Tag: climate change

#GulfSouthRising Remembers and Resists BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster

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Today we remember and resist.

Five years ago BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. 11 workers were killed and oil gushed into the Gulf for 87 days. This remains the largest accidental oil disaster in human history.

Today, Gulf South Rising—with representatives from across the region—are holding a memorial at BP’s headquarters in Houston, Texas. This afternoon, they will march in New Orleans to demand BP must stop lying and pay for what it’s done. BP must admit the oil remains in the Gulf region and continues to damage communities and ecosystems. BP must pay for the billions in health and environmental damages they caused.

Will you stand in solidarity with Gulf South Rising? There are two ways you can help right now.

  1. Give a shout out to #GulfSouthRising by sharing this photo from the march on BP headquarters to Facebook and Twitter right now!
    Make BP Pay
  2. Donate. Gulf South Rising is organizing powerful communities for climate justice in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. They are in it for the long haul and need your support.

Gulf South Rising are throwing down big this week.

The BP Week of Action will stage events in more than 13 cities culminating in at the BP Headquarters in Houston On April 20. Gulf South Rising is demanding BP must stop lying and pay what it owes from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the largest oil disaster in history. 

Five years since the beginning of the BP oil disaster, the Gulf’s people and wildlife continue to reel from the impacts of BP’s negligence: health problems from exposure to oil and toxic chemical dispersants, diminished seafood populations that sustain local communities, disrupted ecosystems and wildlife die-offs.

Gulf South Rising is a regional movement organizing coordinated actions and events to highlight the impact of the global climate crisis. The BP Week of Action could be their most important effort yet.

In their own words, “Gulf coast residents are banding together and rising up to call for the restoration of our Gulf communities, cultures and environment. BP must stop lying and pay what they owe. The oil and gas industry must be held accountable for their ongoing desecration of our bioregion, and ultimately we must work towards a just transition to a more sustainable clean energy economy.”

Support climate resistance in the Gulf Coast region. Donate to Gulf South Rising today.

 

Groups renew call to scrap entire Vermont Gas pipeline project in wake of Phase II cancellation

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Cross-Posted from Rising Tide Vermont

FRT VT2or Immediate Release: February 10 2015

Contact:
Rebecca Foster, Just Power, 646-468-3511
Maeve McBride, 350Vermont, 802-999-2820
Keith Brunner, Rising Tide Vermont, 802-363-9615

Groups renew call to scrap entire Vermont Gas pipeline project in wake of Phase II cancellation

Today a coalition of organizations including Just Power, Rising Tide Vermont, 350Vermont and Toxics Action Center renewed calls to cancel all phases of the Vermont fracked gas pipeline, in the wake of an announcement that Vermont Gas will no longer proceed with Phase II.

The coalition is calling on the Vermont Public Service Board to revoke the Certificate of Public Good for Phase I in light of the near doubling of Phase I costs, the stark climate impacts of fracked gas, and impacts on landowners in the path of the pipeline. Yesterday, the PSB was given permission by the Vermont Supreme Court to undertake a review of the Phase I permit with no time or scope constraints. The groups are calling on the Board to execute a rigorous review of all aspects of the project given the change in the landscape since the initial filing.

Cornwall resident and impacted landowner Mary Martin said, “Today’s announcement is the culmination of years of conversations with neighbors and making our voices heard. While we’re relieved that Phase II is cancelled, we can’t stand idly by and watch our neighbors in Monkton and other towns who are fighting Phase I. Today we’re celebrating, but our fight is not over until the whole project is cancelled. If the costs are too high for IP, then they’re too high for the state of Vermont.”

“The house of fossil fuel cards is falling.” said Maeve McBride, coordinator of 350Vermont, “The cancellation of this pipeline is yet another example of a reckless, misguided fossil fuel project that succumbed to people power and practicalities. In the last few days, we’ve seen a tar sands export terminal near Quebec City cancelled and the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund has pledged to divest billions of dollars from coal and tar sands companies.”

Shaina Kasper, Vermont Community Organizer with Toxics Action Center, an environmental and public health non-profit, called the decision a huge step in the right direction. “We’ve known all along that this pipeline was a bad investment for Vermont’s energy future, and we’re glad Vermont Gas finally agrees,” Kasper said. “We hope the next step is to abandon the entire project so that we can invest in clean energy and a shift away from polluting fossil fuels.”

International Paper had always been the primary beneficiary of this pipeline expansion, and the primary customer of VGS. Now that IP has decided this is a poor investment and has withdrawn from the project, the groups are concerned Vermont ratepayers will be required to pay for the additional $30 million shortfall for Phase I.

Burlington resident and VGS ratepayer Devon Ayers joined the call to scrap Phase I, arguing that “I can’t afford to pay another dime on top of my family’s already sky high heating costs, especially for a fossil fuel project which threatens the world my son will grow up in.”

“Today’s announcement is a victory for grassroots organizing and our growing people’s movement in Vermont,” said Sara Mehalick, a volunteer organizer with Rising Tide Vermont. “From workers’ rights to migrant justice, and human rights to climate justice, today’s decision reaffirms that social movements have the power to change what’s politically possible.”

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1] Total IP contribution ($135 million) – Phase 2 cost ($105) = IP’s Phase I contribution ($30 million). Based on most recent cost estimates from the VGS press release on Feb. 10th 2015: “Our updated cost estimate for Phase 2 is now $105 million…” said Jim Sinclair, Vermont Gas’ Vice President for System Expansion.  Under the agreement between Vermont Gas and IP, this would mean that IP’s total financial responsibility to Vermont Gas for Phase 2 as well as Phase 1 improvements would have risen from $99 million to $135 million.”

Rising Tide North America Rocked The House In 2014!

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Wow. What a year.RisingTideSeaSept

 We took amazing action. Not only did we shake things up with direct action against the fossil fuel industries, but also worked with frontline communities most impacted by extraction in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.. Whether it’s blockading pipelines and oil trains or organizing training camps to educate the next generation of climate activist, we’ve truly been rocking the house to make a better world possible.

 Can you donate to Rising Tide North America to “rock the house” in 2015?

 Here’s just a taste of the things we did in 2014:

  • In the western region of the continent, our chapters in Seattle, Portland, British Columbia, Utah and elsewhere have led actions against fossil fuel infrastructure. Whether it’s been train blockades in Washington or Oregon, or  civil disobedience against the tar sands in Utah, Rising Tide has modeled a new level of resistance across the continent.

  • From Vermont to Cove Point, Maryland, Rising Tide groups and affiliates  have organized fierce disruptive campaigns to stop fracking infrastructure throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.  As the gas industry attempts to expand their pipelines and export terminals, we mobilize to stop them.

  • In New York City, in the wake of the massive People’s Climate March, Rising Tide activists, organizers and trainers joined with climate activists around the world to Flood Wall Street.  We successfully helped organize a massive occupation of New York’s financial district truly taking the fight to one of the root causes of climate change–Wall Street and it’s investments in oil, gas and coal!

  • And finally, beginning last March, our chapter in Mexico, Marea Creciente, launched La Caravana Climatica that traveled from Northern Mexico the United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru this month. While traveling in Ecuador, they had their bus confiscated and are targeted by the authorities on trumped up charges.  Despite this government oppression, the group made it to Lima to denounce extraction and industry in Lima.

Can you help us bring more of the same in 2015?seattle

We’re an all-volunteer network of activists and have done a lot this year. Now we need your support to keep going in 2015.

Can you give $5, $10 or $50 to support us in 2015?

Thanks for all you do.

Solidarity,

Rising Tide North America