Human Rights
The entire nuclear fuel chain involves the release of radioactivity, contamination of the environment and damage to human health. Most often, communities of color, indigenous peoples or those of low-income are targeted to bear the brunt of these impacts, particularly the damaging health and environmental effects of uranium mining. The nuclear power industry inevitably violates human rights. While some of our human rights news can be found here, we also focus specifically on this area on out new platform, Beyond Nuclear International.
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October 20, 2016The Standing Rock fight is for all of us
Freedom Socialist ran this editorial in its Oct.-Nov. 2016 (Vol. 37, No. 5) edition:
When a security company set dogs on people challenging bulldozers in North Dakota on Sept. 3, the scalding images recalled similar violence against civil rights protesters in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. And just as that Birmingham struggle was a defining moment, so too is the struggle for water and sovereignty by the Standing Rock Sioux and thousands of supporters, including nearly 300 Indian nations.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a project of Energy Transfer Partners that would bring fracked crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. It is disrupting sacred sites and would run under the main source of water for the Sioux. Of course, the corporation claims there is no danger — but another route was nixed because of concerns that a leak might pollute the water supply of the state capital.
This battle is bound up inseparably with the emergency need to end dependence on fossil fuels. The Standing Rock Sioux are in the vanguard of the fight for a planet that is livable for humanity and sustainable for generations to come — just as Native peoples have been historically.
Read a solidarity statement by the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women here and visit standingrock.org, rezpectourwater.com, and nodaplsolidarity.org for ways to support this crucial struggle.
To listen to this and other articles from this issue, click here.
Food & Water Watch: Who's Digging In On The Dakota Access Pipeline?
Food & Water Watch has published a significant update, and action alert, re: its watchdogging of the Dakota Access Pipeline's (DAPL) major investor, Enbridge Oil of Canada.
Enbridge is infamous, after it caused the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history: 1.4 million gallons of Canadian tar sands crude oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River in Marshall, MI in late July, 2010.
The Food & Water Watch update/action alert is sub-titled: Consolidation in the oil and gas industry, like the proposed Enbridge-Spectra merger, only increases the industry’s power to influence politicians and regulators.
Please take action, as Food & Water Watch urges at the links above, by contacting the U.S. Department of Justice, and urging it block the Enbridge-Spectra merger.
Unicorn Riot: "Water Protectors Blockade Highway in Bismarck, Some Charges Dropped"
Unicorn Riot is a volunteer-operated, horizontally-organized, non-profit media collective. It is actively researching the many ongoing court cases resulting from arrests of #NoDAPL water protectors in North Dakota. It will provide updated legal information as we receive it, and will continue to provide updates from the front lines.
Note, however, that Unicorn Riot's coverage of the NoDAPL protests extend back to March, 2016 (see links at bottom of post, above).
Midwest Energy news headlines today on DAPL and other pipeline related matters
OIL AND GAS:
• Oil-by-rail shipments from the Midwest have plummeted as North Dakota’s oil production falls to a two-year low. (LaCrosse Tribune)
• A North Dakota facility that treats oilfield waste is shutting down due to ongoing permit violations. (Bismarck Tribune)
• Plans for a new natural gas plant in southern Michigan are revived. (South Bend Tribune)
PIPELINES:
• Federal officials say shortfalls still exist in Enbridge’s emergency response plan should an oil spill occur in the Straits of Mackinac. (MLive)
• Another 14 protesters are arrested in North Dakota over the weekend at Dakota Access pipeline protests. (Bismarck Tribune)
• Law enforcement authorities are closely watching Dakota Access pipeline protesters. (EnergyWire)