Good riddance!

By Kolby KickingWoman

A federal judge has ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline to shut down and remove all oil within 30 days, a huge win for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the other plaintiffs.

Tar sands oil pipeline gets bum's rush -- again

Solar XL

This is a cheeky effort by a coalition of tribes, landowners, and activist groups to erect solar panels along the pipeline route. The panels generate energy for the local community, and would have to be removed in order for the pipeline to be built.

“The contracts say you can’t have any permanent buildings along the pipeline route,” says Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska, a group that organizes farmers, ranchers, and tribes against the pipeline. “So TransCanada would be forced to remove them.” Destroying community-built solar installations to build an oil pipeline? Not the best look.

Solar XL is part of the broader work that tribal groups have been doing for years to go off the grid, says Faith Spotted Eagle, a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation in South Dakota and an organizer against the pipeline. “We’ve already been moving in the direction of solar,” she says. Planting those panels in the center of the pipeline path is the logical next step, Spotted Eagle points out.

Everything about this is incredibly solarpunk.

Trespassing Across America: One Man's Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland by Ken Ilgunas (2017)

Trespassing Across America: One Man's Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland by Ken Ilgunas (2017) is one late 20-somethings journey along the proposed route of the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL). He treks solo from Hardisty, Alberta to Port Arthur, Texas, with nothing more than a 40lb backpack and a reliance on total strangers. 

At the time of his hike (2012-2013), the pipeline had already been contentious, as the proposed route would intersect an environmentally sensitive area in Nebraska and hundreds of protestors, including celebrities like Daryl Hannah, had been arrested for civil disobedience protesting the pipeline. Shortly after his trek was complete, the Obama Administration vetoed the KXL and the war against oil became ever the more turbulent with protests, demonstrations and a burning hate for those on either sides of the pipeline debate.

Ilgunas welds admirable writing skill. He has a knack for painting natural landscapes, sharing his life outlook, describing the political landscape, and transitions effortlessly between trek, historical fact, personal interests, insights on people, and socio-economic issues related to the pipeline that are easily overlooked. The format he chose kept me interested to hear more - I should probably admit here that I listened to the audiobook. I admired how incredibly likeable and rational Ilgunas is. As this novel was suggested to me as an environmental piece, I was surprised that Ilgunas was’t the “high and mighty environmentalist” one might expect, but instead a young, intelligent and freethinking guy, who is somewhat disillusioned with North America and politicians. He echoes the struggle of being an environmentalist, yet thinking, “Is there anything we can do about it? Do I even care?” Her also holds a balanced view when it comes to our warming planet: he doesn’t know what will happen and doesn’t pretend to.

Unfortunately, this book won’t give you ammunition against the KXL. Ilgunas didn’t present any hard facts on carbon emitting from pipeline, and wasn’t even 100% sure that that building it is bad thing. He did however, make some compelling arguments against the pipeline. Construction of the KXL will indeed create jobs, however, the maintenance of the pipeline will only make about 35 permanent ones thereafter. To those who claim “North American oil, for North Americans”, that’s not correct either. Oil from the KXL will be shipped to foreign markets. Take the highly contested Trans Mountain Pipeline (Kinder Morgan) for example,  that oil is to be shipped to Asian markets.

With a 3-2 vote, the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) has issued a decision that approves an alternate route for the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska. With this vote, the PSC chose to stand with Trump, climate change denial, and Big Oil.

This decision doesn't change the fact that KeystoneXL will never be built. The pipeline faces numerous legal challenges, an uphill battle on economic viability, and — crucially — peaceful resistance from millions.

Three protest in Five days and I’m exhausted. 

With the hail coming down, hands and feet frozen, voice crackling, stomach empty I am so fully exhausted; but proud, because even though I feel dead, I also feel..

Last night it’s become clear to me that I must I must bring gloves to work to stand outside as the protest last Thursday, January 19th and last night, January 24th at Trump International Hotel Columbus Circle were last minute with the Women’s March in NYC on Saturday

There were definitely some eye-opening experiences in both good and bad ways; and I’m glad I experienced them both. First, I realized how bad my social anxiety is as it took me a while to feel comfortable chanting in the crowd. 

Second, and more global, was that I don’t believe in always chanting the phrases or agreeing with them just because I’m in the group and while for now I can just not chant what I don’t believe in, I wonder how I will feel in the long run. Being at the protest, demonstration is a show of one more person who doesn’t want the Dakota Access Pipeline, or is upset that woman are still not equal. But does my being there for one action, even though a lot of these are connected and I agree with most, automatically support the others.

Ones I agree with:

“Native Life Matters”

“We Stand with Standing Rock” and “City by City, Block by Block”-->This was probably my favorite overall as it encompasses not only the protest and the Dakota Access Pipeline itself by that those at Standing Rock and across the country were together 

“Water is Life”

“Show me what Democracy looks like, this is what Democracy looks like”

“Love Trumps Hate”

“Whose streets? Our streets!”

And Ones I didn’t agree with:

“Stop the pipeline, not the people” 

“Dump Trump”--> I don’t like him either, but this just isn’t going to solve anything now. I understand what is meant behind this when they say “Not My President”. They want to make it clear that all of the hate he spews is not representative of all of this. But I feel this is more of a divider than anything else

My final and most critical eye opening experience was the fear. I’ve been trying, as a white person, to see how those of other races feel walking down the street. I cannot fully ever understand it, I wasn’t raised to because I wasn’t raised to have to but I feel I got some of it last night. Walking from Trump International Hotel across Central Park South the police were at first just casually around and helped direct a few people and then escorted us blocking traffic as we went towards Trump Tower. but then, two blocks north of our destination we were stopped. Directed onto the left we were lead into, what seemed to be a trap. The gates went all around and we were not allowed to move them. For the next thirty minutes I saw the police officers surrounding the front of the protest grow, and I don’t mean grew as we were all closer together and now so were they grow, I mean REALLY GROW. 

At first nothing was going on, but when asked why we weren’t allowed to cross and why were trapped in we received no response (but this I understand as the officers around us surely weren’t the ones in charge and didn’t want to escalate any feelings). But as the Women’s March Protest on Saturday and the previous Trump International Hotel Protest on Thursday had been peaceful it didn’t make sense and obviously protesting two blocks north would not be effective as we are protesting the President’s actions that day of moving forward with the Dakota Access Pipeline and KeystoneXL. All I know is that the police number grew slowly at first and then in a surge. They had called for backup and where officers had stood comfortably apart, they were now forming a barricade; in a protest of an estimated two thousand, I felt overwhelmed by their presence. Overwhelmed and scared. Eventually the protest got around the barricade and moved all they way down to Time Square and I’ve yet to hear of any violence.