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SPECIAL COVERAGE
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Energy & Nuclear
Hanford, Yucca Mountain, alternative energy sources, public utility campaigns.
Farmers and property owners in western Washington County - as in many other parts of our state - face the prospect of having their land seized through "eminent domain" to make way for LNG pipelines. Here in Forest Grove, we don't have to look to the oil fields of Ecuador or the coal-ravaged towns of Appalachia to find real people being displaced by the fossil fuel industries; they are right here, almost literally in our backyard. To show just what an LNG pipeline means for property owners, our student group constructed a fake section of pipeline which we laid out on an often-frequented path. We strung out a length of red ribbon 25 feet to either side of the pipeline, marking off the size of the property "easement" rendered permanently unusable for tree farming and other practices involving deep-rooted crops or ploughing. The text accompanying our display asked viewers to "Imagine this is your property," and also spelled other problems with LNG development, which include contributions to global warming, and an increase in our dependence on foreign fuels. This dirty energy source means bad news for Oregon all around, and its time to let ALL our elected officials know it.
"Wealthy women come here to shop for their jewelry. Wealthy women from the Klamath River make our jewelry from the plants that grow along the river banks and the shells of mussel and abalone," says Yurok Tribal member Georgiana Myers. "Now the river is so polluted from Buffett's dams we are worried about harvesting the plants we need for our jewelry and regalia." The women, many of whom are mothers, hope to convince the Buffett family to consider their appeals to meet and discuss a dam removal plan that would serve in everyone's best interests.
From the open publishing newswire:
There is a new participant in the international deliberations on global warming and agrofuels: the biotechnology industry. The corporate giants of the genetics industry propose new technologies, including genetically modified trees, second generation cellulosic ethanol, and synthetic biology, to wean society off fossil fuels and fight climate change.
The implications for Latin America are breathtaking. The biotechnology industry's massive move into the energy sector brings together major social and ecological issues in the region, such as agrofuel promotion, genetically modified (GM) crops, and the growth of agribusiness monocultures. Latin American civil society's aspirations of land reform, environmental protection, alternatives to neoliberalism, and food and energy sovereignty, are at stake. http://www.nwrage.org
The film nights, held in Astoria, Newport, Coos Bay, and Brookings, showed how PacifiCorp's dams are hurting salmon on the Klamath River, as well as how the Klamath's declining Chinook salmon runs impact commercial fishing communities from southern California to northern Oregon. Filmgoers also learned about how PacifiCorp is planning to pay for upgrading and re-licensing its aging dams by increasing power rates to its customers. Both the California Energy Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have shown that overhauling the dams to meet current federal fish passage standards may cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than simply removing the Klamath dams and buying replacement power. PacifiCorp can use "cost recovery" to pass these increased costs on to its customers, a practice which must first be approved by the Oregon Public Utilities Commission (PUC). http://www.klamathriver.org
Al Gore suggested such tactics last summer. Around a hundred actions -- include about a dozen involving civil disobedience -- took place around the world. In North Carolina, protesters who had chained themselves to bulldozers at a coal plant under construction were tasered by police despite being immobilized while "locked-down" to bulldozer. With the only a few years to turn our emissions around and the growing focus on civil disobedience, the movement to stop climate change appears is heating up. 8 Arrested as North Carolina, USA Residents Shut Down Construction at Cliffside Coal Plant
**Fossil Fool's Day Organizing Meeting: Tuesday, March 11th, Red & Black Cafe, 6-8p **Climate Convergence Organizing Meeting, Sunday, March 16th, Lucky Lab, 2-4p www.luckylab.com/html/directions.html#brewpub **General Cascadia Rising Tide Organizing Meetings, Tuesday, March 18th, Red & Black Cafe,
The fight continues to heat up, as the Governor has stated his belief that natural gas originating in LNG terminals may act as a "bridge fuel". The Governor appears to be on the wrong side of this issue, as he faced boos from a friendly crowd at a Focus the Nation event last week when he mouthed industry rhetoric in favor of LNG. Ultimately, the Wednesday event offered LNG and pipeline opponents throughout the region an opportunity to connect, share ideas, and lobby the State legislators with common themes on a day that highlighted the unity of all Oregonians against these huge foreign fossil fuel developments. West Coast Groups fighting together against LNG: Oregon Citizens Against Pipelines | Columbia Riverkeeper | No California Pipeline | Citizens Against LNG | lngpollutes.org photogs | More photogs & audio coverage on philosopherseed.org
February 6 Rally in Salem: NO LNG in Oregon!Why should you care about this?There are 3 LNG projects proposed for the Oregon coast.If even one should get built, it will increase Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions by millions of tons per year. These projects will cost billions, money that could be spent on clean, renewable energy. The terminals and pipelines linking them to California will endanger communities, cross and condemn hundreds of miles of land, and destroy habitat. LNG is not needed in Oregon; even the Governor admits that most of the gas is going out of state. Ask yourself: Why is Oregon being chosen for an LNG that will go to California? Statewide Call to Action Groups fighting West Coast LNG: Oregon Citizens Against Pipelines | Columbia Riverkeeper | No California Pipeline | Citizens Against LNG | lngpollutes.org
Portland forest defense activists are targeting NW Natural for the gas utilities' involvement in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) related pipelines, which threaten to clear-cut strips of forest throughout Oregon. Piling dozens of trees on NW Natural's downtown office entryway, activists with Stumptown Earth First! and Cascadia Rising Tide, aim to send a message to the LNG-invested gas company: "There's nothing Green about Clear-cuts, No new pipelines." The Palomar pipeline, Oregon LNG pipeline and the Pacific Connector, which total over 600 miles of pipe, threaten to cross over 1000s streams, rivers and wetlands and require wide clear-cut construction corridors through public lands, including roadless areas and old growth forests.
From the open publishing newswire:
The Trident submarine base at Bangor is located 20 miles west of Seattle. It is the last active nuclear weapons depot on the West Coast and is the place of deployment for approximately 1,360 nuclear warheads. Another 1,000 warheads are stored on the base in inactive reserve. The Trident base at Bangor has the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the United States.
120 people were present at the demonstration commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the gates of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on January 19th. 17 demonstrators were arrested at the highway entrance into the base. At 2 PM on Saturday, demonstrators walked from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action to the entrance of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. After a vigil for peace at the base, six demonstrators entered the highway on federal property, walking arm-in-arm toward the base while singing "We Shall Overcome." At the same time, five other demonstrators blocked the highway entrance to the Trident submarine base while holding a banner with a statement by Dr. King which stated, "When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men."
From the open publishing newswire:
Yucca Mountain is sacred to the Shoshone as an herb gathering site, for rituals, and as a part of their stories. Yucca Mountain is known in Shoshone language as Snake Mountain. Indeed it looks like a snake. It is said that the snake was headed north when it froze where it is. Further more it is said that it will move again and "flip around". Geologists say that there are thirteen different fault lines running through it.
Public hearings have not been well attended, statements mostly in favor of the plan to put all of the nuclear waste in the country in this one sacred place. Local papers & media spin have recently stated that opposition to the nuke dump had dropped off since the passing of Corbin Harney. The nuclear reps are confident to the point of acting like it's a done deal. LETS PROVE THEM WRONG! MAKE YOUR COMMENT NOW & TAKE ACTION!! Citizens can make an oral statement at the scheduled public hearings or fill out a form and mail it in to EIS Office U.S. Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Mgmt, 1551 Hillshire Dr. Las Vegas, NV, 89195-7308 or by e-mail. "The eyes of the elders are on us. The fate of the unborn is rolling toward the cliff, the voice of Corbin Harney is ringing in my ears, "It's on your shoulders now...". ~ Bear Dyken
It is now obvious that FERC's own contractor has a huge financial interest in getting the Bradwood project approved. If Bradwood is approved, then the Palomar project becomes much more viable - and the FERC contractor is also working for Palomar. NRG will make more $$ by writing a shoddy document on Bradwood and giving the FERC commission a rose-tinted view of the Bradwood project. And this is exactly what happened. The Bradwood EIS is outlandishly cursory in its analysis and ignores huge potential negative impacts to fish, public safety, the local economy, and wildlife in the area. |
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