In addition to our Democracy Convention video of Earth Democracy sessions, there are also recordings of Debra White Plume speaking at the closing convention, a panel discussion on civil rights and African-American men, and interviews with Medea Benjamin and Dane County supervisor Leland Pan online here. Definitely worth checking out!
Read more...Gasland director Josh Fox supports the Global Frackdown from the banks of the Brazos River, in Parker County, Texas. Despite drought conditions, Parker County uses more than 30% of its available water for fracking. Take a look at where the banks of the Brazos are (not to mention the boat launch) and figure out for yourself whether that's the best possible use for an irreplaceable resource.
On the July 9 edition of "Corporations and Democracy" radio, hosts Steve Scalmanini and Annie Esposito talked about nuclear disarmament with Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland, and an internationally-known expert on nuclear disarmament. Jacqueline deconstructed Obama's recent statements on nuclear weapons, discussed the corporatization of nukes and warned that while progress has been made on reducing numbers of weapons, there are still more than enough of them out there to destroy civilization.
You can listen or download the show on our radio page, here.
National and international policies based on neoliberal economics, corporate globalization, and "free" trade which aim to commodify, privatize and profit from almost every aspect of nature are destroying local communities and cultures, and the ecosystems on which all life depends. Earth Democracy is juxtaposed to this system and is grounded in the inherent rights of living beings and Mother Earth.
The Earth Democracy Conference will be one of several tracks at this year's Democracy Convention, to be held August 7 through 11 at Madison College, Madison Wisconsin. Earth Democracy builds on the declaration adopted by the Ecojustice People's Movement Assembly at the 2010 US Social Forum which states: "We support the conclusion that only by 'living well', in harmony with each other and with Mother Earth, rather than 'living better,' based on an economic system of unlimited growth, dominance and exploitation, will the people of this planet not only survive but thrive."
The Earth Democracy Conference will bring together people who are working on the frontlines of the ecojustice movement to:
Good news from Oregonians for Renewable Energy Progress--the state's Solar Pilot Program will continue, thanks to passage of House Bill 2893. The bill adds 2.5 megawatts capacity to the program and extends it another year.
OREP, which for several years was a project of Alliance for Democracy, is about to "leave the nest" and become an independent not for profit group. We are delighted to see the campaign thrive, grow, and take this next step, and we'll continue to bring you news of their accomplishments, and work with them to protect gains in Oregon and expand the idea of feed-in tariffs to other states.
Check out OREP's latest newsletter here. And if you're in the Portland area, please join OREP at the Lucky Labrador, 1945 NW Quimby St., Portland, on Thursday June 6 from 5:30 to 7:00 PM for an informal happy hour. Raise a glass to renewable energy and a sustainable future!
What are the latest plans for Cascade Locks, coal terminals, LNG pipelines, and fracking in Oregon? David Delk talks with Bethany Cotton of Greenpeace and FLOW, and Julia DeGraw of Food and Water Watch.
Bethany discusses plans to turn the Pacific Northwest into a fossil fuel export epicenter, with national and multinational corporations lining up to build coal and liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals in both Oregon and Washington. She details some of the environmental and economic consequences of these plans, as well the shape of local resistance.
Julia gives an update on Nestlé's planned bottled water plant in Cascade Locks, and asks who has the right to water--a private corporation, or the people of Oregon?
The latest edition of "Populist Dialogues" features Dan Serres of Columbia Waterkeeper and Judy Barnes who heads up Alliance for Democracy's sponsored project, Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy.You can watch the show on Blip.tv here, or right in this post.
The first half of the show features Dan's perpectives on the problems of fossil fuels. Then Judy discusses renewable energy solutions that will help us keep old hydrocarbons in the ground. She focuses on what renewable energy advocates are now calling Clean Energy Contracts, formerly known as Feed-in Tariffs.
Populist Dialogues programs are also available on the show's YouTube channel, and are easy to comment on, and share online.Watch it, "like it," and share it with friends on social media, or in your hometown by rebroadcasting it on your local community cable station.
Sharing "Populist Dialogues" on community cable isn't difficult! Requirements vary between stations but are usually quite simple. Your station can download shows for free at PEGMedia (instructions are here), but we can also send shows on dvd or via filesharing. Email the office for more information at afd //at// thealliancefordemocracy.org.
Alliance for Democracy's Portland chapter produces the interview show "Populist Dialogues," hosted by AfD co-chair David Delk, and featuring activists, writers, and educators on an incredible variety of policy topics.
Here are a few of the shows they've done in the past year on energy and environment. If you're thinking of actions that can continue past the Global Frackdown, why not share these with your city through your community cable television station? They're available for rebroadcast free through PEGMedia, or you can request dvds to share at meetings by contacting the Alliance for Democracy office.
There are more video and print resources on fracking at the end of this post, so keep scrolling down!
Solutions to Jobs/Climate Crisis
David Delk interviews Dave King, Portland Jobs with Justice, and Ted Gleichman with Oregon Sierra Club LNG subcommittee on the dual problems of the jobs crisis and the climate crisis. Looks at how the solution to one should be the solution to the other and what some of those solutions are. First broadcast June 3, 2012
There's a coal train comin'!
David interviews Laura Stevens of the Sierra Clubs campaign to stop using coal and opposing the building of coal export terminals in Oregon and Washington. First broadcast May 13, 2012
Community Based, Rights Based Organizing
Paul Cienfuegos, founder of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County in California, says that we need to cease being stuck in single issue campaigns and look at how we challenge corporate power. Democratically-instituted rights-based ordinances have challenged the corporate "right" to pollute or extract resources in Maine, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Here's how they work. First broadcast 1-1-12
How do Feed-In Tariff work to rapidly jump start production of renewable energy and produce good paying jobs?
David talks with Judy Barnes, co-founder of Oregonian for Renewable Energy Policy, on the use of Feed-In Tariffs to address the global climate crisis by quickly jump starting the production of renewable energy sources and good paying green jobs at the same time. First broadcast on 5-22-11
And from other groups, elsewhere online:
In this “Viewpoint” web exclusive, Josh Fox, environmental activist and director of “Gasland,” talks about fracking and his new “emergency film,” The Sky is Pink about the impact of fracking on NY state, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering allowing fracking in just a few counties.
“Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Resources: Separating the Frack from the Fiction” by the Pacific Institute, Oakland, CA, is an excellent source for detailed information, charts and maps on the threat of natural gas fracking to our fresh water resources and health.
“Scientists Tell Senate Panel: Climate Change Is Here and Disaster Costs Will Be Huge”
“Common Sense: Banning Fracking at the Local Level”
Go to the Fracking Action Center for: “How Much Do You Know About Fracking?,” “Why Ban Fracking?,” “Hazards to Drinking Water Aren’t the Only Reasons,” “Ready to Ban Fracking?,” “Your Efforts to Grow the Movement are WORKING,” and much more.
On September 22 Alliance for Democracy joins the growing coalition in the Global Frackdown Day of Action calling for a global ban on fracking.
Join this growing and powerful people’s movement to ban fracking not just in the U.S., but world-wide. This is one big step toward environmental and climate justice that will help secure national and international peace and freedom now and for future generations.
Alliance for Democracy is one of many hundreds of partner endorsing organizations. Sign on here as an AfD chapter, member network, or as an individual. Encourage your union, professional organization, community group or faith group to sign up too.
As a partner organization, we’ll have the opportunity to:
The Defending Water in Maine campaign will be holding several East-West Corridor informational events across the state during July and August. The latest list is here on the campaign website, along with the first of a two-part video report on the planned super-corridor.
In May, a full house packed the Foxcroft Academy auditorium in Dover-Foxcroft to hear Peter Vigue, CEO of Cianbro, a construction company that stands to make millions off the supercorridor, which would consist of a private toll road for tractor-trailer trucks, as well as pipelines and power lines. Many of the 1000 people at the hearing wore hunter orange hats or shirts to protest the project.
Opposition to the project has come from farmers, hunters, environmentalists, and local landowners. Chris Buchanan, of Defending Water in Maine who also coordinates the state wide coalition, points out that constructing the highway opens the door to more extractive industry: “If it was built, it would open up areas of Maine that are currently very difficult to get to for companies like Nestlé to mine for water and sell it on the global market.”
Bruce Gagnon, co-founder and coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, recently toured the northwest, where he spoke to David Delk, AfD co-chair and host of the Portland OR chapter's show Populist Dialogues.
Bruce and David talked about the US military industrial complex, which now serves as a "resource extraction service" for global corporatism. The need to control gas and oil resources--including access to oil by China--is driving US military expansion in Asia, while space technologies developed by taxpayer dollars are now being seen as a means for private corporations to generate wealth by mining planets and asteroids.
You can watch Bruce's wide-ranging, fascinating, and frightening report here, and learn how to rebroadcast this show on your local public access station here. If your station would prefer receiving shows on dvd, please email the Alliance for Democracy office.
In addition to hosting Bruce on Populist Dialogues, Alliance for Democracy joined several organizations in sponsoring Bruce and South Korean artist and peace activist Gillchun Koh at a demonstration at the Seattle South Korean Consulate.
The protest targeted the naval base currently under construction on Jeju Island, South Korea. This naval base is unnecessary, a drain on our economy, will destabilize both US and South Korean relations with China, and will put the people of Jeju Island at risk as a strategic target.
We're posting a short history of the resistance to the base construction and commentary containing some good reasons for bringing this project to a halt. We've excerpted them from writing by Leonard Eiger, coordinator of Puget Sound Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.
by Chris Buchanan, Defending Water for Life in Maine
With Canada developing natural gas fracking fields in Quebec and New Brunswick and a LPG (liquid petroleum gas) tank proposed for Searsport, serious questions have arisen as to whether the proposed East-West Highway might be destined to become a super-corridor to transport LPG in trucks to Canada and natural gas by pipeline along the highway to the Maritime Provinces for export. Here’s why we are concerned.
The East-West Highway route through Maine connects both the Canadian fracking fields directly adjacent to Maine so it could be highly profitable for the investors in the East-West Highway to run a natural gas pipeline along the highway from the Canadian natural gas fracking fields to the Canadian Maritimes. This would provide even greater returns for highway investors, in addition to tolls they would receive from Canadian transport trucks.
The proposed Searsport LPG storage facility comes into the picture because of new fracking technology developed by GasFrac, a Canadian energy company, which uses a thick gel made from propane, rather than water, to force the natural gas out of the shale rock. LPG is a mixture of propane and butane.
“This is a game changer for the industry,” says Don LeBlanc in a November 15, 2011 article in Chemistry World. LeBlanc is the “principal consultant at Eastex Petroleum Consultants in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has been involved in shale gas trials with gelled propane in New Brunswick, Canada.” So far gelled propane has been used about 1,000 times mostly in Canada.
From an investor’s prospective, under this scenario a LPG tank in Searsport is a great idea. From there, they can truck the propane to Canada via the East-West highway to use for fracking shale gas. Then the natural gas produced by the fracking could be transported to the Canadian Maritimes via a pipeline built along the East-West Highway.
Indeed, Peter Vigue of Cianbro announced his vision to use the highway as a multi-use corridor during his presentation to the Maine Legislature’s Transportation Committee during the public hearing on Valentine’s Day.
This larger energy scheme would benefit private investors, but lead to further exploitation of Maine as a supercorridor throughway with only two proposed exits for the whole state. Yet the people of Maine would have no voice in how this private toll road was built or managed. Nor would the state and federal regulatory agencies be concerned with the environmental impacts of fracking or the safety of the new technology using highly flammable propane.
This is a highly organized energy triad, poised to make a few people very wealthy at the cost of Maine’s people and the land we need to survive. We were confused why Searsport selectmen were supporting the East-West highway, but now it is clear how the pieces can fit together in a highly profitable way.
Instead of locking Mainers into a supercorridor dissecting the state for foreign profit, our legislators need to step back and identify what the people of Maine need to thrive over the long haul. Prioritizing Canadian businesses and multinational corporations that do raw resource extraction, is not the way. Public funding for private investment, at the added cost of individual rights and local control, is not the way. We need to create a long-term vision that values Maine’s strengths—how we can benefit from our priceless ecological beauty and how best to use Mainers creativity, work ethic and passion to create lasting jobs for the people and families of Maine.
If you're interested in building the social and political supports for locally-produced renewable energy, check out the audio recording of Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy's January Conference Call, now available on OREP's website at the Webinars page.
Guest speakers Rep. Jules Bailey, a state senator representing southeast Portland, (D-OR, district 42) and Jeff Bissonnette, organizing director for the Citizens's Utility Board of Oregon, shared their experiences from their recent Climate & Energy Study Tour to Germany.
OREP secured places for Bailey and Bissonnette to participate in the study tour this past December. The tour was sponsored by the American Council on Germany, and it enabled participants to learn directly from German government officials, business leaders and researchers about Germany's successful climate/energy policies. Jules and Jeff generously agreed to share their impressions, a portion of what they learned firsthand during their intensive study tour and answer audience questions.
If you have questions after listening to the audio, please feel free to contact either of our speakers directly:
Jules Bailey
rep.julesbailey@state.or.us
503-986-1442
Jeff Bissonnette
jeff@oregoncub.org
503-516-1636
The OREP team thanks everyone who participated in this well-attended conference call.
Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy (OREP) is a sponsored project of the Alliance for Democracy. OREP promotes Feed-In Tariff policies that produce good economic, environmental and social outcomes at reasonable costs. To request a speaker, host an Energy Future House Party or volunteer, call Judy at 503-232-1911. To support the work of Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy, you can make a donation through Alliance for Democracy here.
The Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy (OREP) Action Bulletin is online here. Check it out! Highlights include upcoming events, links to online video on feed-in tariffs, frequently-asked questions to bring you up to speed on equitable and localized development of solar power. OREP is a sponsored project of Alliance for Democracy.
Did you know...
Last month, OREP was invited to join the Steering Committee for Alliance for Renewable Energy... That OREP's outreach to Occupy Portland activists added feed-in tariffs to the Solutions Work Group's discussion... that OREP is now a member of the NW Energy Coalition, an alliance of more than 100 environmental, civic, and human service organizations, progressive utilities, and businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia. NWEC promotes development of renewable energy, energy conservation, consumer protection, low-income energy assistance, and fish and wildlife restoration.
For more information, see the OREP website, www.oregonrenewables.com.
Check out OREP organizer Judy Barnes on the Alliance for Democracy show, "Populist Dialogues":
by Chris Buchanan, Defending Water in Maine
LR 2358, An Act To Provide Funding to the Department of Transportation for a Feasibility Study for an East-West Highway, has been given the green light for consideration this session. If you live in Maine, see below for actions you can take with AfD's Defending Water in Maine campaign to help protect your state's ecosystems.
Background
The idea of a Maine East-West highway has been kicked around the Maine Legislature since 1981. However, public and/or private funding has never been provided to study the feasibility of such a highway or to finance its construction.
Canadian businesses want an East-West highway to move goods more cheaply from inland Canada to its eastern provinces and to a proposed Super-Port at Halifax, Nova Scotia, for export. Maine would be used as a throughway. But the highway could also accelerate the exploitation of Maine’s natural resources. Of particular concern to Defending Water in Maine, is the likelihood that the highway would make it economical for giant corporations to profit from cutting down Maine’s forests to supply wood chips to Europe as “green energy” and from exporting Maine’s water in bulk and in bottles to global markets.
Defending Water in Maine and others ask: How will increased truck traffic crossing the state benefit the people of Maine? Simply, it will not. But, it will benefit transnational corporations like Nestlé which can profit from using the highway to exploit and export Maine’s water to sell it around the world.
Why now?
Peter Vigue, CEO of Cianbro, Maine’s largest construction firm, has reignited conversations among business leaders about the East-West highway. The last time Vigue was vocal about the project was in 2007, when he proposed the private toll road from Coburn Gore to Calais. Vigue again is promoting the highway to be built on private land with other business leaders and with state legislators. Cianbro is poised to profit considerably, as the owner of this toll road.
Plans to construct the road are well developed. Cianbro has already identified a route, and contacted major landowners; however, Cianbro has yet to make public the route they are pursuing. See our website for a map of the most likely route.
Key business leaders appear unified, and are organizing influence.
LR 2358 was just unanimously moved forward for consideration as an emergency bill by the Legislative Council for the upcoming second legislative session. In 2007, Vigue said that, except for river crossings and connecting to the interstate, Cianbro didn’t need to go to the government for permitting, since this would all be privately funded on private land.
However, Senator Doug Thomas just sponsored a bill for a feasibility study. The bill summary states it, “would provide funding for an independent, investment-grade feasibility study to determine the need for and location of an east-west highway in Maine.” Bill sponsor, Senator Doug Thomas, said that, “a surprising amount of work has been done,” that this project is “doable”, and that this would be a boost to the Maine economy. (video of Thomas's testimony is here.)
Action Items
Join our east-west highway watch group. We will maintain a separate list of people who want more information on the development of this threat so we can continue to update you and network without burdening everyone on our listserv.
Identify Landowners. If you or someone you know has been approached about the highway running through their land, let us know! In the near future, we will be organizing to canvass the area as well and will need your help.
Contact your Local Representative and Senators, and the Members of the Transportation Committee re LR 2358. Some talking points:
List of Transportation Committee Members:
Senators:
Douglas Thomas- R (sponsor) 277-3017 firewood@tds.net
Ronald Collins- R 985-2485 SenRonald.Collins@legislature.maine.gov
Bill Diamond- D 892-8941 SenBill.Diamond@legislature.maine.gov
Representatives:
Wayne Parry- R 286-9145 RepWayne.Parry@legislature.maine.gov
Alexander Willette- R 689-8332 alexander.willette@gmail.com
James Gillway- R 548-6372 RepJames.Gillway@legislature.maine.gov
Kimberley Rosen- R 469-3779 Kurlykim40@aol.com
Peter Rioux- R 659-2293 RepPeter.Rioux@legislature.maine.gov
Richard Cebra- R 693-6782 RepRich.Cebra@legislature.maine.gov
Ann Peoples- D 287-1430 RepAnn.Peoples@legislature.maine.gov
Charles Theriault- D 728-4526 RepCharlesK.Theriault@legislature.maine.gov
Edward Mazurek- D 542-0017 RepEd.Mazurek@legislature.maine.gov
George Hogan- D 423-4293 RepGeorge.Hogan@legislature.maine.gov
Please let us know whom you have contacted. Thanks!
Chris Buchanan, chris@defendingwater.net
these tremendous-seeming jobs claims are based entirely on a report by the Perryman Group, commissioned by the pipeline’s owner TransCanada, whose results have been described as “dead wrong” and “meaningless” by Council on Foreign Relations fellow Michael Levi and environmental economist Andrew Leach, neither of whom oppose the construction of the pipeline.
Here's Ruth Caplan's statement at the State Department Hearing on Keystone XL Pipeline, which was held October 7.
Ruth was arrested earlier this month protesting the pipeline project. She spoke as a past chair of the Sierra Club's National Energy Committee, as well as National Coordinator of the Alliance's Defending Water for Life Campaign. Video of the full four hours of public testimony is here.
Ruth quotes an op-ed by Daphne Wysham, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and is the founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network (SEEN), which was also excerpted by the New York Times.
I’m not here today to argue about pounds per square inch or parts per million.
I’m not here today to say move the pipeline one mile east or west.
I’m not here today to say put inspectors along the pipeline every 10 miles or even every one mile.
I am here today to speak for my godson, and for my grandson, and for Malia and Sasha and for Chelsea.
And so I will read to you part of what my godson’s mother (Daphne Wysham) wrote after being arrested in front of the White House, a few days before I too was arrested protesting the pipeline.
In Daphne’s words....
“As I stood before the White House gates ... listening to the police issue their warnings of our impending arrests to our group of over 100 demonstrators, I thought of what I would say as they carted me away – what cry I wanted the president to hear.
“And I recalled the day Obama stood before the American people, in those days and months as BP’s deepwater well billowed millions of barrels of oil from that horrifying wound in the Gulf of Mexico floor. I remembered him remarking that, yes, he was very concerned about the spill because, while he shaved one morning, his 11-year-old daughter Malia had asked him, ‘Did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?’
“Children have a way of speaking to our hearts. And so, I mused, even if President Obama didn’t hear the songs and the chants of the more than 1,000 people who were arrested over the course of two weeks, even if the prayers of religious leaders and Native American elders went unanswered, even if he didn’t read the editorial opposing the Keystone XL pipeline in The New York Times, even if he ignored the advice of his very own EPA, perhaps, in this instance, Sasha or Malia might see us outside the White House gates and ask him, “Did you stop the pipeline yet, Daddy?”
“As the police handcuffed my hands behind me and led me off to a white school bus, I shouted: ‘For Sasha and Malia.’
“I don’t think Obama or his daughters heard me, I thought, as I watched my fellow protesters be cuffed, searched and photographed through the bus’s caged windows. But perhaps, if we keep this up, they will.”
And so I am here to keep this up.
Mr. President, do this for Malia and Sasha, not for Jeff Berman your former National Delegate Director and current lobbyist for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Secretary Clinton, do this for Chelsea and her future children, your grandchildren, and not for Paul Elliott, who was the senior official for your Presidential bid and is now a lobbyist for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Did you stop the pipeline yet Daddy?
Did you stop the pipeline yet Mom?
Our future is in your hands.
What's a feed-in tariff and why is it so important for development of alternative, renewable energy? Judy Barnes of Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy (OREP) explains it as "a piggy bank on your roof"--a guaranteed predetermined fixed price for each kilowatt hour of alternative energy you produce for a fixed amount of time, usually 20 years. OREP concentrates on developing solar power in Oregon, confident that by growing the current state feed-in tariff program, they can develop widespread solar capacity in the state. In this video, Judy gives a quick overview of feed-in tariffs and how they've worked. For instance, in Germany, feed-in tariffs have produced not just clean energy but 370,000 jobs, while lowering overall costs for solar power. Ontario's feed-in tariff program is new, but has already created 43,000 jobs, produced 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy, and has put the province on track to close all its coal-fired plants by 2014. Watch to learn more about organizing in Oregon to achieve these same successes.
The video was filmed at the international Moving Planet event in Portland, Oregon, on September 24, and was produced by Jim Lockhart, www.PhilosopherSeed.org. OREP is sponsored by Alliance for Democracy, and works closely with AfD's Portland, OR, chapter.
As true now as ever!
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