Monthly Archives: December 2022

Climate Justice Forum: Audrey Leonard on Northwest Pipeline Opposition, Idaho Highway & Rail Bridge Expansion & Resistance, Nevada Lithium Mine Damages, Hearing, & Protest 12-28-22

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The Wednesday, December 28, 2022, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features Columbia Riverkeeper attorney Audrey Leonard talking about TC Energy’s proposed GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion and Northwest opposition actions and opportunities.  We also share news, music, and reflections on litigation and crowdfunding to protect Palouse Prairie wetlands from rerouted Idaho highway construction paused for winter, railroad completion of a second north Idaho lake bridge, and an upcoming federal court hearing and indigenous ceremony denouncing sacred site damages at a proposed Nevada lithium mine site.  Broadcast for ten years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Winter Solstice, New Idaho Rail Bridge & Spill Training, Suppressed Rail Workers Strike, Coal Train Lawsuit, COP27 Greenwash, Northwest Pipeline Support & Opposition 12-21-22

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The Wednesday, December 21, 2022, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features news, songs, and reflections on Winter Solstice, a Minnesota talk about Idaho campaigns against tar sands megaloads and oil and gas development, a second Idaho lake bridge opening and first responders train spill training, a rail workers strike on unresolved quality-of-life concerns suppressed by Congress and fossil fuels companies, a Navajo Northwest coal company lawsuit over reduced BNSF Railway shipments, indigenous and allied actions against the Coastal GasLink pipeline and United Nations COP27 greenwashing, an Idaho Congressional and governor letter supporting Northwest gas pipeline expansion written by pipeline company TC Energy, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon senators comments against the same GTN Xpress project.  Broadcast for ten years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Audrey Leonard on Northwest Gas Pipeline Expansion, Largest Keystone Tar Sands Flows & Kansas Spill, Idaho Riverside Gas Well Hearing & Utah Oil Trains Solidarity Protest 12-14-22

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The Wednesday, December 14, 2022, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features Columbia Riverkeeper attorney Audrey Leonard talking about the dangers of TC Energy’s proposed GTN Xpress gas pipeline expansion and Northwest opposition actions and opportunities.  We also share news, interviews, and reflections on the largest TC Energy Keystone tar sands pipeline spill in Kansas and increased flows causing larger leaks, a southern Idaho federal court hearing on a permitted riverside gas well, and a north Idaho solidarity action protesting new Uinta Basin Railway and ongoing Lake Pend Oreille oil trains and fossil fuels infrastructure.  Broadcast for ten years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Uinta Basin Railway Public Hearing & Upcoming Solidarity Protests of Proposed Utah Oil Trains & Idaho Second Lake Rail Bridge Completion 12-7-22

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The Wednesday, December 7, 2022, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features a December 2020 public hearing hosted by the federal Surface Transportation Board, for commenters concerned about proposed Uinta Basin Railway construction and its oil trains and impacts in Utah and beyond.  We also share news, music, and reflections on an upcoming day of solidarity actions protesting this new railroad and the completion of a second fossil fuels pipeline-on-rails bridge over Idaho’s largest, deepest lake.  Broadcast for ten years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

Stop Uinta Basin Railway Solidarity Action

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Stop Uinta Basin Railway Solidarity Action FlyerWild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and climate activists throughout the West are organizing solidarity protests of oil trains and infrastructure, for a day of action against the Uinta Basin Railway (UBR), supporting campaigns against the Utah oil-by-rail scheme and in north Idaho, denouncing completion of BNSF Railway’s second, almost mile-long, rail bridge across the state’s largest, deepest lake: mountainous Lake Pend Oreille.  Utah and Colorado comrades are calling for community-led actions on Saturday, December 10, 2022, to show that concerned citizens object to the devastating UBR project, and to pressure federal lawmakers, state representatives, and local governments to prevent building of the Uinta Basin Railway.  They ask everyone to explore the #StopUintaBasinRailway action toolkit with information about the UBR and action coordination, sign a letter to Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack, demanding that he revoke the U.S. Forest Service permit for the railway, participate in actions happening in a dozen locations, register to join a remote phone bank on Tuesday, December 13, at 10 am Pacific time, and tell UBR opponents that you are interested in assisting this campaign [1-2].

To involve local communities across the United States in advocating against UBR permits and their potential disasters for climate and environmental justice, Colorado groups held a public, online, action training on November 10 [3].  Organizers with years of experience shared ideas about planning effective actions and helped participants learn about the UBR oil trains that would threaten lives and livelihoods along rail routes from Utah to Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana, and around the southern Northwest, Union Pacific Railroad (UP) line across southern Idaho and eastern Oregon to western Washington.

Most of WIRT and allied resistance to behemoth oil and coal train shipments has successfully focused on dozens of BNSF Railway fossil fuels pipeline-on-rails routes from the Great Plains to the West Coast.  We rarely demonstrate against Union Pacific, except while decrying its few weekly, Northwest, tar sands trains and myriad derailments, including the Mosier, Oregon, oil train spill and fire in June 2016.  Based on our experiences of BNSF’s ongoing malfeasance, WIRT encouraged and sent extensive comments on the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) in 2021, opposing the Uinta Basin Railway, and talked about the issue during recent years on our weekly, Climate Justice Forum, radio program [4].  WIRT remains steadfast in our thorough monitoring, reporting, and protesting of daily, BNSF, Bakken crude oil trains across north Idaho, as we gratefully accept dedicated co-workers’ invitations to alert our regional neighbors to the impending dangers and direct action opportunities of Utah oil transport across the Northwest.

Uinta Basin & BNSF Railways Protest

As part of countless demonstrations against the fossil fuel causes of the climate crisis and their insidious pollution, risks, and impacts on north Idaho and Northwest rail line communities, we plan to protest both the proposed Uinta Basin Railway oil trains and tracks and the BNSF Railway expansion of its industrial infrastructure into Lake Pend Oreille and Sandpoint, with three second rail bridges and two miles of doubled main line.  Please dress for warmth and dryness, bring your signs and banners, voices and drums, friends and family, and joy and courage, and join WIRT and inland Northwest activists for the Stop Uinta Basin Railway Solidarity Action at 12 noon on Saturday, December 10, at the Serenity Lee trailhead near the East Superior Street and Highway 95 intersection and/or on the public, pedestrian, and bike path to Dog Beach Park in Sandpoint, Idaho.  WIRT will provide on-site action advice and chants and pizza for appreciated participants after the gathering.  Respond in advance with your questions and suggestions, share this event information and flyer among your associates and contacts, and see previous and upcoming, website- and facebook-posted, WIRT newsletters and alerts, for further updates on these issues.

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