On Wednesday, August 22, at 2:15 pm, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, along with Idaho Governor Butch Otter, U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, and U.S. Senator Jim Risch, will tour the Port of Lewiston dock for about 45 minutes.  Event organizers have invited a group of 50 port customers, entrepreneurs, local elected officials, and reporters.  This rare Idaho visit of a White House Cabinet official, the first since June 2005 in Boise, emphasizes a June $1.3 million federal grant, only one of seven given to ports, and a $600,000 Idaho loan for the $2.9 million expansion next summer of the 125-foot container dock to 275 feet.  But port use for Pacific Coast and overseas shipping of agricultural and wood products through the fish-blocking gauntlet of Snake and Columbia river dams has declined significantly over the last decade, due to evolving market demands and alternative transportation opportunities.  Our purported governmental representatives have believed the port’s grant application misinformation and likely hold at least one overriding pork-barrel objective for the financially failing Port of Lewiston: Alberta tar sands equipment transport through north central Idaho. Continue reading →

A carload or caravan of climate justice activists from northern Idaho and eastern Washington will participate in the culminating protests of the Coal Export Action at the Montana Capitol in Helena on Saturday and Sunday, August 18 and 19.  Our allies of the Blue Skies Campaign in Missoula are hosting Montanans and concerned citizens from across the country, staging sustained, peaceful demonstrations beginning on August 12 and continuing through August 20, when the State Land Board will decide whether to approve a permit for Arch Coal to mine Otter Creek.  Please visit the Coal Export Action website for more information and registration, and then join in displaying strong opposition to coal exports across our region.  Unlike the Tar Sands Healing Walk in Fort McMurray, Alberta, this week of actions is your closest opportunity to contribute toward the nationwide Summer of Solidarity against the fossil fuel industry and for a livable planet.  Similar to the August/September 2011 Washington DC protests of the Keystone XL pipeline, Helena demonstrators will both support and risk arrest to send a unified message to the Land Board and Big Coal: save Otter Creek – no coal exports!  To partake in the Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) carpool, contact us at 208-301-8039 or wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or drop by the WIRT House in Moscow between noon and 8 pm PDT daily, invite your friends through the facebook event post Coal Export Action: Rally and Sit-In!, and post our Coal Export Action Flyer (WIRT).  Also listen to WIRT’s Monday, August 13, Climate Justice Forum radio program between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT live at 92.5 FM or online at KRFP Radio Free Moscow, when a core Coal Export Action organizer will describe the first day of sit-in demonstrations and recent issue developments.