Why are people occupying Wall Street? And can this protest lead to real change in how banks treat people?

Over the last two weeks I’ve watched momentum build in lower Manhattan as growing numbers of people are physically drawn together to express their deep frustration with the financial system.

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrators camped out at Zuccotti Park (renamed Liberty Plaza) and marching across Brooklyn Bridge are a diverse set, with many different priorities. But there are some clear, underlying concerns that are bringing everyone together to protest the influence of Wall Street over our nation’s policies. For me, these are some of the very same principles that underline RAN’s campaigns to stop the banking sector from underwriting the destruction of our planet and the poisoning of our communities. For example:

Fraud. Whether it’s Ponzi schemes, rogue traders or sub-prime lending, we’re fed up with banks committing fraud in pursuit of profits. Time after time we’re exposed to a systemic disregard for the law in this sector. It therefore no longer shocks me when banks happily lend billions of dollars to industries like the coal mining industry, which repeatedly flouts safety and environmental laws to maximize profits.

Income gap. Exorbitant CEO bonuses, salaries and golden parachutes are a place to direct frustration about he fact that the U.S. has the widest (and still widening) inequality gap of any industrialized nation. The top .01 percent makes an average of $27 million per household, as the average income of the bottom 90 percent makes an average of $31,244. (There’s a useful explanation of how this happens here.)

Personal impact. Those profits and salaries for the .01 percent come at the expense of foreclosed homes, lost jobs, and skyrocketing student debts coupled with diminishing prospects of employment. Add to that list: the personal and community impacts of oil spills, polluting coal plants, and mining disasters. Again, these impacts are hitting hardest on those who have the least.

So where does RAN’s bank campaign fit into protests like OWS? Matt Taibbi, writing in Rolling Stone, says it well:

“The end game of any movement against Wall Street corruption is going to involve some very elaborate organization. There are going to have to be consumer and investor boycotts, shareholder revolts, criminal prosecutions, new laws passed, and other moves.”

Right now Occupy Wall Street is making people aware of the battle lines. RAN supports the occupiers and is committed to the longterm organizing that Taibbi speaks of. Ready to get organized and take action on Wall Street banks? Stand with us and get active in our campaigns and those of our allies to revoke the charters of the worst corporations, to pressure the biggest banks to stop propping up the most polluting industries, and to demand a new bottom line.

The cable, obtained by WikiLeaks, describes the State Department’s then-energy envoy, David Goldwyn, as having “alleviated” Canadian officials’ concerns about getting their crude into the U.S. It also said he had instructed them in improving “oil sands messaging,” including “increasing visibility and accessibility of more positive news stories.”

Goldwyn now works on Canadian oil sands issues at Sutherland, a Washington lobbying firm, and recently testified before Congress in favor of building the 36-inch underground pipeline, Keystone XL.

This is regulatory capture taken to the next level, and yet another sign that industry claims about pipeline safety must be examined with a skeptical eye. And even when regulators are doing their duty, pipeline operators too often find a way to delay action to guarantee safety. For example, take the recent Yellowstone spill, where ExxonMobil was warned 2 years before about debris that was piling up under the pipeline. Their response was to do nothing but write a letter back to regulators months later saying that it was still “evaluating control measures.” To date, 42,000 gallons have spilled into the pristine Yellowstone River.

Hearst newspapers recently revealed a scandal that showed two-thirds of the 174 safety studies initiated by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on pipelines received “significant funding” from pipeline operators or industry-controlled organizations. President Bush encouraged the practice by stipulating that at least half the funding for federal pipeline safety research to come from outside sources.

So we have corporations paying for their own government-approved investigations and secret wires going between diplomats that hint that the wheels are already greased to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, a project under heavy scrutiny from the public and the EPA.

All of this adds up to further justify direct action. Beginning on August 20th, concerned citizens from across the country will gather at the White House for two weeks of protests of the Keystone pipeline. The corruption at the highest levels of government and industry show that the time for citizen-led action is now.

But of course Daniel might be lying, right?

I do not know the academic background of American Petroleum Institute’s Marty Durbin, but it’s very possible, given his recent comments, that he didn’t take freshman logic. Or maybe he did and he’s learned to apply his lessons in very clever ways. You be the judge.

My suspicion over Mr. Durbin’s schooling comes from his comments regarding the expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, which recently began carrying tar sands oil from Alberta to Oklahoma.

In response to regulatory action taken after two recent spills, Mr. Dubin said that the accidents actually prove the pipeline is safe and should be expanded. Comments on the expansion were due to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday.

Said Mr. Dubin in The Hill:

What we’ve seen over the last several weeks here is it’s almost proven that we have an effective regulatory process in place… In some ways it actually supports the approval of the XL pipeline. They were able to detect the problems very quickly and take actions to stop the flow through the pipeline.

Of course if no oil were to spill that would also prove that the pipeline was safe. It’s nice to be able to have it both ways, but it’s not accurate.

Here is what is accurate: If the plan is accepted and the pipeline is expanded, stopping climate chaos will become even more difficult, maybe impossible. Just ask NASA’s James Hansen, who wrote this to his scientific colleagues yesterday:

Easily available reserves of conventional oil and gas are enough to take atmospheric CO2 well above 400 ppm. However, if emissions from coal are phased out over the next few decades and if unconventional fossil fuels are left in the ground, it is conceivable to stabilize climate.

Phase out of emissions from coal is itself an enormous challenge. However, if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over. There is no practical way to capture the CO2 emitted while burning oil, which is used principally in vehicles.

Tar sands oil is the worst type of oil for the climate, producing three times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventionally produced oil because of the energy required to extract and process tar sands oil. No amount of rhetorical trickery will erase that fact. Expansion of the tar sands must be stopped.

In January, the Environmental Protection Agency revoked Arch’s mining permit at Spruce — the largest proposed mountaintop removal (MTR) site in West Virginia — due to the damage already caused to the region’s watershed. This is just one more sign that regulatory enforcement is tightening around surface mining in Appalachia.

The St Louis-based coal-mining giant had been rumored to be interested in buying MTR bad boys Massey Energy, but Arch didn’t play hardball, and two weeks ago Massey sold to Alpha Natural Resources instead.

Meanwhile, 150 proposed coal-fired power plants have now been canceled, the most recent just last week in Indiana (congratulations to Purdue University for taking a smart and popular decision). These cancellations, combined with the retirement of aging coal plants, means that demand for coal in the US is falling.

Arch’s response seems to be: Invest in the West. The mines in Powder River Basin (PRB) are the largest in the nation and speculators are eying up the Pacific coast for potential opportunities to develop ports from PRB coal could be exported across the ocean to China, India and Korea.

So much for “Keeping America’s Lights On”.

The first coal port proposal on the table is at Longview, sited on the Columbia River where Washington and Oregon states meet. This site has obtained shore permits from the state of Washington, but is already facing legal challenges. Arch recently bought a significant share in Ambre Energy, the Australian company developing this port project.

Even if this port does get built, the next challenge for Ambre/Arch will be how to get significant quantities of PRB coal out to the west coast. The rail network that connects Wyoming to Washington is already close to its carrying capacity and it is hard to imagine communities throughout  Montana, Idaho and Washington consenting to 50+ trains per day spewing coal dust through their neighborhoods.

The Pacific Northwest has some of the most savvy environmental advocates and attorneys and a reputation for strong environmental ideals, not to mention a noble tradition of non-violent direct action resistance to environmental threats. Companies like Boise can attest to this.

I suspect Arch may have bitten off more than it can chew.

Instead of gambling on Asian exports, Arch coal would be wise to consider that earlier attempts to develop west coast coal ports in Oregon and California resulted in big $$ losses.

The smart option is not in coal, it lies in transitioning to clean energy sources, like solar and wind energy. These are energy sources that the west is happy to embrace.

*UPDATE* The New York Times  broke a story today about the true extent of Ambre’s ambitions for the coal export terminal at Longview. As we suspected, this proposal is just the tip of the iceberg for coal exports from the west coast.

Thousands Call for Abolition of Mountaintop Removal in Action at White House; Over 115 arrested in non-violent civil disobedience

It was crazy times in our nation’s capitol this last week. Appalachia Rising, a mass mobilization calling for the abolition of mountaintop removal coal mining, converged thousands of coalfield residents and supporters in Washington D.C. for a conference called “Voices of the Mountains” and a mass march and action.

It was a pretty inspirational and emotional time.. One of the national leaders of the MTR Abolition movement, Judy Bonds, is ill with cancer and couldn’t travel to be here. The weekend conference and Monday action constantly reminded me and many others of her.

On September 27, we took action with the fierce spirit of Judy Bonds. Appalachia Rising organizers had called for autonomous actions in the morning targeting the agencies which regulate –but doesn’t eliminate– mountaintop removal. Later in the morning was the rally, main march and action that banged on the doors of the White House calling on President Obama to quit apoligizing for the coal industry and abolish allowing mountaintop removal once and for all.

That morning, we started the day off with Rising Tide North America occupying the lobby of the Army Corp of Engineers offices. The security guards rushed the nine person blockade and dragged them out of the building. After they got kicked out, they joined a support rally of 30+ folks which included two Kentucky coalfield residents for a rowdy protest in front of the Army Corp’s office.

Around the same time, another affinity group occupied the Dept. of the Interior’s lobby and the security guards tossed them out after a two hour occupation.

Later in the morning we had 2,000 people rally and march from Freedom Plaza to the EPA headquarters to the White House. The rally featured speakers from all over Appalachia and the climate movement.

Along the way, Rainforest Action Network, Earthquaker Action Team, Rev. Billy and the Life After Shopping Choir and a number of Swarthmore students occupied the flagship PNC Bank (the largest funder of MTR coal mining in the US) with 35 people and piles of Appalachian dirt. The PNC action resulted in 4 arrests.

At the White House, we had a great action. the march went into Lafayette Park and we had 3 arrest contingents with the first being made up of Appalachian Coalfield residents. It resulted in 116 arrests. The arrest contingent included coalfield residents from Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia, NASA Climatologist James Hansen, many radical activists from the Rising Tide, Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice networks, many students and youth from inside and outside of Appalachia and myself. After a brief time in custody, we were cited and released.

At the end of it, I felt like I’ve been on my feet for a week, but am so glad to be part of this mountain justice movement. I’ve been coming to Mountain Jusitce since 2006 and to see so many folks march and risk arrest at the White House leaves me feeling like I’m really part of a movement for social change.

Some media hits:

CNN: Protesters arrested outside the White House

Washington Post front page: About 100 arrested in mountaintop mining protest

Huffington Post: Mass Arrests in DC: We Shall No Longer Be Crucified Upon the Cross of Coal (Jeff Biggers)

The Hill: More than 100 arrested at coal mining protest in front of the White House

DC Indymedia: Thousands march, about 100 arrested protesting mountaintop removal mining

Friends of the Earth (U.S.): Photo Coverage

It’s Getting Hot in Here: 1,000 Calls for Appalachia- Dept. of the Interior Action report

The original post is here

“Pop-pop?”

I tunnelled up from sleep, realizing that my six-year-old great grandson was at the foot of my bed, all dressed for his school day and wanting to touch base with me before he left. ”Hi, Yasin,” I said groggily.  ”Come into bed if you want.” He jumped in and crawled into my arms while I woke myself up a bit more.  ”Good morning,” I said as I gave him a squeeze.

“Why did you go to jail yesterday?” he asked, alert with curiosity. I could feel his worry about me ebbing as he felt the familiar strength of my arms around him. ”I didn’t think President Obama knew how strongly your Pop-pop and lots of other people felt about his letting coal companies blow up mountains,” I said.  ”We thought if we let ourselves be arrested it would get his attention.”

“Yasin, time to go to school.”  It was Yasin’s mom Crystal at the door of my bedroom.  She came further in to take a look at me; she too worried sometimes about her seventy-two year old grandfather. ”Have a good day at school,” I said as he wriggled out of bed.

I was one of more than a hundred people from many walks of life, from famed NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen to the son of many generations of coal miners, from West Virginia’s Larry Gibson who has spoken to the United Nations about the pillage of his mountains to a multiply-pierced young anarchist woman from Chicago.  We were there with thousands of of supporters on September 27 to participate in Appalachia Rising, the first mass nonviolent direct action in Washington, D.C. to oppose mountain top removal.

I dislike arrest and jail, personally.  Been there, done that, as long ago as the civil rights movement in the ‘sixties.  I dislike the loss of freedom, being put under the custody of someone with a gun. Most of what I dislike are the reminders of that seizure of my body and my destiny:  the tight pressure of cold metal handcuffs on my skin, the awkward angles my body  takes getting into police vehicles (I’m not as limber as I once was), the temperature in the cells (always, it seems, too hot or too cold), the uncertainty about whether I’ll be able to stay with my comrades or be isolated, the awful clang of metal against metal when the cell doors close.  I’m lucky in that I’m rarely beaten and in those situations I have some protection from my white skin and my peaceful disposition.

But this mountain top removal thing has to stop.  And I have yet to meet the political scientist who can argue convincingly that Big Coal and the financiers behind it can be stopped without the countervailing pressure of people power through nonviolent direct action.

I know plenty of people who believe that the President “ought to” stop mountain top removal (and the wars and poverty and the looting of our treasury by giant corporations) but their “Obama ought to” complaints imply, as complaints do, the powerlessness of the speaker.

The powerful way to handle an ally in the White House is to act in such a way as to “force him” to do what he wants to do already.  The powerful way for a citizen to act in our country is to acknowledge the reality of its corrupted politics, as black students and Dr. King did years ago, and participate in campaigns that force change. That’s part of the legacy of power that moves Earth Quaker Action Team, the group I’m part of.  Why hold back from taking nonviolent direct action?

I’m remembering the aboriginal woman who asked me a burning question during our break during a labor union training in Canada.  Taking the stance of a warrior, fixing me with her brown eyes, she asked: “Why, George, have your people abandoned your president?”

I had no answer in the moment.  It was a year ago, and indeed so many people had walked away after casting their vote, leaving Obama the job of cleaning up the mess.  In reflecting on her question I realize that some people really do maintain the image of U.S. politics given by seventh grade civics textbooks, and keep their innocence despite everything they’ve experienced since.  Others just want someone “on top” to blame: it used to be mom or dad or the teacher, and now it’s the president.  Others cherish their comfort zone and continue to talk and sign petitions and lobby and talk some more, keeping themselves almost-convinced that spending their hours in meetings away from their families is the sacrifice that will bring social change.  If only they let themselves consider a different paradigm.

Luckily, I was around when Dr. King reminded us that ‘the truth shall make us free.”  The truth about how politics works in the U.S.  The truth about climate change and the radical change it requires of us — of all of us.  And the promise of freedom to re-join our planet, to have a decent future for our six-year olds.

Yesterday’s action for me had a curious blend of power and sweetness. We walked into PNC’s ornate and historic bank near the White House. Reverend Billy set down on the middle of the marble floor a tarp and the rest of us poured dirt on it, creating a kind of mountain complete with twigs and leaves and a little red sign saying “Stop.” Eleven of us made an arc around the dirt mound, sitting as we did so, while behind us the Gospel choir of the Church of Life After Shopping began to sing.  A banner was held aloft: “PNC Bank: The Mountaintop Removal Bank.”

Supporters dialogued with the bank manager while photographers did their thing.  Police checked us out and went away to deal with more pressing matters.  Those of us sitting in — from Earth Quaker Action Team, Swarthmore College students, Rainforest Action Network — held a meditative silence while the choir sang and Reverend Billy preached and the bank locked its doors.

When it was clear that the authorities would “wait us out,” we alternated the singing with reflections, spontaneously as in Quaker Meeting, and personal stories of meaningful times with Nature.  The closeness grew; communion happened.

The police returned and four of us were handcuffed and walked out of the bank to the waiting police cars and the cheers of our comrades.

This time the jail cells were cold.  Our hearts, however, were warm.

Photo by Rachel Sarah Blanton

Concerned citizens rallied in downtown Lexington today to express their anger at PNC Bank for financing mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. PNC is now the biggest US financier of MTR. Local activists were joined by members of the group Mountain Justice and residents from mountaintop communities, who spoke out about the direct impact that this destructive form of mining has on their community, health and environment.

“Several banks have realized that they shouldn’t be involved with companies that are causing the total annihilation of a culture by their use of MTR. It’s unfortunate that PNC, like Massey, is putting profits over people and over God’s creation,” said Mickey McCoy, a Martin County resident whose community was affected by a coal sludge spill in 2000.

Photo by Rachel Sarah Blanton

Also present at the protest were a colorful street-theater troupe of ‘clowns,’ who acted out a performance of a coal company blasting the top off a mountain, then extracting a bag of money and passing it between U.S. Banks like a hot potato, to symbolize PNC Bank doing business with companies that other banks have moved away from.

The protesters paid a visit to the PNC branch at Main and Deweese streets and released a banner inside attached to some helium balloons, which said “PNC + Your Money = Toxic Tap Water.” Activists also passed out literature about the issue to bank customers and employees and delivered a letter to the bank branch manager asking that PNC end their financing of mountaintop removal.

Check out a video of the clowns at PNC

“PNC Bank was a recipient of bailout funds, so their investments in MTR represent my tax dollars. I am vehemently opposed to the destruction of the mountains, forests and communities of Appalachia, and I’m concerned by the impacts of strip mining on water quality in central Kentucky,” said Martin Mudd, a Lexington resident and activist with Kentucky Mountain Justice.

Since January 2008, PNC has become the number one U.S. financier of mountaintop removal coal mining. The bank has provided more than $500 million in loans and bonds to six companies practicing mountaintop removal: Massey Energy, Patriot Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, International Coal Group, Arch Coal and Consol Energy (Source: Bloomberg). These six companies are collectively responsible for almost half of all mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.

Photo by Rachel Sarah Blanton

“The idea of corporate responsibility has come up repeatedly in recent weeks following the coal mine and oil disasters. That responsibility extends beyond profits to the health and wellbeing of our communities. Some banks, such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo have made commitments to reduce and even end their funding of the dirtiest coal mining practices. By continuing to finance mountaintop removal coal mining PNC is throwing that responsibility aside,” said Amanda Starbuck of Rainforest Action Network, who is campaigning for banks to end their investments in the sector and shift their support to clean, renewable energy and green job creation.

PNC recently ranked bottom in a score-card report on MTR financing by Rainforest Action network and the Sierra Club. The bank earned an “F” for its total failure to take environmental risks into account in its lending practices.

A copy of the report card and supporting data can be found here: www.ran.org/reportcard

Photo by Rachel Sarah Blanton

Mountaintop removal mining is a devastating form of mining where companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then dump the waste rock into valleys below. This destructive practice has buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining destroys Appalachian communities, the health of coalfield residents and any hope for positive economic growth.

It was a packed event. After a year of financial turmoil, from which Chase has emerged as the biggest US bank, people lined up to alternately express their confidence in CEO Jamie Dimon, or to slam the bank for profiteering while so many have lost their homes to foreclosure.

Outside on the streets there were colorful protests from South Brooklyn anti-poverty activists, from the SEIU calling for Chase bank security workers to earn a living wage (the current rate is $11 an hour) and from Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping, singing rousing hymns about Chase protecting Appalachia by stopping their financing of mountaintop removal (MTR).

I was inside the meeting with a growing coalition who are working together on finance campaign work, including: Responsible Endowment Coalition, Waterkeeper Alliance and Loyola University. We took our turn to raise the issue of MTR, to thank Chase for their recent statement on the topic and to ask them to take it further and stop financing MTR companies altogether.

I asked  Jamie Dimon if he was familiar with the records of Arch Coal, TECO and CONSOL Energy, three companies still funded by Chase.  He replied that he did not know these and that he will be happy to hear more about the specific deals we referred to.

Jamie, a letter is on its way…

We reviewed the financing practices of Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, GE Capital, PNC and UBS. Since January 2008, we found that these nine banks have provided more than $3.9 billion in loans and bonds to companies practicing mountaintop removal coal mining, including bad boy coal companies Massey Energy and Arch Coal.

To cut through the finance jargon, what this report says is that PNC, JPMorgan Chase and UBS are the ATMS of the MTR coal industry. They are financing a devastating form of mining where companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then dump the toxic waste into the valleys below.

As Amanda Starbuck from RAN said in a press release this morning:

“PNC, JPMorgan Chase and UBS received failing grades today as the lead financiers of mountaintop removal, the devastating practice of blowing up our mountains for an insignificant amount of dirty coal. When it comes to protecting America’s mountains and clean drinking water, we don’t grade on a curve. When banks stop funding mountaintop removal they will move to the head of the class.”

Banks can still profit as banks without funding destruction like mountaintop removal. In the report card Credit Suisse stood out as an example, earning an “A-” for their efforts to promote responsible mining practices. Credit Suisse has confirmed that they do not finance the extraction of coal in a mountain top removal setting.

Mountaintop removal coal mining has buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining destroys Appalachian communities, the health of coalfield residents and any hope for positive economic growth.

It is time for banks to stop funding this dangerous, destructive practice and to start funding our clean energy future!

We just got this video from their event, check it out!

Great job Chicago!

-Annie

At 3:00 PM eight of us headed to the branch office at 55 West Santa Clara Street, San Jose, CA‎ (near Downtown San Jose). Three of us went into the bank and talked to the tellers, handed them the bi-fold handouts and asked that they contact CEO Jamie Diamon and demand that Chase stop funding MTR. I requested to see the branch manager the other two were talking to tellers, and did the same. Responses were unsurprisingly very neutral. We then exited the office and joined the rest of the group outside.

While we were in the bank the remaining five had deployed the banner and began approaching every Chase customer that walked into and out of the bank. In the 1.5 hours that we were at Chase we talked to almost every customer that visited bank from 3:30 to 5:00 PM (which we estimate to be approximately 50). Upon explaining MTR, the fact that Chase has given over $8.5 trillion in financing, and that BoA, Wells Fargo, and Credit Suisse had committed to no longer funding the practice, most customers were genuinely distraught. We asked that they too demand Chase stop funding MTR and in several situations customers actually asked us “Well, should I change banks?” To which we responded, “Yes. You wouldn’t be the first!”

I didn’t have a clue.

Well, maybe that’s unfair.

I knew what was going on in the mountains of Appalachia, I knew that people were fighting a powerful company that is extracting coal and destroying mountains and communities, and I knew that Climate Ground Zero refers to where the main battle for our global climate is going on – here in the heart of Coal Country, in the US where we produce the lion’s share, per capita, of the world’s greenhouse gases and half of that comes from coal. I knew that this battle is seriously heating up. But I didn’t know how serious.

From Google Earth

Of course it’s serious that a company is mining coal with machines bigger than office buildings and tremendous amounts of explosives, carried daily in tankers that rip along these narrow two lane highways.

And of course it’s serious when people’s families are endangered, their homes destroyed by floods caused by the mining, and the mountains that sustain so much life, so much diversity, are being wiped out for corporate profit. In this area that is stunningly beautiful, terrible things are indeed happening.

Since 1991 Massey Energy has led the pack in the race to take all the coal available from the once-hallowed mountains of Appalachia. They have systematically led the charge and taken the lion’s share of profit in the most efficient form of coal mining available, Mountaintop Removal.

The EPA continues to grant the permits that allow this company to employ far fewer workers than ever before in the history of coal mining. An underground mine used to employ as many as 500 workers. Now these operations can employ as few as 19.

The West Va Department of Environmental Protection, the DEP or “Don’t Expect Protection” as they are known euphamistically, continues to allow this company to clearcut the forests in this incredibly rich biome, an area that has been identified as the oldest deciduous forest in North America and the literal source of the great diversity of forests North America once supported. The EPA continues to grant permits that allow the mountaintops to be pulverized with explosives, the coal seams gouged out and processed, and the remaining rubble to be pushed into the valleys, or “hollers”, which has so far led to the utter annihilation of 2000 miles of streams and waterways and countless plants and animals. Of the estimated 900 mountaintops in Appalachia, over half of them have been “dropped” and destroyed for the “cheap” coal that lies beneath.

Massive MTR Operation - thanks to Southwings for taking us up

It has also led to the deaths of residents through uncontrollable flooding as well as the tragic death of 3-year old Jeremy Davidson when a massive boulder dislodged during operations and crushed him to death when it rolled though his bed while he slept. http://www.ohvec.org/newsletters/woc_2005_02/article_15.html

As a parent this tragedy has extra meaning for me. As a citizen, one would expect greater accountability and protection. Not here and not now at least. Business continues as usual, although there is a case filed by the parents who hope their son’s tragic loss may amount to something more that will provide protection for residents.

Why is mining allowed so near residents? Because state and federal laws allow it. Laws prohibit surface mining within 300 feet of an occupied dwelling and within 100 feet of a public road. Otherwise, go for it.

Opposition has been growing, slowly over time, but that’s often how it goes with wars. And make no mistake, there is a war brewing in Appalachia’s mountains, and so far those who are stepping up do so to defend their homes, their families and the mountains that in many cases have been home to many generations of their families. This is a war that has the classic elements of a deeply oppressed people and a powerful overlord that has outright contempt for the people who have every right to continue making their homes here. And that contempt shows itself in many ways.

Clean, carbon neutral coal?

Depopulation, common here, is a practice that promotes an exodus of residents from an area by making life so hard, so dangerous, and so frightening, that they simply have no choice but to accept whatever offers they can manage on their properties, pack up and make way for the fences and the gates that follow them, constantly expanding the area under control of King Coal.

The “mining” operations bear the names of the communities that they displace: Twilight, Lindytown, Marsh Fork and others. Once the people are out of the way there is less threat of opposition, less risk of damage that could lead to lawsuits or other troubles, however unlikely. And once the people are gone there is no one to witness the filling of the “hollers”, the blackening of the streams, the absolute removal of mountains – no one to stand in the way or risk liability.

Climate Ground Zero is a name that has been given to a resistance movement of people who may not be displaced, for many of them aren’t from here, but they don’t have as much to lose as the locals and can operate more freely. People have come from local areas, yes, but also from all over the country in response to the pleas for assistance from some of the locals who have chosen to stay and fight for what is right, what is theirs, and what should be inviolate. Some have just come because they see the injustice and they feel they must do something. And so they come.

And it’s a good thing they have. Those who grow up in this area know that laws that apply in the rest of the country don’t apply here. Justice in the Appalachian sense implies that the company will get what it wants, and that those who resist will be made to suffer, and that eventually fighting will only hurt them and those they love. And when the economies that once supported thriving communities that bore the names of the operations I mentioned above have dried up because of lack of work, poor wages, ill health, and the stress of living with constant explosions and continual heavy machinery traffic, then there really is no reason to stick around.

I wish I could convey how very real this difference is between these beautiful mountains and the rest of the country, but honestly, you need to see it for yourself.

This helps: Check out the reality of MTR with this handy layer in Google Earth.

But there is every reason for those of us with the means and the passion for justice to come from without to help those who remain, and to stand up for the mountains and the voiceless life they support.

Under the direction, however casual but always effective, of RAN co-founder Mike Roselle, a staging area has been created that has seen a series of actions executed against the tyranny of King Coal’s reign. Non-Violent Direct Action has driven tyrants out all over the world; bringing peace and self-determination, gaining women the right to vote, saving species from commercial hunting, and so on. We have great leaders upon whose shoulders we stand; Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa and others.

James McGuinness and Mike Roselle of Climate Ground Zero were arrested on February 25, 2009, at Performance Coal's Edwight Mountaintop Removal site in southern West Virginia. The protesters chose to focus on the active mountaintop removal site above Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, WV on the eve of the 37th year anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Disaster. photograph by Antrim Caskey

And it will save these mountains and these communities. An action in Wise County on September 7th drew attention to the construction of an unnecessary coal-fired power plant with 11 arrests and led to the revocation of that building permit. A subsequent action that stopped work at the Twilight Mine saw 14 activists arrested and made national headlines. Following that a rally – unheard of in this area and bolstered by the participation of celebrities and scientists and saw dozens arrested and gained national attention for an elementary school that lies directly under a massive removal operation.

And most recently a couple of tree-sitters kept a mountain safe from Massey Energy for six days, increasing awareness of this issue. They endured significant abuse by mining company employees – sleep deprivation, threatened with chainsaws, verbally abused, etc. And when they came down, finally, for fear for their safety, they were arrested and held on $25,000 bail – a ludicrous amount for a non-federal charge that amounted to trespassing and littering. Here where the media is 95% controlled by King Coal, as is 98% of the law this is what one begins to expect – though I’ll never get used to it. Fortunately those figures were adjusted down to a rational $1000 each – a small blessing in a sea of darkness.

The treatment of the activists by Massey was so abusive that two security guards walked off the job, unwilling to be a party to such inhuman, criminal behavior. Check out this video of the guards talking about their experience.

And when the actions are over, the activists gather again to share knowledge gained and plan for the next peaceful salvo that will help grow this resistance until finally the mountains are safe, the communities can get back to living again, and King Coal fades into a past that should have been history long ago.

We are witnessing the death of a dinosaur and the birth of a new era, and it’s happening at Climate Ground Zero. Be a part of it – and do so with your support of the folks at CGZ and with your support of RAN. Strength in numbers, creativity and courage.

Activists shut down a dragline at the Twilight Mine, Boone County, West Virginia

Larry Gibson

Larry was preparing for a big Labor Day party, and he was fairly certain there would be violence. He had hung a “Coal keeps West Virginia poor” sign on the patio, right next to his “Friends of the Mountains” sign, and when we arrived he noticed it had been torn down. He was clearly shaken because he hadn’t noticed that anyone had entered his property. While we were there, he put in calls to try to arrange security for the upcoming event, but he didn’t sound hopeful that the police would be of any help. In fact, he has had no call backs for his request for state law enforcement support. Since the incident on the 4th the State Troopers came once to see what the fuss was about, didn’t take a statement and did not give Larry their names when he asked.

Because of his activism, Larry has experienced 136 acts of violence. His property and neighbors’ property has been shot up (we saw bullet holes), and his dog was hung on his porch and almost killed.

In June, Larry was arrested along with Daryl Hannah, climatologist Jim Hansen, RAN Executive Director Michael Brune and dozens of Coal River Valley residents in a protest to stop mountaintop removal. Larry plead not guilty and he’s looking forward to making his case before a jury and the public. He holds the state and law enforcement in contempt and wants to tell the world.

When I made a blog post earlier in my trip, somebody kindly suggested that I take a hike (I believe he recommended Afghanistan). Since I was in Appalachia, I went for brief hike with Larry and my friends. He took us up the hill past some his cousins’ homes to a mountaintop removal site. He told us about how he felt the blasts when they blew up the mountain (it’s more than 400 feet shorter than it used to be). And he told us that the 310 year old cemetery where his family is buried slid over a high wall, and he can’t get there anymore. At the time, he was negotiating with the company to try to save it. It was against the law to destroy it, “but who cares?”

MTR site near Larry's property

While below-ground mines used to employ more than 500 workers, the massive mine behind Larry’s property employs all of 19 people. And since Massey isn’t a union company, the miners make about $12/hour (union workers typically make twice that). Hardly the stuff you’d want to base an entire economy on. Larry also disputes claims that MTR is so much safer than underground mining. This year, they’ve already lost nine people in mining accidents, and six were from surface mining.

The biggest industries in West Virginia are mining, Walmart and tourism, in that order. Larry says that the Governor simply won’t pursue other industries because the coal company wants to keep wages down and have its pick of the workers.

Larry fully expects to lose his life in this battle, but he won’t stop. He says it’s not about being brave, it’s about being right. His message to the rest of us: If it can happen here with coal, it can happen anywhere else in this country where there’s something of value that somebody can make money from. It’s our fight too. We need to take a stand.

Judy told us about how she was the eighth generation of her family to live in Appalachia. She told us about how Appalachians have a tradition called “tending the commons,” which meant taking care of the hills and the hollers for the common good. It was a traditional practice for people to help spread ginseng seeds (and other medicinal herbs) so that the “’seng” would propagate on down the mountain. Someone had a question about this on my last blog post, and yes, according to Judy there were absentee landholders who did hold legal rights to these lands and ultimately sold them to the coal companies. When the coal companies put up fences everywhere, this practice (and the abundance of ginseng) was brought to a halt.

West Virginia still grows half of all of the ginseng currently sold in the world, but the incredibly lucrative plant isn’t nearly as prevalent as it used it be. Appalachia is also home to many other medicinal herbs, including black cohosh and goldenseal. There’s a real treasure trove of herbs that grow at higher altitudes on the mountains that are being destroyed. In addition, Appalachia has more than 150 different types of trees – it’s the seed source for many varieties of trees in North America.

Judy told us she was working as a waitress when they first started blowing the mountains up. She told us about Appalachians’ connection to the landscape and told us that walking through the holler makes you feel like you’re being hugged by the mountain. She described walking through the holler with daughter, while her grandson played in a nearby stream. Suddenly, her grandson called out “What’s wrong with these fish?” and held up a dead fish in each hand. Judy immediately started yelling “get out of the water!”

That’s when it clicked for her that, if the fish were being poisoned, the land and the people must also be experiencing some serious side effects. Since then, she’s been speaking out against the destruction of the Appalachian landscape and culture.

It hasn’t been easy for her. Since she started this work, her life has been threatened and she’s been run off the road so many times that she won’t drive with her kids in the car. Despite the incredibly stress and constant threats to her property, her family and her life, Judy isn’t going to quit. She’s fighting for everybody’s life and health, and for the culture they share.

I was also very moved when Judy told us how much she appreciated RAN’s work to stop mountaintop removal. She said that the corporate campaigning to cut off the financing, our support for local actions and our efforts to raise the profile of the issue beyond Appalachia were all helping. I was very glad to hear that, but I left feeling such a deep sense of awe and appreciation at everything this woman and Coal River Mountain Watch are doing to protect their homes, their communities and their culture.

The t-shirt I got at Coal River Mountain Watch sums it up so well: “Save the Endangered Hillbilly: Stop Mountaintop Removal.

The first thing that you notice: It is truly beautiful here. Appalachia is green and lush and mountainous and it seems like it goes on forever. And then… it doesn’t. What we couldn’t see from the roadway was apparent from the air. Mountaintop removal coal mining is tearing a hole in the heart of this beautiful forest. In fact, it’s tearing lots of holes. Everywhere we looked, we saw another ugly sore on the landscape – coal mining operations or areas that have been blasted out that aren’t even being mined yet.

MTR sites in Appalachia

In the afternoon, we had a wonderful visit with Judy Bonds from Coal River Mountain Watch . She told us how she was the eighth generation of her family to live in Appalachia and about how Appalachians have always been connected to the landscape and cared for the commons – until the coal companies came in and laid claim to all of the commons. She had so many important things to say and stories to tell, and if Branden doesn’t write about it, I’ll tell you some of it tomorrow. Now it’s after midnight and we’re meeting with Goldman Prize-winner Maria Gunnoe in the morning, so I’d better call it a day.

Oh, by the way, we stopped by Climate Ground Zero and heard that the tree-sitters’ bail was reduced from $25,000 each to $1000, and the two of them were on their way over to the Climate Ground Zero house this evening after spending a night enjoying the relative peace and quiet of their jail cell.

Inspired by the tragedy of mountaintop removal in Appalachia, Chris’ latest work shows us in a very provocative way just how much coal we consume each day.

Check it out on Grist.

Five activists with the Rainforest Action Network attended the Investing in Water conference at University of Toronto to confront RBC’s Director of Corporate Environmental Affairs, Sandra Odendahl, on RBC’s financing of tar sands developments in Alberta.

During her presentation, Ms. Odendahl highlighted RBC’s Blue Water project, a program that she argues “foster[s] a culture of water stewardship, so that people have clean fresh water today and tomorrow.” Rainforest Action Network activists shared their concern that RBC, the top financier of fossil fuel production and tar sands development in Canada, still claims a supposed commitment to clean water.
The activists who infiltrated the conference took over Ms. Odendahl’s entire Q and A period with several poignant questions and a banner dropping, catching the moderator, crowd, and Ms. Odendahl off-guard. Two passionate activists stood facing Sandra Odendahl and held a banner stating ‘OIL SANDS AND BLUE WATER DON’T MIX’. They asked, “If oil and water don’t mix, why is RBC financing the tar sands?” The room was stunned as the two continued, “Blue Water lending is a drop of water compared to billions in tar sands financing that creates dirty tailings ponds and massive deforestation. Tailings ponds are the wrong ponds to be investing in. Impacted First Nations communities demand that RBC suspend all financing of tar sands expansion and respect their aboriginal treaty rights. How can you justify using three barrels of Canada’s fresh water for one barrel of dirty oil? Is this what RBC considers sustainable, low risk financing?”
Moderators and event organizers tried to escort the two out of the room, stating that it was a question and answer period and not a time for their own “personal agenda.” One of the activists calmly replied, “We did ask a question—Is this sustainable financing?”
The first two questions following Ms. Odendahl’s speech, however, helped to set the stage before the activists called attention their so-called personal agenda. The first questioner requested practical examples of RBC’s Environmental Risk Management methodology, asking, for example, what financial risk value RBC had assigned to the three litigations currently being filed against industry and provincial and federal governments by First Nations communities in Alberta due to violations arising from tar sands projects. The questioner also asked Ms. Odendhal to explain how RBC can view financing projects that are engendering lawsuits due to environmental damage and violations of treaty rights to be a good example of sustainable investment and sound risk management? Ms. Odendahl proceeded to attempt an answer, citing the fact that banks cannot be held responsible for the actions of those to whom they lend money and then diverted responsibility onto governments to set standards and force corporations to comply.
While the room started to bustle the moderator nervously suggested that the conference Q and A session move on. Another Rainforest Action Network activist then made reference to the question Melina Laboucan-Massimo of the Lubicon-Cree First Nation had previously posed at RBC’s shareholder meeting: “If RBC is serious about supporting clean water, why are they financing projects that are contaminating lakes and rivers in my community?”
As Ms. Odendahl struggled to address these questions, the banner was unfurled. The question period was effectively derailed and ended after the activists were able to personally deliver their message to RBC’s Director of Corporate Environmental Affairs.
At the end of the conference, flyers were distributed to participants as they left the building. A number of conference participants (8-10) went out of their way to express support for the RAN activists’ position. A sample of comments include encouragement to ‘keep up the good work,’ ‘good job,’ and that RAN’s actions at this conference had made them question what the RBC representative had been saying.

RBC now has the opportunity to take a leadership role on this issue and on issues of the environment relating to the Tar Sands and corporate social responsibility. Let’s hope that they rise to the challenge that First Nations communities and their allies have set forth.

* * * * *

As a post-action follow up, one activist remained behind to address Ms. Odendahl one-on-one after the meeting. The discussion started out combative, as Ms. Odendahl claimed that RBC’s financing of oil companies was small in “the grand scheme of things” and that banks have no authority over their lenders. Simply, she stated that RBC would never stop financing the tar sands because “it would make no difference.” When confronted about Gordon Nixon’s wavering pledge to visit Fort Chipewyan she said, “The oil companies are doing a better job of communicating than the Government,” and that Nixon visited a year ago and wasn’t sure what another visit would accomplish. When pressed, however, she admitted that the visit was not community oriented. She also stated that the people of Alberta and of these communities aren’t complaining.

Perhaps she considers litigations, protests, rallies, and general dissent among community members, Indigenous peoples, and other members of the Canadian public compliments?

I don’t like it when they blow the tops of mountains. I don’t like it when their power plants pollute local air and water. I don’t like when coal ash waste poisons whole communities. I especially don’t like how Big Coal is responsible for 42% of global carbon emissions causing catastrophic climate change.

So today, I joined hundreds of friends and got ARRESTED in a peaceful civil disobedience at Duke Energy’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Duke Energy is building a new coal fired power plant in Ciffside, NC. If built, the plant is predicted to emit six million tons of carbon dioxide every year for the next 50 years.

All over the country, people like me and you are taking action against big coal. We are all stepping it up and taking more risks to stop Big Coal’s destructive behavior. Protests as far away as California, or as nearby as the mountains of West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The movement to quit coal and stop global warming is sweeping the nation.

It’s time to step this fight against Big Coal and climate change up.

Stay tuned for a report and photos from the ground from Scott Parkin.

Check out the Reuters article here

Only $350 billion of TARP’s $700 billion has been spent so far, and the Obama administration and Congress want to ensure that the banks are spending their bailout money wisely, before they give out the other $350 billion.

Questions asked by the U.S. House Financial Services Committee are likely to revolve around issues such as executive pay, dividend payments and whether banks are using the money for consumer loans.

All of these questions around financial responsibility and responsible lending sure beg the question of why banks are still financing dirty energy with hundreds of millions of dollars going to coal and oil projects every year. These projects aren’t safe investments in our future; they are clinging to out-dated and irresponsible energy infrastructure in this country. As the US economy continues to stumble, and government struggles end the crisis, shouldn’t we be looking to fix aspects of the economy that are broken – not just prop the system back up the way it was?

What questions would you ask the CEO’s of 8 of the largest banks in the world if you had the opportunity?