Four of us (including Rachel on the left and me second from right) drove down from New Haven in my electric Chevy Bolt for the day of lobbying and a rally on September 8 dubbed No Sacrifice Zones: MVP Resistance Comes to DC. That made the drive an hour slower but also cheaper than driving a gas-powered car, and boy, did we feel righteous! We also came to oppose Sen. Joe Manchin’s dirty side deal that would force through not only the Mountain Valley pipeline, but would weaken bedrock environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and make it easier to push through any infrastructure project with little or no public input.
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I only go to DC for actions of one kind or another, and when I stay with friends, I barely get to see them, which was the case again this time. Someday I’ll go down just to see my pals.

The organizing that went into both the lobbying and the rally was phenomenal. We did lobby training either online ahead of time or when folks arrived at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation that morning, which served as our headquarters. Once we signed up to lobby, organizers coordinated with Congressional staffers to set up appointments, and each team included a lobby liaison and a frontline fighter. Our very savvy liaison was Dahlia with the newish Jewish climate org, Dayenu (which means “Enough” in Hebrew). Our frontliner was Nancy, a retiree who lives in Monroe County, West Virginia, the place I most fell in love with of all the gorgeous places we passed through on our Walk/Drive for Appalachia’s Future last spring. She’s been fighting it for 8 of the 12 years since she retired.

Eluned and I were the Connecticut team, and the four of us met with staffers for both our senators, Chris Murphy and Dick Blumenthal, and our Congresswoman, Rosa DeLauro. Nancy explained the situation on the ground (see my past few blogs for more on that), including how the consortium of companies building the Mountain Valley pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia and maybe into North Carolina has lost permits from three federal agencies due to their egregious violations. It was on life support before Manchin and Chuck Schumer made their “side deal.” The silver lining is that it thrust the MVP into the limelight, and now folks down there are fielding almost more interview requests than they can handle, explaining to a much broader audience (including readers of The New York Times and the Washington Post) why the pipeline is a bad idea.

All the staffers listened but of course were non-committal when we made our asks that their bosses 1) make a public statement in favor of separating the side deal from any must-pass legislation, like the Continuing Resolution to fund the government or the National Defense Authorization Act; and 2) oppose the side deal. Since Blumenthal is on the Judiciary Committee, I emphasized to his aide that the side deal would remove jurisdiction over any appeals regarding the MVP from the Fourth Circuit, where judges have often ruled against the developers (with good reason) to the DC Circuit, where they hope to get more pro-business rulings. That idea – that moneyed interests can pick their courtroom – is so anathema to the way our government is supposed to operate that members of Congress should vote against the deal on that basis alone.

I like to share some Manchin quotes from his home-state media outlet to demonstrate the man’s hubris:
 
Manchin said the language will be in a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. “This is something the Republican Party has wanted for the last five to seven years I’ve been with them,” he said. “It either keeps the country open, or we shut down the government. That’ll happen Sept. 30, so let’s see how that politics plays out.”

We were thrilled that while we were lobbying, Sen. Bernie Sanders made a very strong statement against the side deal, going so far as to say he’d vote against any must-pass bill that included it. We were also happy that at least 72 House members signed onto a letter from Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) calling for the side deal to be a stand-alone bill.

The rally later that day was held in a cozy, tree-lined spot on Capitol Hill, just big enough for the 500 people who came, including front-line fighters from struggles against mining and drilling from all over the country, from Alaska to California to the Gulf Coast to the Upper Midwest, in addition to Appalachia. Contingents from each of those areas took the stage together, each person speaking for about two minutes about their particular fight and all of them pledging solidarity with each other, and showing up for each other, as No Sacrifice Zones implies. The music, if anything, was even more powerful than the speakers. Four of us seven “Mayflies” who locked down last year to protest the Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota reunited and took a selfie (above).

I tend to talk with folks and walk around at rallies, and I know I missed a lot even though I was there the whole time. So, after I got home, I listened to the whole thing again, and I really had missed a lot! You can watch the whole 2 hours and 11 minutes here, or just skip through it. At 2:06, you can catch the final song, Idle No More, sung by two indigenous women from North Carolina, which harkens back to the nonviolent indigenous uprising in Canada begun a decade ago and seemed an appropriate way to end. Whatever happens with the MVP and the side deal, we have work to do for the rest of our lives.  

In my post last month, I blasted Joe Manchin for refusing to vote with Democrats to pass even a greatly scaled back version of President Biden’s Build Back Better initiative. Maybe Manchin read my blog, because just a day or two later he came back to the table and agreed to what became the Inflation Reduction Act. (Seriously, reporting indicates that not just my condemnation, but that of thousands of others convinced him that he didn’t want to be responsible for destroying the liveability of the planet.)

But what I wrote in July seems on the mark: “Some folks I respect say we should be more positive and talk about solutions and not be such Debbie and Donny Downers. My only problem with that approach is, we can build out all the solar panels and wind turbines and battery storage we want, and we can promote energy efficiency and conservation (not using the energy in the first place) 24/7, but if we don’t turn off the gas and oil spigots (coal is dying on its own, but we definitely should encourage its retirement), we are not going to dig ourselves out of the hole we’re in.”

Because the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has some good things (promoting electric vehicles and incentivizing more renewables) and some bad things (requiring offering millions of acres for on-shore and off-shore oil and gas drilling as a prerequisite for building renewable energy projects).

In other words, digging the hole deeper. It’s all carrots and no sticks – no enforceable requirements for reducing climate pollution in the law – which was probably the only way it was going to pass, but which makes achieving the advertised 40% reduction over 2005 levels pretty squishy. Many frontline groups fighting fossil projects, like indigenous folks in the Midwest and Black folks on the Gulf Coast who are already overburdened, point out that they’ve been thrown under the bus – again.

As if that’s not bad enough, the side deal to the IRA that Manchin and Schumer agreed to is really despicable. In legislation not yet finalized and to be voted on in September, it would require the completion of the Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline (MVP) through West Virginia and southwestern Virginia, much-delayed because of all the violations the consortium building it has committed. It also calls for “streamlining” the permitting process, which would reduce a lot of government oversight and public participation. See my June and July blog posts for more on the MVP.

It will likely be tacked onto “must pass” legislation such as the budget bill. While the proposals to “streamline” the permitting process would also apply to renewable energy projects, the side deal takes an “all of the above” approach to energy, with fracked gas projects and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) getting billions in subsidies through the IRA that even former CCS project developers now say is a total waste of money and will only help entrench rather than phase out fossil fuels.

 We can’t afford that at this late stage in the climate crisis. We must stop it.
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Folks from the frontlines of the MVP fight are gathering to lobby their elected officials in DC on Thursday, Sept. 8, to vote NO on the bill, and then attend a rally at 5 p.m. I am going and would love to bring you with me. Not only is this a critical fight for all of us, but meeting the people along the path of the MVP was a highlight of my life as I’m sure it would be for you. Check out the link below or send me a message. https://tinyurl.com/nodirtydeal

And PLEASE call your reps and senators in Congress and tell them (probably just leaving a message will take you about 30 seconds) you are opposed to this side deal. We need all the voices we can get. Go here to find them: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

Also attaching link to my two op-eds that just came out that pretty much blanketed the state, thanks to running in all the Hearst papers as well as the CT Mirror:

https://ctmirror.org/2022/08/30/mountain-valley-pipeline-killingly-ct/
https://www.nhregister.com/opinion/article/Opinion-Stop-side-deal-that-undermines-climate-17397503.php 

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice…well, that’s what Joe Manchin pulled on President Joe Biden when he decided for a third time that he just can’t support even a super-scaled back version of a Build Back Better bill to start to address the climate crisis and create good green jobs. He says he’s worried about inflation and is opposed to taxing millionaires – like himself – a cent more to raise funds to support a green energy transition.

Young people have excoriated Manchin – who gets his millions from a coal-related business – saying that he’s signing their death warrant. This comes right after the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia v EPA that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot enact sweeping measures to reduce carbon and methane pollution. And that is right after SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade, threw out a New York law restricting carrying guns in public, and ruled police can’t be sued if they don’t read suspects their Miranda rights.

Sounds like we’re going in the wrong direction(s).

Biden and Democrats in the Senate were tip-toeing around Manchin, trying to avoid annoying or angering him so they could consummate a deal. Now that he’s closed that door (though not entirely – after his third snub he unbelievably dangled a little hope that maybe someday he would support something) Democrats can stop kowtowing to him.
One of his demands has been that federal regulators allow completion of the Mountain Valley pipeline, which runs through his state of WV and Virginia. It’s a fracked gas pipeline only a little more than half complete. The company filed a formal application with FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) in October 2015 with an in-service date of late 2018. The locals have been fighting it ever since. The company already got one 2-year extension and is currently pursuing a 4-year one. (See my June post for more about opposition to the pipeline.)

Now that Dems have nothing to gain from placating Joe, I’m hopeful that the bureaucratic wheels will turn to deny the extension (on the sturdiest of legal grounds, of course, which certainly exist, in spades – mainly that the company has racked up thousands of violations; completing it would endanger the water, air and land of surrounding communities; it would generate a significant amount of all the greenhouse gases in the U.S.; and it is not meant for local consumption).  FERC gave a ridiculously short time frame for comments on the petition, but due to public pressure the agency extended the deadline to July 29.  And you can help by signing one or all of these petitions, and bonus points for personalizing it:
Sierra Club Comment: https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/National?actionId=AR0363219
Appalachian Voices Petition: https://tinyurl.com/3pv9bzsx 
Chesapeake Climate Action Network Petition: act.chesapeakeclimate.org/page/42391/-/1

I’ve had some interesting discussions recently about whether the strategy of pushing Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop implementation of fossil fuel infrastructure, subsidies and exports is the right one. I’ve been part of local, state and national groups that have been advocating exactly that for years. Some folks I respect say we should be more positive and talk about solutions and not be such Debbie and Donny Downers. My only problem with that approach is, we can build out all the solar panels and wind turbines and battery storage we want, and we can promote energy efficiency and conservation (not using the energy in the first place) 24/7, but if we don’t turn off the gas and oil spigots (coal is dying on its own, but we definitely should encourage its retirement), we are not going to dig ourselves out of the hole we’re in. And we need to be serious about providing new, well-paying jobs for those who are laid off, either in the clean energy sector or some other arena.
The People vs Fossil Fuels national coalition of more than 1,200 groups is calling for local actions around the country on August 2, demanding that President Biden declare a climate emergency and stop approval of all new fossil fuel projects. We are planning one in Connecticut. For more info: www.peoplevsfossilfuels.org or for the CT action fill out this form right away for our meeting July 28 at 7 p.m. -- https://tinyurl.com/57ykc3jh
 
Photo is of an occupation of the MVP right of way. 

Of all the indelible images from my 12-day Walk for Appalachia’s Future along the 303-mile route of the under-construction Mountain Valley Pipeline through West Virginia and southwest Virginia, none sticks with me more than 13-year-old Callie Coffey swinging on the playground of the community center where we camped one day. She is a child and that’s what children should be doing, instead of fighting for their future during climate chaos. So, she planned the grand finale rally in Richmond, VA, on June 4 with her middle school classmates. Click here to watch her reading the letter she wrote to VA Governor Glenn Youngkin. 

There are many other memorable images, mostly of the gorgeous green mountains and the raging rivers and streams after some heavy rains. This region is full of mountains and water – some of the best drinking water in the world, which is threatened by this 42-inch diameter pipeline. It goes through some of the steepest terrain where pipeline construction has ever been attempted. The geology it would pass through is karst – limestone that is full of holes and caves that filter the water -- but that is a terrible place to build a pipeline, as the land has a tendency to slip. Still other images of the gashes made by pipeline construction on the steep slopes. After seeing gash after gash, to an outsider they honestly look all the same – but each one is a total desecration to a family’s land, air and water, and I even heard there were plans (since abandoned) to run the pipeline through family graveyards.

Our “Walk” was more of a drive, as we always prioritized meeting with frontline groups and individuals fighting the pipeline. We often had three meetings a day, and after 8 straight days of that I was delighted to get a morning “off,” which was when I was able to catch up on my journaling and audio editing. We did get to walk a few miles in beautiful places, usually along a river or stream, and one day we walked about four miles of the Appalachian Trail – an easy, beautiful hike on a gorgeous day with temps in the low 70s. We passed out small flyers about the Walk to anyone we could along the trail or on the roads or in the towns we passed through, and got mostly positive responses.

The good news is that the company is years behind schedule and billions over budget, and no new construction can happen until (if) it gets the permits it needs to proceed.

We have walkers doing all kinds of media – Twitter, Facebook, blogging, radio – and then there are the journalists covering us as well. We learned about the endangered, multi-colored Candy Darter that will hopefully help stop the pipeline, that was covered by two reporters from Bloomberg News. Click here for my segment on this for Between the Lines. Other reporters covered one of the daily memorials we did honoring people who had been lost during the pipeline fight, and also covered a tour of the historic Black section of Roanoke, which was almost destroyed by urban renewal – or “Negro removal” as the residents called it. We visited one of the few markers commemorating the famed labor organizer Mother Jones, who was arrested in West Virginia, and we learned about one of the biggest labor catastrophes in U.S. history when hundreds of Black and immigrant workers hit silica rock when building a dam on the New River and died from inhaling silica dust. One day we held a vigil outside the jail in Roanoke where, outrageously, 10 people held there had died over a four-year period. So, it was a very intersectional two weeks!

One of the things I liked best was how many older women have been on the front lines. Retired teacher and author Becky Crabtree locked down into her beloved old Pinto on the pipeline right-of-way on her own property at the base of  Peters Mountain, WV, which was taken by eminent domain after she and her husband refused to sell it to the MVP. Three other elders locked down across a different right of way in a Crown Victoria in Virginia. Both actions stopped construction for about a day. Becky (photo below) said that didn’t seem important to most people, but, “It was important to me. You got to have some dignity in this world. You’ve got to stand up for something.” She is now running for the West Virginia House of Delegates. You can hear/read the short interview with Becky for Between the Lines here.

Then there was Red Terry, who at 61 years old sat in a tree for 34 days in 2018 on Bent Mountain near Roanoke to stop the pipeline, along with her daughter in a nearby tree on their family’s property, which they also refused to sell and lost by eminent domain. It’s a big commitment to do a tree sit, obviously, and it also requires lots of on-the-ground support. And sometimes the authorities cut off that support, and still the tree sitters hung on for several weeks, catching rain water and irregular resupplies when folks could get around the opposition.

We also visited the historic twin tree sits at Yellow Finch on Bent Mountain, which were occupied for 932 days by a changing cast of protesters. The final two who were extracted ended up spending many weeks in jail on misdemeanor charges before being released on bail.

We finished the "walk" in Richmond, with an action June 3 that focused on Wells Fargo Bank as the main funder of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and included some beautiful spiritual elements; and the youth-led action on June 4.

I’ve always loved mountains, and have spent many vacations in Vermont and the Adirondacks of New York. But there was something about the beauty and fragility of the land we passed through, combined with the fierce commitment of the people to their home places and to each other, and the new friends I made, that gave me the feeling this is a part of the country I will belong to for the rest of my life.

In mid-April I participated in two actions of the many organized by Extinction Rebellion NYC over ten remarkable days of “love and rage.” There were protests, marches, beautiful performances, art-art-art, and times set aside for self-care and care for others in this movement to confront the climate crisis. This is a global phenomenon; the U.S. version rests on four principles: People in power (including the media) must Tell the Truth about the crisis; The Government must enact legally binding policies to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025; We must have A Citizens’ Assembly to oversee the changes, as we rise from the wreckage; A just transition will prioritize the most vulnerable people and indigenous sovereignty…and repairs the effects of ongoing ecocide to prevent extinction of human and all species, in order to maintain a livable, just planet for all. A fuller description is here: extinctionrebellion.us/demands-principles

One day there was a march called No War, No Warming, calling out war and the climate emergency, and their interrelationship. As marchers passed near Zuccotti Park (site of the initial Occupy movement) and the famous Bull of Wall Street, we set up two tripods, with banners declaring No War and No Warming, and an activist perched atop each. I locked down with another woman (each of us with an arm inside a metal pipe) and stood under the tripod, just to increase the time the cops would have to spend getting us out before going after the tripod-sitters.

The weird thing was, when we arrived there were seven officers, and as we proceeded to set up the entire action, more and more came – to watch! There were about 40 by the time we were all in position. Only then did they give warnings and say we’d be arrested if we didn’t leave. Nobody left. Nine of us were arrested and spent between four and seven hours in jail before being released. We were all in separate cells, which was bo-ring. But we could talk a little with the person in the next cell, and we spent some time singing. We have to go to court on May 6. That's me standing with the mask and sunglasses right behind the No Warming banner.

A few days later I was watching a webinar with Dr. Jonathan Foley, director of Project Drawdown, which put 100 solutions for a sustainable planet in a book of that name that came out a few years ago. His work focuses on solutions (or “opportunities”) rather than shaming and blaming our government and business leaders or demanding that they do as we say. (Not that XR does that. One of its principles is “no blaming or shaming.”) One example Foley gave was that Google provided its employees with a free high-end lunch, and one day introduced “meatless Mondays.” Some employees complained because they felt like something was being taken away from them. So, the company switched its marketing to promote gourmet vegetarian fare, and everybody loved it.
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I think we have to do both: call out the crisis and propose positive solutions. We can celebrate that clean energy is growing by leaps and bounds, but we still need to point out that overall, fossil fuel emissions are up, not down, and that’s not sustainable. Here’s a link to his excellent talk.

I’m overjoyed when I see the crocuses, vinca and dandelions sprouting in my yard in the spring. I’ve never understood why the lovely dandelion, in particular, has been relegated to the seventh circle of hell as the worst weed in the world. I know how – through the machinations of the pesticide industry and the cleverness of Madison Avenue – but I’ve never understood why millions of homeowners have fallen for it and spent lots of time, money, and poison on eradicating them.

I’m working to eliminate my lawn, little by little. My back yard is half taken over by creeping purple ajuga, which requires no mowing. I do have a lawnmower – a quiet, non-source-polluting electric one. (The energy source from our electric utility is still mostly nuclear and gas, and we can’t put solar on our roof without cutting down our big maple tree, so that’s not an option.) I have also planted flower and vegetable gardens in various spots.

Every spring my scientist-husband and I disagree about when to mow. I want to let all the spring flowers in the grass fade on their own, rather than kill them, and he always wants to mow as soon as the grass gets a little long.

I’ve always had science on my side, as it’s clear that bees and other pollinators will benefit greatly from feeding on these yummy first flowers of the season. Now there’s a movement behind the science that homeowners around the country are getting behind, and I am, too.

This wonderful article in The New York Times is about No Mow May, when homeowners are asked to let their grass (and weeds) grow for the month of May before tidying up in June (or not). When Appleton, Wisconsin, became the first city in the country to participate, researchers found that No Mow May lawns had five times the number of bees and three times the bee species as mown spaces. The idea has since spread to many other states. If it's not already in Connecticut, I plan to bring it here.

With bee populations plummeting, this project is more than just a good idea – if enough of us do it, it might actually help save the bees.

Just as Russia invaded Ukraine, I happened to be reading the chapter about Ukraine in Simon Winchester’s book, “Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World.” It’s called “Death on the Rich Black Earth” and describes how as many as ten million people died of starvation in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union under Stalin’s forced collectivization scheme. That’s quite a legacy, and Russia’s current ruler, V. Putin, seems to want to relive the past.

First, let me give honor to the thousands of Russians who took to the streets to condemn their own country’s actions across the border. Several thousand have already been arrested, and I’m guessing their sojourn in custody will not be pleasant.

Second, the latest report released Feb. 28 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gives context to my comments below. It paints a grim and even apocalyptic picture of our climate future, and United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres condemned “the biggest polluters guilty of arson on our only home.” Undiplomatic language from the world’s top diplomat only underscores the crisis.

On the first night of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, I saw a commentator on Fox explaining why Putin didn’t invade while Trump was President – one of the reasons the commentator gave was that Trump’s policies aggressively promoted U.S. fossil energy production and export, thus reducing Europe’s dependence on Russia’s oil and gas.

I have been working for the past 7 years toward the goal of eliminating coal, oil and gas (methane) production in the U.S., so I vehemently disagreed with Trump’s policies, but the commentator’s remarks highlight dirty energy’s role in geopolitics.

Germany stopped certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia in response to Russia’s aggression, but the chief executive of the German utility Uniper said that, even without that pipeline in operation, half of Germany’s gas in January came from Russia. Russia supplies up to 40 percent of gas to Europe overall.

Russia’s economy is based on the export of oil and gas, which accounts for 40% of its federal budget. Oil and gas make up 60% of Russia’s exports. Big Oil companies like Exxon and Shell work with Putin-controlled Rosneft and Gazprom, the Russian state oil and gas companies, respectively. (BP just announced it’s off-loading its $14 billion stake in Rosneft.) Former ExxonMobil CEO – and former Trump Secretary of State – Rex Tillerson has had an especially close relationship with Putin.

With gas supplies reduced, Germany just announced it’s building two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to import the fuel from the West, which is music to the ears of U.S. producers.

There are currently seven LNG export terminals operating in the U.S., four of them along a small stretch of the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. Twenty more have been approved by FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency – a conservative body established in the wake of the oil crisis of 1973 – said in May of last year that to prevent a true climate catastrophe, there should be no new fossil fuel projects after 2021.

But there’s another possible outcome: that the conflict will encourage the growth of renewable energy. According to Inside Climate News, “As stocks plummeted on Thursday in reaction to Russia’s invasion, the European Renewable Energy Index surged as much as 9.3 percent. It was the biggest stock jump since the pandemic lows of March 2020 and posed a stark contrast to the European market’s collapse. In the United States, individual renewable energy companies also saw massive gains. When the market closed Thursday, the stock price for Sunrun Inc., an American company that provides residential solar panels and batteries, had skyrocketed nearly 22 percent. Conversely, stocks for oil majors like BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil all remain down after a major price drop on Wednesday.”

Then there is the legacy of another form of toxic energy, the shuttered but still radioactive Chernobyl nuclear plant complex, which the Russian military apparently now controls. The thought of a nuclear incident – there or at one of Ukraine’s four remaining nuclear power plants with a total of 15 reactors – should give us all pause. Not to mention Putin’s nuclear weapons saber-rattling, to use a quaintly outmoded phrase.
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Militaries around the world – with the U.S. far in the lead – consume vast amounts of oil and gas even in peacetime, and a war greatly increases that consumption, with dire consequences for the climate. An additional benefit of growing our global renewables is that no one will be dependent on another country for energy that comes with the deadly impacts we’re seeing right now.

On October 2nd, 2021, an underwater discharge of at least 25,000 gallons of oil occurred off the southern California coast, contaminating the water and injuring and killing sea life. I don’t use the word “spill” because it makes it sound accidental, and while I’m sure the companies involved did not prefer it to happen, it’s also true that pipelines leak all the time (not to mention explode). The PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) database provides ample evidence.

Almost two months later, we took a walk along the beautiful coastline around Laguna Beach while visiting our daughter and her family. The sea is almost turquoise, the sand is pristine, and cliffs jut out into the water at regular intervals, creating multiple coves as you walk along above it all. We were thoroughly enjoying our stroll when we came upon the sign in the photo above. 

Later I read a story about the leak, and learned that three companies are facing charges for their alleged roles in it. Amplify Energy Co. and two of its wholly owned subsidiaries — Beta Operating Co. LLC and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co. — each face a misdemeanor count of negligent discharge of oil.

The legal/criminal ramifications to these companies – not to mention their CEOs – are in rather start contrast to the sentence that a young climate activist received for the damage she inflicted on several segments in Iowa of the Dakota Access pipeline before oil began flowing through it. Jessica Reznicek and another activist outed themselves a year after they pulled off the action without being caught. “We are speaking publicly to empower others to act boldly, with purity of heart, to dismantle the infrastructures which deny us our rights to water, land, and liberty,” they said. No one was injured in their actions (unless you count DAPL owner Energy Transfer Partners as a person.) She pleaded guilty, expecting the three-year sentence she had agreed to in the plea deal. But at sentencing, the judge added a consecutive, five-year “terrorism enhancement” charge to her sentence. She is currently serving time in a federal prison in Minnesota.

Her supporters are vigorously working to get the terrorism sentence thrown out. But the oil companies guilty of this spill will most likely be required to just pay a small fine, and they’ll be allowed to keep operating in the same old way, just as companies who desecrate Mother Earth have been allowed to do for the past century. 

​Go to www.supportjessicareznicek.com to sign the petition and see instructions for writing to her. 

Meanwhile, southern California becomes an ever more unsustainable place for humans to live due to the climate crisis the two women were trying to stop and the fossil companies continue to exacerbate. The two biggest reservoirs – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – damming the Colorado River are at their lowest points ever. Drought is ongoing. Wildfires are almost year-round. The beautiful sequoia groves I visited last year suffered devastating fires two years in a row (before and after my visit), killing an estimated 20 percent of them. They actually need fire to open their cones and spread their seeds, but recent climate change-fueled fires burn much hotter than earlier fires. This is a tragedy, people!

​In the midst of ongoing climate catastrophes (the deadly tornado outbreak through the mid-South and Midwest most likely fueled by climate change being just the latest example), I must find hope amid despair. I’m finding it right now in OccupyBiden.

Here's the description from the website: “From Christmas Day, December 25th, to New Year’s Day, January 1, people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds will be participating in an outdoors Climate Justice Occupation within a mile of President Biden’s house in Wilmington, DE. We will be calling upon him to show true climate leadership by pledging to:
•            Issue an Executive Order declaring a climate emergency; and, accordingly,
•            Mandate that all federal government agencies oppose any new fossil fuel projects

"Join with us for part of a day, for a full day, for several days or for the full week by signing up here. https://forms.gle/Y9wVYVjNCM6GCKnF9. For more info: OccupyBiden@gmail.com.

"It is because we are in a climate emergency that we are taking this action during the most important holiday season of the year, and braving the elements in doing so. Repeated, persistent and strong nonviolent action by organized people is an absolutely essential component of bringing about the changes urgently needed.

"While taking action on climate, we will stand in solidarity with the many other justice fights being waged on related issues. We stand in opposition to voter suppression and to all forms of racism/white supremacy. We work to build a truly just and democratic society grounded in respect and care for every culture, being and ecosystem. We support the rights of women to control their own bodies and health care decisions and affordable health care for all. We support immigrant rights and the right to organize and unionize on the job. We support peace and shifting money out of the military budget to human and environmental needs. We support the right to nonviolent protest and protections for whistleblowers.

"We will take action together during this week on the basis of these four principles:
•            We will create a vision and culture with the next seven generations as priority
•            We will use all nonviolent means to make this happen
•      We welcome everyone, including our own selves, for learning, listening and challenging ingrained attitudes that limit our collective strength
•            We realize we are part of a system that must change; therefore no individual or community is to be blamed or shamed

"While this event is about demanding climate action in the face of woeful inaction by our government, we also call on our community to take this opportunity to work with others from all aspects of our social, environmental and political scene and in this way strengthen and enrich our movement for the people.”

Hot meals will be served by the amazing Seeds of Peace collective (but bring your own snacks); phones and laptops can be charged by the solar-powered Sun Bus; there’ll be holiday caroling with clever climate lyrics; we’ll be showing dozens of climate action videos on a loop; participating orgs will be tabling and leading discussions; and except for one day, the highs will be in the mid-40s to mid-50s – I guess you could call that a pleasant climate change impact, though of course a terrible sign for the long haul, as historic highs for that week have been 41-42 degrees.

Some folks will be sleeping on-site to make it a 24/7 occupation, while others will stay in motels or do day trips from nearby areas. Above is the set up of the big tent.

Be sure to sign up at the link above to get the whole info packet. You will need to show proof of vaccination upon arrival and we’re all masking up, even though it’s outdoors, in an effort to outwit Omicron.

Please join us, or donate to help defray costs!

I was one of 15 elders arrested back in June for sitting in rocking chairs in the street for about a half hour in front of JP Morgan Chase’s credit card headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. (I'm in the photo below, facing the camera, wearing sunglasses.) It’s an impressive building, with an impressive sculpture of an eagle with outstretched wings flying from a tall pedestal – a perfect spot for two of us to unfurl a big banner calling on President Joe Biden and Chase Bank to do the right thing and stop investing in fossil fuel projects. Chase is by far the biggest investor in such planet- and people-killing practices.

In our trial for disorderly conduct that took place on November 12 – the last scheduled day of the COP 26 global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland – Judge Kerry Taylor allowed the 11 pro se (acting without a lawyer) defendants to submit testimony about the climate crisis and the role of banks in funding it.

We pursued a “choice of evils” strategy, which under Delaware law allows someone to break the law to prevent a greater “imminent” harm.  The prosecutor, who was the arresting officer, kept asking defendants who took the witness stand how their blocking the road prevented “imminent” harm that would justify the inconvenience to motorists who were delayed for a short time. Defendants testified to the drastic “imminent” harms already occurring due to climate change, like the fact that on the day of the protest, temperatures reached 108 degrees in the Northwest, part of a multi-day heat wave that killed 600 humans and a billion sea creatures.

We submitted copies of the 50-page Summary of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, published in August, which confirms that it is indisputable that human influence has caused all the warming in the climate system that has occurred since pre-industrial times. We also submitted copies of the 2021 Banking on Climate Chaos report, which shows that JP Morgan Chase is by far the biggest funder of fossil fuel projects around the world. Finally, we submitted a document in which the conservative and historically pro-fossil fuels International Energy Agency (IEA) declared that in order to avoid climate tipping points, funding for and construction of any new fossil fuel projects must cease this year.

Getting this documentation into the record was historic, as judges almost never allow a choice of evils defense – also known as a necessity defense. It was part of our carefully crafted four-prong strategy: presenting the science; presenting an expert witness who talked about the health impacts of the climate crisis; presenting documentation about the role of banks and Chase Bank in particular in funding the crisis; and presenting another expert witness who testified about the success of taking nonviolent direct action in winning climate concessions from a different bank.

However, although the judge allowed defendants to testify on these matters, and although in rendering her verdict she praised our clear and respectful presentation of evidence, in the end she chose the narrow definition of ‘imminent harm’ and found us guilty of disorderly conduct and imposed the minimum fine of $25 plus $72 in court costs on each of us. One of us, who lives in Baltimore, said he’d rather do community service in Wilmington than pay the fine.

Defendant Steve Norris, one of the main organizers of the action and my friend for almost 50 years, said, “Judge Kerry Taylor today at the last-minute stole defeat from the jaws of victory. She admitted into evidence the IPCC Report, Banking on Climate Chaos and the IEA Report. But then judge Taylor turned her back on us and seemed to claim that the drivers we inconvenienced in front of Chase Bank suffered greater harm than the millions of people who are suffering from climate change.”

Taking nonviolent action that involves potential risk is one thing people can do – and are doing more and more – to draw attention to the climate emergency and to demand action from our government and business leaders commensurate with the crisis. I was arrested in May at the Line 3 fight in Minnesota against a filthy tar sands oil pipeline – just like the Keystone XL pipeline President Biden cancelled on his first day in office – crossing indigenous territory. I was arrested in October in Washington, D.C. outside the White House as part of the People vs Fossil Fuels week of action preceding the climate summit in Glasgow, demanding that the president use executive action to stop or delay every fossil fuel project he can.

It is not the only kind of action we need. We need scientists doing research in academia; we need reporters covering the issue from all perspectives, especially that of those suffering first and worst from the crisis. We need people doing the day-to-day work of installing solar panels and wind turbines, and making all of our buildings energy-efficient. We need people willing to do the work of pushing legislation to make our world more sustainable. We need everyone to vote to put candidates in office willing to listen and pass those bills.
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This is not a hierarchy, and I wouldn’t claim that what I do is the most important. But neither, I believe, can we get where we need to go without people being willing to take risks and get out of our comfort zones. Besides, it is where you’ll meet the best people, and I feel blessed to be part of our beloved community.