Over the last four years, a majority of Idaho senators, representatives, and agency staff members has succumbed to the mercenary ambitions of the oil and natural gas industry and the state of Idaho. They have passed and misapplied state laws, rules, and regulations, allowing hydraulic fracturing (“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 degrade geologic stability and air sheds, granting corporate hegemony over local jurisdictions that undermines democratic oversight of oil and gas facilities, approving gas wells and processing plants that spew volatile toxins, traffic, and noise, and consenting to drilling on state lands and near or under rivers, wetlands, and wildlife refuges that sustain water resources, agriculture, and native species [1, 2].  Subsequently, they have effectively compromised our air and water quality, jeopardized our health, property, and livelihoods, dismissed local protective ordinances, threatened agricultural communities, endangered tourism revenue, and risked the state’s lands, waters, and economy.

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, finances, and self-governance. In the wake of increasingly erratic weather, horrific Colorado gasland floods, continent-wide oil and gas spills and explosions, and indigenous and settler blockades of fossil fuel equipment and product supply roads and rails, 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 during summer 2013, potentially affecting wild, downstream Snake River canyons [3-6].

In response to state and local policy makers and administrators, in solidarity with harmed communities, and in conjunction with the Global Frackdown worldwide day of action on Saturday, October 11, concerned citizens and climate justice activists from across Idaho are converging to stage more public demonstrations, calling for a ban on looming first fracking in Idaho and around the Earth [7, 8]. As we circulate a petition to state officials and consider a ballot measure, to ban all toxic oil and gas practices statewide, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), Idaho Residents against Gas Extraction (IRAGE), Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition (PESC), and other groups and individuals are coordinating a Global Frackdown Idaho march and rally in Boise and gathering in Moscow, to publicly oppose fracking.

Join protesters at 11 am MDT on Saturday, October 11, near the Boise Farmers Market at Eleventh and Front Streets, to march by the Capital City Public Market, toward a rally at the Idaho Capitol on Jefferson Street. Gather at 10 am PDT at the PESC/WIRT outreach table in the Moscow Farmers Market on Friendship Square, to sign the Idaho anti-fracking/waste injection well petition and take supportive photos.  At both events, demand of Idaho officials a future powered by clean, renewable energy, not by dirty, polluting fossil fuels that poison people and the planet.  Bring your family, friends, and neighbors and protest signs, banners, and chants, and 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 [9, 10].  PESC can provide descriptions of the Moscow event at epfuerst@frontier.com [11].  Profusely print and post the color, letter-sized Global Frackdown Idaho Flyer, hand distribute the Global Frackdown Idaho Quarter Flyer, both available on the WIRT website, and do not miss your opportunity to participate in this event!  Thanks!

[1] Fracking Campaign (Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

[2] Idaho Fracking (Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

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

[4] No Thanks No Giving: Mi’kmaq Call for Actions October 18 #Indigenize (October 12, 2013 Reclaim Turtle Island)

[5] WIRT Newsletter: September Idaho Gasland News (September 21, 2014 Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

[6] WIRT Newsletter: September 26 to October 30 Events (September 26, 2014 Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

[7] Global Frackdown on the Palouse (Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition)

[8] Global Frackdown (Food and Water Watch)

[9] Wild Idaho Rising Tide (Wild Idaho Rising Tide)

[10] Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction (Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction)

[11] Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition (Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition)