Monthly Archives: March 2012

Megaload Protesters Arrested Sunday Make Innocent Pleas

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MOSCOW – Two Moscow men pleaded innocent to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer after they allegedly attempted to block three megaloads traveling through their city.

Police Chief David Duke said officers arrested Cass Davis, 47, and James Prall, 67, Sunday night after they re-entered the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 95 in Moscow shortly after 11 p.m.

Four protesters – Davis, Prall, and two women – initially entered the roadway in an effort to block the giant Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil refinery equipment modules headed for a tar sands oil extraction project in Canada, Duke said. Continue reading →

Four Pile into Street to Stop 865,000 Pounds of Megaloads, Two Arrested

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Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists blocked three colossal tar sands “megaloads” when they linked arms and sat together on Washington Street in Moscow, Idaho, on Sunday, March Fourth!  Listen to between 26:10 and 13:18 of the Monday, March 5, Evening Report, Two Megaload Blockers Arrested, on KRFP Radio Free Moscow, for announcements of the last passage of these shipments in Two Final Megaloads from Lewiston Due Tuesday Night and for on-the-scene reportage of the WIRT protest, civil disobedience, and subsequent arrests in Four Pile into Street to Stop 865,000 Pounds of Megaloads, Two Arrested.

Senate Resources Committee Approves Drilling Ordinance Pre-emption Law

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House Bill 464 passed the Senate Resources and Environment Committee on Friday, March 2, with a 6 to 3 vote after three and a half hours of discussion and testimony extended from a similar Wednesday, February 29, hearing.  Deviously crafted and promoted by the Idaho Petroleum Council, the proposed bill bypasses state rulemaking processes and limits city, county, and local jurisdictional control of natural gas drilling operations, including hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” practices.  It also would exempt all natural gas wells from state regulations for injection wells, thus allowing disposal of hazardous fracking fluids underground, where they could endanger community and private drinking water.  Five other oil and natural gas laws were also recommended as “do pass” measures by the seven Republican and two Democrat committee members.  Listen to between 13:11 and 6:21 of the Monday, March 5, Evening Report, Two Megaload Blockers Arrested, on KRFP Radio Free Moscow for a description of this legislation and its testimony and deliberations, Senate Resources Committee Approves Drilling Ordinance Pre-emption Law.

Breaking: Two Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Idaho

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News from Moscow, Idaho: two arrested blockading ExxonMobil’s megaload trucks with tar sands equipment bound for Alberta.

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Moscow, Idaho

PRELIMINARY NEWS RELEASE

March 5, 2012

Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all.  As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4.  Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed.  The women did not appreciate the discrimination.

Read more: Breaking: Two Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Idaho

(Drawn from a Wild Idaho Rising Tide media release and photos published by Scott Parkin in It’s Getting Hot in Here)

Goodbye, Tar Sands Megaloads, Moscow, Idaho 3-4-12

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From the slightly taller viewpoint of Jeremy Jenkins, this great footage shows Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s protest late Sunday night, March 4, blocking ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands megaloads on their rampage from Korean assembly to Alberta bitumen processing via the Port of Lewiston and Highway 95 in Idaho.  At the second to the last transport passage and spirited protest in downtown Moscow, Idaho – the front lines of the fight for tar sands justice that has clashed with every convoy – Jeremy caught the heart of the action in a small, rural, college town in a deep-red state.  Four brave, caring people sat down and put their bodies on the line in Washington Street, in front of three megaloads weighing 865,000 pounds, to challenge climate-killers who are wrecking the pristine Athabasca River watershed and boreal forest, the First Nations of northern Alberta, and the atmosphere and Earth we all share.  The resulting wrestling match with industry-sponsored state and city police dragged two men and two women (Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall) to the curb and arrested and jailed only Cass and Jim when they attempted to reenter the road.  Fellow tar sands and climate activists across the country and world are noticing and encouraging our resistance and real news ignored by the mainstream media mostly owned by corporate interests.  No other press except our faithful, progressive, local station, KRFP Radio Free Moscow, witnessed the demonstration.  As Idahoans continue to impede tar sands traffic along two of four emerging industrial corridors, our voices are being heard and others are standing together in solidarity against tar sands injustices.  Eventually humanity will prevail over the oilocracy’s greed, destructive machines, and devastation of our struggling planet and democracy.

(By Jeremy Jenkins)

Good Riddance, ExxonMobil!

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On Tuesday, March 6, the last two of over 70 components of a Canadian tar sands upgrader will cross Highway 95 and Moscow en route to Montana and Alberta.  The community of life on this planet needs our full participation tonight as we together raise our voices and impose our bodies against ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil’s dirty energy and its dire ecological and climate consequences.  Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) members and regional activists will launch our final, local, anti-megaload actions in downtown Moscow starting at 9:30 pm PST, to celebrate Big Oil’s departure from the Port of Lewiston and north central Idaho and to further expose its degradation of the boreal forest, First Nations’ health, and our global climate.  After our successful civil disobedience blockade on Sunday by Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall, corporate oppression at the hands of state, county, and city police, pilot vehicle drivers, and flaggers will likely tighten security around its single-file Moscow convoy and staggered transports on the rest of its Idaho route. Continue reading →

The Last Two Imperial Oil Megaloads Set to Leave the Port of Lewiston Tuesday

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Two Imperial Oil megaloads are expected to leave Tuesday from the Port of Lewiston.

The modules are the last two left at Idaho’s only seaport, according to an email from David Doeringsfeld, manager of the Port of Lewiston.

Two cranes used in handling the extra big shipments at the Port of Lewiston were dismantled last week, Doeringsfeld said in the email.

This could mean that Lewiston will no longer play a role in getting Korean-made components to an Imperial Oil processing plant at the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada.

But that’s not entirely clear. Imperial Oil hasn’t confirmed it only has two megaloads left in Lewiston or disclosed what plans, if any, it has for Lewiston in the future.

As always, the Tribune will stay on the story. A photographer will join me at the Port of Lewiston Tuesday to watch the Imperial Oil megaloads depart.

I’ll continue to ask the Idaho Transportation Department and Port of Lewiston officials about any plans that may surface for other megaloads.

(By Elaine Williams, The Lewiston Tribune)

Climate Justice Forum: Pat Monger, Jeanne McHale, & Emily Stock 3-5-12

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On the March 5 broadcast of Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s Climate Justice Forum radio program, we will feature activists Pat Monger and Jeanne McHale, who linked arms and sat with Cass Davis and Jim Prall, whom police arrested for blocking megaloads of a tar sands upgrader plant traversing Washington Street in Moscow on Sunday, March 4.  We will also talk with Emily Stock of Canyon Country Rising Tide in Moab, Utah, about resistance to already permitted tar sands mining and processing projects near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.  Please listen to KRFP Radio Free Moscow at 92.5 FM or online, between 7:30 and 9 pm PST every Monday, as we cover news about regional and national dirty energy projects and associated grassroots resistance.

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads​” in Moscow, Idaho

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Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all.  As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4.  Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed.  The women did not appreciate the discrimination.  In a video by Joshua Yeidel of a KRFP Radio Free Moscow interview, We Won’t Be Accessories to Genocide: Moscow ID, March 4, 2012, one of the dismissed women explained her and her many allies’ motivations for marching, chanting, and even obstructing megaloads and risking arrest in cold and dark winter conditions. “We’re not going to be accessories to genocide and climate change and increased cancer rates and all the other ecological damages that the tar sands intends to cause…” Continue reading →

Megaloads and Arrests, Moscow, Idaho 3-4-12

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Challenged by contrasting darkness and bright lights, this video shot by Joshua Yeidel with a small snapshot camera shows four good people putting their bodies in Washington Street for a better future for all of the world’s descendants.  As enormous loads of oil-field equipment head for the climate-killing Alberta tar sands mines, citizens of Moscow, Idaho, gathered on Sunday, March 6, to bear witness, raise their voices in protest, and cry out truth.  In spite of heavy police presence, four brave men and women (Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall) sat down in the street and briefly blocked three megaloads, before being dragged away and the two men arrested.  These surreal scenes in a small, rural, north Idaho college town are emblematic of the madness that attends every aspect of Alberta tar sands projects.  Thanks to all who actively oppose the genocide, ecocide, and climate chaos induced by tar sands production consumed almost entirely by Americans.

(By Joshua Yeidel)