State Department Releases Final Environmental Impact Statement on Keystone XL Pipeline. The State Department today released the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project. The controversial project would carry as much as 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day from Alberta, Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The State Department’s Final Supplemental EIS concluded that the pipeline wouldn’t increase the rate of extraction of tar sands and thus isn’t likely to significantly increase carbon pollution. “The idea that this pipeline would pose little environmental risk is laughable. If built it will transport the dirtiest fuel on the planet across six states and hundreds of waterways,” said Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace.
“Building this pipeline would be like adding 37 million new cars to U.S. roads. The Final Supplemental EIS provides a technical assessment of the potential environmental impacts related to the proposed pipeline and responds to the more than 1.9 million comments received since June 2012. Alberta transitions environmental regulation to industry-backed group. Alberta, Canada has begun to shut down one of its energy and environmental regulators, replacing it with a group tasked with many of the same powers but completely funded by the oil, gas and coal industries. At least 75 environmental officers formerly employed by Alberta's government left this fall, and another 75 or so are expected to leave in the coming months and join the new regulator, according to the Edmonton Journal. The government also began handing over thousands of pages of regulations to the new Alberta Energy Regulator, which is now charged with overseeing the conservation of water and land in Alberta, while also promoting the economic benefits associated with oil, gas and coal production.
Oil and gas permits used to be doled out by two regulators, including the Energy Resources Conservation Board. The new organization will get all of its funding from levying fees on oil and gas companies. Protti isn't the only one drawing skepticism. Wikileaks reveals failed plans to suppress anti-Keystone activists. The oil industry never wanted people to get worked up about the tapping of Canada’s tar sands. That much already went without saying. But a 2010 presentation released by Wikileaks shows just how desperate it was to keep to environmentalists off its back — and just how unsuccessful, three years later, it’s been in doing so. The presentation was prepared by Stratfor, a global intelligence firm based in Texas, for what appears to be Suncor Energy, Canada’s largest oil sands producer.
(While Suncor denies ever having commissioned or seen the presentation, the company’s name is mentioned a total of 11 times throughout.) InsideClimateNews calls the presentation “the latest in a series of revelations that suggest energy companies—which for most of their history seemed unfazed by activists—have been looking for ways to dilute environmentalists’ growing influence.” Oil Spill in North Dakota Raises Detection Concerns. TSB FOIAs PHMSA. Whoa, so many acronyms in that headline! Allow us to “expand” upon them: TSB- Tar Sands Blockade, that’s us! We’re continuing to seek answers and accountability regarding TransCanada’s suspect pipeline construction practices, well documented across Texas. Presently we’re doing this using… FOIA- the Freedom Of Information Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. PHMSA- the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, is a subdivision of the U.S.
What We’re Doing Our first FOIA request (see below, or click here if it doesn’t appear below) was mailed out to PHMSA’s FOIA Headquarters in DC on Thursday, just as soon as the government shutdown ended (of course PHMSA along with other government agencies, conveniently for them, weren’t processing any FOIA requests during the shutdown).
We suspect that PHMSA will attempt to withhold and/or redact what could be some pretty damning reports about KXL and the agency’s failure to conduct adequate oversight. TransCanada’s Fails. US Court: Transcanada's Keystone XL Profits More Important than Environment. In a major ruling that's flown under the radar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit - based in Denver, Colorado - decided not to grant the Sierra Club and Clean Energy Future Oklahoma a temporary injunction on the construction of the southern half of Transcanada's Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline. President Barack Obama speaks in Cushing, OK in March 2013. (Photo: White House) The Court's decision hinged on an "injury" balancing test: Would Transcanada be hurt more financially from receiving an injunction?
Had it lost, it would be stuck with one until Sierra Club, et al receive a U.S. District Court decision on the legality of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant Transcanada a Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) for construction of what's now called the Gulf Coast Pipeline in February 2012. Or would ecosystems suffer even greater and potentially incalculable damage from the 485-mile, 700,000 barrels per day pipeline crossing 2,227 streams? Why, I asked Hayes? Climate Activist Tim DeChristopher & the Power of Civil Disobedience in Growing Movements. Climate activist Tim DeChristopher & author Terry Tempest Williams Climate activist Tim DeChristopher served twenty-one months in prison after disrupting a federal land auction that would have sold off the leasing rights to oil and gas companies. He stopped oil and gas companies from exploiting resources around the Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in southeastern Utah and nearby the Book Cliffs in eastern Utah.
He had not planned to buy the land, but when he was asked at the auction if he was there to bid, he saw an opportunity and said yes. He was convicted of two felonies: violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act and making fraudulent statements. The government took the case to trial, even though Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar decided to cancel the sale of “77 environmentally sensitive parcels” of land in the auction I recorded audio of DeChristopher’s from my seat in the second row. On Civil Disobedience The Legacy of DeChristopher’s Action. Commondreams : Obama's Top Official Pushing... Tar Sands a Dirty Outcome of Free Trade Failures. Line in the Sand: The conflict surrounding Keystone XL and tar sands - Pilot. What Is Wrong With The Keystone XL Pipeline? Welcome to Forbes. Resistance in the “Fossil Fuel” Capital of the World: An Interview with Houston Tar Sands Blockade Activists Stephanie Thomas and Benjamin Craft-Rendon.
Today, Turning Wheel interviews two activists on the front lines of the Houston Tar Sands Blockade. Houston is of the two end point destinations for the Keystone XL Pipeline. It also is the headquarters of numerous oil and gas multinationals, including Halliburton and Phillips 66. As such, Houston offers a unique opportunity to both resist the tar sands, and also work to transform America’s oil and gas industry, if that’s possible.
Turning Wheel Media: Can you tell us a little bit about your backgrounds? Stephanie Thomas: I’m a geologist by training and I spent my time in graduate school researching ancient climate and environments. My dissertation work focused on the Late Permian and Early Triassic Periods. During graduate school, I was recruited by a major oil and gas company, and I’ve spent three years working for them. Benjamin Craft-Rendon: I’m 35, was born at home in Houston, TX, and raised in a nontraditional family unit. And I have yet to mention the issue of global warming. Keystone XL Conflict of Interest: Obama Attorney’s Law Firm Represents TransCanada.
Keystone XL Conflict of Interest: Obama Attorney’s Law Firm Represents TransCanada. Colarulli, Gerard Debate Keystone XL Pipeline: Video. Police Trained to Treat Keystone XL Protesters as 'Terrorists' Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Rena Schild June 13, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.
It’s often difficult to gauge just how much fear activists instill in the powers that be. Bold Nebraska, a grassroots landowner advocacy group, obtained TransCanada's presentation slides (below) via a Freedom of Information Act request to the Nebraska State Patrol. Lauren Regan, legal coordinator for Tar Sands Blockade and executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center said, “This is clear evidence of the collusion between TransCanada and the federal government assisting local police to unlawfully monitor and harass political protestors.” According to a 350.org press release the slides were presented last month in Nebraska, althought they date back to December, 2012. One slide even has photos and descriptions of the “professional organizers” in a “most wanted” fashion: Keystone XL opponents try renewable energy projects along route.
LINCOLN, Neb., May 31 (UPI) -- Opponents of the planned Keystone XL pipeline started a fundraising campaign to build wind and solar energy projects along the pipeline's Nebraska route. The U.S. State Department is vetting millions of public comments to its draft environmental assessment of Keystone XL. Pipeline company TransCanada wants to build the cross-border pipeline to deliver heavy Canadian crude oil to southern U.S. refineries. Jane Kleeb, director of pipeline opponent Bold Nebraska, said the group was joining other advocates in calling for the construction of a wind turbine and a solar-powered farm in the pipeline's path.
"If President Obama approves Keystone XL, he'll then have to then have to tear down these clean and locally produced energy sources to make way for dirty and foreign tar sands," she said in a statement. Bold Nebraska, the Sierra Club and the Nebraska Farmers Union are organizing the fundraising campaign to build the projects. Alberta Oil Spill: Up To 3,000 Barrels Spill Near Red Deer River Reports Plains Midstream Canada. SUNDRE, Alta. - Crews were scrambling Friday to contain and clean up a pipeline spill that is believed to have sent up to 475,000 litres of crude oil flowing into a rain-swollen Red Deer River system in west-central Alberta. Plains Midstream Canada says when the spill was discovered Thursday night it closed off its network of pipelines in the area. Tracey McCrimmon, executive director of a community group that works with the industry, said it was rural homeowners who first raised the alarm about an oil pipeline spill. She said people who live just north of Sundre phoned in reports Thursday night of smelling rotten eggs — the telltale odour of sour gas or sour oil.
"The first call that we got was at 8:40 pm. "We called all of the oil and gas operators within six kilometres of the area. The company said the oil spilled into Jackson Creek near the community of Sundre, about 100 kilometres from Red Deer. "It's going to be a major environmental concern for sure. " (The Canadian Press, CKGY, CFFR) RAMPS | Radical Action for Mountain Peoples' Survival. A direct action campaign to end strip mining, based in southern West Virginia.
Tar Sands Blockade » Taking non-violent direct action to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Welcome to Blockadia! We are members of Peaceful Uprising and Utah Tar Sands Resistance, groups that are working to stop tar sands mining from beginning in Utah. As tar sands mining is scheduled to begin in Utah in 2013, we deeply valued the chance to visit the Tar Sands Blockade in Texas several months ago to gain insight from other grassroots organizers. Finding solidarity across such a distance inspired this piece.
On January 10, Oklahomans marched on a section of the Keystone XL pipeline in Stroud, Okla., to launch a direct action campaign against the project. Just three days earlier, more than 100 activists stormed into the Houston headquarters of TransCanada, the corporation contracted to build Keystone. Meanwhile, a new tree-sit went up to block the path of the pipeline’s construction in Diboll, Texas. These actions represent the spirit of Blockadia—a vast but interwoven web of campaigns standing up against the fossil fuel industry and demanding an end to the development of tar sands pipelines. 1. 2.
Keystone XL Pipeline theater in Union Square. On January 8th, 2013 a group of activists put on a play in Union Square to inform people about TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline, Tar Sands Oil, and the issues (and implications) surrounding the corporation, the pipeline and oil. The Keystone XL Pipeline performance in action. Here is part one of the Keystone XL Pipeline theater in Union Square. Here is the second part of the Keystone XL Pipeline theater in Union Square. (Please watch the above videos to see a theatrical discussion on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Tar Sands Oil and TransCanada, which lasted approx 18 minutes. The performance was informative, fun, charming, gross, and just very well done.)
Here are some photos from the action. A performer who played the role of TransCanada CEO holds a cardboard pipeline with a purposeful hole in it. (Below I have transcribed/paraphrased from the video a majority of the important points discussed in the performance. (Amongst the facts are photos from the performance.) 2. 3. 1. Bob and Diane Announce End to Hunger Strike on 45th day. After an incredible 46 days, Bob Lindsey Jr. and Diane Wilson have announced the end of their hunger strike targeting Valero and its role in promoting projects like Keystone XL. The following is a powerful statement from Bob and Diane that explores the motivations behind their long fast as well as their plans for lifelong resistance to all forms of tar sands exploitation. On November 29th, 2012 in protest of Valero’s involvement with the KXL pipeline we locked our necks to industrial trucks just outside the Valero refinery.
We were arrested and immediately began a hunger strike in solidarity with the struggling people of the community of Manchester. We demanded that Valero not only cease all business with TransCanada but vacate the Manchester neighborhood that they have exploited for decades. In Houston’s toxic East End, home to the largest petro-chemical complexes in North America, marginalized communities of color are forced to breathe poisoned air. In Solidarity, Memphis News - One Dead in Valero Refinery Accident. Valero employee killed in boiler explosion. HOUSTON - A day after a deadly accident at Valero's Texas City refinery, officials with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration arrived at the plant Saturday to begin an investigation into what went wrong. Tommy Mannis, 40, an instrument and electrical operator from Alvin, was killed in an explosion around 9 p.m. Friday as a work crew was attempting to restart a boiler that had tripped offline earlier in the day.
Another Valero employee and a contract worker suffered minor injuries. Investigations being conducted by San Antonio-based Valero and OSHA will try to pinpoint why the boiler failed. "We know it was very cold yesterday, but it wasn't necessarily related to the weather," Valero spokesman Bill Day said at a news conference at the plant Saturday. The 245,000-barrel-per-day refinery, Valero's third largest, didn't shut down, and it continued to run at planned rates Saturday. Valero recently said it would permanently close its refinery in Delaware City, Del. Texas judge deals setback to opponents of Keystone XL pipeline. A Texas rebellion over private property rights and a major new oil pipeline has been dealt a setback by a judge in Lamar County, who ruled that the Canadian pipeline company TransCanada has the right to exercise the power of eminent domain to run the Keystone XL pipeline across an opposing landowner’s property.
The ruling in Paris, Texas, from Lamar County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Harris — sent in a few terse words from his iPhone — was a blow to the unlikely coalition of environmentalists, ranchers and conservative tea party activists who have mounted a lively grass-roots challenge against the pipeline in a state traditionally friendly to oil and gas projects. The judge’s brief ruling late Wednesday effectively recognizes what is known as common carrier status for the Keystone XL project and allows TransCanada to proceed with acquiring an easement across ranch manager Julia Trigg Crawford’s property. Crawford said she and her family had not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling.
Wall Photos. Stelco's Hamilton and Lake Erie plants idled.