Protesters against oil trains detained at Benicia-Martinez rail bridge
By Sharon Song, July 6, 2015, 1:51 pm Updated: July 6, 2015, 1:55 pm
Oil train protest arrest, Benicia-Martinez Rail Bridge, Benicia, California, Monday, July 6, 2015. Photo KRON4.
BENICIA (KRON) — Activists protesting the threat of crude oil transporting trains were detained Monday morning as they attempted to hang a 60-foot banner in front of the Benicia-Martinez railroad bridge.
The banner read “Stop Oil Trains Now: Are You in the Blast-Zone.org.”
Protester detained as she attempted to hang banner in front of the Benicia-Martinez rail bridge. Photo KRON4
Activists say the move was part of a plan to kick off a week of action with some 80 scheduled events in opposition to oil trains across the US and Canada.
The Benicia-Martinez Rail Drawbridge crosses the Carquinez Strait near refineries operated by Valero, Tesoro, Shell, and Chevron. Protesters say the span has been identified as a route used on the Blast-Zone.org map as the route used by oil trains moving through the Bay Area.
Organizers say this week’s protests coincide with the second anniversary of the fatal oil train rail disaster in Lac Megantic, Quebec that killed 47 people. Here in the Bay Area, the week of action will culminate with a demonstration and march in Richmond on Saturday, demonstrators tell KRON 4 news.
“We are facing a triple threat. Oil trains dangerously roll though to burn filthy crude in refineries from Richmond to LA and Wilmington, all contributing to toxic pollution and global climate catastrophe,” says Jasmin Vargas, CBE, associate director.
Organizers say Saturday’s rally in Richmond is designed as a community event aimed at highlighting the stories of the neighborhoods and residents at risk because of crude oil transporting trains. The demonstration is set for 11 a.m. at Atchison Village Park at Collins Street and West Bissell Avenue.
For Immediate Release: Monday, July 6, 2015. 7:00AM
[Richmond, CA] Activists protesting the threat of oil trains were detained this morning as they attempted to hang a 60-foot banner in front of the Benicia-Martinez railroad bridge. The banner reads “Stop Oil Trains Now: Are You in the Blast-Zone.org.” The railroad bridge, which runs between the RT680 bridges, crosses the Carquinez Strait near refineries operated by Valero, Tesoro, Shell and Chevron. The Benicia-Martinez bridge is identified by the rail industry and on the blast-zone.org map as the route for oil trains moving through the Bay Area.
This action coincides with the second anniversary of the fatal oil train fire in Lac Megantic, Quebec, and the Stop Oil Trains week of action with more than 80 planned events opposing oil trains across the US and Canada. Climbers, who are risking arrest to drop the banner, are representing three groups: Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Communities for a Better Environment, and ForestEthics. Baykeeper also provided support for the action.
The groups cite the threat of fatal accidents, increased air pollution near railways and refineries, and carbon pollution from the high-carbon crude oil carried by oil trains. Oil trains have derailed and exploded five times in 2015, including high-profile events in West Virginia, Illinois, North Dakota and Canada.
“Richmond has been my home my entire life. My family, friends, and neighbors are here, and we refuse to live in fear of these bomb trains blowing up our neighborhoods, and we’re tired of living in the shadow of the Chevron Refinery and the oil industry,” said Laiseng Saechao, APEN Member and Summer of Our Power Fellow. “That’s why I’m speaking up, not just to revoke Kinder Morgan’s permit to bring oil trains into Richmond, but also to build community-led alternatives to dirty oil through the Summer of Our Power Campaign.”
“We are facing a triple threat. Oil trains dangerously roll though to burn filthy crude in refineries from Richmond to LA and Wilmington, all contributing to toxic pollution and global climate catastrophe,” says Jasmin Vargas, CBE, associate director. “Communities for a Better Environment is working in communities challenging the worst cases of environmental racism in CA.”
“I am risking arrest today because crude oil trains are too dangerous for the rails,” says Ethan Buckner, ForestEthics, California campaigner. “We don’t need this dirty crude oil and we can’t wait for the next oil train catastrophe to act. Our railways will play a huge part in our new, just clean energy economy, but oil trains have no part in that future.”
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APEN advances environmental justice campaigns and policy with the leadership of low-income Asian Pacific American families in Richmond, Oakland, and across California. www.apen4ej.org
CBE works to build people’s power in California’s communities of color and low-income communities to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and building green, healthy and sustainable communities and environments. www.cbecal.org
ForestEthics demands environmental responsibility from government and the biggest companies in the world. Visit Blast-Zone.org to see if you are one of the 25 million Americans who live in the dangerous one-mile oil train evacuation zone. www.ForestEthics.org
By Jesse Feith, July 5, 2015 9:09 AM EDT
(To play the video, click the image which takes you to the Montreal Gazette page.)
Two years after the deadly derailment in Lac-Mégantic, people are starting to feel comfortable about standing up for what they want, says Jonathan Santerre, an activist and founder of the Carré bleu Lac-Mégantic citizens’ group.
The group organized a walk against crude oil in Lac-Mégantic on Saturday afternoon, where about 150 people walked from the town’s high school down Laval St. toward the old downtown.
At first, residents were afraid to speak out after the train derailment that killed 47 people in July 2013, Santerre said.
Sending loud political messages while many continue to mourn could be seen as insensitive by some, but, Santerre said, “we have no choice.”
“Emotions and politics are tied together in this, unfortunately,” he continued. “It’s shocking that after everything that happened, people’s lives still come second to money.”
Though Saturday’s march was held to denounce crude oil, Santerre knows getting oil shipments through Lac-Mégantic banned isn’t realistic. When Central Maine and Québec Railway Canada bought the line in 2014 after Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway went bankrupt following the derailment, it was clear from the beginning that oil would return come 2016.
The town needs the railroad to survive economically, and CMQ needs to ship oil on it to be profitable.
But the goal that everyone is holding onto now is a new set of tracks that would bypass Lac-Mégantic’s residential sector, even though it could take years to get one.
“What’s important is that the conversation goes on,” Santerre said. “That the debate takes place.”
The town council and a number of vocal residents haven’t seen eye to eye on decisions taken since the disaster, but the one idea both sides agree on is the new railroad. Town officials weren’t on hand for Saturday’s protest, but it had been approved by council.
“With every passing day, residents are more determined to see it done,” said Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche earlier this week about the bypass railway. “As a municipal council, we consider it a must. Not a week goes by that it’s not brought up.”
Until then, she said, “we’re preoccupied with prevention, better security measures, well-maintained infrastructure and limited speeds.”
People dressed all in white for Saturday’s march, to contrast the colour of “dirty oil.”
“Say yes to a bypass railway,” they chanted as they descended toward downtown, “say no to another oil spill.”
Gilles Fluet, 67, said he was walking to make sure what happened never does again, in Lac-Mégantic or anywhere else.
MONTREAL, QUE.: July 04, 2015 — Gilles Fluet, centre kneeling, stopped with other protesters by the train tracks in Lac-Megantic, 250 kilometres east of Montreal Saturday July 04, 2015 to voice their opposition to the transport of oil by rail through their community. The demonstration took place two days before the anniversary of the 2013 train derailment that levelled the centre of the town and killed 47 residents. (John Mahoney / MONTREAL GAZETTE)John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette
He was at the Musi-Café the night of the derailment, leaving just before the tankers crashed and ignited.
“I couldn’t be closer to it without dying, I had to run to avoid burning,” he said, holding up a sign that said “47 reasons” with a picture of residents lying across the tracks.
The post-traumatic stress symptoms have been present ever since, he said. First he avoided the sunshine because the bright light and heat reminded him of the fire he ran away from that night.
Then when the trains started coming through again in December, the sound they made was too much for him to handle.
“There are a bunch of different things that trigger it,” he said. “You don’t know when it’s going to hit you, and you don’t understand when it does.”
He fears oil returning could worsen his symptoms, or trigger some for other residents.
Nathalie Beaudet drove down from Varennes, on the south shore, to participate in the demonstration. She lost a close friend in the derailment, and recently, oil tankers have started rolling on the tracks behind her house.
“It’s scary, it terrorizes us,” she said. “I want Lac-Mégantic to get its new tracks because I know what it will do to residents once the oil starts again. They’ve been through enough, this shouldn’t be imposed on them.”
After marching through the town’s side streets, the group made its way to the railway longing the fence that cuts off the old downtown core, now a mountain of soil as decontamination work continues.
Demonstrators lined up elbow-to-elbow on the tracks, and together, symbolically crossed their arms.
Join the “Stop Oil Trains Week of Action” July 6 – 12
July 6 is the second anniversary of the tragic Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, oil train catastrophe that killed 47 people. The Stop Oil Trains week of action will call attention to the growing threat of oil trains across North America.
There is NO safe way to transport extreme tar sands and Bakken crude. Two years after Lac-Mégantic, oil trains keep exploding and carbon pollution keeps rising. Oil trains are a disaster for our health, our safety, and our climate.
In July 2014, thousands gathered at 63 events for the first Stop Oil Trains Week of Action. In 2015, we will demonstrate the growing power of our movement and organize more than 100 events across the US and Canada to demand an immediate ban on oil trains.
Join us and host or attend an event in your community!
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