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Australia : Mass Protest Against Whitehaven Coal

November 2nd, 2014

The bats have been released! Mass protests against Whitehaven Coal.

Maules Creek Mine Main access: A young woman has locked herself to the inside of a car, blocking the main access point for Maules creek mine.

UPDATE: Police rescue have arrived on the scene

Maules Creek Mine, inside: The railway line being built inside the mine site has been blocked by a woman suspended in a tree with the rope going across the construction site.

UPDATE: Workers have been able to go under the ropes, trucks are still being held up.

Maules Creek Mine Hitachi Digger: 1 woman has scaled the super digger while another woman has locked herself to the huge machine.

Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson

Murray Drechsler

0418754869

MAULES CREEK 3/11/2014
Over eighty people have set up separate blockades on and around the construction site of the controversial Maules Creek mine, near Narrabri, in a ramp up of peaceful action to prevent the mine from depressurising the water table.

Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine has been seriously delayed by a growing movement of farmers, environmentalists and other supporters concerned that farm bores will fail due to the 600 megalitres of water the mine would use each year.

The Leard Forest Alliance is calling on NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes to stop construction work on the mine while a parliamentary inquiry into planning decisions is underway.

Spokesperson for the Leard Forest Alliance Murray Drechsler said “The amount of water Whitehaven plans to use over the life of the Maules Creek mine would fill a third of Lake Burley Griffin and this is water that should be used for food production.”

“The community has the courage to stand up for water ahead of coal and we expect Planning Minister Rob Stokes to do the same.” Continued Mr. Drechsler.

The mine’s state and federal approvals were granted before Whitehaven had finished their water management plan and that fact was included in a submission to the parliamentary inquiry.

Twitter:

@FLACcoal #Leardblockade

Australia: Batman Blocks Coal Mine with Tripod

October 30th, 2014

Kicking off a weekend of action against Whitehaven’s controversial Maules Creek coal mine, a concerned citizen has scaled a tripod, blocking access to Whitehaven’s Tarrawonga haul road, blocking access for trucks trying to leave Tarrawonga coal mine. This comes as people from around the country converge at the Leard Blockade to defend water, climate and our democracy from Whitehaven coal.

Phil Evans, 33, a climate campaigner with 350.org has today put himself on the line to draw attention to Whitehaven dodgy dealings and destruction of our water and climate.

Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson, and tripod activist, Phil Evans says,” I’m here to call ‘trick or treat’ on Whitehaven coal. Whitehaven need to be held responsible for the destruction of the community, water and the climate.”

Due to Whitehaven’s Maules Creek mine, the aquifers are predicted to drop by up to 2m. Previously during drought the agricultural community has not had water for their livestock and their farms. The Maules Creek mine, as the largest new coal mine under-construction in Australia, will contribute significantly to climate change causing further droughts for the local community and instability of global proportions.

“We hope the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the planning process will send the Maules Creek project back to square one, if any of the allegedly corrupt relationships between Aston executives and senior politicians from both sides have found to influence the approvals process in anyway.” said Mr. Evans.

Whitehaven’s planning, approval and construction processes have been plagued by questionable dealings and clouds of corruption. The multiple problems of the planning process have been brought to the attention of the NSW parliamentary inquiry into planning by community groups.

“The state ICAC has raised very serious concerns about the undue influence of coal on our democracy, but it has not gone far enough. The Leard Forest Alliance is calling for work to stop on the Maules Creek project, and an audit of the planning and approval process that allows Whitehaven to continue with this atrocity. We need a federal level ICAC and we need to take our democracy back.” said Mr. Drechsler.

“The time of coal getting special treatment is over. The corruption has got to end. It is up to all of us to reclaim our voice, and democracy” said Mr. Evans.

There have been over 265 arrests this year as part of the ongoing community lead campaign of peaceful civil disobedience against Whitehaven Coal.

from Front Line Action on Coal

USA: Burnaby Blockade, Encampment Stops Kinder Morgan Suveyors for a Second Day

October 30th, 2014

Angry protesters stopped crews from conducting pipeline survey work on Burnaby Mountain Wednesday, forcing the company to reassess how it will finish work needed for a National Energy Board decision.

October 30th, 2014

Angry protesters stopped crews from conducting pipeline survey work on Burnaby Mountain Wednesday, forcing the company to reassess how it will finish work needed for a National Energy Board decision.

RCMP officers watched as some protesters confronted a Trans Mountain survey crew, yelling “go back to Texas,” while another protester crawled under a survey crew’s SUV, wrapped himself around the front tire and refused to leave.

Stephen Collis, a spokesman for the protesters who call themselves the Caretakers, said they plan to hunker down.

“We’re currently occupying the space that they have identified that they need to work in. Since we’re on public land, we have every right to be here,” he said. “They can’t really work in a space that’s filled with dozens of people. That’s the intention.”

The plan worked, at least for the day.

Workers left in another vehicle, and one man carried several signs under his arm that read No Entry Until Further Notice and Field Testing Area Under Order of the National Energy Board.

Greg Toth, senior director for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project, said all survey work on the mountain was stopped, although other crews were still working around Burnaby.

He wasn’t yet sure if the company would ask for an injunction preventing protests.

“We have to reassess, based on today’s activities,” said Toth. “It’s quite a vocal protest. Our priority is the safety of our crews and the general public. So we’ll retrench and look at what options are available.”

The demonstration comes in the midst of a bitter battle over the company’s plans to expand the pipeline through Burnaby.

The National Energy Board granted Trans Mountain access to the sites so it can complete work through Burnaby Mountain, it’s preferred route for the pipeline. The NEB ruled the City of Burnaby can’t prevent the activity because the work is needed for the board to make a decision on the expansion application.

The City of Burnaby announced it will appeal the NEB ruling.

Mayor Derek Corrigan said he didn’t believe the regulator has the authority to consider constitutional questions concerning city bylaws.

Toth said the National Energy Board and the Federal Court have given the company every right to do work needed to support the decision-making process.

He said it’s ironic that crews haven’t been allowed on Burnaby Mountain, considering the company and city residents have determined the route is the least disruptive option.

“It’s really in response to strong feedback from the local residents and the general public in the area for the alternative routing, which would have been through the streets,” he said.

In July 2007, a geyser of oil covered more 100 homes, after a crew accidentally pulled up the pipeline, spilling 250,000 litres.

The cleanup cost about $15 million.

The 5.4-billion dollar expansion plan would come close to tripling the capacity of the existing pipeline between Alberta and B.C. to about 900,000 barrels of crude a day.

Raging Grannies Blockading Entrances and Exits of WA Department of Ecology

October 30th, 2014

UPDATE: Grannies Unlock After 6-Hour Blockade

Currently, seven members of the Seattle Raging Grannies are blocking the entrance to the Department of Ecology headquarters, stalling traffic and preventing employees from entering work. The groups are sitting in rocking chairs chained together across the Department’s vehicle entrance.

They are telling workers that the Department is closed today for a “Workshop on How to Say No to Big Oil.” Today’s action coincides with hearings on a controversial study on the safety of oil trains conducted by the Department of Ecology. Hundreds are expected in Olympia to express concern at the study’s narrow scope and omission of risks to the environment or treaty rights.

Police and FBI are on the scene trying to direct traffic, and ecology management is making supportive employees move inside so they can’t talk to the media about their support of the elders.

Dale R Jense, program manager for the department’s oil spills safety program, is currently walking the line and talking to the grannies, who remain in high spirits and are singing songs. There is a group of supporters making sure that the DoE knows that fossil fuel shipments are unpopular, dangerous, and bad for the planet.

“We’re here to help the Department of Ecology learn how to say no to the oil industry,” said Beth DeRooy. “After granting permits to four illegal oil train terminals and letting former BNSF executives write their oil study, I was worried the folks over at the Department never learned how to say no and needed a little help from their grannies.”

Since 2012 the Department of Ecology has granted permits for oil-by-rail terminals at four of Washington’s five refineries. Terminals in Tacoma, Anacortes and at Cherry Point outside of Bellingham, have begun taking trains while a fourth is under construction at the Phillips 66 refinery in Ferndale. Environmental groups have argued that the these terminals are illegal under the Magnuson Act, which prohibits expansions at Washington refineries that may increase the amount of oil they handle.

Permits for a fifth oil-by-rail terminal at Shell’s Puget Sound refinery are currently under consideration. “Hot on the heels of record wildfires, Governor Inslee’s so-called Department of Ecology is going to ignore the environment in this study? They’re acting more like the Department of Oil Trains,” stated Cynthia Linet.

Last year Governor Inslee directed the Department of Ecology to conduct a safety study on the extremely controversial shipment of oil by rail. The governor’s study has been criticized for ignoring impacts on the environment, treaty rights and global warming, as well as failing to question whether they should build oil-train terminals in the first place.

The Department of Ecology has declared that impacts on the environment, tribal treaty rights or local economies are “ancillary” and not being considered. The Department has also come under fire after revelations that a number of the study’s authors are former BNSF executives.

“You’d think bringing exploding trains to help oil companies devastate Native American communities in North Dakota would be easy to say no to, but it looks like the Department of Ecology needs a stern lesson from their grannies,” said Carol McRoberts.

Many of North Dakota’s oil wells are on tribal lands of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nations. In addition to spills and other local pollution, the oil boom has brought tremendous social costs to the communities. Deaths from auto accidents, drug abuse and violent crime have exploded; housing shortages force many to live in substandard conditions; and sexual violence such as rape and sex trafficking have become prevalent in a once small community.

“My daughter is 15 months old and my heart aches that I do not even want her to be at home for fear of what she’d be exposed to,” said Kandi Mossett, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara nations who submitted written testimony to today’s oil train hearings. “This oil boom using fracking has been devastating for us and no amount of money can ever give us back what’s being lost.”

Protestors handed out doughnuts and coffee as they turned away employees’ cars. They also handed out a flier explaining “How to Say No To Fossil Fuels.” The flier calls on the Department of Ecology to reject all new fossil fuel projects proposed for Washington and to explicitly link their rejection to concerns about global warming.

Climate justice activists point out that if all proposed fossil fuel terminals are built, the Northwest will be transporting five times more carbon than the Keystone XL Pipeline.

“It’s grandma’s common sense – we need to keep carbon in the ground to stop catastrophic global warming, and if they can’t ship it, they have to leave it in the ground,” said Rosy Betz-Zall. But while he has been widely hailed as one of the greenest governors in America, Inslee has yet to outright reject a major fossil fuel project, or even declare a moratorium on projects that would increase dangerous shipments of explosive oil.

“Governor Inslee talks about being a climate champion, but he keeps saying ‘maybe’ to new fossil fuel projects, when what we need is a solid ‘NO’,” said Deejah Sherman-Peterson.

“Take it from your granny: if you want to say yes to something good – a just, clean energy future – you have start by saying NO to something bad – building more fossil fuel infrastructure.”

Today’s protest follows an intense wave of opposition to oil-by-rail across the Northwest this summer with protestors locking themselves to barrels of concrete and sitting atop tripods to blockade railroad tracks across Washington and Oregon.

Argentina: Quechua Community Members Occupy Airport During Second Day of Protest Against Plupetrol

October 29th, 2014

Inhabitants inform the authorities that, if their requests are not respected, they will be taking more direct measures, such as manually closing pipeline valves. They ask that DINOES (Special Operation Division) does not intervene.

October 29th, 2014

On the second day of protesting against the negligent decisions of Pluspetrol, a dominating E&P private company originating from Argentina, Quechua inhabitants took their retaliation to the airport.

During a press conference, Aurelio Chino Dahua, president of Fediquep (Indigenous Quechua Federation of the Pastaza), explained that the people feel deceived by both the corporation and the state. He relates such uneasiness to the the state’s disengagement from alleviating Pluspetrol’s social-environmental impacts on the community, even in the face of raw evidence.

The indigenous leader also projects his indignation towards the government’s lack of commitment, stating that, although the Quechua people have fostered active dialogue with the authorities since 2011, not one program has been implemented with the sole purpose of meeting their demands.

Dahua reiterated that, during the last months, Pluspetrol Norte has been eroding and dividing the communities, and that Fediquep has been blatantly ignoring the inhabitants’ rights. For such reasons, he proposes that the company retreats from the area and, if they wish to resume the operation, heeds to the community’s direct participation. It is also being demanded that families are connected to the electricity that is provided by Loreto Regional Government and Plustpetrol.

Meanwhile in Nuevo Andeos, the people hold their grounds in hopes that attention will finally be brought to their demands.

Not too long ego, it was them who requested a remediation process of Shanshococha Lagoon, as well as adequate compensation for Pluspetrol’s experimentation throughout the past 15 years.

As the converstation moves, it is evident that yesterday’s demonstration in Nuevo Andoas is being vigorously supported by surrounding areas within the Pastaza and that will surely resonate beyond.

[EF! Newswire Note: The following post is a loose translation of an article first published by Servindi.]

Pacific Island Warriors Blockade World’s Largest Coal Port

October 25th, 2014

Climate Change Warriors from 12 Pacific Island nations paddled canoes into the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle, Australia, Friday (October 17th) to bring attention to their grave fears about the consequences of climate change on their home countries.

The 30 warriors joined a flotilla of hundreds of Australians in kayaks and on surfboards to delay eight of the 12 ships scheduled to pass through the port during the nine-hour blockade, which was organised with support from the U.S.-based environmental group 350.org.

The warriors came from 12 Pacific Island countries, including Fiji, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Micronesia, Vanuatu, The Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Niue.

Mikaele Maiava spoke with IPS about why he and his fellow climate change warriors had travelled to Australia: “We want Australia to remember that they are a part of the Pacific. And as a part of the Pacific, we are a family, and having this family means we stay together. We cannot afford, one of the biggest sisters, really destroying everything for the family.

“So, we want the Australian community, especially the Australian leaders, to think about more than their pockets, to really think about humanity not just for the Australian people, but for everyone,” Mikaele said.

Speaking at the opening of a new coal mine on Oct. 13, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that “coal is good for humanity.”

Mikaele questioned Abbott’s position, asking, “If you are talking about humanity: Is humanity really for people to lose land? Is humanity really for people to lose their culture and identity? Is humanity to live in fear for our future generations to live in a beautiful island and have homes to go to? Is that really humanity? Is that really the answer for us to live in peace and harmony? Is that really the answer for the future?”

Mikaele said that he and his fellow climate warriors were aware that their fight was not just for the Pacific, and that other developing countries were affected by climate change too.

“We’re aware that this fight is not just for the Pacific. We are very well aware that the whole world is standing up in solidarity for this. The message that we want to give, especially to the leaders, is that we are humans, this fight is not just about our land, this fight is for survival.”

Mikaele described how his home of Tokelau was already seeing the effects of climate change,

“We see these changes of weather patterns and we also see that our food security is threatened. It’s hard for us to build a sustainable future if your soil is not that fertile and it does not grow your crops because of salt intrusion.”

Tokelau’s coastline is also beginning to erode. “We see our coastal lines changing. Fifteen years ago when I was going to school, you could walk in a straight line. Now you have to walk in a crooked line because the beach has eroded away.”

Mikaele said that he and his fellow climate change warriors would not be content unless they stood up for future generations, and did everything possible to change world leaders’ mentality about climate change.

“We are educated people, we are smart people, we know what’s going on, the days of the indigenous people and local people not having the information and the knowledge about what’s going on is over,” he said.

“We are the generation of today, the leaders of tomorrow and we are not blinded by the problem. We can see it with our own eyes, we feel it in our own hearts, and we want the Australian government to realise that. We are not blinded by money we just want to live as peacefully and fight for what matters the most, which is our homes.”

Tokelau became the first country in the world to use 100 percent renewable energy when they switched to solar energy in 2012.

Speaking about the canoes that he and his fellow climate warriors had carved in their home countries and bought to Australia for the protest, he talked about how his family had used canoes for generations,

“Each extended family would have a canoe, and this canoe is the main tool that we used to be able to live, to go fishing, to get coconuts, to take family to the other islands.”

Another climate warrior, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, from the Marshall Islands, brought members of the United Nations General Assembly to tears last month with her impassioned poem written to her baby daughter Matafele Peinam,

“No one’s moving, no one’s losing their homeland, no one’s gonna become a climate change refugee. Or should I say, no one else. To the Carteret islanders of Papua New Guinea and to the Taro islanders of Fiji, I take this moment to apologise to you,” she said.

The Pacific Islands Forum describes climate change as the “single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific.”

“Climate change is an immediate and serious threat to sustainable development and poverty eradication in many Pacific Island Countries, and for some their very survival. Yet these countries are amongst the least able to adapt and to respond; and the consequences they face, and already now bear, are significantly disproportionate to their collective miniscule contributions to global emissions,” it says.

Pacific Island leaders have recently stepped up their language, challenging the Australian government to stop delaying action on climate change.

Oxfam Australia’s climate change advocacy coordinator, Dr Simon Bradshaw, told IPS, “Australia is a Pacific country. In opting to dismantle its climate policies, disengage from international negotiations and forge ahead with the expansion of its fossil fuel industry, it is utterly at odds with the rest of the region.”

Dr. Bradshaw added, “Australia’s closest neighbours have consistently identified climate change as their greatest challenge and top priority. So it is inevitable that Australia’s recent actions will impact on its relationship with Pacific Islands.

“A recent poll commissioned by Oxfam showed that 60 percent of Australians thought climate change was having a negative impact on the ability of people in poorer countries to grow and access food, rising to 68 percent among 18 to 34-year-olds,” he said.

Visit IPS news for fresh perspectives on development and globalization

Construction of Areng Dam Continues Despite Natives Protests

October 21st, 2014

Regardless of the dam’s progression, Chong inhabitants continue to express their discontent.

The detention and release of 11 environmental activists in Cambodia’s Areng Valley in mid-September ended the last major protests of the controversial Stung Cheay Areng hydro dam project.

Activists had been detaining and blocking convoys of vehicles into the valley since March of this year, but their makeshift roadblock has since been commandeered by the country’s Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

The valley’s native Chong inhabitants have watched the dam project grow with a mixture of fear and bitterness. The Chong have dwelt along the Areng for over 600 years but soon, if the dam is completed, it will flood at least 26,000 acres of land. Mother Jones writes that the estimates range between 40 and 77 square miles.

This will displace more than 1,500 people, and is already inviting the rape of the Central Cardamom Protected Forest. To begin the dam project, new roads had to be built to transport equipment back and forth, providing free access to unscrupulous timber companies. At least 20,000 cubic yards of rosewood (worth an estimated $220 million in timber) have been illegally logged since the dam project began.

The dam itself is being constructed by Sinohydro Resources, China’s largest dam-building contractor and its third firm to take on the task. Initially, China Southern Power Grid was to build the dam, but relinquished its contract with the Cambodian government in 2010 on purportedly “moral” grounds.

A report from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency on the project later pointed out that the dam would only generate an output of 108 megawatts – too little for so high a monetary and environmental cost.

China Guodian Corporation was the next firm to take up the project, but pulled out in 2013. They, too, found the dam to be economically unviable.

Though the dam would be hypothetically capable of generating enough power for 87,000 homes, International Rivers argues that “the dam will only operate at 46 percent capacity during the dry season, precisely when Cambodia most needs the electricity.”

In addition to this low energy output, the dam is projected to be more of a burden to Cambodia than a blessing – even without taking the valley’s 31 endangered animals into account. Areng is just one of 17 dams the country wants to build over the next two decades, but most of their power will be exported to neighboring countries. What’s worse, Sinohydro will own the dam for the next 40 years before turning it over to the Cambodian government, at which time the dam’s maintenance costs and environmental impacts will potentially make it worthless to the country.

Despite all this, Cambodia’s Minister of Mines and Energy and Minister of Environment have both stated that the Areng dam is on schedule for completion by 2020.

But that hasn’t stopped natives from protesting.

“Even if they piled money one meter above my head, I don’t want their Chinese money,” one villager told Mother Jones’ Kalyanee Mam. “I want to stay in my village. Even with all this money, I could only spend it in this life. I wouldn’t be able to pass it on to my grandchildren. I just want my village and my land for the future of my grandchildren.”

by Planet Experts

Manitoba Hydro Evicted from Northern Dam Station by Protesters

October 17th, 2014

Protesters have forced employees of Manitoba Hydro out of the Jenpeg generating station in northern Manitoba.

The protesters, from Pimicikamak Cree Nation, delivered an oversized evicted notice on Friday to staff at the station and the employee housing complex, both of which are located on the Nelson River in Pimicikamak territory.

“The building is empty, locked, undamaged and under the Pimicikamak flag,” states a release from the Cree Nation, which is located approximately 525 kilometres by air north of Winnipeg.

A few hydro personnel remain inside the dam itself to monitor the facility. Pimicikamak guarantees the safety and well-being of these people, and ensures that hydro facilities will not be damaged.”

The protesters want compensation for damages caused by flooding from the dam, which opened in 1979.

“The hydro system floods 65 square kilometres of Pimicikamak land and causes severe damage to thousands of kilometres of shoreline,” Chief Cathy Merrick stated in the press release. “Outlying grave sites have been washed away; Pimicikamak people have died as a result of semi-submerged debris from eroding shorelines and unsafe ice conditions caused by hydro.

“The project has turned a once bountiful and intimately known homeland into a dangerous and despoiled power corridor.”

Jenpeg, which Manitoba Hydro uses to control outflows from Lake Winnipeg into the Nelson River system, is located about 20 kilometres from Cross Lake, which is the main Pimicikamak settlement with some 8,000 residents.

“This is our home; we will not let it be trampled,” said Merrick. “This dam has been great for the south but for us it is a man-made catastrophe. Hydro needs to clean up the mess it has created in our homeland. Hydro needs to treat us fairly.”

She said the provincial government has spoken about reconciliation with all hydro-affected peoples, and a “new era” of “partnership” but so far none of that has happened.

The hydro system produces $3.8 million worth of power on its five Nelson River dams every day, according to Merrick, who noted it “has not contributed to ‘the eradication of mass poverty and mass unemployment’ as was contemplated in the 1977 Northern Flood Agreement.

“The NFA says affected people will be dealt with fairly and equitably,” she said, adding, “In many parts of Canada, governments and companies are realizing that everyone benefits when the tremendous wealth and opportunity of the land is shared fairly.”

Pimicikamak’s road map to positive change includes:

A public apology from Premier Greg Selinger for past and present harms suffered by all hydro-affected peoples and their lands.
A commitment from Manitoba and Manitoba Hydro to engage in a good-faith process to fulfill promises in the NFA, including measures related to community development, environmental mitigation and maximum employment opportunities.
A revenue sharing agreement and/or water rental arrangement with Pimicikamak.

“The Pimicikamak people will not leave Jenpeg until Manitoba and Hydro make substantive commitments to follow the course outlined above,” Merrick said.

The chief and council will be meeting with provincial and hydro officials at the Jenpeg station on Friday.

Ts’ka7 Warriors Burn Down Imperial Metals Ruddock Creek Mine Bridge

Secwepemc Ts’ka7 Warriors deactivate Imperial Metals Ruddock Creek mine road.

Inter

Secwepemc Ts’ka7 Warriors deactivate Imperial Metals Ruddock Creek mine road.

International Statement, October 14, 2014

With much discussion with Elders Councils and around Sacred fires and ceremonies the Secwepemc Ts’ka7 Warriors have acted out their collective responsibility and jurisdiction to and in the Ts’ka7 area by deactivating the Imperial Metals Ruddock Creek mine road.

Imperial Metals Corporation never asked for or received free, prior and informed consent to operate in Secwepemc Territory. The Imperial Metals Mount Polley mine disaster, in the area known as Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe, the absolute destruction and devastation of our Territory has never been answered for. No reparations have been made. Instead Imperial Metals continues to force through another mine in our Territory while criminalizing the Klabona Keepers of the Tahltan Nation also exerting their jurisdictional and withholding consent from the same company.

The genocidal displacement of the Secwepemc from their Homelands through starvation, fear and assimilation by the state and industry being acted out by Imperial Metals stops now. We are committed to the ongoing protection of our Territory. Our salmon is sacred, our land is sacred, our Women are sacred, our water is sacred and we the Peoples, the rightful title holders are the decision makers and we will protect them.

Agreements made by elected chief and council do not have authority and do not represent us. This is a warning to Imperial Metals Corporation: Leave our Lands and do not come back. This is a warning to the provincial government: You do not have jurisdiction on this Land to issue permits to any corporation. This is a warning to investors (including the province), contractors, suppliers and subsidiaries: Divest from Imperial Metals Corporation. We the Secwepemc, united, will not allow Imperial Metals Corporation to continue. Secwepemc Law will prevail in our Territory.
Secwepemculecw wel me7 yews, wel me7 yews
Secwepemc Ts’ka7 Warriors

Portland Oil Terminal Blocked, USA

Activists form blockade against oil trains at Arc Logistics, crude oil-by-rail terminal

NW Portland, Oregon: 100 people gathered in protest this afternoon (9/10/2014) at Arc Logistics, Portland’s only crude oil-by-rail terminal. Five activists risked arrest by sitting directly on the rail tracks to prevent an oil train from reaching the oil terminal. Information leaked from a worker at the facility revealed that due the controversial protest, oil shipments had been halted for the day. Protesters, including those blocking the tracks have dispersed peacefully.

Crude oil trains have caused a great deal of controversy across the county. Nearly a dozen derailments have occurred in the past two years, many ending in fireball explosions that have killed 47 people and caused hundreds of millions in property damage. Event organizers say these trains represent an unacceptable threat to our communities: risking explosive train derailments, dangerous spills and leaks, degrading air quality, and destabilizing the climate.

“I am an obstetrician, gynecologist with a degree in public health. I have devoted my career to protecting mothers and babies and worked internationally in almost 40 countries. I have taught at Harvard and Stanford. The importance of these efforts now pales,” said Kelly O’Hanley, MD, MPH, one of the five activists willing to risk arrest if an oil train attempted to enter Arc Logistics. “I have never gone to jail but the specter of climate change has moved me out of my clinic, out of the hospital and out of my comfortable living room – onto the streets and into jail if necessary.”

Portland is a choke point for fossil fuel transport in the Northwest. We are drawing the line to support all those affected from extraction to the climate-destabilizing combustion,” says organizer Mia Reback, “today’s action is intended to send a strong message that the community will not allow these dangerous oil trains to come through Portland.”

Today’s protest continues a series of direct actions and resistance against Northwest oil-by-rail projects. In June, activists with Portland Rising Tide blocked the Arc Logistics site in Portland when a woman locked herself to a concrete filled barrel on the tracks. Following that action, community members across the Northwest have set up blockades at oil facilities in Anacortes, Washington, Everett, Washington and most recently Port Westward, Oregon.

Arc Logistics currently ships crude by rail from fracked oil shale in Utah. The first US tar sands mine is under construction in Utah and Arc could soon be accepting this controversial fuel. The Arc Logistics terminal can also receive explosive Bakken crude oil from North Dakota without notifying Portland residents.

The Climate Action Coalition demands that the city of Portland halts the operations of Arc Logistics and imposes a ban on all new fossil fuel infrastructure that puts our climate and communities in jeopardy.

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The Climate Action Coalition is: Portland Rising Tide, NoKXL, 350 PDX, Portland Raging Grannies, First Unitarian Universalist Community for Earth Team, PDX Bike Swarm

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