Monthly Archives: August 2012

Mid August Report

Table at Earthfest

By Ben Barker, Coordinator of Deep Green Resistance Wisconsin

For the past several months, the Wisconsin Chapter of the Deep Green Resistance movement has been building its own capacity and helping the international movement with campaigns and projects.

We recognize that one of our major goals as a chapter of the larger DGR movement is to simultaneously support DGR as a whole and bring the movement to our locale. Without a strong international movement, local resisters would have little support in their efforts. Yet, without resistance happening locally, the more broad structure would be irrelevant and ineffective.

In Wisconsin news, our group recently set up a literature table at Earthfest, an annual environmental festival in Sheboygan, WI. The mission of Earthfest is as follows:

Since 1990, Earthfest’s mission is to provide a joyful, annual, free family festival in Sheboygan to promote community spirit and a healthy environment through music, art, education, lectures, stories, demonstrations, and local foods.

From behind our table, we engaged in conversation with several folks about our organization and perspective. As is predictable given the tone of the so-called environmental movement in the United States, many whom we spoke with were not of the mind that resistance is even a possibility. They know the problems, but don’t know what we can honestly do to stop them. This is a major reason why DGR Wisconsin participated in Earthfest; we want to bring a radical analysis into the environmental milieu. The festival now being over, and many of our pamphlets seeing the fresh eyes of it’s attendees, it’s hard to say what impact our presence will have. Though, we will keep spreading the seeds of resistance and attempt to build a movement to save the planet.

Many thanks to organizers of Earthfest for putting the event on and allowing us to participate.

As always, the resistance needs you, and our group has expanded it’s options for getting involved, so please consider joining us in our fight for the future.

Wisconsin oil spill is Canadian firm’s worst since 2010 disaster

from: http://www.latimes.com/

 
By Matt Pearce
July 29, 2012, 2:10 p.m.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Enbridge, a beleaguered Canadian oil pipeline company, has spilled more than 50,000 gallons of light crude oil in rural Wisconsin —  shortly after the company said it had implemented safety reforms after a massive 2010 spill in Michigan.

Officials for Alberta-based Enbridge Inc., one of the United States’ most vital suppliers of Canadian oil, said Friday’s spill has been contained by cleanup workers,  who are now trying to repair and restart the 24-inch pipeline known as Line 14, which carries more than 300,000 barrels a day.

The incident is another black mark for an ambitious energy company ridiculed earlier this month by U.S. safety officials, who likened Enbridge workers  to the Keystone Kops. The comparison came after an investigation of a broken pipeline that released more than 800,000 gallons of heavy crude near Marshall, Mich. — one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history and certainly the most expensive.

The new spill, in sparsely populated Adams County, Wis., forced the evacuation of two homes. It is the company’s worst spill since the 2010 disaster, and it drew the ire of U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee.

“Enbridge is fast becoming to the Midwest what BP was to the Gulf of Mexico, posing troubling risks to the environment,” Markey said in a statement. “The company must be forthcoming about this entire incident, and deserves a top-to-bottom review of their safety culture, procedures and standards.”

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