Dirty Energy Resisting Comrades,

Join us in January 11 through 20 Coal Export Resistance Solidarity Actions in Missoula, Moscow, Pullman, Sandpoint, Spokane, and across the Northwest!  Please instigate protests in your area, encourage similar revolt among your friends by regionally sharing these links, post your action announcements, photos, and reports at the facebook event, and send your multi-media demonstration results to the regulatory agencies and coal corporations.  Northwesterners do not want to study potential coal export impacts; we want to stop them before they start!

STOP COAL EXPORTS: Join Solidarity Actions (WIRT and allies in January 9 EcoWatch!)

Coal Export Resistance Solidarity Actions

Coal Export Resistance Solidarity Actions in Missoula

Blue Skies Campaign invites Montanans and regional allies to a solidarity protest: “Missoulians, please come to our action in Missoula, Montana, on January 12.  We will meet for the action at 12:00 pm, at the intersection of Railroad Street West and Owen Street (on the south side of the railroad tracks, near the pedestrian crossing).  From there, we will choose a spot for a banner drop.  Show up at noon to help out and feel free to bring signs!”

Pullman Anti-Coal Export Solidarity Action

Friday, January 11, 7 pm to 8 pm, meet at the Washington State University Visitor Center (405 NE Stadium Way, near the corner of NW Davis Way and North Grand Avenue in Pullman, Washington)

Another solidarity action has emerged in eastern Washington!  Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and Pullman community activists will display the coal export opposing people’s train of cardboard “rail cars” near the train tracks on North Grand Avenue on Friday evening.  Participants will motivate and mobilize more citizen input toward public comment and demonstration opportunities by circulating Northwest coal issue information and connections.

Credo/WIRT Anti-Fracking Collaboration

An anti-fracking campaign manager with the progressive telephone service provider Credo contacted WIRT over the holidays, offering us assistance and opportunities to cooperatively mobilize Credo’s three million members to take action against fracking in Idaho communities by signing petitions, submitting public comments, making phone calls, attending public hearings, and participating in anti-fracking events.  We have been discussing strategies and possible tactics by phone and linking Credo with our southern Idaho colleagues, Alma Hasse and Tina Fisher of fracking ground-zero Payette County.  Together, we have been providing insights informing a potential online Credo petition calling for an outright ban on fracking or a moratorium pending further research, targeting Idaho legislators and/or state agency regulators and/or the elected officials of the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.  Because the 2013 Idaho legislative session will negotiate some of the last legal hurdles for oil and gas companies recently completing seismic testing and gas field exploration, before they effectively frack the shallow groundwater that supports one of Idaho’s richest agricultural regions, we are also suggesting 2013 bill possibilities while seeking legislator support of anti-fracking measures.  When these good-faith endeavors predictably fail, we will utilize direct actions, local ordinances and lawsuits, and community bills of rights and/or a statewide ballot initiative to push back.  We appreciate working with Credo to stop first fracking in Idaho before it starts.  Please see the following three examples of statewide online petitions that Credo has sent by email to its members in other locations.

Tell Governor Brown: Ban Fracking Now.

Tell Governor Scott: Don’t Frack Florida.

Tell the Illinois General Assembly: Ban Fracking Now. Continue reading →

Climate action leaders and friends,

Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition Meetings

Everyone concerned about the U.S. Highway 95 realignment from Thorncreek Road to Moscow, proposed by the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), is welcome to join other area citizens on Tuesday evening at the Friends of the Clearwater office at 116 East Third Street, Room 211, on the second floor above the Shirt Shack near Sisters’ Brew.  Call 208-882-9755 for directions, if necessary.  At 5:00 pm, folks interested in re-establishing and playing a role in the Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC) will identify potential board members and review and create a mission statement.  Starting at 6:00 pm, participants will shift to a strategizing and knowledge-sharing session.  The currently informal group is also arranging a Saturday, January 19, public forum in the 1912 Center Great Room (412 East Third Street in Moscow), possibly followed by a field trip to locations along the proposed eastern, E-2, alignment described in the ITD draft environmental impact statement for the project.  Please also attend the ITD public hearing between 2 and 8:30 pm on Wednesday, January 23, at the Best Western University Inn, 1516 Pullman Road Moscow.  Unless a deadline extension soon requested by PRDC ensues, public comments are due on February 23.  See the Highway 95 Re-Route category on the Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) website for further, continuously updated issue information.

NORTHWEST COAL EXPORT ACTIONS

Tongue River Railroad Comments

Keep standing up and voicing your opposition to Big Coal!  To enable Arch Coal to strip-mine Powder River Basin coal, transport it by trains through Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, export it to Asia from proposed Columbia River and West Coast ports, and ultimately profit at Northwesterners’ expense, the Tongue River Railroad Company recently filed a new application with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board for a permit to build a coal-hauling rail line through the quiet, pristine Tongue River valley in southeastern Montana.  This long-looming project would divide the valley and thus increase flooding potential, disrupt wildlife movements, jeopardize farm and ranch operations, and devalue property.  It underscores the necessity of a region-wide, mine-to-port programmatic environmental impact analysis of prospective coal export facilities.  Please see the website of the Northern Plains Resource Council, who bused more than 50 Montanans to scoping hearings in Washington, and send your emailed comments to the Surface Transportation Board before the Friday, January 11, deadline. Continue reading →