GTN Xpress Pipeline Protests Meetings & Winter Updates

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Protests Planning Meetings

While TC Energy desperately seeks to offload its stranded Canadian gas assets on the Northwest with the GTN Xpress expansion project proposed for the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline, and pits elected Idaho politicians against their western Democrat neighbors, dozens of nonprofit organizations are coordinating authentic, public opposition to GTN Xpress.  These community groups, including Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), assert that the project is inconsistent with regional efforts to transition away from reliance on polluting, planet-warming fossil fuels.  Resistance to GTN Xpress continues to grow, as thousands of Northwest residents work together to demand that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) deny this risky plan and responsibly uphold regionally legislated goals for diminishing use of climate-changing, fracked gas.  With a final FERC decision on the project expected as early as March 16 (postponed from the commission’s third Thursday, monthly meeting on February 16), we again invite you and your friends, family, and colleagues to join us in active rejection of this unnecessary fossil fuels invasion of the Northwest, as TC Energy and its subsidiary GTN scheme to increase the volume and pressure in their 62-year-old pipeline, just like TC Energy did in the decade-old Keystone tar sands pipeline, before it burst in Kansas on December 7, 2022.

In preparation for a possible March 16, FERC decision, WIRT and allies in three cities are holding in-person planning meetings to organize the next pipeline protests with eager activists across the inland Northwest.  We hope that you will participate in these gatherings and encourage your trusted comrades to attend.

* Saturday, March 4, at 3 pm at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho

* Sunday, March 5, at 1 pm at the Community Building, 35 West Main Street in Spokane, Washington

* Monday, March 6, at 7 pm at the Gardenia Center, 400 Church Street in Sandpoint, Idaho

For further information, please see and share the linked coalition videos about GTN Xpress resistance and the February 13 People’s Hearing, send your written comments sharing your concerns about GTN Xpress (Docket CP22-2-000) to FERC soon, peruse the enclosed and linked information promised with the People’s Hearing announcement and covering four months of campaign activity from mid-November 2022 until mid-February 2023, contact WIRT with your questions and suggestions, and expect further updates about upcoming, responsively scheduled protests and other urgent actions.  WIRT and partner groups appreciate your work and input on this crucial issue that requires even more public participation, especially in the environmental and political sacrifice zones of Idaho.

Stop GTN Xpress, January 30, 2023 Rogue Climate

People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress, February 14, 2023 350PDX

How to File a Comment, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

FERC Online: Web Applications, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Pipeline Impacts & Winter Updates Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Nick Engelfried on Youth Climate Movement, Musician Isaac Murdoch, Spokane, Northwest, & BC Pipeline & Police Resistance, Cheaper Wind & Solar than Coal Power 3-1-23

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The Wednesday, March 1, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Nick Engelfried, a Northwest climate advocate, environmental educator and founder of Reconnect Earth, and freelance journalist and author of Movement Makers about American youth climate activism.  We also share news, music, and reflections on Ontario indigenous musician and artist Isaac Murdoch, a people’s hearing, a request for governor opposition, and Spokane area and Northwest resistance to a proposed gas pipeline expansion, a British Columbia First Nation lawsuit against police violations of pipeline protester rights, and a study on wind and solar power generation cheaper than coal-fired power plant operations.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: People’s Hearing Testimony to Stop Northwest Pipeline Expansion, New Tribal Lawsuit against Nevada Lithium Mine, Idaho River Diesel Spill, Railroad Hazmat Risks 2-22-23

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The Wednesday, February 22, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features community members threatened by the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline expansion project, testifying at the February 13 People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress hosted by a Northwest coalition.  We also share news, videos, and reflections on a new lawsuit filed by three tribes protecting their northern Nevada lands from the Thacker Pass lithium mine, a semi-truck crash and diesel spill into a north Idaho river, and railroaded hazardous materials risks to American trackside communities.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: GTN Xpress People’s Hearing Speakers, Oregon Protests, & Idaho News, Ohio Chemical Train & Oregon Locomotive Wrecks, Idaho Highway Wetlands & Construction 2-15-23

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The Wednesday, February 15, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features lead speakers at the February 13 People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress, hosted by a Northwest coalition to gather testimony from community members threatened by Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline expansion and avoided by federal regulators.  We also share news, music, and reflections on the Ohio chemical train derailment still sickening area residents and caused by reduced railroad safety measures and increased plastics production, a triple locomotive wreck and diesel spill near an Oregon river, resumed construction and wetlands concerns for a north Idaho highway reroute, and Idaho media coverage and central Oregon protests of proposed GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

People’s Hearing on GTN Xpress

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GTN Xpress People's Hearing Flyer

Starting at 5 pm Pacific time and 6 pm Mountain time on Monday evening, February 13, a Northwest coalition of nonprofit organizations, including 350 Deschutes, 350 PDX, Columbia Riverkeeper, Rogue Climate, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), will host a People’s Hearing on Canadian company TC Energy’s proposal to expand fracked “natural” gas exported through the aging Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline and compressor stations that span north Idaho, eastern Washington, and central Oregon.  This hybrid town hall, convened online and in-person at the Gardenia Center (400 Church Street in Sandpoint, Idaho) and at the Rogue Climate office (205 North Phoenix Road, Suite G, Phoenix, Oregon), offers participants opportunities to learn about the potential impacts of the GTN Xpress expansion project and to provide testimony recorded and sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the project docket.

Among concerned, regional community members and environmental and climate advocates sharing their insights and stories, the People’s Hearing on GTN Xpress will feature these key speakers:

* U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon

* Audrey Leonard, staff attorney of Columbia Riverkeeper

* Peter McCartney, climate campaigner of Wilderness Committee

* Dr. Annemarie Dooley, physician and board member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility

* Naghmana Sherazi, activist and board member of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light

Please RSVP and register to join this virtual conference at bit.ly/peopleshearing_gtn and/or gather at the Gardenia Center or Rogue Climate office and contact WIRT for further information [1].  Timely input from citizens and local elected officials to FERC before its possible decision on this project on Thursday, March 16, is crucial to halting the GTN Xpress fossil fuels onslaught [2].  Along with commenting and/or testifying to FERC, help support this resistance by amplifying a new video recently launched by the grassroots coalition, through social media posts email messages, and other methods [3].  Also reach out to any of the partner groups, if your organization is interested in joining the fight to #StopGTNXpress.  Within the next few days, WIRT will add to this post and send further descriptions of pipeline expansion impacts and issue updates, to assist involvement in this campaign. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Maig Tinnin on Northwest Pipeline Expansion & Hearing, Idaho Highway Wetlands, Logging Collaboratives, Nevada Lithium Mine Ruling, Pipeline & Railroad Protests 2-8-23

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The Wednesday, February 8, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Rogue Climate coordinator Maig Tinnin talking about southern Oregon wildfire aftermaths and the environmental and social impacts and Northwest community opposition to GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion.  We also share news, music, and reflections on a north Idaho wetland analysis along a Highway 95 reroute, failed Forest Service logging collaborative processes, responses to a federal court decision favoring northern Nevada lithium mining, comments against Mountain Valley pipeline destruction of national forests, an upcoming online action demanding Uinta Basin Railway rejection, and a February 13 People’s Hearing to stop increased Northwest pipeline gas.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

(Links to program material forthcoming)

Climate Justice Forum: Idaho Riverside Gas Lease & Urban Coyotes, Logging Collaboratives, GTN Xpress Pipeline Hearing, Keystone & Mountain Valley Pipeline Permits, Asteroid Approach 2-1-23

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The Wednesday, February 1, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news, music, and reflections on the lunar new year and traditional early spring celebrations, a close asteroid approach to Earth, proposed Idaho oil and gas laws and city leases of riverside well gas, U.S. Forest Service collaborative collusion of environmental groups for logging projects, north Idaho urban coyotes chasing and biting skiers, planned GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion, its Northwest opposition, and upcoming people’s hearing, a U.S. Senate committee request for increased oversight of Keystone pipeline pressure and spills, and a petition against national forest permits for the Mountain Valley pipeline in Appalachia.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Fossil Fuels Resisters on Joye Braun, Atlanta Forest Defender Murder, Idaho Timber Sale & Silica Mine, Greta Thunberg Arrest, Fossil Fuels Treaty 1-25-23

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The Wednesday, January 25, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features People versus Fossil Fuels coalition organizers talking about the legacy of indigenous water protector and pipeline opponent Joye Braun and supporting the day of action in her honor.  We also share news, music, and reflections on the raiding police murder of a protester defending an Atlanta forest from planned cop training center development, a proposed north Idaho lakeside timber sale around exploratory silica drilling, the arrest of climate advocate Greta Thunberg at a German coal mine protest and an international treaty protecting fossil fuels invasions, and the final live performance and death of rebellious musician David Crosby.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Maig Tinnin on Oregon Wildfire Aftermaths & GTN Xpress Gas Pipeline Expansion Opposition, Idaho Collaborative Chloride Gold Lakeside Timber Sale 1-18-23

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The Wednesday, January 18, 2023, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Rogue Climate coordinator Maig Tinnin talking about southern Oregon wildfire aftermaths, the environmental and social impacts of GTN Xpress gas pipeline expansion, and the Northwest community campaign and upcoming People’s Hearing opposing it.  We also share news, music, and reflections on the massive, collaborative Chloride Gold timber sale proposed for the remote, mountainous, southeast side of Lake Pend Oreille in north Idaho.  Broadcast for eleven years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots, frontline resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ. Continue reading →

Oppose Collaborative Deforestation around Lake Pend Oreille!

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) and compromised, north Idaho Big Greens involved in the Panhandle Forest “Collaborative” have agreed to massive deforestation of steep mountains on the remote, wilder, east side of Lake Pend Oreille, promoted as “restoration” projects to reduce wildfires and insect and disease outbreaks [1, 2].  Over the next few years, the Sandpoint Ranger District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests (IPNF) and timber companies plan to excessively build roads and log over 175,000 acres of Lake Pend Oreille slopes, which would degrade water and air quality, wildlife habitat, protected areas, and recreational opportunities.  A complex of three contiguous logging projects, the 57,000-acre Buckskin Saddle, 43,000-acre Chloride Gold, and 43,500-acre Honey Badger, extends 45 miles from the Clark Fork River on the north, throughout eastern lake forests, and south to the Hayden Lake area.  Government proposals and decisions on these unnecessary forays into carbon-sequestering forests overlap temporally, while the middle Chloride Gold project also overlaps spatially with the area of the Kaniksu Winter Recreation environmental assessment (EA).  These USFS overlaps are called “stacking National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents,” an illegal rush and overburden of public scrutiny.

Located to the south of federal agency-finalized Buckskin Saddle project destruction, currently stalled by Johnson Creek bridge replacement near the Clark Fork River delta between September 2022 and May 2023, and potential litigation by grassroots groups, the Chloride Gold (CG) project proposes to conduct “vegetation management,” “hazardous fuels reduction,” and other activities to “manage invasive plants, roads, trails, recreation, wildlife habitat, and improve fish passage under roads … [and] overall landscape resiliency to disturbances” [2-6].  Pre-scoping ideas suggested that the USFS planned to push approximately 23.8 miles of new, “temporary” road construction and over 12 square miles of forest “regeneration” cuts in the area, which would remove the vast majority of trees in over 17,000 acres (26.6 square miles), through logging, road building, and controlled burning, even in inventoried roadless areas (IRAs).  According to the December 1, 2022, Chloride Gold scoping notice signed by Sandpoint District ranger Jessie Berner, over 22,500 acres would undergo “vegetation treatments” including large clearcuts and prescribed burns.  The scoping letter requests public review and comments by Monday, January 16, 2023, for USFS consideration in drafting only an environmental assessment (EA), not the full environmental impact statement (EIS) required and necessary for the CG onslaught.

On September 27, 2022, in preparation for a public presentation and field trip refuting this logging project, provided by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) in spring or summer 2023, Northern Rockies wildlands and wildlife activist and GIS researcher Paul Sieracki and two WIRT board members visited the Chloride Gold logging project area [7].  With precise maps in hand while exploring CG forests, these citizen monitors found a highly impacted landscape, crossed by a spaghetti network of roads and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and motorcycle trails, devastated by huge logged areas, and immersed in road dust and subsequent lake haze.  They documented and publicly offered their observations with photographs and descriptions, noting several situations in which further CG ravages could severely disturb flora, fauna, and roadless areas [7].  For the Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Climate Justice Forum, weekly radio program produced by WIRT and recorded and posted on the WIRT website, Paul graciously expounded on his knowledge of the probable damages of the lakeside Chloride Gold scheme [8].  WIRT shares a summary of these insights in the following sections intended to further inform and assist public input resisting this CG cause of regional climate chaos. Continue reading →