Movement Wants to Stop Inland Northwest Coal Trains


A grassroots movement is growing in Spokane to stop coal trains from traveling through the city and across the Northwest.

With the demand for coal rising in Asia, several energy companies are proposing to mine coal in Montana and ship it overseas.

The proposal calls to ship coal by train through Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon and eventually to several export terminals along the West Coast.

On Friday, more than a dozen activists and environmentalists met in Spokane to learn how to peacefully protest the proposal.

Read more/see the TV video: Movement Wants to Stop Inland Northwest Coal Trains

(By Annie Bishop, KXLY Spokane)

Flashpoints Interview of Nick Engelfried, Helen Yost, & Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky


On Wednesday evening, June 6, Flashpoints radio show host Dennis Bernstein talked with Nick Engelfried of Blue Skies Campaign in Missoula, Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky of Portland Rising Tide and Columbia Riverkeeper in Portland, and Helen Yost of Wild Idaho Rising Tide in Moscow about the Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop in Spokane on June 8 and 9 and about regional protests of coal export trains, tar sands megaloads, and natural gas fracking.  The program aired on KRFP Radio Free Moscow on the same night and can also be downloaded from KPFA Free Speech Radio in Berkeley.  Listen to between 21:31 and 36:50 of this nationally broadcast episode or to the 14-minute discussion excerpted and uploaded online by Tom Hansen of Moscow.  Thanks, Dennis, Tom, and KPFA!

Last Spokane Megaloads 6-3-12


Sunday, June 3, marked the last transit of tar sands modules through Spokane and a rambunctious send-off by Wild Idaho and Spokane Rising Tide and Occupy Spokane activists.  At 7:30 pm in the Magic Lantern Theatre, about 35 concerned Spokane citizens converged to watch the incisive documentary Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands and to discuss emerging local and continent-wide struggles around one of the most compelling environmental issues of our time: tar sands development near Fort McMurray, Alberta.  As we grew weary of uncertain and false ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil shipment finales but nonetheless plotted our last Spokane megaload protest for that night, our Port of Pasco scout informed us just before the public screening that more Big Oil behemoths were poised to rumble through Spokane streets.  At the movie showing and lively debate, we alerted attendees of their immediate opportunity to take action against the topic of the film.  Considering the last transports’ historical significance, Terry Hill of Occupy Spokane posted a facebook event simply and aptly titled “Megaloads, Sunday, June 3, 2012.”  Folks met at the Occupy Spokane Clubhouse at 11 pm before traveling to Third and Regal streets to tell ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil one more time, “not in our town.”

Even though convoy personnel had erected orange cones on the north/freeway side of East Third Avenue, to block our tactical parking on both sides of the street, we crowded the two lane stretch with our banner hanging from the pedestrian bridge and our bodies, protest signs, and vehicles lining the ruined road to America’s Mordor.  Mayhem ensued as one of the largest of three tar sands modules passed within inches of outstretched arms and signs and a support vehicle darted back and forth behind it to survey width clearances.  A city police officer across the street waved three passenger vehicles following the loads onward with a flashlight, when a stop sign-mimicking protest sign asserting “Stop Tar Sands” inadvertently halted them.  One of the demonstrators captured the convoy CB radio chatter with his video, Megaload Spokane 6/4/2012, documenting the (hopefully) last megaloads to challenge the Northwest, available here with a few Wild Idaho Rising Tide photos.  WIRT hosted Terry Hill of Occupy Spokane on our June 11 Climate Justice Forum radio program, talking about this final demonstration, other Spokane anti-megaload protests, and the Lilac City’s occupy movement and clubhouse.

Lower Monumental Dam 6-2-12


While returning from Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s (WIRT) Tar Sands Megaloads Road Show of Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands screening in Kennewick, Washington, on June 2, a lone WIRT activist saw rainbows, but heavy rain compromised dawn explorations of Lower Monumental Dam. If ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil or other companies barge more Alberta tar sands equipment to the Port of Lewiston, Idaho, the modules would move through the tallest structure on the downriver (right) side of the dam and out along the levee jutting upriver (left).

Last Port of Pasco Megaloads 6-1-12


While traveling from Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s Tar Sands Megaloads Road Show of Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands screening in Kennewick, Washington, on June 1, a solitary WIRT activist saw rainbows and thoroughly scouted the Port of Pasco for the final ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil modules. She spotted a huge “blue box” hooked to a truck, facing the dock yard gate, and guarded by a security car and two frame-type megaloads near the port cranes or on a trailer. These transports rumbled through Spokane streets and protests just a few nights later on June 3, the last of ExxonMobil’s first phase of tar sands development rampaging our region.

Spokane Solidarity Tar Sands Protest


On Wednesday, May 23, and Wednesday, May 30, another five megaloads of Earth-ravaging, energy-sucking, water-poisoning, climate-wrecking, life-killing Alberta tar sands processing parts will probably rumble through Spokane and Spokane Valley streets on their way to the largest industrial carbon extraction project in the world.  While most of America sleeps, satiated on its oil-derived opulence, obesity, and overpopulation, interior Northwest activists will take to the streets to express our outrage that our city, state, and federal governments facilitate First Nations genocide, boreal forest and wetland destruction, and global climate chaos through Big Oil’s abuse of our subsequently deteriorating roads and bridges.

Occupy Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tide invite you to your likely last opportunity (for now) to stand up to ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil, the Washington State Department of Transportation, the hauler Mammoet, and their contracted megaload convoys of industry-colluded state troopers, pilot truck drivers, and flaggers.  Whose streets and rights?  You know the 99 percent’s answer and what you must do to regain our democracy, public infrastructure, and civil liberties from corporations who value profits over people and the planet.

Meet fellow protesters to strategize and mobilize our resistance by 11:30 pm at the Occupy Spokane Clubhouse, 1808 East Sprague Avenue in Spokane, or for the demonstration at 11:30 pm at East Third Avenue and South Regal Street.  Moscow activists are carpooling from the corner of Second and Washington streets, near Moscow City Hall, at 9:30 pm.  Bring some or all of your friends, protest signs, strong voices, mic check chants, musical instruments, and ideas for actions.  The next seven generations of humans and Earth co-habitants are depending on you to stop the reckless expansion of Alberta tar sands operations.  The world is waiting and watching, Spokane!

Megaloads of Radical Road Trip Birthday Fun!


On Wednesday, May 16, the second to the last road-hogging convoy of Alberta tar sands equipment, state cops, pilot vehicles, and flaggers will likely rampage Spokane and Spokane Valley streets.  Although we cannot promise any dirty energy resister action against ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil until we hear from our Occupy Tri-Cities Port of Pasco scout around 7 or 8 pm, we do not want to miss this opportunity to kick some more Big Oil ass.  Our Occupy Spokane allies are enthusiastically taking to the streets, calling for our camaraderie, and even offering sleeping space in their clubhouse! Continue reading

WIRT Follows Port of Pasco Megaloads & Has Pre-Trial Hearing on Misdemeanors


On Sunday, April 15, two Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists monitored three ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands shipments from the Port of Pasco, Washington, to Idaho, noting their convoy vehicles, timing and fluctuating speeds, traffic delays and disruptions, and overpass bypass routes.  At a second pre-trial hearing on Tuesday, April 17, Helen Yost requested charges as lenient as the sentence of a megaload driver who hit a flagger-diverted vehicle on December 6, for her misdemeanors of throwing a foam board protest sign at the 415,000-pound, last Highway 95 megaload and air-kicking toward a Moscow police officer on March 6.  Her lawyer, Ben Onosko of the Northern Rockies Justice Center, will file a motion questioning the definition of a moving vehicle and has scheduled a September trial for both citations.  Listen between 9:48 and 2:34 of the April 17, 2012, KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, Earth Day Awards, to learn more about both situations.

Megaload Protesters Receive Earth Day Award as Earth Protectors


Earth Day Award for Megaload Protestors on April 16, 2012

(Tom Hansen video clip of the following minutes)

Moscow City Council Meeting Minutes 4-16-12

At the April 16, 2012, Moscow City Council meeting, Mayor Nancy Chaney announced her annual Earth Day Award recipients: Colter’s Creek Winery, Doug Wasankari, Matt Dolkas, Moscow High School Environmental Club, Moscow CommUNITY Walk, Gail DeSantis, Palouse Land Trust, and Margaret and Maynard Fosberg. She also recognized the megaload protesters as Earth Protectors. Watch between 41:08 and 45:15 of the videotaped meeting for our mayor’s remarks and community members’ acceptance of the award.

For an audio news version, listen to Mayor Chaney Hands Out Earth Day Awards between 21:28 and 16:52 of the April 17, 2012, KRFP Radio Free Moscow Evening Report, Earth Day Awards.

Dr. Helen Caldicott at April 15 Hanford Rally


For KRFP Radio Free Moscow, where Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) hosts the Climate Justice Forum radio program every Monday at 7:30 pm PDT, WIRT member Helen Yost interviewed legendary nuclear activist and physician Helen Caldicott in person at the A15 Hanford Rally: North America’s Fukushima? hosted by Occupy Portland and other resistance groups on Sunday, April 15.  Excerpts of the interview and Dr. Caldicott’s and another speech aired on the KRFP Monday, April 16, Evening Report, Palouse Earthworm, Hanford, between 20:49 and 6:48.  As the good doctor suggested, we intend to educate regional downwinders and our Congressional representatives about Hanford’s dangers.