Category: Announcements

Announcements from Rising Tide and Rising Tide affiliates and close allies. An announcement is pretty much never also a reportback!

Call Omega Morgan & Tell Them To Stop Shipping The Tar Sands Megaloads!

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Tar Pit #3Call Omega Morgan CEO John McCalla  at 503-647-7474 right now with a message: I oppose  tar sands mining and I want you to stop shipping equipment to process it.

Big Oil has been moving massive equipment for a tar sands oil development in western Canada.  The “megaload” shipments have been challenged in Idaho, Montana, eastern Washington, and now eastern Oregon.

Climate activists object to the shipments for their potential to worsen global warming, and tribal members say they’re worried about the possibility of environmental damage in eastern Oregon, where they assert a treaty interest and say they weren’t adequately consulted.

Last week, three people were arrested while blockading these megaload shipments near Umatilla, Oregon.  More blockades are expected this week, and we’re calling on people from all over North America to help us tell shipping company Omega Morgan to stop shipping the tar sands megaloads.

Call Omega Morgan CEO John McCalla  at 503-647-7474 right now with a message: I oppose tar sands mining and I want you to stop shipping equipment to process it. 

You can use these talking points on the call:

  • *I oppose the tar sands megaloads because tar sands will spill into our water supply and soil and cook our climate.
  • *I oppose the tar sands megaloads because tar sands pollution will harm communities from Alberta to those near refinery sites in Houston.
  • *I oppose the tar sands [megaloads] because [they] will only serve to line the pockets of oil industry executives, while landowners from Texas on up to the Canadian border will pay the price for their greed.

If you cannot reach CEO McCalla, call Holly Zander, Omega Morgan’s press spokesperson, at 503-360-7144.

After you call tell us how it went in this short survey.

Rising Tide Toronto: Environmental justice activists shut down Line 9 construction site in Toronto

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torontoFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2013
MEDIA CONTACTS:

Amanda Lickers, Member of Six Nations of Grand River: 705-957-7468, amandalickers@gmail.com
Vanessa Gray, Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines: 226-349-6073

Environmental justice activists shut down Line 9 construction site in Toronto

#LockDownLine9 • Location: Pineway Blvd, just north of Finch

Toronto, Ontario. Members of Rising Tide Toronto have shut down the construction for Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline in North Toronto, locking down to equipment to prevent further work on the line.

“The National Energy Board has not approved the reversal of the Enbridge Line 9 pipeline. Amidst outstanding land claims and treaty violations all along the route, there has been no consultation with First Nations. This pipeline must be decommissioned and construction towards this project must stop.” – Amanda Lickers, Member of Six Nations of Grand River

“We are taking a stand today because this project will facilitate the expansion of the tar sands. Moreover, this reversal puts the millions of people along line 9 route at risk.” – Meghan Mills, Rising Tide Toronto

“The health of Aamjiwnaang is suffering from the effects from Canada’s Chemical Valley as a result of Environmental Racism. We need to act now in defence of the land we depend on before Enbridge permanently destroys our territories. This is a human rights issue that effects future generations of all peoples.” – Vanessa Gray, Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines

Line 9 Facts: 
  • Every First Nations band council that intervened in the NEB process said that they had not been consulted in accordance to the Canadian consultation.
  • NEB has not yet approved the Line 9 reversal. If the NEB recognizes the Canadian constitution, they are obligated to not approve this proposal.
  • Enbridge said it will idle Line 9 if its application to reverse and expand the pipeline is rejected by the National Energy Board.
  • Enbridge’s Line 9B is the first pipeline proposal to come under the authority of the new rules hidden in Harper’s omnibus budget Bill C-38 passed in July 2012.
  • Enbridge refuses to carry $1 billion in insurance to cover the costs of a possible spill, arguing that it is unnecessary. Meanwhile, clean up for Enbridge’s Kalamazoo disaster has cost over $1 billion in an area with a population of 7,000.
  • By Enbridge’s own admission, their computation pipeline monitoring system “will not detect a leak below 70.5 [cubic metres], 443 [barrels] over a two-hour period”.
  • Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline safety expert with over forty years of experience in the energy sector says the probability of Line 9 rupturing is “over 90%.”

Two Lockdown to Controversial Tar Sands Megaload Shipment Stopping Departure from Port of Umatilla as Tribal Members and Climate Justice Groups Rally Nearby

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megaload pdx rt12/1/13
Media contacts:
Trip Jennings, Portland Rising Tide – TripJennings1@gmail.com - 541.729.3294
Jim Powers - jp@ccpvideos.com - 541.829.2114

Umatilla, OR – Sunday: Near the Port of Umatilla two people locked down to a megaload of equipment bound for the Alberta tar sands halting its planned
departure at 10:00 PM as tribal members and climate justice groups rallied nearby. The equipment, a 901,000 lb. water purifier 22 feet wide, 18 feet
tall and 376 feet in length was met by fifty people and was prevented from departing as scheduled. It had planned to leave the Port of Umatilla, head
south on 395, then east on 26 on Sunday night.

This week’s protest was larger than a similar protest last week as news of the shipment has spread throughout the region. An estimated 50 people
greeted the megaload with signs as it’s schedule departure time neared. Before it could depart two participants locked themselves to the trucks
hauling the megaload, the first time they have been blockaded in this way. This is the first of three megaloads the Hillsboro, OR based shipping
company Omega Morgan has scheduled to move through the region in December and January. Similar loads sparked major protests moving through Idaho and
Montana including a blockade by the Nez Pierce tribe in August.

Groups organizing the protest, including chapters of Rising Tide and 350.org, oppose the shipments due to the final use of the equipment in the expansion
of the Alberta tar sands. This expansion would supply oil for the controversial Keystone XL and other pipelines and many have called the tar
sands most destructive industrial project on earth. Umatilla Tribal Member Shana Radford said, “We have responsibility for what happens on our lands,
but there are no boundaries for air, the carbon dioxide this equipment would create affects us all. The Nez Pierce tribe said no to megaloads, and
so should we.”

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) have stated concerns due to the lack of consultation about the project headed
through their ceded territory as required by law. The shipment would also cross Warm Springs tribal land where members have stated opposition as well.

Warm Springs tribal member Kayla Godowa said, “It’s our duty to protect the native salmon runs in this area. They want to make this a permanent heavy
haul route without even consulting our tribes. Loads like this are unprecedented here. What if a bridge collapses? And what about the impact
to native communities being destroyed by the tar sands where this equipment will end up? We can’t just look the other way while native lands and the
climate are being destroyed. We have to stand up.”

High resolution photos available at:

Photo (first lockdown):
http://portlandrisingtide.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/photo-1.jpg

Photo (rally):
http://portlandrisingtide.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/photo-2.jpg

Photo (second lockdown):
http://portlandrisingtide.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/photo-3.jpg

Photos may be used with attribution to Portland Rising Tide.

Info: www.PortlandRisingTide.org <http://www.portlandrisingtide.org/>

Facebook live updates: PortlandRisingTide

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We Rock. Help Us Take More Action.

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fundWe Rock. Help Us Take More Action.

We rock. It’s true, our network is growing like crazy and carrying the fight to the worst of the worst extractive industries.

Please become a Rising Tide monthly sustainer TODAY!

Within a week, five chapters in the Rising Tide’s Northwest network took action in three cities against against tar sands, fracking and oil exports.

Our campaigns are holding this ravenous industry’s feet to the fire. BUT we need you to help us continue doing it.

Can you become a monthly sustainer to Rising Tide North America? Your monthly contribution to Rising Tide North America means we have the resources to fight the toughest opponents of a livable planet and safe healthy communities.

Please become a monthly contributor to Rising Tide North America today.

Thanks for all you do.