Goodbye, Tar Sands Megaloads, Moscow, Idaho 3-4-12


From the slightly taller viewpoint of Jeremy Jenkins, this great footage shows Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s protest late Sunday night, March 4, blocking ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil tar sands megaloads on their rampage from Korean assembly to Alberta bitumen processing via the Port of Lewiston and Highway 95 in Idaho.  At the second to the last transport passage and spirited protest in downtown Moscow, Idaho – the front lines of the fight for tar sands justice that has clashed with every convoy – Jeremy caught the heart of the action in a small, rural, college town in a deep-red state.  Four brave, caring people sat down and put their bodies on the line in Washington Street, in front of three megaloads weighing 865,000 pounds, to challenge climate-killers who are wrecking the pristine Athabasca River watershed and boreal forest, the First Nations of northern Alberta, and the atmosphere and Earth we all share.  The resulting wrestling match with industry-sponsored state and city police dragged two men and two women (Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall) to the curb and arrested and jailed only Cass and Jim when they attempted to reenter the road.  Fellow tar sands and climate activists across the country and world are noticing and encouraging our resistance and real news ignored by the mainstream media mostly owned by corporate interests.  No other press except our faithful, progressive, local station, KRFP Radio Free Moscow, witnessed the demonstration.  As Idahoans continue to impede tar sands traffic along two of four emerging industrial corridors, our voices are being heard and others are standing together in solidarity against tar sands injustices.  Eventually humanity will prevail over the oilocracy’s greed, destructive machines, and devastation of our struggling planet and democracy.

(By Jeremy Jenkins)

Good Riddance, ExxonMobil!


On Tuesday, March 6, the last two of over 70 components of a Canadian tar sands upgrader will cross Highway 95 and Moscow en route to Montana and Alberta.  The community of life on this planet needs our full participation tonight as we together raise our voices and impose our bodies against ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil’s dirty energy and its dire ecological and climate consequences.  Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) members and regional activists will launch our final, local, anti-megaload actions in downtown Moscow starting at 9:30 pm PST, to celebrate Big Oil’s departure from the Port of Lewiston and north central Idaho and to further expose its degradation of the boreal forest, First Nations’ health, and our global climate.  After our successful civil disobedience blockade on Sunday by Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall, corporate oppression at the hands of state, county, and city police, pilot vehicle drivers, and flaggers will likely tighten security around its single-file Moscow convoy and staggered transports on the rest of its Idaho route. Continue reading

The Last Two Imperial Oil Megaloads Set to Leave the Port of Lewiston Tuesday


Two Imperial Oil megaloads are expected to leave Tuesday from the Port of Lewiston.

The modules are the last two left at Idaho’s only seaport, according to an email from David Doeringsfeld, manager of the Port of Lewiston.

Two cranes used in handling the extra big shipments at the Port of Lewiston were dismantled last week, Doeringsfeld said in the email.

This could mean that Lewiston will no longer play a role in getting Korean-made components to an Imperial Oil processing plant at the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada.

But that’s not entirely clear. Imperial Oil hasn’t confirmed it only has two megaloads left in Lewiston or disclosed what plans, if any, it has for Lewiston in the future.

As always, the Tribune will stay on the story. A photographer will join me at the Port of Lewiston Tuesday to watch the Imperial Oil megaloads depart.

I’ll continue to ask the Idaho Transportation Department and Port of Lewiston officials about any plans that may surface for other megaloads.

(By Elaine Williams, The Lewiston Tribune)

Climate Justice Forum: Pat Monger, Jeanne McHale, & Emily Stock 3-5-12


On the March 5 broadcast of Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s Climate Justice Forum radio program, we will feature activists Pat Monger and Jeanne McHale, who linked arms and sat with Cass Davis and Jim Prall, whom police arrested for blocking megaloads of a tar sands upgrader plant traversing Washington Street in Moscow on Sunday, March 4.  We will also talk with Emily Stock of Canyon Country Rising Tide in Moab, Utah, about resistance to already permitted tar sands mining and processing projects near Arches and Canyonlands national parks.  Please listen to KRFP Radio Free Moscow at 92.5 FM or online, between 7:30 and 9 pm PST every Monday, as we cover news about regional and national dirty energy projects and associated grassroots resistance.

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads​” in Moscow, Idaho


Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all.  As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4.  Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed.  The women did not appreciate the discrimination.  In a video by Joshua Yeidel of a KRFP Radio Free Moscow interview, We Won’t Be Accessories to Genocide: Moscow ID, March 4, 2012, one of the dismissed women explained her and her many allies’ motivations for marching, chanting, and even obstructing megaloads and risking arrest in cold and dark winter conditions. “We’re not going to be accessories to genocide and climate change and increased cancer rates and all the other ecological damages that the tar sands intends to cause…” Continue reading

Megaloads and Arrests, Moscow, Idaho 3-4-12


Challenged by contrasting darkness and bright lights, this video shot by Joshua Yeidel with a small snapshot camera shows four good people putting their bodies in Washington Street for a better future for all of the world’s descendants.  As enormous loads of oil-field equipment head for the climate-killing Alberta tar sands mines, citizens of Moscow, Idaho, gathered on Sunday, March 6, to bear witness, raise their voices in protest, and cry out truth.  In spite of heavy police presence, four brave men and women (Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall) sat down in the street and briefly blocked three megaloads, before being dragged away and the two men arrested.  These surreal scenes in a small, rural, north Idaho college town are emblematic of the madness that attends every aspect of Alberta tar sands projects.  Thanks to all who actively oppose the genocide, ecocide, and climate chaos induced by tar sands production consumed almost entirely by Americans.

(By Joshua Yeidel)

We Won’t Be Accessories to Genocide: Moscow, Idaho 3-4-12


Among three other protesters who sat in Washington Street on Sunday night, March 4, Jeanne McHale blocked three enormous ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads of processing equipment moving through downtown Moscow, Idaho, toward the devastating Alberta tar sands project in Canada.  City and state police jailed the two male blockaders but refused to arrest the two females whom they also dragged out of the road and detained.  In a brief interview with a KRFP Radio Free Moscow reporter, Jeanne explained why she and many others are marching, chanting, and even willing to risk arrest after protesting for numerous nights in the dark winter cold of Idaho, while contributing several supportive roles to Wild Idaho Rising Tide.  “We’re not going to be accessories to genocide and climate change and increased cancer rates and all the other ecological damages that the tar sands intends to cause…”

(By Sharon Cousins)

Moscow Megaload Protests & Arrests 3-4-12


At the Wild Idaho Rising Tide protest in Moscow, Idaho, on Sunday night, March 4, 2012, four brave activists sat in Washington Street and, despite state and city police harassment, temporarily blocked and halted the death march of three of the last ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads of an Alberta tar sands upgrader plant.  From among forty surrounding demonstrators, police dragged Cass Davis, Jeanne McHale, Pat Monger, and Jim Prall out of the road and arrested Cass and Jim when they attempted to reenter.  All four blockaders embody the thousands of regional citizens concerned about the genocide and ecocide resulting from tar sands operations.  Moscow protesters hope that they have proven troublesome enough to dissuade any more modules arriving by barge at the Port of Lewiston, after the final two transports depart on Tuesday, March 6.  Nonetheless, the Kearl Oil Sands processing facilities built by the megaloads of parts that protesters could not stop will still impose “game over” for the climate and a livable future for billions of lives on this planet.

(By Zachary Johnson, selected photos from among 50 pictures available on facebook at Moscow Megaload Protests & Arrests – 4 March 2012)

Has the Megaload Saga Finally Come to a Close?


The Idaho Department of Transportation caused a flurry of excitement for activists in Moscow, Idaho early Tuesday, Feb. 28. The agency said the shipping company Mammeot would be transporting three of the last megaloads that night. The alert changed later that afternoon, stating it would be just one.

Has the megaload saga finally come to a close?

Read more: Has the Megaload Saga Finally Come to a Close?

(By Alex Sakariassen, Missoula Independent)

Alarms Raised over Coal Train Traffic


SANDPOINT — Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper and the Sierra Club are hosting a forum Thursday to raise awareness of a plan that could dramatically increase coal train traffic through Bonner County.

The Coal Hard Truth forum starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Little Panida Theater on First Avenue.

Opponents of the plan contend that increased coal train traffic will heighten the odds of a derailment, foul water quality with coal dust and damage air quality with diesel pollution. There is also concern that the added train traffic will slow emergency response because traffic will be halted at-grade railroad crossings to let trains through.

Featured speakers at the forum include Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, Dr. Robert Truckner, small business owner and farmer Walter Kloefkorn and Shannon Williamson, executive director of Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper.

Critics of the proposals by Arch Coal and Peabody Energy estimate as many as 40 additional trains will be coming through the community.

Read more: Alarms Raised over Coal Train Traffic

(By Keith Kinnaird, news editor, Bonner County Daily Bee)