WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–March 1 – The Obama administration today took the next step toward approval of the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, despite the heavy toll the pipeline and its oil will take on the climate crisis, wildlife and the environment. Some 50,000 people protested outside the White House last month in opposition to the pipeline. Today’s announcement came in the form of a supplemental environmental impact statement on Keystone XL. Continue reading
Tag Archives: resistance
Center for Biological Diversity: Obama Allows Dirty, Dangerous Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline to Move Forward
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged climate change, keystone xl pipeline, obama, resistance, tar sands
Texas Man Takes Last Stand Against Keystone XL Pipeline
December 25, 2012 2:25 PM
1 of 10
An east Texas landowner was so determined to block the Keystone XL pipeline from coming through his forest that he took to his trees and built an elaborate network of treehouses eight stories above the ground.
“It popped into my head a long time ago, actually,” says 45-year-old David Daniel. “If I had to climb my butt on top of a tree and sit there, I would. It started with that.”
David Daniel, an east Texas landowner, built an elaborate network of treehouses in an attempt to stop the Keystone XL pipeline form coming through his property. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged blockade, keystone xl pipeline blockade, resistance, texas landowner, treehouse, treesit
Earth First! Organizers Conference & Winter Rendezous
Earth First! Organizers Conference & Winter Rendezous
Calling all Eco-Warriors!
Appalachia Resist! blockades the Ginsburg Injection Well on Ladd Ridge Rd. in Athens, County Ohio. November 19, 2012
Still wondering what to do with that fiery heart of yours in mid-February? Come join us in the hills and hollers of the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau February 14-18, for the 2013 Earth First! Organizers Conference and Winter Rendezvous. The Organizers Conference, Thursday thru Saturday afternoon will be focused on reports from the Journal; evaluating strategy, tools & tactics; examining our visions & aspirations; where we’ve been, where we’re going; state repression review; anti-oppression check-in; and bioregional round-ups, and the Night to Howl gathering of the Warrior Poets Society. After three days of meetings, Saturday night the Winter Rondezvous will kick off with a fiesta (we’re working on a square dance, yehaw), followed by two days full of workshops, hiking, and action planning. Don’t forget that no good Rondezvous could end without a kickass action!
Southeast Ohio in the Allegeny Plateau
The Central Appalachian bioregion touts being one of the most biodiverse temperate forests in the world. Fracking and radioactive, chemical laced fracking waste being injected into the earth are an eminent threat to the this region. Locally, folks have blockaded an injection well and disrupted a meeting of the Ohio Division of Natural Resources. With a large amount of local opposition to injection wells, we invite y’all to help us stamp out these toxic dumping practices, which are a lynch pin to the fracking industry.
The site, located about 25 minutes outside of Athens, Ohio, is a longstanding intentional community that will be sharing their space with us for the week. There is plenty of indoor space for meetings and sleeping (although some is slumber party style), as well as lots of camping options for those opposed to the great indoors. February in this area can bring temperatures anywhere from 55F during the day to 0F at night, so please come prepared for cold weather and mud/snow. This time of year is often when the sugar maples start sending their winter stores of food up to the tips of their branches, marking the start of the sugaring season, which will be happening on site.
We are requesting a donation of $25 -$50 for the week, which will cover expenses of the gathering and some travel compensation for folks crossing borders. If your bioregion needs some travel assistance, please contact us ASAP. Perhaps fundraising is a special knack you have and you’d like to offer your services? If you are in need of childcare, please send us an email and let us know.
Getting there: The closest airport is in Columbus, OH. The GO Bus runs between Columbus/Athens and Cincinnati/Athens. Amtrak services Cincinnati, OH and Charleston, WV.
Appalachia Resist!
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Tagged Earth First!, ef! organizers conference, fracking, ohio, resistance
The New York Times got it wrong with the Tar Sands Blockade
Dear New York Times,
This letter is in regards to the article you published today on the Texas Tar Sands written by Dan Frosch (“Last-Ditch Bid in Texas to Try to Stop Oil Pipeline,” October 12, 2012). (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/us/protesters-gather-at-keystone-xl-site-in-texas.html?_r=1)
Mr. Frosch’s portrayal of the blockade, activists’ efforts to stop the pipeline, and the depiction of TransCanada are misleading. The story is missing facts. I was with the NYT reporter Dan Frosh on October 9th and 10th when he visited the Tar Sands blockade in Winnsboro,TX. My partner and I were doing independent media at the same time and same place.
First, Mr. Frosch failed to mention that he and a NYT photographer were detained and handcuffed while covering the story, allegedly for passing an “arbitrary boundary” stipulated by TransCanada. I was there immediately after they were released. The detention and handcuffing of the NYT reporters is significant because there has been serious media censorship and repression surrounding the Keystone XL Pipeline blockade.
I first met Mr. Frosch the night of October 9th. On that evening, two livestream bloggers who were in the tree sit, Elizabeth Ace and Lorenzo Serano, were arrested despite the fact that they held official press passes. This fact does not appear in the NYT feature.
Also, Mr. Frosch neglected to mention that the media boundary mysteriously and arbitrarily moved back sixty feet on October 10th, the day after we covered the livestreamers descending from the trees. The new boundary can only be interpreted as a media censorship tactic used by police and the TransCanada security firm–now indistinguishable units. It is is currently impossible to see the actions going on at the blockade. The media is now pushed back so far, that Mr. Frosch’s own photographer struggled to get a decent shot of the tree sitters.
Furthermore and more importantly, the picture that Mr. Frosch painted of the protesters is minimizing and inaccurate. Was he not informed that there is a dedicated group of over twenty individuals, not including the current tree sitters pushing the campaign? This group provides critical jail support, medical care, and functions as a media team.
Mr. Frosh’s article told a story of a benevolent company who conducted business in a respectful, consensual manner, while portraying the protesters as reckless people endangering their own lives. The piece does not explain why this direct action of blockading is necessary, nor any of the other tactics employed by activists fighting the pipeline. The article only positions the blockade action as a “last ditch attempt,” instead of one of many strategic measures necessary to protect the environment. There was no information regarding the company’s history, their ruthless use of eminent domain or the dangers posed by the pipeline. The article lacks research and critical information on this subject. For more information on the Tar Sands please see resources such as the Green Peace report issued “Dirty Oil: How the Tar Sands are Fueling the Global Climate Crisis” (http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/Global/canada/report/2009/9/tar_sands_report.pdf).
The Tar Sands blockade in Texas, deserves a far better story than it has been given by the New York Times and Dan Frosch. This struggle, not to mention NYT readers, are entitled to the full story, not a poorly-researched short article printed with half the facts and omitting key events. Once again, without media access to the blockade, protesters will remain unprotected and at the mercy of TransCanada and the Texas police force paid by them. The NYT has failed to do their part as unbiased independent media; this was hardly “all the news thats fit to print.”
Sincerely,
Alexandra Mara
P.S. One last question, why did you run Brandon Thibodeaux’s flat photo of the tree sit, instead of the technically better and more visually interesting photos by Laura Borealis that were given to you? (photo shown below)
First Blockade of Fracking Well Pad in the U.S.
Folks from the Croatan were excited to participate in the following 2012 post-rondy action against fracking in the Marcellus at the Moshannan State Forest in Pennsylvania, organized by Marcellus Earth First! The lesson we’ve learned from this action is that different people whose bioregions who are being affected by this dangerous type of energy extraction can fight this together, and that our effectiveness is not stifled or bound by laws or state lines.
At it’s high point, this road blockade had over 100 people assisting it over a few mile stretch of road. Workers within the well pad were prevented from moving machinery in or out of the forest, and the well pad was shut off just an hour or so after the blockade was put in place. Workers were invited to leave the site although they declined to do so. During the twelve hour blockade the site was fairly easy to access and people from the outside rally were able to walk in and out to observe. A mother and newborn baby casually walked through the site and locals came by to give homemade pies to the occupiers. At some tense points workers got into their bulldozers and attempted to drive through the slash pile blockades. Multiple times folks linked arms in front of the bulldozers and put their bodies in the line to prevent them from passing, and to protect the lives of their friends in the tree sit. The blockade lasted 12 hours and resulted in very few arrests, and mostly just citations. For more information on the road blockade that stopped this well from fracking, read the story below reposted from the Earth First! Newswire. Continue reading
Cascadia Earth First! Locks Down, Climbs Flagpoles in State Capitol
10:00am: "We are occupying the Oregon State Capitol in Salem to end widespread clear cutting in state forests! We are currently locked down in the offices of Secretary of State Kate Brown and Treasurer Ted Wheeler, climbers are back on the flag poles and the establishment is generally shaking in its boots."
2:00pm: 50 protesters remain onsite. Flagpole banner droppers have been arrested descending into applause and leaving banners flying.
Join The Riverdale Free State & Stop Fracking Water Withdrawals
Consider yourself invited to join the eviction resistance at a Pennsylvania fracking site.
A week into the resident-led occupation of a mobile home park in Jersey Shore, PA, the following message has been circulated by the fine folks with Occupy Well Street. Basically, it’s on…
Save Riverdale: Urgent Call for Support
“I was here to protect my home. Within a week I realized why the hell would I protect a house with water I can’t drink. It’s still about the house, but it’s more about this land and that water. As long as you’re willing to stand, stay here, and bring more: this isn’t over yet” –Riverdale Resident
For 7 days, Riverdale Mobile Home Community and our group of volunteers have impeded the construction of a water withdrawal site on the Susquehanna River, in Jersey Shore, PA. In the process, our concept of community has developed, as this community on the frontline and its supporters have come together to creatively meet their needs. This place means more to all of us than we could have possibly imagined. It is a truly rare opportunity to fight for community and environmental rights. Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged fracking, mobile home community, pennsylvania, resistance, riverdale free state, water withdrawals
NY Moratorium on Fracking May Be Sidestepped by using Propane
Thank you to everyone who attended last night’s Fight The Frack workshop. An organizer with ShaleShock and Finger Lakes Earth First! held a discussion regarding the state of fracking in New York state. He updated us about the effective activities they’ve held including a Ruckus Society training camp and street theater against oil companies at large rallies. He also informed us that much of the infrastructure for fracking has already been built in New York State, because of the previous infrastructure made for conventional drilling which is already common in the area, and also that dirty frack water is spread on the streets of New York and Ohio in the winter time as a de-icer! If you’d like to learn more about the coalition, Shaleshock, which coordinated action with many different anti-fracking groups, check out their website here. Also, check out the article below regarding risk to the NY fracking moratorium:
Waterless Fracking Method Could Sidestep NY Gas Drilling Ban
Amid skepticism from engineers and environmentalists, landowners and drilling company bet on LPG fracking, which uses propane instead of water.
Apr 16, 2012
The Tioga County Landowners Association will lease 135,000 acres to Houston-based eCorp International. The fracking will be done by Calgary-based GasFrac Energy Services, which pioneered the LPG process.A plan to extract shale gas and oil from 135,000 acres in Tioga County, N.Y., could break through the state’s hydraulic fracturing moratorium, because the wells would be fracked not with water but with liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, a mixture of mostly propane.
A relatively new technology, LPG fracking doesn’t fall under New York’s current hydraulic fracturing moratorium. Instead it could be permitted under the New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s 1992 Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, according to Emily DeSantis, the DEC’s director of public information.
DeSantis said LPG fracking would also require an additional assessment under the state’s Environmental Quality Review Act, or even a separate environmental impact statement “if the proposed activity may result in significant adverse environmental impacts not previously or adequately addressed.”
New York placed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in 2010, after environmentalists and some residents began worrying that hydraulic fracturing might contaminate the watershed that supplies water to New York City and other parts of the East Coast.
The moratorium won’t be lifted until a new Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement is complete. The DEC expects to finish the work on that document by the end of the year.
Finish reading the article here
Film Screening: The Coconut Revolution
Thursday February 16th 7-9 p.m. at Inernationalist Books & Community Center @ 405 W. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, Free.
The Coconut Revolution is a 2001 multi-award winning documentary film about the struggle of the indigenous peoples in the Bougainville Island. The movement is described as the “world’s first successful eco-revolution”.
The movie tells the story of the successful uprising of the indigenous peoples of Bougainville Island against the Papua New Guinea army and the mining plans of the RTZ company to exploit their natural resources. The documentary reveals how the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) managed to overcome the blockade strategy carried by the papuan army by using coconut oil as fuel.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged coconut revolution, ecology, insurrection, resistance, sustainability
VETO SB 709 No Fracking, No Offshore Drilling in North Carolina!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Demonstration at the House of Representatives against SB 709
June 15, 2011- Raleigh, NC – On Tuesday night, over twenty-five people
showed their opposition to hydraulic fracturing and offshore drilling in
North Carolina outside of the legislative building before heading inside for
the final vote on SB 709 in the House of Representatives, leading to three
arrests. Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is a method of extracting
natural gas that involves blasting underground rock thousands of feet into
the ground with a cocktail of sand, water, and chemicals.
The third vote on SB709, also dubbed the “Energy Jobs Act”, was met with
resistance before the session convened with a call-in day to legislators and
a demonstration outside. Signs read, “Don’t Frack with Cackalack!”, “Don’t
Frack With My Water!”, “No Offshore Drilling in NC!”, and “Expect
Resistance!”. The demonstrations consisted of people from Chapel Hill,
Durham, Pittsboro, and Raleigh who called on the legislators to vote against
SB 709, in favor of a healthy future for North Carolinians.
Upon moving inside, the quiet and respectful demonstration was swarmed by
security agents as the wait began for SB 709 to be called. At least one
representative switched his vote to be against the bill before it was
called, which was met with applause. Once SB 709 was brought to the floor,
two people unfurled a banner reading “Third times a charm! No to Fracking!”,
leading to their arrest. A third person was also arrested for proclaiming
dislike of the destruction of the fine state of North Carolina. The
arrestees, who live in counties that contain shale deposits that could be
fracked, are all facing misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges.
The third reading of SB 709 resulted in 68 ayes and 49 noes. At this point
the bill goes back to the senate for a reading, and then it is in the
governor’s hands. We call on Governor Perdue to protect the future of North
Carolina by vetoing SB 709.
“It is alarming that the General Assembly is so readily allowing
corporation’s interests to harm the citizens, water, air, and land of North
Carolina. Is this really what the General Assembly wants for its
constituents?”- Heidi Grenmier (Durham County) Croatan Earth First!
“To Representatives Avila, Boles, Burr, Crawford, Dollar, Howard, McCormick,
Murry, and Stam, all who represent areas with fracking potential and
despicably voted in favor of SB709, know that we will hold you personally
responsible when our tap water turns brown and explosive, our children and
wives are sick, and our crops are toxic. We’ve seen what’s been happening
in Pennsylvania, Montana, and Colorado. We don’t want it here.” – Adam Nash
(Orange County)
This is merely the beginning of the fight against hydraulic fracturing and
offshore drilling in North Carolina. Community groups, including Croatan
Earth First!, will be holding regular events and demonstrations against
hydraulic fracturing throughout the region.
Click here to urge Bev Perdue to veto SB 709! Leave a message at her phone number at 919-733-5811. A decision will be made probably in the next day or two.
Croatan Earth First! is committed to halting ecological destructive projects
throughout the Piedmont.
Contact:
Kassidy Birch (919) 695-3530
croatanearthfirst@gmail.com
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cackalack, Earth First!, energy jobs act, fracking, governor beverly perdue, hb 709, offshore drilling, resistance, veto
