Stop the NEXUS Pipeline! - Food & Water Watch

The NEXUS and ROVER pipelines distribute gas harvested by water and air polluting fracking, supports only minimal and temporary jobs, is economically unnecessary, and continues to cause man-made climate change that kills people every day in Bangladesh and the Pacific Islands, and at home with more severe storms like Sandy, more extreme heat and drought.



Stop the NEXUS Pipeline! - Food & Water Watch

Feel the Bern Continues (Adrian, MI)

THE DETAILS

August 24th Our Revolution Organizing Kickoff

On August 24th, 2016, we'll launch Our Revolution with a big Organizing Kickoff to get to work fighting for the political revolution—through November and beyond. Bernie will speak via livestream at 9 ET / 6 PT and lay out the path forward for our movement. We recommend arriving at least 30 minutes before the livestream starts.

RSVP to this Event here:

https://go.berniesanders.com/page/event/detail/august24thourrevolutionorganizingkickoff/gplbc7

July was 'absolutely' Earth's hottest month ever recorded - Chicago Tribune

July was 'absolutely' Earth's hottest month ever recorded - Chicago Tribune

How animal waste from factory farms contaminates Lake Erie

Pam Taylor from The Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan (ECCSCM) http://nocafos.org was interviewed by Michigan Radio, our state NPR station. Find the story with a live Podcast here:
http://michiganradio.org/post/how-animal-waste-factory-farms-contaminates-lake-erie#stream/0

environmentalcouncil.org

Taylor was also featured in Jack Lessenberry's latest column in Michigan's "Metro Times":
http://m.metrotimes.com/detroit/politics-and-prejudices-poisoning-lake-erie/Content?oid=2454844

Tomorrow, she is scheduled to receive this year's Petoskey Prize for Environmental Leadership, presented by the Michigan Environmental Council:
http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/about/awards.php
Press release:
http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/priorities/article.php?x=406

Vote Informed: Environmental Score Cards for our Candidates

I hope you will all go to vote - and select your candidates mainly according to how important the environment is to these candidates. Without a healthy environment all other issues become secondary!

Congress:

http://scorecard.lcv.org/search?zip=49221

Michigan:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ru0zYQOP85HkbMZGgm3LuzJ1Wosdf00F2C21G3mQQbA/edit#gid=0

• Bronna Kahle did not answer an environmental questionnaire that was sent to her from the Sierra Club of Michigan - you can guess why...
• Harvey Schmidt did return his questionnaire but its content is at the moment confidential.

We won a monumental and historic victory for the climate and for anti-fracking communities all over this country

We won a monumental and historic victory for the climate and for anti-fracking communities all over this country.

At the DNC platform hearings, Josh Fox, Bill McKibben, Ben Jealous, Dr. Cornell West, Jane Kleeb, Deborah Parker and the Sanders Delegation negotiated for a sea change in the policy of the Democratic Party.

The Democratic National Committee adopted strong language opposing fracked gas power plants, advocating for carbon and methane pricing, adopting a standard for all federal energy projects that they would not harm the climate, and committed to involving communities, people of color and native tribes in all future energy planning. Wow.

The amendment says the Democrats:

-Support a price on carbon AND methane

-Support high labor standards in the development of renewable energy

-Will fight to change the clean power plan to incentivize renewable energy over fracked gas.

-Any new infrastructure, like pipelines, must pass the climate test and take into consideration landowners, communities of color and tribal nations.

Announcing the unity amendment Josh said “This is what happens when you organize. This is what happens when you never say die.”

Our movement has forced establishment Democrats to come to the table. Our movement has forced establishment Democrats to take the science on climate change seriously, not just pat themselves on the back for being better than the Republicans on climate change.

But as Dr. Cornell West said during the announcement of the unity amendment “We’ve got to keep the focus on the gap between declaration and execution.”

Our movement will be required to hold them accountable.

We must be the ones who organize against every fracked gas power plant and pipeline. We must be the be the ones who organize against offshore drilling. We must be the be the ones who organize against the development of fossil fuels on public lands.

These projects fail the climate test and together we can stop them and build something better.

Check out the video of this historic moment and catch Josh Fox tomorrow on Democracy Now! 

WATCH VIDEO HERE

New England senators, witness question pipeline financing practices

Frank Zaski shared this:

Many utilities are locking their ratepayers into long term natural gas pipeline contracts. This is troublesome particularly for proposed, unneeded pipelines. Note clips from this article.

 

New England senators, witness question pipeline financing practices

(06/14/2016)

Large gas pipelines traditionally are financed by utilities and other large customers that determine they will save substantially with lower rates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) observed. “But does it make sense to make home heating customers and small businesses bear the risk when the state lets utilities pass the costs through? Giant pipeline companies should not be allowed to force consumers to pay for these huge uneconomic projects,” she said.

 

N. Jonathan Peress, who is EDF’s gas air-policy director, said the magnitude of new gas pipeline projects under developed combined with what’s been built in the last 10 years could lead to a capacity bubble. “It could impose unnecessary costs on energy customers for expensive yet unneeded pipeline capacity, and ultimately constrain deployment of lower cost energy sources like wind and solar in the future,” he warned.

http://www.ogj.com/articles/2016/06/new-england-senators-witness-question-pipeline-financing-practices.html?cmpid=EnlDrillingJune172016&eid=288216020&bid=1436704

 

In Michigan, the proposed Nexus pipeline is 50% owned by an unregulated division of DTE Energy, the state’s largest utility. While only 5% of the gas flowing thru Nexus is destined for Michigan, DTE Gas and Electric is trying to have their ratepayers pay the costs (subsidize!?) for a substantial portion of this pipe in their monthly bills. The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter is protesting at the MPSC and notified FERC.  http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/opennat.asp?fileID=14267826

 

An article (based on the SC post) appeared in Michigan’s largest newspaper reporting this situation. http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/06/13/critics-dte-pipeline-plan-bad-ratepayers/85608948/

 

In Ontario, business, utility and industrial users stated to the OEB that they do not want unnecessary and costly overbuild of the Dawn Parkway pipeline needed to transport additional Rover/Nexus gas from Dawn. They believe the government will mandate reduced natural gas consumption (through RE and EE). They know they would have to pay for pipeline legacy costs as well.  http://www.ontarioenergyboard.ca/oeb/Industry/Regulatory%20Proceedings/Policy%20Initiatives%20and%20Consultations/2015%20Natural%20Gas%20Market%20Review%20%28EB-2015-0237%29

  

If we are serious about complying with COP21 and substantially reduce GHG emissions, we cannot be locked into 20 year natural gas pipeline contracts, particularly for new, unneeded pipelines. Ratepayers must be made aware of this.