasper worked at the Center for American Progress from 2012-2014. ThinkProgress is an editorially independent project of CAP.) From Keystone XL to Dakota Access to ongoing efforts to curtail oil and gas drilling, anti-fossil fuel activists caught the attention of energy companies and their representatives in Washington years ago. Aside from only a small number of victories, however, the activists have largely been unable to stop pipelines or slow down fracking. And yet the gas industry isn’t taking any chances; it wants to ensure its winning percentage remains strong.

Tension Mounts; Stun Gun, Police Dogs Used At Sandisfield Pipeline Protest

November 7, 2017 Heather Bellow, berkshireeagle.com Resist! Pipelines, Protests, Tennessee

By Heather Bellow for The Berkshire Eagle - SANDISFIELD — On the very day the pipeline company got permission to put its new third line in service here, three anti-pipeline activists were arrested for blocking a road, and witnesses say Massachusetts State Police used a stun gun on one man when he tried to run during an arrest. For the first time since the protests began nearly six months ago, Massachusetts State Police K-9 units were leashed and at the ready, and so was an ambulance as activists formed blockades on either side of Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. headquarters on Beech Plain Road. The man, whom The Eagle has not yet been able to identify, was transferred from a state police cruiser to the ambulance for a medical check roughly 30 minutes after the episode. Though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday gave Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. permission to flow gas on Wednesday, the political atmosphere of friendly protests and arrests here is increasingly curdling into one of barely concealed hostility. A group of water protectors, many who had been previously entrenched at Standing Rock, N.D. to fight the Dakota Access Pipeline, are using a more unpredictable and aggressive approach to pipeline resistance than their much-older fellow activists from the Sugar Shack Alliance.

Sami People Persuade Norway Pension Fund To Divest From Dakota Access

November 6, 2017 Rachel Fixsen, theguardian.com Create! Dakota Access Pipeline, Indigenous Peoples, Norway, Pipelines, Protests

By Rachel Fixsen for The Guardian - In an act of international solidarity between indigenous peoples, the Sami parliament in Norway has persuaded the country’s second largest pension fund to withdraw its money from companies linked to a controversial oil project backed by Donald Trump. The project to build the 1,900km Dakota Access oil pipeline across six US states has prompted massive protests from Native American activists at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. This week, after lobbying by the Sami parliament, Norway’s local authority pension fund KLP announced it would sell of shares worth $58m in companies building the pipeline. Vibeke Larsen, president of the Sami parliament, said the pension fund announced the move when she arrived at a meeting in Oslo to discuss Dakota Access. “We feel a strong solidarity with other indigenous people in other parts of the world, so we are doing our part in Norway by putting pressure on the pension funds,” she told the Guardian. The Sami – formerly known to outsiders as Lapps, a term they reject as derogatory – are an indigenous people living in the Arctic area of Sápmi in the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia’s Kola peninsula. Although they are seen as one people, there are several kinds of Sami, and their rights differ significantly depending on the nation state they live in, according to the United Nations.

5 Arrested For Mischief Following Kinder Morgan Protest

October 30, 2017 Chad Pawson, www.cbc.ca Resist! Pipelines, Protesters Arrested, Protests

By Chad Pawson for CBC News - First Nations along with environmentalists, local politicians and residents are continuing their protest of the company's expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs from Edmonton to Burnaby. The federal government has approved the $7.4 billion project. The proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta would nearly triple its capacity to 890,000 barrels per day and significantly increase crude tanker traffic off the West Coast. Still environmental and aboriginal groups have filed for a judicial review that could overturn the project's federal approval. The concern from protesters is the threat of an oil spill in Burrard Inlet. "It's a risk that we cannot take," said Rueben George with the Tsleil Waututh Nation at the protest on Saturday, one of several he has attended and spoken at.

U.S. Lawmakers Ask DOJ If Terrorism Law Covers Pipeline Activists

October 25, 2017 Timothy Gardner, www.reuters.com Resist! Activists, DOJ, Pipelines, Repression

By Timothy Gardner for Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. representatives from both parties asked the Department of Justice on Monday whether the domestic terrorism law would cover actions by protesters that shut oil pipelines last year, a move that could potentially increase political rhetoric against climate change activists. Ken Buck, a Republican representative from Colorado, said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, that damaging pipeline infrastructure poses risks to humans and the environment. The letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said “operation of pipeline facilities by unqualified personnel could result in a rupture - the consequences of which would be devastating.” It was signed by 84 representatives, including at least two Democrats, Gene Green and Henry Cuellar, both of Texas. The move by the lawmakers is a sign of increasing tensions between activists protesting projects including Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Dakota Access Pipeline and the administration of President Donald Trump, which is seeking to make the country “energy dominant” by boosting domestic oil, gas, and coal output. Last year activists in several states used bolt cutters to break fences and twisted shut valves on several cross border pipelines that sent about 2.8 million barrels per day of crude to the United States from Canada, equal to roughly 15 percent of daily U.S. consumption.

Divest The Globe, Invest In The Future

October 22, 2017 Staff, www.mazaskatalks.org Resist! #NoDAPL, Banks, Divest, Oil & Gas, Pipelines

By Mazaska Talks. On October 23rd, ninety-two of the world's largest banks will meet in São Paolo, Brazil to discuss policies on the climate and Indigenous People's rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). These banks include Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) financiers such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and many more. Mazaska Talks is calling on indigenous people and allies everywhere to join us for 3 days of mass global action that make it clear to the banks: Financing climate disaster and the abuse of Indigenous Peoples will result in a massive global divestment movement.

Activists Arrested Where Nuns Are Protesting A Pennsylvania Pipeline

October 21, 2017 Julie Zauzmer, www.denverpost.com Resist! Pennsylvania, Pipelines, Protesters Arrested, Protests

By Julie Zauzmer for The Washington Post - In a dramatic showdown in a cornfield, owned by Catholic sisters of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, 23 people stood holding hands and singing hymns until they were arrested and charged with defiant trespassing. “I feel really frustrated with our courts and our government,” Barbara Vanhorn, a local resident who came to the nuns’ cornfield to join the protest, said to NPR. The oldest of the 23 people arrested at 86, Vanhorn said she worries that the natural gas pipeline, which will carry the products of fracking in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation, will damage the environment. “They’re giving in to these big, paying, lying companies that are trying to destroy not only our country but the world.” According to the local Fox News station, 11 of the protesters who were arrested are in their 60s, 70s and 80s. NBC News reported that one protester, who suffered an apparent panic attack after his hands were zip-tied behind his back for more than an hour, was taken to a hospital. Most of the people arrested were local residents; one traveled from Massachusetts and another from West Virginia to join the protest. Mark Clutterbuck, who leads the group Lancaster Against Pipelines, said that almost 100 people participated in the demonstration. The nuns, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s, did not protest but did hold a prayer vigil in support. The sisters argue that allowing a fossil fuel pipeline on their land goes against the land ethic that members of their order sign, vowing to protect the earth.

23 Arrested Protesting Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline

October 17, 2017 Marie Cusick, www.stateimpact.npr.org Resist! Pipelines, Protesters Arrested, Protests

By Marie Cusick for State Impact - Twenty-three people were arrested and charged with defiant trespassing Monday after they blocked construction equipment for the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline in Lancaster County. The showdown between the pipeline company and the protesters has been in the making since the project was first announced three years ago. The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline is being built to carry natural gas southward, from the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania. It will eventually pass through 10 counties, but it’s been met with the most opposition in Lancaster. 86-year-old Barbara Vanhorn of Duncanon was among those arrested, and says she’s worried about how natural gas contributes to climate change. “I feel really frustrated with our courts and our government,” she says. “They’re giving in to these big, paying, lying companies that are trying to destroy not only our country, but the world.” More than 100 people gathered in a cornfield in West Hempfield Township early Monday morning, next to the right-of-way where the pipeline is going to be installed. The property is owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a group of Catholic nuns who are suing to block the pipeline, citing their religious freedom. Before the protesters entered the construction zone the nuns’ attorney, Dwight Yoder, informed them that the Adorers were not giving people permission to enter the property, which has been taken through eminent domain.

Marylanders And West Virginians Unite Against Pipeline

October 17, 2017 John Zangas and Anne Meador, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Maryland, Pipelines, West Virginia

By John Zangas and Anne Meador for DC Media Group - Shepherdstown, W.Va. — Three hundred and fifty people spanned the James Rumsey bridge between Shepherdstown, W.Va., and Sharpsburg, Md. on Saturday to draw attention to TransCanada’s plan to drill under the Potomac River and lay a gas pipeline. Holding hands across the entire width of the Potomac River and symbolically connecting the shores of West Virginia and Maryland, the action was a display of unity and resolve to resist gas companies and their backers in elected office. After singing “this land is our land” and reading an indigenous people’s prayer, they threw flowers into the river below. “Hands Across the Potomac” was organized by Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Eastern Panhandle Protectors, Potomac Riverkeepers, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Sierra Club Maryland Chapter, local farmers and concerned residents in the area. They are all urging Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to reject the project in keeping with the fracking ban legislation he signed last spring. Environmentalists have joined with local farmers in a growing regional resistance to the project which they say threatens drinking water for over six million downstream, including those in the Washington metropolitan area who depend on the Potomac.

WV & MD Unite To Oppose Potomac Pipeline

October 16, 2017 Staff, www.chesapeakeclimate.org Resist! Maryland, Pipelines, Protests, West Virginia

By Staff of CCAN - SHARPSBURG, MD- On Saturday, October 14, hundreds of concerned West Virginia and Maryland residents joined hands over a key Potomac River bridge to send a powerful message urging Governor Hogan stop TransCanada from building a fracked-gas pipeline underneath the treasured river. Click here for a photo album on Flickr and here for videos on Twitter. The group of elected leaders, environmental and social justice advocates, landowners and concerned citizens stood hand-in hand to span the James Rumsey Bridge over the Potomac River in Western Maryland. By connecting the Maryland side of the river to West Virginia, the group showed that they stand as a united front in protesting this pipeline. Patricia Kesecker, West Virginia landowner who is currently being sued by Mountaineer Gas, said: “when you have put your blood, sweat and tears into the land for almost 50 years and someone can come and take it against your wishes, that is heartbreaking. When the judge granted Mountaineer Gas the right to our property, she not only robbed us, but she also robbed our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of their heritage.” The pipeline is being proposed by TransCanada, the company infamous for pushing the Keystone XL Pipeline, and Mountaineer Gas. It would ship fracked gas from Pennsylvania to West Virginia, passing through the town of Hancock, Maryland and underneath the Potomac River. This pipeline would not benefit Marylanders in any way, yet it would pose a grave threat to their drinking water and deepen dependence on dirty fossil fuels for years to come.

Is Dominion’s Grip On Political Power At A Crossroads?

October 14, 2017 Robert Zullo, www.richmond.com Educate! Dominion, Money in Politics, Pipelines

By Robert Zullo for Richmond Times-Dispatch - Sen. David R. Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, partnered with Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, D-Fairfax City, last session on a bill that would have repealed the rate freeze law. The measure died early in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, and attempts to revive it during the session illustrated how lonely it can be for lawmakers on the wrong side of a bill Dominion wants to pass or fail. "As a regulated monopoly, Dominion is very involved at the General Assembly and the State Corporation Commission is constitutionally responsible for overseeing a lot of things related to Dominion's business," Suetterlein said. "Unfortunately, they've been able to convince the General Assembly to kidnap the SCC's authority." But that hasn't stopped the State Corporation Commission from pushing back in some cases, and in one recent example exerting its power in defiance of the General Assembly. Last month, for a second time, the commission rejected the bulk of a Dominion plan to bury several thousand miles of electric lines. The commission's decision came despite explicit legislative direction from the General Assembly last session to cast a more favorable eye on the program. The SCC's three commissioners, who are elected by the legislature, unanimously concluded that at an eventual price tag of $6 billion to ratepayers, the cost outweighed the benefits.

Top Pipeline Safety Official Profits From Oil Spills

October 13, 2017 Itai Vardi, www.nationofchange.org Educate! Oil Spill, Pipelines, Profit

By Itai Vardi for Nation of Change - A newly appointed federal regulator charged with overseeing pipeline safety personally profits from oil spill responses, a DeSmog investigation has found. Drue Pearce is the acting administrator for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), an agency in the Department of Transportation responsible for ensuring oil and gas pipeline integrity. However, she is also associated with a company specializing in the sale of oil spill equipment. Pearce, a Republican from Alaska, was appointed on August 7 by the Trump administration to serve as PHMSA’s deputy administrator, a position that does not require U.S. Senate confirmation. However, since at the time the administration had yet to nominate an administrator for the agency, Pearce stepped into the role as acting administrator. In early September, Trump finally nominated, and last Friday the Senate confirmed rail transport executive Howard Elliot as PHMSA administrator. Once Elliot formally takes the helm at PHMSA, Pearce will serve as his deputy. Business records filed in the state of Alaska and reviewed by DeSmog show that since 2009 Pearce and her husband, Michael F. Williams, have owned Spill Shield Inc., an Anchorage-based company selling equipment for oil spill responses. The company’s website offers various products, including booms, baffles, skimmers, absorbents, and oil spill response kits.

Resistance To Line 3 Pipeline Seeks To Save Sacred Manoomin

October 11, 2017 Staff, www.unicornriot.ninja Resist! Indigenous Peoples, Pipelines

By Staff of Unicorn RIot - Construction on the planned Line 3 Replacement Project (L3RP) is almost finished in the northwest corner of Wisconsin, where several direct actions by water protectors and land defenders have attempted to halt construction and resulted in numerous arrests. L3RP has yet to be approved in Minnesota, but Enbridge already has yards filled with sections of pipeline being protected by law enforcement agencies in Minnesota. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission held a public hearing in St. Paul during the last week of September; Unicorn Riot was live at a rally and march in opposition of the project and for five hours of public comments on the proposed project. The planned Line 3 pipeline route goes through several unceded treaty territories with five tribes, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, White Earth Band of Ojibwe, and the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, in the direct path of the proposed route which crosses Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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