Feb. 17, 2016 — In a carefully coordinated, rolling cross-country action, Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) and SWRL (Stop the West Roxbury Lateral pipeline) delivered humorous but sharply pointed Valentine’s cards to the homes – and DC residences –  of the four commissioners of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), reminding them that “pipelines, LNG and fracking are no ‘Love Story’ for frontline communities.” The valentine was hand-delivered today to the homes of Cheryl LaFleur in Wellesley, MA; and Colette Honorable in Little Rock, AR. It will soon be delivered to Chairman Norman Bay in Albuquerque, NM; and Tony Clark in Bismarck, ND.

“The valentine speaks for itself,” said BXE member Don Weightman. “FERC has hardly ever met a fracked gas pipeline project it didn’t approve. And, as the impacts of the climate crisis occur ever more frequently with ever more devastation, the commissioners are resisting calls from the Environmental Protection Agency to take climate change into account when determining which projects to green-light, even though methane is 86 times worse for the climate than CO2.”

“Fracked ‘natural’ gas, which is mostly methane, is not a bridge to a clean energy future, as politicians and fossil fuel CEOs like to claim,” said BXE member Jimmy Betts. “Leaks – huge ones like at Porter Ranch near Los Angeles, and smaller ones all over the country – are devastating to local communities’ health and well-being, not to mention the very real threat of deadly explosions. We need clean energy now!”

As the City of Boston prepares to challenge FERC’s final approval of the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline in federal court, SWRL delivered the valentine to former FERC Chair and current Commissioner Cheryl LeFleur at her home in Wellesley Wednesday evening, decrying that project as unsafe and unnecessary.

Members of BXE also delivered the valentines (and flowers) to the commissioners at their D.C. area residences, and many others sent in their own creations to ask them to love the people and the planet and approve #NoNewPermits.

 

Click here to spread the love on social media by joining our Thunderclap, and see below for how to send your Valentine message to the FERC commissioners at their homes via snail mail. We’re doing this for the whole month of February, so keep the messages flowing!

CLICK HERE to get to the Sample Facebook Post.

CLICK HERE to get to the Sample Tweet.

CLICK HERE to download the Valentine.

If you’d like to send additional Valentines to where the commissioners live when they’re staying in Washington, DC, I’m sure they’d appreciate it. Their Washington, DC addresses are below.

 

 

 

 

Every third Thursday, the morning bustle of Washington, DC’s Union Station plays host to a monthly prelude. Small tables are haphazardly pulled together and the 8am ritual commences. Gathered in a circle and passing around food and coffee, we plan our next round of unwelcome Truth Injections. The objective–to crack a little known but terribly powerful entity near the heart of the Fracked Gas Empire. This entity is frightening, but it houses no monsters. Instead, it houses something far more grotesque–a form of unacknowledged violence persisting under a bureaucratic veneer. Some call it the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). I call it the worst kind of nightmare.

Captive to the fracked gas industry and rubber-stamping virtually every project that comes before it, FERC inspires goosebumps in the night. Every permit for fossil fuel infrastructure that FERC issues is an act of violence perpetrated against the people and the planet, poisoning local communities, and polluting the global climate.

 

The circle of those standing up to say no grows.

 

Last month, five people took turns standing up and speaking out at the public meeting FERC commissioners are required to convene every third Thursday.

In January, those people were Ashley Tuhro from Wichita, Kansas, Carol Cutler from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Betsy Conover from Pennsylvania, Tim Spiese from Pennsylvania, and Drew Hudson from South Carolina.

RT America reported on what happened. Hear from Kendall Hale, Tim Spiese, and Ashley Tuhro.

 

Tim was first to stand up in the meeting room. Here’s what he had to say about FERC: “They segment everything, so they look at one pipeline and think ‘no problem, it’s not going to harm anything.’ But if they were to do what they’re supposed to do and look at all the pipelines, consider the fracking, the damages that fracking does, consider the impact economically to the country, environmentally to the country and the world, and consider that whole ball of wax, it’s a no brainer.”

Thanks to Ashley, we have some footage from inside FERC. Take a look. Here, Carol is taken from the room for calling on the commissioners to put people over profits.

 

 

After the meeting, Carol  was met outside by Lee Camp (host of Redacted Tonight) and Eleanor Goldfield (host of Act Out), who both attended the meeting to witness and document the actions.

Of the day’s FERC meeting, Eleanor wrote “The meeting began with a circle-jerk style ceremony including a congratulatory plaque awarded to some guy for doing something completely unrelated to the day’s proceedings. Then, the members of the Commission, including Chairman Norman C. Bay, took turns congratulating each other on being awesome, informing the room that they like football, just got a twitter account and isn’t the work we do just so awesome!? It sounded like the sort of banal conversation you might hear made fun of in an episode of The Office, but these people were supposedly here to discuss the FUCKING ENERGY CONCERNS OF OUR NATION!” Read more here.

Betsy was taken out in a similar fashion.

 

 

The below exchange happened between Betsy and outgoing FERC Commissioner Tony Clark before she was made to leave.

 

Read more about this exchange and the action as a whole from DC Media Group.

Drew Hudson of South Carolina had powerful words as well: “Last month 195 nations, including the government that this commission is supposed to work for, agreed that climate change is an imminent threat, and that global warming must be capped at 1.5-2 degrees celsius. To do this we must keep 80% of fossil fuels in the ground. By continuing to approve fracked gas infrastructure, you are perpetuating what Bill McKibben calls “Zombie fossil fuels” that will stay in operation for more than 40 years and doom our climate – causing the loss of many lives and livelihoods as a result of climate chaos. I urge this commission to stop approving the problem, stop fracked gas infrastructure and work with impacted communities to rapidly invest in a just energy democracy for all.”

The last people out of the room were Ashley Tuhro and her two kids, who came all the way from Witchita, Kansas, where fracking is causing earthquakes.

 

Once a person speaks out at FERC, they’re not permitted to return to the meeting room itself. Presumably due to sunshine laws, however, they are permitted into an overflow room adjacent to the main meeting room. In January, a group of folks gathered in the overflow room to sound the alarm on a sleeping FERC.

 

 

Afterwards, a successful crew gathered outside for chants.

 

 

Throughout the whole morning, others stood outside FERC handing FERC employees an open letter, pictured below. It was about the effort Delaware Riverkeeper Network is leading to get US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to request a GAO investigation of the agency. For more information and to add your name and organization to the letter, click here.

 

 

Please join us for one of the upcoming actions at FERC in Washington, DC. They’re held the third Thursday of every month. If you’d like to receive updates, sign up here.

Despite attempts to bar truth-telling voices from their monthly public meetings at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency’s commissioners were once again forced to look at the pain and suffering their permits are inflicting on people all over the country.

At the December 17th public commissioners meeting at FERC, two people managed to inject substance into what was otherwise part of an ongoing charade.

“This is a very nice love fest,” said Helen Schietinger as she rose to her feet on the floor of the meeting room, interrupting the commissioners who were in the middle of saying nice things to each other. “But,” she continued, “I think you should be listening to and caring about the people of Minisink.”

 

The paragraph Helen read in the above video came from Pramilla Malick in Minisink, New York, and was directed at FERC for this specific meeting.

Pramilla wrote: “Four years ago Minisink residents came to FERC seeking justice and what they got was a toxic compressor station that is now making children sick and forced many families to flee. Minisink is now a community under siege. The Millennium CPV lateral is a blatant case of illegal segmentation. If you approve this lateral pipeline you will demonstrate the egregious excess of this industry and the lawlessness of FERC actions. Minisink is the line in the sand. The American people will no longer be sacrificed to feed the greed of the fossil fuel industry. Minisink is our town. Minisink is every town.  We will amplify their story, and not stop until FERC stops fracking the American people.”

Minisink is fighting today as children get sick and families are forced to leave their homes. Now, Pramilla tells us, they are up against a massive 650 MW gas-fired power plant– the CPV Valley project. This plant would emit 2.1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually and support 22 Pennsylvania fracking wells per year.

This is the truth FERC fears to face.

Pete MacDowell was in the meeting as well. The message he prepared for the disruption, which got him whisked quickly from the meeting room, was straightforward and directed.  “Excuse me,” he said. “Have you read that 187 nations have committed themselves to phasing out fossil fuels as quickly as possible for the sake of humanity? Ask yourself, what side are you on–humanity’s, or the industry’s? Ask your heart. Ask your soul. Ask your children. Will you have the moral courage to stand up and be the first to listen to your conscience and say I am on the side of humanity?”

These words–these truths about what’s going on in Minksink–they may be too painful for Commissioners Bay, LaFleur, Honorable, and Clark to hear.  But if the horror of what they do is too blinding now, how the more blinding it will be in the future. Never mind that more and more people are actually living that horror everyday.

A dash of courage and immense love of people, place, and community are needed in these stygian times.

Bob Gardiner, who was also kicked out of the meeting for trying to film, joined Ellen and Helen for a FERC and fracking-inspired rendition of Jingle-Bells, for when they come after us with violence and blind force, we come back with truth and mobilized spirit.

 

If you’re interested in joining the effort to inject truth into FERC’s monthly meetings, please fill out the FERC Pledge to Mobilize and someone will be in touch about organizing the next disruption.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U1zXQ0XMUFqScgIP6Ntmo1f1Uwjr4wQpTQPlvfvwUaU/viewform?usp=send_form

 

by Greg Yost

Reposted from The Teacher’s Edition, the staff/faculty newspaper of Madison Early College High School in Mars Hill, NC.

BXE’er Greg Yost is a math teacher at MECHS and wrote the following to explain his recent arrest at an Asheville, NC Exxon station to his students.

(For easier reading, click the icon in the lower right corner below to view full screen on the Scribd website.)

Daring banner drop protests Bank of America’s investment in fracked gas export terminal at Cove Point, Maryland

by Anne Meador, reposted from www.dcmediagroup.us

As many as 74,000 football fans at a Carolina Panthers game witnessed two people rappel from the upper deck in the pouring rain. They suspended themselves in front of the press box and unfurled a banner from the railing above which read, “BoA: Dump Dominion, WeAreCovePoint.org.” The stunt was broadcast live on Monday Night Football, which had an audience of 12 million last week.

Carried out during one of the biggest match-ups of the season between the Panthers and the Indianapolis Colts, the banner drop was designed to shame stadium sponsor Bank of America for its financial backing of a gas liquefaction project on the Chesapeake Bay.

Dominion Cove Point, now under construction, is poised to become one of the first LNG terminals in the United States to export natural gas. It is so far the only terminal geographically situated to export gas produced by the expanding hydraulic fracking industry of the Marcellus Shale.

VIDEO of rappellers and banner drop

A press release by organization We Are Cove Point identifies the rapellers as Rica Madrid and John Nicolson. “Bank of America is financing the Cove Point LNG plant, and the surrounding community in Southern Maryland is forced to bear the human cost,” Nicolson is quoted in the press release. “This is unacceptable.”

Cove Point LNG’s parent company, Dominion Resources, has been trying to raise the necessary $3.8 billion to get the terminal up and running. Bank of America is one of Dominion’s major backers. It owns shares worth more than $623 million, loaned Dominion $380 million in 2013 alone, and bought $275 million in bonds largely dedicated to capitalizing the Cove Point LNG venture.

Although the natural gas and LNG markets are weathering tough times, Dominion Cove Point could still be a gold mine because of the contractual agreement with its two customers. No matter how much gas they ship, GAIL Ltd. and Sumitomo Corporation must pay the same toll to Dominion.

But that gold mine sits on a powderkeg of 14.6 bcf of LNG, 410,000 gallons of propane and two 87-megawatt combustion turbines squeezed into the existing 130-acre site. Nearly 2,500 residents live within one mile of the terminal and could bear the brunt of a potential massive industrial catastrophe in their neighborhood.

A local Assistant Fire Chief, Mickey Shymansky, even resigned in protest because he believes emergency responders would be unable to handle an LNG conflagration. “This place is sounding the alarms on so many different levels,” Shymansky said in an interview. “They’re allowing themselves to build the perfect storm.”

The high level of emissions produced by the plant is also a concern. Dominion Cove Point will become the fourth largest polluter in Maryland, producing 20.4 tons of toxic and cancer-causing pollutants each year. Environmentalists point out that the lifecycle emissions of LNG export, from fracking well to the ultimate destination in Asia or Europe, are worse than coal. Recent studies have shown that emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, exceed previous estimates.

This isn’t the first daring maneuver designed to draw attention to Dominion. Last February, two activists climbed the arm of a crane and dropped a banner at a construction site; they were subsequently convicted of trespassing.

For Immediate Release

Monday, November 2

Contact: Kelly Canavan, (301) 237-5040

Hi-res photos available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boadumpdominion

Activists Suspended From Upper Deck of Stadium During Monday Night Football to Protest Bank of America Financing of LNG Export Terminal 

We Are Cove Point demands Bank of America stop financing Dominion’s Cove Point LNG export terminal and other fracked gas infrastructure

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA — In protest of Bank of America’s role in financing the planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Cove Point, Maryland, activists from We Are Cove Point have suspended themselves from the upper deck of Bank of America Stadium during the Monday Night Football game between the Charlotte Panthers and the Indianapolis Colts. They dropped a banner that reads, “BoA: Dump Dominion, WeAreCovePoint.org,” that was seen by the stadium audience of more than 70,000 people.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has played a major role in financing Dominion Resources (NYSE: D) and its $3.8 billion LNG export facility at Cove Point through Dominion Midstream (NYSE: DM). Bank of America is part of a consortium of banks that is lending Dominion up to $4 billion to finance several planned gas infrastructure projects. In June 2013, Bank of America also underwrote $275 million to contribute to the capital expense of the Dominion Cove Point facility. We Are Cove Point activists are now calling on Bank of America and other lending institutions to stop financing Dominion.

Since oil and gas prices have plummeted, industry experts have increasingly seen LNG export facilities as bad investments, and the financial sector has been inexplicably propping up the gas industry. As recently as August, a report from Bank of America itself warned that plummeting crude oil prices have hurt the prospects of LNG export projects. President and CEO Zin Smati of Engie’s GDF Suez Energy North America said, “You cannot ship gas from the United States anymore. … Nobody really is making money from LNG now. Certainly, we are not.”

Dominion Cove Point is a proposed LNG export terminal that is slated to send up to 1.8 billion cubic feet of LNG to Japan and India. The facility would be the only one in the world to be built in a densely populated area, in violation of basic safety siting standards. It would drive demand for harmful fracking across the Mid-Atlantic, emit more than 20 tons of hazardous air pollutants each year, and spew two million tons of greenhouse gases, making it Maryland’s fourth-largest climate polluter. LNG exports are predicted to increase domestic gas prices, resulting in economic loss for every major sector of the US economy besides the gas industry, according to a Navigant Consulting report commissioned by Dominion Cove Point and a NERA economic consulting report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy.

As more communities organize against the encroachment of gas infrastructure, Bank of America and other lending institutions are facing increasing pressure to stop financing dirty energy projects that negatively impact the lives and well-being of those living near export terminals, pipelines, compressor stations, fracking wells and gas-fired power plants.

A broad, strong coalition of people has been actively resisting Dominion Cove Point at every step since the fall of 2013. We Are Cove Point is a leading part of the effort to stop Dominion Cove Point and reclaim the Cove Point community from Dominion’s grip.

Participants in tonight’s action made the following comments:

“Bank of America is allowing companies like Dominion to operate without checks and balances,” said John Nicholson. “They are giving money directly to Dominion with full knowledge of the health and safety risks of building an LNG export facility, and they need to be accountable to that.”

Rica Madrid said, “America doesn’t need more cheap fuel on the market, and we especially don’t need to export those resources overseas. Dominion is building a facility that would contribute to the economic crisis our country is facing. Bank of America is financing the Cove Point LNG plant, and the surrounding community in Southern Maryland is forced to bear the human cost. This is unacceptable.”

For more information, visit WeAreCovePoint.org and DumpDominion.org.