Climate Activism Roundup #2

Pipelines are a story. Pipelines are a commitment. From conception to construction, pipelines take a long time to come to fruition, and as the years pass, the fossil fuel industry hopes that the average citizen will not make the commitment to follow each pipeline’s multi-year narrative. It is difficult to mobilize without a clear narrative—and as a result, outrage often doesn’t reverberate outside of a proposed pipeline’s region. Even the most well-known fossil fuel projects, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and the Keystone XL Pipeline do not receive the media attention required for the general population to fully appreciate or follow the powerful resistance being mounted by their opponents.

With this in mind, we have grouped articles relating to specific pipeline projects together so that you can follow the projects and the activists fighting against them with each Climate Activism Roundup. We hope this will connect our readers with the stories of other individuals and communities facing similar struggles, and we hope that it will make it a little easier to make the commitment to follow the various pipeline narratives unfolding across the country and the world.

DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE (ND, SD, IA, IL)

NORTH DAKOTA: DAPL Opponents Vow to ‘Rise’ From Ashes of Oceti Sakowin and Keep Fighting

Common Dreams / February 23, 2017 –

“As the Army Corps of Engineers forcibly evicted the last of the remaining water protectors from the Oceti Sakowin protest camp on Thursday, Indigenous opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) made it clear that their expulsion would not be the end of the fight.”

NORTH DAKOTA: The Indigenous Environment Network Responds to Forced Evacuations of DAPL Resistance Camps

Common Dreams / February 22, 2017 –

“At 2pm CT on February 22, 2017, water protectors at the Oceti Sakowin camp were evicted by the Army Corps of Engineers. Despite efforts from camp leaders requesting more time to clean up the camp, the Army Corp remained firm with its plans to vacate the camp.The Army Corp claims jurisdiction of the land that the camp is located on even though the land is within the unceded Fort Laramie Treaty land and territories.”

VIDEO: Stand at Standing Rock as Police Prepare to Evict Pipeline Opponents

The Intercept / February 21, 2017 –

“Native American tribes have filed yet another legal motion seeking to halt construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Legal experts said the attempt faces long odds but may be the tribes’ best hope for blocking the project. The motion, filed Tuesday by the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, asks the court to reverse an easement for the pipeline that the Army Corps of Engineers granted. That easement lifted the final hurdle for the project’s completion.”

NORTH DAKOTA: Standing Rock: Tribes File Last Ditch Effort to Block Dakota Pipeline

Inside Climate News / February 16, 2017 –

CALIFORNIA: Santa Monica City Council Moves Towards Divesting from Wells Fargo

Last Real Indians/ 14 Feb, 2017 –

“On February 14th 2017, the Santa Monica city council voted 5-0 to begin the process towards divesting from Wells Fargo. The unanimous vote will, “direct staff to examine its investment practices and consider divesting all City funds from Wells Fargo, due to their business practices and their involvement in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline.”

CALIFORNIA: California City of Davis Divests from Wells Fargo in DAPL Protest

Colorlines / Feb 9, 2017 –

“After Seattle, another West Coast city has taken a stand against the $3.78 billion Dakota Access Pipeline. Davis, CA is the latest to divest from Wells Fargo, one of the banks financing the project that was developed in large part by Energy Transfer Partners.”

WASHINGTON: Seattle Just Divested Billions From Wells Fargo Over Dakota Access Pipeline

Common Dreams / Feb 8, 2017 –

“The move makes Seattle the first city to divest from a financial institution because of its role in the Dakota Access pipeline, a $3.8 billion project that would run from western North Dakota to Illinois, and is fiercely opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Wells Fargo is one of 17 banks directly financing the project.”

SABAL TRAIL PIPELINE (AL, GA, FL):

PODCAST: The Final Straw Interviews Sabal Trail Pipeline Resistance

The Final Straw podcast / February 19, 2017 –

*Sabal Trail Pipeline Resistance Interview begins at 17:50 and ends at 46:20*

“This week we’re sharing a conversation we had with Karrie and Niko, two folks involved in the initiative called Sabal Trail Resistance. The immediate goal of Sabal Trail Resistance is to block the Sabal Trail Pipeline, actually a series of 3 pipelines meant to run through Georgia, Alabama and Florida, carrying pressurized natural gas. We spend about a half an hour of this episode chatting about the route, who’ll be effected, the companies behind the pipeline, environmental racism, decolonization and other related topics.”

FLORIDA: Sabal Trail Pipeline Protestors to Sen. Bill Nelson: Acknowledge Us.

WLRN / Feb 15, 2017 –

“About 30 protesters on Tuesday called for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to take action against the Sabal Trail Pipeline, a 515-mile pipeline that would carry natural gas from Alabama down to north Florida. They stationed themselves in front of the Democratic senator’s Coral Gables office around noon, demanding Nelson respond to a letter and petition they delivered in December.”

FLORIDA: Protestors to Target Sabal Trail, other gas pipelines as Trump departs

Palm Beach Post / Feb 11, 2017 –

“It hasn’t drawn the same kind of national and global attention as Keystone or Dakota efforts, but the Sabal Trail Pipeline slated to begin transporting natural gas to Florida Power & Light’s South Florida plants in June has been fought by environmental groups for the last few years.”

BAYOU BRIDGE PIPELINE (TX, LA):

LOUISIANA: Clash Over Bayou Bridge Pipeline Ratchets Up After Louisiana Pipeline Explosion

Earth First!/ Feb 15, 2017 –

“On February 13 environmental advocates urged Louisiana agencies to deny permits for the Bayou Bridge pipeline at a press conference in front of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) office in Baton Rouge. Five days earlier, a Phillips 66 natural gas pipeline in Paradis, Louisiana, exploded, killing one worker and injuring two.”

LOUISIANA: Bayou Bridge Pipeline opponents open new battlefront: worker safety

New Orleans Times-Picayune & Nola.com/ Feb 14, 2017 –

“Opponents of the planned Bayou Bridge Pipeline, designed to carry crude oil 162 miles across 11 south Louisiana parishes and through the Atchafalaya Basin, have opened a new front in their battle to stop the $670 million project: worker safety. They assert that the oil and gas industry is not safe for workers, and they call for those in the fossil fuel extraction business to shift focus to renewable energy sources.

HINESBURG PIPELINE:

VERMONT: Hinesburg Protestors Rally Outside Vt. Gas Headquarters

Burlington Free Press / February 8, 2017 –

“Hinesburg’s pipeline protestors have spent a full year of opposing Vermont Gas Systems Inc.’s right-of-way through a town park’s wetlands. In February 2016, Hinesburg residents had days to intervene in a Public Service Board hearing for an eminent domain request through Geprags Park. Since then, a group of residents continue to resist the easement even though the town struck a deal with the gas company.”

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COLOMBIA: Communities Demonstrate Against Mining in Colombian Massif

EarthFirst! / February 14, 2017 –

“Peasant and indigenous communities continued to battle against legal and illegal mining which are damaging the Colombian Massif [a group of Andean mountains containing 362 high mountain bodies of water, 13 páramos and other ecosystems rich in flora and fauna] so they organized a massive demonstration to reject those activities in the rural zone of La Vega, to the south of Cauca.”

COLOMBIA: Indigenous and Other Activists Murdered After Peace Accords in Colombia

Indian Country Media Network / February 17, 2017 –

“Activists in Colombia, including a prominent Indigenous leader, are still being murdered at an alarming rate less than two months after the signing of peace accords, according to observers. In the two months since the signing of the peace accords between the government and the FARC rebels, 15 activists have been murdered; meaning that a leader from indigenous, community, labor, environment, or LGBT groups was killed every three and a half days say various sources.”

ECUADOR: Chevron Stall Tactics to Be Addressed in Canadian Court

Indian Country Media Network / February 10, 2017 –

“Indigenous plaintiffs from Ecuador just learned that they will be able to go to trial in a Canadian court to seek approximately $12 billion in company assets from Chevron, in order to enforce an environmental judgment.”

GEORGIA: About 200 GA Legislation orgians Met with Legislators Urging Passage of Critical Coal Ash

Clean Energy / February 16, 2017 –

“Yesterday, as about 200 Georgians gathered at the Capitol Building, State Representative Jeff Jones (R-Brunswick) filed legislation to address Georgia’s toxic coal ash pollution.”

ILLINOIS: Chicago Rallies against Trump’s EPA pick

People’s World / February 8, 2017: –

“Hundreds of protesters gathered Monday morning at Chicago’s Federal Plaza in opposition to Scott Pruitt, Trump’s nominee for head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Former EPA employees, environmental advocates, and residents from across the city, spoke out against the President’s suggested nomination, stating that the Oklahoma Attorney General was not fit to serve as the head of the EPA. ‘These should not be partisan issues,’ said Illinois State Senator Daniel Bliss. ‘Clean air is not a partisan issue. Clean water is not a partisan issue. Slowing, and eventually reversing climate change so that our planet is eventually inhabitable, is not a partisan issue.’”

MASSACHUSETTS: Stepping Away from Microscopes, Thousands Protest War on Science

Common Dreams / Feb 19, 2017 –

“The rally was planned to coincide with the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference, which draws thousands of science professionals, and is a precursor to the March for Science in Washington, D.C. and in cities around the world on April 22.”

RHODE ISLAND: Power-Plant Opponent Spreads Facts about Project

EcoRI.org / February 9, 2017 –

“Paul Roselli has spent much of the past three months traveling Rhode Island and speaking with anyone who is willing to listen. His one-man barnstorming tour, though, isn’t meant to entertain. It’s about sharing information regarding the controversial plan to build a fossil-fuel power plant in the woods of northern Rhode Island.”

UNITED KINGDOM: Rising Up! Protest blockades Heathrow Airport

The Ecologist / 21 February 2017 –

“A direct action protest by Rising Up! today blocked access to three Heathrow terminals to press their demand for no third runway at the UK’s biggest airport. The activists included both climate campaigners and local people fearful of increased pollution, loss of homes and green space and entire villages destroyed.”

USA: Activists Race to Archive Climate Data to Protect it from the Trump Administration

Seeker / Feb 17, 2017 –

“More than 100 archivists, environmentalists and data nerds will gather this weekend at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., to hold a digital barn-raising of sorts, downloading scientific data from several government data bases and uploading them to a secure server.”

USA: Environmental Justice Warriors Share News from the Front Lines

Sierra Club / February 2, 2017 –

“Memphis and New Orleans may be separated by about 400 miles and a handful of small towns, but the destinations share two qualities: their location along the Mississippi River and their status as major hot spots for environmental activism and justice.”

USA: Youth Activists Name Trump in Landmark Suit Against U.S. over Climate Change

Eco Business / February 13, 2017: –

“A group of American students, one as young as nine, is suing President Donald Trump over the U.S. government’s climate-change policy that they claim puts their future in jeopardy, their attorney said on Friday… The 21 students added Trump as a party to their two-year-old case in order for litigation to continue under the new administration, said lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Julia Olson. Trump replaces former President Barack Obama as a named party in the case against the US federal government.”

WASHINGTON: Climate Activist Escapes Conviction in Action That Shut Down 5 Pipelines

Inside Climate News / Feb 3, 2017 –

“Climate activist Ken Ward eluded conviction on multiple criminal charges for shutting off an emergency valve for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain oil sands pipeline last October after a county court in Washington declared a mistrial.”