During the last two Idaho legislative sessions, a majority of our state senators and representatives succumbed to the mercenary ambitions of the oil and natural gas industry and the state of Idaho.  They passed state laws, rules, and regulations allowing hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” that pollutes surface and ground water, sanctioning associated waste injection wells that leak or re-use water wells, permitting seismic testing and gas flaring that jeopardize geologic stability and air quality, granting corporate hegemony over local jurisdictions that undermines democratic oversight of oil and gas facilities, and consenting to drilling on state lands and near or under rivers, wetlands, and wildlife refuges that sustain drinking water, agriculture, and native species [1, 2].

Despite ongoing outcry from thousands of citizens and diligent input from scientists, attorneys, elected officials, and conservation organizations, our delegates have negligently accommodated oil and gas exploration, production, and transportation in Idaho, especially where the state owns the subsurface mineral rights, at the likely expense of their constituents’ health, safety, livelihoods, and self-governance.  In the wake of increasingly erratic weather and horrific oil and gas spills in the flooded South Platte River bottomlands of Colorado, honest, hard-working Idahoans dread the impacts of similar probable scenarios on their families and communities, homes and businesses, and resources and recreation in the Payette River floodplains, where drilling resumed this summer, and in the wild, downstream Snake River canyons [3, 4].

In response to our state policy makers, in solidarity with the Mi’kmaq Warrior Society, who have blockaded a road and fracking equipment compound in New Brunswick since September 28, and in conjunction with the Global Frackdown 2 worldwide day of action on Saturday, October 19, concerned citizens and climate activists from across Idaho are converging to stage another public demonstration calling for a ban on looming first fracking in Idaho and around the Earth [5, 6].  As we initiate a Credo Action petition to our state representatives and senators, urging them to ban all toxic oil and gas practices statewide, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction (IRAGE), and other groups and individuals are coordinating an Idaho Global Frackdown 2 march and rally in Boise, Idaho, to publicly oppose fracking.

Join protesters at 11 am on Saturday, October 19, near the Boise Farmers Market at Eleventh and Front Streets, to march by the Capital City Public Market, toward the Idaho Capitol on Jefferson Street.  Demand a future powered by clean, renewable energy, not by dirty, polluting fossil fuels that poison people and the planet.  Bring your protest signs, banners, and chants and your family, friends, and neighbors to express your outrage over government complicity with industrial harms to shared air, water, climate, and community.  For information about carpools embarking from northern and southern Idaho respectively, contact WIRT at 208-301-8039 or wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or reach IRAGE at 208-695-1556 or idahocare@yahoo.com [7, 8].  Profusely print and post the color, letter-sized Idaho Global Frackdown 2 Flyer, and do not miss your opportunity to participate in this historic event!  Thanks!

[1] Wild Idaho Rising Tide, Fracking Campaign

[2] Wild Idaho Rising Tide, Idaho Fracking

[3] Cable News Network, E. Coli, Oil Spills, and Airlifts: Fallout from Colorado Flooding Continues, September 20, 2013

[4] Wild Idaho Rising Tide, WIRT Newsletter: Idaho Drilling/Fracking Updates, Risks, & Resistance News, August 19, 2013

[5] Reclaim Turtle Island, No Thanks No Giving: Mi’kmaq Call for Actions October 18 #Indigenize

[6] Food and Water Watch, Global Frackdown 2

[7] Facebook, Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[8] Facebook, Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction