Category: RT Newswire

cross-posted from Lousiana Bucket Brigade

“We are disgusted to hear of yet another chemical leak & fire, this time at Marathon Oil in Garyville, just a month after Dow’s explosion in Plaquemine. The fire was caused by a leak of naptha, a toxic form of raw petrol distilled from crude oil that may contain carcinogens.

The petrochemical industry is here in LA for one reason only: to make as much money as possible. As long as our state continues to look away from fires and mushroom clouds, accidents will continue.

Smoke billowing up from a fire at the Marathon Refinery in Gramercy LA as seen from Edgar, a town across the river. Just another day in Cancer Alley. Media being told the fire was contained to the site – but no mention of the chemicals that were not. More to follow @DeSmog pic.twitter.com/5DSZ4s0Z5d

— julie dermansky (@jsdart) August 25, 2023

Workers and residents are left to bear the brunt of the industry’s negligence and predatory expansion that continue to jeopardize our health and safety.

St. John’s govt. is already parroting Marathon’s claims that the chemical release & fire are contained and no off-site impacts are detected. This release is obviously far from contained. Nearby residents are reporting aggravated asthma and other respiratory symptoms.

St. John the Baptist Parish, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and all state officials owe Louisianans much more than simply broadcasting Marathon’s press release.

We will not stand for the continued spread of misinformation and attempts to cloud the truth—that the toxic chemicals in these refineries are hazardous to our health, and that the chemical industry routinely misleads us to evade accountability after major accidents.

The evacuation order has been lifted while firefighters continue to work to contain the blaze. HRW calls on government officials to ensure the continued safety of residents, provide regular monitoring and updates on air and water safety, and hold those responsible to account.

— Antonia Juhasz (@AntoniaJuhasz) August 25, 2023

We cannot permit more facilities that will continue to endanger workers and communities. What a disaster this is, and how dangerous for the workers in these plants. They deserve so much more.”

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cross-posted from It’s Going Down 

Report on successful redwood forest defense campaign in so-called Humboldt County.

It’s official, we beat PG&E. When they came to cut in Humboldt Redwood State Park we held the line and turned the tide of destruction. The corporation has now publicly confirmed what we have been hearing, that the EVM Enhanced Vegetation Management project is over, and it’s a stark failure. Due to our 4 month long direct action campaign in the fall and winter of 2021-22, many hundreds of trees have been saved across Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Day after day we took action, often in the pouring rain and sometimes snow, carefully and consistently occupying the ‘drop zone’ under trees in the park that PG&E contractors were actively trying to cut. There were usually five to ten of them for every one of us yet we held our ground. Our numbers varied from 8-25 while the workers numbered 25-100. Forest defenders often faced the threat of injury or death from falling branches cut by intentionally reckless tree-trimmers as well as accidents like when branches or whole trees were dropped on the power lines. In one instance in November 2021 a falling Douglas fir snapped the power lines after the employee cutting it made a grave error. The live wires landed on Mattole road, slithering and sparking, narrowly missing many forest defenders and company employees. In the howling wind and rain the entire work site came to a standstill as every person became distinctly aware of their own mortality.

Forest defenders were there every day from early October ’21 to February ’22 except for when the road was blocked by snow. We were waiting for them there in the morning, and we made sure not to leave before they did. We chased them by truck, Prius, motorcycle and foot, shutting down worksites over miles as an amorphous swarm of coordinated autonomous animals.

Our actions did not rely on anybody else’s strategy, be it in the courtroom or in the news, nor did it require special gear, advanced training, or meticulous planning.

PG&E managers on site often encouraged reckless behavior in the name of productivity when they believed no one else would find out. Forest defenders learned to protect ourselves while occupying the drop zones with practices like safety briefings, consistent communication with workers on site, taking video and use of neon vests and hard hats. Other tactics included, to a lesser degree, tree-sitting and slowing or stopping convoys of work vehicles.

Many trees were also spared in other places where PG&E’s vegetation removal crews were unable to reach in time. Hoping to overwhelm us, PG&E created a virtual army of cutting crews redirected from places like Briceland, Petrolia, and Avenue of the Giants. Many large trees remain intact in these places, often still marked with yellow paint by the surveyors directed to carry out the misguided and ruinous EVM strategy.

In conclusion, we were successful beyond our wildest dreams at saving old-growth trees on public lands and countless other trees across Humboldt. Although Humboldt Redwood Company continues to log Rainbow Ridge nearby and PG&E is still targeting old-growth trees and seeks to spray poison around power poles, hundreds of irreplaceable trees and the creatures living in them remain thanks to the people who put themselves on the front lines and those who supported them.

To support ongoing action to protect ancient trees from PG&E and HRC donate on Venmo @forestdefense and/or contact forestaction@riseup.net.

cross-posted from Anarchist News