West Virginia: Peter’s Mountain Blockade Enters into Third Week

from It’s Going Down

The following is an update about the ongoing tree sit in West Virginia against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which has now been active for three weeks and currently is threatened with eviction. For background information on the pipelines threatening Virginia and West Virginia, check out our podcast with local organizers here.

Monday, March 19th 2018.

For 21 days, the tree sit on so-called Peter’s Mountain has been occupying a section of land preventing the Mountain Valley Pipeline from felling trees where they plan to drill beneath the Appalachian Trail. They have faced blizzards and 60 MPH winds, and been greeted with massive community support. As of today, the sitters risk extraction attempts on multiple legal grounds.

On February 26th, Forest Service police informed the tree sitters that they had 21 days to remain in their sits based on federal legislation that places limits on a campsite. The forest service proceeded to enforce a closure of the easement, the access road, and 200 feet surrounding the access road. The sitters have remained strong and active in the closure. (more…)

Blockade Stops Bayou Bridge Pipeline Construction

from L’eau Est La Vie Camp

Good morning ETP.

Early this morning a team of folks blockaded a Bayou Bridge Pipeline construction site, successfully stopping a fuel truck from fueling up equipment at other work sites across the pipeline route. The blockade lasted for an hour and no arrests were made.

We will keep taking action until we stop the Bayou Bridge Pipeline and #StopETP.

Apply to join us here at Camp at NoBBP.org.
Or find a solidarity target and take action in your community: www.NoBayouBridge.global. 

Wild Buffalo Defense Strikes Again!

from Wild Buffalo Defense

March 16th 2018
Stephens Creek Trap, Yellowstone National Park
Media Contact: Talon Brings Buffalo 406-404-9131

Hours before dawn on Friday March 16th, two members of the Wild Buffalo Defense collective arrived at the gate of Yellowstone National Park’s Stephens Creek Buffalo capture facility. They blocked the gate with three 55 gallon drums filled with concrete, locking their arms inside the barrels. The three 1000 pound drums blocked access to the facility, preventing livestock trucks from taking the wild buffalo to slaughter. This action came in the wake of a similar event last week at the Stephens Creek Trap, where two buffalo protectors locked themselves to the hydraulic squeeze shoot using a metal pipe.

Wolf, the first individual locking down, described why he was taking the action: “My father is from Michaocan, Mexico, so I have both native and colonizer blood. Since I wasn’t raised in a native setting, this is my way to give back to the native community. I’m from Illinois — it’s called the Prairie State, and there’s less than one one-hundredth of the prairie left. It’s all strip malls and corn fields…I don’t like seeing just concrete and steel. Seeing how peaceful the buffalo are and how strong they are, they go through enough hardship in their lives in the forest and the plains and then with what Yellowstone National Park is doing to them they still carry on. They inspire me to keep going.” (more…)

Namgis First Nation in B.C. Court in Bid to Halt Fish Farm Restocking

from CTV News Vancouver Island

The Canadian Press, March 13, 2018

VICTORIA – A First Nation is asking the Federal Court to prevent the restocking of an open-net salmon farm in its traditional territories off northern Vancouver Island.

The Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay says prior to any fish transfer to an open-net pen at nearby Swanson Island, the Atlantic salmon smolts should be tested for the blood virus piscine reovirus.

The Namgis also want a judicial review of a Fisheries and Oceans Canada policy that does not require testing for the virus before the transfer of smolts and an injunction preventing the fisheries minister from issuing a licence permitting the transfer. (more…)

Canada: Kinder Morgan Granted Protest Injunction, Activists Vow to Continue Fighting

from Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER — Protesters must be restrained from obstructing the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, says a British Columbia Supreme Court judge who has granted the company an injunction aimed at preventing people from entering within five metres of two work sites.

Justice Kenneth Affleck said Thursday he felt it necessary to make a decision on the second day of a hearing instead of issuing a written order involving outraged demonstrators who have blocked vehicles and workers at the Burnaby Terminal and the Westridge Marine Terminal.

The injunction is indefinite, allowing Trans Mountain to continue work it’s legally entitled to do after the federal government approved the twinning of an existing pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby in the belief it is in the best interest of Canada, Affleck said. (more…)

UK: Activists Blockade Entrance to Cuadrilla’s Lancashire Fracking Site

by Ruth Hayhurst / Drill or Drop

Campaigners used two scaffolding tripods to block the entrance to Cuadrilla’s shale gas site near Blackpool this morning [March 15].

The action, which began at about 4.30am, was by members of the national group, Reclaim the Power, which coordinated a month of protests outside the site last summer.

Two people from Oxfordshire were suspended on harnesses from the tripods, while others were photographed carrying banners reading “Until We Win”, Not Here, Not Anywhere”, and “Keep it in the ground”. (more…)

Updates on the Southeast Trans and/or Women’s Action Camp in North Carolina

submitted to Earth First! Newswire

Local community organizers will be hosting a rural and urban direct action camp in so-called Asheville, North Carolina from April 26th-29th. This camp is open to all ​female, trans, trans women, trans men, gender queer, gender variant, two-spirited, agender, and otherwise non-cis male-identifying people​.​ TWAC is an approach to smashing patriarchy and opposing all forms of oppression through direct action, skill-sharing, and mutual aid for the sake of individual  and collective liberation for all. It is our goal to empower those of us who are systematically  silenced and oppressed due to socially-constructed gender and racial inequalities, to have our  voices be heard and to bring together communities of resistance in spaces that consciously  subvert the power dynamics we often experience in cis and male-dominated spaces. We hope ​to build power and amplify voices within our community, heal, and strengthen our cultures of resistance.This camp is striving to prioritize the voices of indigenous and black
activists and comrades, especially in the south. The relationship between environmental
movements and transformative racial and transgender justice is crucial and something that we
will continue to discuss. (more…)

Judge Clears Way for Walmart in Rare Miami Forest, but Legal Battle Continues

by Jenny Staletovich / Miami New Times

A Miami federal judge has lifted a temporary stop to construction on a Walmart-anchored shopping center on rare pine rockland and hinted that environmentalists are unlikely to win their battle in court.

It’s not clear when Palm Beach County developer Peter Cummings will resume work on theplanned shopping center and apartments spread across nearly 140 acres near Zoo Miami. But environmentalists, armed with additional information released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service since the case was argued, said they plan to keep fighting a project that could pave over one of the largest remaining tracts of pineland outside Everglades National Park.

“There remains a live controversy,” said Jaclyn Lopez, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of four environmental groups that filed a lawsuit in December. “The merits of the case remain.”

Cummings said through a spokesman that he welcomed the decision.

“We believe strongly that Coral Reef Commons will be a blueprint for environmentally conscious development and restoration,” he said, creating “a community that will preserve extensive habitat, restore previously degraded habitat and provide amenities and homes for this community while creating more than 500 jobs and generating more than $3 million in yearly local tax revenues.

(more…)

Virginia: Three Sisters Camp Digs in to Resist the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

 

The following video announces the start of a public campaign against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in so-called Virginia.

The video communique reads:

Greetings, from so-called Virginia.

The unholy and hated corporate leviathan known as Dominion Energy has begun felling trees for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a project poised to cross hundreds of rivers and streams and bore underneath the Appalachian Trail. Dominion’s ACP (along with EQT’s Mountain Valley Pipeline) disproportionately target communities of color and working class families in Appalachia. These projects have been rammed through via Dominion’s political and economic monopoly over every aspect of Virginia’s energy economy.

Dominion has already commenced with clearing and surveying using crews from Utah and Texas, despite their ear numbing promises of jobs for Virginians. We send out cheerful greetings to comrades everywhere.

Water Is Life! Death to the Black Snake!
– Three Sisters Camp

(more…)

Mothers against the Potomac Pipeline Blockade Doors to Maryland State House

from DC Direct Action News

On the 14th of March, Mothers against the Potomac Pipeline blocked one of the MD State House doorways and the blockaders were arrested. This was just days before Governor Hogan is expected to make a decision about whether or not to permit the Potomac Pipeline to proceed.

The Potomac Pipeline is called the Eastern Panhandle Extension by proposing builder Transcanada. This is the same company that is responsible for the spill-plagued existing sections of the Keystone and Keystone XL southern leg tar sands pipeline. Not a single cubic foot of gas from this pipeline would be available to users in Maryland, as its purpose is to connect the fracking gaslands of Penn to industries that do not now exist in W Va. MD (and DC) would still be placed at risk for contamination of the Potomac River during construction, and MD will also face the risk of pipeline explosion if this pipeline goes into service. This is like being exposed to the risk of having your house blown up by your neighbor’s leaky gas pipe without being allowed to use any of the gas to heat your own house-the worst of both worlds. (more…)