Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center (otherwise known as KS Wild) organizer Monica Vaughan organized an event in Ashland at Noble Coffee. The prints were hung and Monica and I (Roger) talked about LNG opposition in Oregon and overseas. Now that the pipeline is dead in Northern Oregon, there's a growing feeling that if the developers want to fight for this pipeline idea, they will fight in Southern Oregon. The Jordan Cove terminal in Coos Bay and the planned route through Southern Oregon's forests to the trunk pipeline in Malin are the last hope for a west coast LNG pipeline. Many involved in opposition to these projects now think that the real goal of pipeline development is to
export LNG, not to import it. The Ruby pipeline, carrying gas from the rich fields of Wyoming in to Malin from the east, is almost completed, despite rumors of drastic archaeological malfeasance by the crews hired to perform the required surveys. Gas from Wyoming will probably flow to Asia, where gas prices are fully three times higher than in the States. LNG development is being sold as a patriotic route to energy independence by jingoist statesmen who are ostensibly trying to find less hostile sources of hydrocarbons for American lifestyles and industry. In reality, the federal money that pours in to build the import pipeline will be much appreciated by the energy conglomerates eyeing lucrative export contracts. Infrastructure benefits all with the gumption to take advantage of it.
Here are some fantastic pictures that Ucup sent along from Indonesia: they feature the two prints, wonderfully stitched together, at the site of the Sidoarjo mud-flow, an environmental and social disaster area in North Java. The desolate area in the background is the result of a blowout of a natural-gas well. Hot volcanic mud has been pouring from the site of the well for years, inundating local villages and fields and displacing thousands. These photos were taken during a recent solidarity campaign organized by Taring Padi artists and activists.
