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Sample Comments Regarding PolyMet’s Permit Application to Construct a Copper Mining Tailings Lagoon in Northern Minnesota

September 21, 2017

ppjg Dr Gary Kohls, environmental pollution, WATER, water rights , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Duty to Warn

By Gary G. Kohls, MD – 9-19-2017

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To the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), regarding PolyMet’s most recent permitting request: 

(Email address: NorthMetPermitting.DNR@state.mn.us):

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Here are my reasons that the DNR should reject PolyMet’s permit applications for their earthen tailings dam, their liquid slurry pipeline pumping operation and their open pit sulfide mine near the headwaters of the St Louis River:

For starters, it is critically important to understand that the foreign Penny Stock company called PolyMet has a current share price of $0.63 per share, down from $1.50 per share in 2014. PolyMet, a total amateur in the business, has never operated a single mine in its short corporate life nor has it earned a single penny from mining. Their only income comes from selling shares to speculators and borrowing money from investors to pay their executives and employees. In addition, PolyMet, being an inanimate money-making corporation (that by definition has no conscience), cannot be trusted to tell the public about all the risks to the environment (including wildlife, fish, water, soil and air) that their exploitation of the earth could generate.

Therefore PolyMet can be expected to hide the fact that their operations could easily cause a massive environmental catastrophe similar to what happened at Mount Polley, British Columbia in 2014 (carefully study the article further below for the frightening details). Mount Polley was a state of the art copper mining operation.

Every citizen stakeholder that is potentially adversely affected by PolyMet’s operatioin deserves to be fully informed by (theoretically) unbiased regulators such as the MN DNR about the potentially catastrophic risk to the water users who happen to live downstream from the massive tailings lagoon, whose (eventual) 250 foot high earthen dam is at a high risk of failing in some way or other sometime in the future, especially in the event of a large deluge of rain, an earthquake or a design flaw that could cause the earthen dam to dissolve, leak, over-top or structurally fail in some other way, including being damaged by sabotage. The risks will exist for eternity, since the toxic metals (see list below) in the lagoon will never degrade into non-toxic forms.

In addition, the vulnerable pipeline that will carry the toxic sludge from the processing plant to the slurry pond is at high risk of sabotage, with serious environmental contamination that could possibly be even worse than the bursting of a dirty frack oil pipeline such as could happen from the foreign pipeline company Enbridge as it transports dirty oil from the tar sands in Canada or from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota. I don’t believe that PolyMet has dealt with the possibility of sabotage.

Up to this point, both PolyMet and Twin Metals (and all of the governmental agencies that have been involved in the approval process) have been seriously neglectful in educating the public about all the potential lethal dangers of either the pipeline or the massive amount of toxic liquids that will forever cause the deaths of any water bird that lands on the lake-like lagoon (a la Butte, Montana’s ever-lastingly poisonous mining tailings “pond” and the nearby defunct Berkeley open pit mine [now a toxic “lake”] that has had its water pumps shut down and is now nearly filled to the brim with poisonous water that has high levels of dissolved toxic metals and a pH approximating that of stomach acid!). More

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Whistleblowers! Maurice Copeland & The Cold War Veterans

April 20, 2017

ppjg environmental pollution, Marti Oakley, whistleblowers , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Join us this evening April 20, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. CST!

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DISSENT Magazine: Monsanto’s Superfund Secret

April 6, 2017

ppjg CORPORATIONS, environmental pollution, Toxic food , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

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Is Anthropogenic Activity Despoiling the Planet? Or is it Mainly the Anti-Human Activity of Multinational Corporations?

March 4, 2017

ppjg Dr Gary Kohls, environmental pollution, WATER , , , , , , 2 Comments

Duty to Warn

new-logo251_002By Gary G. Kohls, MD

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“The Pentagon and its military-industrial complex of weapons suppliers are acknowledged to be the worst and most plentiful polluters on the face of the earth, with hundreds of military bases and weapons production sites that qualify for the designation of SuperFund sites. Those sites contain the most toxic by-products of war-making and the environmental pollution is so bad that the government and the taxpayers are on the hook for doing the impossible clean-up!”

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Definition of Anthropogenic: “an adjective used to describe the environmental pollution and pollutants that originate from human or corporate activity.”

Conscientious whistleblowers in the honor-the-earth, protect-the-water and assorted other environmental movements regularly point out the glaring reality that it is actually the amoral, conscienceless multinational corporations that are the main cause of local, regional and planetary environmental pollution.

But if an investigative journalist accidentally allows those assertions to be published or voiced, the media’s propaganda machine predictably goes into defensive mode or attack mode, first casting doubt on the whistle-blower’s assertions or else it issues an ad hominem attack upon the whistle-blower.

The corporation’s stable of lawyers and public relations department  – with the assistance of assorted media mouthpieces – start mis-directing the public’s perceptions by repeatedly using the “time-honored” phrase of “human activity” or “man-made activity” for causing the problem (even though all the credible truly scientific evidence implicates “corporate activity” for the damage). More

Exclusive: Michael Wood Jr. On Veterans Stand Group, DAPL, and Surveillance

March 1, 2017

ppjg corruption, environmental pollution , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

tfcheadby  • March 1, 2017

Standing Rock, North Dakota (TFC)— The Fifth Column News contacted Michael Wood Jr. regarding his organization Veterans Stand and it’s Standing Rock operations. Wood responded shortly before the government issued eviction orders, then raided the remaining camps. He relayed Veterans Stand’s goals and its volunteer’s experiences at Standing Rock.

Veterans Stand unites US veterans wanting to “defend America from enemies, foreign and domestic”, its website reads. Former Baltimore PD Sergeant of 10 years and US Marine Michael Wood Jr. currently serves as the organization’s executive director. According to Wood, VS has “ a continually growing volunteer staff of 16”. It’s staff largely consists of military veterans wishing to continue fulfilling their oaths to protect.

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Contact senators about 5G (nationwide campaign)DAS (Distributed Antenna System)

January 31, 2017

ppjg corruption, environmental pollution, Government, Police State , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Time-sensitive: contact senators about 5G (nationwide campaign)

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Dear Everyone,

US FCC wants to “streamline” the approval process for DAS (Distributed Antenna System) 4G/5G ubiquitous cell towers by exempting them from the 1996 Telecommunications Act!  

And the US Senate will imminently be voting on S.19 and S.88, to expand DAS 4G/5G deployment!

If such efforts succeed, millions of small cell towers (on existing light poles/utility poles, or new ones) will be deployed everywhere, throughout residential neighborhoods. The millimeter microwave radiation deployed will produce horrific health effects, worsening EVERYONE’s health, and will remove the remaining pollinators. It’s THAT serious. The bees in particular will die off rapidly, per studies of bees and microwave radiation.

See link below for list of Senators and their info, by State, for ease in writing and phoning.

https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Be sure to write and call your own senators’ offices, and also contact as many others as possible.

Email messages to senators: More

Minnesota: The PolyMet Copper Mine Project and the Lethal Risks to Lake Superior

January 31, 2017

ppjg Dr Gary Kohls, environmental pollution, WATER , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

new-logo251_002Gary G. Kohls, MD – 1-31-17

Duty to Warn

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“Northern Minnesotans, Native American Water Protectors ( like the heroes at Standing Rock), sportsmen, environmentalists, downstream businesses, wild rice harvesters, fish, game, birds and just plain working folks whose babies and other vulnerable beings with developing brains need non-toxic water to thrive or simply survive must understand that such relatively common catastrophes could destroy the aquifers in the BWCAW, Birch Lake, the Partridge River, the Embarrass River, the St. Louis River, the city of Duluth and ultimately, Lake Superior.”

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The PolyMet Project and the Lethal Risks to the St Louis River Watershed and Lake Superior

It’s an Acceptable Risk for Foreign Investors to Take, but What About Us?

“ALL tailings “ponds” are a problem. If they don’t breach and spill massive amounts of toxic sludge into the environment like at Mount Polley, they leach that contamination slowly, poisoning the waters and lands around them.”  —

Last year, Duluth News-Tribune published a Local News article with the title “EPA signals its support for final PolyMet review”.

The article ended with what I regard as an intentionally deceptive and woefully insufficient sentence: “Critics say the project is likely to taint downstream waters with acidic runoff”. More

Scotts-Monsanto GM Grass Threatens National Forests, Rivers, Ranchers, and Farmers

January 25, 2017

debcoffey environmental pollution, Food Safety, GMO , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Source:  anh-usa.org

grass-web-702x336

By

Now biotech companies want local residents to pay the costs of clean-up! Action Alert!

Over a decade ago, Scotts partnered with Monsanto to market a GM bentgrass resistant to glyphosate (Roundup). It was planted next to the Malheur National Forest in test plots ostensibly controlled by Oregon State University. Unbeknownst to most people, it was also planted all over the US—in California, Iowa, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and seventeen other states.

It was supposed to be confined and controlled, but it very quickly escaped and spread out of the test plots in Oregon into Idaho, and crossbred with natural grasses to create new breeds that were also resistant to glyphosate. It clogged up irrigation ditches, threatening food crops and contaminating pasture-raised cattle with GMOs. In addition to the immediate threats to farmers and ranchers, grass seed—which is among Oregon’s top five commodities—is now under threat.

Initially, Scotts-Monsanto tried to stop the spread and clean up the contamination. But it was unable to do so because the original bentgrass (and now the other grasses it cross-pollinated with) are glyphosate-resistant. More toxic herbicides have been brought in to try to keep irrigation ditches clear, and to stop the grasses from clogging and eventually killing waterways important to wildlife and humans.

Now, according to The Oregonian, Scotts-Monsanto is walking away from the monster it created, leaving farmers, ranchers, wildlife, and eventually the fishing industry (if it spreads to the Columbia River) to deal with it. The current conundrum is that herbicides necessary to kill the invasive GM grasses are toxic to aquatic life, including fish. Soon the grasses will become resistant to even the most toxic chemicals, and nothing will eradicate the invasive grasses but heavy equipment.

Worst of all, the effects of GM products replacing natural grasses and plants on wildlife were completely predictable.

Scotts-Monsanto was fined $500,000, the maximum penalty under the Plant Protection Act, and agreed never to sell GM bentgrass. In addition, the companies were ordered to eradicate the GM nuisance in irrigation districts so farmers could continue farming.

But the federal government is apparently stepping in to help Scotts-Monsanto avoid liability. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently deregulated the GM grass, a move that shifts the burden of controlling GM bentgrass from Scotts-Monsanto to local landowners and American taxpayers.

The law is clear: if a plant poses a risk, the USDA is not to deregulate it. Scotts-Monsanto has already signed an agreement not to sell the product. So why is the USDA violating the law and deregulating GM bentgrass? Why would Scotts-Monsanto ask that it be deregulated when it has agreed not to sell it? It may be because GM bentgrass has been planted all over the United States, and when it’s discovered that the Oregon scenario is happening in every state, Scotts-Monsanto can pin it on the government and the taxpayers avoiding responsibility for costly clean-ups.

There are precedents for farmers and consumers holding biotech companies legally accountable in these scenarios. Midwestern corn growers filed a class-action lawsuit against Syngenta last year, claiming the company’s GM corn contaminated their crops and cost them billions in international sales. In 2011, Bayer paid $750 million to Southern rice growers in a similar scenario.

We hope justice is done in Oregon, and the parties responsible for this mess are forced to clean it up.

Action Alert! Tell the USDA to stop offering legal liability protection to biotech companies. Please send your message immediately.

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Amy Goodman’s Legal Charges Concerning the Standing Rock Water Protests Dismissed

October 19, 2016

ppjg Dr Gary Kohls, environmental pollution , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Duty to Warn

new-logo25By Gary G. Kohls, MD

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“Everybody agrees that the Bakken oil discovery has cursed North Dakota in a multitude of ways. It has disrupted local communities with sex trafficking, drug trafficking, de-stabilizing inflationary pressures on everything, over-building of ramshackle lodging and the permanent poisoning of the land and underground water supplies because of the use of highly toxic fracking chemicals.”

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Energy Transfer Partner’s “Black Snake” (the Dakota Access Pipeline) is at Risk of Being Beheaded

This Monday, October 17, I watched some dramatic live coverage from Mandan, North Dakota on Democracy Now’s website. It is now available for viewing by anybody with online access.

The coverage showed the celebration of the official dismissal of the trumped up legal charges against Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman for 1) criminal trespassing and 2) incitement to riot that followed her investigative journalistic efforts earlier this fall as she and the Democracy Now crew were reporting on the efforts of nonviolent indigenous “water protectors” who are trying to protect their sacred water from corporate usurpers. North Dakota’s response to the nonviolent action of unarmed people was embarrassingly uber-militaristic. The state mounted a Gestapo-like defense in support of a giant multinational corporation that thinks it has a right to do whatever it wants to do with the planet’s dwindling and increasingly polluted natural resources.

The corporation involved this time is called Energy Transfer Partners, and it is threatening the drinkable Missouri River water with its multi-billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL, aka, the “Black Snake” that is mentioned further below).

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and their wealthy/greedy investors are in cahoots with equally greedy, gigantic, amoral mining corporations, oil corporations and investment banks, all of which are quite willing to exploit and even permanently poison public land, public water, public air and, by extension, the people who depend on the purity of those resources – all for the love of the almighty dollar.

Such sociopathic behaviors by corrupt crony capitalist entities are occurring all over the planet, including here in northern Minnesota (Enbridge, and the penny stock companies PolyMet and NorthMet are just three examples of extractive industries that are threatening the purity of just the St Louis River estuary that supplies sustenance to points south, including Duluth, Minnesota and the Great Lakes.) More

Enbridge Energy’s 2010 Kalamazoo River Pipeline Spill: The Worst and Most Expensive Pipeline Disaster in the History of America

April 7, 2016

ppjg Dr Gary Kohls, ENERGY/OIL, environmental pollution , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Duty to Warn

new-logo25kohlsBy Gary G. Kohls, MD

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“This investigation identified a complete breakdown of safety at Enbridge. Their employees performed like Keystone Kops and failed to recognize that their pipeline had ruptured and continued to pump crude into the environment. Despite multiple alarms and a loss of pressure in the pipeline, for more than 17 hours and through three shifts, they failed to follow their own shutdown procedures. Enbridge restarted the pipeline twice in that 17-hour period, pumping oil that would account for 81 percent of the total spill.” — National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-07-24/-keystone-kops-bungling-led-to-costliest-u-s-pipeline-spill)

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On July 25, 2010 Enbridge Energy’s Alberta tar sands pipeline burst near Marshall, Michigan, spilling an estimated 1.1 million gallons of toxic heavy crude oil (including various petroleum-based diluents) into the Kalamazoo River. (Note that, in order to easily flow through an oil pipeline, the extra-heavy sludgy oil peculiar to the Canadian tar sands needs to be diluted with a 25% – 50% mixture of dangerous petroleum solvents, including the known carcinogen, benzene).

As soon as Enbridge workers in Hazmat suits arrived on the scene the first day of the catastrophe, they tested for benzene fumes and other toxic volatile organic substances and ordered nearby residents to evacuate immediately. Some of the affected residents never came back to their homes for 60 days.

Enbridge’s Kalamazoo disaster was North America’s worst and most expensive inland oil spill disaster. To my knowledge, it was never reported in the Duluth News-Tribune or on the local nightly news. Nobody that I know ever saw or heard a single report about it on local or regional television or radio news. Sadly, the same could be said about most of the other environmental disasters mentioned below that involved corporations that have a presence in the upper Midwest.

The Enbridge pipeline that ruptured in Michigan delivered dirty tar sands oil from Ontario. That pipeline crossed northern Minnesota, (and both the Mississippi and St Louis Rivers); crossed the entire state of Wisconsin; and ended up at a terminal in Indiana.

Tragically for the Kalamazoo River and every fish and minnow and crawfish in it, a six-foot break in the pipeline sent hours of high pressure toxic petroleum products into the Tallmadge Creek, a tributary of the Lake Michigan-bound Kalamazoo River. The broken pipe polluted a 35 mile segment of the river, and the damage will likely be permanent.

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The Enbridge pipeline rupture that contaminated the Kalamazoo River on July 25, 2010

Oil and Heavy Metal Pollution of Water and Soil is Forever

It is important to emphasize that the pollution of any water or soil resource from significant amounts of chemicals, especially oil and toxic metals, whether the resource is an aquifer, a river, a bog, a wild rice bed or a lake, CAN NEVER BE FULLY REMEDIATED, despite what is said in the propaganda campaigns that are cunningly generated from the guilty mining, energy or petroleum companies whose flawed technology is responsible.

Petroleum products and heavy metals are both capable of floating on, mixing with or sinking beneath the water (thus flowing far beyond the mouth of the stream, attaching to the shoreline and/or sinking into the sludge at the bottom.

“Clean-up” of an oil spill is thus a myth. “Clean-ups” can never completely suck out or dredge up or de-contaminate all the pollutants no matter what method is tried.

To make things worse, the co-opted mainstream media can be counted on to simply (and very lazily) repeat the propaganda that comes from Big Oil, Big Mining, Big Coal or Big Energy when their spokespersons hold the reassuring press conferences that follow every “accidental” spill. Corporations have their duty to their advertisers, investors and stock market analysts to not unduly stir up a lack of confidence in the stock price.

Mining “Accidents” are Inevitable and They Could Happen Here

The inevitable “accidents-just-waiting-to-happen” scenario applies to some well-known examples like the Exxon Valdez disaster, the British Petroleum/Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Enbridge’s Kalamazoo River disaster, and some of the mining industry tailings ponds “breaches” that occur so frequently or just slowly leak toxins forever. More

Pacific Ocean Meltdown: The Grand Coverup

February 29, 2016

ppjg environmental pollution, HEALTH , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

new-logo25Author, Chuck Frank

 

Here is a Last Days prophecy which declares what happened when one of three Trumpets sounded! “…and a third of of the living creatures in the sea died;” Revelation 8:9 NKJ

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Jellyfish photo1

In the photo are jellyfish on American beaches.

Climate Change you think? Hardly.

The Bible scripture noted, was recorded roughly 2000 years ago by the apostle John who was given a vision and told to write down future major events which would transpire worldwide. For now, some of which he had written as last days prophecies are currently and dramatically being fulfilled. But to cloud present day events, there is a first class coverup by elite’s and also the Associated Press which feeds major news stories to mainstream newspapers and television outlets, but then avoids major studies that point to the truth of the Fukushima meltdown while a major prophecy is also being fulfilled.

Scientists confirm that the seas are being contaminated with endless amounts of radiation while oceans around the world are still experiencing an unprecedented fish die off of numerous species, but also seabirds are all part of the newly threatened food chain. Five years ago the Japanese nuclear reactors that resulted in a meltdown in 2011 are still spewing out radioactive material into the ocean. And it’s reaching the West Coast.

Consequently, billions of fish are being affected and/or dying in the Pacific Ocean and either washing up on countless beaches or sinking down to the ocean floors from Alaska and further to South America. We are talking about an epidemic of monumental proportions never seen before in the history of the world. This event is far from being a product of natural causes, though there may be a few minor
exceptions.

Although the ocean’s capacity to dilute radiation is huge, signs show that nuclear isotopes are already moving up the local food chain wrote Yale professor Elizabeth Grossman in a 2011 report entitled, Radioactivity in the Ocean: Diluted, But Far from Harmless.

On March 12, 2015, Grossman compared the current epidemic with a previous uptick in mortality among starfish in the White Sea during the 1990s that was linked to nuclear pollution. On another note, mass die-offs of various species, not just seal pups, are being recorded on both sides of that ocean which includes the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic. And on 16 January 2012 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CIFA), which monitors food safety, says: “Approximately 60% of fish have shown to have detectable levels of radionuclides.” Almost every species of fish has shown similar effects, but some studies have had a lid put on them.

More

BANG: Not Zika: Brazilian/Argentine doctors say: pesticides

February 10, 2016

ppjg environmental pollution, HEALTH , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

by Jon Rappoport

Why would a poisonous, birth-defect-causing chemical cause birth defects? I mean, that’s absurd, right? Ridiculous. Let’s blame the whole thing on a virus that causes nothing.

A poison intentionally added to the water supply in 2014? Who cares? Means nothing.

The manufacturer of the poison is a strategic partner of Monsanto? That couldn’t be a clue. Of course not.

By Jon Rappoport

Microcephaly: babies born with smaller heads and brain damage.

As I’ve been telling you all along—look to the pesticides. The fake Zika story is a cover, to protect the pesticide companies, among others.

What do we know so far in this trumped up Zika crisis?

More

Northern Minnesota and the PolyMet Project: PolyMet’s Tailings “Pond” Could Someday Create a Dead St. Louis River and a Dying Lake Superior

January 13, 2016

ppjg Dr Gary Kohls, environmental pollution , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

new-logo25kohlsGary G. Kohls, MD, 12-14-15

 “Immediately below are links to dramatic photos and videos that have been readily available to the US government and American news agencies, but which were not reported, published or shown, to my knowledge, on the evening news of either local or regional corporate media outlets.”

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Is That an Acceptable Risk to Take?

“ALL tailings “ponds” are a problem. If they don’t breach and spill massive amounts of toxic sludge into the environment like at Mount Polley, they leach that contamination slowly, poisoning the waters and lands around them.”

In the December 23rd edition of the Duluth (Minnesota, USA) News-Tribune, a staff writer, using the byline of “News Tribune”, wrote a Local News article with the title “EPA signals its support for final PolyMet review”

The article ended with this (intentionally?) deceptive and woefully insufficient sentence: “Critics say the project is likely to taint downstream waters with acidic runoff”.

In this commentary article I will attempt to correct the notion that “acidic runoff” is the major reason for the widespread opposition to PolyMet’s proposed copper/nickel mining project (which is adjacent to the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness). PolyMet, it should be mentioned, is a total novice when it comes to operating copper/nickel mines. More

Rally Against TransCanada XL Pipeline/ abuse of eminent domain

July 25, 2015

ppjg environmental pollution, PROPERTY RIGHTS, WATER , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

On Monday morning, the brave collective of Nebraska farmers and ranchers who refuse to sign over their land for TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline will be in court to face down the foreign corporation’s threats of eminent domain — and we will be there to stand with them.

Join us and stand with landowners against TransCanada in court on Monday. Click here to sign up.
•WHAT: Citizens v. Pipeline—Keystone XL eminent domain court hearing
•WHEN: Monday, July 27 at 11:00 a.m.
•WHERE: Holt County Courthouse, 204 N 4th St, O’Neill, NE 68763 (map)

Before the hearing, Bold Nebraska will host a Meetup for all supporters at Westside Restaurant in O’Neill. Coffee and rolls will be served, and Jane Kleeb will provide an update on the case.
•WHAT: MEETUP before Citizens v. Pipeline court hearing
•WHEN: Monday July 27, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
•WHERE: Westside Restaurant, 49134 US Highway 20, O’Neill, NE 68763 (map)
•RSVP: Click here to RSVP so we know how many are coming.

If you can’t make it to stand with us at the hearing, please consider a donation to help cover legal expenses for the farmers and ranchers who are fighting TransCanada and eminent domain to protect our land and water.

This is the lawsuit that stopped Keystone XL in its tracks in Nebraska, and also has the potential to stop the status quo of eminent domain for private gain in our state for the future.

Can’t be with us in court on Monday? Stand with us in solidarity.

Click here to donate to help cover legal costs for landowners fighting Keystone XL.

Thanks for standing with us.

Jane Kleeb and the Bold Nebraska team
@BoldNebraska on Twitter
Bold Nebraska on Facebook

Bold Nebraska
208 S. Burlington Ave. Ste. 103, Box 325
Hastings, NE 68901 US

Add your 2 cents against leasing public lands for as little as $2 an acre for oil & gas

June 1, 2015

debcoffey BLM corruption, ENERGY/OIL, environmental pollution , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Please submit a comment to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in your own words, asking that the minimum rate per acre for oil and gas leasing be MUCH higher than $2 an acre, and ask the BLM to remove caps established by current regulations on civil penalties that may be assessed under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act.

Most importantly, be sure to demand that the BLM NOT approve any more land for oil & gas development/leasing on Wild Horse & Burro Herd Management Areas (HMAs) (since there supposedly isn’t enough water and forage for wild horses and burros on their federally protected HMAs).

wis.Par.69820.Image.200.135.1  (photo:  BLM)
BLM Extends Public Comment Period to June 19, 2015 on Oil and Gas Royalty Rulemaking

SOURCE: goldrushcam.com

May 29, 2015- WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced today that it is extending the public comment period on its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to seek public comment on potential updates to BLM rules governing oil and gas royalty rates, rental payments, lease sale minimum bids, civil penalty caps and financial assurances.

Notice of the two-week extension, which extends the comment period deadline to June 19, 2015, will be published in the Federal Register on June 3, 2015.

Modernizing the BLM’s royalty rate structures can provide greater flexibility, especially given the dramatic growth of oil development on public and tribal lands, where production has increased in each of the past six years, and combined production was up 81 percent in 2014 versus 2008. Potential changes to BLM’s regulations would also respond to concerns expressed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Interior’s Office of Inspector General, and others that the BLM’s existing rules lack flexibility and could be causing the United States to forgo significant revenue to the detriment of taxpayers.

The GAO has repeatedly concluded that the BLM’s regulations do not provide a reasonable assurance that the public is getting appropriate fair share of the revenue from these resources. The BLM’s current rules lack the flexibility to offer new competitive leases at higher royalty rates.

The ANPR also addresses the value of these resources by inviting comment on how the BLM might update its rules regarding the minimum acceptable bid that must be paid by parties seeking a lease at auction, and the annual rental payments that are due after a lease is obtained. The current minimum acceptable auction bid is $2 per acre, which is well below the rate at which most parcels sell, suggesting that the rate could be higher. After obtaining a lease, a lessee is currently required to make annual rental payments until the lease starts producing oil or gas. These rental rates currently are $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 for years five through 10. The ANPR invites comment on how rental payments might be better structured to incentivize diligent development of leased areas.

The BLM encourages the public to be actively engaged in this process by submitting comments on the revised proposed rule before June 19 in one of the following ways:

Mail: U.S. Department of the Interior, Director (630), Bureau of Land Management, Mail Stop 2134 LM, 1849 C St. NW, Washington, DC, 20240, Attention: 1004-AE41.

Personal or messenger delivery: Bureau of Land Management, 20 M. St. SE, Room 2134 LM, Attention: Regulatory Affairs, Washington, DC 20003.

Online at the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments at this Website.

To read the original advance notice of public rulemaking go to: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-04-21/pdf/2015-09033.pdf

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