Northwest Citizens Coalition Tells Big Oil: Back Off

I recently interviewed Zack Porter of All Against the Haul (AATH), a group of Montana organizers fighting against Big Oil’s “megaloads.” Porter and his colleagues are as talented and committed as they come, but alone, they stand no chance of defeating the world’s second largest corporation.

And that’s perfectly alright – because they’re not alone. AATH is just one of what Porter calls “an incredible assortment of groups, not just across this region but across the country” that have banded together to defeat ExxonMobil. This coalition includes National Forest supervisors, prominent Indian tribes, local authors and politicians, national environmental groups, and more - and they are winning.

The megaloads in question are 200 enormous trucks that haul foreign-made refining equipment through the northwest to the Alberta Tar Sands, one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel operations. When I say enormous, I mean three-stories tall, 200-feet long, and 650,000 pounds each. These megaloads are turning the Idaho and Montana portions of Highway 12 – a mountainous National Scenic Byway – into a permanent industrial corridor, cutting both National Forest trees and local electricity as they move. And all in the name of Exxon profits, global climate change, and Korean jobs.

The Idaho side of the fight is led by Fighting Goliath, an organization started by the rural husband-and-wife team of Linwood Laughy and Borg Hendrickson. You can read about them in a 2010 New York Times profile. The two have assembled a large email list, created an engaging website, and brought together an impressive local coalition.

They’ve also taken the state to court, joining fellow non-profit Friends of the Clearwater and local entrepreneur Peter Grubb in a lawsuit against the Idaho Transportation Department. A second lawsuit has been filed by Idaho Rivers United against the U.S. Forest Service. Both cases are represented by the not-for-profit public interest firm Advocates for the West.

Back in Montana, the megaloads opposition began when Northern Rockies Rising Tide and University of Montana student group Climate Action Now started the “No Shipments Network” in winter 2010. They began to make serious headway in April 2010 after turning out a large and diverse crowd of all ages at the issue’s first public meeting in Missoula.

A year later, the Missoula County Commission unanimously agreed to sue the Montana Department of Transportation. They’re joined in this third lawsuit by two of the area’s more prominent American Indian tribes – the Nez Perce and the Confederated Salish and Kooenai Tribes. According to the Ravalli Republic newspaper, “the [megaloads] route runs along the culture-rich Nez Perce/Lolo Trail used by tribal people ‘since time immemorial.’” Other plaintiffs include the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the Montana Chapter of the Sierra Club, and the Montana Environmental Information Center.

Even the supervisors of the Clearwater, Lolo, and Nez Perce National Forests have expressed opposition. “I am concerned,” wrote Rick Brazell and Deborah Austin wrote to the two states’ transportation departments, “that the need to stop traffic on a regular basis has the potential to impede Forest Service access… [and] responses to emergencies such as wildfires and other law enforcement situations.” The supervisors also expressed their support for the Nez Perce.

All told, over 50 local and national businesses and organizations have gone public with their opposition to Big Oil’s megaloads. Help “the rural people of Highway 12” in this fight to save the northern Rockies by signing All Against The Haul’s petition here at Change.org.

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Photo credit: Montana residents protest a megaload stopped for the day in March.  Courtesy All Against the Haul.