WASHINGTON — Acting on a recommendation from the State Department on Wednesday, President Barack Obama denied a permit for the contentious Keystone XL pipeline proposal, which would have linked a vast oil deposit in Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

In rejecting the permit, Obama laid blame on Republicans in Congress, who forced passage of a measure late last month requiring the administration to render a decision on the pipeline by Feb. 21.

“As the State Department made clear last month,” Obama said in a prepared statement, “the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department’s report, I agree.”

Though the denial of the permit was a major blow to the company behind the project, TransCanada, the president emphasized that his decision does not preclude any subsequent permit application for this or similar projects.

“In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security — including the potential development of an oil pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico — even as we set higher efficiency standards for cars and trucks and invest in alternatives like biofuels and natural gas,” Obama said.

TransCanada responded by immediately saying it would reapply for a permit.

“While we are disappointed, TransCanada remains fully committed to the construction of Keystone XL,” said Russ Girling, the energy infrastructure company’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “Plans are already underway on a number of fronts to largely maintain the construction schedule of the project,” he continued. “We will re-apply for a Presidential Permit and expect a new application would be processed in an expedited manner to allow for an in-service date of late 2014.”

Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones said in a press briefing that any new application “would trigger a completely new process. We cannot state that it would be expedited in any way.” But she also acknowledged that environmental reviews are legally allowed to use information that is publicly available, including previous environmental impact statements. “The body of information that is out there would inform a new application,” said Jones.

The news of the State Department’s decision comes after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced at a Tuesday afternoon press conference that Obama cannot approve the pipeline by the Feb. 21 deadline imposed by Congress.

It also comes after House and Senate lawmakers signaled they would introduce new legislation pushing the permit forward even if the Obama administration rejected the pipeline proposal. That bill, drafted by Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), would shut the White House out of the Keystone decision-making process, leaving Congress with full authority to approve the pipeline, which would stretch an estimated 1,700 miles from tar sands in Canada to oil refineries along the Gulf Coast.

The State Department had been charged with granting a permit for the project because the pipeline would cross an international border. Rejecting that permit may prevent the project from moving forward as conceived, but sources familiar with the process tell The Huffington Post that TransCanada should be able to build a southern portion of the pipeline — between Oklahoma and Texas — without further approvals. TransCanada can also reapply for the border crossing at any time, the sources said.

The pipeline has been at the center of a bitter and long-running battle between environmentalists, who feared both oil spills and the vast carbon footprint of the project, and oil industry supporters, who argued that the pipeline promised copious oil from a nearby and friendly source.

Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org who spearheaded the movement against the pipeline, reacted to the news in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.

Assuming that what we’re hearing is true, this isn’t just the right call, it’s the brave call. The knock on Barack Obama from many quarters has been that he’s too conciliatory. But here, in the face of a naked political threat from Big Oil to exact ‘huge political consequences,’ he’s stood up strong. This is a victory for Americans who testified in record numbers, and who demanded that science get the hearing usually reserved for big money.

We’re well aware that the fossil fuel lobby won’t give up easily. They have control of Congress. But as the year goes on, we’ll try to break some of that hammerlock, both so that environmental review can go forward, and so that we can stop wasting taxpayer money on subsidies and handouts to the industry. The action starts mid-day Tuesday on Capitol Hill, when 500 referees will blow the whistle on Big Oil’s attempts to corrupt the Congress.

For their part, pipeline advocates were quick to condemn the administration for its actions, accusing the president of trying to drum up support from environmentalists in an election year.

“Blocking the Keystone pipeline would be an enormous mistake by the Obama administration,” said H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis. “We need the oil and we need the jobs it would bring. This is as ‘shovel ready’ as anything Obama has proposed, yet because his radical environmental constituency objects, he’s apparently halting the pipeline. He simply needs their support too much in an election year.”

Conservative think tank American Action Forum chimed in, calling the president’s decision “a disaster for major energy infrastructure investments” and blasting out a list of grievances that ranged from the argument that the decision would stifle job creation in the Midwest to claims that it would help China “assume a major position” in North American oil.

The White House also announced that Obama on Wednesday had called Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to personally convey his administration’s decision on the Keystone pipeline and affirm the close alliance between the U.S. and Canada.

Sara McIntyre, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Harper, confirmed the phone call.

Harper expressed “profound disappointment with the news,” according to McIntyre. The prime minister also emphasized to Obama that Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports, suggesting that alternative routes designed to move oil from Alberta’s vast, landlocked resources to the global marketplace are almost certain to be considered.

The prime minister’s disappointment was reiterated by Canada’s natural resource minister, Joe Oliver, who described Obama’s decision as “regrettable” during an afternoon press conference.

“The responsible development of the enormous resources provided by our oil sands is expected to create hundreds and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country, generating significant economic benefits,” Oliver said. “We cannot underestimate the fact that these benefits fund critical services for Canadians, including health care and education.”

Oliver echoed Harper’s suggestion that Canada would seek to export its oil with or without Keystone XL. “Today’s decision by the Obama administration,” Oliver said, “underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets — including the growing Asian market — to help ensure the financial security of Canadians and families for decades to come.”

Carney, the White House spokesman, emphasized for the second day in a row that the administration believed Congress had forced the State Department into an untenable decision by demanding a decision on the pipeline permit by Feb. 21.

“The Republicans put in jeopardy a process that should be immune from politics, should be conducted on the basis of pragmatic and considered analysis, and tried to hijack it,” Carney said at his daily press briefing.

Carney added that the administration was particularly concerned that under that law, a decision about an alternative route through Nebraska, which many environmental groups and other stakeholders had called for, would have to be made in an “arbitrary fashion.” The Huffington Post has previously reported that the State Department repeatedly rejected efforts by other government agencies to compel it to evaluate alternative routes through Nebraska, long before the most recent uproar.

Those of us involved with NRRT are aware of our absence from the megaload fight and other efforts to undermine tar sands infrastructure development. Hopefully the following can allay some of the concerns and accusations that we have encountered in the past few months of non-involvement.

First, we did not give up! The struggle to shut down the tar sands and achieve climate justice is something that NRRT members are concerned with in a very profound way. The megaload/heavy haul fight was never, and will never be, a ‘not in our backyard’ issue for us. Our disengagement with current battles does not mean we were satisfied with what minor court victories did for the overall struggle against the tar sands. Quite the contrary. Many of these minor victories have since been overturned, reversing what we and many other groups had fought for for nearly two years. The Earth First! Rendezvous this past summer was in some ways a climax for NRRT, at least as it had existed until that point. Shortly after the Keystone XL pipeline action at the Montana Capitol,  judge Ray Dayton ruled in our favor (unrelated to the action), stopping turnout construction on Montana Highways indefinitely. This gave us a bit of breathing room to regroup and form strategies for the future. But, alas, regrouping proved difficult as summer gave way to fall and the megaload issue seemed temporarily resolved. A multitude of factors contributed to this: members’ school commitments, lack of funding (or creative ways to find it), lack of a central organizing space, a mediocre level of inspiration, a reversal of the judge’s decision and the movement of members onto other projects. Do not forget, however, that this grassroots struggle has not been a failure by any means. Since NRRT initiated discussion on the issue over two years ago, with the help of many other groups, we have delayed the construction of the Kearl Oil sands mine by two years and cost them untold millions in transportation hold-ups and court costs.

Second, the dynamics of the megaload fight in particular became more complex when Imperial Oil began shipping re-sized megaloads on the interstate. As a direct action oriented organization, NRRT was unsure how to approach interstate megaload travel with such tactics in mind. This is where the brave souls of Wild Idaho Rising Tide stepped up to the plate. We want to applaud their efforts and let the world know that we stand in solidarity with their weekly demonstrations in downtwon Moscow, ID. Without much time to develop a strategic plan to confront the new megaload route, before NRRT members were needed elsewhere this fall and winter, the “direct action vacuum” has been occupied by WIRT. We have not retreated from this fight, however, but are calculating and looking for a new wave of energy.

But what about the Keystone XL pipeline? The efforts to get president Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline are simultaneously daunting and inspiring. The unprecedented (at least in recent history) acts of civil disobedience surrounding the KXL pipeline have been very inspiring. Combined with a general trend of increased political and environmental awareness and action, spurred on by the the Occupation movement, it looks as though direct action is finally making a comeback.

With all this in mind, the future of NRRT is somewhat uncertain and entirely unwritten. Finding new energy and folks who are willing to organize will be critical, as NRRT members of the past two years spread around the country. We are still deeply concerned and opposed to the current trend of transforming Montana, and the Intermountain West in general, into a vast energy extraction colony. When the time is right, and people are willing to really put themselves on the line, we will be there to turn up the heat!

Feel free to contact us!

Northern Rockies Rising Tide

You can submit your comment here.

[by Kim Briggemean for The Missoulian]

The Montana Department of Transportation said Friday morning it’s preparing to issue permits for approximately 300 oversize loads on Interstate 90 and Interstate 15 to Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Ltd.

It’s also soliciting written and online comments on the project, which is slated to start next week and continue through March. The prime transporter is Mammoet USA South Inc.

The loads, destined for the Kearl Oil Sands in Alberta, will reach Montana at Lookout Pass on I-90, access I-15 north at Butte, and exit the state at the Port of Sweet Grass in Toole County.

It’s the same route many Imperial/Mammoet loads have already taken, including those from the Port of Lewiston, Idaho, that have been reduced in profile to fit under interstate bridges after legal action blocked their route on Highway 12 over Lolo Pass.

MDT said one lane of travel will remain open, though “travelers may occasionally experience short delays during the transport of these oversize loads.”

The transportation for the project is available on the MDT website, www.mdt.mt.gov/oversize.

For more information, contact Duane Williams, MDT Motor Carrier Services Division Administrator at (406) 444-7312. For the hearing impaired, the TTY number is (406) 444-7696 or 1-800-335-7592, or call the Montana Relay at 711.

Written comments may be submitted to the Montana Department of Transportation Helena MCS office at PO Box 201001, Helena, MT 59620-1001, or online at www.mdt.mt.gov/mdt/comment_form.shtml. Please note comments are for the “Mammoet Interstate Transportation Permits.” Alternative accessible formats of this information will be provided upon request.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/mdt-to-issue-permits-for-oilfield-megaloads-on-interstates/article_55e0e1fa-0703-11e1-a0df-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1cmJzFN00

In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, Missoula’s 99% has set up an encampment at the courthouse on Broadway Ave. to protest against growing inequality, the corporate control of public resources, and the fundamentally unjust nature of capitalism itself. Northern Rockies Rising Tide endorses with enthusiasm Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Missoula, and encourages anyone outraged by this country’s twisted economic system to join us.

General Assemblies are held every day at 5:30 and are open to all. Please come and participate in this amazing experiment in direct democracy, where we, as a community, come together and make a collective effort to find our own solutions to the problems we face. If you’re sick and tired of this country’s failed political process–the charade of two-party politics, the corporate control of the ostensibly public decision-making process–then join us in developing community-based solutions and asserting our collective voice! YOU ARE THE 99 PERCENT!

On a less-inspiring note, Judge Dayton has modified his earlier decision and will now allow the permiting of Megaloads on Hyw. 12.

See the Missoulian article for more details.

NRRT remains committed to fighting the corporations that would turn our scenic byways into industrial shipping corridors for Tar Sands infrastructure projects, and hope that with the resurgence of an (anti-authoritrarian) populism in this country, we will begin to see an end to extreme energy projects like the Tar Sands.

To put it bluntly: Corporations are destroying the planet, and the fate of the environmental movement is inextricably linked to the fate of the growing movement to abolish corporate power and create grassroots alternatives to capitalism.

The Left is Dead! Long Live the Left!

[by Phil Aroneanu for The Huffington Post]

“Go Paul!”

That’s what a top State Department official wrote in an email to the top lobbyist for TransCanada, a top tar sands oil producer, upon hearing that he had garnered support for the Keystone KL pipeline from a US Senator. That shouldn’t be too surprising, since the lobbyist was one of Hilary Clinton’s campaign aides during her presidential run. The cozy relationship between corporate lobbyists and decisionmakers isn’t anything new, but it’s just as despicable as ever. And with the Keystone XL pipeline issue, corporate America’s fingerprints are turning up all over the place.

That’s why over 1200 ordinary people from around the country took the extraordinarily courageous step of sitting-in and getting arrested at the White House in late August — to show President Obama and leaders on Capitol Hill that real people can be just as powerful as corporate interests. Will President Obama, who campaigned saying ”I don’t take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House,” be willing to push back against TransCanada, its Wall St. financiers, and the stranglehold these corporations have on our government, or will he be complicit in destroying our democracy, our land and our atmosphere?

Later on this year, when President Obama makes a decision whether to go forward with the tar sands pipeline, we’ll know where he stands. But the Occupy Wall Street protesters aren’t going to wait that long. The amount of energy that the Occupy Wall Street movement has generated so far is incredible. Over the course of two weeks, their numbers have ballooned from a few hundred to thousands, and Occupy movements have started up in dozens of other cities around the country and the world. Why? Because Americans are sick and tired of top officials cozying up to lobbyists, of political cronyism and petty corruption at the highest levels of government.

While from an outside perspective the Occupy Wall Street protests might seem disorganized, their message is clear: If Wall Street is occupying the State Department and the halls of Congress, its time for the people to occupy Wall Street. In the case of the Keystone pipeline, the paper trail shows that Big Oil and Wall Wt. certainly walk the halls of the State Department with impunity. Now, it’s time for climate activists to join hands with the Wall Street protestors, and occupy together.

Here’s a quick video of some Occupy Wall Street folks talking about the connection between climate change and the occupation:

If you haven’t yet submitted a public comment to the US State Department opposing TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, please do so NOW. You can submit your comment here.

These comments are especially important right now, because of numerous recent developments indicating that the State Department is not conducting a good-faith review of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

In a stunning conflict of interest, the State Department hearings this week have been run by a company called Cardno ENTRIX, a contractor working for the Keystone XL pipeline developer TransCanada.

Cardno ENTRIX also conducted the State Department’s woefully inadequate environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline. That review was finalized a few weeks ago, despite the EPA raising numerous concerns and warning that the review was “insufficient.”

What’s more, recently published documents revealing a shockingly cozy relationship between State Department officials and lobbyists for the Canadian pipeline company TransCanada.

These documents include emails from a TransCanada lobbyist named Paul Elliot, who previously served as the Deputy Campaign Manager on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential campaign. State Department officials, in a clear show of pro-pipeline bias, appear to have coached Elliot and other TransCanada staff about how to build their case for approval, and even how to respond to questions and concerns about pipeline safety and environmental impact.³

The State Department appears not to be taking seriously it’s solemn obligation to the people of this country to conduct an impartial evaluation of the impacts of this pipeline. But this decision is ultimately still up to the President.

Submit a public comment now to send a strong message to President Obama and his State Department.

Pilots, Transit Workers, and Others Join Occupy Wall Street

Occupations Spread Around the Country

NRRT stands in solidarity with the multitude of enraged citizens from around the country who have converged on Wall Street to demonstrate their disgust with the financial and political elites who claim to be the ones who would solve the economic and ecological crises that they themselves created.

Resistance to Keystone XL Pipeline Continues to Escalate

This week, 117 people were arrested on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada for crossing a police barricade and attempting to enter the House of  Commons in protest of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

In the largest act of environmental civil disobedience in decades, over 1,000 people have been arrested outside the White House, calling on the President and State Department to deny the federal permit for TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would carry Tar Sands heavy crude oil 1,700 miles from northern Alberta to the US Gulf Coast via Montana and six other states.

As climate scientists, landowners, indigenous leaders and others from around the country pledge to escalate a nationwide campaign to push President Obama to deny the permit for a new tar sands oil pipeline, Northern Rockies Rising Tide, the No Shipments Network, and much of the Missoula community stands in solidarity with those arrested in DC.

On Friday evening, NRRT and No Shipments Network organizers, dressed in oil executive suits and carrying a mock-pipeline, marched in the streets through downtown Missoula, staging fake oil spills along Higgins Avenue during the height of First Friday festivities.

In the wake of the Yellowstone River oil spill, Governor Schweitzer and President Obama have a choice. They can follow the same path that brought Billings-area residents to the emergency room and destroyed many farmers’ and ranchers’ livelihoods, or chart a new course – a clean energy future that puts Americans to work and saves lives.

The Missoula protest is a solidarity action with an historic, ongoing, two-week act of civil disobedience at the White House in Washington, DC, where 1,252 citizens, from grandmothers to college students, have been arrested demanding that the Obama administration deny permits for the Keystone XL pipeline.  The action comes as the US State Department considers whether or not to issue permits for the pipeline’s construction – a decision is likely to come by the end of the year.

Bill McKibben, well-known author and one of the leaders of the Washignton, DC protests, calls the pipeline “a fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent” – the Alberta Tar Sands.  Indeed, with three times the carbon impact of conventional oil, and requiring four times as much water to extract, NASA scientist Jim Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate research scientists, says that facilitating further development of Tar Sands oil by building the Keystone XL pipeline means it is “essentially game over” for the planet.”  What’s more, according to a study released this week, oil in the Keystone XL pipeline “would be bound for overseas markets rather than shoring up America’s domestic fuel supply,” and would in fact raise fuel prices for Americans.

We stand in solidarity with those protesting at the White House in Washington, DC, and we will continue to fight all tar sands infrastructure projects, including ExxonMobil’s megaloads, until we shut the bastards down.

In the early hours of this fine Friday morning, folks in Moscow sent a direct message to Exxon and all future shippers of oversize tar-sands related equipment that no road should accept the movement of equipment being used in the genocide of First Nations communities and environmental destruction in Northern Alberta. In light of Exxon’s recent shift to using alternative Idaho roads and trucking smaller pieces of equipment, the protest in Moscow is a significant one. The issue isn’t simply just the beauty and integrity of Highway 12, but the need for all peoples to stand in solidarity with each other as we face the increasing torrent of environmental destruction here and around the world.

Below is the blurb re-posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here.

Activists Arrested For Blocking Tar Sands “Megaload” on US 95

Citizens Stand In Solidarity with Canadian First Nations & Others In Opposition to Extraction of the Alberta Tar Sands and the Building of the Keystone XL Pipeline

Moscow, ID- Early Friday morning, a group of Moscow residents were arrested for sitting in the road and blocking US 95 to protest an Exxon/Imperial Oil “megaload” shipment destined for the Alberta Tar Sands. In an act of non-violent, civil-disobedience, men and women sat down in the crosswalk of the highway when the four-hundred-thousand pound, two-hundred foot long, twenty-four foot wide, and fourteen-foot tall oil-processing module entered the downtown area. In a showing of solidarity with the First Nations people of Canada, and the hundreds of people getting arrested in Washington, D.C., the individuals are calling for the Obama Administration to deny permits for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would stretch from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

“Not only are people calling the Alberta Tar Sands the most unsustainable and destructive project on the planet, but also an act of genocide against the people that live in the region, particularly those down-stream of the tailing ponds,” said Moscow resident Brett Haverstick. “Big Oil intends to clear-cut and strip mine a place the size of Florida, and simultaneously destroys native communities and entire watersheds. I feel obligated to speak up and say this is wrong.”

With the Obama Administration getting ready to make a decision on the Keystone XL Pipeline later this year, the individuals said they have been inspired by the hundreds of people getting arrested in Washington D.C. this past week in protest of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

“President Obama must deny permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline. Go ask the people of Montana or the people of Michigan if they want more oil pipelines built across their lands and waterways, said Moscow resident Greg Freistadt. “People are traveling from Nebraska all the way to Washington, D.C. and getting arrested this week because the pipeline threatens their drinking water and livelihoods. It’s time for communities to come together and oppose this.”

The possible construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline isn’t the only oil pipeline that concerns the activists. The Northern Gateway Pipeline is scheduled to be built west from Alberta, Canada to the Pacific Ocean so that crude oil can be shipped to China and India.

“The First Nations people unanimously oppose this pipeline across their lands,” said Moscow resident Vince Murray. “In addition, supertankers plying the pristine coastline of northern British Columbia would endanger one of the last unspoiled ocean ecosystems in the world.”

The individuals have also been extremely disappointed with their city and state elected officials.

“Megaloads are terrorizing our highways in the Northern Rockies, pipelines are spilling oil into some of our most precious rivers, and our governors and Congressional leaders will not come to our defense, said Moscow resident Diana Armstrong. If leaders won’t lead, then it’s up to us to step forward.”

One week before the Silvertip Pipeline burst and then bled into the Yellowstone River, Brian Schweitzer met with representatives from ExxonMobil regarding the Kearl Module Transportation Project, or “megaload” shipments.  Although we have no way of knowing the full content of their conversation, it is reasonable to assume that the discussion involved the details of the project, repeated assurances of its safety, and a feeble request by the Governor that the shipments be built in Montana rather than abroad. Days later, as the Silvertip Pipeline gushed oil into the longest un-dammed river in the lower 48 states (some of that oil, as we have recently learned, coming from the Alberta Tar Sands, unbeknownst to regulators), Schweitzer promised that the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project for which he has continuously offered his unwavering support, would be different, that it would be more technologically sound, that the companies would be more honest, more transparent.

It seems to have become a mantra: Next time. Next time it will be better. Next time things will be different. Exxon Valdez, Deep Horizon, Silvertip: these types of accidents will never happen again. Yes, it’s true that the first Keystone pipeline has leaked like a sieve–12 times in its first year of operation—and it’s true that if the Keystone XL burst it could dump 6.9 million gallons of toxic hydrocarbons into the same river. But no need to worry: Next time will be different.

There’s something extremely crude, as it were, about the mantra of “next time.” There’s something blatantly disrespectful about telling people whose homes and fields have just been turned into oil slicks that next time things will be different, that even though we have yet to recover from the devastation of the spill, we should simply move forward with new and significantly more dangerous projects.

As we write, news reports are surfacing of another pipeline leak on the Blackfeet Reservation near Cutbank, MT. On Saturday, a BP oil pipeline on Alaska’s North Slope ruptured, spilling up to 4,200 gallons of oil-containing fluids, mainly methanol, into the Alaskan tundra.

Brian Schweitzer’s support for the Keystone XL Pipeline is reckless at best. It is a foolhardy gamble with the land, lives, and livelihood of Montanans who have nothing to gain and everything to lose.

So how then do we reach our politicians in a way that is meaningful? How then do we leverage power? We could request a meeting. We could allow ourselves to be schmoozed and politicked by someone leaving office next year. But in the end we still wouldn’t have obtained the leverage needed to make a real change.

Legislative, litigative, and public protest are all integral components in any successful campaign to change public policy and build collective power. The Capitol protest and occupation organized by Earth First! and Northern Rockies Rising Tide was an attempt to expose Schweitzer’s two-faced attempt to publicly chastise Exxon and quell the anger of Montanans while simultaneously supporting the XL Energy Pipeline and Exxon’s Kearl Shipments. It was an attempt to demand that he take a stand against projects that are so clearly bad for Montana, that are so clearly prone to disaster, and that are brought to us by companies that are so clearly invested in nothing but their own profit margin.

Schweitzer is now in the national spotlight telling people that he will work his damnedest to make Exxon clean up their mess. But where was he last year when Exxon decided to protest their state taxes, leaving the Lockwood School in Billings no choice but to cut their budget and thus their staff.

The July 12^th occupation of the Governor’s office succeeded in drawing national attention to the fact that Schweitzer is still in bed with ExxonMobile, regardless of his make-things-right stance on the spill. Unlike some of the local coverage, the national media chose to focus on the links between the Governor, Exxon, and the Keystone XL pipeline rather than on comparatively trivial matters like antique tables and Scott Joplin tunes.

The protest was rowdy but respectful. According to the Helena police, there was absolutely no damage done to the capitol building, which was left spotless. We made a sincere attempt to have a serious conversation with Schweitzer, but were repeatedly refused this opportunity. (One of many examples: Protestor: “…when 21 women try to have children in a community and 19 of them that year have stillbirths, I say, sir, it’s time for us to step asside from those corporations, to stand away from those people who would kill in our name for greed alone . . . well, where are you going to stand?” Governor: “Well, I’m standing here right now”). We recommend that people take the time to watch the raw footage available online of the meeting between the protestors and the Governor and see for themselves how Mr. Schweitzer behaved in response to direct questioning.

Loud, vibrant protesters may turn some people off, but they serve a purpose. They draw a clear line demarcating where public figures stand on certain issues. They force people to respond, even if in the negative, and in the end what the people of Montana have learned (or at least should have learned) from the Governor’s response to our demands, is that our supposed “public servant” would sooner bow down to the interests of the largest corporations on Earth than stand up for the land, lives, and livelihoods of Montanans. We find that attitude to be disrespectful and crude.

Click to view slideshow.

On the morning of July 12^th, six activists from Earth First! and Northern Rockies Rising Tide occupied Governor Schweitzer’s office in an act of non-violent civil disobedience.  The activists locked their arms in a mock oil pipeline made out of PVC plastic pipe.  In the wake of the Silvertip spill, Governor Schweitzer has publicly chastised ExxonMobil for their negligence and lack of transparency, while at the same time continuing to promote the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, Exxon’s megaload shipments bound for the Alberta Tar Sands, and other extreme fossil fuels projects throughout the state.  Governor Schweitzer eventually agreed to meet with the activists, responding to their questions with evasive and irrelevant pleasantries, but later declined to continue the conversation and refused to meet their demands.  The Capitol building was redecorated with colorful banners addressing climate change and the need to discontinue filthy fossil fuel projects.

“If the Governor has his way, Montana will be transformed into what is essentially an energy extraction colony for Big Oil.  The Silvertip spill is simply a short preview of what this would mean for the lives and livelihood of all Montanans,” says Great Falls native Peter Dolan, one of the eight occupying the office.

Activists inside the Capitol are also demanding that Schweitzer stand up to TransCanada and other international criminal organizations by publicly opposing Alberta Tar Sands exportation.  This project is widely known as the most destructive energy process on the planet by leading environmental organizations.  According to a recent report by University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering professor John Stansbury, neither TransCanada nor the regulators evaluating the proposed Keystone XL pipeline have properly considered the risks.  Stansbury said TransCanada underestimated both the frequency of spills on the pipeline and the severity of the worst-case scenario spills.

“As the recent Exxon Mobil pipeline disaster has made clear, Governor Schweitzer is attempting to turn Montana into an extraction state, while at the same time publicly proclaiming his supposed support for clean energy, protecting the environment and building healthy communities.  It’s one or the other. You can’t be clean and dirty at the same time,” according to Bozeman’s Erica Dossa, who also took part in the action.

Raw Video Footage from Our Meeting With the Governor

News Coverage of the Occupation:

Democracy Now

USA Today

Great Falls Tribune

It’s Getting Hot In Here

Flashpoints (KPFA Berkley)

Free Speech Radio News

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