Author: earthfirst

“Extreme gas” project proposal gets heated response in Wells

A packed public meeting at Wells Town Hall on Tuesday night, gave a heated response to the proposals by UK Methane to carry out test drilling for Coalbed Methane in Somerset.

A packed public meeting at Wells Town Hall on Tuesday night, gave a heated response to the proposals by UK Methane to carry out test drilling for Coalbed Methane in Somerset.

Over a hundred people came to hear about the proposals from the developers and protest groups in a balanced debate.  In the event, the developers represented by Mr. Gerwyn Williams of UK Methane pulled out just hours before the meeting started leaving the floor to the opposition.  The meeting was organized by the alliance of groups under the umbrella of Frack Free Somerset.

Coalbed Methane is one of a number of interrelated ‘extreme gas’ extraction technologies (including fracking for shale gas, and underground coal gasification). Coalbed Methane is a process for extracting gas from coal seams fairly close to the surface.

Somerset residents heard from speakers representing various opposition groups including Transition Keynsham, Frack Off, and Bristol Rising Tide.

Laura Corfield from Transition Keynsham detailed how UK Methane are about to submit a planning application to carry out test drilling in the Hicks Gate area of Keynsham to Bath and North East Somerset Council.

She said:  “All Somerset residents should be concerned about these proposals and it is vital that they now lodge their objections to UK Methane’s planning application.  If we don’t stop them now, we can expect drilling rigs all over Somerset, endangering our water supplies and local environment.”

Edward Lloyd-Davies from the national group ‘Frack Off’ related the multiple problems experienced in the US and Australia where coalbed methane has been going on for some years.  These include methane escapes, contamination of drinking water, huge quantities of produced water contaminated with toxic salts needing disposal and subsidence.  He produced estimates of the potential extent of drilling in Somerset based on information from UK Methane’s Australian parent company. This indicated up to 2100 drilling sites with extensive gas pipelines across the Somerset countryside.

A spokesperson from Rising Tide said: “It is no good this industry claiming that they will do it differently in the UK because we have tighter regulation.  The licensing regime for the ‘extreme gas’ in the UK is based on off-shore oil extraction.  Regulation falls between the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive and local planning authorities and is totally uncoordinated.  Experience in Lancashire has shown one company operating outside its planning permission and in contravention of its planning conditions.”

Wells Town Councillor, Chris Briton chaired the meeting and heard local residents express strong concerns about pollution of drinking water and local rivers and environmental impacts on the Somerset countryside.

The audience was overwhelmingly opposed the UK Methane’s proposals.

(USA) Love and Rebellion in the East Texas Woods

I’m writing to ya’ll from a safe space nearby the Tar Sands Blockade in rural east Texas.  Early this week, heeding the call of friends and comrades already on site, we assembled a crew of Earth First!ers from the Northeast US and made the 30+ hour drive to the site to provide crucial reinforcement.  The tree village set up on site is one of the most fantastic things we’ve ever seen, and the emerging pictures on the internet do it no justice. Down below the pods, hideous monsters in the form of massive feller bunchers and dozers fill the air with the heinous sounds of corporate ecocide: mechanical whirs, sawing, and worst of the all the sound of beautiful trees hundreds of years old falling to their death, driving wildlife from their homes.

Yesterday a feller buncher began clearing through a section of the forest, rapidly advancing towards one of the tree sitters.  Clearly printed in large letters on the side of the death machine read a warning to stay back at least 500 feet.  A roving team on the ground that I was part of began cat-and-mousing the feller buncher, trying to keep our comrade in the tree safe.  On the ground two TransCanada workers and one local sheriff operating as an armed mercenary of the corporation oversaw the operations, trying to move through the felled trees to push back our crew from the clear cut site.  We continued to advance, determined not only to protect our comrade above in the canopy but to push them back and show them that we are not scared and that we will RESIST.  At one point as we had just watched the feller buncher take down an 80 foot water oak not 40 feet away from the sitter and we heard our friend screaming from above pleading for the safety of their life, I ran towards the machine about 25 feet away making eye contact with the driver who continued to operate the machine and yelling to TransCanada and their bought and paid sheriff that we would not stay back, that they were going to kill our friend if they continued to advance and they were required by law to stop the machine.  The sheriff approached saying that “they” (speaking as if they were actually part of TC) weren’t coming any further at that point and they turned the machine around to continue clear cutting.  A crew of 7 of us held our ground and remained in defense of the sitter on the opposite side of a creek where we were forced to watch tree after tree fall. A dense part of the forest was instantly turned in to a morose tree morgue.

 

Overcome with emotions, having never seen a clearcut myself and certainly having never faced down a massive feller buncher, I moved back through the clearcut, across the creek where our friend sat above us in a tree.  Feeling the energy coming from the mercilessly mauled fresh tree stumps, I lay over a large one crying uncontrollably as I watched the remaining few trees off in the distance be cut and wrestled out of place. I angrily contemplated the enormity of the corporate state, the cancer that is capitalism, and the injustice of the entire situation. Comrades were there to comfort me and together we all walked away from the horrible scene feeling renewed in our fight and certain in our decision to come to Texas to fight this madness and call attention to this scene.

As I write this now I’m receiving word from the site that they’re cutting in from the south side, only 20 feet away from the sitter we spent yesterday protecting.  North from there at the wall that y’all have seen photos of earlier this week, several of our friends’ lives are at risk and trees are being cut dangerously close. TC is now clearing from the west side of the site, attempting to box our site in and presumably make way for cherry pickers and other extraction devices.

One of the locals who is currently resisting the Keystone XL pipeline in solidarity with several local landowners shared stories with a few of us.  It is absolutely clear that TransCanada is paying off local law enforcement officers.  In addition TC is relentlessly trying to serve people with lawsuits, putting gag orders on landowners who had previously been strong allies, and buying off others.  Yesterday one of our key allies awoke to TC in their yard with a big feller buncher.  TC had promised them multiple times both verbally and in formally written depositions that they would give “fair” notice before beginning to destroy their land.  It seems like TC knew that this area is quickly receiving an influx of resisters and gave this landowner no warning, knowing that we’d have certainly acted at that site.

Despite the situation we are keeping spirits high.  Last night I came out of the woods with three comrades to head to a safe space to write this communique to y’all.  We were excited to find that many new friends and many familiar faces had arrived to reinforce the site.  We’re here for the long haul and are asking y’all to come down to help defend our friends in the trees and stand up to TransCanada and their dirty pipeline.  What we’re doing is not enough, but there is strength in numbers and with the aid of more friends we can turn up the heat on TC.  There are many opportunities to plug in in various ways here and the pipeline is going in all across this region.  There are many allies and a supportive campaign.  We sit here anxiously waiting to re-join our comrades and worried for their safety, and eager to return to the woods and keep up the fight.  We hope to see you in the woods.

In Solidarity & For the Wild,

Your Anonymous Comrade

Scottish Coal rail terminal currently shut down – again!

Two people are currently occupying the conveyor tower at Scottish Coal’s Ravenstruther Rail Terminal in South Lanarkshire to prevent coal from being loaded onto freight trains and being transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station in Yorkshire. The action started at 5am this morning – a banner reading “Coal Kills” was unfurled on the conveyor tower.

Two people are currently occupying the conveyor tower at Scottish Coal’s Ravenstruther Rail Terminal in South Lanarkshire to prevent coal from being loaded onto freight trains and being transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station in Yorkshire. The action started at 5am this morning – a banner reading “Coal Kills” was unfurled on the conveyor tower. More updates to follow!

Coal Rail Terminal Closed for a 6th time by Coal Action Scotland supporters

At 5:00 this morning two activists scaled the conveyor tower at Scottish Coal’s Ravenstruther Rail Terminal near Lanark, South Lanarkshire, and are currently occupying it and preventing coal from being loaded onto trains which then deliver the coal to power stations. There is currently a freight train on the private rail sidings at the terminal. The activists say they will maintain the occupation until they are forcibly removed by police. This is the 6th time that the site has been closed in anti-coal protests since December 2008.

Jo Reed, one of the occupiers at the terminal, said: “I’m taking this action to cost Scottish Coal money as that’s the only thing they’ll listen to. The coal taken here and transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station in Yorkshire is destroying people’s health and environment in this area – it’s time it stopped! Burning coal is causing runaway climate change and causing harm at home and abroad.”

Today’s protest follows a week-long direct action camp in July, at Glentaggart East, the site of Scottish Coal’s new mine in South Lanarkshire. Throughout the week around 100 activists targeted infrastructure in the area with an invasion of Mainshill Open Cast Coal Site where 45 activists stopped work on the site for the day, a blockade of Broken Cross Opencast Coal Site and the opencasting of landowner Lord Home’s front garden.

The haulage of coal by HGV is a major issue in the area, and protesters are calling for a stop to all haulage through the villages of Douglas and Glespin.

Glespin resident David Grey said: “Coal from Douglas Valley mines comes right through Douglas and Glespin, past two primary schools with no level crossings. We were promised that this wouldn’t happen when planning permission was granted for the Mainshill mine. Now that the huge site at Glentaggart East and 1 million tonne extension to Broken Cross have been approved, Scottish Coal want to bring even more coal through our communities. Action needs to be taken to prevent this.”

The start of a new 4 million tonne mine at Glentaggart East will make these issues even more pressing. Rob Hearne, participating in the protest today said: “Already over 1000 HGV trips are made through the Douglas Valley to railheads every week. Glentaggart East will only add to this and make the problem worse with another 333 trips a week.”

It is estimated that today’s action will stop around 4,000 tonnes of coal from being transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station and cost Scottish Coal at least £200,000.

Coal Action Scotland
e-mail: contact@coalactionscotland.org.uk
 Homepage: http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/

(Australia) Newcastle residents protest health effects of proposed 4th coal terminal

Newcastle residents and activists dressed in medical gowns protested the lack of consideration of health and climate change effects in the proposed building of a fourth coal terminal at the port of Newcastle, already the world's largest coal port. A peaceful protest and 'lockon' occurred outside The office of NSW Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard last Thursday who is due to consider the merits of the proposal.

Related: Newcastle’s T4 project puts short-term profit before health | Something in the air: time for independent testing in coal areas | Coal Terminal Action Group

Dressed as doctors and patients, about 20 protestors holding banners and placards occupied the front steps of Governor Macquarie Tower at 1 Farrer Place, Sydney.

Two campaigners were allowed in to meet with Minister Hazzard's staff. They spent 25 minutes discussing the 4th terminal and relaying the community's concerns over health and climate and requested a public meeting in Newcastle with the Minister.

On the steps of the building Spokesperson Alex McInnis said "We are here because there are plans to expand Newcastle coal port, which is going to hurt the health of the community because of the impact of coal dust. It's also going to damage our farmland and climate."

"So, we've come to Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard's office to urge him to reject the planned expansion of the coal port and listen to the communities concerns over health and put those concerns in front of the interests of the coal companies and reject the coal terminal." she said.

Another protestor dressed in a medical gown said: "We are here today because in the respiratory unit the asthma caused by coal dust in the Hunter region and Newcastle is a serious health hazard. We are asking Minister Hazzard not to allow the proposed 4th coal terminal in Newcastle to go ahead."

Police attended and asked the protestors to move. Some voluntarily left the steps. Two protestors in medical gowns refused and had their locks removed by the Police Rescue Squad and were taken away and arrested.

 

A steep drop in coal prices and reduced Demand for coal has caused many coal companies like Rio Tinto and Xstrata to shelve expansion plans in the Hunter Valley and cut jobs.

The fourth coal terminal at Newcastle proposed by Port Waratah Coal Services will expand coal export capacity from 210 to 330 million tonnes each year, yet the demand for coal appears to be falling. Mining and transport of this coal will double the coal dust pollution from coal trains, piles and coal loaders that people breath in towns throughout the Hunter Valley.

Medical academics have argued that Newcastle’s T4 project puts short-term profit before health. Public health and comprehensive health monitoring has taken second place in coal regions to the arguments in favour of economic development. The long term health costs are simply never factored into the economic costs.

The medical and health issues of coal are well known. Coal dust contributes to asthma, cancer, heart disease and stroke and it interferes with lung development and compromises intellectual capacity. In the US there has been health costing data gathered showing that if the cost of disease resulting from coal was paid for by the coal and power industries it would almost double the cost of electricity. Up to 50,000 deaths each year in the US are attributed to pollution from power plants. A 2009 report by Physicians for Social Responsibility (USA) outlined 'Coal's Assault on Human Health' and the need to phase out coal on health, energy and climate grounds.

In Australia we have a woeful record of pollution monitoring and assessing health costs from coal. A good start to addressing the imbalance between economic development and health would be establishing comprehensive pollution monitoring done regularly and independantly for all coal areas – mines, transport corridors, ports, coal fired power stations and nearby residential areas – at the expense of the coal industry and make the data publicly available. Read more at Something in the air: time for independent testing in coal areas.

The Coal Terminal Action Group is raising money to monitor coal dust in suburbs between the Hunter Valley coal mines and Newcastle’s port.

Doctors for the Environment in their submission and comment on the Environment Impact statement said :"From the data presented, Newcastle is a polluted town with likely existing health impacts and now we have a proposal that will undoubtedly increase pollution. It is not that Australia needs to make this sacrifice for energy security, as alternatives to burning coal for energy currently exist. Furthermore the morbidity and mortality conferred on the world’s people by the export of this coal would not be insignificant."

Sources:

is a citizen journalist from Melbourne Australia who has been writing on climate change, science and protests since 2004. This article was originally published at Australia Indymedia

(USA) Cascadia Forest Defenders occupy billboard by Biomass Plant

Cascadia Forest Defenders are probably most know for  tree sits and occupying government offices — most recently over logging in the Elliott State Forest, but when it comes to logging, mills and biomass plants are a part of the equation, so today CFD is occupying a billboard near the Seneca Sawmill/Seneca Sustainable energy plant:

ACTIVISTS OCCUPY BILLBOARD OUTSIDE EUGENE POLLUTER SENECA SAWMILL

Eugene, OR- This afternoon members of Cascadia Forest Defenders occupied a billboard outside of the West Eugene Seneca Sawmill with a banner that read, “SENECA JONES: BAILOUTS, CLEARCUTS, & POLLUTING WEST EUGENE”.

Seneca Biomass is a wood burning power plant in West Eugene that opened in the spring of 2011 amid public protest. Though the project has been marketed as “green energy,” Seneca Biomass failed its first EPA air pollution test last fall. The plant releases an estimated 17,900 pounds of air toxins into West Eugene Neighborhoods annually —t his in addition to the 73,000 pounds already released annually from the mill itself. There are three schools within three miles of the Seneca Biomass facility.

While there are many industrial polluters in West Eugene, it so happens that Seneca Jones receives public funding for its dirty energy project. Seneca currently receives 10 million dollars in tax credits from the state of Oregon under the Business Energy Tax Credit Program. Seneca is now suing the state for an additional one million to offset the production costs of their new plant.

“They get paid, we get polluted,” says west Eugene resident and Cascadia Forest Defender Grace Warner. “It would be nice if the state would give that 11 million to helping schools– not to polluting them.”

Seneca is also responsible for much of the clear-cut logging in Oregon public forests. Seneca is one of the top three purchasers of timber sales in the Elliott State Forest, where companies clear-cut up to 850 acres every year. While the State Land Board justifies the destruction of Oregon’s last remnants of coastal temperate rainforest to benefit public schools, logging in the Elliott contributes to less than one percent of the State’s annual school budget.

Oregon can do better. We demand that Seneca:

Stop polluting West Eugene.
Stop clear-cutting Oregon’s ancient forests.
Start paying taxes like the rest of us.

(USA) From the Woods: Tar Sands blockade update

I’m currently part of a team of awesome friends roving through the woods of east Texas as part of the Tar Sands Blockade (TSB).

I’m currently part of a team of awesome friends roving through the woods of east Texas as part of the Tar Sands Blockade (TSB). This is an epic fight to defend Texans’ homes and land against the clearcutting and pollution caused by the building of the massive Keystone XL pipeline.

The media team for TSB are doing an awesome job of updating our website as TransCanada (TC) and their hired goons advance toward our blockade with heavy equipment and repeatedly endanger our people in some scary ways. A friend and I thought that allies of the TSB might appreciate an on-the-ground perspective, and so before I go back to defending our blockade I thought I’d update y’all.
     The forest of east Texas is totally beautiful. Water oak, sweet gum and slash pine trees define the canopy, and green briar, muscadine grapes and beautyberry bushes cover the ground. This forest is home to great blue herons, turkey vultures, whippoorwills, lots of deer, rattlers and other snakes, armadillos, and even occasional black bears. All of these are our natural allies and have been incredibly disturbed by the clear cutting of their home.   
     At the beginning of this week the bad guys were operating a feller buncher and clear cutting a vast swath of forest aimed directly at our blockade. On Tuesday morning we temporarily stopped them by placing ourselves directly in the path of their machines. As a backhoe was placing timbers over a gully so that other more destructive stuff like feller-bunchers could advance toward our blockade, two of our team locked down to the backhoe and stopped it in its tracks while the rest of us provided cover. The lockdowners were then tortured by local police with TC supervisors watching and laughing. After they were extracted from the backhoe, the timber bridge got built and the feller buncher started rapidly destroying trees advancing toward our blockade.
     Then we ran out in front of it and one of my friends sat down directly in its path. All of us were way too close to the backhoe for it to operate safely. Instead of backing away slowly to a safe distance per OSHA regulations, the operator of the machine (which might’ve been the same guy operating the backhoe) decided to fell another tree and drop it right on my friend’s head. This demonstrates antisocial and potentially murderous behavior and this guy clearly should be getting mental help, not operating heavy machinery. TC supervisors were watching this happen the whole time, and nodding with approval. This is criminal and they should be prosecuted for reckless endangerment and attempted manslaughter, both of which are illegal in the state of Texas. It’s lucky that I caught the whole thing on film and even luckier that my friend jumped out of the way in time and is now relatively safe.
Our friends in trees and on the Wall are incredibly brave to be maintaining their positions despite the mechanized onslaught advancing toward them and the possibility of brutality by TC’s hired goons, and we are here to support them no matter what. The bad guys have now advanced all the way up to the wall, leaving a scarred and devastated landscape in their wake. There are workers, bosses and goons below (as I write this) making all kinds of scary and empty threats. Our people are jovial and defiant in the face of danger. We’re inviting all our friends and allies out to visit our blockade and provide supplies, encouragement and reinforcements. We who are living in the forest are committed to maintaining our positions no matted how intimidating this multibillion-dollar corporation and their enablers in local law enforcement try to be. Running circles around confused TC bosses and their goons in the beautiful Texas forest is totally fun, and everyone should come out and participate.You can help by coming down to join us, by doing solidarity actions against TC and their enablers in your local town, by sending us funds and/or gear, reaching out to your media contacts, and telling all your friends about this and asking them to spread the word.
    We need: walkie-talkies, AAA batteries, camo gear, rain gear, climbing gear of all kinds, tools, satellite internet, solar panels, deep-cell batteries, woods food, water filters, and video cameras.
     We make our stand here in the hope of inspiring others to make a stand against Keystone XL in a broad diversity of ways. Corporations should not be allowed to just roll over us the way they’ve repeatedly done for decades. Resistance is coming. Everyone affected by this pipeline must realize that risks must be taken in defense of what we love. Laying down in front of things, or any variation on that, is good for publicity but is nowhere near enough. People must rise up and defend their homes.
Love and Rage,
Anonymous Blockader # 57

(USA) When Big Oil Attacks

Tuesday afternoon in East Texas, after police brutally tortured two protesters locked to a backhoe and workers resumed destruction of the forest, members of the Tar Sands Blockade, determined not to be deterred by violence, moved in to try and stop work again. One activist sat down in front of a feller buncher, a hideous machine used to rapidly cut down smaller trees, and, after making eye contact with the worker, almost had a tree dropped on him. The video shows it all, and you can read the activist’s own telling of the incident here.

There’s really not much else to say. Big Oil is attacking our bodies, our homes, and the planet, and now that the cards are on the table, it’s time to fight back. Word on the street is that we’ve got a lovely crew of Earth First!ers ready for action joining us tonight or tomorrow morning, but there’s plenty of room for you to get involved too. Go here or email noneshallpass@riseup.net, and we’ll see you on the ground.

– Tar Sands Blockader

A259 Link Road one hour from London help us now

The Combe Haven valley is a unique habitat which was once the port of Hastings (pre 1066). Evidence is now being obtained from a small group of entusiasts which proves this unique valley, which is in the Parish of Crowhurst Sussex, was the site of the Norman Invasion and also the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The Combe Haven valley is a unique habitat which was once the port of Hastings (pre 1066). Evidence is now being obtained from a small group of entusiasts which proves this unique valley, which is in the Parish of Crowhurst Sussex, was the site of the Norman Invasion and also the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Our group is fighting a battle with East Sussex County Council to stop the A259 Link Road cutting through one of the most important heritage sites in the land and also an invaluable enviromental reserve.

Bulldozers are already on the site digging trenches. An initial road protest is organised this weekend. Please familiarise yourself with the heritage story because this is important. 5000 Englishmen gave their blood in this valley and it should be preserved and not desecrated with a road that goes through open countryside – see the videos on our web site – see why we are fighting to save this place one hours drive from central London

http://secretsofthenormaninvasion.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/stop-the-road-camp-this-saturday-29th-september-2012/