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.

Climate Justice Forum: NW Coal & Oil Infrastructure, Paris Climate Talks 11-30-15

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The Monday, November 30, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) covers Powder River Basin coal mines and a proposed railroad, planned Pacific Northwest oil terminals, and worldwide marches, activist petitions, and Paris demonstrations around the United Nations climate change talks starting there today.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PST, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide climate activism and community opposition to dirty energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Flood the System & COP21 11-23-15

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The Monday, November 23, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news about coal, oil, gas, tar sands, and climate change developments and resistance in Idaho and the Northwest, Rising Tide and allied Flood the System direct actions, and the upcoming United Nations COP21 climate talks and cancelled protests.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PST, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide, climate and indigenous activism and frontline, grassroots confrontations of corporate extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Gary Dorr 11-16-15

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The Monday, November 16, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) gratefully welcomes Nez Perce activist Gary Dorr, a U.S. veteran and Idaho megaload protester who has been assisting frontline tribal and grassroots resistance to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in South Dakota and Nebraska.  Besides sharing resistance updates, Gary will talk about the reaction of indigenous and landowner activists to Keystone XL presidential rejection.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide climate activism and community opposition to dirty energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

WIRT Newsletter: New Gas Well Comments & WIRT Events This Week

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Little Willow Gathering Facility

Alta Mesa’s Little Willow Gathering Facility north of New Plymouth (Idaho Statesman photo/caption)

Stop New Little Willow Gas Well Drilling!

The 15-day public comment period closes on Friday, November 13, for providing your written opposition to yet another permit application for oil and gas well drilling, presumably on Simplot lands (in the Butch Otter family) up Little Willow Road in Payette County, Idaho [1]. Houston-based Alta Mesa has proposed a new well, ML Investments 2-3, about seven miles east of Payette, and has requested that application reviewers and permit issuers at the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) protect its 41 pages of application documents from public disclosure.  A company official contends that much, if not all, of the drilling application information is either confidential for security reasons (as stamped on multiple pages) or meets Freedom of Information Act and Idaho law exemptions prohibiting the disclosure of trade secrets.  Nonetheless, IDL posted the application with redactions on its website on Wednesday, October 28.

Alta Mesa last filed a drilling permit application in November/December 2014, when the Idaho Conservation League and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) separately contested the proposed Smoke Ranch 1-20 well, located only a few hundred feet from the Payette River, and caused application revision and re-submission [2, 3]. According to the IDL website, the company never drilled that well, but has brought five other wells into production during 2015, besides the State 1-17 well that Bridge Resources drilled with ten others in 2009-10, sold to Alta Mesa in 2012, and started up in March 2014 [4].  Alta Mesa is also now extracting gas from the Bridge Resources-drilled ML Investments 1-10 well, claiming that it and the State 1-17 well are wildcat wells drawing from an unproven reservoir.  Nine of the Bridge Resources wells have been shut in pending a pipeline; Bridge intended to frack four of these holes (the Espino 1-2, Korn 1-22, Tracy Trust 3-2, and White 1-10 wells from among the DJS Properties 1-14 and 1-15 and Island Capitol 1-19 wells).

The Texas company has flared several wells since early 2013, and is pulling gas from four of the eight wells that it has drilled since the heavily protested, now shut-in Smoke Ranch 1-21 well (farther from the river than 1-20) in July 2013 [5, 6]. Drilled into the Willow gas field and reservoir, in the hills surrounding Little Willow Creek and Road, the ML Investments 1-11 and 2-10 wells and the Kauffman 1-9 and 1-34 wells are now producing [7].  (The Kauffman couple bid as apparently agreed-upon underdogs in the most recent, May 2015 auction of oil and gas leases on Idaho state lands and minerals [8].)  Alta Mesa has shut in the DJS Properties 2-14 well and not drilled the ML Investments 1-3 well.  Despite numerous errors, missing information, and described harmful practices in seven of eight Alta Mesa drilling applications commented on by WIRT (except the DJS Properties 2-14 well), IDL has not rejected, or required Alta Mesa to revise and re-submit, any of its previous applications [9]. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Keystone XL & Northwest Tar Sands 11-9-15

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The Monday, November 9, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features updates on the Obama administration rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, possible enactment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, tar sands threats to the Northwest, and recent and upcoming Rising Tide and allied Flood the System direct action trainings and demonstrations. Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PST, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide, climate and indigenous activism and frontline, grassroots confrontations of corporate extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

WIRT Newsletter: November WIRT Events

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WIRT Monthly Meetings

November 5 & 12: Moscow

The Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) First Thursday Moscow Monthly Meeting and Potluck is happening at 7 pm on Thursday evening, November 5, and due to the work- and travel-induced lateness of this reminder, again on November 12. Gather at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow.  Along with southwest Idaho activists on November 15 and Sandpoint area residents on November 19, we are planning November Flood the System actions on both sides of the state.

November 20: Sandpoint

WIRT is holding our other monthly convergence, the WIRT Third Thursday Sandpoint Monthly Meeting and Pizza at 7 pm on Friday, November 20, at Second Avenue Pizza, 215 South Second Avenue in Sandpoint. Please email wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or call 208-301-8039 for meeting agendas, carpools, and directions, and visit the WIRT Events Calendar for ongoing updates on WIRT and allied events across the region.

November 5: Shell Anacortes Bomb Train Facility

Thursday, November 5, marks the last day to contribute your thoughts on the scope of an environmental impact statement (EIS) analyzing the effects of building and using a “rail spur from the existing, adjacent Burlington Northern Santa FE (BNSF) Railway line onto Shell Puget Sound Refinery (PSR) property.”  The proposed facility would receive and unload a maximum of six unit crude oil trains per week, each with 102 DOT-117 tank cars owned by Shell. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Regional Fossil Fuel Resistance 11-2-15

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The Monday, November 2, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features updates on Payette County gas development and resistance, Idaho Panhandle coal, oil, and tar sands trains and opposition, fossil fuel terminal hearings and comments, and Rising Tide and allied Flood the System direct action trainings and demonstrations.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PST, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide, climate and indigenous activism and frontline, grassroots confrontations of corporate extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Idaho Flood the System & More 10-26-15

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The Monday, October 26, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features updates on Rising Tide and allied Flood the System non-violent direct action trainings and actions and issue developments regarding regional, citizen-resisted coal, gas, oil, and tar sands infrastructure.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide, climate and indigenous activism and frontline, grassroots opposition to corporate extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Idaho Flood the System Trainings

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Idaho Flood the System Trainings 2 Flyer

Participants in the November 1 Idaho Flood the System Training in Boise requested another, bigger, and better workshop, so Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies are hosting the Idaho Flood the System Trainings 2.  Please join us between 12 noon and 3 pm on Sunday, November 15, to learn non-violent direct action skills and to plan Idaho gasland protests.  Converge in the Gates Room of the main, downtown Boise Public Library, 715 South Capitol Boulevard in Boise, Idaho.  The following revision of the original event announcement further describes this workshop and previous, similar trainings.  Thanks!

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Wild Idaho Rising Tide, Silver Valley Community Resource Center (SVCRC), Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) Protecting the Environment, Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition (PESC), and inland Northwest Occupy activists invite you to attend these #FloodtheSystem trainings, presented by Rising Tide organizers and trainers in close proximity to co-sponsoring groups:

* Saturday, October 24, 12 noon to 4 pm: East Bonner County/Sandpoint Library, 1407 Cedar Street, Sandpoint, Idaho

* Sunday, October 25, 10 am to 2 pm: Pilgrim’s Market, 1316 N. Fourth Street, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

* Sunday, October 25, 4 to 8 pm: Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 E. Eleventh Avenue, Spokane, Washington

* Thursday, October 29, 6 to 10 pm: The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 E. Second Street, Moscow, Idaho

* Sunday, November 1, 1 to 4 pm: Main (downtown) Boise Public Library, Marion Bingham Room, 715 S. Capitol Boulevard, Boise, Idaho

* Sunday, November 15, 12 noon to 3 pm: Main (downtown) Boise Public Library, Gates Room, 715 S. Capitol Boulevard, Boise, Idaho

#FloodtheSystem is a callout this fall to flood, blockade, occupy, and shut down the systems that jeopardize our future. Initiated by Rising Tide North America, #FloodtheSystem is creating opportunities for massive economic and political interventions, long-term coalition and relationship formation, and expansion of popular power along the intersections of race, class, gender, and ability.  Learn about Flood the System through links to a graphic narrative presentation and other informative material at the Flood the System website. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Regional Activism 10-12-15

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The Monday, October 12, 2015 Climate Justice Forum radio program, hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news about upcoming, regional, climate activist events and allied Flood the System actions.  Broadcast on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Monday between 7:30 and 9:00 pm PDT, live at 90.3 FM and online, the show covers continent-wide, climate and indigenous activism and frontline, grassroots opposition to corporate extreme energy projects, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.