Category: Featured News

Best of the Rising Tide website, things formally featured on the scrolling slider on the front page or on the old front page.

Portland Rising Tide Occupies Department of Environmental Quality

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(Photo by: Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA)Portland Rising Tide responds to the Global Call for 10 days of Action from Earth Day to May Day by joining other groups who together represent the public’s interest in opposing polluting fossil fuel export terminals in the Pacific Northwest.

About 70 people occupied the lobby of the DEQ and called out local toxic polluters, including ESCO and Precision Castparts (which was recently named the #1 toxic air polluter in the country).

As Governer Kitzhaber recently said in his speech on April 19th to the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, “The time has come to end all coal exports in the Pacific Northwest” to stop “the very real consequences of climate change”, as we are “the last generation that can do something about it.”

Rising Tiders say we need to stop much more than coal, and are concerned about the 15 coal, oil, and gas terminals being proposed in the Pacific Northwest that would harm our coast, the Columbia River, local communities, and the global climate.

Some handed out notices that the DEQ was being dissolved, and offering guaranteed employment with the People’s Agency, where their job would be to enforce a moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure by denying all permits for coal, oil, and gas export proposals.

They also made a group phone call to Morrow Pacific CEO Clark Moseley, informing him that the DEQ had just been dissolved, that his three permits for a coal export facility at Boardman recently issued by the DEQ have been revoked (issuing what they called a “notice of termination”), and that any pending future permits have been summarily denied. They then left a message on his cell phone for his records.

There is majority public opposition to exporting global climate crisis and suffering the local health and ecological consequences of fossil fuel terminals. Portland Rising Tide illustrated this tension with a crowd representing the People’s Agency, participating in a tug of war with the Department of Destruction, in the DEQ’s downtown lobby.

Portland Rising Tide’s skepticism of state regulatory agencies protecting us from fossil fuel devastation is fueled by the DSL allowing Ambre Energy 7 extensions to their deadline despite what even Kitzhaber calls ‘repeated failures’ to supply information regarding their project’s legality.

“This process shows that the permitting process is essentially one of approval – with illegal and destructive projects delayed, but never denied,” said Karen Coulter.

Furthermore, ODOT recently issued illegal permits for Omega Morgan’s hauling of tar sands megaloads through the ceded lands of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla, despite substantial public and Umatilla opposition.

More recently, ODOT officials were caught lying about the volume of oil trains rolling through Oregon with their tacit consent. In the ensuing public scandal, they announced their refusal to give the public *any *further information on oil trains.

“We’re here today to show that the public can’t trust the regulatory agencies to protect our ecosystems and future. We have to show each other what it looks when the people take charge, and confront the root causes of climate change,” said Wes Kempfer, a participant in the political theater.

Fully two-thirds of the greenhouse gas pollution in the US is legally permitted by regulatory agencies1 <#sdfootnote1sym>. Oregon’s DEQ has already proven their willingness to allow this destruction in Oregon – handing out three permits for Ambre Energy’s coal export facility in Boardman, Oregon.

“I agree with Kitzhaber that it is time to get past 19th century fossil fuels, but it is equally necessary to move beyond the illusion that regulatory agencies are really protecting ecosystems and the public interest,” said Rising Tide member Stephen Quirke. “In fact, we cannot have one without the other.”

“It’s no mystery that climate change follows from the regulatory agency jigsaw puzzle approach to ecological protection, which has too many missing pieces, and doesn’t really fit together,” said Katherine Cotrell, another Rising Tider. “The public needs to intervene if we want a sane response to this truly insane situation.”

In response to the revelation that the Clatskanie oil train terminal was carrying 6 times more than their permit allowed, DEQ charged Global Partners LP $117,000, but failed to halt the oil trains rolling along the Columbia, through rural communities, and ultimately through Portland.

This is the equivalent of one penny per barrel of illegally shipped oil, being transported in the most dangerous way possible. In response to journalist inquiries, ODOT’s rail division announced they would no longer request reports of hazardous oil moving by rail, since they knew it would “not be protected” from the public.

They were over-ruled by the their director and Governor Kitzhaber one day after Rob Davis covered the story. This is just one more reason we cannot trust the regulatory agencies.

The DEQ is currently reviewing air quality permits for Jordan Cove LNG, after FERC gave their approval. DEQ appears set to approve these permits—they say it pollutes less than the Weyerhauser paper mill that used to be on the site.

Students Against Peabody

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Wash U Sit-In Enters Historic 3rd Week: Peabody Moment of Truth Arrives

by Jeff Biggers / Eco Watch

In an emerging public relations nightmare for Washington University officials, the sit-in against Peabody Energy ties entered a historic third week, as students continued to press demands after a faltering statement released yesterday by Chancellor Mark Wrighton.

“We want to make it clear that we are not satisfied with this statement,” the Wash U Students Against Peabody countered. “We plan to continue to pressure Chancellor Wrighton and Provost Thorp until they end Washington University’s relationship with Peabody.”

Let’s face it: With growing national media attention, growing outrage over Peabody violations, and growing plans for nationwide rallies against Peabody on its shareholders meeting on May 8, the moment of truth for the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees about Peabody’s toxic relationship with Washington University has arrived.

 

And this Peabody moment of truth has been years—even decades—in the making.

The Wash U student protests have been raising the ante for years—I’ve watched with amazement, over the last decade, as I’ve been chronicling Peabody violations around the world—including theBlack Mesa tragedy, which I consider one of the worst human rights and environmental disasters in American history.

This much we all know: The Wash U students are on the right side of history, and at a certain point, Chancellor Wrighton and the Board of Trustees will end their denial and join the students’ clear-headed demands.

And it won’t be the first time.

Consider another date in May in Washington University history: May 9, 1952, when the Board of Trustees found it “increasingly difficult to ignore mounting public sentiment and maintain its segregationist policy,” and finally bent to the will of a long-time student movement to officially integrate.

It’s time once again for Washington University to be on the right side of history.

It’s also time for Chancellor Wrighton to prosecute Peabody Energy’s violations of Washington University’s own code of conduct for all vendors, associates and trustees like Peabody CEO Greg Boyce. The Wash U codes for integrity and ethical conduct are clear: “The university relies on each community member’s ethical behavior, honesty, integrity and good judgment. Each community member should demonstrate respect for the rights of others. Each community member is accountable for his/her actions.”

Putting aside climate change denial and environmental destruction, how can Chancellor Wrighton and Washington University condone the following actions by Peabody as ethical behavior, honesty, integrity and good judgment?

On Black Mesa?

Or, consider these other actions:

2014: Does Peabody remain in violation of federal laws for improper handling and holding of Native American burial remains and artifacts from Black Mesa?

2014: Peabody illegally clear-cut endangered habitats in Shawnee forests in Rocky Branch, Illinois.

2013: Judge rules that Peabody violated EPA rules at their Indiana strip mine.

2012: Peabody closed a southern Illinois mine due to safety problems and violations.

2011: Peabody receives MSHA notice of pattern of serious violations for an Illinois mine.

2000-2009: Peabody wracks up more than 8,700 “significant” mine safety violations. 

1986: Peabody pleads guilty in miner’s death in Illinois.

Every day that the Wash U Chancellor fails to answer the sit-in students’ questions and demands, he and his university remain on the wrong side of history.

And the nation—that is watching—knows it.

Citizens Block Coal Train

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{shared from Blue Skies Campaign}

Breaking: Citizens Block Coal Train with Civil Disobedience

10177459_674174725976296_5295220984699562713_nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 13th, 2014   

MISSOULA – Members of the organizations Blue Skies Campaign and 350-Missoula participated in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience next to Montana Rail Link (MRL) tracks on Sunday, to prevent the passage of a coal train through Missoula.  Seven people held a peaceful sit-in on MRL property and stretched a banner across the tracks, while about twenty people gathered nearby holding signs that read “Stop Coal Exports.”  A coal train on its way to the West Coast was held up in Hellgate Canyon by the protest.

“We’re working protect the health of the Missoula community,” says Abby Stoner, a volunteer with the Blue Skies Campaign who lives near the railroad.  “Coal trains pollute rail line communities with coal dust and toxic diesel fumes, while causing unacceptable noise pollution and delaying traffic at heavily used railroad crossings.”

The groups that participated in the protest are also concerned about coal’s contribution to climate change.  “I protest the extraction of Montana coal and it’s shipment through our community,” says Lee Metzgar, an environmental scientist affiliated with 350-Missoula, who was one of the five sit-in participants.  “Years from now, as my grandchildren struggle with a hotter and more extreme climate, I hope they know that we tried to make their world a bit more beautiful, healthy and safe.”

The protesters gathered near the railroad at Madison Street and Greenough Drive, shortly after a coal train left Bonner on its way to Missoula.  Five people sat down near the tracks, while the rest of the group gathered nearby with signs.  The sit-in did not occur on the tracks themselves, but was meant to be close enough to the railroad that MRL would have to stop the train.

Several coal trains per day pass through Missoula en route to the West Coast, where much of the coal is exported overseas through Canadian ports.  Companies like St Louis-based Arch Coal want to build new coal export terminals in Oregon and Washington State, while opening vast new lands in Eastern Montana to coal mining.  If this happens, the number of full and empty coal trains passing through Missoula each day could increase by as many as thirty.

Both organizations involved in Sunday’s protest are concerned about the impacts of coal exports on the health of Montana communities and the global climate.  Blue Skies Campaign is a volunteer-run, Missoula-based group that works to protect Montana communities from coal pollution.  350-Missoula is concerned about climate change and the impacts of burning fossil fuels.  The group advocates for a transition to clean energy.