Tar Sands

Opening Day Public Comment On Keystone XL Pipeline

February 5, 2014 Josh Healey, www.movementgeneration.org Organize! KeystoneXL, Tar Sands

Everywhere you look, the stakes are high. President Obama is deciding on whether to approve the disastrous Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Here in the Bay Area, Chevron is using the pretext of last year’s fire at their Richmond refinery (which sent 15,000 people to the hospital!) to expand the refinery to process that same devastating tar sands oil. If these projects are approved, we know the consequences: more oil spills, more fires, more asthma and cancer for our communities, more climate change and super typhoons across the planet. Lucky for us, Big Oil isn’t the only game in town. Here in Richmond and across the country, people are organizing to expose the lies and create real, green-collar alternatives. Now is the time to amplify our struggles!

Former Obama Official Tells 3 Whoppers

February 5, 2014 Ryan Holewell, www.fuelfix.com Educate! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Tar Sands

Former U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar said Wednesday morning that he believes hydraulic fracturing is safe, and the energy industry should work to convince the public that it doesn’t pose a safety threat. Salazar spoke in Houston at the North American Prospect Expo, a three-day conference where landowners from around the globe look to make deals with oil, gas and pipeline companies. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a method of oil and gas production that flushes large volumes of high-pressure water, sand and chemicals deep underground. It has generated enormous controversy in communities across the country on concerns that it might pollute groundwater and cause other environmental problems.

Tar Sands Voices From The Front Lines

February 5, 2014 Wen Stephenson www.thenation.com Resist! Tar Sands

We resist by speaking up so that we will not be helpless victims in the event of a tar sands spill. We resist by empowering members of our community to feel that they can speak out against things that are unjust but may not be easily be stopped. We resist by continuing to work for the safety of our community even though Keystone XL South is in operation. Our resistance is our continued struggle to give voice to the people and places that we love and that are threatened by this pipeline and other forms of extreme extraction.

Native Americans Increasingly At The Center Of Oil And Gas Fights

February 4, 2014 Ben Adler, www.grist.org Resist! Fracking, Indigenous Rights, Oil and Gas, Pipelines, Tar Sands

In the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, European settlers stole a lot of land from Native Americans. They killed them, they cheated them, and they robbed them of most of the continent. But they made one mistake. Back then good land was fertile land for growing crops. The Great Plains and interior West — dry, dusty, freezing cold in winter and broiling hot in summer — had little to offer. Now, however, the Europeans and their descendants lust for oil and gas to provide electricity, heat, and fuel for internal combustion engines. And guess where a lot of it is to be found? On tribal lands, or near them, requiring pipes, tracks, or roads to be laid through them. “There are more than 600 major resource projects worth $650-billion planned in Western Canada over the next decade but relations with First Nations may be a major hurdle for those developments,” reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.

State Department Confirms Keystone XL Fails President’s Own Climate Test

February 4, 2014 Francis Beinecke, www.switchboard.nrdc.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Pipelines, Tar Sands

The review gives President Obama everything he needs to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. The State Department concluded that the pipeline would put heartland communities, farms, and ranches in harm’s way. It would expose thousands of critical waterways, aquifers, and wells to the threat of tar sands oil spills—spills the State Department said are much harder to clean up than conventional crude. And it would carry oil for export to foreign ports, leaving the U.S to bear all the risks. Most significantly, the State Department reported that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline could accelerate climate change by pumping more carbon pollution into our air. The surge in pollution would be similar to putting up to 5.7 million extra cars on the road, the review said. The pipeline fails the climate test President Obama said he would use to evaluate this project. It’s time to reject it once and for all.

Enviros Warn Dems: Base Will Sit Out Election

February 4, 2014 Ben Goad and Laura Barron-Lopez, , www.thehill.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Pipelines, Tar Sands

Environmental groups are warning President Obama that his liberal base might stay home on Election Day if he approves the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Critics say approval of the project could sow liberal discontent and hurt Democratic chances in 2014 — including a host of contests that will likely decide who controls the Senate during the final years of the Obama White House. “It is very likely that there will be negative consequences for Democrats if Keystone were approved,” said Kate Colarulli, the associate director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Oil campaign. “This is a tremendous opportunity to protect the climate and build the Democratic base if Obama rejects Keystone XL.” Green groups are promising acts of “civil disobedience,” if Obama signs off on the project and contend Keystone’s approval could torpedo the president’s broader climate change agenda.

Nationwide Protests To Stop #NoKXL, As Obama Delays Decision

February 2, 2014 Staff, , www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Pipelines, Tar Sands

Environmental groups have declared an "All Hands On Deck Moment" to stop the KXL: "This is an all-hands-on-deck moment to send the message to President Obama that Keystone XL fails his climate test and he must reject it. On the evening of Monday, February 3rd, we’ll come together around the country to make our voices heard. RSVP for an event near you or host your own." The call to action came after the Friday release of the U.S. State Department's widely criticized environmental impact statement on the controversial pipeline. Common Dreams reports "Members of seven Lakota nation tribes, as well as indigenous communities in Idaho, Oklahoma, Montana, Nebraska and Oregon, are preparing to take action to stop Keystone XL, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reports. This includes “moccasins on the ground” — a Lakota Nation program to train and support indigenous communities in taking action against the pipeline — as well as plans to set up spiritual camps along the proposed route."

Approving Keystone XL Could Be Obama’s Biggest Mistake

February 2, 2014 Michael Mann, www.theguardian.com Educate! Climate Change, Environment, Tar Sands, TransCanada

The simple fact is this: if Keystone XL is built, it will be easier to exploit fossil fuel reserves large enough to drastically destabilize the climate. A direct pipeline to refineries and global markets makes the business of polluting the atmosphere that much cheaper and easier. The only truly accurate examination of the pipeline would include a full cost accounting its environmental footprint. It needs to take into account how much energy is consumed in refining and transporting the crude from oil sands. It must acknowledge that the pipeline would lower the cost and raise the convenience of extracting and exporting the incredibly carbon-intensive deposits of oil. There are two main issues at stake in the Keystone XL decision: path dependency and US leadership.

Northern Gateway Pipeline Threatened By Court Challenges

February 1, 2014 Donovan Vincent, www.thestar.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Tar Sands

A string of court challenges from native groups and environmentalists opposed to the Northern Gateway oil pipeline plan threatens to seriously delay — perhaps even scuttle — one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s priority projects. Five different challenges have been filed in court — one each in the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal because it’s unclear at this time which court has jurisdiction to hear the applications — by groups arguing that a federally appointed joint review panel erred in a number of ways when it gave the go-ahead to Enbridge’s estimated $8 billion project, subject to more than 200 conditions. Four environmental groups and three native bands, all in B.C., are trying to get a court to have the review panel’s report set aside.

Tar Sands Oil Pipeline Protest Targets Citibank

February 1, 2014 David Rogers, www.palmbeachdailynews.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Tar Sands

Tar sands are “never sustainable,” he said. The protest lasted less than an hour. A Palm Beach Citibank manager declined to comment. The two Michigan pipelines would facilitate the transport of crude oil from Canada to the East Coast. In July 2010, an Enbridge pipeline ruptured. Operators ignored the signal for 17 hours. By then, more than 1 million gallons of tar sands had been spilled. The tar sands polluted a 35-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River, near Marshall, Mich. In November 2012, four people protesting the Keystone XL pipeline were arrested on various charges at a demonstration on Royal Palm Way. Two of those protesters entered the Deutsche Bank building, 350 Royal Palm Way, with bandanas covering their faces, then locked the door using a bicycle lock. Two other protesters, also masked, entered the fifth-floor offices of Deutsche Bank.

Native American Alliance: Keystone XL Pipeline To Face ‘Epic’ Opposition

February 1, 2014 Jorge Barrera, www.aptn.ca Resist! Energy, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Native Indians, Pipeline, Tar Sands

A Native American alliance is forming to block construction of TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline which still needs final approval from U.S. President Barack Obama after the State Department released an environmental report indicating the project wouldn’t have a significant impact Alberta tar sands production. Members from the seven tribes of the Lakota Nation, along with tribal members and tribes in Idaho, Oklahoma, Montana, Nebraska and Oregon, have been preparing to stop construction of the 1,400 kilometre pipeline which is slated to run, on the U.S. side, from Morgan, Mon., to Steel City, Neb., and pump 830,000 barrels per day from Alberta’s tar sands. The pipeline would originate in Hardisty, Alta. “It poses a threat to our sacred water and the product is coming from the tar sands and our tribes oppose the tar sands mining,” said Deborah White Plume, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Three Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands Found Guilty

January 31, 2014 Staff, www.michigancats.org Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Energy, Environment, Pipelines, Tar Sands

The trial of peaceful activists from Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MI CATS) ended today with the jury finding Vicci Hamlin, Lisa Leggio, and Barb Carter guilty of both charges brought against them: trespassing and resisting and obstructing an officer. Supporters are deeply saddened that after deliberation for over 10 hours the verdict returned as guilty of all counts. The jury was split most of this time, returning to the courtroom several times for clarification. Sentencing was scheduled for March 5th and the defendants’ bail was revoked and immediately taken into custody. On January 15th when a denied motion to quash was heard by Judge Collette, he told the MI CATS that they would not be allowed to argue that their actions were “environmentally necessary”. Collette said, “If there is somebody leaking oil on a piece of property and you race out in the yard, and you go in and you stop it, and they charge you with trespassing, I’d throw that case out in a heartbeat. That’s what I think of as ‘Environmental Necessity.”

State Department KXL Report: Now Up To Obama Reject Pipeline

January 31, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Climate Change, Pipelines, Tar Sands

“The State Department’s review, written by Big Oil’s cronies, presents a fatalistic view of a future devastated by extreme and catastrophic climate change. But we, and millions of Americans, know there is a different way. This report assumes business as usual, which is not surprising for an industry-written report. Despite that, the report concedes that the emissions impact could be “1.3 to 27.4 MMTCO2e annually,”[1] equivalent to as many as 5.7 million new cars. 5.7 million new cars is clearly a significant increase in carbon emissions. There’s a new scenario we’re seeing grow stronger every day, one of concerned citizens rising up and saying no to Big Oil wrecking our communities and our climate. As recently as two years ago no one in Washington thought this pipeline could be stopped. Importantly, this report also concedes that other pipelines, such as the Northern Gateway, are looking less likely because of strong opposition.

Activists Will Use Direct Action To Protect Northern Gateway

January 27, 2014 Andrew MacLeod, www.thetyee.com Resist! Environment, Tar Sands

In December, the Yinka Dene Alliance announced representatives of 130 First Nations have signed the Save the Fraser Declaration, "an indigenous law banning tar sands pipelines and tankers from crossing B.C." Gavin McGarrigle, the Unifor Area Director for B.C., is on record saying the largest union of energy workers will stand in solidarity with First Nations against the project, even if that means participating in civil disobedience. Yinka Dene spokespeople did not return requests for comment by publication time. "Some communities exist solely because there's a highway that comes to and from that particular community, so if they were shutdown for a period of a day, nevermind a week or days at a time, it would be huge," said the NCLGA's Ray.

Fed Agency: ‘Major Loss of Life From Crude by Rail

January 25, 2014 Jacob Chamberlain, www.commondreams.org Educate! Energy, Environment, Pipelines, Tar Sands

Board has issued a warning that "major loss of life" is likely to result from future accidents, urging the U.S. and Canadian governments to develop new safety rules. While many in the fossil fuel industry as well as supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline are using the critique of the safety of crude-by-rail as a reason to push for more oil pipelines, critics such as climate expert David Suzuki say both transportation methods pose significant risks. The NTSB's recommendations, which were coordinated with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, included re-routing trains that carry hazardous materials, such as highly explosive North Dakota Bakken crude oil, to avoid populated and sensitive areas. "The NTSB is concerned that major loss of life, property damage and environmental consequences can occur when large volumes of crude oil or other flammable liquids are transported on single train involved in an accident," NTSB said.

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