Tag: fossil fuels

Idaho: Idaho Train Increases & Blocked Roads, Wyoming & Montana Derailments, Rejected Colorado Railway, Pipeline & Mine Protests

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Cross-posted from Wild Idaho Rising Tide

Our comrades with Wild Idaho Rising Tide have been fighting fossil fuels in their region for over ten years. Their campaign began with blockades and arrests of people fighting Exxon’s “megaloads” hauling tar sands mining equipment through Idaho to Alberta during 2011 and 2012. But the group has over the past decade taken on all fossil fuels in northern Idaho and other parts of the Northwest.

This includes persistent monitoring and documenting of coal and oil trains traveling through the region.

They also host a weekly radio show on local community radio station KRFP called “Climate Justice Forum” that describes continent-wide grassroots opposition to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change and many local issues.

Here’s details on a recent episode about the monitoring of Northwest fossil fuel trains:

“The Wednesday, April 7, 2021, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features news and reflections on our tenth anniversary, volunteer opportunities, and recent, social media absence, north Idaho railroad-blocked road access and fossil fuel train increases during March and from tar sands pipeline opposition, a Wyoming river locomotive fuel spill settlement, Montana chlorine train crash remembrances, federal rejection of a potential Colorado oil train corridor, and indigenous and allied actions against pipelines and lithium mines.  Broadcast for nine years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots resistance to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.”

For more info and regular updates, check out Wild Idaho Rising Tide’s website.

New York: Resist the Cricket Valley gas plant on March 16th!

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Save the date! Monday, March 16th, noon in Albany

You’re invited to join Resist CVE, Food & Water Action, XR, Sane Energy Project, New Paltz Climate Action Coalition & Others at Empire State Plaza in Albany.

Protest Party- Rally, art, music, chants, action & more. Tell Cuomo to follow his own law – No more fracked gas power plants and NY! No Cricket Valley! No Danskammer!

Please share the RSVP link bit.ly/stopcvethismarch with allies who might be interested!

Folks coming from afar can attend a training in Albany on the morning of the action!

NVDA Trainings (Non-violent direct action)

Trainings are a chance to plan & practice for the March 16th action day. A variety of support roles are needed in addition to escalated roles. It’s also a good opportunity for building skills & trust.

Folks coming from afar can attend a training in Albany on the morning of the action!

Tuesday, March 10th: Millerton Training from 6:30-9pm (light dinner included)

Saturday, March 14th: Kingston Training from 11:30am-2pm (art build to follow)

Monday, March 16th: Albany Training (held on morning of the action)

** Address to follow for those who RSVP**

Art Builds

Art builds in the days leading up to the action will help March 16th be one to remember! They’re also a great chance to get to know other activists on the team!
Thursday, February 27th: XR New Paltz at 7:30pm
Sunday, March 1st: Millerton at 2pm
Saturday, March 14th: Kingston 2-7pm (drop in when you can)
Monday, March 9th: 2pm in Wingdale (PENDING)

** Address to follow for those who RSVP**

We encourage all interested activists, artists & musicians to RSVP, so we can craft a powerful day together!

Bay Area: Trouble-makers Shut Down Chase Branch Over Climate Crisis and in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en

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CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SHUT DOWN CHASE BANK TO ‘STOP THE MONEY PIPELINE’ TO FOSSIL FUELS

On the heels of Goldman Sachs and Blackrock announcements to divest from oil and gas, pressure is mounting on JPMorgan Chase, the world’s largest funder of fossil fuels   

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 31, 2020 —Dozens of local activists launched the ‘Stop the Money Pipeline ‘campaign in Bay Area today with creative disruption at Chase Bank at [location to be disclosed]. These citizens are demanding that JPMorgan Chase – the largest funder of fossil fuels worldwide  – defund fossil fuels immediately to protect the planet. The action was coordinated by the Bay Area Climate Coalition, which includes Extinction Rebellion SFBay Area, Rainforest Action Network, 350 Bay Area, 350 Silicon Valley, XR Youth, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Front Bay Area, and Diablo Rising Tide.

According to the “fossil fuel finance report card” published by a coalition of environmental organizations, JPMorgan Chase is the world’s top banker of fossil fuels. The bank has provided over $195 billion in financing to fossil fuel companies since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Activist and actress Jane Fonda is helping to lead the call to JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to stop funding the destruction of the planet.

Anthropogenic climate change, created by emissions from human activity being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and heating the globe, is causing the collapse of natural systems leading to forest fires, sea level rise, flooding, increasing storm systems and the extinction of species. Communities in California are feeling the impacts of climate change as deadly forest fires.

Other leading financial institutions are recognizing that the risk associated with destroying the planet is bad business. In December, 2019 Goldman Sachs announced that they were formally banning investments in coal and oil, including ceasing to fund Arctic drilling, and would be investing $750 billion in sustainable and climate focused initiatives over the next decade. In January, 2020 Blackrock, the largest asset management firm in the world, joined Climate Action 100+, an global group of investors mobilizing around climate change, and Chairman Larry Fink wrote in his 2020 letter to CEOs “we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance. The evidence on climate risk is compelling investors to reassess core assumptions about modern finance.”

While critics maintain that these financial institutions need to do more, it may only be a matter of time before the other shoe drops with mounting pressures from consumers, civil society and the very climate itself.

Chase customers are cutting up their credit cards as part of the #CutTheChaseChallenge. The Bay Area Climate Coalition recommends investing with socially and environmentally responsible banks or local credit unions. “A lot of people don’t know where their money sleeps at night. Moving your investments to align with your values is one of the biggest things you can do for the planet,” said Extinction Rebellion activist Sandra (last name omitted for privacy).

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New York: Resist the Cricket Valley Fracked Gas Power Plant on Nov. 16

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Cross-posted from Resist CVE

On Saturday, November 16, at 11am, help shut down the largest climate destruction site in the Northeast: Cricket Valley fracked gas plant in Dutchess Co., NY. Families & #ClimateStrike youth encouraged to attend as well as friends who would like to participate in non-violent and creative escalation.

Who is most at risk?

Schaghticoke Indigenous Nation, Dutchess Co. organic farms, three adjacent children’s schools, and the ecosystem of Harlem Valley’s The Great Swamp Watershed, the largest freshwater wetlands in New York, and surrounded by medicinal plants.

Background: 

The Cricket Valley Energy Center (CVE) is a 1,100 megawatt fracked gas plant under construction in Dover/Wingdale, New York. It would receive out-of-state fracked gas through the Iroquois Gas Transmission System, a pipeline project co-owned by TransCanada and the Virginia-based fossil fuel bully Dominion Resources. Advanced Power, a Switzerland-based private energy infrastructure company, would own and operate the plant. The plant aims to begin operations in 2020, but WE are going to stop it. The company wants to perform “shakedowns” or testing of the turbines using diesel fuel. We won’t let them shake us down.

Our Strategy:

Governor Cuomo has the power to stop this plant. The plant was approved nearly a decade ago, based on out-of-date science, and without genuine community input. The plant is also on very shaky financial legs, and will foot us with the bill through our electric rates, as well as endure decades of pollution that Cuomo has committed to halting through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. His father, former Governor Mario Cuomo halted dirty Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant even though the building was complete. Governor Cuomo can follow his father’s legacy, listen to climate science, and follow our climate law… or will the largest fracked gas power plant in the northeast U.S. be Governor Cuomo’s Climate Legacy?

Our Plan: 

Our coalition of community and advocacy groups across New York are hosting three orientation trainings to learn more, and help plan! Orientation trainings = learn history + where we are, build our community relationships, pick a role!

Sign the pledge to get more information on the following Planning Orientations:

*Saturday, October 19 in Millerton, NY 10am-2pm

*Sunday, October 20 in Kingston, NY 12pm-4pm

*Sunday, October 27 in NYC 12pm-4pm