Groups Launch Map Showing Groundswell of Resistance to New Fossil Fuel Projects

By Dani Heffernan - Common Dreams, September 21, 2017

WASHINGTON - Today, a network of communities and groups working to stop new fossil fuel projects launched an interactive online mapping project highlighting these efforts in the U.S. The Fossil Fuel Resistance Mapping Project displays the scale of locally-led efforts against proposed pipelines, fracking wells, and other projects being proposed and constructed by the fossil fuel industry. The project is launching at the end of a summer filled with disastrous weather events made worse by climate change, and as the climate-denying Trump Administration continues putting the interests of fossil fuel billionaires ahead of action to address this global crisis and protect our communities.

From the Gulf Coast where people are recovering from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, to the Pacific Northwest where wildfires are raging, many communities are leading fights against fossil fuel projects amidst life-altering climate impacts. These fights are not isolated events, but rather a groundswell of steadfast and widespread local resistance to fossil fuel projects across the continent in the absence of federal climate action. Grassroots leaders in these efforts are pushing back on the fossil fuel industry’s injustices, from environmental racism to violating Indigenous sovereignty. Well known projects, like the Keystone XL pipeline, are facing resistance from communities across state and international lines.

The Fossil Fuel Resistance Mapping Project, which was created with the support of 350.org and the Power Shift Network, serves as a resource for people to find, start, or join a campaign in their community to resist fossil fuel projects, and for those involved in existing fights to connect with each other. The map can be viewed at www.fossilfuelresistance.org.

Quote Sheet:

Cherri Foytlin, Bold Louisiana Executive Director:
"The extractive industry is like a cancer, and our efforts to stop this industry's expansion are holistically connected on many fronts -- this map makes that clear. In Louisiana, the Bayou Bridge pipeline is the tail end of Dakota Access, and just like in North Dakota, people are rising up to protect clean air and water for Indigenous communities and beyond. We are the cure that can stop our fevered Mother from further decline. Our resistance is her medicine. With the climate-denying Trump administration putting the the health of Big Oil billionaires' bottom lines before anyone else, the time to join your local fight to protect our air, water, and planet is right now. We may be in the belly of the beast here in the Gulf, but even as we face the disastrous impacts from climate change and from the fossil fuel industry directly, we are rising up."

Hannah Adams, Bold Alliance Deputy Director:
“The strongest resistance to fossil fuel projects has always come from folks on the ground, in communities directly impacted by these dangerous and dirty fuels -- and Bold Alliance is proud to include on this map the work we're doing in Nebraska to stop Keystone XL; in Louisiana to stop Bayou Bridge; in Wisconsin to stop Enbridge pipeline expansion; and in the Appalachia region to stop fracked gas pipelines. We're excited to see the creation of this necessary tool lifting up the work already underway by grassroots and frontline groups, which will make it much easier for allies and supporters on the ground to find information on local groups and join these fights.”

May Boeve, 350.org Executive Director:
"This mapping project shows the growing grassroots resistance to fossil fuels from people on the frontlines of climate impacts and the fencelines of new pipelines and drilling sites. Any public official who says they're working to protect our communities and our climate needs to look at this map. As climate rollbacks continue under the Trump administration, communities nationwide are leading efforts to stop new fossil fuel projects at the local level. Curbing the climate crisis and the disastrous impacts we're seeing right now, from wildfires to super storms, means keeping fossil fuels in the ground."

Lydia Avila, Power Shift Network Executive Director:
“The fossil fuel industry is poisoning our planet and eroding younger generations' chances of growing up with a safe, healthy climate. That's why a people-powered movement is fighting oil, gas, and coal projects across the continent. The Fossil Fuel Resistance map is a powerful tool to support collaboration and solidarity across that movement, and it's proof that the only network more powerful than the pipelines cutting across our country is the network of people fighting to build a just, clean energy-powered future where all of us can thrive.”

Kelly Martin, Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels Director:
"From the serene Puget Sound, to the plains of North Dakota, to the tranquil eastern shores, to the rivers and waters of the Gulf, our country is filled with stunning locations that have been riddled with dirty and dangerous fossil fuel projects. No one wants a pipeline cutting through their drinking water, a refinery next to their shores, or a gas plant alongside their children's schools. This map highlights what too many Americans are forced to grapple with everyday: a life, community, and clean water and air threatened by fossil fuel infrastructure. That's why we've seen the movement to oppose these projects grow rapidly in recent years. People demand a safe and clean environment, and they will not rest until that is guaranteed for every community across the country."

Melissa, a Pennsylvania mother with Berks Gas Truth:
"I, as a mother, have always had the right to decide what risks I want my children faced with. Sunoco's Mariner East Project has taken that right from me. I want it back."

Susan Meacham, fighting the PennEast Pipeline in Holland Township, NJ:
“Who in their right mind would site a 36” pipeline running 1,480 psi of natural gas in close proximity to an active quarry that conducts daily blasting, or along one of the oldest rock formations on this Earth with a fault line beside that would require weeks of blasting to bury it 8 feet down?  That’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – the agency that apparently values corporate profit over our environment and our communities."

Cliff Martin, Young People’s Action Coalition Co-Founder:
“Comrades Rose Whipple, Nolan Berglund, Nina Berglund, Cherokee Sensavai and Colin Robinson went on a 250 mile canoe journey on the sacred Mississippi this summer to fight the black snake. As youth, as residents of Minnesota, and as water protectors, Young People's Action Coalition will unequivocally fight all black snakes, from Line 3 to DAPL to any pipeline threatening our communities and violating the treaties and rights of Indigenous comrades and members. Mni wiconi! O wai ke ola!"

See Also:

• The Fight From Below Seen From Above: New Map Details Local Fossil Fuel Resistance - By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, September 21, 2017
  
• US Prison Locations Added to Environmental Justice Mapping Tool - By Zoe Loftus-Farren, Earth Island Journal, September 21, 2017

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.