Category: Front

Two Arrested After Shutting Down Kinder Morgan Terminal in Escalating Protests Against Major Tar Sands Oil Pipeline

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For immediate release, July 31, 2017

Contact: Laurel Sutherlin, Rainforest Action Network — 415. 246. 0161

For High Resolution Photos, please contact Ayse Gursoz at ayse@ran.org

Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal
Richmond, CA 94804

For Second Consecutive Week Activists Shut Down Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal; Demand Halt to Trans Mountain Tar Sands Pipeline

UPDATE: 8/1/17

The arrestees, Henry and Jean, are out of jail! They were released early this morning.

We’re still waiting for confirmation of what their charges are from the lawyer. We’ll update all when we know. Thanks Henry and Jean ?? And thanks to all the wonderful people who did legal support and jail support. Can’t do it without you!?

And thanks to the other two arrestees from Monday, July 24th’s action at Kinder Morgan – Stardust and Bob ???

DONATE for fines and other legal costs: http://ow.ly/qlvj30e1PYe

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7/31/17

Richmond, CA — In a sign of growing escalation, seven protesters locked themselves to steel barrels and blocked three gates of the Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal for the second time in two weeks, demanding that the company halt its new Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada. In what many environmental and Indigenous activists are starting to call the “Standing Rock of the North,” the controversial project would triple the capacity of an existing pipeline from Edmonton, Calgary to Burnaby, British Columbia — an increase to 890,000 barrels per day. This project is based on the extraction of tar sands oil, one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels.

If arrests are made, protesters will need donations for bail ASAP. Watch here for the DONATE link, if it becomes necessary.

“Our First Nations relatives are not going to allow the Trans Mountain pipeline to go through their territories in Canada,” said Pennie Opal Plant of Idle No More SF Bay.  “Investing in any fossil fuel infrastructure is foolish. We all know that we must transition off of fossil fuels in order to prevent catastrophic climate change. Why waste so many resources on a losing proposition?”

The growing Bay Area resistance to this Kinder Morgan pipeline stands with over 140 tribes comprising The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion. The groundbreaking alliance of Indigenous nations formally opposes all tar sands pipelines crossing their traditional lands and waters. The recently elected government of British Columbia also opposes the project.

“Thanks to California’s brand new cap and trade climate bill AB 398, it’s now extremely likely that this very terminal we are blocking today will be a destination point for the tar sands oil that would be piped in by Trans Mountain,” said Andres Soto of Communities for a Better Environment.  “AB 398 is an abomination and a threat to environmental justice worldwide.”

AB 398 passed just two weeks earlier despite opposition from a broad coalition of climate and environmental justice groups. The new law blocks the ability of local air quality agencies from establishing rules limiting greenhouse gases and opens up the door for refining tar sands crude in Richmond, which would worsen air pollution in surrounding communities.

“From the fence-lines of Richmond, we stand in solidarity with the First Nations fighting on the frontlines of tar sands extraction,” said Adrian Wilson of Diablo Rising Tide. “It is time to start fighting back against these oil companies polluting our communities from the cradle to the grave of the fossil fuel death cycle.”

Kinder Morgan, a spin-off from Enron, is one of North America’s largest energy infrastructure companies. The company claims it will start construction on its 715-mile Trans Mountain pipeline in September despite fierce opposition to the project from numerous First Nations and other communities and cities along its path.

“We salute all the water protectors, coast protectors and climate warriors on the front lines of these pipeline battles, standing up for Indigenous rights, the water and a safe climate,” said Grand Chief Serge Simon of the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake on behalf of the Indigenous Nations who have signed the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion. “Resistance to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion tar sands pipeline and tanker project will be strongest in British Columbia, but it won’t stop there: Kinder Morgan can count on fierce resistance all over North America by Indigenous People and their allies.”

“This is clearly just the beginning,” said Patrick McCully of Rainforest Action Network. “This is the second week in a row that activists are blockading this facility — and you can expect protests up and down the West Coast as banks and oil companies continue to try and profit from climate chaos and human rights violations that will be caused by these disastrous tar sands pipelines. Companies like Kinder Morgan are on notice. Banks like JPMorgan Chase are on notice. Get out of tar sands. Get out of extreme oil. Get out of the climate change business and get on the right side of science and history.”

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Diablo Rising Tide is the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Rising Tide North America. Rising Tide North America is an all-volunteer grassroots organizing network in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico who confronts the root causes of climate change with non-violent direct action and grassroots organizing and education. You can find out more at www.diablorisingtide.org

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Do You Want A Training?

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The Rising Tide North America Trainers’ Network functions as an all-volunteer grassroots network of trainers, working to further the climate justice movement through sharing skills, building leadership and expanding capacity of local groups. We seek to support local organizations and groups that are engaged in struggles for justice of all kinds.

Trainings offered include:

  • Strategy: organizing 101 and campaign strategy
  • Direct Action
  • Media and publications and action media strategy
  • Know Your Rights/legal issues
  • Tactical Skills
  • Trainings for how to do direct action trainings
  • Arts for direct action
  • Blockades

Guiding Principles of RTNA Training Network:

  • We are a broad group of trainers who live and work with different campaigns around the continent.
  • We train with a strong ethic of environmental-justice, collective liberation, and anti-capitalism.
  • We seek to support positive solidarity work with front-line communities and those most impacted by climate change and environmental devastation.
  • We understand that different campaigns, regions, and communities need different things from trainers. To this end we commit to working with local groups and organizations to find the best fit of trainers to needs.
  • Our goal to help connect local groups and organizations with quality trainers and trainings that can help local and regional campaigns grow in terms of skills, strategy, and analysis.
  • We can assist with larger camps and training scenarios as well. Get a hold of us to talk through ideas, concerns, and questions you may have with any organizing endeavor you may have.

Get Involved in Rising Tide!

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If you’re interested in becoming part of the Rising Tide Network let me be the first to welcome you.

Before you go any further, however, we’d like you to take a look at our What is RT? section, especially the Rising Tide Principles. Groups interested in joining the RT Network should be in alignment with these basic principals that help shape and guide our work.

As well, please familiarize yourself with how our different RT Network support structures operate and what our various Working Groups do and how they function.

There are basically three different ways to get involved with Rising Tide.

1. Become a Rising Tide Contact

The RT network is made up of a lot of individuals who live in isolated places, already work with organizations and don’t have the capacity to start something new, or simply can’t creat a climate organization from scratch right now. If you decide to become an RT Contact you will have access to our RT-Local list, a post-able list that connects you to all the other contacts and chapters in the network. As well you will receive our general newsletter and be able to join the various RT Working Groups.

2. Start a new Rising Tide group

We encourage all our contacts to start thinking about what organizing in their local communities might look like. The biggest part of the reason for the RT collective’s existence is to support new groups starting from scratch in local areas. Check out our Resources for Network Groups section to find out all the ways Rising Tide can help your group get on its feet. All the RT Network group function autonomously, so you won’t have anybody breathing down your neck telling you what to do. The RT collective is here to help and guide, not demand that your group focus on only one thing in one particular way. As part of the Network you will be connected to other groups via our RT-local list, optional bi-monthly calls with other groups, access to all RT support resources, and ability to join RT working groups.

If you are interested in becoming an RT Chapter please email us at
local@risingtidenorthamerica.org
for more information.

3. Bring your existing group into the Network

If you are already a part of an existing group or organization, and you agree with the RT Principals, we invite your organization to join our network. Many other existing groups have found alignment in becoming a part of Rising Tide and forged new relationships with other grassroots radicals and frontline community organizations and individuals. Again, all network group function autonomously so in no way will joining the RT Network affect the work your organization or group is already doing. As a part of the Rt network you will have access to all the mechanism for organizing and communication available to any other Network Group.

If you are interested in making your organization a part of the RT Network please contact
local@risingtidenorthamerica.org

About Us

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Rising Tide is an international, all-volunteer, grassroots network of groups and individuals who organize locally, promote community-based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change.

Rising Tide was born out of the conviction that corporate-friendly “solutions” to climate change will not save us and that most government efforts are half-measures at best. We organize through decentralized local groups that support one another with shared resources, ideas, fundraising, training and collaborations. Our activities include grassroots community organizing, publishing educational materials, organizing creative direct actions and protests, and holding public education events in order to further the struggle for climate justice.

Rising Tide is committed to stopping the extraction of fossil fuels and preventing the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure. Equally important, we must make a just transition to sustainable livelihoods that foster local autonomy and self-sufficiency.

Rising Tide’s tactics are diverse and creative, taking a bottom-up approach to connecting the dots between colonialism, corporate power, climate disruption, social justice, and biocentrism. The systems that are destroying the planet are systems rooted in oppression; combating climate change is therefore not just a matter of carbon emissions, but of confronting the institutions that destroy communities, cultures and the Earth.

The international Rising Tide network now spans four continents. We know that whatever we achieve in our local struggles is amplified by the energy of the growing global movement for climate justice.