Category: Front

Salem OR: Climate Justice Activists Protest Clean Energy Jobs Bill

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Banner displayed in Salem, OR.

Cross-posted from Portland Rising Tide

February, 6 2019

Climate Justice Activists Protest Clean Energy Jobs Bill

Salem, OR: Activists with the group Portland Rising Tide showed up at the Clean Energy Jobs lobby day with a banner that read, “World on Fire, CEJ Brings Garden Hose.” Hundreds of climate activists from across Oregon gathered in Salem to lobby for climate action, including volunteers with Portland Rising Tide who are calling for a Green New Deal. As Democrats are poised to pass the Clean Energy Jobs bill with support from Big Green Organizations, grassroots activists are calling on Democrats to dramatically reform the bill or abandon it and pass stronger legislation instead.

Activists with Portland Rising Tide are calling attention to major problems within the Clean Energy Jobs bill, including no limits on the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure, use of carbon markets and carbon trading, and the proportion of the revenue that will go into the Highway Trust Fund, potentially leading to increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

Instead, activists are calling for a Green New Deal in Oregon that includes direct industry regulation, transformation of the food system, massive expansion of public transportation, and job programs.

“We’re out here today because we want to see serious action on climate change,” said Jesse Hannon with Portland Rising Tide. “We are very concerned that this bill is not going to do what it claims. Cap and trade has been a failure for 13 years, and with only 12 years left to significantly reduce emissions, we don’t have time to waste on policies that don’t work. We need something better and we need it now.”

Increasingly, Oregonians are concerned about climate change and calling for climate action. In response to the recent studies showing that irreversible climate tipping points could be reached as soon as 2030, people are calling for rapid carbon emissions reductions and a society-wide transition off of fossil fuels.

Portland Rising Tide is an all-volunteer network of climate justice activists organizing against the root causes of climate change.

For more information and pictures from today’s action, visit @pdxrisingtide on Twitter and Facebook.

Virginia: Pipeline Fighter Locks Down to Mountain Valley Pipeline Worksite

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Cross-posted from Appalachians Against Pipelines

Yesterday, a pipeline fighter locked themself to a horizontal drill at a Mountain Valley Pipeline worksite in Pittsylvania County, VA. This site is at the tail end of the 300-plus-mile pipeline route. Work was STOPPED and has been for over an hour.

“We do this for all life on earth, for the ones not yet brave enough to take a stand against the injustices of this world,” stated the anonymous pipeline fighter who took action this morning. “We do this for each other, for every living being on this planet, because we all need clean water and clean air to live.”

Eventually, this  brave pipeline fighter was extracted from their spot, arrested, charged with trespassing, and released!

The action coincided with DAY 150 of the Yellow Finch tree sits outside of Elliston, VA. Two aerial blockades have been preventing tree clearing and protecting some of the last standing trees in the pipeline’s path for 150 days! We are currently awaiting a ruling by a federal judge regarding MVP’s request for an injunction against these tree sitters and their supporters.

DONATE to support resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline! bit.ly/supportmvpresistance — or donate enough to get yourself a handmade t-shirt from our fundraiser (limited supplies remaining) bit.ly/shirtrequestAAP

Online Stunt Draws Attention to PG&E Bankruptcy and $2.5 million Severance Pay for Former President Geisha Williams

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January 23, 2019

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Online Stunt Draws Attention to PG&E Bankruptcy and $2.5 million Severance Pay for Former President Geisha Williams

MEDIA CONTACT: Climate Justice Crew, press@pgecalifornia.com. **Rising Tide does not take responsibility for the stunt.**

San Francisco, CA: Today, the Climate Justice Crew released a fake PG&E website and press release claiming that the former President and Chief Operating Officer, Geisha Williams, donated her complete severance of $2.5 million dollars as her last act in PG&E leadership. The stunt that has since gone viral intended to draw attention to PG&E and Mrs. William’s culpability of the Camp Fire that killed at least 86 people, destroyed more than 18,000 structures, and led to more than $30 billion in potential wildfire liabilities — California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record.

Overwhelming evidence shows that PG&E is solely responsible for starting the recent “Camp Fire” — including PG&E’s own statements. State investigators have also determined PG&E is responsible for at least 16 other fires last fall, 12 of which were deadly, and 11 of which clearly violated laws requiring proper maintenance and safety standards. Yet, the California Public Utilities Commission will soon begin to implement a provision that allows PG&E to pass wildfire costs onto the affected populations instead of the investor-owned San Francisco-based utility — whose net income in 2017 was $1.66 billion and whose former President and Chief Operating Officer, Geisha Williams, recently received $2.5 million in severance despite being in charge during the lethal wildfires of 2017 and 2018.

“We call for PG&E to take complete financial and ethical responsibility for all fires caused by its negligence. The stunt today was meant to draw attention to the spectacular miscarriage of justice that has transpired since the lethal Camp Fire — including the lack of transparency with regards to compensation for victims’ of this tragedy, the way in which PG&E has tried to dodge their debts by proposing a consumer bailout and filing for Chapter 11, and Mrs. Williams’ astronomical severance package,” said the Climate Justice Crew.

The PG&E bankruptcy should serve as a wake-up call for corporations like this to think how about their actions affect masses of people and have contributed towards the climate crisis — a crisis in which we only have 12 years to mitigate.

Climate Justice Crew stands with all residents impacted by the fires and refuses to allow the California Public Utilities Commission President Michael J. Picker and other politicians to bail out PG&E instead of dismantling it. We also recognize PG&E’s role in contributing to the increase in climate catastrophes, like the two-week-long smoke-filled skies over Northern California, by investing in massive fossil fuel infrastructure across California.

“There are alternatives to the monopoly utilities, like the Community Choice Energy project, where the public is in control of the electrical system. We need to democratize energy by putting in the hands of the people, not the corporations driven by profit. If we had decentralized energy — local clean energy — we wouldn’t need the transmission lines that caused the fires in the first place. We’re in a state of emergency where air pollution and climate disasters are more frequently disrupting, displacing, poisoning, and even killing people across the country. We need California to take these issues seriously before it’s too late and that means investing in community-led renewable energy systems that are local and regional — not CEOs and shareholders who make millions and millions in profit no matter what. Left unchallenged, this pattern of institutional and regulatory neglect ensures environmental degradation and climate change hit marginalized groups first and worst,” said the Climate Justice Crew.

Public #NoPGEbailout online petition and statement can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-pge-bailout

Photos and video available here from previous #NoPGEbailout protests: bit.ly/nopgebailoutphotos

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Grandfather Scales Tree, Erects Mid-Air Camp To Stop Kinder Morgan Clear-Cutting

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Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver) – Early this morning Terry Christenson, a 70-year old Grandfather of two, and former Juno nominee, scaled a tree on the inside of Kinder Morgan’s fence (Westridge terminal side) and erected a mid-air camp suspended from its trunk. Terry constructed the high-flying structure to stop Kinder Morgan’s proposed tree clearing which is being done to enable the company’s drilling through Burnaby Mountain.

This pipeline does not have consent of the Indigenous Nations it would pass through. It would endanger the livelihoods and economies of all those that depend on an oil free coast and I for one won’t stand by and let it happen,” said Terry Christenson. “I’m taking this action to protect my grandchildren’s future. I care about this land, this coast and I won’t let it be destroyed all so a Texas oil company can increase its profit share.”

The National Energy Board approved Kinder Morgan to clear trees from the area and green lighted the company to begin drilling through Burnaby Mountain, flash point of protests against the project. The NEB has said Kinder Morgan needs to clear the area before March 26th to avoid interfering with birds migrating north for the summer. If clearing is not done by that date it would be a major set back for the company and plans could not proceed until after the migrating birds had left.

“We are all in this fight together. We have better options to produce energy and move people around then building another dirty pipeline that the world’s scientific community has said we need to move away from,” asserted Christenson. “It’s time that the Prime Minister got that message and I’ll be doing my best to hang out here until he does.”

This action is the latest in a series of action against Kinder Morgan’s construction plans. It is also just a week after a massive mobilization against the project that brought thousands to the streets of Burnaby.

Click here to donate to the legal support fund.

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