IDAHO WATER IS LIFE!  FORCED POOLING IS DEATH!

Please join Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies at 8 am MST on Wednesday, December 14, for the Payette County Forced Pooling Protest on the Idaho Capitol steps at 700 West Jefferson Street in Boise, Idaho. Concerned citizens from throughout Idaho are coming together to stand in support of over 150 Payette County families and home, property, and business owners whom the state of Idaho and a Houston, Texas-based fossil fuel producer are pushing into oil and gas leases for integration, or “forced pooling,” of their private resources [1, 2].  Alta Mesa Idaho (AMI) integration applications to the Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission could impose extraction of Idahoans’ oil and gas, with or without their permission, from three new wells, and perhaps many more, on two adjacent, one-square-mile sections of land and another, smaller tract in and near the Fruitland community.  With state approval, Alta Mesa and other toxic intruders could directionally drill, hydraulically fracture (“frack”), and chemically “treat” these wells beneath and only 200 feet on the ground from a few hundred subdivision homes and other structures like schools and hospitals, and under, next to, or within less than a mile of the Snake and Payette rivers and their wetlands and floodplains, and below already leased U.S. Highway 95 (See the attached photos of spacing units).

At 9 am on Wednesday, December 14, the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) is holding the first administrative hearings on contested AMI forced pooling applications since the Idaho Legislature passed SB1339 in March 2016, the egregious statute that changes and rushes the integration process to benefit the oil and gas industry and trample citizen rights anywhere in the state. The advocacy group Citizens Allied for Integrity and Accountability (CAIA) has retained constitutional law attorney James Piotrowski, of the law firm Herzfeld and Piotrowski, to represent a group of unwillingly integrated, officially objecting, Payette County mineral owners [3, 4].  In the Lincoln Auditorium, Room WWO2 in the lower level of the Idaho Capitol west wing, integration objectors will challenge the legality of the proposed spacing units and of IDL’s due processes that afford impacted landowners insufficient time and information to consider forced pooling applications and to consult attorneys, banks, and insurance companies about the adverse financial consequences of integration on property rights, values, mortgages, and insurance.

Participate in the 8 am protest and attend the 9 am hearings, continued if necessary at the same locations on Thursday, December 15, to show your support of hardworking, tax-paying, Payette County and regional residents, by serving as protesters, observers, witnesses, and testifiers. Oil and gas industry invasions accommodated by state sanctioned forced pooling could inevitably jeopardize air and water quality and quantity, contaminate ground and surface water, wells, and agricultural lands, and ultimately degrade the sustainability and quality of life in Idaho.  Because citizens throughout the Treasure Valley – from eastern Oregon to Twin Falls and in Ada, Canyon, Cassia, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, Twin Falls, Washington, and other Idaho counties – could eventually endure the ravages of these same integration rules, Idahoans should demonstrate with a large turnout, noticed by public officials and media reporters, that a majority of us will confront these injustices that transcend southwestern Idaho.  In honor of Dakota Access pipeline resistance supporting the Standing Rock Sioux, it is time for us to rise up on Idaho’s fossil fuel frontlines and protect our waters and lands! Continue reading →

On Wednesday morning, October 19, southwest Idaho activists and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) are holding the third protest of a state oil and gas lease auction.  The Idaho State Board of Land Commissioners is selling 225 oil and gas leases of state lands and minerals at another public auction in Suite 103 Syringa North and South Conference Rooms at the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) offices, 300 North Sixth Street in Boise, Idaho [1].

Before bidder arrival for registration begins at 8:30 am MDT for the 9 am auction, gather with us at 8 am at the east side of Capitol Park, across the street from IDL, and then on the public sidewalk in front of the main IDL west entrance.  Please bring your posters, signs, chants, and songs objecting to further liquidation of state resources for private industry profit, despite state-perceived benefits for public agencies, institutions, and programs.  See descriptions of the last two state oil and gas lease auction protests for ideas about messages and tactics to challenge this first such state auction in over two years [2-5].

The state of Idaho has already, currently leased tens of thousands of surface and subsurface acres to only a few companies, for looming oil and gas drilling and potential hydraulic fracturing, acidizing, and other risky well stimulation treatments.  Since 2009, Bridge Resources and its more aggressive successor, Alta Mesa of Houston, Texas, have drilled or received state permits for dozens of wells, planning more dirty energy development for the Treasure Valley and elsewhere in Idaho than the company ever reveals.

Apparent from the strange placement of bargain priced lease parcels, shown in the maps of this October 19 round of IDL auctions, the latest scheme of Alta Mesa and bidder accomplices may involve visions of corridors for access, transportation, pipelines, or other infrastructure.  The state is almost giving away 4,404 acres in seven counties as 82 oil and gas leases in Canyon County, 73 in Payette County, 31 in Gem County, 23 in Ada County, 13 in Washington County, two in Bonneville County, and one oil and gas lease in Cassia County.  Remarkably, most of these leases lie along and adjacent to ten state and federal highways in the Treasure Valley – Idaho Highways 16, 19, 44, 52, 55, and 72, U.S. Highways 20, 30, and 95, and Interstate 84 – all threatening blocked public access to private lands [6, enclosed photo]. Continue reading →

Activists Call on the Obama Administration to End Fossil Fuel Leases on Public Lands

On Wednesday, July 27, at 8 am, dozens of activists from five regional conservation and climate activist groups are holding a “Keep It in the Ground” (KING) rally and protest of the second Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and gas lease auction of Payette County federal lands and minerals [1, 2].  At its Idaho State Office in Boise, the BLM plans to offer and sell leases for fossil fuel development on 9,242 acres of Sheep Ridge public lands around the producing and plugged-pending-pipelines oil and gas wells in the Big Willow Creek area seven miles north of New Plymouth [3, 4].

This protest contributes toward a growing, nationwide Keep It in the Ground movement concerned about the climate warming and environmental destruction caused by ongoing fossil fuel extraction and consumption.  KING coalition organizations, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and the Sierra Club, are urging President Obama to expand his climate legacy by stopping new oil and gas leases on public lands, just as he did with coal leases.  On June 18, 2016, in Yosemite National Park, the president said that the greatest threat to all national parks is climate change.

Groups across the western U.S. are planning similar “Keep It in the Ground” rallies for upcoming lease sales, like the one in Roswell, New Mexico, that the BLM has postponed, and past demonstrations in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Reno, Nevada.  The organizations co-sponsoring the rally and protest in Boise on July 27 include Citizens Allied for Integrity and Accountability, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Idaho Chapter Sierra Club, Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT).

Educating the public about and confronting southwest Idaho oil and gas development throughout our five years, WIRT members are grateful and relieved to work with other groups joining the too-few activists under great duress at three previous auctions of public lands and minerals since April 2014 [5-10].  We encourage you to accompany us on the frontlines of public lands liquidation to the oil and gas industry, at this fourth oil and gas lease auction protest in Boise.  If you can carpool to and from Boise with other north Idaho activists for this significant demonstration, please contact WIRT by email, phone, or facebook message.

Concerned Idahoans are standing up for their rights on Wednesday, July 27, and telling the BLM that public lands in Idaho are not for sale to dangerous extractive industries overrunning our beautiful state.  Bring your soft signs, banners, and enthusiasm, and meet at 8 am MDT at the southwest corner of the Walmart parking lot, close to Burger King, near West Overland Road and South Vinnell Way in Boise.

Participants will cross Vinnell to the BLM Idaho State Office at 1387 South Vinnell Way (on the left, to the south).  The oil and gas lease auction in the Sagebrush Conference Room begins at 9 am and will likely conclude by 12 noon.  Entering this government building requires presenting photo identification and signing in for the auction (and action!). Continue reading →

Calvin Tillman in Boise

On Monday, March 7, at 6:30 pm, Citizens Allied for Integrity and Accountability (CAIA) is hosting a talk/presentation by the former mayor of Dish, Texas, Calvin Tillman, entitled How Will Oil and Gas Activity Change Your Community?, at the Lincoln Auditorium in the Idaho State Capitol, 700 West Jefferson Street in Boise, Idaho [1, 2]. Currently an Aubrey, Texas, city council member, Mr. Tillman will share his years of direct experience with oil and gas development, as an elected official and impacted father and homeowner.  Please see the attached flyer for further information about this event that Idaho Public Television will livestream at this link, for Idahoans and friends to watch it on their computers [3].

Stop S1339 in the Idaho House

The full Idaho House of Representatives has delayed voting on Senate Bill 1339 (S1339), the industry-promoted law that would expedite oil and gas development permits, reduce opportunities for public input and appeals, further advance forced pooling and leasing of unwilling mineral interests owners, and thus compromise private property rights, not to mention more essential human rights to healthful air, water, and soil [4]. Please comment to your legislators and all House members before their probable full chamber vote on S1339 on Monday, March 7.  See the last two Wild Idaho Rising Tide alerts on this issue, for further information and talking points [5, 6], and call 208-332-1000 or 800-626-0471 and/or email lawmakers at these listed addresses [7].  S1339 will affect all the citizens of Idaho and their rights to defend themselves from oil and gas development invasions. Continue reading →

On Friday, March 4, at an unknown time, the full Idaho House of Representatives will hold the final vote on Senate Bill 1339 (S1339) [1, 2]. The Senate Resources and Environment Committee passed S1339 to the Senate floor on Friday, February 19, after an Alta Mesa oil and gas company attorney pushed for bill hearing closure, before all of the subsequently angry citizens present could testify.  Only Democrat committee member Michelle Stennett voted against this bill that, if passed by the Idaho Legislature and codified as an emergency law by Governor Otter’s signature, would expedite Idaho oil and gas development permitting procedures and further severely limit due process, associated public input and appeals, and information available to citizens, some forced to develop their mineral interests and most concerned about fossil fuel project impacts to private and public lands, water, air, and property rights [3-5].

According to Betsy Russell’s Eye on Boise, “after a two-hour debate, the Idaho Senate voted 31-4 in favor of SB 1339, a controversial proposal to streamline the process for issuing permits for oil and gas wells. The bill drew close to 100 people to an earlier hearing, most of them opposed…The bill now moves to the House side.  The Senate vote came just after 6:30 p.m. Boise time, half an hour after the Senate had been scheduled to conclude its late-afternoon session, which started at 4:30.  It was the only bill taken up.” [6]  On Tuesday, March 1, the Idaho House Resources and Conservation Committee held a hearing on this industry-promoted bill and passed S1339 on a two-to-one ratio [7].  Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) emailed letters of opposition to both Senate and House committees.

Meanwhile, on Monday, February 22, over 150 citizens participated in a rally on the Capitol steps in Boise, protesting the bill and oil and gas industry and infrastructure abuses of Idaho citizen health, private property rights, and essential air, water, and soil quality, at the Don’t Frack Idaho Statehouse Rally, hosted by Citizens Allied for Integrity and Accountability [8-12]. Organizing protests and rallies against oil and gas development around the state since 2012, WIRT activists are grateful that more than a few dozen Idahoans are finally displaying widespread resistance.

If the Idaho legislature could possibly defend your interests, please contact all of the state representatives, to oppose full Idaho House floor passage of S1339. See the comprehensive list of representative email addresses at citation 7 and talking point suggestions at the following links [13, 14].  NOW is your last chance to write to or call them on this issue, urging them to vote against this legislation that forces oil and gas development on unwilling land and mineral rights owners and that dismisses the public’s best interests and participation in permitting decisions.  Thank you! Continue reading →

Please take urgent action on these two significant Idaho oil and gas resistance events.  Thanks to Citizens Allied for Integrity and Accountability (CAIA) of Fruitland, Idaho, for organizing and sharing news about them!  Contact CAIA with your questions and suggestions at info@integrityandaccountability.org, IntegrityAndAccountability.org, or 208-963-5707.

Friday: Oppose Idaho Senate Bill 1339

The first oil and gas bill of the 2016 session is printed and scheduled to be heard on Friday, February 19, at 1:30 pm MST, first on the day’s agenda of the Idaho Senate Resources and Environment Committee [1, 2].  Attorney Kate Haas of the law firm Kestrel West, representing the primary Idaho oil and gas development company, Alta Mesa, will present Senate Bill 1339 (S1339) in Room WW55 of the Idaho Capitol in Boise [3].  Please participate in this hearing by attending in support of bill opponents, submitting your written comments in advance or in person, and/or speaking against S1339 for up to three minutes.  Contact Committee members by phone or email before the hearing.

Call 208-332-1323 and/or email sres@senate.idaho.gov, to extend your comments to all of the committee members together, or write to each and all of them at their individual addresses: Steve Bair <sbair@senate.idaho.gov>, Clifford Bayer <cbayer@senate.idaho.gov>, Marv Hagedorn <mhagedorn@senate.idaho.gov>, Lee Heider <lheider@senate.idaho.gov>, Roy Lacey <rlacey@senate.idaho.gov>, Sherry Nuxoll <snuxoll@senate.idaho.gov>, Jeff Siddoway <jsiddoway@senate.idaho.gov>, Michelle Stennett <mstennett@senate.idaho.gov>, Steve Vick <sjvick@senate.idaho.gov>.

S1339 would expedite all Idaho oil and gas development applications and further exclude Idahoans from crucial public input, as described in the following and attached, useful, talking points.  As an emergency bill, effective with Governor Otter’s signature, S1339 would essentially and immediately strip all due public process from oil and gas permitting in Idaho, risking the integrity of Idaho law and private and public property rights.  Compounding ongoing oil and gas industry degradation of the health and safety of Idahoans and their environment, this legislation, if passed over strong citizen objections, would: Continue reading →

On Thursday, May 28, 2015, Wild Idaho Rising Tide and allied activists plan to protest the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oral auction and sale of leases of public oil and gas and minerals in the Little Willow Creek watershed six miles east of Payette, Idaho [1].  Managing 700 million acres of sub-surface minerals and more acreage (245 million) than any other federal agency, mostly in the western U.S. and Alaska, the BLM operates under the U.S. Department of the Interior.  Its Idaho State Office, at 1387 South Vinnell Way in Boise, will open registration to the public and prospective buyers at 7:45 am on Thursday and will begin the auction at 9 am in the Sagebrush Conference Room, offering five parcels totaling 6,475 acres for minimum lease bids of $2 per acre, following the national standard.  According to a map of the BLM proposed Little Willow Creek oil and gas leasing area, only one of the smaller parcels is available for oil and gas development, while the majority of the tracts could provide opportunities for private extraction of all federal minerals present [2].

Although the BLM asserts that this lease sale would “prevent federally owned oil and gas from being drained without compensation to the United States in the form of royalties,” “by law the Bureau of Land Management cannot auction off public lands to the oil and gas industry unless drainage is actually occurring” [2, 3].  For years, the primary architect of recent oil and gas wells, a processing plant expanded before completion, and gathering lines connecting all of this Payette County infrastructure, Alta Mesa Idaho (AMI) has pressured the BLM to open its public resources to its pursuits.  AMI’s environmentally, socially, and financially irresponsible onslaught of development has begrudged mandated, protracted, public review of BLM leasing proposals within the context of broader federal regulations, significantly more stringent that state oversight.  The Boise-based BLM Four Rivers Field Office confirmed in April 2015 that “no surface occupancy and no subsurface occupancy will be permitted until the Four Rivers Resource Management Plan is completed, which is scheduled for 2016” [1]. Continue reading →