Monthly Archives: July 2023

2023 Remember the Water Kalispel Powwow Paddle

Featured

Posted on by
2

20220804_100322On Monday, July 31, through Friday, August 4, Kalispel and regional tribal members and the River Warrior Society are holding the annual Remember the Water Kalispel Powwow canoe journey [1, 2].  The paddle usually voyages from Lake Pend Oreille and Qpqpe (Sandpoint), Idaho, to the Qlispe (Kalispel) Village in Cusick, Washington, during the week before the yearly Kalispel Powwow and around the time of the Festival at Sandpoint music concerts.  In this cultural journey, families and friends are again paddling in traditional, dugout, wooden and sturgeon nose canoes, like their ancestors did for travel, fishing, and fun, over 50 miles through their home lands and waters among the tributaries, lake, and river of the Pend Oreille watershed.

While oil and gas pipeline expansions and fossil fuels pipeline-on-rails infrastructure and transportation impose and risk further harms to indigenous people and places locally and across Turtle Island (North America), Native neighbors continue to revive, uphold, and practice their ancient cultures and sustainable ways, through admirable endeavors like this canoe journey and culminating powwow.  Paddle organizers invite and encourage tribal allies and everyone to join in this joyful resurgence at various route locations, as they accommodate as many participants and observers as they can.

The canoe journey tentatively begins on Monday, July 31, with setting up camp at Sam Owen Campground off Hope Peninsula Road near Hope, Idaho, before paddling to the Bear Paw petroglyphs and back.  On Tuesday, August 1, participants plan to put in, paddle, and take out on the Pack River, and later stay at Sam Owen or the Best Western Edgewater Resort in Sandpoint.  Like during previous years, and as depicted in linked photos and articles about prior journeys, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists and area groups intend to welcome the paddlers at Sandpoint, during their arrival and/or departure on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, August 1 and 2 [2]. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Northwest Pipeline Expansion State Law Conflicts, People’s Hearing, & Approval Protests, TC Energy Virginia Gas Pipeline Explosion, Mountain Valley Pipeline Resistance 7-26-23

Posted on by
Reply

The Wednesday, July 26, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features speakers at the February 13 People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress, hosted by a Northwest coalition to gather testimony from community members threatened by Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline expansion.  We also share news and reflections on a TC Energy pipeline explosion and fire in Virginia, GTN Xpress contradictions with West Coast state emissions reduction laws, and actions in Portland and Washington, D.C. opposing July 27 GTN Xpress approval and protesting corroded Mountain Valley pipeline construction.  Broadcast for eleven 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. Continue reading →

Urgent July 26 & 27 GTN Xpress Pipeline Actions

Featured

Posted on by
2

Portland GTN Xpress Protest

BXE GTN Xpress Phone Email BlastWHAT THE FERC?!

On Thursday, July 20, a Northwest coalition of groups working to stop the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) Xpress pipeline expansion learned that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) listed GTN Xpress on its certificate agenda for its monthly meeting on Thursday, July 27.  In an apparent, massive, rubberstamp attempt to rush approvals before FERC’s August non-meeting break, the federal agency will likely permit a slew of fossil fuels projects including the GTN Xpress application of TC Energy, owner of the rupturing Keystone and rejected Keystone XL tar sands pipelines.  Along with thousands of Northwest citizens and dozens of organizations, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and West Coast governors, state attorneys general and legislators, and U.S. senators have opposed and organized against GTN Xpress for almost two years.

GTN Xpress is essentially a fossil fuels invasion of southern Idaho, thankfully challenged by neighboring states and Sandpoint and Spokane fossil fuels sacrifice zones that would receive only 13 percent or none of additional GTN gas.  More than half of the 150 million cubic feet per day of extra, unnecessary, fracked gas that TC Energy plans to push with three upgraded compressors through the 60-year-plus GTN pipeline would threaten the health and safety of north Idaho and eastern Washington pipeline corridor residents, for delivery to southern Idaho.  GTN and Intermountain Gas of Boise, who requested gas customer price hikes last winter, intend to essentially take over and reverse westward Williams Northwest pipeline flows, to bolster their profits at the 30-year expense of utility ratepayers increasingly favoring alternative energy.

WIRT is exploring the GTN Xpress record for information about probably missing Williams agreements and to produce second WIRT comments before July 27, welcoming other, also issue-underrepresented, Idaho and inland Northwest groups and residents to send your remarks to FERC.  Despite postponed railroad double-track construction impeding public transportation and requiring citizen monitoring at the Sandpoint Amtrak station, we will next coordinate regional protests in Athol (site of one of three compressor expansions), Sandpoint, Spokane, Moscow, and Boise, denouncing GTN’s proposal and FERC’s predictable decision, while supporting FERC re-hearing petitions filed by coalition partners and hopefully Northwest states, before the August 26 challenge deadline.  We appreciate your interest in GTN Xpress resistance and your input toward comments and demonstrations that demand FERC justice from the ongoing dangers and compounded risks of GTN Xpress expansion, leaks, and resulting climate disasters.

ANOTHER TC ENERGY PIPELINE RUPTURE

On July 25, the TC Energy-owned Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline catastrophically failed, causing a large explosion and fire and temporarily closing Interstate 81 in rural Shenandoah County, Virginia, approximately 80 miles west of Washington, D.C. [1, 2].  Thankfully, the incident neither injured nor killed anyone, and its causes and impacts remain unknown.  But like the December 2022 rupture and 600,000-gallon spill from TC Energy’s Keystone tar sands pipeline into a Kansas stream only weeks after FERC release of the GTN Xpress final environmental impact statement (EIS), the Virginia disaster demonstrates the terrible safety record of TC Energy and timely illustrates the major risks posed by TC Energy’s GTN Xpress, less than 48 hours before FERC could approve this expansion scheme [3].  The proposal would increase flammable, climate-wrecking, methane gas flows through a six-decade-old pipeline among fire-prone rural lands and urban residential areas in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.  As multiple wildfires burn and blanket the Northwest with smoke, a pipeline accident like the one that just occurred in Shenandoah County could devastate nearby communities. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: NW Pipeline Expansion & First Nation Rights Hearings, Boise Emissions Reductions, SW Heat Dome, Railroad Hazmat Info, Smaller Crews, & BC Fire Aftermath 7-19-23

Posted on by
Reply

The Wednesday, July 19, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features some lead speakers at the February 13 People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress, hosted by a Northwest coalition to gather testimony from community members threatened by Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline expansion.  We also share news, interviews, and reflections on Boise, Idaho, goals for reduced carbon emissions, a weeks-long, southern U.S., climate crisis heat dome, a Union Pacific Railroad push for one-person crews with support trucks, a proposed federal rule requiring hazmat information provision to fire and first responders, delayed town reconstruction, lawsuits, and unreleased reports on a suspected train-caused, British Columbia wildfire, and Canadian government failure to respond to First Nation claims of human rights violations.  Broadcast for eleven 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. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Idaho Highway 95 Construction, Oil Train Actions, & Railroad Pollution & Amtrak Disruption, Halted Mountain Valley Pipeline, Hottest Temperatures, 1960s Climate Change Denial 7-12-23

Posted on by
Reply

The Wednesday, July 12, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news, music, and reflections on current and contested Highway 95 construction on Paradise Ridge, recent Stop Oil Trains actions and workshop information, and possible BNSF railroad expansion release of lead into Lake Pend Oreille and obstruction of Amtrak passenger train stops in north Idaho, protests and an appeals court order temporarily halting Mountain Valley pipeline installation, historically highest global temperatures in early July, and decades of disinformation and denial of climate scientists’ warnings by oil and gas companies and the U.S. government.  Broadcast for eleven 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. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: U.S. Counterinsurgency, Idaho Train Protests, Killed Geese, & Nuclear Reactor Waste, Montana Rail Bridge Wreck, Oregon Pipeline Opposition, Anti-Climate Trade Deals 7-5-23

Posted on by
Reply

The Wednesday, July 5, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news, music, and reflections on the July full supermoon, indigenous resistance, black revolts, and U.S. government counterinsurgency starting with the Declaration of Independence, federal agency killing of park-dwelling Canada geese before July 4 events and training and actions against oil trains and infrastructure in north Idaho, a terminated regional railroad lease, bridge collapse, and asphalt binder spill from a Yellowstone River derailment in Montana, central Oregon opposition to Northwest gas pipeline expansion, coalition resistance to international trade agreement attacks on climate policies, and greater radioactive waste generated by Idaho-tested small modular reactors than by traditional nuclear plants.  Broadcast for eleven 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. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: U.S. Counterinsurgency, Idaho Train Protests, Killed Geese, & Nuclear Reactor Waste, Montana Rail Bridge Wreck, Oregon Pipeline Opposition, Anti-Climate Trade Deals 7-5-23

Posted on by
Reply

The Wednesday, July 5, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news, music, and reflections on the July full supermoon, indigenous resistance, black revolts, and U.S. government counterinsurgency starting with the Declaration of Independence, federal agency killing of park-dwelling Canada geese before July 4 events and training and actions against oil trains and infrastructure in north Idaho, a terminated regional railroad lease, bridge collapse, and asphalt binder spill from a Yellowstone River derailment in Montana, central Oregon opposition to Northwest gas pipeline expansion, coalition resistance to international trade agreement attacks on climate policies, and greater radioactive waste generated by Idaho-tested small modular reactors than by traditional nuclear plants.  Broadcast for eleven 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. Continue reading →

Stop Oil Trains 2023

Featured

Posted on by
3

Stop Oil Trains 2023 FlyerJuly 7-9 annual actions remember the Lac-Mégantic, Mosier, & Custer disasters

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allied activists invite everyone to participate in tenth annual, Stop Oil Trains direct actions and a training workshop in north Idaho on Friday, July 7, through Sunday, July 9.  Five events commemorate the 47 lives lost and downtowns devastated by oil train derailments, spills, explosions, and fires in the lakeside village of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, on July 6, 2013, the Columbia River Gorge town of Mosier, Oregon, on June 3, 2016, and the northwestern hamlet of Custer, Washington, on December 22, 2020.  These demonstrations also support pipeline-on-rails resistance across the Northwest and in trackside and pipeline corridor communities and environments threatened and polluted by dangerous oil and gas infrastructure and transportation.

Spotlight Message Projection

Friday & Saturday, July 7 & 8, 10 pm, Downtown Sandpoint

As the sun sets, WIRT and allied organizers will provide brief, light projection displays of social and climate justice messages on buildings in downtown Sandpoint, Idaho.  Meet after 10 pm on Friday and Saturday, July 7 and 8, wherever you see this light show, for discussions among activists and curious passersby, about Northwest oil train and terminal and gas pipeline expansion issues.

Resistance Outreach

Saturday, July 8, 9 am to 1 pm, near Farmin Park, Sandpoint

Gather with volunteer activists between 9 am and 1 pm on Saturday, July 8, at the WIRT outreach table at the corner of Fourth and Oak Streets near Farmin Park, during the Farmers Market at Sandpoint, Idaho.  We plan to talk with residents and visitors of the one-mile-wide, north Idaho “bomb train blast zone,” offer updates on Northwest oil and coal trains and infrastructure and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway’s doubled tracks and three new communication towers and second railroad bridges, and provide #No2ndBridge and other petitions, letters, flyers, and brochures [1-5].

Oil Trains Protest

Saturday, July 8, 2 pm, Farmin to City Beach Parks, Sandpoint

At 2 pm on Saturday, July 8, bring your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, protest signs, and creative spirit, to show community opposition to dangerous crude oil conduits to refineries and export facilities: Oil trains and railroad infrastructure, like the present and proposed, BNSF rail bridges in and near Sandpoint.  Starting from the Farmin Park clock, we will walk with banners and signs objecting to the Northwest pipeline-on-rails and its expansion, through downtown Sandpoint to City Beach Park.  At these public march origin and destination places, we will share reflections and stories about the isolated vulnerability of rural, rail corridor communities to oil and hazardous materials derailment catastrophes and industry invasions of local environments and economies.

Train Watch Workshop

Sunday, July 9, 5 pm, Gardenia Center, Sandpoint

For the annual training sessions on regional oil and tar sands trainspotting, David Perk of PNW Oil Train Watch will present methods for trackside observing, documenting, and reporting Northwest fossil fuels train traffic with photos, videos, and social media.  He will discuss rail routes from the plains to the coast, train descriptors, refinery and receiving facilities, rail system operations, stopovers, and transit times, and train watch motivations and resources.  Please RSVP to WIRT at wild.idaho.rising.tide2@gmail.com, for required registration to join this teleconferenced conversation with David generously sharing images, skills, and insights, beginning at 5 pm on Sunday, July 9, via Zoom and at the Gardenia Center, 400 Church Street in Sandpoint, Idaho.  WIRT needs more train monitors along the tracks of the north Idaho, fossil fuels frontline, to document all westbound, unit trains of cars hauling Powder River Basin coal, Bakken crude oil, and Canadian tar sands.

Issue Background Continue reading →