Climate Justice Forum: Eriel Deranger 6-25-12

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On the Monday, June 25, Climate Justice Forum radio program, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) enthusiastically welcomes Eriel Deranger, the Edmonton-based communications coordinator for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations.  Eriel discusses the Third Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk in Fort McMurray on August 4 and the impacts of Alberta tar sands operations on indigenous land and health.  We also talk about ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil’s recent decision to withdraw its permit applications to use Highway 12 and Montana rural roads for its tar sands equipment transports to Alberta.  Broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT live at 92.5 FM and online, the show also covers regional and continent-wide climate activism news.  Listen to an edited recording of the June 25 Climate Justice Forum at Radio4All and adopt WIRT as your KRFP DJ.

Montana Closes Book on Plan to Roll Mega-Loads Across U.S. 12

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The two-year battle between residents who live along U.S. Highway 12 and ExxonMobil’s mega-loads is formally over.

“We’re gratified that the industrialization of the beautiful Lochsa-Clearwater U.S. 12 corrdior has, for now, been stopped,” wrote Borg Hendrickson to Citydesk.  “And that the Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil threat to north-central Idaho’s outdoor recreation paradise and its single growing industry, tourism, has been removed.”

It was July 2010 when BW first told you about something called “mega-loads” – hundreds of giant rigs of oil equipment that ExxonMobil wanted to crawl across U.S. 12, before heading north to the oil-rich tar sands of Alberta, Canada.

Read more: Montana Closes Book on Plan to Roll Mega-Loads Across U.S. 12

(By George Prentice, Boise Weekly)

Climate Justice Forum: Andrew Nikiforuk 6-18-12

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Within opening and closing regional and national climate activism news, the Monday, June 18, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) will feature a recorded Alternative Radio talk by Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Canada’s Mordor, previously broadcast on KRFP Radio Free Moscow on Sunday, June 3.  Listen to KRFP every Monday between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT and adopt WIRT as your DJ.

Lewiston Port Approves Dock Expansion Spending

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Budget includes $2.9 million for container dock project

The biggest item in a budget Lewiston port commissioners passed Wednesday is a $2.9 million container dock expansion.

The action came just minutes after David Doeringsfeld, the port’s manager, described the port’s primary mission as job creation and retention, not getting barges up and down the river.

More than doubling the length of the 125-foot dock is consistent with that goal, Doeringfeld said after the meeting. Continue reading →

Megawoes on Megaloads

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A scene from the documentary film Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands

Idaho activists try to fire-up public over trafficking of tar-sands equipment

In the opening scenes of the documentary Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands, a helicopter glides over Alberta’s Athabasca River.  Wending through a boreal forest the size of Greece, the river and its attendant countryside is as rugged and beautiful as any in the world.  Then, over a rise, gargantuan smokestacks suddenly spear the sky, lording over a landscape that can only be described as apocalyptic: the single largest source of CO2 emissions in North America.

These are the oil sands, a geological formation in which vast quantities of bitumen lie just below the earth’s crust — the largest proven reserves of oil in the world.

More than 1,000 miles to the south, cities like Moscow and Coeur d’Alene, along the I-90 and U.S. 95 corridors, are front and center in the development’s debate.

Read more: Megawoes on Megaloads

(By Zach Hagadone, Boise Weekly)

Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop Action 6-9-12

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As the culminating action of the weekend direct action training sessions at the Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop, activists held up a giant, plastic mesh banner and projected anti-coal export and -fracking “bat signals” on the wall across the street from local LGBTQ hangout, Irv’s Bar, in downtown Spokane, Washington, on the Saturday celebratory evening of the Pride event on June 9.  Photos by Joan Medina and Helen Yost feature workshop trainers Kim Marks and Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky of Portland Rising Tide, Bill Moyer of Backbone Campaign, and participants Dave Bilsland, Terry Hill, Joan Medina, and Richard Schmidt of Occupy Spokane and Helen Yost of Wild Idaho Rising Tide.

Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Bill Moyer & Terry Hill 6-11-12

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The Monday, June 11, Climate Justice Forum radio program hosted by Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) will cover a half-hour of regional and national climate activism news followed by a recording of coal export issue presentations offered by Missoula and Portland participants in the Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop last weekend, June 8 and 9, in Spokane.  Workshop trainer Bill Moyer of Backbone Campaign will join us by phone at 8:30 pm, to describe his organization’s artful and theatrical demonstrations and props.  Terry Hill of Occupy Spokane will talk at 9 pm about Spokane anti-megaload protests and the Lilac City’s occupy movement and clubhouse.  Listen to KRFP Radio Free Moscow online or at 92.5 FM between 7:30 and 9:30 pm PDT every Monday and adopt WIRT as your KRFP DJ!

Northwest Extraction Resistance Workshop Introduction

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Participant Shannon Ross recorded the Northwest Resource Extraction Resistance Workshop Introduction in Spokane on Friday evening, June 8, when four Blues Skies Campaign colleagues and Portland Rising Tide trainer Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky presented slides and descriptions of coal export train issues from their respective Montana and Oregon perspectives.  Off-camera afterwards, Sierra Club organizer Walter Kloefkorn summarized Spokane and Washington coal train concerns and actions, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide activist Helen Yost talked and showed a video about Alberta tar sands operations and Idaho megaload resistance.

Movement Wants to Stop Inland Northwest Coal Trains

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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

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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!