Tar Sands & Coal: Extraction Resistance Opportunities for Action

As you know, in a world where profit with impunity is the highest law of the land neither the EPA, nor any President, nor any Sierra Club lawyers or online petition will stop the tar sands pipelines, coal mines/trains/ports, fracking or any other violence towards humans and our home here earth. It is absolutely essential for there to be robust campaigns of bold, principled, nonviolent direct action to change the social, political and economic climate and return power to people and their communities. These campaigns must be combined with a positive alternative vision for sustainability and community resilience that people can stand up for.

Tar Sands Pipelines & Ports
This week, I was deeply inspired by the great activists implementing the Tar Sands Blockade in Texas. I am proud that some of the trainers you may have met at Localize This! have played a part. In Canada, a northern the fight against a northern tar sands pipeline is heating up, including in British Columbia where protests are being organized to stop the insane idea of shipping tar sands oil through the beautiful, bountiful and delicate Salish Sea.

On Sunday, I’m headed to Victoria, BC to support the Defend Our Coast actions there. I welcome you to join me or support our work with a donation to defer expenses.

Coal Trains & Coal Ports
In the coming weeks, we invite you to be part of the Backbone Action Brigade, our name for the growing team of artful activists using Backbone’s constantly growing tactical tool kit. Join us (contact Dawn Levy Dawn@backbonecampaign.org), as we implement a series of workshops and actions to bolster citizen engagement around Washington State as “scoping hearings” on coal transport and export begin. Scoping hearings are part of the environmental impact statement (EIS) process. Through these hearings public comments will inform what scope of impacts should be considered in determining how coal will be transported and exported through Cascadia and the Salish Sea.

Regulating the Scope of Our Complaint
Notice, I didn’t say, whether coal could be transported and shipped, because in the paradigm of profit with impunity, corporate rights trump all else. Sadly, our regulatory laws and agencies are designed not merely to regulate industry, but also to regulate the “scope” of our complaints and demands. Yes, an EIS usually leads to a set of mitigations that create a “kinder, gentler” poisoning of our environment and communities, but always ultimately protect for the sacred right to profit.

Scoping hearings should thus be understood for what they are, an organizing opportunity to define our cause, educate the public. They are a perfect venue to put public officials on alert that the cost of violating the public will is high, and a chance to show those hiding behind corporate anonymity that they are in for a long, expensive fight.

In the coming months Extraction Resistance will get a lot of Backbone Campaign’s attention. We need you to help us pay for the travel, materials and tools necessary to join this battle for true environmental and economic sustainability. Please pitch in TODAY