Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) confronts the root causes of climate change, water degradation, and air pollution, by asserting direct actions and promoting locally organized solutions, in solidarity with frontline communities of resistance and an international, volunteer, grassroots network of activists.
The WIRT collective is part of an international, grassroots network of groups and individuals who take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change and to promote local, community-based solutions to the climate crisis.
Two people were arrested in Moscow, Idaho, late Sunday night after they attempted to stop the passage of megaload trucks carrying oil company equipment to the Canadian tar sands. Activists said the two were arrested after they linked arms and sat down in the street in an attempt to block the trucks. Sunday’s action was one of dozens spurred by the passage through Moscow of shipments carrying oil-related equipment to the tar sands.
(Link provided by Prairie Thunder Wolfe: “Holy Shit!!! Wild Idaho Rising Tide finally made Democracy Now!!!!! We have been waiting for sooooo long for DN! to recognize our struggles against the megaloads! Way to go, WIRT!”)
LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — The final two oversized loads of oil field equipment at the Port of Lewiston were set to be shipped out 18 months after the first massive Korean-built equipment arrived by barge via the Columbia and Snake rivers.
Imperial Oil moved three loads on Sunday and planned to move two more late Tuesday, weather permitting, company spokesman Pius Rolheiser said.
“There will still be some additional loads coming out of the port, but they’ll be legal loads on conventional trailers as opposed to these over-legal loads on hydraulic trailers,” Rolheiser told the Missoulian.
Rolheiser estimated the company has 100 loads remaining at the Port of Pasco in Washington, which also will travel Interstates 90 and 15 through Montana.
Moscow Police arrested two Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil protesters for refusing to leave the roadway at Washington and Fourth streets as a convoy of three shipments of refinery modules attempted to pass through the city.
Moscow Police Chief David Duke said James Prall, 67, and Cass Davis, 47, both of Moscow, were arrested after they were removed a second time from the road around 11 p.m. They were first removed and warned about obstructing the travel of three shipments, but then returned to the roadway where they sat down and linked arms, he said, adding two women were also removed from the roadway. They did not return, however, and so they were not arrested. Continue reading →
A major chapter in the megaload saga in the Northern Rockies is drawing to a close.
Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil said Monday it’ll start the final two over-legal loads remaining at the Port of Lewiston in Idaho on the road to the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta on Tuesday night, weather permitting.
The first of 34 immense loads arrived at Lewiston by barge via the Columbia and Snake rivers in the fall of 2010, but were stranded there by legal protests and an environmental review process in Montana.
Imperial/Exxon ultimately opted to reduce the size of the original loads and ship them via interstate rather than the proposed two-lane routes of Highway 12 and Highway 200. Those shipments began last summer, and the final two megaloads will follow the same route that their roughly 65 predecessors took: from Lewiston north to Coeur d’Alene on Highway 95, then to and through western Montana on Interstate 90 and Interstate 15 on subsequent nights.
Here are two issues that megaload supporters should consider if they value a responsive and responsible government.
Without question, the transport of hundreds of insanely huge loads up U.S. Highway 12 will quite significantly alter the character and traditional use of that stretch of road and river. The adjacent businesses and the local residents along that route should rightfully expect at least some say in such a radical change to their neighborhood. Continue reading →
MOSCOW – Two Moscow men pleaded innocent to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer after they allegedly attempted to block three megaloads traveling through their city.
Police Chief David Duke said officers arrested Cass Davis, 47, and James Prall, 67, Sunday night after they re-entered the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 95 in Moscow shortly after 11 p.m.
Four protesters – Davis, Prall, and two women – initially entered the roadway in an effort to block the giant Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil refinery equipment modules headed for a tar sands oil extraction project in Canada, Duke said. Continue reading →
Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists blocked three colossal tar sands “megaloads” when they linked arms and sat together on Washington Street in Moscow, Idaho, on Sunday, March Fourth! Listen to between 26:10 and 13:18 of the Monday, March 5, Evening Report, Two Megaload Blockers Arrested, on KRFP Radio Free Moscow, for announcements of the last passage of these shipments in Two Final Megaloads from Lewiston Due Tuesday Night and for on-the-scene reportage of the WIRT protest, civil disobedience, and subsequent arrests in Four Pile into Street to Stop 865,000 Pounds of Megaloads, Two Arrested.
House Bill 464 passed the Senate Resources and Environment Committee on Friday, March 2, with a 6 to 3 vote after three and a half hours of discussion and testimony extended from a similar Wednesday, February 29, hearing. Deviously crafted and promoted by the Idaho Petroleum Council, the proposed bill bypasses state rulemaking processes and limits city, county, and local jurisdictional control of natural gas drilling operations, including hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” practices. It also would exempt all natural gas wells from state regulations for injection wells, thus allowing disposal of hazardous fracking fluids underground, where they could endanger community and private drinking water. Five other oil and natural gas laws were also recommended as “do pass” measures by the seven Republican and two Democrat committee members. Listen to between 13:11 and 6:21 of the Monday, March 5, Evening Report, Two Megaload Blockers Arrested, on KRFP Radio Free Moscow for a description of this legislation and its testimony and deliberations, Senate Resources Committee Approves Drilling Ordinance Pre-emption Law.
News from Moscow, Idaho: two arrested blockading ExxonMobil’s megaload trucks with tar sands equipment bound for Alberta.
Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Moscow, Idaho
PRELIMINARY NEWS RELEASE
March 5, 2012
Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all. As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4. Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed. The women did not appreciate the discrimination.
From the slightly taller viewpoint of Jeremy Jenkins, this great footage shows Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s protest late Sunday night, March 4, blocking ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands megaloads on their rampage from Korean assembly to Alberta bitumen processing via the Port of Lewiston and Highway 95 in Idaho. At the second to the last transport passage and spirited protest in downtown Moscow, Idaho – the front lines of the fight for tar sands justice that has clashed with every convoy – Jeremy caught the heart of the action in a small, rural, college town in a deep-red state. Four brave, caring people sat down and put their bodies on the line in Washington Street, in front of three megaloads weighing 865,000 pounds, to challenge climate-killers who are wrecking the pristine Athabasca River watershed and boreal forest, the First Nations of northern Alberta, and the atmosphere and Earth we all share. The resulting wrestling match with industry-sponsored state and city police dragged two men and two women (Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall) to the curb and arrested and jailed only Cass and Jim when they attempted to reenter the road. Fellow tar sands and climate activists across the country and world are noticing and encouraging our resistance and real news ignored by the mainstream media mostly owned by corporate interests. No other press except our faithful, progressive, local station, KRFP Radio Free Moscow, witnessed the demonstration. As Idahoans continue to impede tar sands traffic along two of four emerging industrial corridors, our voices are being heard and others are standing together in solidarity against tar sands injustices. Eventually humanity will prevail over the oilocracy’s greed, destructive machines, and devastation of our struggling planet and democracy.
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 