Climate Justice Forum: Lake Pend Oreille Rail Bridge Hearing Testimony & Rally, Railroad Safety Violation Whistleblower, Idaho Oil & Gas Forced Pooling & Millennium Coal Terminal Rejection Lawsuits 5-23-18

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The Wednesday, May 23, 2018 Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features recorded, Idaho Department of Lands hearing testimony on Lake Pend Oreille railroad bridge and track expansion impacts, and news and reflections on a No2ndBridge rally, railroad employee disclosure of safety violations, and federal lawsuits against Idaho oil and gas forced pooling of mineral owners and Washington state rejection of the Millennium coal terminal.  Broadcast for six 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 resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

May 23 #No2ndBridge Hearings & Rally

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For decades, the Sandpoint to Spokane, railroad “funnel” community, who cherishes and relies on the clean water, air, and lands of beautiful Lake Pend Oreille and north Idaho for our shared economy and life ways, has endured the ongoing dangers and pollution of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway.  The company hauls 95 percent of the volatile, fracked, Bakken crude oil, all of the heavy metal-laden, Powder River Basin coal, and many other toxic substances through the region, via its Northwest pipeline-on-wheels.  It spews coal dust and diesel emissions, risks and degrades the health and safety of resident and visiting people and wildlife with pollution, noise, hazardous materials transport, derailments, and accidents, including three wrecked, coal and corn trains within 33 miles of Sandpoint, between March and August 2017, and dozens of injuries and deaths of pedestrians, family pets, and vehicle drivers and passengers over the last 20 years.  Meanwhile, BNSF coerces local, state, and national citizens, elected officials, and emergency and regulatory agencies to accept and promote these escalating abuses of discounted, rural and urban, rail-line communities, advocating the consumer complicity and corporate conquests that drive gratuitous, unjust, global capitalism, basic human rights violations, and climate change.

While BNSF questionably boasts about its local jobs and monetary incentives, interstate commerce rules ensure that Idaho receives no state taxes from transiting trains.  Compared to the origins and destinations of rail freight, remote north Idaho gains much less railroad revenue and employment, and supports fewer state track inspectors and emergency response personnel and equipment.  But like all greedy industrialists, BNSF now wants even more plunder for profit, in spite of the price already paid by people and the planet for its perpetually reinforcing, increasingly destructive expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure and invasion of our natural habitat.  BNSF is planning to double two miles of tracks through Sandpoint, in close proximity to small, downtown businesses and the historic railroad station still used by Amtrak, and build two temporary, construction spans and three permanent, parallel bridges across the Bridge Street access to popular City Beach Park, over the Sand Creek outlet for stream flow, boat launches, and marinas to Lake Pend Oreille, and almost a mile and 1000 piles across Idaho’s largest lake, the fifth deepest in the United States.

Apparently attempting to avoid, minimize, and expedite required, state and federal permitting and public notice and participation processes for this $100 million-plus, three- to five-year construction project, BNSF nominally postponed its Sandpoint Junction Connector project for three years, then visibly staged equipment and drilled and tested two piles for their bridge load bearing capacity and “done deal” public perception, at Dog Beach Park south of Sandpoint during summer 2017.  Beyond its 250-page, joint permit application, full of engineering diagrams and lingo and inadequate, biological assessments, BNSF has yet to provide any unbiased, independent studies or reports describing and thoroughly analyzing not only the purported, public benefits of increased railroad infrastructure and traffic but also their potential, significant, adverse impacts on environmental quality, endangered species, regional safety, emergency response, vehicle traffic flow, noise and pollution levels, recreational experiences, tourism businesses, economic opportunities, and critical, lake and aquifer water resources.

Please join Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and #No2ndBridge allies in halting BNSF’s track and bridge expansion proposal: We need everyone on this frontline!  Bring your best ideas, energies, comrades, and protest signs to a community resistance rally, with speakers and drummers at 5 pm on Wednesday, May 23, at the intersection of South Division Avenue and U.S. Highway 2 in Sandpoint.  Attend and testify at one or both Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) hearings on the same day, at 8 am PDT in Suite E of the Ponderay Events Center, 401 Bonner Mall Way in Ponderay, and at 6 pm PDT in the Sandpoint Middle School gymnasium, 310 South Division Avenue in Sandpoint.  Reasonably demand that IDL and the U.S. Coast Guard (USGC), who will also take public comments at these state meetings, respectively deny permits for lakebed encroachments, like temporary and permanent bridge piles, and for bridges across Sand Creek and Lake Pend Oreille. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: Lake Pend Oreille Railroad Expansion Hearings, Rallies, & Chamber of Commerce Speech, North Idaho Flooding, Native Idaho Governor Paulette Jordan Election Victory, Minnesota Tar Sands Pipeline Corridor Denial 5-16-18

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The Wednesday, May 16, 2018 Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news and reflections on upcoming rallies and hearings resisting Lake Pend Oreille railroad bridge and track expansion impacts, a railroad speech at a Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Pend Oreille lake and river flooding, primary election victory for Native, Idaho gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan, and a Minnesota judicial report denying a new corridor for tar sands pipeline Line 3.  Broadcast for six 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 opposition to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

May 2 PRDC & WIRT Moscow Meetings, #No2ndBridge Updates

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PRDC Annual Membership Meeting

The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC) invites its supporters and members of PRDC affiliated, environmental groups (Palouse Broadband of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition, Palouse Group of the Sierra Club, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide) to attend the PRDC Annual Membership Meeting on Wednesday, May 2, at the Yellow House next to the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, 420 East Second Street (near the 1912 Center and Van Buren Street) in Moscow, Idaho.  Please come to this casual event anytime between 5 and 7 pm, to talk with PRDC board members Cass Davis, Steve Flint, David Hall, Al Poplawsky, Pat Rathmann, Mary and Steve Ullrich, and Helen Yost, ask questions, vote for board candidates, enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks, and pay $5 annual dues.  If you cannot participate, please send donations and dues to this 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, via mail to P.O. Box 8804, Moscow, ID  83843, to assist its lawsuit efforts to protect native Palouse prairie remnants from U.S. Highway 95 expansion onto Paradise Ridge, and to “ensure and enhance the public safety, environmental integrity, and natural aesthetics of Paradise Ridge and its environs” (PRDC mission statement).

Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition website, Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition

Moscow WIRT Meeting & #No2ndBridge Presentation

Invite your friends and families, and join the regional, climate activist community, #No2ndBridge group members, and WIRT organizers for the May, first-Wednesday, monthly, WIRT gathering at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho, at 7 pm on Wednesday, May 2.  Discussions and action plans include Farmers Market outreach in Moscow and Sandpoint, an oil and gas waste injection well protest and petition presentation in Boise, and ongoing, dirty energy transportation monitoring and reporting.  We especially need your participation in work on a #No2ndBridge petition, brochures, banners, a peaceful, public, Sandpoint protest, regional attendance and expert testimony at May 23 hearings and rallies with speakers in Ponderay and Sandpoint, and a summer, direct action training camp, all opposing Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway track and bridge expansion of the coal, oil, hazmat, and possibly tar sands pipeline-on-wheels across Lake Pend Oreille and north Idaho.

At this WIRT convergence, we are starting to present #No2ndBridge information sessions with slide shows in Moscow, Sandpoint, Missoula, Spokane, and other, inland Northwest locations.  All are welcome to bring their creative ideas and energies and potluck food and beverages, to share current, issue updates and background, and to explore strategies and tactics in support and solidarity with grassroots, Northwest resistance to the power and pollution of the fossil fuel and railroad industries.  Contact WIRT via email or phone, with your questions and suggestions about potential meeting topics and activities, and to coordinate overlapping campaigns and upcoming events among allies.

#No2ndBridge Updates

On February 26, 2018, the public received notices of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway’s joint application for “individual” (not more lenient, “general”) permits to double 2.2 miles of tracks west of its existing, main line through Sandpoint, Idaho, and to construct three permanent, parallel, rail bridges and two temporary, work spans across Bridge Street, Sand Creek, and almost a mile over Lake Pend Oreille.  This $100 million, five-year, “Sandpoint Junction Connector” project would begin in fall 2018 and degrade human and natural environments from the BNSF-Montana Rail Link track convergence, near the historic, Sandpoint, train station still utilized by Amtrak, to the North Algoma siding track across the lake, south of Sandpoint. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: North Idaho Earth Day Speeches & Songs, Northwest Fossil Fuel Train Volumes, New Lake Pend Oreille Rail Bridges Impacts, Millennium Coal Terminal Permit Denial, Local Idaho Oil & Gas Laws 4-25-18

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The Wednesday, April 25, 2018 Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features a recording of the April 23, North Idaho Earth Day celebration, and news and reflections on Northwest coal, oil, and tar sands train volumes, noise and water pollution impacts of two proposed railroad bridges across Lake Pend Oreille, the Washington Shorelines Hearings Board denial of development permits for the Millennium coal export terminal, and local, Idaho, oil and gas laws protecting residents from nearby facilities.  Broadcast for six 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 opposition to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Climate Justice Forum: Lake Pend Oreille Coal Pollution & Bi-Directional Rail Bridges, Millennium Coal Terminal Health Study & Lawsuit, Postponed Spokane Train Blockader Trial, Eagle Oil & Gas Ordinance, State Oil & Gas Meetings in Payette, Delta Five Court of Appeals Hearing, Tacoma LNG Plant Resistance, Earth Day Gatherings 4-18-18

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The Wednesday, April 18, 2018 Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide, features news and reflections on railroad coal pollution and bi-directional train bridge expansion in Lake Pend Oreille, a coal impacts health study and lawsuit on the Millennium train terminal, a postponed, Spokane, fossil fuel train blockader’s necessity defense trial, a protective, city, oil and gas ordinance in Eagle, Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Committee meetings in Payette, the Delta Five, oil train blockaders’ Court of Appeals hearing, resistance to Tacoma liquefied natural gas plant construction, and upcoming, Earth Day gatherings.  Broadcast for six 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 opposition to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

April WIRT & Allied Events

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Wednesday, April 18: Sandpoint WIRT Meeting & Film Screening

Invite your friends and families, and join the regional, climate activist community, #No2ndBridge group members, and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) organizers for the April, third-Wednesday, monthly, WIRT gathering at the Gardenia Center, 400 Church Street in Sandpoint, at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 18.  Discussions and action plans include Earth Day and Farmers Market outreach in Moscow and Sandpoint, an oil and gas waste injection well protest and petition presentation in Boise, and ongoing, dirty energy transportation monitoring and reporting.  We especially need your participation in work on a #No2ndBridge petition, banner, brochures, comment talking points, Sandpoint rally and demonstration with speakers on Saturday, April 28, information sessions around the inland Northwest, regional attendance and expert testimony at the May 23 hearings in Ponderay and Sandpoint, and summer, direct action training camp, all opposing Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway track and bridge expansion of the coal, oil, hazmat, and possibly tar sands pipeline-on-wheels across Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille in north Idaho.

All are welcome to bring their creative ideas and energies and potluck food and beverages, to share current, issue updates and background, and to explore strategies and tactics in support and solidarity with grassroots, Northwest, fossil fuels resistance.  At this convergence, we will also view the 2016, Break Free documentary Disobedience, a brief film that describes the global, climate justice movement led by common people taking courageous actions against the power and pollution of the fossil fuel industry, and accelerating the clean energy revolution on the front lines of every continent [1, 2].  Contact WIRT via email or phone, with your questions and suggestions about potential meeting topics and activities.

Sunday, April 22: North Idaho Earth Day Celebration

Hosted and sponsored by 350Sandpoint, North Idaho Women, and the Sandpoint Annual Earth Day Festival, this 48th, public, Earth Day celebration and march will highlight local concerns over HiTestSand’s silicon smelter proposed for Newport, Washington, and planned construction of doubled railroad tracks and three bridges across Lake Pend Oreille and Sandpoint [3, 4].  Other event offerings include free health screenings, activities for children, live music, and an Earth-themed, costume contest with prizes for kids aged 12 and younger and adults.  Organizations working to keep Idaho healthy, wild, and beautiful, by educating and activating the local community, will offer information booths, voter registration, the Idaho Medicaid petition, and much more.  Enjoy and learn with your friends and family, between 12 and 3 pm on Sunday, April 22, at Farmin Park, Oak and Fourth streets in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Sunday, April 22: Moscow Nelsebration

The family, friends, and north Idaho/Palouse community of Nels Peterson lost a beautiful soul on March 21.  WIRT activists and supporters knew Nels from the Panhandle Artisan Bread Company and as a drummer with the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band and Henry C and the Willards, who played at more tar sands megaload protests and Annual Celebrations of Wild Idaho Rising Tide than any other musicians.

In memory and spirit of the tremendous love, strength, and peace that Nels brought to the Moscow area, his community invites everyone missing Nels during his transition to join with all the lives he touched, in a Nelsebration party in honor of Nels [5].  On Sunday, April 22, at 5:30 pm, the Moscow Volunteer Peace Band will gather at Friendship Square in downtown Moscow, and proceed to the 1912 Center, at 412 East Third Street in Moscow.  From 6 to 9 pm there, Henry C and the Willards and The Intentions will perform live music shows, Moscow Brewing Company will provide beer and wine, and participants may bring dishes of food to share.

Postponed: Spokane Train Blockader Necessity Defense Trial

In August and September, 2016, six Spokane area members of local Raging Grannies and Veterans for Peace chapters blocked coal and oil trains, with two acts of nonviolent, civil disobedience [6, 7].  Police arrested and charged all six protestors with trespass and obstructing a train.  Five pled guilty, for various reasons, at summer 2017 hearings in Spokane District Court.  Only Reverend George Taylor chose to move forward with his case to jury trial, and filed a motion asking Judge Debra Hayes to allow his attorneys to present a necessity defense, arguing that he committed one harm to prevent the greater health risks, environmental dangers, and imminent harms of fossil fuel train pollution, derailments, explosions, and fires (like in Mosier, Oregon, on June 3, 2016) and of their cargo’s combustion, greenhouse gas emissions, and consequent exacerbation of climate change. Continue reading →

Climate Justice Forum: North Idaho Railroad Expansion Impacts, South Idaho Diesel Pipeline Leak, New Washington Solar Farm, B.C. Indigenous Blockade & Trans Mountain Pipeline Suspension, Bayou Bridge Pipeline Resistance & Anti-Protest Legislation 4-11-18

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The Wednesday, April 11, 2018 Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news and reflections on railroad bridge and track expansion impacts on Lake Pend Oreille and the region, a Tesoro diesel pipeline leak in south central Idaho, Washington’s largest solar farm construction near Lind, an indigenous leader blockade and Kinder Morgan suspension of work on the Trans Mountain pipeline, and Bayou Bridge pipeline resistance and anti-protest legislation in Louisiana.  Broadcast for six 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, community opposition to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to the generous, anonymous listener who adopted program host Helen Yost as her KRFP DJ.

Seventh WIRT Celebrations Thanks & Funds Request

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Seventh WIRT Celebrations Thanks & Funds Request

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) sends our deep gratitude to the gracious musicians, core WIRT activists, allies, guests, non-profit organizations, and businesses who contributed their efforts, donations, and supplies for the Seventh Annual Celebrations of WIRT benefit concerts at the Moscow 1912 Center and the Sandpoint Little Panida Theater, on Friday and Saturday evenings, March 30 and 31 [1-3].  We especially thank:

* Acoustic guitarist and singer John Firshi, for playing his inspiring, original, and improvisational music for participants and venue employees and volunteers at the Moscow and Sandpoint anniversary events

* Talented, hard-rocking, Sandpoint musicians Jeremy Kleinsmith and Brandon Watterson of OWULL, for sharing their exuberant sounds on the Sandpoint, fossil fuels frontline

* The seven band members of Los Caipirinhos, for traveling from the Tri-Cities, Washington, but not performing their danceable, Latin ska, reggae, and rock, due to an almost absent, Moscow audience (-$200)

* Jenny and Robby of the 1912 Center in Moscow, for Great Room reservation, rental, arrangement, and clean-up on the night before the KRFP Real Radio Dinner on the WIRT anniversary, March 31 (-$246)

* Trish, Bill, and three Little Panida Theater  volunteers, for venue rental, projection of the background, WIRT slide show, beer, wine, popcorn, and camaraderie (-$255)

* Wine Company of Moscow manager Terry, for WIRT-purchased beer and a temporary liquor license (-$27), and the Rosauers and Safeway stores in Moscow, for potluck food, wine, and ice (-$49)

* WIRT activists and friends David, Denise, Pat, and other Moscow and Sandpoint celebration participants, for delicious, potluck food, supply transportation and preparation, insightful conversations, and admission donations (+$50)

* The Bonner County Daily Bee, Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Panida Theater, and Sandpoint Reader, for publicizing both events via newspaper and website notices drawn from online, Panida Theater posts and a WIRT media release [4] Continue reading →