Action

Talladega National Forest, located in eastern Alabama, is one of the state's most valuable natural resources. The forest is a popular destination for hikers, campers, hunters, and bikers, attracting an estimated 600,000 visitors each year, and it contains habitat for endangered and threatened species, as well as essential water sources for nearby towns.

Dressed as citizen referees, activists “blew the whistle” on the gas industry’s influence over the Ohio legislature. Students, farmers, and concerned citizens from central Ohio overwhelmed an Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee hearing yesterday, frustrated with the deliberate stonewalling of six bills to slow or halt fracking and injection waste and the repression of the public’s voice on this critical issue.

In what activists deemed to be an effort to quell resistance, the Ohio House pushed back the hearings of the six bills for hours until many activists could no longer stay. Activists believe the delay on hearings of these bills is directly linked with the $2.8 million the Gas Industry has poured into the Ohio Legislature, including $213,000 in campaign contributions allotted to Governor Kasich.

Next Wednesday, earthquakes will rock our world. That's the day student debt surpasses 1 trillion dollars; the same day one of the banks backing it, Bank of America, will find itself besieged by student action across the country. April 25th is a national day of action for students to take back their education and their planet from the clutches of Bank of America. That day, we're moving our money and moving mountains.

Yesterday I sat next to $6 million dollars. I was so close to the money I could smell it.

Yup, that's right. I sat next to nearly $6 million worth of Big Oil and Baron Von Gas bribes and could smell the stink of its corruption. I was at the US House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, whose members collectively have taken $5,972,328.38* from oil and gas companies. Myself and 10 other citizens sat in on a hearing about Keystone XL (again), and when we called foul on their dirty plays, we made them sweat. Let me tell you, Big Oil B.O. is pretty offensive.

Last week when KXL was rejected, Big Oil panicked, and being frightened, it launched an all out offensive to grapple at straws. The American Petroleum Institute's new nauseating "Vote 4 Energy" ad campaign is being pushed in key election states, and API president Jack Gerard has started to use more threatening language against the president. Big Oil's friends in Congress introduced a series of heinous new bills in an effort to keep KXL alive.

One such bill is H.R. 3548 sponsored by Lee Terry of Nebraska. It would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a permit for the pipeline within 30 days after receiving an application. Yesterday it was its hearing.