EcoUnionist News #88

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 26, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Beyond Koch: Meet the Other Right-Wing Oligarchs Featured in Jane Mayer's "Dark Money" - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, January 21, 2016
• ExxonMobil Spent At Least £5.6m on European Lobbying and Corporate Donations in 2014 - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, January 20, 2016
• The Kochs & the Nazis: Book Reveals Billionaires’ Father Built Key Oil Refinery for the Third Reich | Dark Money: Jane Mayer on How the Koch Bros. & Billionaire Allies Funded the Rise of the Far Right - Jane Mayer interviewed by Amy Goodman and Juan González, Democracy Now, January 20, 2016
• In the Keystone Suit, It’s Big Oil vs. Democracy - By Janet Redman, Foreign Policy In Focus, January 15, 2016
• The Last Drop: The Politics of Water - By Adam Tomes, CounterFire, January 14, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016 |
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• Delta 5 trial: Making the case for climate disobedience - By Patrick Mazza, Cascadia Planet, January 24, 2016
• Record-Breaking Number of Comments Pours in Against Proposed Tesoro-Savage Oil Terminal - Press Release, Stand Up to Oil, January 22, 2016
• Multnomah County Passes Unanimous Historic Resolution Opposing Oil Trains and Tesoro Savage Project - Press Release, Columbia Riverkeeper, January 21, 2016
• The Real Zombie Apocalypse - By Bill McKibben, Tom Dispatch, January 19, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Press Release: Sakuma Brothers Farm Wins 2015 ‘Scrooge of the Year’ Vote - Press Release, Boycott Sakuma Berries, January 23, 2016
• The Cowliphate and Poisoned Kids: Twin Assaults on The Commons - By Michael Donnelly, CounterPunch, January 22, 2016
• Greek Farmers Blockade Highways Over Pension Cuts - By Jennifer Baker, Revolution News, January 22, 2016
• Gates Foundation is spearheading the neoliberal plunder of African agriculture - By Colin Todhunter, The Ecologist, January 21, 2016
• Illegal Profits from Polluting Florida Go Untouched - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, January 21, 2016
• In Japan, a David vs Goliath Battle to Preserve Bluefin Tuna - By Winifred Bird, Yale Environment 360, January 21, 2016
• Westlands’ new front group hides farmworker reality - By Amanda Ford and Janaki Jagannath, Fresno Bee, January 21, 2016
• Across the West, Citizens Stand Up and Rally Against the Bundy Land Seizure Agenda - By Lucy Livesay, Center for Western Priorities, January 20, 2016
• Death Threats and Detention in Paraguay - By Fionuala Cregan, Intercontinental Cry, January 20, 2016
• Drought Pushes South Africa To Water, Energy, and Food Reckoning - By Keith Schneider, Circle of Blue, January 19, 2016
• Sportsmen, wildlife advocates rally for public lands, ending seizure of wildlife refuge - By Staff, Our Public Lands, January 19, 2016
• Disgraceful 'Honour' for failing to protect people from poisons - By Georgina Downs, The Ecologist, January 18, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Report Underlines Recent Worker Hazards at Old Weapons Plants - By Jim Morris and Jamie Smith Hopkins, Truthout, January 22, 2016
• Detroit Rocked by Teachers' "Sickout" Protesting Dire Conditions Under Emergency Management - Victor Gibson and Russ Bellant interviewed by Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now, January 21, 2016
• Oregon ranchers who sparked standoff threatened to wrap official’s son in barbed wire and drown him - By Arun Gupta, RawStory, January 21, 2016
• 2 hurt when AK Steel plant furnace explodes in Pennsylvania - By Staff, WTRF TV, January 21, 2016
• The Mine Wars: West Virginia’s Coal Miners March on Public Television - By Mark Hand, CounterPunch, January 20, 2016
• U.S. records 2nd and 3rd coal deaths of 2016 - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette, January 20, 2016
• Ebola crisis highlights urgent need for reform - By Natasha Horsfield, New Internationalist, January 19, 2016
• Blood on the Mountain - By Nick Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, January 18, 2016
• 'Excessive fatigue' at CP an 'immediate threat' to rail safety: Transport Canada - By Dave Seglins, CBC News, January 18, 2016
• Phillips 66 Ferndale Refinery hit with $324,000 fine - By Dave Gallagher, Bellingham Herald, January 15, 2016
• Time Has Come: 'Kill a Worker, Go to Jail,' Say Steelworkers - By David P. Ball, United Steelworkers, January 14, 2016

Whistleblowers:

• Whistleblower Anthony Rivera Files Lawsuit Against Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - By Admin, La Jicarita, January 23, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Fukushima Mon Amour: the Hucksters of the Green Atom - By Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, January 22, 2016
• Cap and Clear-Cut - By Will Parrish, East Bay Express, January 20, 2016
• How the Green Climate Fund approved a wetlands project in Peru without a process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples - By Chris Lang, REDD Monitor, January 19, 2016
• Despite Ottawa's posturing, the global climate remains threatened by greed and militarism - By Roger Annis, Rabble.Ca, January 18, 2016
• The Other Keystone: The Alberta Clipper, the Pipeline No One Is Talking About - By Branko Marcetic, In These Times, January 14, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Leaking Los Angeles gas well ordered shut down - By Associated Press, FuelFix, January 24, 2016
• The EPA's lack of integrity has cost the lead-poisoned children of Flint dearly - By Marsha Coleman-Adebayo and Kevin Berends, The Guardian, January 22, 2016
• How The Flint Water Crisis Could Send An Entire Generation To Prison - By Carimah Townes, Think Progress, January 22, 2016
• How The Flint Water Crisis Is Impacting Undocumented Immigrants - By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, Think Progress, January 22, 2016
• Minority And Low-Income Communities Are Targeted For Hazardous Waste Sites, Research Confirms - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, January 22, 2016
• The Porter Ranch Gas Leak: Blame Gov. Jerry Brown - By Joshua Frank, CounterPunch, January 22, 2016
• The Real Disaster(s) in Flint’s Water Crisis - By Carlos Martín, CounterPunch, January 22, 2016
• Under Heavy Criticism For Handling Of Flint’s Water Crisis, EPA Official Resigns - By Emily Atkin, Think Progress, January 22, 2016
• Teamsters Delivers Bottled Water to Flint Michigan - By Staff, Teamster.Org, January 21, 2016
• Why Are Flint Residents Being Forced to Pay for Their Toxic Water? - By Kate Fried, EcoWatch, January 21, 2016
• Aging Infrastructure, Fracking Eyed in Massive Porter Ranch, California Methane Leak - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, January 20, 2016
• A False Solution: Porter Ranch Reveals Costs of Natural Gas - By Strela Cervas, Medium, January 19, 2016
• 7 Arrested in Solidarity With the People of Porter Ranch - By Sandra Steingraber, EcoWatch, January 19, 2016
• 10 People in Flint Have Now Been Killed by These Premeditated Actions of the Governor of Michigan - By Michael Moore, EcoWatch, January 19, 2016
• Obama Declares Flint Water Crisis a State of Emergency - By Samantha Cowan, EcoWatch, January 18, 2016
• MDEQ Mistakes and Deception Created the Flint Water Crisis - By Siddartha Roy, Fen Valley Earth First!, January 17, 2016
• Flint, Michigan and the Second Contradiction of Capitalism - By Louis Proyect, The Unrepentant Marxist, January 16, 2016
• Utility says it understated carcinogen levels - By Mike Newman, Natural Gas Watch, January 16, 2016

Carbon Bubble:

• Two things Canada’s oil industry needs to understand - By Milan, Bury Coal, January 23, 2016
• Could This be “The Big One”? - By Mike Whitney, CounterPunch, January 22, 2016
• Houston added thousands of jobs in 2015, but growth was hard won as oil crashed - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, January 22, 2016
• Schlumberger CEO “optimistic” job cuts are over after 34,000 slashed - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, January 22, 2016
• Aussie mining tycoon Palmer promises ‘truth’ on massive job cuts at his nickel refinery - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 21, 2016
• Canadian Pacific Railway to cut up to 1,000 jobs as rail volume slumps - By Staff, CBC News, January 21, 2016
• Cheap oil means 1,500 Middle East bankers looking for jobs - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, January 21, 2016
• China's renewables drive down CO2 emissions - By Lauri Myllyvirta, The Ecologist, January 21, 2016
• China shutting another 4,300 coal mines - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 21, 2016
• China’s Slowing Power Consumption Highlights Renewable Energy Gains - By Feifei Shen, Bloomberg, January 21, 2016
• Coal Is No Longer King in China - By Katherine Tweed, GreenTech Media, January 21, 2016
• As crude’s crash punishes Venezuela, calls for OPEC help grow - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, January 21, 2016
• Planet of Fear - By Pepe Escobar, CounterPunch, January 21, 2016
• Schlumberger cut thousands of jobs in fourth quarter on $1 billion loss - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, January 21, 2016
• Southwestern Energy to cut 40 percent of workforce - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 21, 2016
• Tough start to 2016 for Aussie nickel miners predicted to continue - By Tara de Landgrafft, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, January 21, 2016
• UK government urged to help hard-hit North Sea offshore sector - By Sam Chambers, Splash 247, January 21, 2016
• Weak Chinese crude imports highlight slowing economy - By Matt Smith, FuelFix, January 21, 2016
• Crude falls below $27 as Dow plunges 322 points - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 20, 2016
• Ecuador to Sign Contracts for Two Controversial Amazonian Oil Blocks - By Kevin Koenig and Adam Zuckerman, Amazon Watch, January 20, 2016
• Global stocks routed again as oil slide seems bottomless - By Associated Press, FuelFix, January 20, 2016
• Kinder Morgan cuts capital spending, takes $1.2 billion writedown - By Robert Grattan, FuelFix, January 20, 2016
• Layoffs could shut Lone Star steel plant - By Jo Lee Ferguson, Longview News-Journal, January 20, 2016
• National Oilwell Varco closing Louisiana facility - By Associated Press, FuelFix, January 20, 2016
• Oil, Asian stocks rout deepen miners wounds - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 20, 2016
• Shell, BG Group job cuts will rise to 10,000 - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 20, 2016
• Steel Industry Crisis: More Job Cuts Expected - By Staff, Sky News, January 20, 2016
• U.S. Steel may cut nearly 700 Texas jobs - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, January 20, 2016
• Will Oil Prices Rebound in 2016? Interview With Carl Larry - By Nick Cunningham, Oil Price, January 20, 2016
• Capitalist fright: Stock prices collapse as 2016 begins - By Duncan Cameron, Rabble.Ca, January 19, 2016
• China: Canary in the Global Economy Coalmine? - By Jack Rasmus, CounterPunch, January 19, 2016
• China coal decline continued in 2015 - By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, January 19, 2016
• China Electricity Demand Slows, Coal Consumption Drops, Hits Australia Hard - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, January 19, 2016
• China offshore giant to cut oil output for first time since 1999 - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, January 19, 2016
• IEA: Oil crash could get worse as Iran offsets falling U.S. output - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 19, 2016
• Noble Drilling stacks another Gulf rig, lays off scores of workers - By Joshua Cain, FuelFix, January 19, 2016
• Petronas to cut spending by $11.4 billion over 4 years - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, January 19, 2016
• PotashCorp mothballs Picadilly mine, leaves more than 420 jobless - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 19, 2016
• Raymond James: $30 oil is worse than anyone expected - By Robert Grattan, FuelFix, January 19, 2016
• Big banks brace for oil loans to implode - By Matt Egan, Arkansas Matters, January 18, 2016
• Half of US Shale Producers “Could Go Bankrupt” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, January 18, 2016
• Brent oil falls on Iran oil expectations - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, January 17, 2016
• 30+ U.S. coal projects could be scrapped under moratorium - By Andrew Topf, Mining.Com, January 17, 2016
• Virginia railroad company announces layoffs - By Staff, West Virginia Metro News, January 6, 2016

Just Transition:

• Thoughts on a “Former West Virginia Miner” - By Nick Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, January 24, 2016
• How Renewables Could Boost GCC Jobs, Slash Oil Use - By Kelvin Ross, Renewable Energy World, January 22, 2016
• Shifts toward clean energy threaten Montana coal town - By Bryce Gray, High Country News, January 21, 2016
• What Will It Take For America To Go 100 Percent Renewable? - By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, January 21, 2016
• US Solar Jobs Double As Clean Energy Continues Explosive Growth Around The World - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, January 20, 2016
• While Global Temperatures Rise, the Poor Burn Faster - By Michelle Chen, The Nation, January 20, 2016
• RWE cuts losses in England - By David Weston, Wind Power Monthly, January 19, 2016
• At the Coalface: Ten more years of UK coal burning a lifetime on the ground - By Liam Barrington-Bush, London Mining Network, January 18, 2016

Wobbles:

• How ‘Friedrichs’ Could Actually Unleash Unions from Decades of Free Speech Restrictions - By Shaun Richman, In These Times, January 22, 2016
• Flood the System Report Back: Still Lots of Work To Do - By Staff, Rising Tide North America, January 20, 2016
• Labor's fight-or-die moment - By Sherry Wolf, Socialist Worker, January 19, 2016
• Media statement by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa - By Irvin Jim, NUMSA, January 19, 2016
• Is an Injury to One an Injury to All? Some Critical Thoughts on Trade-Union Internationalism Today - By Katy Fox-Hodess, Salvage, January 18, 2016
• Eating the Fossil Fuel Elephant, One Bite at a Time - By Barbara G. Ellis, Truthout, January 16, 2016
• The (End) Work Zone: Tales of Spontaneous Rebellion in the Workplace, Part III - By Staff, Ideas and Action, January 16, 2016

Other News:

• To Change the Heart and Soul: How Elites Contained the Climate Justice Movement - By Herbert Docena, Global Justice Ecology Project, January 22, 2016
• 'Corbett's office cooked the books,' Gov. Tom Wolf's policy secretary says - By Candy Woodall, Penn Live, January 22, 2016
• Martin Luther King blocked bridges - By Richard Mellor, Facts For Working People, January 19, 2016
• The TPP will cost Canada 58,000 jobs -- and won't grow the economy - By Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, Rabble.Ca, January 18, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.