Washington, DC: Pipeline Protesters Disrupt FERC’s First Meeting with New Trump Commissioners

from DC Direct Action News

On the 20th of September, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held its first meeting since two of Trump’s three new commissioners were confirmed. Protesters showed up outside, and those of them not yet known to FERC security managed to attend the “open” meeting. FERC security is known for using “blue dots” added to badges issued by security to mark known activists to be excluded from so-called “open” meetings. Once inside, they sang “We shall overcome” and were ejected.

After the action at FERC, the participants departed for Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress, delivering Stop Trump’s Dirty Energy Agenda sign-on letters.

The recent confirmation of two of Trump’s nominees to FERC restored a quorum, allowing FERC to get “back to work” issuing permits for pipelines and eminent domain. FERC is infamous as the gas and pipeline industry’s rubber stamp for eminent domain, and some of the protesters from front-line communities singled out this theft of their land in calling out the agency. On the climate change issue, Reverend Yearwood mentioned the hurricanes devastating Puerto Rico and the Gulf Coast this year, telling FERC to “check the weather” to understand why approving further fossil fuel infrastructure was a bad idea.

More pictures and video at DC Direct Action News.

Aamjiwnaang Water Gathering and Toxic Tour 2017, “Canada”

from Aamjiwnaang Solidarity

Aanii Boozhoo,

Chi-miigwetch (Big Thank you) for your understanding of Aamjiwnaang Water Gathering and Toxic Tour 2017 postponement. We are officially moving the Date till September 29- October 1, 2017! Same weekend layout out of joining a welcoming community dinner on Sept 29th starting at 5pm and panel of Our Sacred Connection to Water. September 30th is a full day of many classes on water teachings running from 10am-8pm. Then October 1st for Toxic Tours and classes running from 8am-6pm. This event is a FREE event, and everyone is welcome to attend.

We welcome you to camp all weekend starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. Camping includes campsites with accessibility needs, washrooms, showers in the morning, and activities. We will include meals all weekend long of breakfast, lunch and dinner including vegan, vegetarian, and traditional meats. We ask you to bring your own feast bag with your own cutlery, plate, and drinking container to minimize waste and to take leftovers home. This event welcomes anyone and everyone to come, and is a FREE event.

Notes on the Bure ZAD in France and the Politics of Eternity/Death

by Julius Gavroche / Autonomies

The ZADs of france (Zone à défendre), at Notre-dame-des-landes, Testet, Roybon and the many others elsewhere (click here for ZAD map: le monde 21/12/2015) have emerged originally as moments of contestation against major infrastructure developments, public and private, typically outside of large urbanised spaces.  The protests have then, in some cases, been followed by occupations of the contested territories with the aim of literally physically impeding the development projects.  It is then bodies against machines, the war machine of the State, with all of its apparatuses of control and repression, and the physical machines that re-make space and life, to serve the movement of capital-commodities.

The very real physical nature of the protest then calls something into play which is rarely, if ever, present in momentary city protests (and perhaps not sufficiently reflected upon): bodies need to be feed, sheltered, clothed, cared for.  To provide for these needs and more, a protest that extends in time must gain roots, it must become to some degree self-sustaining.  The ZADs then become expressions-experiments in other, non-commodified, forms of life.  Organised collectively, horizontally, self-managed without a centre or leadership, open to all who share in its vision, the ZADs prefigure a different world, an non-capitalist world opposed to the kinds of infrastructure investments essential to capitalism’s continuous expansion.

This physical dimension of radical politics has often been set aside or ignored in the heat of demonstrations, riots and insurrections.  But the fragility of the “occupy” movements of post-2011, focused primarily on the occupation of city squares, was in part due to this blindness.  The occupations in fact could not be maintained, because the bodies present needed more than the occupiers could provide for themselves.

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West Virginia Withdraws Approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline

by Associated Press and Michael Virtanen / WV Public Broadcasting

West Virginia environmental regulators are rescinding approval for building the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would carry natural gas down the center of West Virginia for 195 miles.

In a letter Thursday, the Department of Environmental Protection said it’s vacating the water quality certification issued in March, which followed review of the projected impact on the state’s waters and public hearings.

“This decision will allow the agency to re-evaluate the complete application to determine whether the state’s certification is in compliance with Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act,” wrote Scott Mandirola, director of the DEP’s Division of Water and Waste Management.

The pipeline would extend south from north-central West Virginia through 11 counties to the Virginia state line and 108 miles through six counties in that state.

In June, five citizen groups asked a federal appeals court to overturn the state approval.

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Japan Kills 177 Whales During Annual Hunt in Pacific Ocean

by Samuel Osborne / Independent

Japan has completed its whaling season in the northwest Pacific Ocean having killed 177 whales.

Three ships, which left port in June, caught 43 minke whales and 134 sei whales.

Japan’s fisheries agency said it would collect data on the whales’ stomach contents and report its findings to the International Whaling Commission.

The annual hunt remains highly controversial.

Fenceline Communities on Gulf Coast Face Mass Displacement, Toxic Pollution One Month After Harvey

from Democracy Now!

As many parts of the United States recover from a devastating series of hurricanes, we end today’s show with an update from one of the hardest-hit communities along the Gulf Coast. Port Arthur, Texas, is a fenceline community with several massive oil refineries that flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Just last week, a fire at the Valero oil refinery in Port Arthur released nearly 1 million pounds of emissions into the air, prompting residents to stay in their homes for hours. Meanwhile, the 3,600-acre Motiva oil refinery in Port Arthur says it plans to continue a multibillion-dollar expansion of its facility, which is already the largest in the United States. This comes as hundreds of displaced Port Arthur residents whose homes were flooded during the storm continue to live in tents.

We speak with environmental justice activist Hilton Kelley, who made history in 2011 when he became the first African-American man to win the “Green Nobel Prize”—the Goldman Environmental Prize. Kelley is the executive director and founder of the Community In-Power and Development Association. His restaurant and home were both flooded during Hurricane Harvey.

 

Transcript: This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

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Family and Supporters Engaged in Pennsylvania Pipeline Resistance Seek Relief from Rights Violations

from Camp White Pine / Earth First! Newswire

Huntingdon, PA – Four Pennsylvania residents filed a federal lawsuit on Monday alleging that their constitutional rights to protest were violated by pipeline operator Energy Transfer Partners and others acting on their behalf.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Monday morning, alleges that the plaintiffs’ rights were violated by the company and those acting in concert with or on behalf of the company during protests against the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Huntingdon County, over the course of a year and a half.

The plaintiffs include Ellen and Elise Gerhart, residents of Huntingdon County, Alexander Lotorto and Elizabeth Glunt, both residents of Pennsylvania. They name eight separate violations of rights under federal and state laws by Energy Transfer Partners, their private security firm TigerSwan, the Huntingdon County Sheriff’s Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the creator of a Facebook page aimed at targeting, discrediting and inciting violence against the Gerharts and their supporters.

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Fossil Fuel Resistance Mapping Project Launched to Bolster Opposition to Big Oil

by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams

In an attempt to highlight and bolster the “groundswell of resistance” against fracking wells, pipelines, and other fossil fuel projects throughout the United States, a coalition of environmental groups on Thursday launched the Fossil Fuel Resistance Mapping Project, which details precisely where opposition to Big Oil is taking hold throughout the United States and how others can join in.

“People demand a safe and clean environment, and they will not rest until that is guaranteed for every community across the country.”
—Kelly Martin, Sierra Club

“From the Gulf Coast where people are recovering from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, to the Pacific Northwest where wildfires are raging, many communities are leading fights against fossil fuel projects amidst life-altering climate impacts,” the coalition—which includes 350.org, Sierra Club, and Bold Alliance—said in a joint statement Thursday.

“These fights are not isolated events, but rather a groundswell of steadfast and widespread local resistance to fossil fuel projects across the continent in the absence of federal climate action,” the groups continue. “Grassroots leaders in these efforts are pushing back on the fossil fuel industry’s injustices, from environmental racism to violating Indigenous sovereignty.”

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North Dakota’s Bill for Oil Pipeline Protest Costs Now at $39 Million

from MPR News

North Dakota’s bill for policing protests of the Dakota Access pipeline continues to rise.

The North Dakota Emergency Commission is set to borrow an additional $5 million Monday to cover law enforcement costs. That will bring the total line of credit from the state-owned bank of North Dakota to $39 million.

State Emergency Services spokeswoman Cecily Fong says 11 states provided law enforcement help to North Dakota, and some bills are only now arriving.

The $3.8 billion pipeline built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners began moving oil from North Dakota to a distribution point in Illinois in June, after months of protests.

The Emergency Commission also is set to approve a $10 million federal grant to help pay state law enforcement bills related to the protests.

“Earth Resistance” Camp Set to Confront Livestock Summit, October 4-6, France

from Renverse

translated by Earth First! Journal

From October 4 to 6, 2017, the 26th edition of the Livestock Summit will be held in Clermont-Ferrand, a key event for industry professionals and decision-makers. Far from ethical, ecological, or social concerns, the Livestock Summit seeks to perpetuate and develop a violent agricultural model in its most industrialized form. It is for this reason that Eart Resistance, an antispecist and ecologist association fighting for the end of animal exploitation and against all forms of domination, is setting up a Counter-Summit from October 1 to 7 in order to promote natural, ecological, and local agriculture.

This Camp of the Transition is a laboratory of reflections to build a new project of society; the programming will be paced by conferences, debates, and workshops of reflection, but also militant training in order to give tools to take action and create an inclusive and strong movement. At the same time, it calls for actions of civil disobedience to block the Summit in order to obtain our demands and to show that we have the power to deal with industries and their destructive projects.

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