Idaho Residents Arrested Blocking Tar Sands Megaloads Bound for Alberta

26.8.11

They spill, they drill and we fight back with the only cur­ren­cy we have—our bod­ies, our minds and a fight­ing spir­it.

Hun­dreds have been arrest­ed sit­ting in at the White House this week and Alberta’s Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties have been fight­ing Big Oil’s devel­op­ment of tar sands for quite some time , but today res­i­dents in Moscow Ida­ho crossed a line of their own.

Last night in the wee hours of the morn­ing, as the first mega­loads were begin­ning to roll, four men and women with Wild Ida­ho Ris­ing Tide sat down in front of the mas­sive vehi­cles to stop their pas­sage through the high­ways and byways of the North­ern Rock­ies to Alber­ta.

Moscow res­i­dent Brett Haver­stick said- “Big Oil intends to clear-cut and strip mine a place the size of Flori­da, and simul­ta­ne­ous­ly destroys native com­mu­ni­ties and entire water­sheds. I feel oblig­at­ed to speak up and say this is wrong.”

This morning’s action is part of a larg­er cam­paign being waged in Ida­ho and Mon­tana by com­mu­ni­ties and envi­ron­men­tal­ists to stop the pas­sage of tar sands heavy haul trucks through their region.

Activists Arrest­ed For Block­ing Tar Sands “Mega­load” on US 95

Cit­i­zens Stand In Sol­i­dar­i­ty with Cana­di­an First Nations & Oth­ers In Oppo­si­tion to Extrac­tion of the Alber­ta Tar Sands and the Build­ing of the Key­stone XL Pipeline

Moscow, ID- Ear­ly Fri­day morn­ing, a group of Moscow res­i­dents were arrest­ed for sit­ting in the road and block­ing US 95 to protest an Exxon/Imperial Oil “mega­load” ship­ment des­tined for the Alber­ta Tar Sands. In an act of non-vio­lent, civ­il-dis­obe­di­ence, men and women sat down in the cross­walk of the high­way when the four-hun­dred-thou­sand pound, two-hun­dred foot long, twen­ty-four foot wide, and four­teen-foot tall oil-pro­cess­ing mod­ule entered the down­town area. In a show­ing of sol­i­dar­i­ty with the First Nations peo­ple of Cana­da, and the hun­dreds of peo­ple get­ting arrest­ed in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., the indi­vid­u­als are call­ing for the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion to deny per­mits for con­struc­tion of the Key­stone XL Pipeline, which would stretch from Alber­ta, Cana­da to the Gulf of Mex­i­co.

“Not only are peo­ple call­ing the Alber­ta Tar Sands the most unsus­tain­able and destruc­tive project on the plan­et, but also an act of geno­cide against the peo­ple that live in the region, par­tic­u­lar­ly those down-stream of the tail­ing ponds,” said Moscow res­i­dent Brett Haver­stick. “Big Oil intends to clear-cut and strip mine a place the size of Flori­da, and simul­ta­ne­ous­ly destroys native com­mu­ni­ties and entire water­sheds. I feel oblig­at­ed to speak up and say this is wrong.”

With the Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion get­ting ready to make a deci­sion on the Key­stone XL Pipeline lat­er this year, the indi­vid­u­als said they have been inspired by the hun­dreds of peo­ple get­ting arrest­ed in Wash­ing­ton D.C. this past week in protest of the Key­stone XL Pipeline.

“Pres­i­dent Oba­ma must deny per­mits for the Key­stone XL Pipeline. Go ask the peo­ple of Mon­tana or the peo­ple of Michi­gan if they want more oil pipelines built across their lands and water­ways, said Moscow res­i­dent Greg Freis­tadt. “Peo­ple are trav­el­ing from Nebras­ka all the way to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. and get­ting arrest­ed this week because the pipeline threat­ens their drink­ing water and liveli­hoods. It’s time for com­mu­ni­ties to come togeth­er and oppose this.”

The pos­si­ble con­struc­tion of the Key­stone XL Pipeline isn’t the only oil pipeline that con­cerns the activists. The North­ern Gate­way Pipeline is sched­uled to be built west from Alber­ta, Cana­da to the Pacif­ic Ocean so that crude oil can be shipped to Chi­na and India.

“The First Nations peo­ple unan­i­mous­ly oppose this pipeline across their lands,” said Moscow res­i­dent Vince Mur­ray. “In addi­tion, super­tankers ply­ing the pris­tine coast­line of north­ern British Colum­bia would endan­ger one of the last unspoiled ocean ecosys­tems in the world.”

The indi­vid­u­als have also been extreme­ly dis­ap­point­ed with their city and state elect­ed offi­cials.

“Mega­loads are ter­ror­iz­ing our high­ways in the North­ern Rock­ies, pipelines are spilling oil into some of our most pre­cious rivers, and our gov­er­nors and Con­gres­sion­al lead­ers will not come to our defense, said Moscow res­i­dent Diana Arm­strong. If lead­ers won’t lead, then it’s up to us to step for­ward.”