Author Archives: WIRT

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About WIRT

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.

Megaloads, Protests are Expected Tonight in Moscow

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An Imperial Oil megaload passes under the highway sign at the split between U.S. Highway 95 and U.S. Highway 12 (The Lewiston Tribune/Kyle Mills photo).

Spokeswoman for Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Moscow police chief have different views on the demonstrations

MOSCOW – More megaloads are scheduled to pass through here tonight and more protests are expected.

Meanwhile, the genesis, status, and future of demonstrations appears to be more a product of spontaneity than planning.

Helen Yost, spokeswoman for Wild Idaho Rising Tide, likened her group’s organizing efforts to “throwing a party.” Those attending protests, she said, are people with deep concerns and the right to express themselves according to individual conscience. Continue reading →

Residents Endangered by Megaloads

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Bill Beck, Pullman

Moscow-Pullman Daily News 10/5/11

The megaloads keep rolling through Moscow. The Idaho Transportation Department, with the support of the Moscow City Council, is allowing our roads to be used as a supply route for the biggest industrial polluter in North America, ExxonMobil’s Alberta Tar Sands development. This industrial nightmare is a major contributor to climate change, it is polluting our planet, poisoning the people of Alberta and contributing to the creation of disasters that will kill untold numbers of people around the world. While the Moscow City Council debates how to mitigate the expense of protecting the ExxonMobil shipments from the justified rage of protesters, citizens on our highways are endangered. Continue reading →

Occupy Haul Street Triple Megaload Protest 9-29-11

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As activists in New York City occupied Wall Street and raged against its corporate/citizen financial inequities, Wild Idaho Rising Tide protesters lined Washington “haul street” in Moscow, Idaho, to physically oppose ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil’s transport of three huge components of an Alberta tar sands upgrading plant. These loads weighing up to 432,000 pounds and blocking two lanes of traffic degrade our rural infrastructure, compromise our civil liberties, and wreak global ecological havoc through climate change.

Megaload Protestors in Idaho Invite ‘Eco-Tourists’ to Join Them

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Jeanne McHale, Moscow

Tar Sands Action website 9/28/11

Missoulian online only 10/9/11

Supporters of climate justice, please hear this plea.  Citizens of Idaho find themselves now at the nexus of greed, environmental degradation, and genocide.  Our ethically challenged state department of transportation has permitted the North Idaho transport of dozens of ExxonMobil megaloads of death, bound for Alberta tar sands operations.  The massive carbon emissions that would result from this mining project represent a point of no return for the planet.  Here in Moscow, Idaho, vigilant protestors are taking a stand as these road-hogging weapons of mass destruction, launched from the Port of Lewiston, bash through town in the late evenings (every Thursday), accompanied by throngs of state, local, and federal law enforcement officers.

Frankly, we need some help here.  North Idaho is beautiful in the fall, the tamarack are turning gold, and the rivers are running clear.  On absolutely no authority whatsoever, I declare the month of October to be “North Idaho Eco-tourism Month.”  Come join the members of Wild Idaho Rising Tide (friend them on facebook), the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band, and other anti-tar sands activists as we converge in Moscow, Idaho, to speak out against our unwilling participation in this immoral exploitation of the planet and its people.

Double Megaload Protest 9-22-11

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As seen from the corner of Second and Washington streets in Moscow, Idaho, two ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands upgrader components grind past Wild Idaho Rising Tide protesters at City Hall, as two city and state police officers, paid by the hauler Mammoet, cross the street to divert a lone blockader (off-camera).

Tar-Sands Project a Disaster

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Rob Briggs, Pullman

Moscow-Pullman Daily News 9/19/11

There is an expectation among Daily News readers that op-ed pieces will meet minimum standards of civility and respect. We also expect some intent to enlighten and inform. Henry Johnston’s piece on megaload protesters (His View, August 30) met neither expectation. When Doyle McClure wrote to complain (Letters, September 3-4), Michael O’Neal weighed in with charges of censorship (His View, September 7). Continue reading →

Dual Megaload Protest 9-15-11

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A tar sands upgrading plant component skirts Moscow protesters (David Hall photo).

The back of a huge, two-lane-wide, Imperial Oil "blue box" passes by the Corner Club (David Hall photo).

A 190-foot-long tar sands megaload squeezes through a protest gauntlet on a short Washington Street curve (David Hall photo).

Dual Megaload Rolls through Moscow

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Convoy leaves Port of Lewiston about 8 pm Thursday

As many as 100 demonstrators lined a two-block section of downtown Moscow on Washington Street Thursday night to protest or support a convoy of two Imperial Oil shipments headed for Canada.

The demonstrators, the vast majority of whom opposed the loads, were warned early on by Moscow police that they would be arrested if they tried to impede the loads.

The two megaloads passed through Moscow at about 10:30 pm without incident – other than garnering a few shouts from both protesters and supporters. Continue reading →

Deadly Spider Infestation at Port of Pasco Site

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Video: Deadly Spider Infestation at Port of Pasco Site

PASCO — A potentially deadly spider infestation at the Port of Pasco is affecting the massive loads in storage there.

The state says 20 workers called the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries to report the problem.  KIEWIT is managing the project and had to shut it down for now after people saw brown recluse, black widows, and spiders that aren’t even on this poster.

An exterminator was called in and is investigating how to get rid of the spiders.  The infestation may include spiders that aren’t native to the U.S., since the megaloads came here from Korea.

(By Melanie Tubbs, KEPR TV, Pasco, Washington)

No More Important Cause

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Tina Hilding, Moscow

Moscow-Pullman Daily News 9/14/11

I am responding to Henry Johnston’s His View column (Opinion, August 30) and his disapproval of those who exercised civil disobedience over the megaloads coming through Moscow.

Johnston, I’m not a hippie and certainly don’t smoke pot. The 1960s ended 40 years ago when I was 5. I am conservative.

If I get arrested, I will do so because of my grave concern about climate change. Continue reading →