Tar Sands

Tar Sands Protesters Chain Themselves To Bank Doors

January 24, 2014 Scott Dolan, www.pressherald.com Resist! Climate Change, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Tar Sands

Both Schlotterbeck and Catlin said they hoped that bank executives would come talk to them in response to the protesters locking themselves to the bank doors. But that didn’t happen. The protest caused the bank to close only briefly, as customers were able to use another entrance to enter the bank. About 25 protesters stood on the sidewalk in support of Schlotterbeck and Catlin. Dressed in layers with hats and gloves, they handed out cups of hot chocolate as temperatures hovered around 15 degrees and distributed leaflets to curious passers-by. “Tar sands is currently destroying the place we all call home,” said Meg Gilmartin of Belgrade. “It’s necessary for all of us to take action for the communities being put at risk and the planet we all share.”

Tar Sands Megaloads Protested in Missoula, MT

January 24, 2014 Staff, www.wildidahorisingtide.org Resist! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Montana, Tar Sands, Video

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.

Two Arrested In Solidarity With Those Affected By KXL

January 22, 2014 Maine Trans and/or Women's Action Team, ww.youtube.com Resist! Climate Change, Tar Sands

Chief climatologist James Hansen of NASA has declared that continued extraction of tar sands oil means "Game Over" for our climate. Yet, "Game Over" has already been the reality in many people of color and indigenous communities throughout the colonial Americas. The protesters are highlighting the 590,000 additional barrels of oil that will now flow to the southern terminus of the KXL in Manchester, Texas. "The best way to visualize how such an increase in toxins might impact community health is to examine the current reality. Children living within two miles of the Houston Ship Channel are 56 percent more likely to get leukemia than those living ten or more miles away," said Ethan Nuss of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services or TEJAS. "Environmental racism isn't just a symptom," said Betsy Catlin, one of the protesters locked to TD Bank.

Oil Trains Threaten Water And Communities

January 21, 2014 Coryn S. Wolk, www.protectingourwaterswordpress.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, Tar Sands

Philadelphia’s wake-up call is here. A few months ago, Protecting Our Waters started warning people about the dangers of the fracked oil trains coming to Philadelphia from the Bakken Shale formation out west. We’ve reported on multiple oil train explosions and derailments across North America, one of which, in Lac Megantic, Canada killed 47 people. As of this morning, the threat of an accident here in Philadelphia is no longer hypothetical. Just after 1 a.m. this morning, seven cars of a 101-car CSX train from Chicago derailed on the Schuylkill Arsenal Railroad bridge over the Schuylkill River. Six were carrying crude oil, and one was carrying sand.

Direct Action To Stop KXL South At White House

January 19, 2014 Tom Weis, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Tar Sands

You wouldn’t know it from the lack of focus and attention by the environmental establishment, but the 485-mile southern leg of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has been built, is being filled and is scheduled to start up on Jan. 22. Front line reports from landowners in Texas and Oklahoma say that TransCanada has patrol planes flying up and down the line, with foot patrols searching for leaks. In a few short days, this 485-mile fuse to one of the biggest carbon bombs on the planet will be lit. Desperate to stop this, several prominent Texas landowners urgently requested a face-to-face meeting with President Obama in early December, only to be spurned by the White House. In response, I spearheaded an emergency direct action on Jan. 15, the 85th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., outside the White House to demand that the President order the shut down of Keystone XL south.

White House Ignores Urgent Request To Stop Southern Leg of Keystone XL

January 18, 2014 Tom Weis, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Pipelines, Tar Sands

The following letter was sent to the White House on Dec. 10 at the invitation of President Obama’s Senior Advisor, Valerie Jarrett. This urgent request from embattled Texas landowners for a face-to-face meeting with the president has so far been ignored. TransCanada has announced plans to bring the southern leg of Keystone XL pipeline commercially on line Jan. 22. Excerpt: "In light of the fact that TransCanada began injecting oil into Keystone XL’s southern leg on Saturday, with plans to bring the pipeline commercially on line by January 3, it is urgent that we meet with President Obama before the end of the year to identify immediate actions the administration can take to prevent this project from delivering tar sands oil to Gulf Coast refineries. This letter is co-signed by several east Texas landowners whose rights have been violated by construction of the pipeline’s southern leg; a matriarch of the Great Sioux Nation whose treaty rights stand to be violated by construction of the pipeline’s northern leg; two prominent faith leaders; and two national environmental leaders. Given the urgency of this matter, your help in arranging a sit-down with President Obama before the end of the year would be most appreciated."

Criticizing Neil Young Shows Tar Sands Knows It Has A Problem

January 18, 2014 Tim Gray, www.thestar.com/ Resist! Energy, Environment, Indigenous Rights, Tar Sands, Video

Attacks by the oil industry on Neil Young, as he supports the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in their defence of their treaty rights in the tar sands, are not surprising. Oil companies are making lots of money and want to make more of it. They aim to keep their costs as low as possible and addressing environmental and social concerns might cut into their profits. What is more surprising and shortsighted is the cheerleading for these views by some in our governments. Behind the abysmal environmental and climate impacts of the tar sands can be found countless treaty violations, swaths of First Nations land that is no longer accessible for most of the year thanks to tar sands development, and devastating local pollution to the air, water and ecosystems. First Nations are on the front lines of tar sands development and are justifiably fighting for their rights. They are doing Canadians and the world a huge service as they stand up to protect their traditional land and livelihoods. The questions we need to ask our decision-makers are: Why tar sands at all costs? Why are First Nations rights being trampled, climate and environmental protection steamrolled, and forward-looking economic policy ignored?

Faith Leaders Urge Obama Halt Start Of Keystone XL South

January 17, 2014 Staff, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Pipelines, Tar Sands

Today, citizens marked the eighty-fifth birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. by risking arrest to stop the scheduled Jan. 22 start-up of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in Texas and Oklahoma [Mod. note: two faith leaders have been arrested over the past week]. They are calling on President Obama to exercise his executive powers to permanently shut the pipeline down, starting with ordering the Pipeline Hazardous Materials and Safety Administration to re-inspect the pipeline’s anomaly-plagued 485-mile southern leg. The 485-mile southern leg of TransCanada’s Cushing, OK to Port Arthur, TX Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has been completed, is being filled and is scheduled to start up on Jan. 22 “That pipe is in there illegally,” said Texas landowner Michael Bishop, who has sued the US Army Corps for granting TransCanada permits to build Keystone XL on his land without public hearings or water impact studies, as required by law.

Neil Young Continues Push For First Nation’ Rights, Environment

January 13, 2014 Brad Wheeler, www.theglobeandmail.com Resist! Energy, First Nations, Fracking, Indigenous Rights, Tar Sands

Neil Young continued his campaign against the environmental policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration. “Our issue is not whether the natural resource sector is a fundamental part of the country,” Young said in press release. “Our issue is with the government breaking treaties with the First Nation and plundering the natural resources the First Nation has rights to under the treaties.” The veteran Canadian-born rocker is currently on a four-city concert tour of Canada. The shows – in Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary – benefit Alberta’s Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in its legal battle against the oil industry’s expansion in Northern Alberta. At a press conference held at Massey Hall before Sunday’s sold-out concert, Mr. Young said Canada was “trading integrity for money,” and described the Harper administration’s environmental record as “hypocritical” and an “embarrassment.” On the radio blunt-talking Mr. Young spoke on treaty rights (“It’s up to Canadians to make up their own minds about whether their integrity is threatened by a government that won’t live up to the treaties that the country is founded on”) and clarified remarks made last year when he described oil boom town Fort McMurray as a wasteland. “I know Fort Mac is a town,” he told host Jian Ghomeshi. “It’s occupied by Big Oil. It is an occupation. But what is going on around it, that’s what I was referring to as a wasteland. It is the ugliest environmental disaster that I not only have ever seen, but that I could even comprehend.”

Tar Sands Activist Facing Two Years in Prison Dropped of Felony Charges

January 13, 2014 Joe Fletcher, www.greenactionnews.com Resist! KeystoneXL, Tar Sands

Battle Creek, Michigan – MICATS activist Chris Wahmhoff who was facing felony charges for crawling into pipeline line 6B on his 35th birthday earlier this summer has had all charges against him dropped. He remained in the pipe for ten hours in an effort to shut down the expansion of Enbridge’s line 6b pipeline. The crowd of supporters at the Calhoun county courtroom erupted in applause jumping up and cheering when the judge approved his motion to quash the charges brought against him. The pipeline caused the largest inland oil spill in the United States history according to the E.P.A spilling more than a million barrels of tar sands bitumen into the Kalamazoo river. Wahmhoff recently announced his bid to run for the U.S senate seat currently held by Senator Carl Levin. The prosecutor could refile or appeal, although since there’s not much more evidence to present, it is not expected to happen.

Jan. 15: Emergency Direct Action To Protest KXL South

January 13, 2014 Tom Weis, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Climate Change, Tar Sands

On December 10, Texas landowners Julia Trigg Crawford, Michael Bishop and Eleanor Fairchild – who have sections of Keystone XL pipeline lurking under their property – urgently requested a meeting with President Obama to resolve this crisis. Their request was summarily ignored. When the political system fails, it is time for nonviolent direct action. Despite the late hour, Julia Trigg Crawford maintains: “It is not too late for President Obama to right this great wrong.” Michael Bishop’s response to those who say it is too late to stop KXL South is: “The pipe is in there illegally. That’s like arguing that if a burglar is already in your house, well, now they have a right to be there. Eleanor Fairchild, a 78-year-old great-grandmother arrested for “trespassing” on her own land and labeled an “eco-terrorist” by TransCanada, asserts: “Texans do not want this pipeline forced through their homes.”

“Relentless” Describes This Newsmaker Of The Year

January 12, 2014 Meagan Wohlberg, www.norj.ca Strategize! Climate Change, Indigenous Rights, Tar Sands

Despite a largely fruitless 2012 pursuing battle after battle in the courts, at negotiating tables and public hearings, the leader of the northern Alberta First Nation pulled zero punches in 2013 in attempting to draw ACFN’s proclaimed “line in the sand” in an attempt to halt oilsands expansion on the First Nation’s traditional territory north of the Firebag River. Not oblivious to the power of the giant industry they are up against, Adam and ACFN’s council have nevertheless become the thorn in the side of not only every major industry player in the oilsands region – most notably Shell – but all levels of government, with their unceasing demand for Crown-obligated consultation and respect for Treaty and Aboriginal rights.

Peaceful Uprising Demands Immediate DAQ Ban On Tar Sands Refining in Utah

January 11, 2014 EnviroNews Utah, www.environews.tv Resist! Energy, Environment, Tar Sands

Peaceful Uprising has demanded that the Department of Air Quality (DAQ) ban all tar sands refining in the state of Utah, and has called upon them to reject any further permit requests for tar sands refining or development in the future. Tar sands are some of the dirtiest fuels to develop and refine, and with the air quality conundrum along the Wasatch Front having recently gained worldwide notoriety, Peaceful Uprising’s demands seem to make sense. “Tar sands almost makes regular crude refining look green,” said Melanie Martin, spokesperson for Peaceful Uprising, at a key Air Quality Board vote on the state plan (SIP) that seeks to get Utah into compliance with national air quality standards.

Alberta Tar Sands Facing Aboriginal Legal Onslaught in 2014

January 9, 2014 The Canadian Press, www.cbc.ca Resist! Canada, First Nations, Tar Sands

Simmering disputes over the oilsands between Alberta aboriginals and the provincial and federal governments will break into the open in 2014 as virtually every one of the many recent changes in oversight of the controversial industry comes under legal and political attack. "All litigation, all the time, is what I see on the horizon," said Larry Innes, lawyer for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. Over the last 18 months, Ottawa and Edmonton have rewritten the book on resource development. Everything from how aboriginals will be consulted to land use planning to oilsands monitoring to the basic ground rules for environmental assessment has been changed. Governments say the new regime is more efficient, predictable and transparent. Aboriginals say it violates their rights and ignores their recommendations.

Stephen Harper Protesters Block Vancouver Island Venue

January 9, 2014 Dirk Meissner, www.huffingtonpost.ca Resist! Canada, Environment, First Nations, Tar Sands

Prime Minister Stephen Harper hiked a historic trail Tuesday with about 50 Scouts from Vancouver Island, but the serenity of his peaceful morning stroll along the rain-soaked Trans-Canada Trail didn't last long. Harper was met later in the day in Mill Bay, B.C., by about 100 chanting, placard-carrying protesters who stood across the road leading to Brentwood College School, where the prime minister was set to speak to Conservative Party supporters. Several protesters jawed about public and private property rights with RCMP officers who formed a line nearby.

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