via marchonblairmountain.org

I’ve been part of the movement to end mountaintop removal for five years now.

In 2008, RAN and I helped organize blockade actions against Dominion Energy which was building a new coal fired power plant in Wise, VA. In 2009 and 2010, we worked in solidarity with Appalachian and direct action groups in southern West Virginia taking action on mountaintop removal sites. During that same time, we waged a campaign to end mountaintop removal against the EPA and Wall Street banks like Chase and PNC Bank.

Last fall, we participated in Appalachia Rising, which brought thousands of Appalachians, friends and allies for a mass march and direct action in Washington D.C. 120 of us were arrested doing a sit-in in front of the White House. Now our friends in Appalachia are organizing a mass march, rally and action at Blair Mountain.

Blair Mountain is the site of the 2nd largest insurrection in U.S. history (after the Civil War.) The battle took place in 1921 and saw 8,000-10,000 miners fighting for union rights take up arms against the coal industry’s gun thugs. Now coal companies have stripped Blair Mountain of it’s historical landmark status and want to strip mine it.

A coalition of environmental, labor, student, community and activist groups have come together to stop the strip mining of Blair Mountain.  Beginning on June 4th, a march will begin that will retrace the steps of the 1921 march.

March on Blair Mountain Logistics

1) Attend the March, Rally AND Day of Action

Participants that plan to attend The March should arrive in Charleston, WV on the afternoon or evening of June 4th to be shuttled to Marmet, WV. Our Orientation Day will begin the following morning in Marmet, WV–it is critical that participants attend this Orientation Day in order for us to have a safe and effective march. Marchers will move out Monday morning and, over the next five days, march 50 miles to the town of Blair, WV, arriving on June 10th. The following morning, on June 11th, The Rally and Day of Action will begin in Blair. Shuttles will be available to take participants back to their vehicles in Charleston once the event is over.

• Register for the March
• March Event Schedule
• Things You Should Know for the March

2) Attend just the Rally and Day of Action

Participants that plan to attend just The Rally and Day of Action should arrive in Logan, WV on the morning of Friday June 10th if they are able. Beginning at 1pm on June 10th, we will be hosting a Training Day in Logan, WV so that participants will be prepared for the events the following day. If you need to arrive on the evening of June 9th, or the morning of June 11th, accommodations will be available. Again, we strongly encourage those that are able to attend the Training Day on the 10th.

• Rally Info

Hope to see you there!

Please support these brave activists by taking action today. Tell Disney CEO Robert Iger that rainforest destruction is no fairy tale.

Indonesia’s rainforests are some of the most biologically diverse in the world and they are being destroyed at a rate of 200,000 to 400,000 acres per month. The pulp and paper industry is a primary cause of this reckless deforestation. Most of top U.S. publishers of children’s books have taken strong steps to protect their supply chains from controversial Indonesian fiber, but Disney, the largest publisher of kids’ books in the world, has refused to take action.

This bold action sends a loud message to Disney’s top executives that it is unacceptable for them to continue to drag their feet when they have known for over a year that paper in Disney’s children’s books has been proven to be connected to rainforest destruction and species extinction in Indonesia. For more on Disney’s involvement go to ran.org/disney.

Rainforest Action Network is asking The Walt Disney Company to eliminate its use of controversial Indonesian fiber and publicly sever all financial ties with APP and APRIL and their affiliates until key reforms are adopted. RAN is also asking Disney to implement a comprehensive company-wide paper policy and rigorous due diligence procedures that ensure it is rainforest safe.

To follow @RANActions and @TheRightPaper on Twitter for up-to-the-minute reports on today’s action.

UPDATE: 9am pst.

A swarm of police officers and fire trucks arrived at the Disney headquarters this morning and arrested Mickey and Minnie Mouse, using bolt cutters to break through the chains attaching them to the entrance gates. Above, a fire truck raised its ladder to cut down the banner and arrest the two climbers attached to the two story arch.

The arrested activists were Christopher Toomey, Jennifer Binstock, Blake Hodges and Alexis Dickason-Soto, all residents of the Los Angeles area. The activists are in the custody of the Burbank Police and charges are pending.

Though the protest lasted just short of an hour, this was time enough for helicopter and satellite news trucks to arrive and record the colorful scene.

Unfortunately, like any classic Disney tale, there is a darker side to this story, one that Disney does not want you to hear. Disney’s paper buying practices are driving some of Earth’s most iconic animals towards extinction, and so far the company is doing nothing about it.

Disney is the largest publisher of children’s books in the world, producing over 50 million books and 30 million magazines a year in the US alone. Last year, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) hired an independent lab to conduct tests on the fiber found in children’s books published by the top ten US publishers. Nine of the ten tested positive for fiber linked to Indonesian rainforest destruction, Disney included. See Turning the Page on Rainforest Destruction: Children’s Books and the future of Indonesia’s rainforests.

RAN approached each of the companies before releasing the incriminating data to allow each a chance to address this serious problem. In the year that followed, RAN worked closely with these companies and eight of the original ten have now established commitments not to source their paper from controversial Indonesian fiber. Seven of the ten have agreed to specifically avoid purchasing from the notoriously destructive logging and paper companies APP (Asia Pulp and Paper) and APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Limited) altogether.

Sadly, Disney has lagged behind its peers and to date has offered only empty words that do nothing to ensure the company is not still purchasing paper driving rainforest destruction.

Indonesia is a real life Magic Kingdom, home to some of the most biologically and culturally diverse forest ecosystems on Earth. With only 1% of the planet’s land area, Indonesia’s rainforests are home to 16% of all bird species, 11% of all plants and 10% of all mammals. This wealth of life includes endangered tigers, orangutans and elephants, the real life characters featured in Disney’s Jungle Book.

Reckless logging, largely driven by demand for cheap paper products and palm oil, has threatened all of this by causing one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation. The carbon emissions from this large scale deforestation has made Indonesia the world’s 3rd largest greenhouse gas polluting country, behind only the US and China.

Indonesia’s forest products industry is internationally renowned for its corruption and high rates of illegal logging, as well as for its devastating impacts on biodiversity, forest communities and the climate. The vast majority of Indonesia’s pulp and paper — approximately 80% — is controlled by two large and controversial suppliers: APP and APRIL. Over the past decade both have become infamous for their widespread, rapacious demolition of Indonesia’s rainforests and communities.

It’s time for Disney to realize that rainforest destruction is no fairy tale. Rainforest Action Network is putting Disney on notice, and we hope you will join us to get the company to align its practices with the values it espouses and embeds in the stories it tells. Bulldozers and chainsaws have no place in the habitat of endangered species or in the production of storybooks for children. It’s time for Disney to stop doing business with nefarious bad actors like APP and APRIL and to adopt a comprehensive policy that can guarantee parents that reading bedtime stories to their kids will not make them unwitting participants in tiger and orangutan extinction.

Because in the end, it was Disney who helped many of us learn for the first time, it’s a small world, after all.

Billionaire real estate investor and legendary tax evader Leona Helmsley famously said: “Only the little people pay taxes.” It turns out Helmsley was all too right.

Last month’s discovery that GE paid zero in taxes in 2010 has exploded across the news. But GE is not alone. Rainforest Action Network reviewed the top four banks, oil and coal companies in the country, and found that all of them are gaming the system. In fact, Bank of America, Citi, Massey Energy and Chevron have also all paid zero in federal income taxes this year or in year’s past.

We reviewed 12 of the dirtiest corporate tax dodgers: Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Chevron, BP, Shell, Exxon, Massey Energy, Alpha Natural Resources, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal. These 12 banks, oil and coal companies are responsible for foreclosing on millions of people’s homes and polluting our air, water and climate. At the same time, we found that they pay next to nothing into a tax system that provides the very services that protect the homeless, the sick and our environment.

As the graphic below shows, banks, oil and coal companies are making billions in profits annually and paying much less than their fair share in taxes. In fact, the top four oil companies in the country made $1.26 trillion in gross revenues and paid a shocking 2.04% average tax rate.

Click here to see graphic at full size

If just the top banks, oil and coal companies actually paid the IRS corporate tax rate of 35%, they would be giving back $62 billion this tax season. That is almost double the current $38 billion proposed federal budget cuts.

To add insult to injury, while these multi-billion dollar industries are raking in the profits and evading their taxes they were also paying millions in CEO compensation and lobby dollars. These corporations are happy to pay large sums to manipulate our democracy but aren’t so interested in paying to support that democracy.

So, let’s get one thing straight: America is not broke, and these dirty corporations don’t need any more handouts, bailouts, or subsidies. We don’t have a money problem, we have a priorities problem. We’re slashing billions from our budget, much of which will come out of social services and environmental protections, while allowing corporate giants to slip ever-increasing profits into offshore accounts.

By reversing years of tax giveaways to the largest corporations, Congress could raise trillions in revenue not only covering our budget deficit but also enhancing education, health and environmental programs that safeguard our families and our future.

Pissed off? You should be. It’s time corporate tax dodgers pay their fair share.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization rally to shut down dirty coal power plants in South Chicago

Research shows that carbon offsets aren’t working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stall global warming. That’s why RAN has founded the Climate Action Fund.

In theory, a carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere. Rather than reduce its own pollution, for example, a business would pay someone somewhere else in the world to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and then take credit for their contribution.

Sounds good, but does it really work?

A recent report estimates that of the $700 million dollars that are invested in carbon offsets around the world, offset buyers

are often buying vague promises instead of the reductions in greenhouse gases they expect. They are buying into projects that are never completed, or paying for ones that would have been done anyhow, the investigation found. Their purchases are feeding middlemen and promoters seeking profits from green schemes that range from selling protection for existing trees to the promise of planting new ones that never thrive. In some cases, the offsets have consequences that their purchasers never foresaw, such as erecting windmills that force poor people off their farms. Carbon offsets are the environmental equivalent of financial derivatives: complex, unregulated, unchecked and – in many cases – not worth their price.

Stanford University researchers found that up to 2/3 of offsets in international markets are not delivering any additional reduction in emissions compared to business as usual, which means that buyers are getting ripped off and the offsets are doing nothing to slow climate change. The attempt to “buy” our way out of climate change has left us with a corrupt system with little accountability where very little is done to reduce emissions.

At RAN, we began the Climate Action Fund (CAF) to take a fundamentally different approach. Starting with our own organization, we calculate the annual carbon emissions associated with our operations, including travel. We then apply an internal price — effectively a tax — on that carbon. These modest revenues are then invested directly in frontline community groups that are organizing against the extraction and combustion of dirty fossil fuels in the first place.

The Climate Action Fund is also open to individuals and businesses that want to participate in CAF-supported efforts to tackle the root causes of climate change. The CAF contributes 100 percent of donations directly to community organizations that are fighting to protect land and people, as well as to keep millions of tons of CO2 in the ground.

Rainforest Action Network is inspired by the work these frontline community groups are doing and honored to be able to support and promote their amazing work. We hope to be able to get more and more progressive organizations and companies involved with the CAF and learn how to green their business, reduce their carbon footprint and make direct contributions to groups on the frontlines of the battle to end our addiction to dirty fossil fuels and reduce dangerous carbon emissions contributing to climate change.

Get started with Climate Action Fund!

Rally in Annapolis, MD to support Wisconsin workers

For one thing, the attack on worker’s rights in Wisconsin matters for environmentalists because it matters for everyone. A war on workers is a war on all of us.

Across the country, many of us are public workers or have family or friends that are. We also depend on public school teachers and every other public worker to maintain the daily business of our cities. A country that can no longer protect, let alone respect, the people who teach our children, repair our roads, maintain our sanitation, and care for our sick threatens the well being of all average people. When governments eagerly go after their own public workers, we have to ask ourselves what else they are willing to compromise.

On another level, if you’re concerned about the environment you should care about what’s happening in Wisconsin because the same people, the same corporate interests that have orchestrated this attack on workers are also lobbying to slash funding for the EPA, working to destroy any notion of climate legislation and securing massive handouts for big polluters.

Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Ag have bought and paid for our democracy, and it is their agenda that our elected representatives are serving. Billionaire polluters like the Koch brothers who funded the crippling of last year’s climate bill and are now going after the EPA, are also funding this attack on our state’s teachers and other public workers. The same big corporations that have a vested interest in minimizing environmental regulations are pushing to cut the power of workers.

Wednesday’s passing of Governor Scott Walker’s shameful bill stripping union workers of their half-century-old right to bargain collectively is not about the state’s budget deficit. As author Naomi Klein told Rachel Maddow this week: “Unions are the final line of defense against privatization of the public sector.”

Instead of using the economic crisis to scapegoat public school teachers who educate our nation’s children on already paltry budgets, why doesn’t Governor Walker and his cronies go after the $4 billion worth of subsidies given to Big Oil?

From our air and water to our teachers and nurses, the corrosive hold of corporate interests on our political system is damaging all of our most precious resources. Undermining the power of unions and the voices of their members is first and foremost about cutting down one of the largest forces standing up against corporate power. Their private sector counterparts have already been all but destroyed by the same corporations and government backers.

What’s happening in Wisconsin is the result of turning our democracy into a dirty poker game. A game where only the very rich and powerful have a hand, the antes are the in the billions and the stakes are our country.

Lastly, what’s happening to workers across the country should matter to environmentalists because our movements need the strength of workers and unions, and their movements need us. For far too long we have been divided into niche issues. It is past time we show up for each other. Not only because it’s right, but also because that demonstration of collective power is the only way to win. Can you imagine the day that all environmentalists, union members and educators, pro-choice activists, immigration and racial justice activists all worked together? That is the day when we win our country back.

Co-authored by Nell Greenberg, Communications Director of Rainforest Action Network.

Besides the surprise win by the Packers, the talk of American towns today is the controversial ads run by Groupon before, during, and after the Super Bowl.

Saying that saving $50 on a Brazilian wax is more important than saving Brazilian rainforests, or that getting a cheap fish curry made by Tibetan refugees in Chicago is more important than their liberation from Chinese occupation, is obviously going to piss people off. But then again, that was the point.

Groupon knew what they were doing when they hired famed mockumentarian Christopher Guest to direct satirical cause-centric ads…they wanted to get people’s attention.

At Rainforest Action Network, direct action teams repel off of bridges and buildings–literally risking their lives–to drop banners that bring attention to deforestation and its lethal effects on communities, climate, and biodiversity. If you look at it from that perspective, a tasteless Super Bowl ad isn’t so risky after all. If the intention is getting folks talking about some of the most critical issues of our times on a day reserved for sports talk and PBR, I think Groupon got the job done.

Where Groupon and their ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky fumbled was in not featuring the SaveTheMoney.org URL that directs viewers to non-profit organizations, like RAN, that are involved in the campaign. According to Groupon, that’s going to be handled in the coming week.

When the online coupon giant approached RAN about being part of its new Save The Money campaign, we were thrilled. Groupon, the social advocacy folks behind The Point, offered to promote donating to RAN in e-blasts to 80 cities across the country and then match those donations (out of their own pocketbook) up to $100,000.

From the creative actions we’re able to execute to the incredibly talented staff we’re able to bring on board, Rainforest Action Network depends on a healthy budget to defend forests around the world from rampant corporate gluttony. Let’s face it, going up against some of the world’s richest multinationals (Chevron, Cargill, Citi) ain’t no small task, so this Groupon deal was one RAN simply couldn’t pass up.

I asked our Executive Director Rebecca Tarbotton what she thought of the controversy. Here’s her take: “We’re in the business of changing the world and that sometimes calls for unusual measures. Groupon stepped out with controversial ads to draw attention to the most pressing issues of our time and risked criticism. That’s a role we’re pretty familiar with at RAN. If at the end of the day more people are inspired to take action, then it’s worth it.”

At RAN, we all winced/gasped/sighed when we saw the Tibet ad. This was no Brazilian wax joke. We felt that Groupon crossed a line, riding edgy humor right over the edge of decency. Allies in the Tibetan independence movement had an interesting take on it though. Stephanie Brigden from Free Tibet was quoted on PRI’s The World as saying, “If it raises the profile of Tibet, that’s positive. People need to understand what’s going on.”

In Time magazine’s criticism of the campaign author James Poniewozik stated: “It’s not that viewers didn’t get that it was a joke. It’s that they saw it was an obnoxious joke.” What begs to be asked here is this: when are obnoxious jokes not a part of Super Bowl ads? The novel aspect of the Groupon ads is that the humor in question actually raises money for environmental and justice organizations, like us.

Whether you consider Groupon’s ads tongue-in-cheek or foot-in-mouth, they certainly have the online world deep in discussion of human rights, endangered species and the world’s forests…not the usual blog fodder the day after Super Bowl.

The next big question is whether the buzz around this controversy will lead to something positive. If you want to make sure that happens, I’ve got a URL that was missing from Liz Hurley’s Brazilian pitch: http://www.groupon.com/deals/rainforest-action-network.

“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

–Howard Beale

What the hell is going on here?

Rogue actors known as corporations have hijacked our democracy. They regularly pollute and poison our communities. They own our elected officials and use police and military forces as their own private armies. They control much of the major media outlets. They’ve even convinced our legal system that they exist as actual “persons.”

If it were on television, it would be a conspiracy worthy of Fox Mulder. But you know what?  This truth isn’t out there. It’s right here in our faces.

But despite all their power and influence, opinion polls STILL tell us that Americans are skeptical about capitalism and big business.

Yet, environmental and climate movements seem to have their heads buried in a compromising rear extremity and are unable to build power, mobilize the masses, or tell a narrative with an anti-corporate (let alone anti-capitalist) theme.

The case made against Corporate America destroying the environment, the climate and our democracy is made every hour of every day.

Just a few examples:

• Outlaw coal mining companies operating in Appalachia have destroyed over 500 mountains with little or no consequence.


Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling unit on fire, April 201

• Oil company BP spilled over 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and have suffered limited consequences.
• In 2004, U.S. coal-fired power plants produced more carbon than was emitted by all sources in all of Africa, South America, and Central America combined.
• 70% of America’s coal plants are operated by 24 corporations and the quasi-private Tennessee Valley Authority.
• In 2010, Big Oil put $19,588,091 into the U.S. political process. Big Coal put in $10,423,347.
• Oil and gas companies spent $121 million to dispatch 745 lobbyists to Congress in 2009 to influence the climate bill.

A year ago, a right wing Supreme Court handed us Citizens United and gave corporations, right wing front groups, and greedy billionaires even more power. Subsequently, Corporate America threw an additional $296 million into the 2010 elections. Now the newly invigorated right wing wants to roll back essential protections like the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency. Yet, the climate movement can’t even decide that corporate power is the root of the problem.

Corporate influence is insidious and has its tentacles in all aspects of Beltway life. A former professor of mine describes the revolving door between government, large non-profits, and the private sector as “The Association State.” And a well-paid association it is, with sophisticated social, business, and political relationships stemming from Upper West Side and Georgetown cocktail parties:

• Politicians often leave government to become industry lobbyists. In 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, 321 former members of Congress and staff made their living as lobbyists for industry.
• Industry leaders often leave business to work in the upper echelons of government. JPMorgan Chase VP Bill Daley recently left the coal and oil investing Wall Street giant to be Obama’s chief of staff. General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt recently joined Obama’s team as a top economic adviser.
• Corporate leaders and billionaires donate to the big environmental groups and sit on their boards. Environmental Defense Fund board member, donor and billionaire hedge fund manager, Stanley Druckenmiller, is a major investor (over $200 million) in arch coal criminal Massey Energy.

With this quagmire of conflicted interests governing the White House, K Street Lobbying Firms, and the boards of large environmental groups, how are we ever going to see real change come out of Washington D.C.?

To say “we need to fight back” is the understatement of understatements. I think last time we needed to be fighting back this hard, John Brown led an armed raid on Harper’s Ferry. Instead of looking for leadership from corporate shills like Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, environmental and climate movements should be kicking the SHIT out of Corporate America with the guerrilla fervor of a Che Guevara or a Geronimo (figuratively speaking, of course.)

Over ten years ago, a powerful anti-capitalist movement captured the imagination of the world’s social movements by shutting down the World Trade Organization in Seattle and putting forth a critique of the corporate-dominated political economy and the elites that control it. And the spirit of Seattle still persists.

Groups like National People’s Action, various unions, and a slew of post-ACORN networks have it figured out. Economic justice groups continue to target corporate criminals on Wall Street and in the foreclosure business. Last year, they put thousands on the street protesting big banks. Furthermore, these groups have organized foreclosed-upon grandmothers into occupying bank branches and led communities to stop evictions. Howard Zinn would be proud.

Grassroots non-Beltway environmental groups, like those in the anti-mountaintop removal movement, have also incorporated anti-corporate frames into their narratives. Likewise, more radical direct action-oriented groups like Rising Tide, Earth First! Mountain Justice, Peaceful Uprising, Mobilization for Climate Justice-West and dozens of frontline and community groups openly resist corporate capitalism.  But these groups lack the resources and capacity of the multi-billion dollar environmental industrial complex.

In contrast, the dominant strategic frame from large environmental and climate non-profit organizations is Beltway-centric and narrowly focuses on legislation and enhancing regulatory power. The rest of the country is diversifying economic and political power throughout the country while the environmental NGO complex stays in Washington D.C. without a rudder or a clue.

And one last thing to put this in context: the friggin’ Tea Party even has it figured out! (And I don’t put them in the “rocket scientist” category.) While their main organizing strategy revolves around tapping into working and middle class resentment against big government and liberal elites, one of their main gripes is Obama’s bailing out of the auto and banking industries. As far as they are concerned there is a corrupt connection between big government and big business. In their eyes, corporations are a big part of the problem.

One of the Tea Party’s heroes is Network’s Howard Beale, a leftist anti-corporate figure if there ever was one, who cried out “I’m mad as hell and I’m NOT going to take this anymore!” An anti-establishment environmental and climate movement should reclaim Beale as a symbol of our outrage with the existing corporate status quo. Challenging the root causes of climate change should be the role of our movement, and that root cause is corporate power.

Leave it to the folks at Rainforest Action Network to make anything fun. As an intern with RAN, my job is basically to do whatever task I’m presented, so when Hillary Lehr asked the interns, Lindsay, Lola, and I, to do our own Roar at the Store at the local Barnes & Noble, I thought, “Yeah, I can hand out a few pocket guides and help spread the word.”  When she mentioned someone wearing our full Tiki the Tiger costume, however, I became way more excited about the idea of our own roar and volunteered right away.

Really, who wouldn’t want to spend two hours dancing in a tiger suit, especially for such a good cause! I got some funny looks on the bus as we made our way to the store, but as soon as we took our positions outside and began handing out the awesome Rainforest Safe pocket guides, we got a much better reception and the fun began!  Although we hadn’t brought an awesome boombox or radio, I was blessed with the ability to entertain myself easily and was able to dance to the beat in my head.  Thanks to my super sweet moves, the pocket guides were going like hot cakes!

People would slow down or stop by to read my sign or take a picture with me, and it gave Lindsey and Lola a chance to explain what we were about and how children’s books can play a part in destroying the rainforest.

What I learned from my day as Tiki the Tiger is that participating in actions can be fun! I was nervous about going out on the street and “bothering” people, but when you’re having fun with it, others have fun with it, too! That great day turned out to be one of my favorite days with RAN.

In a conference call last week reported today by Politico, API previewed a national advertising campaign supporting the TransCanada KeystoneXL oil pipeline set to launch in January. Critics including Senator Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) are concerned that the pipeline risks contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world’s largest and a critical source of drinking water for Midwestern states.

According to reports from the call, API will focus its message on energy security. “Every barrel we import from Canada will replace oil from less secure sources” said API’s Cindy Schild, according to the Oil and Gas Journal.

A report commissioned by TransCanada themselves, however, shows those claims to be false. According to the report from Purvin & Gertz, the supply from the KeystoneXL pipeline would primarily displace domestic oil flowing into Midwestern refineries (see chart below).

Oil imports from KeystoneXL would displace domestic oil in the Midwest, not foreign oil.

Meanwhile, new demand from Gulf Coast refiners enabled by the new pipeline would constrain supplies available to Midwestern refiners, pushing oil prices up for Midwestern consumers. According to the report, after KeystoneXL

Midwest demand for Canadian heavy crude would exceed the available supply and the market price of Cold Lake Blend would be approximately $6.55 per barrel above the 2008 price level at Patoka. (p.27).

The report also describes the real economic basis behind support for the pipeline: big profits for the oil companies.

In summary, if the Keystone XL Pipeline causes the USGC price discount to be eliminated, the annual revenue increase to the Canadian producing industry is estimated at $2.0 billion (U.S.). In addition, if the Keystone XL Pipeline causes the Midwest price to rise above USGC parity, the annual revenue could increase by another $1.9 billion to reach approximately $3.9 billion (U.S.). (p.29)

Would you give these little guys up for a bar of soap?

Most of us practice personal hygiene at least every couple of days, and because many contain synthetic chemicals, a portion of those end up in our bodies and in our earth.  For the last few months, I’ve been trying to green-up my beauty routine.  If I wouldn’t put something in my body, why would I want to put it on my body?  Standing in the body care aisle at the local Whole Foods, however, I ran into a problem.

Palm Oil.  It is literally in every single soap on the shelf, and because it doesn’t always have to be labeled as such, even “vegetable oil” makes me nervous. Palm Oil is the number one cause of deforestation in Indonesia, where giant swathes of forest are cleared for plantations.  Endangered species like the Orangutan and the Sumatran Tiger (of which there are less than 500 in the wild) are losing their habitats at a terrifying rate, and if it isn’t stopped, the only place we’ll be able to find them will be zoos.  Until palm oil production is sustainable and destruction-free, I’ll be purchasing products without it.

After scouring the Bay Area for palm oil free soap, my search finally paid off. While wandering aimlessly at GreenFest in San Francisco, I came across Diggin’ Livin’ Farm and Apiary‘s booth and was drawn in by the promise of palm oil free soap.  Jackpot! I bought a bar of the Bioregional Mint” for $6, as much as I’d been paying anywhere else.

After using the product and doing some research on Diggin’ Livin’ Farms, I’m excited to say that I have found my rainforest-safe soap! The soap smells great and keeps skin soft, which is really all I was looking for.  The makers, the McEwen family, are dedicated to getting the word out about palm oil and rainforest destruction, even going so far as to sponsor an “adopted” orangutan, Kesi.  Kesi, who lost her mother and her left hand on a palm oil plantation, lives at the BOS Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Rescue Center and is funded partially by the purchase of Diggin’ Livin’ products.

What better time to make greener shopping choices than the Holiday season?  These destruction-free soaps can be purchased online and will make a great eco-and-orangutan-friendly stocking-stuffer.  I know a few lucky people who will be getting soap from me!

Have you voted for your favorite spoof Chevron ad yet?

November 3rd was a bittersweet day. The day after the midterm elections, we found out that Prop 23 — the so-called “Dirty Energy Proposition” that was funded by Texas oil companies Valero and Tesoro along with the billionaire oilmen Koch brothers — had gone down in flames, which was most certainly good news. But Prop 26, Chevron’s stealth attack against California’s environmental regulations, had snuck through.

There’s room for debate about what Prop 26 will mean for California’s global warming law, AB32. There was some fear before the election that it could be even more damaging than Prop 23, which would have suspended implementation of the state’s landmark climate bill indefinitely. On the other hand, Mary Nichols of the California Air Resources Board has since said that all plans and regulations under AB32 are “on track” despite passage of Prop 26.

But one thing is indisputable: Prop 26 will make it harder to hold California’s biggest polluters accountable in the future — and that’s exactly what Chevron was counting on when donating $4 million to help pass it. The company’s California refineries in Richmond and El Segundo are two of the top ten biggest emitters of industrial carbon pollution in the state.

Currently, these types of dirty, polluting operations are charged fees by the government in order to pay for the social and environmental damage they cause. Prop 26 reclassified all those fees as taxes, however, so they now require a two-thirds vote in the state Senate in order to be passed. And as we all know, there is no getting certain legislators to vote for anything called a “tax” no matter how necessary it may be to ensure clean air, drinkable water, and healthy communities.

This is exactly the reason why Chevron tried to keep its support for Prop 26 quiet — the company knew damn well that Californians would reject its attempt to evade paying its fair share for its pollution. Because not only does Prop 26 make it harder for the state to hold Chevron accountable for its pollution, it also ensures that the taxpayers of California are now going to have to foot the bill Chevron refuses to pay.

For the record, this is a company that made $167 billion in profits last year. Of course, the company also pollutes. A LOT. Its Richmond and El Segundo refineries emitted nearly 4.8 and 3.6 million tons of greenhouse gas pollution in 2008, respectively, making them the 6th and 9th biggest industrial sources of emissions in the state.

The Richmond refinery emits the equivalent of the carbon emitted annually by 926,725 cars, the El Segundo refinery the equivalent of 696,863.0324 cars (based on this conversion rate). And the fine people of California will now be paying for the impacts those emissions have on the environment, because Chevron refuses to clean up after itself in California, just as it refuses to clean up its mess in Ecuador.

But there is still reason to find some comfort in the election results. Defeating Prop 23 wasn’t the only victory on November 2nd: Richmond’s Green Party mayor, Gayle McGlaughlin, was returned to office despite a million-dollar smear campaign run against her by — you guessed it! — Chevron. Given the amount of pollution Chevron’s Richmond refinery is responsible for, it’s probably no wonder that McGlaughlin, the Richmond Progressive Alliance, and other allies were able to beat back the Big Oil behemoth.

The election results were most definitely a mixed bag. But we can all take heart from the successful mobilizations against Big Oil’s attempts to railroad California’s energy and environmental policies. The local mobilization against Chevron in Richmond and the statewide mobilization against Prop 23 show that the people still have the power when they choose to exercise it.

Chevron’s $4 million support for Prop 26 really puts the lie to their bogus new greenwash campaign. The company thinks we’re stupid enough to believe it’s a responsible corporate citizen even while it refuses to take responsibility for its pollution in Richmond and Ecuador and is actively seeking to forestall any attempts to make the company pay for the environmental damage it has done.

Luckily we have just the place for you to vent your frustration with Chevron’s greenwash.

1 Change Your Facebook Status

Thousands are marching to the White House today to save the Appalachian Mountains from being blown to bits by mountaintop removal (MTR) mining. What can we do? Tell the White House to ABOLISH MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL at http://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse

2 Change Your Profile Pics

Right click on this photo, save to your desktop, and upload as your profile pic to your social networks.

3 Tweet the White House

@WhiteHouse The Appalachian Mountains are running out of time. ABOLISH MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL NOW. #apprising #mtr #coal [Please RT!]

Here’s why…

Mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining blows up the tops of mountains to make it cheaper for mining companies to access coal below the Earth’s surface.

MTR machines have replaced a majority of the miners required to extract coal, further impoverishing some of the poorest areas of the country.

In Appalachia, over 500 mountains and 2000 miles of rivers and streams have been destroyed by MTR. Want to know what’s even more shocking- it’s still legal!

Today thousands of Appalachian residents, allied organizations and citizens from across the country are marching in Washington to demand that the Obama administration abolish mountaintop removal coal mining.

The Jakarta Globe reported that a teenage boy was mauled by Sumatran tiger in the Senepis area of Indonesia, an area where Asia Pulp and Paper ( a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Group) along with other Sinar Mas-associated companies have expanded their natural forest clearance operations.

Later that day, Asia Pulp and Paper ran an ad in the New York Times stating that it took its responsibility as stewards of the environment seriously. The ad proclaims, “We support programs that preserve 261,930 acres in the Senepis Tiger Sanctuary…”

Dubbed under the tagline “APP Cares,” the ad’s heading reads,  “To see our commitment to biodiversity, just follow our tracks.” Given the timing, the allusion to tiger tracks now just seems a perverse irony.

NY Times Ad: Another Greenwash Attempt by APP

Looking at the New York Times ad, I wonder what does APP’s “caring” really mean? If a boy was eaten by a tiger that lost its habitat in the area that APP operates but publicly claims to be preserving, their care or “support” seems, at the very least, a little suspect.

The Jakarta Globe explains that Sumatran tigers’ habitat is threatened by rampant deforestation, which causes many tigers to roam into villages or onto plantations in search of food, setting off conflicts with humans.

What the Jakarta Globe doesn’t say is that much of this deforestation is for pulp and paper and palm oil – two industries dominated by Sinar Mas and Asia Pulp and Paper.

While I would truly love to believe that APP does care about tigers, people and the planet, they are going to have to do more than run greenwashing ads in the New York Times to convince me.

**For more information: See the Eyes on the Forest report documenting APP’s  logging activities that directly threatened tiger habitat in the Senepis area.

This morning activists in Philadelphia descended upon their Regional EPA branch to put an end to Mountaintop Removal mining (MTR). Decisions made here in Philly have devastating consequences for Appalachian communities and our country as a whole.

Activists prepared to enter the building and risk arrest by sitting-in until they were granted a meeting with officials inside, and after a successful engagement and demands met, the rally of 40 people exited.

In recent months, the EPA has wavered in their position on mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR); in particular with the recent approval of the high profile Hobet 45 Mine permit. Philadelphia’s EPA has oversight of MTR permits for Virginia and West Virginia, which includes the Hobet 45 Mine. Philadelphia’s Region 3 EPA is considering 16 upcoming MTR permits and is responsible for the enforcement of the Clean Water Protection Act at existing MTR sites, which makes it a critical agent in ending the mining practice.

This has become a national issue. Appalachians can’t wait any longer, and Philadelphia activists met this urgency with action.

Meanwhile, there is a simultaneous rally at EPA’s region 4 in Atlanta GA, also responsible for MTR permitting.

Every day, across Appalachia, the coal industry literally blows the tops off of historic mountains, impoverishing communities, poisoning drinking water, clear-cutting entire forests, wiping out the natural habitats of countless animals, and sacrificing the heritage and the health of families across the region. The EPA estimates that more than a million acres of American mountains across Appalachia have already been lost to MTR, and yet they allow it to continue.

More than 2000 miles of rivers and streams have been buried and contaminated by ‘fill’ waste from Mountaintop removal mines. In streams rainwater seeps over rocks that had previously been far underground, which release toxic metals that kill life in streams and cause health problems for people who drink the water. The EPA can intervene and must intervene – not in a month, not in a week, but now.

Most Americans oppose mountaintop removal coal mining. its time to ban this devastating coal mining practice, and to transition to energy that is clean, safe and forever – and to generate good clean jobs for Appalachia.

As the movement to stop coal continues to grow in the U.S. we are on the verge of ending MTR. Please help.

Kyle decided to do something to help the folks in Chile fight a coal plant proposed for their local area.

Changing where you bank might be the most simple and effective way to support your community and stop destructive projects all at the same time! Surfer, Kyle Thiermann shows you how your money gets used to create the world you live in by taking you on a trip to Chile.

Check out episode 6 of the 10 day adventure of RAN and Substance educating and mobilizing people to stop the Tar Sands, with rock bands Propagandhi and Strike Anywhere

Check out episode 5 of the 10 day adventure of RAN and Substance educating and mobilizing people to stop the Tar Sands, with rock bands Propagandhi and Strike Anywhere