Monthly Archives: June 2012

Port of Lewiston Wins Dock-Expansion Grant

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Meanwhile, Port of Whitman loses bid for money to replace railroad bridges

The region’s barging system, not rail, was a winner in a federal grant program that will provide $1.3 million for the Port of Lewiston to expand its dock.

The $2.9 million dock extension was the only Idaho project to be awarded money from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant program.

The port estimates the project will create 48 jobs by 2023, assuming the annual number of containers the port handles grows from the 3,653 it handled last year to 16,000. Continue reading →

Transport Company Seeks Permission to Move Megaload on U.S. Highway 12

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A heavy equipment transport firm is seeking permission from the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to ship a megaload through north central Idaho on U.S. Highway 12.

Omega Morgan wants to move a 610,250-pound water purification vessel — 300 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 22 feet tall — from the Port of Lewiston to the Montana border, then to northern Alberta, Canada, according to an ITD email on Monday.

The vessel is being constructed and is expected to move through Idaho late next summer.

The firm hasn’t indicated how many days the trip would take, or where the vessel is being built or who it’s being built for, according to the email. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Eriel Deranger 6-25-12

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On the Monday, June 25, Climate Justice Forum radio program, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) enthusiastically welcomes Eriel Deranger, the Edmonton-based communications coordinator for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations.  Eriel discusses the Third Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk in Fort McMurray on August 4 and the impacts of Alberta tar sands operations on indigenous land and health.  We also talk about ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil’s recent decision to withdraw its permit applications to use Highway 12 and Montana rural roads for its tar sands equipment transports to Alberta.  Broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT live at 92.5 FM and online, the show also covers regional and continent-wide climate activism news.  Listen to an edited recording of the June 25 Climate Justice Forum at Radio4All and adopt WIRT as your KRFP DJ.

Montana Closes Book on Plan to Roll Mega-Loads Across U.S. 12

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The two-year battle between residents who live along U.S. Highway 12 and ExxonMobil’s mega-loads is formally over.

“We’re gratified that the industrialization of the beautiful Lochsa-Clearwater U.S. 12 corrdior has, for now, been stopped,” wrote Borg Hendrickson to Citydesk.  “And that the Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil threat to north-central Idaho’s outdoor recreation paradise and its single growing industry, tourism, has been removed.”

It was July 2010 when BW first told you about something called “mega-loads” – hundreds of giant rigs of oil equipment that ExxonMobil wanted to crawl across U.S. 12, before heading north to the oil-rich tar sands of Alberta, Canada.

Read more: Montana Closes Book on Plan to Roll Mega-Loads Across U.S. 12

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

Climate Justice Forum: Andrew Nikiforuk 6-18-12

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Within opening and closing regional and national climate activism news, the Monday, June 18, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) will feature a recorded Alternative Radio talk by Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Canada’s Mordor, previously broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow on Sunday, June 3.  Listen to KRFP every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT and adopt WIRT as your DJ.

Lewiston Port Approves Dock Expansion Spending

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Budget includes $2.9 million for container dock project

The biggest item in a budget Lewiston port commissioners passed Wednesday is a $2.9 million container dock expansion.

The action came just minutes after David Doeringsfeld, the port’s manager, described the port’s primary mission as job creation and retention, not getting barges up and down the river.

More than doubling the length of the 125-foot dock is consistent with that goal, Doeringfeld said after the meeting. Continue reading →

Megawoes on Megaloads

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A scene from the documentary film Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands

Idaho activists try to fire-up public over trafficking of tar-sands equipment

In the opening scenes of the documentary Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands, a helicopter glides over Alberta’s Athabasca River.  Wending through a boreal forest the size of Greece, the river and its attendant countryside is as rugged and beautiful as any in the world.  Then, over a rise, gargantuan smokestacks suddenly spear the sky, lording over a landscape that can only be described as apocalyptic: the single largest source of CO2 emissions in North America.

These are the oil sands, a geological formation in which vast quantities of bitumen lie just below the earth’s crust — the largest proven reserves of oil in the world.

More than 1,000 miles to the south, cities like Moscow and Coeur d’Alene, along the I-90 and U.S. 95 corridors, are front and center in the development’s debate.

Read more: Megawoes on Megaloads

(By Zach Hagadone, Boise Weekly)

Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop Action 6-9-12

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As the culminating action of the weekend direct action training sessions at the Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop, activists held up a giant, plastic mesh banner and projected anti-coal export and -fracking “bat signals” on the wall across the street from local LGBTQ hangout, Irv’s Bar, in downtown Spokane, Washington, on the Saturday celebratory evening of the Pride event on June 9.  Photos by Joan Medina and Helen Yost feature workshop trainers Kim Marks and Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky of Portland Rising Tide, Bill Moyer of Backbone Campaign, and participants Dave Bilsland, Terry Hill, Joan Medina, and Richard Schmidt of Occupy Spokane and Helen Yost of Wild Idaho Rising Tide.

Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Bill Moyer & Terry Hill 6-11-12

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The Monday, June 11, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) will cover a half-hour of regional and national climate activism news followed by a recording of coal export issue presentations offered by Missoula and Portland participants in the Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop last weekend, June 8 and 9, in Spokane.  Workshop trainer Bill Moyer of Backbone Campaign will join us by phone at 8:30 pm, to describe his organization’s artful and theatrical demonstrations and props.  Terry Hill of Occupy Spokane will talk at 9 pm about Spokane anti-megaload protests and the Lilac City’s occupy movement and clubhouse.  Listen to KRFP Radio Free Moscow online or at 92.5 FM between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT every Monday and adopt WIRT as your KRFP DJ!

Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop Introduction

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Participant Shannon Ross recorded the Northwest Resource Extraction Resistance Workshop Introduction in Spokane on Friday evening, June 8, when four Blues Skies Campaign colleagues and Portland Rising Tide trainer Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky presented slides and descriptions of coal export train issues from their respective Montana and Oregon perspectives.  Off-camera afterwards, Sierra Club organizer Walter Kloefkorn summarized Spokane and Washington coal train concerns and actions, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide activist Helen Yost talked and showed a video about Alberta tar sands operations and Idaho megaload resistance.