Your life is worth more than a tank car of oil

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Wednesday August 20, 2014 · 9:56 AM PDT

2014/08/20 · 09:56

Oil train derails and explodes near Casselton, ND.

Casselton, ND derailment. Photo: Dave Arnston

From Matt Krogh, ForestEthics' Campaign Director.

Imagine learning your home or even your child's school could be incinerated by a train carrying highly flammable oil. For 25 million Americans this is a frightening daily reality.

Last month — after a record year of oil trains derailing, spilling, and exploding across the country — President Obama proposed new regulations for unsafe tank cars. But shockingly, these new rules cater heavily to Big Oil, protecting industry profits while sacrificing public safety and the health of our air and water.

This summer, thousands took a stand against dangerous oil by rail by attending rallies across the country and submitting more than 5,000 petition signatures. Now it's time for the next step in the fight as the Obama Aministration accepts public comments on these new regulations.

Tell President Obama and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx: We demand stronger regulations for oil by rail that protect people and the environment, not Big Oil profits!

More after the jump...

ForestEthics

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Thursday July 24, 2014 · 7:30 AM PDT

2014/07/24 · 07:30

Blog post by Matt Krogh, ForestEthics' Tar Sands SOS Campaign Director.

Today after months of study and, unfortunately, time spent listening to the oil industry, President Obama proposed weak new standards for oil trains. How weak? Well, they give the oil industry a license to continue threatening the safety of millions of Americans with hazardous, flammable oil trains.

I’d hoped that when these proposed regulations were announced they would be a step in the right direction — getting dangerous exploding tank cars off the tracks, rerouting trains around population centers, and giving communities the ability to say no. Especially since the nationwide danger of oil train routes is so clearly visible. But, the administration instead prioritized the oil industry's agenda to barrel dangerous tank cars through our cities and by our homes, leaving communities and emergency responders high and dry.

So, what are the problems with these new rules? Find out after the jump:

Poll

23 votes Show Results

Do you think we have the right to know if highly-flammable oil is moving by rail through our communities?

23 votes Vote Now!

Do you think we have the right to know if highly-flammable oil is moving by rail through our communities?

YES

19 votes

4 votes

25 million people are in the oil train Blast Zone. Are you?

ForestEthics

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Tuesday July 08, 2014 · 2:02 PM PDT

2014/07/08 · 14:02

Flames soared, black smoke billowed into the sky, and an afternoon turned to terror.

On April 30th, a train carrying highly-flammable oil derailed and exploded in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia, sparking a massive fire, forcing the evacuation of hundreds, and spilling toxic crude into the James River.

Each day, Big Oil sends more unsafe tanker cars loaded with volatile oil barreling through our towns and cities on tracks that were never designed for such dangerous cargo. More than 25 million Americans live in the Blast Zone along these oil train rail lines. It's not a question of if, but when the next tragedy will strike.

The people of Lynchburg live in the oil train Blast Zone — do you? Find out if you and your family are in the Blast Zone and take action to stop dangerous oil trains!

ForestEthics

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Sunday July 06, 2014 · 5:04 PM PDT

2014/07/06 · 17:04

Blog post by Ethan Buckner (@ethanbuckner), US Organizer, ForestEthics

5th Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk, Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photo: Ethan Buckner, ForestEthics

Last weekend, I traveled further north than I’d ever been in my life, to Fort McMurray, Alberta for the 5th Annual Tar Sands Healing Walk. At this time of year in "Fort Mac" (as they call it up there), the sun shines late into the night, so even on a new moon at midnight the sky is dusky and dim but never completely dark.

The healing walk’s camp is located about 35 kilometers (~21 miles) south of town, sitting beside the beautiful and enormous Gregoire Lake, which is surrounded by brilliant green Boreal forest.

Organized by Athabasca Keepers of the Water, the entire weekend was rich with ceremony, prayer, learning, and connection. On Saturday, more than 300 of us gathered at Crane Lake, one of SunCor's so-called "reclamation" sites. We walked in a procession led by Dene drummers around one of the tar sands mines, past toxic tailings ponds, and an enormous bitumen upgrading facility.

Stories of despair and pain, cancer, and corrupt government shared by First Nations leaders echoed in my head as the dense metallic air penetrated my lungs.

ForestEthics

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Friday June 13, 2014 · 2:13 PM PDT

2014/06/13 · 14:13

The November 16 No Enbridge rally in Vancouver, BC, brought thousands out to oppose Enbridge's toxic tar sands pipeline. Photo credit: Flickr/Mark Klotz

Blog post by Nikki Skuce (@nikkiskuce), Senior Energy Campaigner, ForestEthics Advocacy

We’re in the middle of a seriously tense waiting game. Any day now, the Canadian federal government will announce its decision on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker project. The federal government has made countless chess moves toward satisfying the concerns of British Columbians, so that we accept the risks and act as a throughput of tar sands oil to Asian and US markets. But we really aren’t easy to appease with so much at stake with this project, including our coast, wild salmon waterways, and climate.

More after the jump:

ForestEthics

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Tuesday June 10, 2014 · 12:32 PM PDT

2014/06/10 · 12:32

This blog is by Ethan Buckner (@ethanbuckner), ForestEthics US organizer.

Last week, dozens of activists disrupted business-as-usual for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo at the Sustainable Brands 2014 conference in San Diego. The conference drew thousands of corporate sustainability professionals for four days of speakers and workshops at a beachside resort.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi were among the conference’s corporate attendees, and both companies were there to strut their stuff.

But we know that neither Coke nor Pepsi (and no other company for that matter) can claim to be ‘sustainable’ if they continue to fuel their tens of thousands of cars and trucks with tar sands fuel. Yes, I’m talking about cancer-causing, strip-mined, uncleanable-if-spilled, carbon-bomb tar sands.

Coke and Pepsi, two of America’s largest private consumers of oil, have not yet committed ditching tar sands fuel in their delivery vehicles. So activists from ForestEthics and Sierra Club stopped by Sustainable Brands to make sure every corporate attendee got the message: tar sands are the dirtiest oil on Earth, and no company should have any business using it. You can send a message to Coke and Pepsi, too.

Check out great pics from the action after the jump.

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Your life is worth more than a tank car of oil

Feeble, Fiery, and Frustrating: The Top 10 reasons to hate Obama’s new standards for oil trains

25 million people are in the oil train Blast Zone. Are you?

From Alberta to California, a Common Struggle to Find Healing

5 Ways That Harper and Big Oil Have Tried to Ease the Enbridge Opposition & Why They Don’t Work

Coca-Cola and Pepsi Should be Totally Embarrassed That They’re Guzzling Down Tar Sands