Climate Justice Forum: John Wolverton & Kyla Wiens 2-27-12

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This Monday, February 27, Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s weekly broadcast and audio-streamed Climate Justice Forum radio program will host John Wolverton of the Montana Chapter of the Sierra Club and Kyla Wiens of the Montana Environmental Information Center in a conversation about their court case with Missoula County and the National Wildlife Federation, the repercussions of Judge Dayton’s decision, and the future of our regional resistance to tar sands heavy hauls by several companies.  Please listen between 7:30 and 9 pm PST every Monday to KRFP Radio Free Moscow, as we cover regional and national dirty energy news and grassroots resistance.

Idaho House Bill 464 Comment Suggestions

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Urgent action is needed on House Bill 464!

If House Bill 464 passes the Idaho Senate as it has already passed the House, it would shift all meaningful control over oil and gas production from the county/city level up to the state level.

Under the Local Land Use Planning Act (LLUPA) and current state statutes, anytime someone wants to develop a property in a manner and location other than how that area is currently zoned, they must follow a special permitting process. For example, if Snake River Oil and Gas wanted to drill a well on the Payette Elementary School grounds, they would have to apply for and be granted a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) or Special Use Permit (SUP), in this case, through the City of Payette. They would file an application with the city and be required to go through a public hearing process in order to be granted the permit. That process mandates a public notice, written notification to surrounding property owners, and a public meeting where residents can testify for or against the siting of the facility. It also affords affected property owners the ability to appeal a permit if they feel they have been aggrieved in any way or if the process was not handled correctly (no public notice, no notification to surrounding landowners, etc.). Continue reading →

Tar Sands and Its Discontents

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On Friday, February 24, Scott Parkin of Rising Tide North America (whom we hosted on our Climate Justice Forum show last week) published the article Tar Sands and Its Discontents in the online journal of “dispatches from the youth climate movement,” It’s Getting Hot in Here.  Scott opens his piece by asking readers, “Besides the story of the massive campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, do you know about the other battles going on around the U.S. to stop the tar sands?”  He then relates Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s (WIRT) numerous rowdy protests, civil disobedience, citizen journalism, and megaload monitoring since last summer in our small town and reveals that, “Now only a few megaloads remain, and WIRT is organizing final actions to challenge Exxon’s supremacy.”  His article also references our Rising Tide colleagues’ work to stop tar sands development “in the red rocked canyons of southern Utah” (please see Utah Tar Sands) as well as Maine opposition to a proposed pipeline flow reversal, which could bring Canadian tar sands to the rocky coast, and unrest throughout the country, where “Big Oil has been modifying and building facilities solely for tar sands refining.”  Scott’s conclusion offers confirmation that WIRT’s actions stand at the forefront of long-overdue rebellions “of die-hard anti-tar sands fighters” against this industry’s “money, corrupt politicians, and institutional power and influence,” with “uprisings against powerful oil interests [not] that far off.”

Please read the rest at: Tar Sands and Its Discontents.

(From WIRT Newsletter)

Citizens Give First-Hand Account on Monitoring Megaloads

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Besides the much appreciated, ongoing, thorough coverage of Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) protests and court cases by KRFP Radio Free Moscow posted on our website, our tar sands transport monitoring activities garnered some rare regional television exposure in mostly pro-megaload Lewiston with the KLEW TV story Citizens Give First-Hand Account on Monitoring Megaloads.  The brief video and reportage by Cindy Cha features Rob Briggs and Paul McPoland as megaload monitors gathering evidence for a potential administrative court case and spin-off monitor and accident victim misdemeanor trials.  The KLEW camera also captures our approximately fortieth WIRT protest and organizer Helen Yost in the cold wind outside Moscow City Hall, where most officials have largely welcomed the perceived economic benefits of their complicity.

(By Cindy Cha, KLEW TV Lewiston)

Senate Panel Kills Effort to Tie Colorado Communities’ Hands on Oil and Gas Regulations

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The state-local struggle over regulation of oil and gas drilling shifted Thursday after Colorado lawmakers killed an effort to extinguish the ability of cities and counties to set their own rules.

Senators on the Local Government Committee voted 4-1 to reject Senate Bill 88, sponsored by Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, which would have pre-empted local power to use land-use and zoning regulations to control industrial development. The bill would have given the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unfettered power to supervise the industry.

Energy companies are preparing to tap the vast Niobrara shale formation along Colorado’s heavily populated Front Range. Residents are anxious, attending forums, asking that drillers be required to keep greater distances from homes and schools, conduct baseline water and air tests, and adhere to environment-friendly practices.

Read more: Senate Panel Kills Effort to Tie Colorado Communities’ Hands on Oil and Gas Regulations

(By Bruce Finley, The Denver Post)

Stop the Tar Sands, Idaho!

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If you could choose only a few nights to oppose the brutal expansion of the largest industrial project on Earth, Alberta tar sands exploitation, Sunday, March Fourth! and possibly another evening this week offer your best chances!  Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists and Moscow community members plan to fully exercise our First Amendment rights of free speech and public assembly on Sunday and as the last five twice-postponed megaloads of over 70 upgrader plant parts rampage Highway 95 this week.  These demonstrations present some of your last local opportunities to express your outrage with ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil’s corporate malfeasance with tar sands transportation and production projects: be there or miss the action! Continue reading →

Officials Offer Differing Views on Future of Megaloads and the Port of Lewiston

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In a Tuesday, February 21, Lewiston Tribune story, Port of Lewiston manager David Doeringsfeld stated that Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil has scheduled no additional tar sands processing plant parts to move through the port.  Like the equipment of two companies contracted by the oil giant, two large cranes that load modules onto trailers will also be dismantled and removed from the port by the end of March.  But Imperial Oil spokesman Pius Rolheiser asserts that his firm has not made decisions about exact numbers of megaloads on specific routes for an approved second phase of plant construction and expansion to a similar capacity as the first, expecting completion by the end of 2012.  Although all of Imperial Oil’s original 207 transports have either almost vacated Highway 95 or are currently moving out of the Port of Pasco up Highway 395, a second wave of a similar amount of South Korean-made split-height components could pummel our Northwest/Northern Rockies highways soon.  Meanwhile, two other companies have inquired about shipping through the port an unknown number of oversized wind turbine and pressure vessel pieces.

(From WIRT Newsletter)

Please see Officials Offer Differing Views on Future of Megaloads and the Port of Lewiston below for more updates. Continue reading →

Megaload Monitor Motion to Throw Out Seatbelt Misdemeanor Rejected

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On Friday, February 17, Kootenai County Judge Clark Peterson dismissed a motion to suppress the charge of resisting and obstructing an officer imposed on Wild Idaho Rising Tide organizer Helen Yost.  Idaho State Police arrested and jailed Cici Claar and Ms. Yost on August 26, 2011, when they refused to provide identification after trooper accusations of not wearing safety belts in the back seat of a parked vehicle, as they monitored Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil tar sands megaloads south of Coeur d’Alene.  We anticipate plenty of arguments about civil rights, constitutional case law, and corporate police states, along with regional media coverage, when a jury trial of both defendants occurs in April or May.  Listen to the KRFP Radio Free Moscow story and interview of megaload monitor Helen Yost between 21:00 and 13:11 on the Monday, February 20, Evening Report: Megaload Monitor Motion to Throw Out Seatbelt Misdemeanor Rejected.  For further background on this situation, see the Moscow-Pullman Daily News article Megaload Monitors Arrested Saturday for Obstruction Outside Coeur d’Alene and The Spokesman Review piece Three More Megaload Protesters Arrested in Coeur d’Alene.

Seven Better Never than Late Megaloads

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[Update: Wild Northern Rockies winter weather and other adverse conditions have reportedly forced ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil to postpone passage of its three Tuesday megaloads until Wednesday, February 22.  For further logistical information, please see the following revised request for protester and monitor involvement.]

With only a few of the 78 split-megaloads remaining at the Port of Lewiston, citizens outraged by corporate takeover of our public resources and senseless exacerbation of ecological destruction, Native genocide, and climate chaos NEED YOU in the Moscow streets on Wednesday night, February 22, to remind ExxonMobil’s Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil how forever unwelcome it is in north central Idaho.  Between the four Highway 12 court cases and about 40 Highway 95 protests in Moscow and Potlatch, we are kicking Big Oil’s tar sands equipment off the taxpayer-funded highways it has conspicuously damaged with over 70 massive loads, as we expand megaload opposition to Spokane and Interstate 90 (see Highway 95 Megaload Tire Marks south of Plummer, Idaho 2-17-12). Continue reading →

Idaho Fracking Forum Recording: Part 1

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KRFP Radio Free Moscow recently posted the first half of the Idaho Fracking Forum recorded on February 11 at the Hamilton Indoor Recreation Center in Moscow.  Sponsored by the Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, Palouse Group Sierra Club, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide, the public discussion addressed the policy and science of newly emerging natural gas industry practices in Idaho.  Panel speakers included southern Idaho anti-fracking activists Liz Amason and Amanda Buchanan, University of Idaho hydrogeologist Jerry Fairley, Kai Huschke of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, and Idaho Representative Tom Trail of Moscow.  State Senator Dan Schmidt of Moscow and several visiting and resident audience members also contributed to the conversation.  Please see Idaho Fracking Forum for more information about the forum and listen to Idaho Fracking Forum Part 1.