Tar Sands Waste Piling Up in Detroit

by Ian Austen, Cross Posted from The New York Times

WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.

Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom.

And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.

The company is controlled by Charles and David Koch, wealthy industrialists who back a number of conservative and libertarian causes including activist groups that challenge the science behind climate change. The company sells the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste, usually overseas, where it is burned as fuel.

The coke comes from a refinery alongside the river owned by Marathon Petroleum, which has been there since 1930. But it began refining exports from the Canadian oil sands — and producing the waste that is sold to Koch — only in November.

“What is really, really disturbing to me is how some companies treat the city of Detroit as a dumping ground,” said Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan state representative for that part of Detroit. “Nobody knew this was going to happen.” Almost 56 percent of Canada’s oil production is from the petroleum-soaked oil sands of northern Alberta, more than 2,000 miles north.

Sovereign Nations Walk Out of Meeting With U.S. State Department Unanimously Rejecting Keystone XL Pipeline

Cross Posted from Huffington Post

The State Department, still with “egg on its face” from its statement that Keystone XL would have little impact on climate change, sunk a little lower today as the most respected elders, and chiefs of 10 sovereign nations turned their backs on State Department representatives and walked out during a meeting. The meeting, which was a failed attempt at a “nation to nation” tribal consultation concerning the Northen leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline neglected to address any legitimate concerns being raised by First Nations Leaders (or leading scientific experts for that matter).

Tribal nations added probably the most critical danger of the pipeline which is to the water. Their statement is below:

TransCanada Reps Kicked Out of Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation

Cross Posted From Tar Sands Blockade

“You’re not welcome here… We’ve said no from day one.”

And with these firm words the TransCanada representatives were kicked out of Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation last week. The seemingly aloof TransCanada officials showed up at the Tribal Office in Eagle Butte, South Dakota in an attempt to win the tribe over to the pipeline, but were met with a swift, firm response. Robin LeBeau, Cheyenne River Sioux Councilwoman for District 5, saw them in the parking lot and promptly told them off.

The encounter was caught on video:

Cross Timbers Earth First! Shuts Down KXL Construction Site

Cross Posted from Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance

UPDATE: 9:16am- Holly and Bailey have been extracted and are now in police custody. Show Holly and Bailey some love by donating to our bail fund.

UPDATE: 8:42am-Holly and Bailey are still locked down, despite dangerous attempts to remove them by the Houghes Co Sheriffs and the Holdenville Fire Department. Show Holly and Bailey some love by Donating to our bail fund.

UPDATE: 8:30am-A Deputy from the Hughes Co Sheriffs department is full-force swinging a sledgehammer at one of Holly and Bailey’s lockdown devices. This is VERY dangerous. They are also now using a Jack Hammer. Call the Hughes Co Sheriffs and tell them this behavior is unacceptable. Phone Number: (405) 379-2203

UPDATE: 8:03am: The Fire Department is shielding their activities by holding up a tarp to block the view.

                       Call the Holdenville Fire Department and tell them their job is not to hurt people!

Phone Number: (405) 379-2413

UPDATE: 8:01am-Holdenville, OK Fire Department is on scene and wielding axes.

UPDATE: 7:52am-Two Hughes Co. Sheriffs vehicles have arrived on scene

UPDATE: 7:00am-Work trucks arrive and then leave

Hughes County, OK, May 14th, 7 am

Early this morning Bailey and Holly, both of whom are local Oklahomans and with Cross Timbers Earth First!ers, walked onto an Keystone XL active construction site in Hughes County, Oklahoma and locked themselves to concrete filled barrels obstructing the use of heavy machinery used in the construction of the pipeline.

Bailey and Holly are part of Cross Timbers Earth First! , a regional chapter of the Earth First! movement, which has been carrying out ecological direct actions for over 30 years.  According to its members, Cross Timbers Earth First! also endorses Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, a growing coalition of groups and individuals dedicated to stopping the expansion of tar sands infrastructure throughout the Great Plains.

Fourth Generation Oklahoman, Founder of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, Locks Himself to KXL Construction Equipment

Cross Posted From Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance
Follow this developing story at GPTSR’s website

Wewoka Oklahoma-Monday, May 13th, 7 am

Early this morning Bob Waldrop, 60,
fourth generation Oklahoman and prominent Oklahoma City community member
walked onto an active construction site for the Keystone XL pipeline in Seminole County and
locked himself to an Excavator, a piece of heavy machinery used in the
construction of the pipeline. Waldrop took a stand today in defense of the
land and the human and non-humans that depend upon it to survive.

Waldrop, as a founding member of the Oscar Romero Catholic Workers House,
is a part of Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, a growing coalition of
groups and individuals dedicated to stopping the expansion of Tar Sands
infrastructure throughout the Great Plains. His action follows an
escalating number of work-stopping actions, of which there were five in
April alone, in Oklahoma.

Abolish the Fossil Fuel Industry

by Henia Belalia, Cross Posted from Peaceful Uprising

How do activists use social movement history? What lessons can be learned from past movements for social change in our fight to stop climate change? We often rely on lessons and tactics from the U.S. Civil Rights movement. We think this might be the best source for our lessons from the past.

Think again.

How about the Abolition of the Slave Trade? As an activist, I fight for climate justice. As an historian and a scholar of law and history, I study slavery and the slave trade.

The movement for civil rights—certainly the mainstream movement—was based on the perceived need to have equal rights in an existing system. The right to vote, the right to fair housing. An end to segregation. Integration into the existing status quo at every level. And none of these things are bad things. Having equal rights is better than not having equal rights. But even the more radical wing of the civil rights movement questioned this strategy. S.N.C.C. members often asked, “Do we really want to die for the right to vote?”

The movement for climate justice is different. We are demanding “system change, not climate change.”

Utah Tar Sands Action Camp July 21-28

Cross Posted from Seeds for Peace

This summer, people from across the country will come together to stop the first tar sands mine in the USA from ever breaking ground. Activists from Utah-based organizations Peaceful Uprising, Canyon Country Rising Tide, Before it Starts, and more have joined forces to make sure this is a powerful and effective moment in the growing movement to stop extreme extraction.

The Canadian petroleum corporation US Oil Sands, Inc is targeting the remote state lands of eastern Utah to be the first tar sands project in the USA. Because political and regulatory objections are diminished in Utah, this project at PR Spring now has the green-light from the state to begin commercial operations.

If companies like US Oil Sands can prove that these types of dirty extraction operations are economically viable in Utah, then more tar sands and oil shale projects will spring up across the region. The legal efforts to stop this  project have stalled construction, but time has run out. It is now time for people to come together and say NO Tar Sands in the US, NO Tar Sands anywhere!

Utah Tar Sands Resistance Disrupts Energy Conference

UPDATE: New video of Utah Tar Sands Resistance Action:

 

by Brittany Green-Miner and Caroline Connolly, Cross Posted from Fox 13

SALT LAKE CITY – Protesters stormed an energy conference at the University of Utah on Tuesday, criticizing the university for holding a meeting that focused on tar sands development in the western United States.

Shouting at a crowd of potential investors and researchers, protesters with the Utah Tar Sands Resistance said a tar sands project in Utah would destroy the state, temporarily halting discussion over oil development projects in Utah.

“People will be coming from all over the country this summer to stop the U.S. Oil Sands mine from happening,” one protester said.

“Lockdown”: Tar Sands Blockade vs. Keystone XL Pipeline (Video)

 

From YouTube: “LOCKDOWN,” is a ten minute documentary by Mutual Aid Media on the Tar Sands Blockade–a group of activists and landowners in Texas who have built a campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. This short doc follows activists as they plan an action camp, lead workshops, and execute a lockdown. We hope that this piece can be used to help promote direct action as well as gain support for Tar Sands Resistance campaigns.

To get involved visit: tarsandsblockade.org , gptarsandsresistance.org , nokxl.org
For more information about Mutual Aid Media, please visit our website at: mutualaidmedia.com

Fearless Summer: Join a National Movement Against Extreme Energy

Cross posted from We Are Fearless Summer

Over the past few years we’ve witnessed a rising tide of courage from the frontlines; communities from the pinewoods of East Texas to the hollers of West Virginia have come together to defend the land and the people from the ravages of extreme energy.  Yet with every new frack-well drilled, pipeline laid, and mountain blasted, the extraction industry pushes our planet closer to irreversible tipping points.

But now we are coming together as a movement to push back.

For too long we have struggled separately and we are running out of time.  If we are going to reclaim our future, we must begin to speak with one voice.  That’s why we are calling for the national movement against extreme energy to join in a summer of coordinated action.   As this industry continues to escalate its attack of life on earth, we must respond by asserting our dignity and escalating our action for a livable future. In the face of unfathomable ecological destruction and looming runaway climate change, we must take the kind of bold action that is necessary to save the planet.  We must all draw our lines in the sand.  We must face our fears together ; we must take our future fearlessly into our hands and change business as usual.

Will you join us in ringing in a #FearlessSummer?