Friday – Squirrel!!! “The Memo” is diverting us away from this… (4 quick actions)

Not a coincidence that this was planned to go off on a Friday…

Open cut coal mine

The splashy news about “The Memo”, although part of Trump’s plan to eventually wipe Mueller off the playing board, has another purpose. Since we all know about his end game on that front, what else is happening? How about the beginning of an environmental tragedy that starts today?

At 9 a.m. EST Friday, the extractive industry will gain drilling and mining access to previously protected public land. Trump signing a proclamation last year that decimated two national monuments, most likely unlawfully. Bears Ears National Monument was cut by more than 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was reduced by half. This resulted in the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S. history. The move put tens of thousands of Native American sacred sites at risk, along with key wildlife habitat, and areas used for outdoor recreation. The lawsuits have already begun.

However, today, February 2, 2018, the areas excluded from the monuments become available to private mineral companies to stake out mining and drilling claims. “We’re working on getting information and new monument maps ready for people interested in claims,” Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spokesman Michael Richardson confirmed to Reuters. “The costs of claiming are low: a $212 filing fee, and an annual maintenance fee of $150. The claims provide prospectors mineral rights, with no requirement to pay the government royalties, but not ownership of the land. The law covers mining for uranium, gold, silver, copper and other precious metals, but excludes coal and petroleum.” We’re being told not to worry about poisonous uranium mining, as it’s current market price is low. Hmm… we don’t believe low prices are permanent feature of the commodities market, unlike the pollution it leaves behind.

This is a bad business deal for us…

Continue reading “Friday – Squirrel!!! “The Memo” is diverting us away from this… (4 quick actions)” →

Thursday – 4 easy actions on drilling, bump stocks, kids’ lunches, and who’s in charge of our bodies

(photo from https://www.nokidhungry.org/who-we-are/hunger-facts)

#1 – No, we want to keep drilling safety protections. Really! – Deadline Jan. 29th.

It’s ridiculous that we have to beg to keep basic protections that experts have created after assessing the causes of multiple devasting oil spills. But this is a new era…

So, please join in and write to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to keep offshore drilling safety practices as-is here. As of this morning, they only have 491 comments!

Your comment doesn’t have to be amazingly original. Cruise through here for some ideas, find something that sounds sort of like you after coffee and mix it up a bit.

Here’s a sample of comments already submitted:

Please protect our coastal environment! Do not weaken the current regulations on offshore drilling. The current regulations incorporate valuable lessons learned from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, when 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the sea, killing nearly a million seabirds and still causing effects in the Gulf. The proposed rules loosen controls on blowout preventers and third party certification that safety devices will work under the extreme conditions in which they are placed. The impact of another spill like the Deepwater Horizon, which the new rules practically guarantee, will far outweigh the benefits of reducing operating costs for oil companies that can well afford them. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement should be committed to the safety of offshore drilling operations, not with oil company profits. Strong regulation and an independent BSEE are needed to ensure that offshore drilling can coexist with other important uses of our coastline, including recreation, tourism, fishing and wilderness.
I am writing to inform you of my concern for the announced drilling for oil off the coastline of the US. What a terrible idea! We should be preserving our environment instead of destroying it. This country already has enough sources for oil production. Why do this? Do the oil companies really need more money? Just asking.

#2 – Please comment on “bump stocks” to the ATF. Deadline Today!

Link here.

#3 – They’ve already attacked protections on clean water and air. Now they’re coming after kids’ nutrition. Comment thru Jan. 29

Continue reading →

We ALL Marched for Justice in Ventura!

A beautiful day to march, to celebrate unity after the Thomas Fire, and to come together in peace and love, Ventura County Rising and the March for Justice was everything we hoped it would be!

Continue reading “We ALL Marched for Justice in Ventura!” →

Tuesday 1/16 – 3 Quick Actions on a tight timeline…

Tuesday – Jan. 16th

CLEAN POWER – Write a comment TODAY by 11:59 PM ET !

clean power

Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36916781

Save the Clean Power Plan – Deadline Jan. 16

The EPA intends to end the Clean Power Plan. First though, they will have to successfully repeal it, thereby deregulating power plants and slashing environmental protections. Post a comment protesting the EPA’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan before January Jan 16 2018, at 11:59 PM ET . Link to comment form.

Sample Written Script (try to mix it up a little): I strongly oppose the revoking of the Clean Power Plan by the EPA. The Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of recent climate change regulation, is intended to slash carbon emissions from power plants. It should not be repealed or replaced only strengthened. Climate change is not “fake news” it is the scientifically verified future of the planet. Ending the Clean Power Plan is a crime against that future. The role of the EPA is not to boost the economy of the fossil fuel industry; it is to protect the environment. Do your job.

ORGANIC FARMING – Write a comment!

Continue reading “Tuesday 1/16 – 3 Quick Actions on a tight timeline…” →

Thursday 1/11 – The FCC, Mueller and the Earth…

We’re cancelling our newsletter call on Net Neutrality.

All our legislators are on the job. Please thank them instead.

Both our Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are part of the 40 senators that signed Senator Markey’s Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to overturn FCC vote to end net neutrality. 30 members were required to send it to the floor for a vote. Thank them here. Feinstein email, Kamala Harris email.

Both our representatives, Salud Carbajal and Julia Brownley, have released statements that they will support legislative action to enforce net neutrality. Thank them here. Carbajal email, Brownley email.

Today is “Protect Mueller National Call-In Day”!

Let’s all take part and call our MoCs to ask them to do their part to protect him. #ProtectMueller and #TrumpRussia

Environmental Actions

You can watch it below and/or read about all the acts here…, but while we were distracted with Trump’s supposed “War on Christmas”, an actual war on our environment was happening.

Continue reading “Thursday 1/11 – The FCC, Mueller and the Earth…” →

Update on yesterday’s written action…

Website URL fix from yesterday…

Some were having difficulties opening the website for the Drilling programs PR site – Here’s the link for the actual document: “Developing a New National OCS Program 2019-2024“. Here’s a more reliable link for the rest of the website.

Note: The only meeting in California is scheduled for Sacramento on February 8th, from 3-7 pm PST.

Oh, yeah, one four-hour meeting should take care of it, FOR ALL OF CALIFORNIA!

Jim Hines of the Sierra Club got a verbal promise from the Secretary of Interior Zinke and submitted a matching official request that that two full days of public hearings would be held in Ventura and Santa Barbara so that people in the affected area can attend and comment on the 5-year plan.

In the meantime, local meeting or no, please comment here. The deadline for comments is Mar 9 2018, at 11:59 PM ET.

Monday – Stop the Drilling – 3 Actions

Written

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has officially released the draft OCS 5 year leasing plan which includes areas for new oil drilling in the Pacific Ocean among other areas currently closed to leasing. Jim Hines, our intrepid Sierra Club connection, has officially requested through the Secretary of Interior office that two full days of public hearings be held in Ventura and Santa Barbara so that people in the affected area can attend and comment on the 5-year plan. The Secretary promised him this last year and that there will be a public comment period and then a re-write of the plan depending upon public comment.

Here is the comment website which is open for comments TODAY, MONDAY Jan. 8th. https://www.boem.gov/National-Program/

Call #1 – Federal

Co-sponsor HR 2272 and S. 999 – COAST Anti-Drilling Act

Despite bipartisan agreement that offshore drilling endangers our coastal communities and harms their economies, Trump’s administration announced they were throwing out protection acts and allowing offshore drilling in nearly all coastal areas off the continental US, opening areas in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans along with the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, our government is now an arm of BP and other oil and gas companies.

Minimal Script: I’m calling from [zip code] to ask Senator [___] to co-sponsor the COAST Anti-Drilling Act. We must stop Trump’s plans to sell off America’s coastlines for oil & gas development — including plans for six new leases off California’s shores.
http://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-offshore-drilling-20180106-story.html

Continue reading →

Casual Friday – Resist in your pajamas!

Cup of coffee ready?

1. Rinse and Repeat.

If you missed any of the actions from yesterday, including calls on DACA and another wildly inappropriate nominee and some quick consumer actions on Motel 6 (seriously!) and a Breitbart advertiser, do them today. It takes 5 minutes or less, depending on what you want to say to Tom Bodett.

2. Did they really think we were going to let 3 corporate shills walk off with the Internet?

Embed from Getty Images

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is introducing a Congressional Review Act resolution (actual draft here) that would restore the Open Internet Order and reverse the FCC’s historic mistake of repealing Net Neutrality. He needs 30 senators to co-sign to force a vote and only needs ONE more…

Here’s his list so far:
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)
Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii.)
Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)
Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
Gary Peters (D-Mich.)
Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Sherrod Brown (D-O.H.)
ack Reed (D-R.I.)
Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)
Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)
Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Hey, where’s Dianne Feinstein? Ask her to sign this already.

Senator Feinstein: DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430

Minimal Script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I know that Senator [___] is a supporter of net neutrality. I want her to to sign on to the “Congressional Resolution of Disapproval” to force this issue to a vote.

And Julia Brownley. Really?

Continue reading “Casual Friday – Resist in your pajamas!” →

Last Day to Comment on Enbridge’s Line 5!

Help Prevent a Catastrophic Great Lakes Oil Spill!

Last June, the preliminary Line 5 Alternatives Study was released, and more than 23,000 people submitted their comment calling for the shutdown of Line 5 as the only alternative that will truly protect the Great Lakes from an oil spill. The revised and final Alternatives Study has just been released, which has triggered a second comment period that is now open.

If you’re not familiar with this issue, here’s an overview. Line 5 pipelines come in from Canada and take a shortcut through Michigan and the Straits of Mackinac before crossing back into Canada near Port Huron. The Straits of Mackinac is one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in the world. The Great Lakes are home to 20 percent of the fresh surface water on the planet and provides drinking water to thousands of people.

The deadline for public comments is TODAY, December 22, 2017, so please, join these supporters and sign on and submit your comment today via this online form. Let’s prevent a devastating oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac.

http://www.oilandwaterdontmix.org/submit_your_line_5_comment

Sanity-Saving Good News – The #MeToo Edition

Good News for Women!

Time Magazine chose the women brave enough to stand up to their harrassers as “Person of the Year” over the man accused of being a harrasser himself. Which is great!

However, as we learn more about the #MeToo movement, it is disappointing to learn that the actual original author, Tarana Burke, who started it as part of her work with young harrassment and assault survivors more than ten years ago, wasn’t included on the cover. Our thanks and congratulations to her.