tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38692700395199171392024-03-14T00:17:01.015-04:00HoodooedGreen News, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, Environment, Healing, Peace, Political Resistance in Florida. News gathering space for Crimes Against Humanity & Ecocide in the Gulf of Toxico & after affects on life here. Now covering FRACKING, MINING, LNG PIPELINES, WATER QUALITY & so many more environmental issues. Hoodooing in the Green Swamp & other Wild Places throughout our State.
Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.comBlogger1470125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-72683042951648379632018-09-08T15:55:00.000-04:002018-09-08T16:41:48.102-04:00Science of the Spill: Yes, Crude/Corexit Causes Red Tide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Back 8 years ago, those of us that worked diligently on getting info out about BP's Gulf Oil Disaster predicted the collapse of the populations of sea-life, seabirds, mammals and we noted that even humans would be affected along with our precious waterways, the beaches and our land here in Florida and indeed, throughout the Gulf region. We contacted corporate media, did interviews with independent media, many of us became the independent media ourselves and did our own radio shows, scrutinized documents, attended public meetings, took samples, blogged, protested in the streets and spent hours on the phone or on social media connecting with thousands of people globally. We developed our own networks here in the Gulf Region. At that point many of us knew that the ecocide and genocide happening here would be politicized and monetized through those running for office, campaigns would take donations and others would be supporting themselves through the so called environmental NGOs whose main objective was to raise funding. And the oil companies and extraction industries OWN the city municipalities, the state, the candidates, the tourist boards, the County Fairs, the Better Business Bureaus, and local companies, in reality EVERYONE! Their money that was flowing into our communities paved their way so now they literally OWN us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Add to the existing toxic soup of Crude and Corexit dispersant, the Lake Okeechobee discharges, Big Sugar, Roundup and other herbicides and chemicals associated with Big Ag, nitrogen fertilizers that are over-applied, nuclear radiation dumping into city water sources courtesy of the Mosaic Company, Algenol Company, mining by Cemex (for fracking sand and aggregate), Pipelines such as Sabal Trail and existing radon associated with even more building and expansion and other toxins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our resistance to this ecocide and genocide should never follow a corporate model. That is why it has not worked in the past. We need bodies on the line now. We might not survive this, but we need to do this for those who will come after us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Voting the s-elected out is not an option.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now is the time for real resistance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Links about the science of the spill below. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I will keep adding to this list.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: #eeeeee; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">***Crude/Corexit CAN cause Red Tide.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: cyan; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.8b00335?journalCode=esthag&">https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.8b00335</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: cyan; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2018/08/16/corexit-causing/">https://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2018/08/16/corexit-causing/</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: cyan; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/news/2010/05/100518-gulf-mexico-oil-spill-loop-current-science-environment">https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/news/2010/05/100518-gulf-mexico-oil-spill-loop-current-science-environment</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">PHOTOS:</span><br />
<span style="color: cyan; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/SWFLcleanwater/photos/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/SWFLcleanwater/photos/</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="background-color: #444444;">Anita Stewart</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i style="background-color: #444444;">Environmentalist </i></span><br />
<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i style="background-color: #444444;">Deep Green Resistance</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i style="background-color: #444444;">Formerly Elected to the Hillsborough County Soil and Water Board</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i style="background-color: #444444;">Green Party of Florida Spokesperson.</i></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-76366337856312322852016-09-27T14:25:00.001-04:002016-09-27T14:32:25.549-04:00Interview with Jeb Bell of Georgia Regarding the Sabal Trail Pipeline (VIDEO)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jhU0_-iwUiQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Eminent Domain is Real and Landowner Rights Don’t Matter!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Interview by Anita Stewart for <a href="http://www.deepgreenresistance.org/" target="_blank">Deep Green Resistance</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Many in the regional southeast of the U.S. know very little or nothing at all about the Sabal Trail Pipeline that is being constructed now and projected to be completed in May of 2017. This pipeline will be moving fracked gas (methane) from Alabama through southeast Georgia and intersecting almost the entire state of Florida. It is important to note that this project was approved and construction has begun. In addition, there are storage areas, staging facilities and compressor stations all along the 515-mile route. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Many people along the route or in close proximity, renters included are not even aware that this pipeline is being constructed so close to their homes and property. In total, approximately 160 eminent domain lawsuits have been filed by Sabal Trail including the one involving the Bell brothers. Now the Bell brothers are involved in a legal precedent to pay for Sabal Trail’s legal fees to the tune of $47,000.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">After reading Jeb's heartbreaking story on a Fusion article that was also reprinted in Newsweek and interacting a bit with him on the social networks, I had an opportunity to interview him (from Mitchell County, Georgia) on September 20, 2016. I thought his story was important and needed to be retold, as his legal eminent domain precedent can happen to any landowner at any time. Eminent Domain is making theft of land from landowners legal if the corporations are doing it. <a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffusion.net%2Fstory%2F343376%2Fsoutheast-gas-highway-upsets-everyone-in-pipelines-path%2F&h=9AQFKpHpw"><span class="s2">http://fusion.net/.../southeast-gas-highway-upsets.../</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The Bell family’s GO FUND ME page to help with their legal fees (VIDEO): <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gofundme.com%2F2pgabdvh&h=9AQFKpHpw"><span class="s2">https://www.gofundme.com/2pgabdvh</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">LINKS: See more at:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spectrabusters.org%2F&h=jAQGS0zYc"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.spectrabusters.org</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/stopsabaltrail?hc_location=ufi"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.facebook.com/stopsabaltrail</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/STOPSABALTRAILPIPELINE/?hc_location=ufi"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.facebook.com/groups/stopsabaltrailpipeline</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s3"><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitter.com%2Fstopsabaltrail&h=IAQF22Dk1">http://www.twitter.com/stopsabaltrail</a></span><span class="s4"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sabaltrailtransmission.com%2F&h=wAQFXWgDe"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.sabaltrailtransmission.com</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s4"><span style="font-size: large;">Link to audio file: <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffccdl.in%2F4286Ak0CS&h=5AQFni2jQ"><span class="s2">https://fccdl.in/4286Ak0CS</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span class="s4"><span style="font-size: large;">TAGS: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/waterislife?hc_location=ufi"><span class="s2">#waterislife</span></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/nodapl?hc_location=ufi"><span class="s2">#noDAPL</span></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/stopsabaltrail?hc_location=ufi"><span class="s2">#stopsabaltrail</span></a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/fightthepipeflorida?hc_location=ufi"><span class="s2">#fightthepipeflorida</span></a> @DGRFlorida</span></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-44092270891298281112016-05-19T23:33:00.001-04:002016-05-19T23:33:08.403-04:00Shell Oil Spill Cleanup Operation Ends As Voices Against New Gulf Drilling Grow Louder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 14:19</div>
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Five days after <a href="http://www.shell.us/?gclid=CNmpjsqu5swCFYhTgQodzd4Nbw&gclsrc=ds" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Royal Dutch Shell</a> reported an estimated 88,000 gallon crude oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico from its operations in the Glider field, the oil company and the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">U.S.</span> Coast Guard agreed to halt skimming operations used in the cleanup because they were no longer finding recoverable oil. </div>
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Both entities stated that no environmental damage has been reported, but independent monitors from Greenpeace, Vanishing Earth and Wings Of Care question whether the size and potential impact of the spill are being downplayed. </div>
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News of Shell’s oil spill 90 miles south of Louisiana’s Timbalier Island came the day before the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/03/21/momentum-builds-against-obama-administration-plans-auction-oil-and-gas-drilling-rights-gulf-mexico" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>)</a> hosted a final week of public meetings on the Gulf Coast to give the public a chance to comment on its<a href="http://www.boem.gov/Five-Year-Program-2017-2022/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Five Year Plan 2017-2022 oil leasing program</a>. Its plan calls for lease sales of 47 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas companies for offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. </div>
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<a href="http://klfy.com/2016/05/12/coast-guard-responds-to-oil-spill-in-gulf-of-mexico/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Shell contracted</a> Clean Gulf Associates and <a href="https://www.msrc.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Marine Spill Response Corporation (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">MSRC</span>)</a> for the cleanup operation. <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">MSRC</span>, one of the companies <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> used to clean up its 2010 spill, dumped the dispersant Corexit in the Gulf.</div>
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This time, “dispersant wasn’t used,” the Coast Guard told DeSmog. The Coast Guard and Shell agreed that using on-water recovery vessels and skimming would be the best oil recovery option. </div>
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Environmental scientist Wilma Subra, though pleased dispersant wasn't used, told DeSmog, “Skimming is not a very good oil recovery option.” </div>
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Subra believes that if skimming is the best cleanup method the Coast Guard and oil companies can come up with, it shows they are no better prepared for an oil spill than they were when the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> oil disaster occurred. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Shell oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ©2016 Jonathan Henderson</em></span></div>
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Environmental watchdog group <a href="http://skytruth.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SkyTruth</a> concurred with Subra. They described the oil spill cleanup response as a bad joke. Last Saturday, <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> photographed the site, taking with them Jonathan Henderson, founder of <a href="https://vanishingearth.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Vanishing Earth</a>, who also documented the spill.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>I counted three vessels skimming oil,” Henderson told DeSmog. “It’s ridiculous that our federal government has basically sat back and allowed this industry to invest the vast majority of its money on exploration and extraction and not nearly the level of investment in response technology that is so critical whenever something like this goes wrong.”</div>
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<a href="http://www.onwingsofcare.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">On Wings of Care</a>, another environmental watchdog group, flew Dr. Ian MacDonald of Florida State University over the spill site on Sunday. <a href="http://blog.skytruth.org/2016/05/oil-spill-response-is-joke.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Skytruth+%28SkyTruth%29" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SkyTruth’s blog</a> revealed that</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Dr. MacDonald observed that the response vessels seemed to be missing the thickest parts of the slick and were generally making very little headway, despite operating under fairly calm conditions (average wind speed of 7 knots recorded at Brutus <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">TLP</span> over this time period), nearly ideal for oil cleanup operations.”</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Oil spill response vessels grossly underperform,” SkyTruth stated. Five spill response vessels were dispatched including four skimming vessels, according to Shell and the Coast Guard. </div>
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Not only was the cleanup effort not state of the art, the fact it took a pilot to spot the oil slick indicates Shell’s “pipeline leak detection is unreliable,” SkyTruth’s blog stated. </div>
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“That’s right: a modern pipeline at a high-tech deepwater development project leaked thousands of gallons of oil, and that leak was accidentally discovered. Not because high-tech telemetry on the pipeline signaled an alarm due to a drop in pressure; not because flow metering detected a difference between what was going in one end of the pipe vs. what was coming out the other.“ </div>
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Both Shell and the Coast Guard stated that there has been no reported impact on wildlife. But Subra said it is impossible for an oil spill of this size not to have environmental consequences. </div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Of course organisms at the spill site were impacted,” Subra said. “Some fish at the site must have died and other fish and mammals will get sick from the oil.” </div>
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A Shell press release identified an underwater flow line near its Brutus platform as the source of the leak and stated the damaged section “has been isolated.” </div>
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The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BSEE</span>) is leading an investigation to determine the cause of the release. The agency has approved Shell’s plan to resume production at the Brutus platform though part of Shell’s Gilder operations remain “shut-in.”</div>
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Whatever the cause of the leak, Shell <a href="https://weather.com/science/environment/news/shell-oil-spill-brutus-platform-gulf-of-mexico" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">acknowledged that no spill is acceptable</a>, a point environmentalists and activists have reiterated, while objecting to <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s latest 5-year plans to lease an additional 47 million acres in the Gulf for drilling.</div>
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Cherri Foytlin of Bold Louisiana created <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/689/336/066/enough-shells-new-spill-shows-oils-cost-nonewleases/?taf_id=25173087&cid=fb_na" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a petition</a> insisting any new oil development follow through on President Obama’s promise to “change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.”</div>
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Bold Louisiana calls for an end to all new leasing in the Gulf. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Cherri Foytlin with one of her sons at a protest against <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale in the Superdome in New Orleans ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Jonathan Henderson at a rally before a protest against <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale in the Superdome in New Orleans. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span></div>
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Henderson and Foytlin took part in a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/03/24/environmentalists-converge-new-orleans-gulf-mexico-oil-and-gas-lease-sale" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">protest during <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale at the Superdome in New Orleans</a> on March 23.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>While we did not successfully stop the auction,” Henderson said, “never before in history has the industry been confronted like this in this region and the momentum from that historical day will continue forward.” </div>
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A Gulf Coast delegation that converged on the Superdome also took part in “<a href="https://breakfree2016.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Break Free” protests</a>, demonstrations that took place on six continents calling for bold action to break free from fossil fuels.</div>
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At the Washington <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DC</span> “Break Free” protest on May 15, activists called out Shell’s latest oil spill as an example of why offshore drilling must be stopped. </div>
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> held public meetings across the Gulf Coast this week that Foytlin encouraged people to participate in.</div>
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“We are not willing to let the Gulf of Mexico be a sacrifice zone any longer. Further, we are calling for a just transition for all of our communities to a clean, green economy, one that is both respectful to the life-giving systems of our planet and truly benefits the people of our region.” Foytlin told DeSmog.</div>
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She doesn’t think coastal communities are sustainable if nothing is done to protect them, and expanding drilling in the Gulf is a move in the wrong direction. </div>
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Though Shell and the Coast Guard are quick to point out none of the oil from the Shell spill has been found on Louisiana’s beaches, Subra said she would be surprised if none of it washes up on the Louisiana coast.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>It is impossible to dismiss environmental impacts from even a small spill,” Subra said, “and an 88,000 gallon spill is significant.”</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Main image credit: Jonathan Henderson with other activists protesting against <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s Gulf of Mexico lease sale in the Superdome in New Orleans ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span> </div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-21772253399558418882016-05-16T00:21:00.001-04:002016-05-16T16:46:03.044-04:00March Against Monsanto Spring Hill, Florida and Beyond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">MARCH AGAINST MONSANTO TAMPA<br />
OCTOBER 2013<br />
PHOTO BY ANITA STEWART</td></tr>
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<span class="s1"><b>Monsanto = Dioxin, Glyphosate, Roundup and Agent Orange and are legally poisoning our food and the environment. </b></span><b>It must stop.</b></div>
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<b>By Anita Stewart</b></div>
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<b>May 15, 2016</b></div>
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<span class="s1">Latest news reports on Monsanto’s Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular weed-killer, Roundup indicate that it is present in <a href="http://abc7news.com/health/i-team-investigates-controversy-over-weed-killer-and-california-wine/1332495/" target="_blank">California wines</a>, <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/no-one-knows-how-much-herbicide-is-in-your-breakfast?utm_source=vicetwitterus" target="_blank">Quaker Oats</a> and even in the <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/12/mep-glyphosate-urine-test/" target="_blank">urine of elected officials in Europe</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, Roundup is made by Monsanto. Same Monsanto that produced <a href="http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/basics.asp" target="_blank">Agent Orange (an earlier chemical was Dioxin)</a> which is responsible for the <a href="https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/legacy-of-agent-orange" target="_blank">ongoing, horrific birth defects in Viet Nam</a> where it was widely used as a defoliant and sprayed from planes into the bush and over remote villages. These chemicals also affect the US children of those active duty military and veterans that were exposed. What is chilling is the fact that these chemicals have also been either <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/02/19/386984176/air-force-reservists-say-effects-from-agent-orange-exposure-still-linger" target="_blank">stored or used here in the United States.</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Agent Orange is connected <a href="http://www.va.gov/health/NewsFeatures/20111115a.asp" target="_blank">to the 25%</a> of Veterans <a href="http://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/claims-postservice-agent_orange-diabetes.asp" target="_blank">testing positive for Diabetes 2</a> per the VA’s own website–the general population is at 8-10%. (As soon as you are diagnosed through the VA with Diabetes 2, the second question is “to your knowledge, were you ever exposed to Agent Orange?” So the VA is well aware of this connection).</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The VA will not pay out any monies/disability to Agent Orange victims unless the veteran was stationed in Viet Nam. Per the veterans themselves and some of their most recent reports, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/02/19/386984176/air-force-reservists-say-effects-from-agent-orange-exposure-still-linger" target="_blank">Agent Orange was not used, stored or transported exclusively in Viet Nam.</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>The Risks are Supposed to be Secret on this Globe Full of Victims</i></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/chances-of-cancer" target="_blank">50% of our general population will get cancer</a> during their lifetime or have it already. And this directly affects all of us as many of us have loved ones with cancer or know someone that has died from it. Those of us who got our diagnosis already are working hard at staying alive. We will live the rest of our lives constantly detoxing. Some of us who are veterans have both cancer and diabetes and both conditions are connected to the use of Agent Orange and other Monsanto chemicals per the VA's own website. We have probably been poisoned.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The important thing to note about these reports is that the IARC, a World Health Organization working group of doctors <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045%2815%2970134-8/fulltext" target="_blank">published their findings last year</a> showing that Roundup’s Glyphosate “<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/16/nebraska-farmers-sue-monsanto/" target="_blank">probably causes cancer.</a>” Their report was posted on the LANCET website last year. Immediately after the report was published, Monsanto demanded a retraction of the IARC’s findings but they never got it.</span><br />
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<span class="s1">From <a href="http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/3116-2monsantoepareport/" target="_blank">March Against Monsanto:</a> "In a recent article by EcoWatch, it was revealed that the EPA had finally released its long-awaited report on the WHO declaration, only to mysteriously pull it from circulation (check out the <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/09/epa-glyphosate-report/" target="_blank">full article here</a>).</span><br />
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<span class="s1">These are ways that corporate media, news outlets and government agencies censor, omit or create a critical buzz regarding information and attempt to keep it from those who need it most; like journalists, victims and medical workers. And of course to cover up the crimes by the corporations and any possibility of them being held accountable.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The other alarming trends and side effects of the regular use of these toxins includes the killing off of our <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0512/Native-American-tribes-pledge-to-save-the-monarch-butterfly" target="_blank">pollinators, such as bees, butterflies, birds, etc.</a> Some of these <a href="https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/gmos-are-killing-bees-butterflies-birds-and" target="_blank">populations are now collapsing.</a> We are already losing approximately 200 species a day due to extinction. Without the pollinators, we will not be able to sustain our current food supplies.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Will we be next? Some scientists say we are at extinction levels now. Many questions need to be raised about the continued use of these toxins. Roundup is the one most widely used in the US and at the same time, <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-end-of-monsanto/5452183" target="_blank">is being banned in many other countries</a>.</span><br />
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://challengingtherhetoric.blogspot.com/2015/04/monsanto-continues-to-strong-arm-truth.html" target="_blank">“<i>This planet is Gaia because of her evolutionary adaptive capacity. The only question to ask is will human beings be around in that adaptive context,</i>” Dr. Vandana Shiva, Eckerd College, March 9, 2015.</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Our Demands and Why We March</i></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Labeling GMOs or genetically modified organisms in our food products and produce is the other reason why we march. I believe at the very LEAST companies should be accurately labeling them, but I would prefer the permanent banning of all GMO products. March Against Monsanto calls for two events a year: in May and October. The events are to increase awareness about the need for labeling food that contains GMO’s. This would give the consumers all of the information they need to know so they can make educated choices for themselves and their families.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>March Against Monsanto will be present at a <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/324826-monsanto-hague-tribunal-ecocide/" target="_blank">hearing at the Hague in October 2016</a> to correspond with <a href="http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/" target="_blank">World Food Day.</a> You can help crowdfund and organize that event. (<a href="http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a>)</div>
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<span class="s1">All of this is why we march EVERYWHERE ON THE GLOBE May 21st, 2016. Join us! We are really marching for the right to not be poisoned anymore.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">WEBSITE:</span></div>
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<span class="s2"><a href="http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/home/">http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/home/</a></span><span class="s3"> (Look for your local city’s march)</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Facebook Event Page for Tampa:</span></div>
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<span class="s2"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1705447866398854/">https://www.facebook.com/events/1705447866398854/</a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Facebook Event Page for Spring Hill/Brooksville:</span></div>
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<span class="s2"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/512430905613773/">https://www.facebook.com/events/512430905613773/</a></span><br />
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I want to take it a step further.<br />
I call for a permanent ban on Roundup and other similar agro-chemicals.<br />
And a boycott of anyone that is using them. We are literally marching for our lives.<br />
Who is with me?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">MARCH AGAINST MONSANTO TAMPA<br />
MAY 2014<br />
PHOTO BY ANITA STEWART</td></tr>
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<span class="s1">Monsanto Continues to Strong Arm Truth:</span></div>
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<span class="s2"><a href="http://challengingtherhetoric.blogspot.com/2015/04/monsanto-continues-to-strong-arm-truth.html">http://challengingtherhetoric.blogspot.com/2015/04/monsanto-continues-to-strong-arm-truth.html</a></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><br /></span><span class="s3">***This article originally published by the Hernando Phoenix in Brooksville/Spring Hill, Florida.</span><br />
***<a href="http://www.hernandophoenix.com/march-monsanto-spring-hill-beyond/">http://www.hernandophoenix.com/march-monsanto-spring-hill-beyond/</a><br />
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-51398748291437313492016-03-29T15:54:00.000-04:002016-03-29T15:54:07.728-04:00Environmentalists Join Forces in New Orleans To Foster A Growing Alliance to Combat Climate Change and Fossil Fuels<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Monday, March 28, 2016 - 07:37</div>
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<span class="social-share-count">1354</span><span class="dquo" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: left;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px; text-align: left;">It is time we wake up the world to stop abusing and destroying a gift of life – before it is too late,” Chief Arvol Looking Horse from South Dakota said to a group of environmentalists from across the country who joined him at a water ceremony on the shore of the Mississippi River in New Orleans on World Water Day. </span></div>
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<span class="dquo" style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px; margin-left: 0px;">“</span><span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px;">It is time we wake up the world to stop abusing and destroying a gift of life – before it is too late,” Chief Arvol Looking Horse from South Dakota said to a group of environmentalists from across the country who joined him at a water ceremony on the shore of the Mississippi River in New Orleans on World Water Day. </span><span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px;"> </span></div>
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The ceremony took place on the fourth day of programming hosted by the environmental advocacy group <a href="http://www.indigena.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Indigena</a>, on climate change and communities fighting against it.<br /><br />“Creative alliances are formed when you are invited to come together,” Janet MacGillivray, Esq., with Indigena, told DeSmog. “That’s what we did with the four days of gatherings at the New Orleans Healing Center.”<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mountainkeeper.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Keeper of the Mountains Foundation</a> president Paul Corbit Brown, and Jane Kleeb, founder of <a href="http://boldnebraska.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bold Nebraska</a>, were among the invited speakers who stressed the need for groups to come together.<br /><br />They joined Louisiana environmental groups and activists who participated in panel discussions in the days before a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/03/24/environmentalists-converge-new-orleans-gulf-mexico-oil-and-gas-lease-sale" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">protest by hundreds of Gulf Coast residents and environmentalists</a> from across the country against the federal lease sale of 44.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to the oil and gas industry. </div>
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Video: Paul Corbit Brown speaks in New Orleans<br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wCcULqchHvk" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><br />Holding up a bottle of polluted water from Fayetteville, West Virginia, at a panel discussion on climate change injustice, Brown told the audience that water from the river where he took the sample made it to New Orleans before he did.<br /><br />“Polluted water in West Virginia doesn’t stay in West Virginia,” he said. ”It makes it way to other places, including here.”<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mountainkeeper.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Keeper of the Mountains Foundation’s</a> mission is to move Appalachian communities away from an extraction economy to an economy that values people, land, and mountain heritage. The foundation conducts outreach programs to teach groups from around the world about mountaintop removal and other negative impacts of the coal industry. The foundation is involved with fighting for human rights while working toward helping the region transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.<br /><br />The foundation also acts as an environmental watchdog. Brown was the first photographer to document the site where a train carrying North Dakota crude derailed into a West Virginia creek and burst into flames in 2015. After a state trooper blocked his way, threatening him with arrest if he tried to get to the accident site, he chartered a plane and shot aerials of the wreckage that were published by the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/oil-train-derailment_n_6707754.html" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Huffington Post.</a><br /><br />His photos contradicted Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s description of how much oil contaminated the creek, according to Brown.<br /><br />Brown’s work as a human rights photographer before he became an environmental activist taught him that you can’t separate human rights from environmental injustice.<br /><br />“There is a growing movement of people trying to connect the dots,” Brown told DeSmog. “It is not that mountaintop removal is worse than uranium mining – or worse than what happened with oil and gas in Louisiana, or worse than frackng or any other environmental catastrophe created by the oil and gas industry. People are waking up to the understanding that this fight is all of these fights.”<br /><br />On a panel of women in the environmental movement, Jane Kleeb announced that <a href="http://boldnebraska.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bold Nebraska</a> is expanding with the formation of the Bold Alliance, which will have branches in Iowa, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The alliance will continue Bold Nebraska’s work that includes stopping fossil fuel developments by developing clean energy projects.<br /><br />Bold Nebraska is a progressive political advocacy group that was a leading voice in the fight to stop the northern route of the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> Pipeline. The organization joined forces with indigenous tribes in the fight to stop the tar sands pipeline.<br /><br />Video: Jane Kleeb speaks in New Orleans<br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tkl5I8N6Oyk" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><br />When word reached Kleeb that President Obama rejected the permit TransCanada needed to build the northern route of the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> Pipeline, she had a celebratory whiskey and then spent a little time with her family. But hanging up her hat was never an option for her.<br /><br />“The fight to save the planet is bigger than stopping one pipeline,” Kleeb told DeSmog.<br /><br />Kleeb announced that <a href="http://bridgethegulfproject.org/blog/19" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cherri Foytlin</a> will run Bold Louisiana. Foytlin, a Louisiana native, became an activist after the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> oil spill, and has been at the forefront of the fight against pollution and social justice ever since.<br /><br />“We plan to continue to tackle fossil fuel projects while lifting up clean energy and developing a base of populist independent voters,” Kleeb said.<br /><br />Hundreds crashed the government’s <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/03/24/environmentalists-converge-new-orleans-gulf-mexico-oil-and-gas-lease-sale" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">lease sale on March 23</a> held at the Superdome in New Orleans. Though the protesters weren’t able to stop the auction, their action sent a message to the federal government that further development of the fossil fuel industry is not a popular move with those concerned about climate change.<br /><br />Video: Jane Kleeb and Mekasi Camp-Horinek protest against new oil and gas lease sales In the Gulf of Mexico.<br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N6JjLmaniLA" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><br />“Here in New Orleans, apathy just isn’t an option,” MacGillivray told DeSmog. Despite the trauma from superstorms and the destruction of the environment, she believes the spirit of the people in New Orleans can’t be extinguished.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A4139-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 529px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Paul Corbit Brown outside of the Superdome where protesters gathered after the lease sale for a rally. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br />Brown was moved by the protest. It was a reminder that he is not alone in recognizing the need to unite people fighting for social and environmental justice, which happened at the protest.<br /><br />“What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. It is that simple,” Brown told DeSmog. “If we continue to contaminate the earth and take from her as if there is no tomorrow, we will not have an Earth we can live on tomorrow – it is that simple.”<br /><br />Video: Chief Arvol speaks in New Orleans<br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0aUBdZ4c_64" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Lead Photo: Paula Horne-Mullen, Janet MacGillivray, Esq., </em></span><em style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 17.6px;">Chief Arvil Looking Horse, </em><em style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.1em;">Jane Kleeb and Jason Kowalski and others gathered in New Orleans. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-65635239243026803682016-03-29T15:46:00.000-04:002016-03-29T16:00:12.319-04:00Environmentalists Converge on New Orleans To Disrupt Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 01:58</div>
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Hundreds of Gulf Coast residents and environmentalists from across the country protested against a federal lease sale of 44.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to the oil and gas industry yesterday in New Orleans.<br /><br />The group marched from Duncan Plaza to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome — where the sale was held — calling for an end to drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and an immediate hiring of a thousand workers to clean up and repair aging oil infrastructure, including rigs, platforms, pipelines and refineries.<br /><br />They included Gulf Coast residents and local environmental organizations 350 Louisiana, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Bridge the Gulf and Vanishing Earth. Members of national groups Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Oil Change International, Indigena, Bold Nebraska, Keeper of the Mountains Foundation, the Center for Biological Diversity, Rethink Energy, Tar Sands Blockade and Rainforest Action Network also took part in the protest.<br /><br />No effort was made to stop the protesters from entering the Superdome or the room where the auction took place. While the protest had been publicized since February on social media, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>) seemed caught off guard.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A3562-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Protesters march to the Superdome in New Orleans. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A1226-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, leads protesters to the lease sale inside the Superdome. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br />The protesters chanted throughout the lease sale, which lasted about an hour and a half. They drowned out the voice of<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> Gulf of Mexico Regional Director Michael Celata who was calling out the bids and announcing the lease winners.<br /><br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MMxlc1_64yU" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span><br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XSpB75MH4Is" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><br />“We have being saying ‘Yes’ and going along with drilling in the Gulf far too long,” Cherri Foytlin, a Gulf Coast activist, told DeSmog, “Today I said, ‘No.’”<br /><br />Security personnel tried to remove Foytlin from a platform at the lease sale. When police officers grabbed her, Foytlin went limp, ending up lying on her back. Rather than drag her away, she was permitted to remain on the platform.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A1685-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Police try to remove Cherri Foytlin from the protest. © 2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A1713-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 533px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Cherri Foytlin, after being released by the police, returns to where she was standing before they tried to remove her. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br />“They could have arrested me,” Foytlin told DeSmog. “But there were too many of us that they would also have to arrest.”<br /><br />A representative from <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> asked Foytlin what the group thought they were going to accomplish since their actions were not going to stop the sale. Foytlin explained she was protecting the planet for the sake of her children.<br /><br />She asked him to “go back to the President and tell him that this is just the beginning. Our numbers are swelling.”<br /><br />“If this president really wants to be the guy he said he was going to be after Paris, he needs to be proactive and stop the sale of federal land for drilling right now,” Foytlin told DeSmog.<br /><br /><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span><br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1fV_MTs51tw" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><br />“This is horrible,” <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> representative Caryl Fagot said to DeSmog. “What do they think they are doing?”<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A3949-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> representative Caryl Fagot reacts to protesters during the lease sale in the Superdome. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/03/21/momentum-builds-against-obama-administration-plans-auction-oil-and-gas-drilling-rights-gulf-mexico" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">At a March 17 public hearing</a> on the next round of Gulf of Mexico lease sales slated for 2017, Fagot said nothing would stop the March 23 auction and that the place to voice one’s opinion was at one of the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> public hearings beforehand, not at the event itself.<br /><br />The activists disagreed. “This is beautiful,” Bucket Brigade director Anne Rolfes told DeSmog.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A1315_0.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 521px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Oil and gas industry representatives at the federal lease sale in the Superdome. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A3741-Edit-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 509px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>John Filostrat, a <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> public affairs officer, makes an effort to control the crowd. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br />Rolfes testified at <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s hearing, but still had hoped to stop the lease sales. The hundreds of people willing to disrupt the meeting gave her hope. Two years before, only a couple dozen protesters attended the lease sale.<br /><br />After the sale, a few of the protesters taunted workers who were taking down <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s displays in the Superdome’s hallway. “You should be ashamed,” one of the activists said to them.<br /><br />“The sneakers you are wearing are made with oil. Your cell phone too,” a worker countered. The worker conceded safety on the oil rigs isn’t what it should be, but told DeSmog he thought the protesters were ignorant.<br /><br />Twenty-six offshore energy companies submitted 148 bids on 128 blocks for Central Sale 241. No bids were submitted for Eastern Sale 226, according to <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s press release. <a href="http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/orleans/protestors-oppose-drilling-permits-in-gulf-of-mexico/98103480" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">It was the fewest bids submitted at in auction</a> in the last 20 years.<br /><br /><span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mP6tKj1EExM" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br /><br />The protesters held a rally outside the Superdome after the sale. Among them was activist Hilton Kelley, the Goldman Environmental Prize winner who has fought to keep pollution at bay in the African-American West Side neighborhood of Port Arthur.<br /><br />“The people who live on the Gulf Coast have suffered enough because of <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span>,” he told DeSmog.<br /><br />“Though we didn’t stop the sale, our voices were heard,” Kelley said, describing the protest as “righteous.”<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A2059-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Protesters pose for a group photo as a helicopter passes over them. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Lead photo credit: Children take part in a protest against new federal lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-68669847004647534522016-03-22T20:06:00.001-04:002016-03-22T22:28:59.770-04:00Momentum Builds Against Obama Admin Plans To Auction Oil and Gas Drilling Rights In Gulf of Mexico<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Monday, March 21, 2016 - 12:51</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 17.6px;">Hundreds of Gulf Coast residents are expected to join a coalition of environmental and social justice groups on Wednesday to protest outside the Superdome, where the </span><a href="http://www.nonewleases.org/" style="color: #3399cc; font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 17.6px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>) intends to auction off leases for offshore oil and gas drilling in</a><span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 17.6px;"> the Gulf of Mexico.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px;">Forty-seven organizations sent </span><a href="http://webiva-downton.s3.amazonaws.com/877/de/e/7666/Cancel_GOM_March_23_auction_Group_letter.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a letter to President Obama</a><span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px;"> last week calling for him to cancel the planned lease auctions that would release millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling. The sales include 43 million acres set to be auctioned on Wednesday, and another 47 million acres proposed for auction in 2017. </span></div>
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Only two people spoke at <a href="http://www.boem.gov/Five-Year-Program-2017-2022/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s public hearing</a> in New Orleans on March 17 on the bureau's proposed plan to offer 47.41 million acres to the oil and gas industry to lease in the Central Planning Area of the Gulf of Mexico in 2017.<br />
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> representative Caryl Fagot told DeSmog after the public hearing: “This was the place for people to voice their opposition to new leasing, not at the auction itself, when it is too late.”<br />
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<img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IMG_0396.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 608px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> makes a presentation at a public hearing in New Orleans. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br />
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Though the Obama Administration recently took the <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/15032016/obama-halts-atlantic-drilling-keeps-arctic-and-gulf-open-business" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Atlantic Coast out of its 2017-2022 plan</a> for offshore fossil fuel development, it proposed three leases for the Arctic and ten for the Gulf of Mexico.<br />
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Fagot pointed out that those who missed the hearings on proposed lease sales in the Gulf to take place in 2017, have until May 2 to send in their comments.<br />
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The two speakers who testified were Anne Rolfes, the director of the <a href="http://www.labucketbrigade.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Louisiana Bucket Brigade</a>, and Monique Verdin, member of the United Houma Nation tribe and a Gulf Coast liaison of the <a href="http://www.ienearth.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Indigenous Environmental Network</a>. Both called for no new leasing in the Gulf. New drilling puts the region at risk for another oil spill and any oil recovered, when burned off, will contribute to climate change.<br />
<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VoL2AlCPNX4" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br />
<em><span style="font-size: 11px;">Video: Monique Verdin Speaks at <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s Public Hearing in New Orleans.</span></em><br />
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Rolfes thinks <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> did a bad job getting the word out about the March 17 meeting because many area residents oppose expansion of offshore drilling operations. She became aware of the hearing only two days prior, after finding a public notice in a local weekly newspaper.<br />
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> defended its public hearing notification process, stating it ran ads in local newspapers and posted the information on the bureau’s website. But <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> representatives admitted its last two hearings were not well attended. There was only one person at one event, and at another, no one showed up at all.<br />
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<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fsUWSNWvuyU" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br />
<em><span style="font-size: 11px;">Video: John Filostrat, a <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> public affairs officer, explains the new agencies created to replace the Minerals Management Service after the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> oil disaster. </span></em><br />
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> is one of three agencies created by the Obama Administration to replace the Minerals Management Service, after it was determined the regulatory agency was ill-equipped to prevent or deal with the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> oil disaster. The bureau is responsible for environmental studies and managing new leases on the outer continental shelf.<br />
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The other two agencies are the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BSEE</span>) and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ONRR</span>). <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BSEE</span> is responsible for safety and environmental regulations on all offshore energy developments, and<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ONRR</span> collects royalties from oil and gas produced on federal property.<br />
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An environmental activist at the March 17 hearing voiced his concern about the <a href="http://www.boem.gov/Five-Year-Program-2017-2022/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> plans to lease in 2017.</a> He said leases are in waters that are double the depth of the waters where the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred, and asked <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> how the bureau would get a similar incident under control in much deeper waters.<br />
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“It would be difficult,“ a <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span> representative conceded.<br />
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<img alt="" src="http://editor.desmogblog.com:8000/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/BP%20oil%20spill%20Aerials02.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Vessels at the site where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, leading to the 2010 <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> oil disaster. ©2010 Julie Dermansky</em></span><br />
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“We take unknown environmental damages into account in our work,” Beth Ord, a biologist with <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>, told DeSmog. However, despite the incomplete scientific data on the impacts of the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> blowout, it is <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s job to determine the feasibility of new projects in the Gulf, and make sure that if new drilling takes place, it is done safely.<br />
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“The Gulf of Mexico has been devastated by negligent oil companies and continues to be plundered for profit,” said Ruth Breech, a senior campaigner at <a href="http://www.ran.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rainforest Action Network </a>at a press conference before <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s hearing. Breaking up the regulatory agency doesn’t change her stance that the oil should be left in the ground.<br />
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Organizers of the upcoming Superdome protest hope they can build on the momentum created by the national <a href="http://time.com/4226452/blm-oil-gas-leases/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Keep It in the Ground movement’s direct actions</a> to block federal auctions of drilling rights on public lands across the country.<br />
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“The people in the Gulf Coast are finally waking up to the utter destruction of handing over our Gulf of Mexico to Big Oil. Oil spills, a destroyed coast and seafood in peril is what has come from drilling over the last fifty years,” said Rolfes, who is working with the Rainforest Action Network and other groups to stop the auction on 23 March.<br />
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Rolfes acknowledged that many jobs in Louisiana are connected to the oil and gas industry, making her stance a touchy subject in Louisiana. But she believes new job opportunities can be created to restore the coast and build renewable energy sources.<br />
<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0XbaYhpc3w4" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="660"></iframe></span><br />
“In a chilling foretelling, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BP</span> nicknamed its own Deepwater Horizon oil drilling lease ‘Macondo,’ the cursed town of mirrors in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s <em>100 Years of Solitude</em>, and the story of generations doomed to repeat history,” Janet MacGillivray, Esq., with <a href="http://www.indigena.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Indigena</a>, wrote in a press release. MacGillivray’s organization is involved with the <a href="http://www.indigena.org/lifelines" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">programming including seminars and films that is taking place in the days preceding the auction</a>.<br />
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Josh Fox, the producer and director of Gasland and Gasland 2, will screen his film <em><a href="https://vimeo.com/147539163" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change</a></em>, at the Joy Theater on 21 March. All of the events are free and open to the public.<br />
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The <a href="http://boemoceaninfo.com/review/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">information presented at <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span></a>’s public hearing is on the bureau’s website. <a href="http://boemoceaninfo.com/get-involved/comments/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Public comments on the proposed 2017 leases can be made by email until May 2.</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Lead image: Anne Rolfes, the director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Monique Verdin, a Gulf Coast Liaison for Indigenous Environmental Network, and Ruth Breech, a senior campaigner at Rainforest Action Network at a press conference held before <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BOEM</span>’s public hearing in New Orleans. ©2016 Julie Dermansky</em></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-23474915106074919882015-11-25T00:51:00.001-05:002015-11-25T15:14:45.964-05:00WISE WOMEN MEDIA FOR NOVEMBER 25, 2015--JULIE DERMANSKY, PHOTOJOURNALIST ON "FRACKING IN FLORIDA"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKdfu7ktULA/VlU5K4zQVXI/AAAAAAAAMgE/JgCuLzEJ_lo/s1600/Julie%2BDermansky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKdfu7ktULA/VlU5K4zQVXI/AAAAAAAAMgE/JgCuLzEJ_lo/s640/Julie%2BDermansky.jpg" width="568" /></a><br />
Julie Dermansky at 6 Flags in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina<br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">"Fracking in Florida" with Julie Dermansky</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />This was a special broadcast on <a href="http://americanfreedomradio.com/"><span class="s2">American Freedom Radio</span></a> on November 21, 2015. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><a href="http://www.jsdart.com/#!/index"><span class="s2">Julie Dermansky</span></a> is my returning guest on this show; she is an artist, multimedia expert and photojournalist. Her stories and photographs have been published on such news outlets as <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/"><span class="s2">Truthout</span></a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/"><span class="s2">DeSmogBlog</span></a> and <a href="http://www.alternet.org/"><span class="s2">Alternet</span></a> just to name a few. And of course, I repost her work on <a href="http://www.challengingtherhetoric.com/"><span class="s2">Challenging the Rhetoric</span></a> and <a href="http://hoodooed.blogspot.com/"><span class="s2">Hoodooed</span></a>.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />She and I got together last week on the phone and we had a long conversation about some of the legalities of Fracking in Florida, the fragile locations (contiguous to the Everglades and the last Florida Panther preserve), the ongoing threats of land grabs, the environment, the state's precious water, the Indigenous people's way of life, the wildlife and what she has documented during her investigations. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />We also discussed the <a href="http://www.evergladesrogg.org/"><span class="s2">River of Grass Greenway</span></a> which threatens to destroy the Everglades. We briefly touched on the planned <a href="http://www.sabaltrailtransmission.com/"><span class="s2">Sabal Trail</span></a> Natural Gas Pipeline that will extend from Alabama, through southern Georgia and intersect the center of Florida down to the Green Swamp and Orlando areas. A pipeline accident here could potentially threaten most of Tampa's drinking water, the largest metro area in the state.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />This story is meant to be heard! </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks for tuning in--be sure to check out the source information (hyperlinked) and share!</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />REMEMBER, it is just a conversation!</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Websites we mentioned:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="http://www.spectrabusters.org/"><span style="font-size: large;">Spectrabusters</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/stonecraballiance/"><span style="font-size: large;">Stonecrab Alliance</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="http://www.preserveourparadise.org/home"><span style="font-size: large;">Preserve Our Paradise</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/stopthesabaltrainnaturalgaspipeline/"><span style="font-size: large;">Stop the Sabal Trail Natural Gas Pipeline</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />(<i>There is an approximate 2 minute gap in the audio due to a technical problem that occurred while we were recording; this is between 42 and 44 minutes.</i>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">CLICK THE ORANGE BUTTON WITH ARROW TO PLAY THE AUDIO</span><br />
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-88434141246799875352015-11-18T18:38:00.001-05:002015-11-18T18:41:48.372-05:00Support Strengthens to Stop Oil and Gas Development to Keep Florida’s Everglades Wild<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Sunday, November 15, 2015 - 14:49</div>
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Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee tribe and Panther clan, has made it her mission to protect the Everglades. The 49-year-old grandmother, who operates an airboat tour company in the Everglades, plans to spend the rest of her life protecting the land of her ancestors for future generations. </div>
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Despite millions of dollars spent on conservation in recent years, the Everglades is still threatened by factors including, pollution, invasive species, salt water intrusion, and the ongoing development of South Florida that continues to encroach on indigenous lands.</div>
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Yet of all the threats, Osceola sees a proposed bike path that would cut through the Everglades as the most important threat to stop – and she is not alone. </div>
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Osceola is part of a growing coalition of Indian tribes, environmental groups, and concerned citizens who are fighting the creation of The River of Grass Greenway (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span>), a bike path that would connect Naples to Miami. Stopping the bike path is a move to keep what is still wild in the Everglades, wild.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A2572.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 561px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Betty Osceola on an airboat in the Everglades. © 2015 Julie Dermansky</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Alligator in the Everglades. © 2015 Julie Dermansky</span></em></span></div>
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The <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span> was designed to be built along <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">U.S.</span> Route 41, one of two roads that cross through the Everglades. The path, if created, would be a multi-purpose 76-mile-long, 12 to 16 foot wide road that would include restroom facilities and additional loop paths that cut into the Everglades. </div>
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Construction of the new path would cut through seven national and state parks, two native reservations, and a World Heritage Site.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A0845-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Swamp along Turner River in the Big Cypress National Preserve. © 2015 Julie Dermansky </span></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Deer on the side of <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">U.S.</span> Route 41. © 2015 Julie Dermansky </span></em></span></div>
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The coalition’s objections against the project include further destruction of the wetlands, disruption of vital watersheds, fragmentation of critical habitat for endangered species, the further commercialization of the Everglades, encroachment on indigenous land, and desecration of burial grounds.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A0381.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 525px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Python captured in the Everglades, at the Skunk Ape Nature Reserve <span class="amp">&</span> Research Center in Ochopee on <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">U.S.</span> Route 41. © 2015 Julie Dermansky </span></em></span></div>
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Some also fear that the pathway could potentially open the floodgate to new oil drilling and fracking because the design plans leave open the possibility of incorporating other elements that could include power lines or even pipelines.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A2376.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Pipeline in the Everglades. © 2015 Julie Dermansky</span></em></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The bike path is an example of greenwashing at its worst,” Osceola told DeSmog during an airboat tour in the wetlands. “It is being sold as a project to promote stewardship, help conservation, and help Everglades restoration,” but she and others against the project believe it will do the opposite. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>There is no need for anything new,” Osceola said. “Cutting trees to build a road isn’t green. The greenest thing would be to use the bike paths we have already,” she said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<strong><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>: Betty Osceola on Environmental Issues Facing the Everglades</strong></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6yWUmWaepac" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="810"></iframe></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The Miccosukee tribe issued an <a href="https://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/272285703?access_key=key-6tvOdQpQMtOR1B68QVAU&allow_share=false&escape=false&show_recommendations=false&view_mode=scroll" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">official comment letter against the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span></a> draft plan that includes a list of federal acts it alleges it breaks, including skipping initial tribal consultation before commissioning the feasibility study.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
There are now over 400 miles of paved and unpaved trails for hiking and biking already throughout the Everglades, according to a <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/florida/calusa" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Sierra Club Calusa Group</a> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span> letter opposing the project signed by dozens of concerned citizens and local business owners located along the route of the proposed bike path.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Since writing the letter, after further analysis we realized the number of existing trails could be over 800,” John Scott, Chairman of the Sierra Club Calusa Group told DeSmog.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Damage caused by building existing paths was done and paid for decades ago, the letters states, and asking taxpayers to pay the bill for this $140 million project plus maintenance at a rate of $7,500 per mile per year, doesn’t make sense. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The letter concludes, “This project is an unnecessary use of public funds while community benefits are minimal and dubious in value.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Among other problems the new path will create, the letter argues that the new path will make conditions for those who use<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">U.S.</span> Route 41 more dangerous. The bike path would eliminate existing shoulder space where locals traditionally stop and fish. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByAHF_hncK2HdnFlRHFwcFpUTWc/view" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The River of Grass Draft Feasibility Study and Master Plan</a>, released in May by the <a href="http://www.nationalparkservice.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">National Park Service</a>, prepared by <a href="http://www.aecom.com/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">AECOM</span></a>Technical Services, identifies more than 20 wildlife species that could be affected by the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span>, including the endangered Florida panther.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
According to the Miami-Dade County Parks Department, the final feasibility study, paid for with a $1 million federal grant, will be released by January 2016.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
As a decision on the project looms seven years after it was initiated, the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span> is losing support.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<a href="https://www.naplespathways.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Naples Pathway Coalition</a>, a nonprofit that advocates for safe roads for bicyclists and pedestrians that originally proposed the project in 2006, withdrew its support. Though the group has not condemned the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span>, Beth Brainard, the coalition's executive director, told <a href="http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/nonprofit-drops-support-for-bike-path-through-the-everglades-7295301" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> Broward Palm Beach New Times, </a>that the organization feels its resources are better spent working on other projects. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The Miami Dade Government has a <a href="http://www.miamidade.gov/rogg/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">page on its website</a> about the plans for the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span> that is arguably an endorsement – it doesn’t mention any potential negative outcomes.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
DeSmog asked whether the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Dept. supported the bike path. Mark A. Heinicke, senior park planner and project manager for the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span>, didn’t answer the question. Instead, Heinicke referred DeSmog to an advocacy group called <a href="http://www.evergladesrogg.org/j/frogg/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Friends of the River of Grass Greenway (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">FROGG</span>)</a> to get more information, and sent a list of “quick facts” about the project that states: “No decision has been made to move forward on this project at this time.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Maria I. Nardi, chief of Planning and Design Excellence with the parks department would not indicate one way or the other where the department stands. She wrote in an email: “The Parks Department is simply facilitating the Feasibility Study, various path options have been presented, and Federal agencies are responsible for making a final decision on the project.“</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Osceola sees the Parks Department’s lack of commitment as a sign the tide is turning against the project.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
However, even without the path, the Everglades is still under constant threat. “Today’s Everglades cannot sustain human life in the way it did for our ancestors,” Osceola said. “Now to exist here, you have to bring in food and water. People have been advised not to eat more than one meal of fish caught in the Everglades a week due to the high level of phosphate and mercury pollution.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Another threat is the expansion of drilling in the Everglades. Oil extraction is already taking place at the Raccoon Point oil fields, inside the Big Cypress National Preserve. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
When learning about the project proposal, the word “collocate” made Osceola and others question if the bike path isn’t just a way to get taxpayers to cover needed infrastructure to expand oil and gas operations. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The Parks Department did not comment on what potential elements could be collocated with the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span>. However, the department has previously claimed: “No part of this study is intended to promote development nor does it in any way analyze or allow for oil or gas exploration.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
But opponents of the project believe companies could stand to benefit by gaining access to the environmentally sensitive areas. Osceola and Scott wouldn’t be surprised at all if Raccoon Point is able to benefit from the building of the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span> in some way.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Currently under consideration is a <a href="http://www.naplesnews.com/news/seismic-testing-plans-for-big-cypress-oil-drilling-concern-panther-advocates-ep-543680389-330648001.html" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">proposal by Burnett Oil Company to seismically test</a> 70,454 acres in the Big Cypress National Preserve. Seismic testing is done to determine if recoverable oil exists. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
And last year the Dan A. Hughes Company was <a href="http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/dep-busts-everglades-oil-driller-for-fracking-clams-up-slammed-for-cover-up-6447162" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">caught fracking without permission in Naples</a>. The public outcry against the frack job resulted in a local ban against <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/17/florida-town-bans-fracking-will-it-last" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">fracking in Bonita Springs,</a> and a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/17/florida-town-bans-fracking-will-it-last" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">bill co-sponsored by Democratic State Senators Dwight Bullard</a> and Darren Soto to ban fracking statewide. But fracking and other forms of well stimulation in the Everglades remains a possibility. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<strong><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>: Senator Dwight Bullard on Fracking Ban in Florida </strong></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="515" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g70rwOFpsNY" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="810"></iframe></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/17/florida-town-bans-fracking-will-it-last" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">At a public meeting in Naples</a> ahead of the 2016 legislative session, the public had a chance to comment on new bills dealing with the fracking industry. Republican Congressman Curt Clawson took the floor and thanked those at the meeting for the service they were providing to the state. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
He reluctantly talked with DeSmog after he stepped out of the meeting. “I am not a big fan of drilling in the Gulf and we are on the record with that,” Clawson said. “With respect to the Everglades, number one, we respect private property rights. That is important in our economy and our society. Number two, we are respectful of the state’s regulatory authority. And number three, I’m not a big fan of drilling in the Everglades.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
After making that statement, Clawson demanded a promise that his statement on private property rights be published with his statement about drilling. After no such promise was given, Clawson expressed regret for having spoken on the record, and was visibly shaken by the idea that his statement about not being a big fan of drilling in the Everglades would be published without his statement on having respect for private property. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Though the oil and gas industry plays a small role in Florida’s economy, speaking out against the oil industry seems to be political taboo for many state politicians, including Clawson.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
During a visit to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/23/us/politics/-2015-04-23-us-politics-obama-everglades-trip-climate-agenda.html?_r=0" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Everglades on Earth Day</a>, President Obama used the opportunity to take a jab at Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott, who prohibited state employees from using the term “climate change.” </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Climate change is threatening this treasure and the communities that depend on it, which includes almost all of South Florida,” Obama said. “And if we don’t act, there may not be an Everglades as we know it. Simply refusing to say the words ‘climate change’ doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t happening.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Opposition to the bike path peaked in March, when indigenous people and their supporters <a href="http://wlrn.org/post/everglades-bike-path-not-final-protesters-want-planning-stop" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">walked the length of the proposed bike path during a protest</a> to raise awareness to the project.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A0275.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 500px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Baby alligator at the Skunk Ape Nature Reserve <span class="amp">&</span> Research Center in Ochopee on <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">U.S.</span> Route 41. © 2015 Julie Dermansky </span></em></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A0224-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Nicole Williams on the Turner River, with a kayak provided by Everglades Adventure Tours. © 2015 Julie Dermansky</em></span> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Traditionally the Florida tribes have wanted to be left alone,” Nicole Williams, a craftsperson and teacher of indigenous descent who took part in the walk, told DeSmog. “But in an effort to protect what is left of the Everglades, that has changed.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The Internet has been an important tool for indigenous people across the continent to mobilize against further destruction of the Earth in the fight to stop tar sands use,” she said. “People coming together to fight for the planet is our only hope of saving what is left.” </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Yet supporters of the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROGG</span> like Maureen Bonness, a co-founder of <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">FROGG</span>, an advocacy group established to support the project, believes the protest is being led by a “not-in-my-backyard” group of recreational hunters and others who just want the Everglades to themselves, <a href="http://scripps-cms.endplay.com/web/npdn/news/local-news/proposed-bike-path-through-the-glades-drawing-fire_68550302" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">according to the Naples Daily News</a>. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The only claim her organization makes about the project, which those who oppose it don’t dispute, is that it could bring hundreds of thousands more visitors to the Everglades.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>How much population can the Everglades sustain and still keep its wildness?” Oscaola asks. “If you keep taking away from the areas that animals have to live – where are they going to go?” she pondered from atop of her airboat in the heart of the Everglades. “This land can only sustain so much life.” </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A2120-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">The Everglades. © 2015 Julie Dermansky </span></em></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-26791908893588122752015-11-03T22:49:00.001-05:002015-11-03T22:57:37.141-05:00“Stingray Devices” — Why Nothing is Secret on Your Phone<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.floridanewsflash.com/news/stingray-devices-why-nothing-is-secret-on-your-phone/">“Stingray Devices” — Why Nothing is Secret on Your Phone</a><br />
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My latest story on <a href="http://www.floridanewsflash.com/">http://www.floridanewsflash.com</a><br />
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-37748471125444183032015-11-01T08:28:00.001-05:002015-11-02T00:28:51.159-05:00Battle to Keep Florida Frack-Free Heats Up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: white;">Julie Dermansky</span></a> • Saturday, October 31, 2015 - 05:58<br />
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The battle to keep Florida frack-free is intensifying ahead of the 2016 state legislative session.</div>
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Fracking became an issue last year after Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DEP</span>) <a href="http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/dep-busts-everglades-oil-driller-for-fracking-clams-up-slammed-for-cover-up-6447162" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">revealed that the Dan A. Hughes Co. had fracked the Collier-Hogan well in Naples</a>, despite regulators telling it not to until the agency had a chance to thoroughly review the company’s plans.</div>
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Shortly after the news broke, the move to ban fracking in Florida began.</div>
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Democratic State Senators Dwight Bullard and Darren Soto filed Senate Bill 166 that called for a statewide ban on fracking. Their bill failed, but was <a href="http://floridanationalnews.com/blog/state-senators-soto-and-bullard-file-fracking-ban-bill-166/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reintroduced this year</a>.</div>
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In July, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/17/florida-town-bans-fracking-will-it-last" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bonita Springs, a city near Naples, passed a ban</a> on all types of well-stimulation techniques, including fracking. Nearby <a href="http://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/estero/2015/10/28/estero-take-up-fracking-ban-november/74733818/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Estero is considering a ban</a> as well.</div>
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In a move that would void existing bans, companion legislation sponsored by Republican State Senator Garrett Richter<a href="http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2016/0318" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">(<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">SB</span>318</a>) and Republican State Representative Ray Rodrigues (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">HB</span> 191) calls for statewide regulations for fracking. The bills, if passed, would preempt all local ordinances governing the oil and gas industry.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A9447-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Collier County legislative delegation on October 15 in Naples. ©2015 Julie Dermansky </span></em></span></div>
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On October 15, the public had an opportunity to address a Collier County legislative delegation on the bills meant to govern the fracking industry. Senators Bullard and Richter were part of the delegation present at the <a href="https://naplesherald.com/2015/10/16/local-leaders-meet-with-legislators-ahead-of-2016-session/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Naples meeting</a>. </div>
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Anti-fracking activists stated that nothing short of a fracking ban would protect their families from the harm the industry can cause, pointing to other states where documented incidents of negative impacts caused by fracking are stacking up. </div>
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Objections were made to the preemption of local ordinances governing oil and gas that would void Bonita’s ban and prevent other municipalities from initiating their own ban.</div>
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Richter said he is “not pro or anti fracking.” But he warned if the proposed statewide fracking ban fails to pass, Florida would be left with no regulations to govern fracking. Currently, no state agency has the legal authority to regulate fracking.<br />
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He doesn’t believe a statewide ban has any chance of passing, and insists the companion bills are the state’s best option to protect Florida. Not only would his <span style="line-height: 1.1em;">legislation offer the first statewide regulations governing fracking, it would also ban fracking until the state conducts its own study.</span></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A0142.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 553px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">John Dwyer at a press conference, during a break at the meeting. ©2015 Julie Dermansky</span></em></span></div>
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Naples anti-fracking activist John Dwyer disputed Richter’s claim that “passing something is better than nothing.”</div>
<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 18.59px;">SB</span><span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.3px; line-height: 18.59px;">318 is “something that is far worse than nothing,” Dwyer told the panel. “It hobbles local governments so that they cannot defend their citizens against the dangers of the oil industry: the traffic, the noise, the pollution, the damage to natural resources, the health risks.”</span><br />
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>: <a href="https://youtu.be/RPx4DL56IvE" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Senator Bullard on Bill 166 That Calls For A Ban on Fracking in Florida</a></div>
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<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RPx4DL56IvE" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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In a state where Governor Rick Scott prohibits state employees from using the term “climate change,” Senator Bullard told DeSmog during an interview after the meeting,</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The devil’s in the details. The bills’ preemption of all local rules pertaining to the oil and gas industry will make it impossible for local governments to object to anything the oil and gas industry does in a meaningful way.”</div>
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According to Bullard, the Richter and Rodrigues bills are full of loopholes that leave Florida’s water supply vulnerable. Though they claim that the bills will force the industry to reveal all of the chemicals injected into the ground, it really isn’t so.</div>
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In fact, the industry will only have to disclose the chemicals that <a href="http://fracfocus.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">fracfocus.org</a>, a registry managed in part by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, requires. Fracfocus.org allows the industry to keep a portion of the chemicals it utilizes secret due to proprietary concerns. </div>
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>:<a href="https://youtu.be/ZD7gZ6W6X3s" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> Jennifer Hecker On Well Stimulation Treatments in Florida</a></div>
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<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZD7gZ6W6X3s" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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Jennifer Hecker, director of natural resource policy for the <a href="http://www.conservancy.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Conservancy of Southwest Florida</a>, also finds Richter's and Rodrigues' companion bills plagued with problems. They only address fracking, offering no regulation of other forms of well stimulation techniques.</div>
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A <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Legislator%20Handout%202016.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">document (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PDF</span>)</a> the Conservancy prepared for legislators explains how <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">HB</span> 191 and <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">SB</span> 318 fail: </div>
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<span style="line-height: 17.6px;">o </span>This legislation only addresses those techniques which fracture rock, excluding dissolving techniques and operations which “incidentally fracture the formation.”</div>
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o We know operations are completed in Florida using chemical mixtures to dissolve rock as well as fracture it. In order to address risks associated with this chemical use, dissolving and fracturing operations must be captured.</div>
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o The definition of well stimulation introduces a loophole by exempting operations that “incidentally fracture.” It is unlikely an operator would unintentionally fracture rock as this requires a great deal of fluid and high pressure. Even if this did occur, it would likely go unnoticed as fracturing occurs out of view thousands of feet below ground.</div>
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o While a draft hydraulic fracturing study has been prepared by <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">EPA</span>, the study does not include examples of well stimulation in Florida. Consequently, a Florida specific study is needed to evaluate the risks of unconventional extraction. </div>
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The Conservancy played a key role in uncovering what happened at the Hogan-Collier well, where Florida’s first publicly disclosed frack job took place. </div>
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While reviewing documents released by the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DEP</span>, Hecker learned that once a company has a permit to drill a well conventionally, all it has to do to use other well-stimulation treatments, including hydraulic fracturing, acid fracturing, and matrix acidizing, is to submit a workover notice to the state. And if the workover is marked “trade secret,” the public won’t know about it.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A9629-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, near the Collier-Hogan well, is home to the last remaining old growth cypress trees in the world. ©2015 Julie Dermansky </span></em></span></div>
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The documents show that Hughes stimulated the Hogan-Collier well with matrix acidizing, before it informed the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DEP</span> that it intended to workover the well again by fracking it. The records reveal that the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DEP</span> was not concerned about the matrix acidizing, only the facking, but it concerns Hecker.</div>
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Matrix acidizing uses many of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, though it is not considered fracking. The chemicals are injected into the well with less pressure than required for fracking to dissolve rock (limestone in Florida’s case) to increase the flow of oil.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Matrix acidizing is more likely to be utilized than fracking in Florida,” Hecker said, and legislators she spoke to told her “the process is thought to be fairly commonly used in Florida.” </div>
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The discovery that workover treatments can be kept confidential was alarming.</div>
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Hecker pointed out there is no way for the public to know how many wells have been worked over with well-stimulation treatments.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The Conservancy isn’t pushing for a fracking ban,” she said, but it does not support the regulatory bills as they currently stand. </div>
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>: <a href="https://youtu.be/zxHzbGnr3xA" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Senator Richter and Pamela Duran Talking About Fracking</a><br />
<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zxHzbGnr3xA" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/05/20/florida-everglades-new-frontline-fracking" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Pamela Duran, a Naples resident</a> who lives 1,000 feet from a site where Hughes had planned to drill before the <a href="http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2014/07/18/state-dep-revokes-oil-drillers-permits-files-suit/12829143/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">state revoked the company’s drilling permit</a>, approached Richter during a break in the session. She asked him if he believed fracking is safe. “Yes,” Richter said, explaining that his conclusion is based on findings of Florida’s <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DEP</span> and the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">EPA</span>’s recent study. </div>
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<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/06/25/epa-fracking-study-close-look-numbers-fine-print-details" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">LI</span>ke other pro-industry supporters, Richter’s takeaway</a> from the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">EPA</span>’s preliminary report on fracking's potential impact on drinking water resources <span style="line-height: 1.1em;">was that the fracking doesn’t damage the water supply. “Fracking can be accomplished without any material harm to our water supply,” he said, “That study would refute that it damages our water supply.”</span></div>
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He admitted to not reading the <a href="http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/hfstudy/recordisplay.cfm?deid=244651" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">entire report</a>, so it is unclear if he realizes the report determined that the fracking industry was responsible for contamination of some drinking water supplies. </div>
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In an interview with DeSmog, Richter dismissed the concerns of those citizens speaking out against his bill as “emotional,” and denied that the bill would make the Bonita Springs fracking ban illegal.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Bonita’s ban is more of a public statement than it is an actual ban,” Richter said. ”No one is going to go into Bonita Springs and go for oil. Let’s call a duck a duck.”</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>If our fracking ban is symbolic, why is Richter pursuing a bill to overturn it?” Ben Nelson, the mayor of Bonita Springs, asked DeSmog. His citizens don’t want their city to be transformed into an industrial zone. The city’s ban on all well stimulation techniques, including fracking, was put in place to make sure that doesn’t happen. Nelson objects to any bill that strips local municipalities of their right to govern land use.</div>
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Senator Bullard also objects to such moves. His district currently includes part of Collier County, the county where new well stimulation activities are most likely to occur. </div>
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Efforts to redistrict the counties Bullard represents are already in the works. However, Bullard plans to continue fighting for a fracking ban even if new redistricting rules take Collier County away from him.</div>
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“Aquifers don’t follow redistricting rules,” he said.</div>
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<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>: Antifracking Activist, Dr. Karen Dwyer at a press conference in Naples</div>
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<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XNXnFwOBEEE" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A1883-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 540px; max-width: 100%; width: 810px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Beach in Bonita Springs. ©2015 Julie Dermansky</span></em></span></div>
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Attachment: The Conservency of Southwest Florida’s Legislator Handout 2016 </div>
Article was originally published here:</div>
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<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/10/31/battle-keep-florida-frack-free-heating">http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/10/31/battle-keep-florida-frack-free-heating</a></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-85140000266983275622015-10-23T22:45:00.000-04:002015-10-23T22:45:48.193-04:00AN OPEN LETTER TO THE 3,200 PEOPLE HOPING TO KILL BEARS OVER THE NEXT WEEK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5IaPtro6CuA/Virv54y3GPI/AAAAAAAAMUk/B43c-67BU8k/s1600/BEAR%2BHUNT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="596" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5IaPtro6CuA/Virv54y3GPI/AAAAAAAAMUk/B43c-67BU8k/s640/BEAR%2BHUNT.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Dear Bear Hunters,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">It’s strange to me that you consider killing living things a sport. That you smile over the carcass of a once-living thing and revel in your kill both shocks and offends me.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Killing animals for food is one thing – cows are cute, but I love me some steak – but to do it for “sport” just seems sick.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">But even though I don’t get it, I do understand that there is a time and a place for hunting. Allowing for regulated hunting seasons can effectively control nuisance animals.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1">I don’t blame you, hunter. You’ve been told the Florida black bear is a nuisance animal. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told you the bear population had come booming back since being removed from the endangered species list.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">They told you people were being attacked because bears were encroaching into neighborhoods.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">What you may not have been told, you 3,200 hunters who have received permits to hunt these once endangered animals, is that it’s their land that’s been encroached.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">Read the entire article here:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="p3">
<span class="s2"><a href="http://floridapolitics.com/archives/193108-an-open-letter-to-the-3200-people-hoping-to-kill-bears-over-the-next-week">http://floridapolitics.com/archives/193108-an-open-letter-to-the-3200-people-hoping-to-kill-bears-over-the-next-week</a></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-32871479048641993162015-10-05T11:22:00.001-04:002015-10-05T11:23:54.592-04:00Take Me Home--Documentary About Homelessness in Orlando, Florida <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Klb-iwmpxQY" width="420"></iframe>
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Runtime is 58:20 minutes. Please share!</div>
Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-78183946740305228772015-09-07T15:50:00.004-04:002015-09-09T19:05:30.104-04:00Wise Women Media for September 9th, 2015--Flash Silvermoon, Tarotist, Astrologer, Healer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X5gDP_wGIXo/Ve3oEPzZ7KI/AAAAAAAAL4o/DAZo_9D49ag/s1600/Flash%2BSilvermoon%2Band%2BCrystals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #444444; color: white;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X5gDP_wGIXo/Ve3oEPzZ7KI/AAAAAAAAL4o/DAZo_9D49ag/s640/Flash%2BSilvermoon%2Band%2BCrystals.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;">We broadcast on Wednesday evening, September 9, 2015 at 9PM.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #444444;">LINK TO THE SHOW HERE: </span></span><span style="background-color: #444444; line-height: 18.76px;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia/flash-silvermoon-author-tarotist-astrologer-healer-interview-9915"><span style="color: cyan;">https://soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia/flash-silvermoon-author-tarotist-astrologer-healer-interview-9915</span></a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;">Flash Silvermoon is the host of the radio show "<i>What the Animals Tell Me</i>," a Tarot Creator with the <i>Wise Women's Tarot</i>, a Writer, a Tarot and Astrology Consultant, a Healer using Crystals and other healing modalities, activist and nature lover. She facilitates the "<i>Womanspirit Rising</i>" radio show.</span><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;">Flash Silvermoon's monthly free astrology column is called "Astroflash" and is part of her newsletter "Flashes of Insight."</span><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;">We will be chatting about current trends this month with the upcoming Mercury Retrograde, the Blood Moon in Aries at the end of the month and so much more.</span><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;">See more about Flash here:</span><span style="color: cyan;"><span style="line-height: 18.76px;"> </span><a href="http://www.flashsilvermoon.com/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="cursor: pointer; line-height: 18.76px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>www.flashsilvermoon.com/</a></span><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;">The link to the show will be posted here before showtime or check our social networks. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: white;">Facebook Event Page:</span><span style="color: red;"> </span><span style="color: cyan; line-height: 18.76px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1093987760641959/">https://www.facebook.com/events/1093987760641959/</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.76px;"><span style="color: white;">This show will be archived on</span><span style="color: red;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia" style="color: cyan; line-height: 18.76px;" target="_blank">SOUNDCLOUD</a><span style="color: white; line-height: 18.76px;">.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><br style="line-height: 18.76px;" /><span style="line-height: 18.76px;"><span style="color: white;">We are also on </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WiseWomenMedia" target="_blank"><span style="color: cyan;">Facebook</span></a><span style="color: white;">, </span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/wisewomenmedia" target="_blank"><span style="color: cyan;">Twitter</span></a><span style="color: white;"> and </span><a href="http://wisewomenmedia.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: cyan;">Tumblr</span></a><span style="color: white;">.</span></span></span><br />
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-34149092465018087602015-08-31T21:30:00.001-04:002015-08-31T21:36:56.677-04:00RESIST 450 ACTION CAMP September 5-9, 2015 in St. Augustine, Florida<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #7a7a7a; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8NgxXrJoIIQ/VeUAcr5FZDI/AAAAAAAAL1k/OyI8k3ZEeU0/s1600/450%2BResist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8NgxXrJoIIQ/VeUAcr5FZDI/AAAAAAAAL1k/OyI8k3ZEeU0/s640/450%2BResist.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><b style="background-color: white;">RESIST 450 ACTION CAMP</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><b style="background-color: white;">SEPTEMBER 5-9, 2015</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Join coalitions and groups from across the state of Florida by resisting, boycotting and protesting the city of <a href="http://staugustine-450.com/celebrate450/"><span class="s2">St. Augustine 450th Anniversary Celebration</span></a>, which shamefully celebrates and honors the doctrine of discovery and Spain’s crimes against humanity. Do not accept the covering up of 450 years of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">The city celebration events culminate on Tuesday, September 8, 2015 with a re-enactment of the landing of Pedro Menendez de Aviles on the shores of St. Augustine. In 2013, the Viva Florida 500 Celebration, which honored Juan Ponce de Leon, was <a href="http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2013/04/06/500-years-of-genocide-and-colonialism-protested-in-st-augustine/"><span class="s2">met with resistance</span></a>, and we hope to continue this opposition to the glorification of colonial criminals.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">See more at the website: <a href="http://www.resist450.org/"><span class="s2">http://www.resist450.org</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s3" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Facebook Page: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/resist450org"><span class="s4">http://www.facebook.com/resist450org</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">PRESS RELEASE below.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><b style="background-color: white;">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE </b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><b style="background-color: white;">August 26, 2015</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><b style="background-color: white;">Contact:</b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Shawn Mulford </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">(904)377-1856 </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Shannon Larsen</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">(904) 654-0200</span></div>
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<span class="s3" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Email: <a href="mailto:ancientrees@hotmail.com"><span class="s4">ancientrees@hotmail.com</span></a> </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #444444;"><b style="background-color: white;">City of St. Augustine’s 450th Commemoration – Violates The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution </b></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><i>St. Augustine, FL (August 26, 2015) </i>– The City of St Augustine’s 450th Commemoration activities violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment, according to a national nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC. This nonprofit organization, dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation, sent a letter to St. Augustine City Attorney, Isabelle Lopez, asking for the City to “please immediately rescind all City sponsorship of these activities and recoup any taxpayer funds spent on them.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">The events from the 450th Commemoration that raised the red flag are the “Procession to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine” and the “Commemorative Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine,” which is co-organized by the City and the Catholic Church, and sponsored financially by the City. Additionally, the “Menendez Landing Re Enactment” which would lead an objective observer to conclude that this event is sponsored by the City and open to the public, is actually being defined as a private event and is being held on the Church’s private property, according to the City Police. The Church, as reported by City Police, will determine who gets to attend and how they will be allowed to participate.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Article 1 section 3 of the Florida Constitution states, “No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination.” The Florida Constitution’s legal language is more prohibitive than the U.S. Constitution in many respects. The City of St. Augustine is requested to respond to the letter by close-of-business on Thursday, August 27, 2015.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">How much taxpayers have contributed to these religious events over the years, remains undetermined. Additionally, how the City will “recoup” taxpayer funds that have been spent violating both the U.S. Constitution and Florida State Constitution remains unclear.</span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-51304394444319646552015-08-12T10:18:00.000-04:002015-08-19T17:05:34.076-04:00Wise Women Media for Wednesday August 19th, 2015--Interview w/ Annie Lindstrom, Photographer, Artist, Media Activist & Communications Guru of Talkupy.Net<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Annie Lindstrom of Talkupy.net</td></tr>
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SOUNDCLOUD LINK TO THE SHOW: </div>
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia/annie-lindstrom-of-talkupy-interview-81915">https://soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia/annie-lindstrom-of-talkupy-interview-81915</a><br />
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<span class="s1">BIO: Annie Lindstrom is the host of Talkupy Radio (@talkupy_radio), a podcast that features in-depth interviews with people who do good things for community. Please go to <a href="http://www.talkupy.net/"><span class="s2" style="color: cyan;">www.talkupy.net</span></a> for more than 130 show archives, photos and Annie's blog. Also a writer, photographer (<a href="http://3cpix.artistwebsites.com/"><span class="s2" style="color: cyan;">3cPix.artistwebsites.com</span></a>) and designer, Annie lives in Florida and on Social Media livestreams. As a media activist, her primary focus is on social justice and the environment.</span></div>
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Recently Annie reached out to me and we found out we are really kindred spirits with similar backgrounds and experiences; sisters from different mothers! We are also both veterans.<br />
Our passions involve telling the untold stories of people that are changing the world.</div>
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<span class="s1">Annie and I would love to give you our current take on the top news stories of the day. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Tune into this engaging show and invite your friends. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Post any questions you have as comments below this page.</span></div>
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<span class="s3">Facebook Event Page: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/851209078304176/"><span class="s4">https://www.facebook.com/events/851209078304176/</span></a></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The link to the show will be posted here before showtime or check our social networks. </span><br />
<span class="s1">This show will be archived on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia" target="_blank">SOUNDCLOUD</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We are also on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/wisewomenmedia"><span class="s2">Facebook</span></a>, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wisewomenmedia"><span class="s2">Twitter</span></a> and <a href="http://wisewomenmedia.tumblr.com/"><span class="s2">Tumblr</span></a>.</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dTfHEJrRXdA/VcpQfm7On8I/AAAAAAAALws/f4Kwf69Sahc/s1600/Frangipani.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dTfHEJrRXdA/VcpQfm7On8I/AAAAAAAALws/f4Kwf69Sahc/s640/Frangipani.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">PHOTO BY ANITA STEWART<br />
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-54603608661763694412015-08-10T22:31:00.000-04:002015-08-10T22:32:17.987-04:00Swamped by rains, St. Pete dumps treated sewage into Tampa Bay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9D-NpNFzcIM/VcleAt9l_cI/AAAAAAAALv4/CcNBEfJ8ZIc/s1600/state-of-the-tampa-bay-estuary-water-runoff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="412" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9D-NpNFzcIM/VcleAt9l_cI/AAAAAAAALv4/CcNBEfJ8ZIc/s640/state-of-the-tampa-bay-estuary-water-runoff.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">By Charlie Frago</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">8/10/15</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">ST. PETERSBURG— Faced with a wastewater system overwhelmed by weeks of torrential rainfall, the city dumped about 5.5 million gallons of treated sewage into Tampa Bay for eight hours beginning Sunday evening.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The wastewater — everything from toilet sewage, sink drainage and rainwater — was treated at the Albert Whitted plant before being pumped about 1,000 feet into Tampa Bay, said Mayor Rick Kriseman’s spokesman Ben Kirby on Monday.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Pumping began about 8 p.m. Sunday and stopped at 4 a.m. Monday, he told the<i style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tampa Bay Times</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Shuttered in April, the Whitted plant was reopened Sunday to handle the overflow, Kirby said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The sewage was aired out to kill bacteria, chlorinated and screened after being pumped from the city’s Southwest Water Reclamation Facility near Eckerd College. That facility had been swamped by increased flow after three weeks of heavy rain, forcing the city to divert 15.4 million gallons of untreated sewage into Clam Bayou last week.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Extra rain this weekend forced Sunday’s emergency measure, Kirby said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">“It was a disaster event. The governor has declared the region a disaster area. An incredible amount of rainfall just overwhelmed systems around the region,” Kirby said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Entire article can be read at the following link:</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/overburdened-by-rains-st-pete-dumps-treated-sewage-into-tampa-bay/2240745?cid=facebook_Tampa_Bay_Times" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: #444444; color: cyan;">http://www.tampabay.com/news/overburdened-by-rains-st-pete-dumps-treated-sewage-into-tampa-bay/2240745?cid=facebook_Tampa_Bay_Times</span></a></div>
Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-9391106935295951402015-08-06T20:08:00.001-04:002015-08-06T20:08:21.033-04:00An open letter to Hernando County (Florida)<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><time class="entry-time" datetime="2015-08-02T16:53:00+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6000003814697px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22.1000003814697px; text-transform: uppercase;">AUGUST 2, 2015</time><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6000003814697px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22.1000003814697px; text-transform: uppercase;"> BY </span><span class="entry-author" itemprop="author" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6000003814697px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22.1000003814697px; text-transform: uppercase;"><a class="entry-author-link" href="http://floridahikes.com/author/sfriendfla" itemprop="url" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;"><span class="entry-author-name" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">SANDRA FRIEND</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6000003814697px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22.1000003814697px; text-transform: uppercase;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #444444; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.6000003814697px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22.1000003814697px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_24296" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 29.25px; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; width: 700px;">
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><img alt="Ancient cypresses at Cypress Lakes Preserve" class="size-medium wp-image-24296" height="458" src="http://floridahikes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Cypress-Lakes-Preserve-2-690x458.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="690" /></span></span><div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.875rem; font-weight: 700; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Ancient cypresses at Cypress Lakes Preserve</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Dear Hernando County Commissioners,</span></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 29.25px; margin-bottom: 1.563rem; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">It was ironic the way our visit played out. Rain pelted us on the drive up I-75, so we almost sought shelter with your neighbor to the south, Pasco County. But we were on a mission to visit and photograph a trail in your county for our new book, so we decided to stay near Ridge Manor, instead. I was sitting in the hotel room, catching up on the week’s news, when I saw this article in the Tampa Bay Times.</span></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 29.25px; margin-bottom: 1.563rem; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/hernando-commission-disbands-environmentally-sensitive-lands-program/2239056" style="background-color: #444444; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Hernando commission disbands Environmentally Sensitive Lands Program</span></a></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 29.25px; margin-bottom: 1.563rem; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">I was incredulous. Your program was the reason for our visit. You may be unaware of this, but <a href="http://floridahikes.com/florida-trail" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">the Florida Trail traverses your county</a>. It’s one of eleven Congressionally-designated National Scenic Trails in America. My husband and I wrote the book on it. We were in your county to explore Cypress Lakes Preserve, one of eight Environmentally Sensitive Lands you’ve set aside for future generations. It provides a protected corridor for a portion of our National Scenic Trail.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">We were here as travelers, spending money on a hotel room, food, and fuel. But more importantly, we were here as writers, with the intent of promoting a hike through Cypress Lakes Preserve to our rather substantial online audience and as a part of a new book. If it passed muster, of course.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Not all parts of the Florida Trail are as scenic as a National Scenic Trail should be. We chose Cypress Lakes Preserve because of its easy access from Interstate 75 and visitor services. The fact that it was part of the Enviromentally Sensitive Lands program meant there was a good chance we’d find a good reason to send visitors there.</span></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 29.25px; margin-bottom: 1.563rem; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">And we did. Along the 1.6 mile trail (3.2 mile round-trip), we discovered patches of<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Paronychia rugelii</em>, known commonly as Sand Squares. These are just one of several dozen wildflowers in the sandhills along the edge of the Cypress Lakes, not very common and certainly very showy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #444444; border-color: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-style: initial; font-size: 18px; height: auto; line-height: 29.25px; width: auto;"><img alt="Sand squares. Geometry expressed in nature." class="size-medium wp-image-24295" height="460" src="http://floridahikes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Cypress-Lakes-Preserve-3-690x460.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="690" /></span></span><div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: 29.25px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Sand squares. Geometry expressed in nature.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The rest of the article can be found at the following link:</span></span></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Open Sans, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #444444; font-size: 14px; line-height: 29.25px;"><b><a href="http://floridahikes.com/an-open-letter-to-hernando-county">http://floridahikes.com/an-open-letter-to-hernando-county</a></b></span></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-9200769186147268322015-08-06T18:24:00.003-04:002015-08-06T18:24:45.331-04:00Permits Required to Build TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline in Jeopardy As Hearings Reveal Missteps<header style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 18.5900001525879px;"><div class="submitted desktop-only" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Monday, August 3, 2015 - 16:00</div>
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(Originally published on <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/08/03/permits-required-build-transcanada-s-keystone-xl-pipeline-jeopardy-hearings-reveal-missteps" target="_blank">DESMOG BLOG</a>)</div>
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TransCanada’s decision to purchase all of the pipe needed to complete the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> Pipeline before receiving a presidential permit could prove a costly mistake.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Not only is President Obama <a href="http://www.agweek.com/news/nation-and-world/3807717-obama-plans-reject-keystone-xl-nd-senator-says" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">expected to reject</a> the permit TransCanada needs in order to cross the U.S.-Canadian border, the company must recertify an expired permit before it can install the pipeline though South Dakota as well.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
At a hearing that began on July 29 in Pierre, <a href="http://www.puc.sd.gov/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">South Dakota, the state Public Utilities Commission (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span>)</a> is tasked to decide if it should recertify the company’s permit to build the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> pipeline through the state. Those opposing the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span>, referred to as interveners, are making the case that TransCanada is not up to the job.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
During the first week of the hearing, a mix of members of the grassroots group <a href="http://dakotarural.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dakota Rural Action</a>, Native American tribes, individual landowners, and a team of all of the interveners’ lawyers began presenting testimony challenging TransCanada’s narrative that the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> “will be the safest pipeline ever built.” The interveners claim that is a public relations ploy far from the truth about TransCanada’s performance record.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
TransCanada bears the burden to prove it is capable of following the rules that the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span> set when the original Keystone Pipeline permit was granted in 2010, so it is no surprise that the company objected to the interveners’ introduction of evidence that showed the company has had problems with its other recently constructed pipelines, including the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/05/21/transcanada-s-keystone-pipeline-network-under-investigation-federal-regulators" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span>’s southern route</a>, renamed the Gulf Coast Pipeline.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Lawyers for the interveners have also questioned the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span>’s impartially. They believe the commissioners’ pre-hearing rulings to exclude testimony relevant to their case was unjustified. But instead of letting the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span>’s move weaken their case, they laid the foundation during their examination of witnesses that enabled them to refer to the excluded documents in their cross-examination. It was a technique John White, an attorney for TransCanada, repeatedly objected to, but in many instances his objections were overruled. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The interveners also challenged the credibility of the witnesses called by TransCanada and the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span> staff by pointing out the witnesses’ lack of expertise and potential conflicts of interest. Though the commissioners did not strike the testimony of any of the witnesses as requested by the interveners, the testimony given by some of those witnesses was tainted. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span> staff have gotten upset with us for accusing them on the record of being in collusion with TransCanada,” Bruce Ellison, a lawyer for the Dakota Rural Action group, told DeSmog. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>We are just calling it as we see it based on their continued support of TransCanada to keep the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span> from hearing evidence it should hear about the realities of this trans-national and its hired witnesses – two of whom work for an engineering company that lists TransCanada as one of its clients – who are being called on to support TransCanada’s bid for recertification of its construction permit through South Dakota.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
David Schramm, vice president of <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">EN</span> Engineering, is one of the witnesses hired by the commission to testify as an expert witness on corrosion. When questioned about his relationship with TransCanada, he insisted he never worked for the company and didn’t know if <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">EN</span> Engineering was currently doing business with TransCanada, despite the fact that TransCanada was listed as a client on <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">EN</span> Engineering’s website, according to the interveners' attorney. Schramm did acknowledge the company had done work for TransCanada.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The interveners also questioned the credentials held by Meera Kothari, who was the manager of technical services pipeline engineering for Keystone Oil Projects, and who had oversight responsibility for design and engineering for the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span>Pipeline project. She was recently moved to another position in the company, but was one of those chosen by TransCanada to testify about the Keystone project.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Kothari frustrated the interveners by avoiding answering numerous questions by stating, “That isn’t my area of expertise.” Interveners say she seemed to know very little for someone with such a high level of responsibility on the project. Although she lived in Houston for a number of years, Kothari never obtained an engineering license in Texas, a point the interveners stressed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Precluded from pre-trial evidence were photos of segments of pipe procured for the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> that were stored at the Gascoyne pipe yard in North Dakota. The interveners were able to introduce the photos during their cross examination of Kothari when she disclosed that the pipe had been purchased by 2011.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
At first Kothari claimed the pipe was stored at a few manufacturing facilities, but when questioned about pipe being stored at the Gascoyne pipe yard, she admitted some of it was also at that location.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The photos of the Gascoyne pipe yard show sections of pipeline piled up several layers high and left out in the open. The duration of time the pipes were stored without protection against the elements led the interveners to question the integrity of the pipe materials.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">EN</span> Engineering’s Schramm testified that the National Association of Pipe Coating Applicators recommends protecting pipe materials left above ground within six months. But Schramm added that Scotch, a,manufacturer, recommends taking measures to protect the pipe within 12-18 months. (<a href="http://www.puc.sd.gov/commission/media/2015/Puc08012015pm.mp3" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Audio of Schramm’s relevant testimony at 0:23:15 – 0:29:00 on Saturday Aug. 1</a>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
However, Sabrina King, a member of the Dakota Rural Action group who shot the photos referred to during the hearing, claimed the pipe had been at the Gascoyne yard in North Dakota since December 2010.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
King’s photos were taken in May of 2013. By August that year, TransCanda did take action and protect the pipe, past both of the recommended times that Schramm mentioned.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>That is 2.5 years of pipe laying out in North Dakota, where the weather is horrendous, before it was fully covered,” King told DeSmog.( <a href="https://www.puc.sd.gov/commission/media/2015/Puc08012015pm.mp3" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Audio of Schramm’s relevant testimony at 20:30 to 26:00 on Saturday Aug. 1</a>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
At the close of the first week, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/249961-setting-the-record-straight-about-keystone-xl" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">John Harter</a>, a South Dakota landowner and an intervener, described the proceedings as tense at times. “TransCanada has done little to help itself, sending incompetent witnesses,” Harter told DeSmog. He complained of TransCanada “witnesses answering questions with two answers, and witnesses not knowing what they are talking about.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
During questioning of Kothari, she responded that TransCanada is asking the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span> to recertify its permit based on documents submitted into evidence, some of which are out of date and have not been signed off on by engineers.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Kothari also revealed that the engineering for the pipeline is still not complete. (<a href="https://www.puc.sd.gov/commission/media/2015/Puc08012015am.mp3" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Audio of relevant cross examination of Kothari at ~1:34-1:38 Saturday Aug 1)</a></div>
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Harter expressed bewilderment that the commission was willing to make a decision with incomplete information. </div>
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Purchasing all of the pipe needed to build the entire project before getting a Presidential permit demonstrates the kind of risks TransCanada is willing to take, the interveners argue.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Despite the huge sums of money the company has spent lobbying for the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> Pipeline and for advertising, the pipeline’s completion is far from a done deal.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PUC</span> hearing has turned into a marathon event. Although the process was predicted to wrap up by August 4,the commissioners acknowledged the hearing timeframe would have to be lengthened. Parties involved in the proceedings tried to nail down an end for the hearing unsuccessfully at the start of today’s proceedings. It is possible a decision on the presidential permit could come before the commission decides on how it will rule on TransCanada’s permit.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/DSCF0365.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 623px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br /><em style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.1em;">Photo: Pipe for the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> Pipeline at Gascoyne pipe yard in North Dakota. © 2013 Sabrina King</em></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-91098973103898568712015-07-31T13:24:00.004-04:002015-07-31T13:24:31.963-04:00TransCanada Keystone XL Hits New Turbulence As South Dakota Permit Hearing Implodes Over Pipeline Corrosion, Market Demand<h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title" style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">By</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; line-height: 1.3em; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">• Thursday, July 30, 2015 - 14:11</span></span></h1>
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<img alt="Keystone corrosion TransCanada root cause report" height="120" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Keystone%20corrosion%20.png?itok=pC33YBEB" style="border: 0px; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 1.5em 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: auto;" width="200" /></div>
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Holes too big to fix were poked in TransCanada’s narrative that its Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span>tar sands pipeline will be the safest pipeline ever built. And questions were raised about how the pipeline company’s financial dealings are set up during<a href="https://puc.sd.gov/Dockets/HydrocarbonPipeline/2014/hp14-001.aspx" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Public Utilities Commission hearings</a> in Pierre, South Dakota this week where state regulators are tasked to decide if the company is capable of following the rules the state set when the original Keystone pipeline permit was granted in 2010.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
A team of lawyers representing Native American tribes and the grassroots group Dakota Rural Action took the upper hand during the proceedings as they tried to have a TransCanada executive’s testimony impeached. The proceedings took on a circus-like atmosphere when TransCanada was unable to prevent lines of questioning it didn’t like. </div>
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The commissioners seemed unsure of its own procedures. At one point, Commissioner Gary Hanson expressed frustration that he was having trouble drawing a distinction between TransCanada’s evidence and its advertising statements.</div>
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The testimony of TransCanada’s key witness, <a href="http://puc.sd.gov/commission/dockets/HydrocarbonPipeline/2014/HP14-001/testimony/gouletexhibita.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Corey Goulet</a>, president of Keystone Pipeline Projects, turned out to be an important centerpiece of the hearing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
In <a href="https://puc.sd.gov/commission/dockets/HydrocarbonPipeline/2014/HP14-001/testimony/goulettestimony.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">pretrial testimony filed by Goulet</a>, he stated the company would have no problem meeting the Commission’s amended conditions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
However, TransCanada’s promises to build safe pipelines have been called into question with several high-profile incidents involving its existing pipelines, particularly the corrosion problems with the Keystone 1 pipeline. </div>
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A <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/28/evidence-released-transcanada-s-keystone-xl-permit-renewal-hearing-sheds-light-serious-pipeline-risks" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">TransCanada 'root cause analysis' document</a>, made available online by DeSmog on Tuesday, shed troubling light on the external corrosion encountered on the Keystone 1.</div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em;">
<span class="quo">‘</span><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ROOT</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">CAUSE</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ANALYSIS</span>’ <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DOCUMENT</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">CREATES</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">HEADACHES</span>, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">QUESTIONS</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">FOR</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">TRANSCANADA</span></h3>
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When Goulet was questioned about the significant corrosion discovered on the Keystone 1 pipeline in Missouri in 2012 — when the pipeline’s wall had corroded in one spot to the thickness of a dime — he downplayed the incident, claiming that none of the defects were close to rupturing.<br /><br />“None of the defects, in my experience in 30 years of pipelines, would be injurious from the perspective of being close to rupturing. Therefore the only problem would have been the depth of corrosion,” Goulet testified. (<a href="http://www.puc.sd.gov/commission/media/2015/PUC07282015pm.mp3" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Audio of Goulet testimony, relevant corrosion section at ~ 32:45 – 33:40</a>) </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Bruce Ellison, one of the lawyers for the interveners, had handed Goulet a copy of the company’s root cause analysis report of the incident, before pointing out the corrosion area was much larger than Goulet had described. One of the defects involved a section of pipe where the wall had eroded 96.8 percent, which Ellison noted was close to a rupture incident.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
TransCanada lawyers objected to any reference to the report because Goulet claimed he had never seen it and that it was classified. But since the report had already been entered into evidence, the interveners’ lawyers were allowed by the Commission to continue questioning him. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
In the course of discovery, TransCanada provided the report in question as part of the unclassified documents, and therefore could not exclude the report from evidence, the Commission said.</div>
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After that dispute was settled, Goulet admitted he knew the location of sites where the pipeline had been dug up for inspection and repair. </div>
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As indicated in the ‘root cause’ report, Site 5 was only 200 feet from the Mississippi River, the primary drinking water source for 18 million Americans, as well as agricultural water for crop production. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Site%205%20image.png" style="border: 0px; height: 624px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Image of Site 5 defect from TransCanada's report pg. 22. </em></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Evan Vokes, former TransCanada employee turned whistleblower, and an expert witness for the interveners, told DeSmog he has never seen a pipeline coating corroded as badly as the failed coating of the Keystone 1. It looked as if “it had been gnawed at by rats,” he told DeSmog.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Another former TransCanada employee reviewed the report and found it shocking. The fact that damaged sections of the pipe were repaired instead of replaced concerned him greatly. “We cut out better pipe than what I’ve seen in those pictures,” he told DeSmog. </div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em;">
<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">TRANSCANADA</span>’S <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">TAX</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">REVENUE</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">CALCULATIONS</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">OFF</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BY</span> A <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">LOT</span></h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Goulet testified that the considerably lower amount of taxes TransCanada paid was less than had been estimated before construction — although the tax rate has since increased. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
While he stated he didn’t know the technical details of how the taxes are applied, he went on to testify that “TransCanada Pipeline <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">LP</span> is the owner of the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> pipeline,” explaining that it is a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCanada Corporation. While TransCanada Corporation has assets in excess of $50 billion, not all of that value would be assessed for tax purposes. Only the subsidiary’s assets would, Goulet explained. While TransCanada estimated that Keystone 1 would deliver at least $45 million in tax revenue to communities, Goulet admitted that the company has only paid $18.4 million over the first 5 years of the pipeline’s operation. That’s roughly a third of what TransCanada had estimated as the benefit it would deliver in tax revenue to affected communities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Goulet cited higher capital and operating costs for the discrepancy, blaming regulatory delays, technical changes, and inflation were responsible for the costs ballooning to nearly $2 billion for the Keystone 1 project. <span style="line-height: 1.1em;">(</span><a href="http://www.puc.sd.gov/commission/media/2015/PUC07282015am.mp3" style="color: #3399cc; line-height: 1.1em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Audio of hearing, relevant section on taxes at ~ 1:22:15 – 1:32:00</a><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">)</span></div>
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The tax revenue discrepancies could have real impacts on communities that bank on the future of the Keystone pipeline.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>In Harding County a bond was passed and a new school was built on the premise that TransCanada’s pipeline taxes would help pay for it,” Bret Clanton, a member of Dakota Rural Action said.</div>
<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em;">
<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">TRANSCANADA</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BULLISH</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">ON</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">BUILDING</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">KEYSTONE</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">DESPITE</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">OIL</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PRICE</span> <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">SLUMP</span> </h3>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
In <a href="http://www.puc.sd.gov/commission/media/2015/PUC07282015pm.mp3" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">afternoon testimony</a> (audio from ~1:48:00 on), <a href="http://puc.sd.gov/commission/dockets/HydrocarbonPipeline/2014/HP14-001/testimony/diakowexhibita.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">David Diakow</a>, TransCanada’s Vice President, Commercial, Liquids Pipelines, opened the door to information that related to TransCanada’s business dealings related to the project. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Diakow revealed that the company intends to build the pipeline no matter how low the price of oil goes. (<a href="http://www.puc.sd.gov/commission/media/2015/PUC07282015pm.mp3" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">audio ~ 1:54:40 – 1:57:15</a>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Robin Martinez, a lawyer for the interveners, described what came next as unusual in an email to DeSmog,</div>
<blockquote style="margin: 1.5em 30px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Paul Blackburn, one of the attorneys for the intervenors in the proceedings, started to question Mr. Diakow about market demand for the <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">KXL</span> pipeline. He began inquiring as to whether TransCanada’s customers were demanding changes to their contracts, which TransCanada objected to, claiming their contracts and communications with customers were highly confidential. TransCanada then argued that Mr. Blackburn’s questions relating to market demand for the pipeline were not relevant to the question of whether or not TransCanada could meet the conditions imposed by the Commission when it granted the original permit in 2010. However, by placing <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/direct%20testimony%20of%20David%20Diakow%20%2801879658x9FB59%29.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Mr. Diakow’s written testimony into the record</a> they opened the door to full cross-examination of him under the applicable administrative procedure rules. Apparently not wanting to have him questioned, TransCanada withdrew him as a witness and asked the Commission to strike his testimony from the record.”</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The Commission limited the scope of all further testimony for both parties to be pertinent to the amended conditions of the original 2010 permit, strictly limiting evidence presented for the remainder of the trial.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Peter Caposella, the lawyer representing the Rock Sioux Tribe said in all his years as an attorney, he had never seen a plaintiff remove their own witness in such a manner. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
As the near failure of the Keystone 1 line proved, the consequences of siting TransCanada’s bitumen-carrying export lines so close to drinking water supplies is a risk we can ill afford to accept in an age of water scarcity and climate disruption. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Even if President Obama denies the permit for the pipeline to cross international borders, the next administration could reverse that decision. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
However, if the South Dakota Public Utility Commission decides TransCanada isn’t up to the job, TransCanada will have to start the entire re-permitting process again. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<br /><em><span style="font-size: 11px;">Image credit: External corrosion pitting on Keystone 1 Pipeline, via TransCanada 'root cause analysis' report, pg. 28.</span></em></div>
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</article>Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-61040241849591688102015-07-28T16:44:00.001-04:002015-07-28T16:44:23.407-04:00Evidence Released at TransCanada’s Keystone XL Permit Renewal Hearing Sheds Light On Serious Pipeline Risks<header style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14.3000001907349px; line-height: 18.5900001525879px;"><div class="submitted desktop-only" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - 10:45</div>
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<img alt="Keystone XL protest by Doug Grandt" height="137" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/IMG_0378.jpg?itok=elFLmMqa" style="border: 0px; float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 1.5em 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: auto;" width="200" /></div>
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Just because TransCanada continually states that the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> pipeline will be the safest pipeline ever built, doesn’t mean it is true.<br /><br />The company’s pipeline construction record is facing intense scrutiny in America’s heartland, where many see no justifiable rationale to risk their water and agricultural lands for a <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2014/11/20/fact-checking-keystone-xl-exports/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tar sands export pipeline</a>.</div>
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New documents submitted as evidence in the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> permitting process in South Dakota — including one <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/TransCanadaKeystone%20Root%20Cause%20Report_%20Feb%2015%20ver1docx%20%20_2_.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">published here on DeSmog for the first time publicly</a> — paint a troubling picture of the company’s shoddy construction mishaps. This document, produced by TransCanada and signed by two company executives, details the results of its investigation into the “root cause” of the corrosion problems discovered on the Keystone pipeline.</div>
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<a href="https://www.google.com/finance?cid=35155" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">TransCanada Corporation</a> is continuing its push to build the northern route of the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> pipeline. On July 27, the company appeared at a hearing in Pierre, South Dakota, to seek recertification of the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span>construction permit that expired last year. </div>
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The Sou<a href="https://www.puc.sd.gov/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">th Dakota Public Utilities Commission</a> must decide if TransCanada can guarantee it can build the pipeline under the conditions set in 2010, which it must do in order to have the permit reapproved.</div>
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High-profile spills and other incidents already tar TransCanada’s safety record. The company faces at least two known ongoing investigations by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (<span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PHMSA</span>). The incident records of the<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/05/21/transcanada-s-keystone-pipeline-network-under-investigation-federal-regulators" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">southern route of the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> (renamed the Gulf Coast Pipeline)</a> and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/30/exclusive-transcanada-keystone-1-pipeline-suffered-major-corrosion-only-two-years-operation-95-worn-one-section" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the Keystone 1 Pipeline</a> call into question TransCanada’s claim that its pipelines are among the safest ever built. </div>
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Over the last couple of years TransCanada’s public relations team, with the help of friendly regulators, have kept critical evidence away from the public and quashed many media inquiries.</div>
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But evidence of TransCanada’s poor performance continues to emerge. Earlier this year, DeSmog obtained documents revealing extreme external corrosion in a section of the Keystone 1 pipeline that was only two years old.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202015-07-28%20at%2010.37.08%20AM.png" style="border: 0px; height: 651px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>This figure from TransCanada's “root cause analysis” report shows damage to the Keystone pipeline.</em></span><br /> </div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Talk about a near miss,” Robin Martinez, a lawyer for the grassroots citizens group <a href="http://dakotarural.org/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dakota Rural Action</a> fighting to stop the permit, told DeSmog.</div>
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Documents the group obtained during discovery show that the corrosion occurred dangerously close to the Mississippi River near St. Louis.</div>
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“Had the pipeline failed, the drinking water supply for a significant number of people could have been destroyed,” Martinez said.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The Commission is abrogating its responsibility by refusing to look at evidence we want to present,” Martinez told DeSmog.“ It is abundantly clear to us the Commission doesn't want to look at anything from any other agencies.” </div>
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Although Dakota Rural Action was denied the opportunity to enter into evidence documents showing TransCanada failed to follow the federally mandated code of construction while building the southern route of the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span>, Martinez still believes he can present a very strong case against TransCanada’s permit renewal request.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Granting a permit would be a risky venture for South Dakota, putting the state’s land and water at risk,” he said.</div>
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According to Martinez, the witnesses the group will present, including <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/09/22/transcanada-whistleblower-evan-vokes-details-lack-confidence-keystone-xl" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Evan Vokes, former TransCanada employee</a> turned whistleblower, will make it clear that TransCanada’s corporate culture put profits over safety.</div>
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A <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/30/exclusive-transcanada-keystone-1-pipeline-suffered-major-corrosion-only-two-years-operation-95-worn-one-section" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">report by DeSmog</a> earlier this year revealed an alarming rate of external corrosion to parts of TransCanada’s Keystone 1 pipeline. Documents obtained through a freedom of information act request indicated the pipeline was 95% corroded, leaving it paper-thin in one area (one-third the thickness of a dime) and dangerously thin in three other places, causing TransCanada to immediately shut it down.</div>
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In fact, TransCanada’s instrument readings state it was 96.8% corroded.</div>
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Due to <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PHMSA</span>’s open investigation of the pipeline, regulators refused to turn over any documents that might explain the cause of the pipeline failure. </div>
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But lawyers for the Dakota Rural Action group were able to compel TransCanada to turn over documents to which DeSmog and other media sources had been denied acess to - documents the group entered into evidence and is making public.</div>
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The documents include <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/TransCanadaKeystone%20Root%20Cause%20Report_%20Feb%2015%20ver1docx%20%20_2_.pdf" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">TransCanada’s root cause analysis explaining what caused the external corrosion incident in the Keystone 1 pipeline</a>, where it took place and what the damaged pipeline looked like. The report shows how close to a catastrophic failure that pipeline was before a mandatory test exposed the problem. </div>
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What caused such deep corrosion in Keystone 1 in a short period of time? Stray current interference, the company argues. A spokesperson for TransCanada told Politico the problems were linked to “low –voltage electric currents from the Keystone and a nearby pipeline interfering with one another.”</div>
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In laymen’s terms, that means “a bunch of professional engineers were behaving badly,” Vokes told DeSmog, “because there are adequate checks and balances in the regulations to avoid this.”</div>
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Vokes was not surprised when he reviewed the root cause analysis report, although it was the first time he saw photos of the pipeline’s coating that looked as if “it had been gnawed at by rats.”</div>
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When the line was shut down, Vokes advised reporters to look into what happened because he suspected that something very serious had gone wrong. “You don’t shut a pipe down that earns millions of dollars a day over a small anomaly,” he said. And that is how <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/transcanada-restarts-keystone-oil-pipeline/article4628367/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">TransCanada described the incident to reporters in 2012.</a></div>
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Even with such damaging evidence, Vokes has doubts the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> permit will be denied.</div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>How are we supposed to have a fact-based hearing if the Commission won’t admit the documents into evidence?“ Vokes wonders.</div>
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TransCanada’s technical shortcomings are not the only hurdle the company has to overcome. The company is being challenged by Native American tribes. “Tribes have a trump card— the treaty rights,” Gary Dorr, of the Nez Perce Nation told DeSmog. “Treaty rights are the supreme law of the land.”</div>
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*The hearing will stream live on the<a href="https://www.puc.sd.gov/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> South Dakota Public Utilities Commission site.</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>Image credit: Protest against the Keystone <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">XL</span> pipeline in Ft. Pierre, South Dakota on July 26, 2015. © Doug Grandt</em></span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-36151128334648169822015-07-28T00:03:00.001-04:002015-09-10T17:43:52.227-04:00WISE WOMEN MEDIA for August 5, 2015--Interview with Dady Chery, Activist, Broadcaster, Author On Her New Book About Haiti (Link to Archived Audio and Transcript)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j-xNmJxn61I/Vba3p9Qfb8I/AAAAAAAALpA/_n1YpF-yOzU/s1600/Haitian%2BChild.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="419" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j-xNmJxn61I/Vba3p9Qfb8I/AAAAAAAALpA/_n1YpF-yOzU/s640/Haitian%2BChild.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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SOUNDCLOUD LINK TO SHOW: <br />
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia/interview-with-dady-chery-on-8515">https://soundcloud.com/wisewomenmedia/interview-with-dady-chery-on-8515</a><br />
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Wise Women Media will be interviewing Dady Chery and the broadcast will be available on Wednesday, August 5, 2015. Ms. Chery is with News Junkie Post and is an activist, broadcaster and author. We will be talking about Haiti extensively and her new book titled “We Have Dared to Be Free.” The book was written between 2010-2015 and is definitely a story that needs to be told.</div>
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A bit about the book: about one half of all US households donated money to various charities for Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. There is information in this book that will help many understand why Haiti has not been rebuilt on a large scale and why the relief situation there has not improved. </div>
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News Junkie Post turned six years old on June 6, 2015. They are branching out to other media such as books, radio and even down the line, to television. A few months ago News Junkie Post decided to launch News Junkie Post Press aka NJP Press. Ms. Dady Chery will have the distinction of being their first published author. </div>
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See more at:<br />
<a href="http://newsjunkiepost.com/2015/06/26/njp-press-launched-with-dady-cherys-book-we-have-dared-to-be-free/#sthash.DsuKqLPt.dpuf">http://newsjunkiepost.com/2015/06/26/njp-press-launched-with-dady-cherys-book-we-have-dared-to-be-free/#sthash.DsuKqLPt.dpuf</a></div>
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***LINK TO BROADCAST WILL BE NOTED HERE A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE EVENT. </div>
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The show will be archived on SOUNDCLOUD.</div>
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***Post your questions on the FB event wall and I will ask each one during the interview.</div>
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Link to the FB Event Page here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/412929158892744/">https://www.facebook.com/events/412929158892744/</a></div>
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***After my health diagnosis in February 2015, I planned on not doing another show or interview. But frankly, I missed it. And based on how many people asked me to continue the shows and interviews I decided to keep pressing on, perhaps with some updated branding, a new format and shorter segments. Also decided against using BlogTalkRadio as my platform. Thanks everyone for your encouragement!!!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6ZN4bpsBVGA/VbmEJmAhpeI/AAAAAAAALqo/MwIiuET9IiI/s1600/WE%2BHAVE%2BDARED%2BTO%2BBE%2BFREE%2BCOVER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6ZN4bpsBVGA/VbmEJmAhpeI/AAAAAAAALqo/MwIiuET9IiI/s640/WE%2BHAVE%2BDARED%2BTO%2BBE%2BFREE%2BCOVER.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AirwIRxeMGs/Vba33sHt5JI/AAAAAAAALpQ/r0OPr39-I4k/s1600/Haitian%2BLean%2BTo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="422" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AirwIRxeMGs/Vba33sHt5JI/AAAAAAAALpQ/r0OPr39-I4k/s640/Haitian%2BLean%2BTo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2PwPqC9kRM/Vba324qcD8I/AAAAAAAALpI/8K8GZesKK6E/s1600/Wise%2BWomen%2BMedia%2BHaiti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2PwPqC9kRM/Vba324qcD8I/AAAAAAAALpI/8K8GZesKK6E/s640/Wise%2BWomen%2BMedia%2BHaiti.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #444444; color: #f3f3f3;">Transcript of this program can be found at the following link: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #444444; color: cyan;">http://www.dadychery.org/2015/09/07/haitian-born-author-dady-chery-discusses-we-have-dared-to-be-free-with-anita-stewart-part-i/</span></span>Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-51541872343765141792015-07-14T11:22:00.001-04:002015-07-14T11:22:56.471-04:00Australians Tour Pennsylvania’s Gaslands as Fracking Threat Looms Over South Australia by Julie Dermansky<h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title" style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px;">
Australians Tour Pennsylvania’s Gaslands as Fracking Threat Looms Over South Australia</h1>
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By <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/14493" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Julie Dermansky</a> • Monday, July 13, 2015 - 15:38</div>
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A group of Australians who made a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-29/fracking-fact-finding-trip-by-sa-mps-concludes/6580298" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">fracking fact-finding trip</a> to the Marcellus Shale region will report to the Australian Parliament before any decisions are made about the future of fracking in South Australia. </div>
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In June, the group of twelve Australians—including members of Parliament, farmers, medical and legal professionals—visited communities in Pennsylvania and New York. They saw evidence of contaminated water as a result of accidents and leaks connected to the fracking industry, and met with people both for and against the process. </div>
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<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-02/fracking-unconventional-gas-mining-livestock-america/6514090" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">David Smith,</a> a third generation beef and prime lamb producer from Kalangadoo, organized the trip after he learned the fracking industry was exploring the possibility of fracking in the south east of South Australia. Conventional drilling has been taking place in the region for decades but currently fracking in South Australia is only taking place in the northern part of the state.</div>
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Beach Energy currently has two test wells in the south east of South Australia and has yet to ask the government for permission to utilize hydraulic fracturing , although the company is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-19/beach-energy-not-ruling-out-fracking/5535686" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">considering fracking as a possibility in the Otway Basin</a>. </div>
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Like many before him who learn the fracking industry may come too close for comfort, Smith had known little about it. He devised his own crash course on the topic by contacting people with first-hand experience.</div>
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What he learned alarmed him so greatly that he invited a cross section of South Australians, both for and against the industry, to join him in a visit to the Marcellus Shale region.<br />
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The geology of the Marcellus closely resembles that of South Australia’s south east, so they could personally witness what could lie ahead for them if the fracking industry took hold in the area. </div>
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Louis Allstadt, a former Mobil Oil executive vice president and a strong voice in the anti-fracking movement, helped Smith set up the itinerary in Pennsylvania and New York. Allstadt arranged for notable speakers to address the group, including Cornell University professors Tony Ingraffea and Bob Howarth. Other speakers included <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">SUNY</span> Oneonta professor Ron Bishop; economist Dr. Jannette Bath; Deborah Goldberg, Earthjustice’s managing attorney, and the authors of <em>The Real Cost of Fracking: How America’s Shale Boom is Threatening our Families, Pets and Food,</em> Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald.</div>
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Smith reached out to Cabot Oil and Gas and other fracking companies in the region to set up a tour of fracking sites, but the industry declined permission for the group to view even a single location. Representatives were unwilling to address the group off-site as well. Only a public relations representative from one of the companies was made available to the group, according to Smith.</div>
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The group, like many others, took a tour led by <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/06/30/plea-deal-reached-over-wiretapping-prosecution-fractivist-vera-scroggins" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">anti-fracking activist Vera Scroggins</a> instead. Scroggins introduced them to residents whose <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/05/08/dimock-pennsylvania-lawsuit-trial-study-fracking-water-contamination" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">water was contaminated</a> shortly after the fracking industry boom began in Susquehanna County.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A3410-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 552px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Ray Kem, a former industry worker in Dimock, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PA</span>, holds up water taken from his contaminated well. ©2015 Julie Dermansky</span></em></span></div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A0099-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 512px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Fracking industry site near a home in Susquehanna County, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PA</span>. ©2015 Julie Dermansky</span></em></span></div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>They seemed open to learn from those who are living with fracking first hand,” Scroggins told DeSmog. She was impressed that the group had come such a long way to learn about the fracking industry.<br />
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<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C1vbD2sqad0" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="560"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;"><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>: </span><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Adrian Pederick, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">MP</span> South Australia</span></em></span></div>
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<a href="http://adrianpederick.com/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Adrian Pederick,</a> the South Australian Liberal Party Member for the Electorate of Hammond (the Liberal party has been likened to America’s Republican party) asserted that despite what he saw in Pennsylvania, he believes fracking can be done safely if industry is strictly regulated.</div>
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He marveled at the accomplishments of the fracking industry and doesn’t doubt it could be good for Australia, but would want things done differently from what he witnessed in Pennsylvania if fracking is permitted in his region. </div>
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Pederick has a background working in the oil and gas industry and he was in touch with Energy in Depth, an industry group founded by the Independent Petroleum Association of America. <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-created-major-oil-and-gas-companies-according-industry-memo" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Energy in Depth</a> is openly critical toward some of those the group met with including Scroggins, Bamberger and Oswald. </div>
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During a seminar led by Allstadt in Ithaca, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">NY</span>, Pederick expressed his frustration that the trip was too heavily focused on those who believe they have been wronged by the fracking industry. He wanted to hear from the farmers who want fracking on their land and have been prevented from benefiting from the industry due to New York’s fracking ban. </div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/J46A9624-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 476px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 1.1em;">Michelle Bamberger and Robert Oswald respond to Pederick’s question at seminar in Ithaca, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">NY</span>. ©2015 Julie Dermansky</span></em></span></div>
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Though Pederick seemed unimpressed with many of the speakers, he was also not impressed with the way industry is regulated in Pennsylvania.</div>
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He sees no reason for fracking to be done so close to residences. When asked how close he would want a fracking rig next to his own land, he replied he would be comfortable with a “1500 yard set back,” approximately 4500 feet.</div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A9206-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 563px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br />
<em style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.1em;"><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">MP</span> Troy Bell in Ithaca, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">NY</span> ©2015 Julie Dermansky</em></div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>How can you put drill sites right next to people's houses? That is madness,” fellow Liberal Party <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">MP</span>, <a href="http://www.troybell.com.au/" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Troy Bell</a> told DeSmog. He is convinced the fracking industry has caused contamination in <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PA</span>. The fact that contamination had occurred surprised him less than the lack of regulations he witnessed. </div>
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<span class="dquo" style="margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Fracking so close to a population base worries me,” Bell said, like what might soon be considered for the south east of South Australia. He wonders if tighter regulations could have prevented the problems he saw in Pennsylvania from occurring. He plans to ask industry many questions upon returning to Australia before he makes any decisions regarding the possibility of fracking in his region.</div>
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The Australians have many of the same concerns as Americans when it comes to fracking. They worry about property values, contamination of air and water, and quality of life. What kind of regulations and safeguards will be in place if something goes wrong, and are the trade offs worth the risks?</div>
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The potential destruction of farmland and the intrusion of traffic and infrastructure concern Smith, as well as reports of a large <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/03/rolling-stone-magazine-covers-continuing-high-rate-stillbirths-frack-heavy-vernal-utah" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">increase in birth defects and stillbirths</a> in heavily fracked areas. </div>
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<img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/114A9217-Edit.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 565px; max-width: 100%; width: 830px;" /><br />
<em style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.1em;">Mark Parnell next to David Smith at a seminar on fracking in Ithaca, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">NY</span>. ©2015 Julie Dermansky</em></div>
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The trip confirmed much of what Smith learned about fracking beforehand. But seeing the stress endured by people negatively impacted by the industry was eye-opening. </div>
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After meeting people whose water has been contaminated and who must now rely on delivered water, and others who are facing health issues or court actions, he is more adamant than ever in his fight to keep the fracking industry out of the south east of South Australia.</div>
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<span class="player" style="display: block; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 464.625px; padding-top: 30px; position: relative;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XSaOufGT8kQ" style="height: 494.625px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 826px;" width="560"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em><span style="line-height: 17.6000003814697px;"><span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">VIDEO</span>: Parliamentary leader of the Green Party in South Australia</span></em></span></div>
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<a href="http://greens.org.au/sa/mark-parnell-mlc" style="color: #3399cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Mark Parnell,</a> Parliamentary Leader of South Australia’s Green Party, praised Smith for organizing the trip. Long before the trip Parnell was already certain that welcoming the fracking industry to Australia is the wrong move, since he believes Australia must move toward renewable energy to prevent climate change.</div>
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Parnell was surprised by the sheer scale of the fracking industry. The most useful takeaway from the trip for him was meeting with experts who dispelled the myth that the fracking industry is the savior of rural communities. The trip made clear to him that the fracking boom is a short-term phenomenon, but negative impacts from the industry could last forever.<br />
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<em style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.1em;">Drilling rig at a fracking industry site in Susquehanna County, <span class="caps" style="font-size: 0.9em;">PA</span>. ©2015 Julie Dermansky</em></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B8AJaR825e8/VaQO0E_zfXI/AAAAAAAALlI/f93g0kj_mb0/s1600/Ban%2BFracking%2Bin%2BFlorida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B8AJaR825e8/VaQO0E_zfXI/AAAAAAAALlI/f93g0kj_mb0/s640/Ban%2BFracking%2Bin%2BFlorida.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.2239990234375px;">Well, it is official. The Fracking in Florida fight has started up again and we are mobilizing...my heart is breaking. I am ready to tree sit if it comes to that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.2239990234375px;">However, this looks serious...we got a little bit of a rest to gather strength and forces...but I knew this was going to happen eventually.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: white;"><span style="line-height: 16.2239990234375px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is the news item:</span></span></span></div>
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<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(https://deepgreenresistance.org/forum/Themes/default/css/images/link.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 182, 207); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.4799995422363px; line-height: 16.2239990234375px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #444444; color: white;"><a class="bbc_link preview" href="http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Miami-Company-Applies-to-Drill-for-Oil-in-Everglades-314328181.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(https://deepgreenresistance.org/forum/Themes/default/css/images/link.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 182, 207); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12.4799995422363px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Miami Company Applies to Drill for Oil in Everglades | NBC 6 South Florida</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 16.2239990234375px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
And the latest press release from the Stonecrab Alliance:</div>
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MEDIA ADVISORY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</div>
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Contact: Karen Dwyer, Ph.D. 239-404-2171 dwyerka@gmail.com Stonecrab Alliance@ Facebook</div>
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BONITA SPRINGS PROPOSED FRACKING BAN DRAWING FIRE — CITIZENS GEAR UP AND UNITE TO DEFEND IT</div>
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City doesn’t want to take the chance that their water resources might become polluted.</div>
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BONITA SPRINGS—Wednesday, July 15, 9 a.m. at City Hall citizens, activists, and environmentalists will wear red in visible support of the Bonita Springs City Council’s proposed ordinance that would prohibit the use of oil well stimulation techniques, including “fracking” within city limits. The ban, approved at a first reading July 1 in a Bonita Springs City Council 6-0 vote, with a second and final hearing July 15, is already drawing fire. </div>
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Collier Resources threatens to sue the City if they adopt the ordinance. The Colliers—who own thousands of acres of mineral rights in Bonita Springs and 800,000 acres in Florida—called the ban flawed and warned that the city would be opening itself to lawsuits if adopted: “this constitutionally flawed ordinance . . . will expose the city to numerous lawsuits and class actions, from Collier Resources and others,” threatened company attorney Ronald L. Weaver. </div>
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With an estimated net worth of $2.3 billion, the Colliers are ranked the 119th wealthiest family in the U.S. and among the country’s largest landowners, according to Forbes.</div>
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“We’re deeply offended that the Colliers would threaten Bonita with a lawsuit,” says John Dwyer, cofounder of the Stonecrab Alliance. “It’s unneighborly. We’ve read the seven-page letter the Colliers’ attorney sent to Mayor Ben Nelson and applaud the City’s resolve to move forward with a ban despite threats.” </div>
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Ralf Brooks, an attorney hired by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, points out that no valid Bert Harris Act claim can be made by the Colliers since no oil and gas has been found in Bonita Springs and hence no actual mineral rights exist to protect. Bonita’s oil reserves are as yet undiscovered and untapped and hence speculative and the Bert Harris Act only deals with non-speculative real property. </div>
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Regarding the “Take,” Jennifer Hecker, Director of Natural Resource Policy for the Conservancy, asserts that this ordinance would not prohibit Collier Resources from taking or extracting oil and gas; Collier Resources could still use proven conventional oil drilling just not well stimulation treatments that pose a threat to our water resources, like hydraulic fracturing, acid fracking, and acidizing. These are usually three-day procedures and non-essential, meaning oil can be extracted without these extreme extraction techniques.</div>
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Jaime Duran, a resident who helped stop the Golden Gate well from going in only 1000 feet from his home in nearby Naples, applauds the Bonita City Council for securing a local amendment to protect their community against irresponsible fracking and fracking-like activities that could contaminate Florida’s water resources. He hopes the “Collier County Commission will imitate Bonita’s good example.”</div>
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Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, Policy Director of Our Santa Fe River and President of Save Our Suwannee, says that the “Council’s efforts are particularly timely and well-advised since in the 2015 legislative session, Senate Bill 1468 would have expressly preempted local municipalities home rule right to protect themselves with bans, well siting, and water use ordinances. So now is the perfect time for local bans.”</div>
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Kim Ross of Floridians Against Fracking, a coalition of groups working to ban fracking at the state and local level, and Jorge Aguilar, Southern Region Director for Food and Water Watch, agree. They’re keeping close track of fracking resolutions that have been adopted in Florida and across the nation, respectively.</div>
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“What’s makes the Bonita ban precedent-setting in Florida,” says Karen Dwyer, also of the Stonecrab Alliance, “is that we’ve got a city atop the Sunniland Trend oil reserve using its home rule right to protect itself with a local fracking ban. Bonita is a potential hotspot for oil operations in the state and near ground zero for fracking in Florida . “The city is protecting itself, in part, because federal and state agencies have failed to do so,” adds Dwyer.</div>
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Local residents are quick to point out that Bonita Springs is located only 10 miles from the Collier Hogan well, the site of unauthorized fracking in 2014 that caused a firestorm of public protest and meetings with state and regulatory agencies. The unauthorized fracking-like incident was breaking news for months and led to state Department of Environmental Protection fines (DEP), penalties, permit revocation, and a still pending lawsuit against Dan A. Hughes, a Texas oil company that leased 115,000 acres for oil operations from the Colliers. The violation was grave. DEP told Hughes not to do a procedure that had never been done before in Florida; they ignored the state and went ahead with fracking; when ordered to Cease and Desist, Hughes continued in direct defiance—willing to pay the small fine. Worse yet, DEP was onsite at the time of the fracking to observe, but not stop the violation because the inspector “did not have enforcement powers.” DEP photographed the labels on the cancer-causing chemicals, but failed to stop the violation, failed to notify the county, and failed to test the water. The incident compelled U.S. Senator Bill Nelson to order a federal investigation of Hughes. He wrote: “We cannot tolerate expanded industrial drilling activities that pose a threat to the drinking and surface water so close to the Florida Everglades. . . . one of the world’s great environmental treasures.” The good news is, that for the first time ever, Collier County sued the state on oil drilling, calling for revocation and remediation. Hughes, in turn, announced it was abandoning all plans to explore for oil in Southwest Florida and mutually terminated its 115,000-acre-oil lease with Collier. The state, in turn, revoked all the company’s permits, filed a lawsuit for cleanup, and promised the community stronger oil and gas laws—laws that the 2015 legislative session failed to put forward or adopt. </div>
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“It’s clear no help is coming from the state; we need local bans to protect our water,” says Dona Knapp a shrimper who had her livelihood destroyed by the 2010 BP Gulf Oil Spill, the worst oil disaster on record that is still plaguing Florida’s coastline.</div>
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With a landmark victory on the horizon if Bonita adopts the ordinance in a second and final reading Wednesday, locals are gearing up to protect their community. “Wear red in support of the proposed ordinance to prohibit will stimulation,” urges the Conservancy’s Policy Alert. </div>
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WHAT: BONITA CITY COUNCIL MEETING – CITIZENS UNITE AND GEAR UP TO SUPPORT CITY’S PROPOSED FRACKING BAN THAT IS DRAWING FIRE</div>
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WHO: Stonecrab Alliance with Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Clean Water Initiative, Floridians Against Fracking, concerned citizens, activists, and environmentalists</div>
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WHERE: Bonita Spring City Hall, 9101 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs, FL 34135</div>
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WHEN: Wednesday, July 15, 9 a.m.</div>
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Facebook Event: <a class="bbc_link preview" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1620011051581127/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(https://deepgreenresistance.org/forum/Themes/default/css/images/link.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 182, 207); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12.4799995422363px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/events/1620011051581127/</a></div>
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***VISUALS: Speakers/Red attire/Final Vote/Public Comment/Signs, if permitted*** </div>
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CHANNEL 13 NEWS IS ASKING FOR COMMENTS, here is the link: <a class="bbc_link preview" href="https://www.facebook.com/LikeNews13/posts/10153426801900890?comment_id=10153426908620890&notif_t=like&hc_location=ufi" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: url(https://deepgreenresistance.org/forum/Themes/default/css/images/link.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 182, 207); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: 12.4799995422363px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/LikeNews13/posts/10153426801900890?comment_id=10153426908620890&notif_t=like&hc_location=ufi</a></div>
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MY COMMENTS: NO. We just went through this in Naples and with BP and the GOM. The oil companies cannot be trusted to do procedures legally and safely in regards to the environment and to preserve all life including the human impact. If there is one mistake or error on their part, there goes Florida's water. Safety standards are usually ignored. The corporations only care about their profits. We have seen this time and time again. In the meantime, solar energy is made so expensive and with such legal red tape that it is not available to most of us. Those who can implement it are those that can afford it. Definitely NOT the 99%. NO NO NO. The only reason this is not out in the open in regards to BP's total F-up of our Gulf is because of Florida's 85 billion dollar tourist industry. In the meantime, our environment is screwed and people are ill or dying. And then let's talk about the vibrio vulnificus, respiratory problems, cancers, skin lesions and other conditions and the die off of many species. NOT a conspiracy theory. So we Floridians want this to happen again? A repeat, redeux?</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the way, the money the state got from BP? The sick and dying, those who need it, will never see it. It will go to the state and the corporations.</span></div>
</span></span>Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869270039519917139.post-10720654927127151932015-05-19T21:09:00.001-04:002015-06-21T15:50:30.440-04:00WISE WOMEN MEDIA SPECIAL BROADCAST ON AMERICAN FREEDOM RADIO Wednesday, June 17th, 2015<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-size: large;">BROADCAST DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">THIS SHOW WILL AIR ON FRIDAY, JUNE 19TH AT 10PM EST.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #444444; color: red; font-size: medium;"><b><i>Here is the link to the archived show:</i></b></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #444444; color: red; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><b><i><a href="http://www.blackkatenterprises.com/archives/Vinny-Eastwood-Stewart-32k-061915.mp3" style="color: #dd0065; text-decoration: none;">http://www.blackkatenterprises.com/archives/Vinny-Eastwood-Stewart-32k-061915.mp3</a></i></b></span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jV4el0zn7SM/VVvWZp2aSWI/AAAAAAAALZM/TCL0G4SvCo8/s1600/IMG_6255.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jV4el0zn7SM/VVvWZp2aSWI/AAAAAAAALZM/TCL0G4SvCo8/s320/IMG_6255.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Anita Stewart of Wise Women Media</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Wise Women Media will be broadcasting from <a href="http://www.americanfreedomradio.com/" target="_blank">American Freedom Radio</a> <strike>on Wednesday evening, June 17th 2015</strike>. Follow the hyperlink above to get to the site and click on the player to listen to the show.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Broadcast times are:</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"> 10PM to Midnight EST</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">9PM to 11PM CST </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Thanks and big props go to Susanne Posel and Danny Romero for this opportunity.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The following special guests have been confirmed for this two hour broadcast: </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7UYwgOtiCBM/VVvQWr4VZdI/AAAAAAAALYc/R4VJ8b3bQRk/s1600/12-cindy-peace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7UYwgOtiCBM/VVvQWr4VZdI/AAAAAAAALYc/R4VJ8b3bQRk/s1600/12-cindy-peace.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1">Cindy Sheehan -- Peace Advocate, Author, Editor in Chief, Radio Talk Show Host and Producer of “<a href="http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Radio Show</a>”</span> </span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rlKpKm8koo4/VVvQfWmcy3I/AAAAAAAALYk/HZ7m0XqLD5Y/s1600/Mnar.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rlKpKm8koo4/VVvQfWmcy3I/AAAAAAAALYk/HZ7m0XqLD5Y/s320/Mnar.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1">Mnar Muhawesh -- Founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/" target="_blank">Mint Press News</a></span> </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TEO1zN0mfzM/VVvRMYzxRXI/AAAAAAAALYs/g40mIJcm_Bo/s1600/Rivera-w-DI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TEO1zN0mfzM/VVvRMYzxRXI/AAAAAAAALYs/g40mIJcm_Bo/s320/Rivera-w-DI.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.riverasun.com/" target="_blank">Rivera Sun</a> -- Peace Advocate, Radio Talk Show Host and Author of “The Dandelion Insurrection” and "Billionaire Buddha"</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DDuMCYpUZ9o/VVvRr_GVu9I/AAAAAAAALY0/lGHTrUhAWf0/s1600/Linda%2BTirado.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DDuMCYpUZ9o/VVvRr_GVu9I/AAAAAAAALY0/lGHTrUhAWf0/s400/Linda%2BTirado.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Tirado/e/B00NAICL42/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1" target="_blank">Linda Tirado</a> -- Activist and Author of “Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America”</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">***</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Be sure to tune in and invite others!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And join us on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wisewomenmedia" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/wisewomenmedia" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</span></div>
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Anita Stewarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13793278123231616101noreply@blogger.com6