Category Archives: News

Update: More Mega-Load Protesters Arrested

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UPDATED: Saturday, August 27, 5:00 pm Idaho State Police told Citydesk that two more mega-load protesters were arrested Saturday morning in Coeur d’Alene.  That brings to eight the number of persons taken into custody, expressing their displeasure of the oversized rigs heading for the Kearl Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada.

ORIGINAL POST: Friday, August 26 Six people were arrested early today, protesting mega-loads as the huge rigs rolled through their Latah County community.  The six, members of Wild Idaho Rising Tide, took part in a larger protest which saw several people lie down in the middle of Washington Street in Moscow, as scaled-down ExxonMobil mega-loads rolled on Highway 95 toward Coeur d’Alene before heading east on I-90 and north to the Kearl Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada.

Read more: Update: More Mega-Load Protesters Arrested

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

Three More Megaload Protesters Arrested in Coeur d’Alene

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Three more protesters were arrested early Saturday in Coeur d’Alene as a megaload shipment of oil excavation equipment passed through the Lake City.

Law enforcement officers confirmed that the arrests were made by Idaho State Police, but the names were not released.

One woman taken into custody had refused to identify herself, officials said.

Read more: Three More Megaload Protesters Arrested in Coeur d’Alene

(By Mike Prager, The Spokesman-Review)

Six Arrested During Megaload Protest

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A member of the Moscow Police Department (left) and an Idaho State Police trooper arrest a protester Friday morning in Moscow.

They’ve already been released from jail

Six Moscow protestors were arrested after an Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil megaload was blocked early Friday at the intersection of U.S Highway 95/Washington Street and Third Street in Moscow.

Those arrested were Brett Haverstick, 38; Mitchell Day, 40; Vincent Murray, 61; David Willard, 52; Gregory Freistadt, 26; and William French, 55, said Capt. Lonnie Richardson, of the Idaho State Police in Lewiston.

All six face misdemeanor allegations of assembling to disturb the peace and refusal to disperse, Richardson said. Continue reading →

Six Residents Arrested during Megaloads Protest

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Protesters jailed following demonstration on Washington Street

There are 25 scheduled stops along U.S. Highway 95 for the Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil megaload shipment, but environmental activists created a noisy, lengthy unscheduled stop in downtown Moscow early Friday morning.

Idaho State Police troopers accompanying the 413,600-pound shipment from the Port of Lewiston were greeted by 50 to 200 protesters at the intersection of Third and Washington streets around 12:30 a.m., several sitting in the road with their signs and refusing to move. Continue reading →

Tar Sands Megaload Solidarity Action 8-25-11

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Keystone XL pipeline sit-in protest, Moscow, Idaho style, as an ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands megaload rolls though town on August 25-26, 2011: Thanks, Brett! (Moscow-Pullman Daily News photo)

Moscow, Idaho, crowds expand around sitting and standing Wild Idaho Rising Tide protesters who stopped an ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands shipment on August 25-26, 2011 (Tom Hansen photo).

About 150 people gather around Wild Idaho Rising Tide protesters during their August 25-26, 2011, demonstration of peaceful civil disobedience against ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tars sands transports permitted by the Idaho Transportation Department through Moscow, Idaho (Tom Hansen photo).

Megaload Moves Out for Moscow and Beyond

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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 24-foot-wide, 14-foot-tall, and 208-foot-long oversized load departed Lewiston Thursday night on its way to Moscow and beyond to Alberta, Canada (The Lewiston Tribune/Kyle Mills photo).

Imperial Oil shipment leaves via U.S. Highway 95.

(Editor’s Note: Ms. Wiliams wrote this story off-site with a phone interview, before the largest Moscow anti-tar sands megaload protest erupted later that evening.)

The stars in a summer sky were among the only witnesses to the departure of the first Imperial Oil megaload to go through Moscow.

The load left the Port of Lewiston at 10:05 p.m. Thursday, following a couple of honks that signaled the start of its journey.

Wild Idaho Rising Tide, an anti-megaload group, had previously announced plans to watch it leave Lewiston and protest it in Moscow. Continue reading →

Megaload May Roll through Monday: Imperial Oil Received Permit from ITD

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Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil can move its first half-height megaload through Moscow on U.S. Highway 95 Monday from the Port of Lewiston after receiving a permit Wednesday through the Idaho Transportation Department.

The equipment module, destined for the Kearl Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada, is 24-feet wide, 14-feet tall and 208-feet long, according to an email from ITD spokesman Jeff Stratten. Including the pusher truck, the total weight of the shipment is 413,600 pounds. Continue reading →

Smaller Imperial Oil Shipments Set for Transport this Weekend

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Some of ExxonMobil's modules sit along the Clearwater River at the Port of Lewiston, Idaho, in early February 2011 (Missoulian/Linda Thompson photo).

More king-size loads of oil field equipment are headed to the Kearl tar sands of Alberta this weekend, and the route comes through Missoula on Interstate 90.

The Idaho Transportation Department has given Exxon Mobil/Imperial Oil the green light for two oversized loads to leave the Port of Lewiston and use U.S. Highway 95 and Interstate 90 to enter into Montana over Lookout Pass.  Idaho state troopers will escort the loads on the 175-mile trip to the stateline.

Smaller than the megaloads that used U.S. Highway 12 through Idaho and into Montana, the loads traveling this weekend are 17.5 feet wide, 14 feet tall, and 76 feet long.

One load will be leaving at 10 p.m. Saturday.  The other will depart at the same time Sunday.

While the oil company prepared its equipment for travel on Friday, Idaho activists geared up to protest the trucks.

Read more: Smaller Imperial Oil Shipments Set for Transport this Weekend

(By Alyse Backus, intern reporter, The Missoulian, Ravalli Republic)

Megaload Ready to Roll through Moscow

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Permits reissued but final date not set

Imperial Oil has five days starting Friday to get a megaload and another smaller, oversized shipment from the Port of Lewiston to Idaho’s border via the Palouse.

The Idaho Transportation Department reissued the permits Wednesday for the moves, said Adam Rush, a spokesman for the agency in Boise.

The 23-foot-wide, 208-foot-long, 13 1/2-foot-tall shipment will be inspected and weighed today, but its exact date of departure hasn’t been set yet, according to Rush and Pius Rolheiser, a spokesman for Imperial Oil. Continue reading →

Five Arrested and Released in Helena Protest against Big Oil

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HELENA – About 70 protesters thundered into the state Capitol on Tuesday, banging on plastic pails and chanting slogans in opposition to the planned Keystone XL pipeline – which is slated to carry crude oil from the Alberta tar sands through Montana – and the megaloads of oil-drilling equipment destined for Alberta.

…Many were associated with Northern Rockies Rising Tide, a group that opposes development of the Alberta tar sands, which critics have said will have significant negative environmental effects.

…Helen Yost of Moscow, Idaho, stood and invited the group to her town, where she said megaloads would be coming. “We’re going to stop them, any way we can,” she said, to cheers.

(By Sanjay Talwani, Independent Record, Helena, Montana, article in Missoulian)

Read more: Five Arrested and Released in Helena Protest against Big Oil