Kansas pipeline rupture raises concerns about DAPL, CO2 pipelines

Last week, we witnessed another pipeline rupture. An estimated 770,000 gallons of tar-sands oil spilled out of the Keystone Pipeline into a Kansas creek. [Note: This is a different pipeline than the Keystone XL pipeline that President Biden shut down last year.] It’s the largest rupture in that company’s history, and the largest onshore crude oil pipeline spill since 2013.

The Kansas spill did not go unnoticed by Iowans fighting three CO2 pipelines targeting nearly 2,000 miles (yes, miles!) of Iowa farms, forests, and wetlands. Continue Reading →

Biden must honor his commitment to shut down DAPL

The Obama administration — including then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of State John Kerry — sent the message that new oil pipelines are dragging the US and our planet in the wrong direction. The clear, consistent, and scientific next step for President-elect Biden’s administration is to again cancel both pipelines, once and for all. Given Biden’s strong statements in opposition to DAPL while in Iowa in 2019, cancelation of the pipeline is his only consistent choice. Continue Reading →

Damn the Trumpedoes, we’re planting artichokes

Last month, I wrote that for Trump to win, he would have to pull it off in the courts. I thought then that a good old-fashion military coup wouldn’t work because so many high-ranking officials were anti-Trump. Yet with Trump tightening his grip on the various tentacles of national defense, appointing solid Trump loyalists to key positions, a military coup may be his backup plan if the judicial coup fails. Continue Reading →

Meet the next next president of the United States

If Joe Biden wins next week — and really, even if he doesn’t — the smart money says his running mate, Kamala Harris, has the inside track on being the Democratic Party’s next nominee, and quite possibly the next next president. While Harris wasn’t my first, second, or even third choice in the Iowa Caucuses, I’m cautiously comfortable considering her as president. Continue Reading →

Who’s the worst presidential candidate on climate?

That’s easy: Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Climate activists also have reservations about Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, but hands-down, Klobuchar is the worst. She claims to want to address climate change, but emphatically supports the continued build-out of fossil fuel infrastructure.

Sorry, Senator. You can’t be pro-fracking and pro-pipeline and say you’re going to address the climate crisis. Since the corporate media have ignored Klobuchar’s track record, it’s up to us to get the word out. Continue Reading →

Steyer, COP25, and DAPL

Regardless of who you’re supporting for president, check out my interview with Tom Steyer. It’s encouraging that Steyer’s top priority is climate change and that he’s had a strong track record over the past decade working to mobilize Americans to take action.

My second guest on this week’s program is Thomas Linzey with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. More and more cities are passing local ordinances protecting their communities and natural resources against polluters. But what happened in Florida recently is the first time a political party has adopted a resolution protecting the “rights of nature.” Continue Reading →

Court fails to understand urgency of climate crisis

Last week, a Polk County District judge ruled against the Climate Defenders Five, finding us guilty of misdemeanor trespass in our protest against President Trump’s abject denial of climate science during the president’s visit to West Des Moines in June.

With all due respect, the Court completely failed to understand the growing urgency of the climate emergency, and thus the necessity justification of our defense. My fellow defendants, Channing Dutton (our attorney), and I feel pretty strongly that the Court erred. Will we be filing an appeal? Hell yes! Stay tuned. Continue Reading →