At 935,000 combined pounds, the three Alberta tar sands transports scheduled to damage Highway 95 and Moscow streets on Thursday, January 12, build the heaviest Imperial Oil convoy ever.  If the vestiges of a cool climate and winter weather do not scuttle another reinforcing trip to the world’s biggest (232-square-mile) mine, three 24-feet wide, 15-feet high shipments respectively weighing 135,000, 375,000, and 425,000 pounds and measuring 110, 195, and 215 feet long could leave the Port of Lewiston after 8 pm.  All of the transports will travel separately except through Moscow, as the smaller module on a conventional trailer moves toward Lookout Pass and the two megaloads on hydraulic trailers lumber toward a parking/staging area near Worley.  Idaho state troopers, pilot vehicle drivers, flaggers, and Moscow city police, all paid by the hauler Mammoet, will guard and escort this tar sands equipment instead of the citizen safety, access, and convenience we should all demand on our own roads. Continue reading →

[Update: Last night, on Tuesday, January 10, Imperial Oil and its hauler Mammoet moved only one of its three tar sands modules up Highway 95, admitting that “two shipments were not able to leave the Port of Lewiston.” Moscow police informed protesters of this postponement after the first load traversed our city streets.  Tonight, Big Oil plans to pummel Idaho roads with the heaviest megaload yet, a 425,000-pound, 215-feet-long climate killer, and with a 60,000-pound, two-lane (24-feet) wide, rolling roadblock.  Please do your part to monitor and protest this deadly procession on Wednesday, January 11, or forever regret your complicity in global devastation.  Join Moscow activists and Wild Idaho Rising Tide members who will supply protest signs, banners, and chants and monitoring partners and guidance.  Bring your friends, family, outrage, strong voice, and recording equipment.  Monitors are meeting near Moscow City Hall, at the corner of Second and Washington streets, at 7:30 pm and after the demonstration.  Protesters are converging at the same location between 9:30 and 10 pm.  Please see the prior announcement for further information and check the ExxonMobil website at http://www.kearltransport.com/ for other last-minute, purportedly weather-induced changes.] Continue reading →

On Wednesday, January 4, in defiance of reason and the public will and in devious resolve to plunder our meager state infrastructure, freshwater ecosystems, and the rapidly fading viability of life under carbon-packed skies, ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil is moving the most massive combined weight of megaloads to ever crush Idaho roads and bridges (and you are the lucky taxpayer who finances its damages AND subsidizes its profits!).  As harbingers of the excessive industrial forces that we have allowed to increasingly proliferate around our planet, the three modules passing through the Palouse toward Alberta tar sands mining operations will respectively (but not respectfully) weigh 200,000, 330,000, and 375,000 pounds and will crowd curves with their 90, 175, and 200 foot lengths and 15 foot heights.  If you have not yet observed or raged against these colossal machines, Highway 95 and Moscow streets are now calling your name! Continue reading →