Monthly Archives: September 2012

New Plymouth Natural Gas Sites 9-22-12

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Between our mid-day and evening Global Frackdown! in Boise actions at the Idaho Capitol, Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction (IRAGE) led Occupy Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tide fractivists on a tour of Hamilton Field natural gas wells and their environs around New Plymouth in Payette County. Within a landscape full of floodplains, wetlands, irrigation canals, and streams, we noticed gravel berms in the Payette River and uncovered well heads. All four of the already drilled (but not fracked) gas wells that we visited were out of their usually locked (for safety and security) protective yellow metal cages.

The Payette River flowing downstream near a bridge

Gravel berms from dredging or like those around natural gas wells in the middle of the Payette River, noticed after the state of Idaho leased tracts around and under the river for natural gas exploration and production

The second of four observed natural gas wells mysteriously outside their protective yellow cages without drilling rigs

The second observed natural gas well in relation to human size, outside and in front of its yellow cage

The second observed, drilled but not fracked natural gas well head outside its usually locked yellow metal cage (Alma Hasse photo)

Railroad tracks and wetlands across the road from the second observed natural gas well

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Climate Justice Forum: Daniel Rirdan 10-1-12

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The Monday, October 1, Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), welcomes global strategist and international lecturer Daniel Rirdan, whose interest in world ecology challenges and solutions led him to recently write The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse.  He describes his ambitious but practical interdisciplinary plan for radically changing our ways, to save ecosystems and the human-built world from climate change.  Broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT live at 92.5 FM and online, and later aired on KMEC in Ukiah, California, the show also covers continent-wide dirty energy developments and resistance to fossil fuel extraction and transportation projects.  Peruse Daniel’s CleanTechnica article and video, Consider a Radical Stand to Avert Global Warming – And More, his biography and media release, and his video compilation of excerpts from his presentations.  Listen to an edited recording of the October 1 Climate Justice Forum posted in Radio4All and adopt WIRT as your KRFP DJ!

Climate Justice Forum: Al Poplawsky & Tim Hatten 9-24-12

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On the Monday, September 24, 2012, Climate Justice Forum radio program, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) welcomes Al Poplawsky of the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club (PGSC) and Tim Hatten, Palouse Prairie Foundation and PGSC board member.  Both local conservationists discuss previous and ongoing resistance to expansion and relocation of Highway 95 south of Moscow, Idaho, to lessen traffic accidents and possibly accommodate an industrial corridor to the Alberta tar sands.  Broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT live at 92.5 FM and online, and later aired on KMEC in Ukiah, California, the show also covers continent-wide dirty energy developments and protests of tar sands, coal, and natural gas extraction and transportation projects.  Listen to an edited recording of the September 24 Climate Justice Forum posted in Radio4All and adopt WIRT as your KRFP DJ.

Global Frackdown! in Boise 9-22-12

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On a Saturday autumnal equinox, over three dozen fracking protesters from Idaho, Oregon, and Washington participated in the Global Frackdown! in Boise on the Idaho Capitol steps. In conjunction with similar demonstrations in 200 places around the world, the mid-day rally and evening message projection drew leadership and support from Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, United Vision for Idaho, Occupy Spokane, Occupy Boise, the Ontario Autonomous American Indian Chapter, GMO Free Idaho, and concerned citizens of the region. Organizers, speakers, and protesters attracted local television news coverage as they exposed the potential risks of looming hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and waste ejection wells in Idaho, called for stronger government oversight, and launched an informal statewide petition requesting a ban of these processes that contaminate water, air, and land.

Alma Hasse of Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction addresses protesters near an unfurled list of known carcinogenic chemicals in fracking fluids.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide activists display the group banner in protest of impending fracking in Idaho.

Terry Hill of Occupy Spokane composes a photo of Global Frackdown! in Boise participants.

Alma Hasse of Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction outlines the dangers of fracking, while concerned citizens converge with their protest signs and banners.

The Idaho fortress of political inertia towers over citizens demanding a reliably healthy environment and future without fracking.

Over three dozen fracking protesters from across the region participated in the demonstration that drew support from Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, United Vision for Idaho, Occupy Spokane, Occupy Boise, the Ontario Autonomous American Indian Chapter, GMO Free Idaho, and concerned citizens and children.

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Anti-Fracking Rally Kicks Off on the Steps of the Idaho State Capitol

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The Global Frackdown! in Boise appeared on the local Saturday evening, September 22, ABC/FOX television news.  Concurrently with anti-fracking demonstrations in 150 worldwide locations, concerned organizers, speakers, and protesters from Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, United Vision for Idaho, Occupy Spokane, Occupy Boise, the Ontario Autonomous American Indian Chapter, and GMO Free Idaho rallied on the downtown Capitol steps to launch and support a statewide ban of hydraulic fracturing and waste ejection wells and to expand awareness and expose the potential risks of these processes and attendant chemicals that could contaminate water, air, and environments.  View the KIVI Channel 6 Idaho On Your Side newscast Anti-Fracking Rally Kicks Off on the Steps of the Idaho State Capitol.

(By Jennifer Auh, KIVI TV Boise)

Climate Justice Forum: Alma Hasse & Tina Fisher 9-17-12

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On the Monday, September 17, 2012, Climate Justice Forum radio program, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) again welcomes Alma Hasse and Tina Fisher of Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction, talking about the Global Frackdown! demonstration in Boise on Saturday, September 22, citizen concerns about impending natural gas fracking, injection wells, and associated facilities, and upcoming initiatives to ban these toxic practices.  Broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT live at 92.5 FM and online, and later aired on KMEC in Ukiah, California, the show also covers continent-wide dirty energy developments and climate activism news.  Listen to an edited recording of the September 17 Climate Justice Forum posted in Radio4All and adopt WIRT as your KRFP DJ.

Global Frackdown! in Boise

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During the 2012 Idaho legislative session, a majority of our state senators and representatives succumbed to the mercenary ambitions of the oil and natural gas industry and passed state laws and regulations allowing hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and subsequent waste injection wells accommodating oil and gas exploration, production, and transportation in the state.  Despite sustained outcry from thousands of citizens and diligent input from scientists, elected officials, and conservation organizations, our delegates have effectively compromised our drinking water, jeopardized our health, undermined local protective ordinances, threatened agricultural communities, endangered tourism revenue, and risked the state’s lands and economy.

In response to our policy makers and in conjunction with the Global Frackdown! on Saturday, September 22, concerned citizens and climate justice activists from across Idaho are converging to stage the first public demonstration against looming initial fracking in Idaho.  As we craft a ballot measure to ban all toxic oil and gas practices statewide, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, Idaho Residents against Gas Extraction (IRAGE), and other groups and individuals are launching a petition and rally on the Jefferson Street steps of the Idaho Capitol in Boise (700 West Jefferson Street).  Join us between 11 am and 12:30 pm with your family and friends and protest signs, banners, and chants.  Contact Wild Idaho Rising Tide at 208-301-8039 or Idaho Residents against Gas Extraction at 208-695-1556 for information about carpools embarking from northern and southern Idaho respectively.  (We are departing the south lot of Eastside Marketplace in Moscow at 5 pm on Friday, September 21, and returning on Saturday evening.)

Idahoans and neighbors, please profusely print and post this letter-sized, color Global Frackdown in Boise Flyer, hand distribute this Global Frackdown in Boise Quarter Flyer, and do not miss this historic event!  Thanks!

Cross-posted in the Earth First! Newswire: Global Frackdown! in Boise, Idaho

Climate Justice Forum: Pat Rathmann 9-10-12

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On the Monday, September 10, Climate Justice Forum radio program, Wild Idaho Rising Tide welcomes Pat Rathmann of the Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, discussing her participation and reflections on the third annual Tar Sands Healing Walk hosted by First Nations near Fort McMurray, Alberta, on August 4.  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 continent-wide dirty energy developments and resistance to tar sands pipeline spills in Alberta, Keystone XL pipeline construction in Texas, solar panel farms and  hydraulic fracturing on Western public lands, and oil drilling in Arctic waters.

Butch Tells Whoppers

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Linwood Laughy, Kooskia

The Lewiston Tribune 9/4/12

Governor C.L. (Butch) Otter tells whoppers.  In March 2011, he told a congressional committee that more folks visit the Coeur d’Alene golf course floating green than the Frank Church Wilderness.  Was he unaware that more than 35,000 visitors recreated in the Frank in 2010?

A year earlier, contrary to 50 years of Federal Highway Administration research, Otter repeatedly claimed that a megaload weighing 600,000 pounds with multiple axle weights exceeding 35,000 pounds would cause no more highway damage than a one-ton pickup.

Otter added another whopper at a recent event doling out $1.3 million in taxpayer money for a dock extension at the Port of Lewiston, where container shipments have declined 75 percent during 10 years.  At the invitation-only, police-guarded gathering, Otter was quoted saying, “Next to throwing, water is the cheapest way to move goods.” Continue reading →