Just as climate change is the overwhelming challenge of our future, so too are our children the hope and promise of our future.  After attending the Climate Reality Training last October, I showed my fourth grade students a slide show on climate change.  I told them that they were not powerless to make a difference so when we heard about the Rover Pipeline leaking, they wanted to do something.  I directed them to do some research and then write opinion papers to send to newspapers and decision makers.  Here is one of those papers written by one of my students.

–Michele Wilkins Bailey, Ann Arbor, MI

by Molly Dunton, Earthworks

On Thursday, January 18th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held it’s monthly meeting at its sleek office building in Northeast DC. As FERC staff, industry reps, and members of the press filed in, the mood in the room was noticeably jubilant. Hushed conversations took place between first time attendees, who wondered out loud how these meetings work, while veteran staff debated who would win the weekend’s football games. At the top of the hour, a silence fell over the room as the Commissioners took their seats at a large round table. The livestream kicked on as the FERC Secretary opened the meeting by reading an excerpt from the Sunshine Act*:

“Members of the public are invited to observe, which includes attending, listening, and taking notes, but does not include participating in the meeting or addressing the Commission.”

Secretary Bose finished her attempt to outlaw public participation in the meeting, banged her gavel, and hurried on to the agenda, which included proposals to approve several permits and certificates for infrastructure projects our nation does not need. It was then, after being told that I was allowed to witness but not engage with matters directly harming people and places I care about, that I decided to stand up and actively participate in this public meeting.

My name is Molly Dunton and I live and work in DC, not far from FERC headquarters. I have the pleasure of working for the national environmental non-profit Earthworks, and I have the privilege of working with residents around the country that have been negatively impacted by extreme energy development. In other words, my job involves supporting communities that have been forsaken by FERC in the name of corporate profits. I may not live in a frontline or fenceline community, but I carry the voices of my partners on the the front lines with me into my work. My home is not currently threatened by one of FERC’s reckless project approvals, but when might it be? Regardless of how much or how little physical stake any of us has in a given project on FERC’s docket, this fight is personal.

FERC’s continued assault on American communities is not only unsustainable and financially unviable, its unjust. What’s worse, barring the public from participating in the proceedings that decide our collective fate has created a culture of invincibility at FERC. When the opportunity arose to attend the January FERC meeting with our partner Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE), I jumped at the chance to disrupt these opaque proceedings and challenge that notion of invincibility. That morning, I was a bit intimidated about entering a federal building knowing I would not be leaving on my own accord, but whatever apprehension I felt was quickly replaced by confidence and strength instilled in me by those that had gone before and others who showed up to support us.

BXE has been disrupting FERC meetings on a regular basis for years, and has perfected an almost formulaic approach: 1) know your message, 2) keep it short and sweet, and 3) disrupt early in the proceedings before Commissioners have a chance to rush through their docket and conclude. As mentioned earlier, as soon as I was told by the FERC Secretary that I and other members of the public would never be given the chance to speak or ask questions during these meetings, I knew it was my chance to stand up, reclaim that space, and speak my truth to their purported power. My statement, yelled above the chaos that erupted in the room, was as follows:

“FERC recently announced it would review its process for pipelines. We the people have drafted for your consideration an 8 point plan for a pipeline review process where the wellbeing of people and the environment actually matter.”

At this point, I attempted to hand our plan to the Commissioners. Needless to say, they did not accept. As I was escorted out of the room by security, I could still actively participate in the non-participatory meeting, so I continued with increased urgency in my voice:

“Protect our resources! Protect our women! Protect our children! Stop being a rubber stamp for industry!”

(Photo Credit: Phil Ateto)

The past year has been difficult for our movement to say the least. Beyond FERC, our leaders are increasingly out of touch with the on the ground reality of their policies. The FERC meeting on January 18th provided me with something I had been desperately seeking: a chance to look those leaders unwaveringly in the eye and try to hold them accountable. Being able to scream at corrupt FERC Commissioners and staff, and call them out for servicing the fossil fuel industry over the American people, was cathartic. Knowing that my actions had contributed to challenging FERC’s paradigm, even in some small way, was uplifting and empowering, feelings that have been hard to come by as of late.

My disruption was brief, maybe 30 seconds, and the Commission resumed the meeting almost immediately. But a few minutes later, my co-conspirator and from West Virginia stood up to take her turn. And next month, there will be more allies signing up to participate in FERC’s regular meeting. So long as FERC continues to approve projects that put profits before people, and continue to ignore the voices of those it truly works for, we the people will continue standing up and speaking out.

*The Government in the Sunshine Act was passed by Congress in 1976 with the goal of creating more transparency within government agencies and federal commissions. The full text of the section that pertains to meeting transparency can be found below.

• 375.203   Open meetings.

(a) General rule. Except as provided in §375.206, meetings of the Commission will be open meetings.

(b) Public participation in open meetings. (1) Members of the public are invited to listen and observe at open meetings.

(i) “Observe” does not include participation or disruptive conduct, and persons engaging in such conduct will be removed from the meeting.

(ii) The right of the public to observe open meetings does not alter those rules which relate to the filing of motions, pleadings, or other documents. Unless such pleadings conform to the other procedural requirements, pleadings based upon comments or discussions at open meetings, as a general rule, will not become part of the official record, will receive no consideration, and no further action by the Commission will be taken thereon.

(2) To the extent their use does not interfere with the conduct of open meetings, electronic audio and visual recording equipment may be used by a seated observer at an open meeting.

(c) Physical arrangements. The Secretary shall be responsible for seeing that ample space, sufficient visibility, and adequate acoustics are provided for public observation of open meetings.

[45 FR 21217, Apr. 1, 1980, as amended at 80 FR 13225, Mar. 13, 2015]

Response of Beyond Extreme Energy to the statement of the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that the agency will review its approval process for interstate gas pipelines. 

If FERC were an agency which truly put the public interest first, the announced plan to review their process for approving pipelines would be a welcome development. But facts don’t lie: over the past 30 years FERC has granted permits for all but two proposed interstate gas pipelines. It is a rubber stamp agency, and it has been this through both Democratic and Republican administrations.

This announced plan comes on the heels of FERC’s efforts in New York to override the rights of states to make decisions on air and water permits for proposed pipelines. It comes as FERC considers Rick Perry’s order that they change regulatory rules and increase costs to consumers so that coal and nuclear power are given special privileges in the supposedly fuel source neutral, FERC-regulated market.

The “need” as far as new gas pipelines is to stop building them and get serious about the urgently-needed shift to renewables. But all signs indicate FERC is going from bad to worse. Instead of moving forward into the 21st century world of wind, solar and other renewables, the Trump-appointed FERC leaders want things to go backwards to the fossil fuel-dominated 20th century. We don’t trust them.

Beyond Extreme Energy is looking for an experienced and committed videographer to put together several short, popular education videos about FERC and the struggle to replace it. We have put together an overview, found below, of the areas we want the videos to cover.

The final product as currently envisioned, although none of this is set in stone, would be a series of 1-5 min videos on the topics indicated in the outline below. The videos would target the unengaged public and would be able to be viewed both separately or strung together into a single, longer video.

Money: We are committed to raising the funds necessary for this popular education project. How much we pay the videographer  will be negotiable and based on the needs of the person doing the work, their experience doing videos, and discussions with BXE .

One immediate need is a short, one minute or so trailer to help with fundraising. A videographer who could put that together soon would be a big plus.

Timeframe: We would like this work to move forward as soon as possible. We would like the trailer to be done ASAP and the videos to start coming out in the early part of 2018.

Work needed: BXE has access to a significant amount of footage already available, going back to our formation over three years ago. The primary need is NOT for a person to travel to conduct interviews or film actions; the need is for creative editing of already existing material.

Interested?: If you are a videographer, or if you know someone who is, please make contact with BXE by emailing Lee Stewart at Actions@BeyondExtremeEnergy.org .

Overview of Video Content

What is FERC?

FERC, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is the most dangerous federal agency that you’ve never heard of. They can seize your property, send armed marshals to your door without a warrant, poison your water and air, and destroy our climate, and no Mayor, Governor, Senator, or Member of Congress can make them stop.

But you can.

FERC was created almost half a century ago by a law known as the Natural Gas Act. Back then, in the 1970s, we didn’t know how dangerous climate change was (though #ExxonKnew). Most American’s didn’t use natural gas for heat or power.  So sweeping authority over where and how to build big gas projects like pipelines, power plants and compressor stations was all given to this one agency.

Since we didn’t need a lot of new pipelines or projects, FERC alone was given authority to review and permit them. Over the last 30 years, they have turned down only one!

Frontline Struggles

This should be a series of profiles, like on this site: http://fireriverfilms.com/bayoubridge/ BXE needs to talk about who are the right people to profile, but 2-4 short ones from people who’ve come to speak at FERC rallies before is a possible plan. We might even have most of the footage we need from videos of past FERC actions, like pancakes not pipelines and sweet potatoes not pipelines.

Real emphasis should be given to the fracking and now gas export boom. That this is a gold-rush mentality where a lot of companies (ETP, Spectra, Duke, Dominion, etc) try to get rich quick, and don’t care who they hurt to do it.

Climate Change, Methane, FERC, and You

To stop climate change, scientists tell us that more than 80% of proven coal, gas and oil reserves need to stay in the ground. That means an almost immediate halt to new gas & oil wells, coal mines, and especially to extreme energy sources like fracked gas and tar sands oil.

Fracked gas is a double-whammy to the climate. First, it leaks – from wells, from pipelines, compressor stations and every part of the supply chain. And when it leaks, that methane (gas is 90% or more methane) is 86 times more powerful at over-heating our climate than regular old CO2. Second, once gas gets where it’s going in the pipeline, it still has to be burned – where it releases more CO2. When you combine the two effects together – leaking methane and the climate impact of burning gas – it’s as bad or worse for the climate than burning coal.

Amazingly, FERC gives short shrift to those impacts when it considers new projects. But in recent months, court cases have started to pressure FERC to consider the climate impacts of fracking wells, pipelines, and power plants. But it’s not enough, and it’s too slow. Until FERC starts saying NO to all new pipelines and gas projects proposed (instead of YES to 100%) it won’t be enough. And their refusal to act creates danger for ALL of us, as climate disruption drives rising seas, makes storms, droughts, floods and wildfires more extreme, and threatens our homes and communities – no matter where we live.

Vision

The 100% Renewable energy future we need ASAP will require a big, connected energy grid powered primarily by a LOT more solar and wind energy. Ironically, if we want to build clean energy infrastructure fast, and also compel big investments in efficiency and energy conservation, FERC could be the perfect ally.
FERC reviews plans for how the electric grid is connected. FERC can say no to new fossil fuel infrastructure instead of yes. Like a powerful Jedi from the Star Wars Movies: FERC can be a force for good, or evil.

But given that FERC as we know it is owned and paid for by the fossil fuel industry, they’re unlikely to turn away from the dark side. That’s where we come in; by taking action together, collectively and in coordination; by pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable for FERC to consider and what we’re willing to risk to stop climate change and pollution, we can force FERC to change, or force it to be replaced by an agency that values people over profit, and the planet over polluters.

What can we do?

Three things:

1) get involved and support the dozens of frontline communities battling gas projects reviewed or already approved by FERC right now. The battle is joined, come and join us!

2) Speak up – call your Representative and Senators and tell them what you’ve learned about FERC. Ask them to meet with local impacted groups in your community and hear our concerns. Join us at actions in DC at FERC’s headquarters or related targets and support BXE’s efforts to make the resistance visible at all levels.

3) Because FERC will not say no, and courts and state regulators are often too slow to stop the harms created by these projects, we need to be prepared to risk more. We can’t wait for politicians and experts to save us – we need to get out of our houses and take direct action. That can look like a lot of different things: a mass demonstration, an encampment, a sit-in, a lockdown and more are all different kinds of direct action. What’s important is our willingness to act in solidarity with our neighbors and other communities on the frontlines of pollution.

Join us today to take action.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA–Virginia citizens against fracked gas pipelines send Gubernatorial Candidate Ralph Northam nearly 300 “Hear Our Voice” postcards from Loudoun County. Kamie Bledsoe, environmental activist member of 350 Loudoun, started the post card campaign shortly after Tom Perriello lost the Democratic Primary. Tom Perriello came out against the new proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. But, Ralph Northam, despite taking the Hippocratic Oath in his training as a medical doctor, failed to oppose the pipelines and in an interview on a conservative radio station stated that governors cannot take a position against pipelines.  Regrettably, Dr. Northam is mistaken. The governors of New York and Maryland have come out against fracked gas pipelines. In fact, Lieutenant Governor candidate Justin Fairfax and at least ¾ of candidates running for the VA House of Delegates have also come out against the pipelines. Dr. Northam’s position on pipelines is contrary to the National Democratic platform to promote renewable sources of energy.

Although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is tasked with national permitting for the pipelines, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, under the direction of the governor, can deny water quality permits for the projects and prevent them from being built. This authority is stipulated in the Clean Water Act, was used by New York’s Gov. Cuomo to stop the Constitution Pipeline, and was recently upheld in court.

Ms. Bledsoe and colleagues easily collected postcards from various venues including public events, environmental events, and civic meetings. People from all walks of life and from all political parties signed postcards. They were motivated by many different factors including the abuse of Eminent Domain for private gain, pollution of drinking water sources, climate change impact from methane of pipeline infrastructure, tying up financial capital and resources for fossil fuel projects instead of renewable energy projects.

Natalie Pien signed a post card because “Unneeded fracked gas pipelines devastate our environment, exacerbate climate change, and harm human health. Dr. Northam must honor the Hippocratic Oath and oppose the new pipelines.”

The objective of this post card campaign is to elevate the importance of the pipelines issue to Virginia citizens across the Commonwealth. The ultimate goal is that Mr. Northam change his position to oppose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Members of 350 Loudoun have been showing up at Northam’s campaign events in Northern Virginia trying to educate the public and the politicians on the pipelines, and trying to get Northam to change his stance. At a recent such event, activists dressed in Wizard of Oz costumes and called on Northam to find the heart, brain, and nerve to come out against the pipelines.

August, 2017
Quarter 2-3 Organizing Report
Beyond Extreme Energy
Lee Stewart

Dear friends,

Beyond Extreme Energy’s Community Supported Organizer (CSO) Program currently contributes about $900 to our $5000 monthly operating budget. This budget funds Jimmy Betts and myself, BXE’s two organizers. Your much needed and appreciated sustaining donation plays a significant role in keeping us funded and fighting for a better world. It’s a great privilege to do this work, and I’d like to thank you for making it possible.

Every three or four months, I send out an organizing report about what I’ve been up to. This one is a little late and a little long. Please accept this as a report to peruse, but also as an invitation for conversation, critique, and involvement. I’d love to help plug you in if you’d like to get more involved in our work.

The people who make up BXE are some of the most remarkable people I know. Working with them is a privilege beyond measure. There is a lot of work that is not visible. I wanted to acknowledge this work and to express gratitude for everything everyone puts into BXE.

For me and much of BXE, April-August has been about escalating the FERC Vacancies Campaign. When Norman Bay resigned from FERC earlier in the year, thus rendering the commission unable to approve fossil fuel infrastructure, I don’t think many of us imagined that half a year would go by without the quorum being restored. The quorum was ultimately restored a few weeks ago and we are now busy getting ready to respond in a big way on September 20th.

In addition to working to help delay a restoration of FERC’s quorum, I’ve also gotten more involved in the effort to stop the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast fracked pipelines proposed through my home state of Virginia. You can read more about this and other work below.

Please be in touch!

In the struggle,
Lee Stewart
BeyondExtremeEnergy.org
703-999-2634

==========================================

FERC Vacancies Campaign

The FERC Vacancies Coalition resulted in the coming together of multiple groups across the country to build a campaign to stop or delay Trump’s nominations to FERC. Although the quorum at FERC was restored a few weeks ago, this only happened after months of delay and movement building. Through the campaign, BXE built a closer working relationship with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Berks Gas Truth, and Green America. Together with these groups and other partners, we helped coordinate call-in days, letter to the editor writing, district office visits, twitter storms, national lobby days, committee hearing disruptions, and a sit-in. This effort has given us several close contacts to work with in the Senate and has made the FERC fight more widely known.

When the quorum was restored, I was devastated. What was particularly disturbing was the fact that not a single senator raised a voice in opposition after the vote was scheduled. This should say something about how messed-up our political system is. It should also say something about what can only be seen as hypocrisy on the part of senators who claim to be climate champions but who do nothing when it really matters. The road ahead is long. Click here to read BXE’s official statement in response to the restoration of FERC’s quorum.

Although the FERC Vacancies Campaign has been great, there are many things that can be improved. It was remarkable that nearly 200 groups signed on to the coalition.  In reality, this amounted to not much more than a talking point to use with the media. We didn’t build relationships with most of the groups in the coalition, and it’s hard to say how much the various groups engaged with the campaign. A lot of my work consisted of sending out calls-to-action via email. How can we build more personal relationships with these groups? I think that is an important question going forward.

Another thing I think we have not done, which I believe is critical to do, is popular education and base building around the FERC fight. It was difficult to find people who were willing and able to participate in the disruptions of the Senate hearings on FERC nominees. FERC is destroying communities and the climate in a major way, yet it seems like the only people who understand this or who are engaged in the FERC fight are those who are most directly affected. These are the folks who are busy fighting infrastructure at home and who might have less capacity to engage in a more widely focused campaign.

FERC is the perfect example of everything that is wrong with our deadly and undemocratic energy system, built as it is to feed the market at the expense of people’s lives and livelihoods. How do we make the FERC fight more popular? How do we make it more accessible to people who are busy with other fights, or people who are not connected at all? How do we make our mission to replace FERC with an agency dedicated to a just transition off of fossil fuels more of a mainstream demand? These are questions I hope we can explore.

If you have not yet heard about the September 20th mobilization at FERC, when they are holding their first public Commission Meeting after the restoration of the quorum, please click here! We’d love for you to join us. If you want to join the strategy session that will happen right after events on the 20th, please email me directly.

Fighting White Supremacy

When BXE wrote our principles and practices document, we decided to put fighting white supremacy front and center. We were meant to seriously explore what it meant for a majority white climate justice group to center this fight. Up to now, however, we have not seriously explored this in a way that has led to solid outcomes.

From the beginning, the Fighting White Supremacy Working Group has had low and/or periodic attendance. When we started building a national call series on the topic, we had to delay the project due to low attendance and energy. It has not been revived. Now, the working group meetings are used to share ideas, thoughts, concerns, and stories as they come up for us in our lives and work. Just this past week, we were joined by an organizer with the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee who talked to us about how tax resistance can be used as a tool to fight white supremacy.

Although having a forum to talk about these things is extremely valuable, it falls short of what the working group was intended to figure out. If centering the fight against white supremacy in the climate justice struggle amounts to sharing stories, something is lacking.

Why have things been slow going with this working group? In part, I think it has to do with capacity. BXE is a small group. We are all stretched thin. There are fossil fuel projects coming at us right and left.

It might also have to do with the structure of BXE itself. All of us are from different places. We have different frontline struggles we’re a part of. We meet via conference call. Sometimes, people say they are engaged in fighting white supremacy outside of BXE.

Given this reality, what can we do as a group to make fighting white supremacy central to who we are as BXE, regardless of the work we’re all doing separate from each other? These aren’t excuses, but observations about stumbling blocks I think we need to get over going forward.

I remain firm in thinking that unless we put fighting white supremacy at the center of our work, we will lose our communities and the climate. I don’t feel like BXE has found out how to do this as an organization. I hope to focus more of my attention on this going forward.

One idea is to create resistance reading groups in the BXE network that are explicitly about community building, political education, and revolution. Two books that I think would be particularly appropriate are Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, and Neal Shirley and Saralee Stafford’s Dixie Be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South (online PDF here).  If anyone is interested in exploring this idea, please be in touch.

Virginia

I spend some of my time working with a group called 350 Loudoun, a climate action group based where I grew up in Loudoun County, Virginia. This group has been doing a lot of amazing work to fight the two major fracked gas pipelines proposed for the state (Dominion’s Atlantic Coast pipeline and EQT’s Mountain Valley pipeline), not to mention a proposed expansion of a Dominion fracked gas compressor station near Leesburg, the county seat. They are also a big part of a new climate coalition that has formed for the Northern Virginia region. This group just had their first in-person meeting a few days ago which I was happy to attend.

Recently, the pipeline fight has taken two forms in Northern Virginia. The first is organizing for the People’s Pipeline Protest being coordinated by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN). The protest is aimed at pressuring Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to do a more stringent analysis of every pipeline stream crossing across the state. It consists of three days of action at all DEQ offices around Virginia.  I have not been a part of planning this, but several folks in 350 Loudoun are playing key roles, particularly in organizing for the Woodbridge DEQ office in Northern Virginia. If you can make it out for this, please considering coming. Details can be found here.

The other front has been bird-dogging Democratic candidate for governor in the state, Ralph Northam. It has been a bumpy road. 350 Loudoun  members have been a part of this effort as individuals, but have gotten a lot of push back by members of the Democratic Party in Loudoun County. 

Our bird-dogging activities have been pretty standard. When Northam has speaking events in Northern Virginia, several of us show up with “no pipelines” signs to hold up as people arrive. This week, we’re doing our most significant bird-dogging event to date. We’ll be dressing up like characters in the Wizard of Oz and calling on Northam and other political figures to find the heart, brain, and nerve to oppose the pipelines.

These actions have ruffled the feathers of the Democratic Party in the state, causing what I hope amounts to productive tension. I have personally received emails and Facebook messages from Democrats telling me to stop pressuring Northam to oppose the pipelines, and have had people come up to me at events to confront me on that. This is the case for other pipeline fighters in Loudoun as well. I think it’s a tragic situation that some Democrats are more willing to push voters than they are to push their candidate. That Northam can’t comes out against the pipelines shows that he is willing to risk the election for his loyalty to the pipeline companies.

The BXEEkly

The BXEEkly is BXE’s weekly newsletter. I send it out every Sunday night to about 520 subscribers. It has gained 20 subscribers since March.

Please send me anything and everything you’d like me to include in the BXEEkly–news stories, pictures, poems, art, actions, events, action steps…. The BXEEkly is meant as a forum to share with each other in a media world dominated by corporations that often exclude or hide our resistance.    

Please ask your friends and family to subscribe here.

Click on the dates below to view issues of the BXEEkly from the second and third quarters of 2017.

April: 3, 10,17, 24
May: 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
June: 5, 12, 19, 26
July: 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
August: 7, 14, 21 (no BXEEkly), 28

Life Outside BXE

Although most of my time is spent on BXE, I have been trying to learn practical hands-on skills that could be useful in a community setting as the climate and our society as a whole destabilizes.  Although it’s not funny at all, I sometimes joke that hope is the newest form of denial. To look at the science, and to see how that corresponds with our current political situation, is to recognize that climate chaos is not only inevitable, but already underway. My heart breaks for Texas, Louisana, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, places that have seen great suffering over the last number of days due to extreme weather.

I believe we are in for cascading collapse over the course of the rest of our lives and beyond, regardless of what we do now. That’s why I think we should be doing all we can to fight for a just transition while also learning the skills and building the communities we’ll need to survive, support one another, and resist in unstable times.

Right now, I’m learning blacksmithing. I’m also learning to fiddle as a way to relax and step away from organizing for a few moments every day.

Once every month, BXE hosts a special two-hour conference call to grapple more deeply with issues, concerns, and relationships both inside and outside of BXE. A BXEer recently proposed that one of our upcoming two-hour calls be dedicated to talking about how we’re each preparing for climate destabilization in our own communities. Please keep your eyes out for this call, and please join us when it happens!