Tar-Sands

We recently highlighted Will Falk’s account as one of the Deep Green Resistance volunteers who braved the January snow and ice to help out at the Unist’ot’en Camp. Max Wilbert wrote another moving personal piece giving an overview of the Unist’ot’en Camp strategy and describing the experience of contributing to their struggle. Snow lashed the road. The darkness was total, our headlights casting weak yellow beams into the darkness. Most people had hunkered down in homes and motels, and the roads were near empty. Still, every few minutes a passing truck threw a blinding cloud of dry snow into the air, leaving us blind for seconds at a time as we hurtled onwards at the fastest speeds we could manage. ...

From Zoe Blunt at the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network Right now across North America, groups of land defenders are doing their damnedest to block tarsands oil from coming to the coasts. Big oil and the Conservative government are insisting on pipelines from Alberta to the Pacific to feed the Asian export market. But thousands of locals are pledging to put their freedom on the line to stop them. ...

Last week, Kinder Morgan pipeline company began clearing brush to drill boreholes for a new pipeline from the tar sands to their marine tanker terminal east of Vancouver. Local residents and allies took over the borehole sites and set up camps in a small wilderness park next to Simon Fraser University. This week, KM served the organizers with a civil lawsuit and injunction application. The hearing is set for Wed Nov 5. The resisters are not backing down. They are calling for reinforcements at the camp and in the courthouse. ...

We posted back in June that pipeline blockades, limiting overall pipeline capacity, have a real effect in driving up costs and causing potential tar sands projects to be suspended or canceled. We got more evidence this past week that blockading pipelines works: Statoil Just Shelved Its Multi-Billion-Dollar Tar Sands Project. While the article focuses on the Keystone XL pipeline, which has seen a lot of symbolic protest, even more important may be the direct action blockades such as the Unis’tot’en Camp, physically disallowing construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline. ...

DGR member Will Falk has been writing a regular series on his experiences at the Unis’tot’en Camp blockade of proposed pipeline construction. We’ve highlighted some of them here already, but thought it would be useful to link to the whole series of thoughtful essays on what it takes to build a true culture of resistance, and for members of settler culture to ally with indigenous peoples on the front lines: ...

The article “Total shelves $11-billion Alberta oil sands mine” contains a clear acknowledgement that blockades like that of the Unis’tot’en Camp preventing construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline, and actions against the Keystone XL matter, by limiting pipeline capacity and driving down the value of tar sands product: Rising costs for labour and materials have long worked against the economics of new projects, and limited pipeline access to ship oil has weighed on prices for Alberta oil. Total is signed up to ship oil on three major undeveloped pipeline projects facing uncertainty: Keystone XL, Northern Gateway and the Trans Mountain expansion. ...

The indigenous Wet’suwet’en are holding the fifth annual Unis’tot’en Action Camp to blockade the construction of the Canadian Northern Gateway pipelines, a cluster of pipelines meant to carry tar sands crude and natural gas from fracking operations. This blockade is a strategic way to fight against these extremely dangerous and destructive projects. The Unis’tot’en territory has never been ceded to Canada, so the Wet’suwet’en have both a legal standing and a deep commitment to defending their landbase. This is a battle that can be won by defenders of the land and climate change activists. ...

Activists draw a line in the sand in the fight against fracking (Photo originally posted here) On Saturday, May 19th, participants in the Occupy Well Street campaign against fracking are calling for a Day of Direct Action Against Extraction. We invite all who are opposed to the widespread use of energy extraction methods such as hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, mountaintop removal coal mining, and tar sands oil distillation to take creative, public direct action at local or regional points of production in these industries. All who participate are encouraged to employ a wide spectrum of tactics that appeal to their experience and comfort level, such as handing out literature, arranging speaking events, orchestrating colorful street theater, or taking up space by creative means. ...