Climate Change Jury Trial in Spokane, Washington on Hold

Spokane Judge Allows Necessity Defense; Washington State Appeals

Spokane – On March 8, Spokane District Court Judge Debra Hayes issued an order allowing for the necessity defense in a jury trial scheduled to start April 23, 2018, involving a climate change protestor’s alleged delay of oil and coal trains in September 2016.  On March 30, the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office appealed Judge Hayes’ ruling.

In September 2016, the Reverend George Taylor joined with fellow Veterans for Peace members to block coal and oil trains from passing through Spokane. Their action followed a similar action by the local Raging Grannies.  All six protestors were charged with trespass and obstructing a train; five pled guilty for various reasons.  Rev. Taylor chose to go forward to trial, and filed a motion asking the judge to allow him to present a “necessity defense,” i.e., that he committed one harm (trespass and blocking a train) to prevent greater harms (climate change and risks of oil train derailments).

After hearings on June 26 and August 21, 2017, Judge Hayes ruled that Taylor may present the necessity defense to the jury to justify his alleged civil disobedience.  She noted, “Civil resistance is breaking a law to uphold a higher law when the threat is imminent and every legal means has not resulted in policy change.”  (Order at p. 8).

“Climate change is real, and neither government nor industry is taking appropriate action to address it.  Citizens therefore must bring their own voices and actions to bear to try to stop destruction of the planet,” said defendant Rev. George Taylor.

In this case, the necessity defense is based on two distinct environmental dangers to the Spokane area posed by transport of fossil fuels by train.

  • First, the incineration of rail-transported coal and oil will contribute to climate change, which poses existential threats to the planet and all species, as soaring temperatures cause extreme weather patterns, disrupt ecosystems, and alter and destroy basic resources necessary for human life, including water availability and agricultural production.
  • Second, rail transport of Bakken crude oil is extraordinarily dangerous as demonstrated by oil train derailments and explosions throughout North America, including at Mosier, Oregon on June 3, 2016.

Judge Hayes’ necessity order was supported by testimony of two experts: Dr. Steve Running, Professor of Global Ecology at the University of Montana and co-author of the 4th IPCC Report on Climate Change for which he shared the Nobel Peace Prize, and Prof. Tom Hastings, Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution at Portland State University, and author of several books on civil resistance, including A New Era of Nonviolence (McFarland 2014).

Judge Hayes’ necessity order made numerous findings, including:

  • The failure to act more forcefully to abate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will lead to harms that are severe, imminent, and irreparable, both at a global level and regionally in the Inland Northwest (Order at p.6);
  • Civil resistance can be effective in bringing about social change; historic victories such as de-segregation and women’s suffrage have resulted from civil resistance and the same result could be accomplished for environmental protections, resulting in institutional, corporate and public policy changes (Order at p. 7); and
  • When all other legal means have been taken, and those attempts have not resulted in change, the judicial branch is the last, best hope. (Order at p. 8).

“The judge nailed the problem:  climate change is already causing adverse harms to the Inland Northwest ecosystems, which will in turn hurt people.  And these harms will worsen. She found that it is reasonable to allow a jury to decide whether these harms outweigh George Taylor’s resistance actions for which he has been charged criminally,” said Rachael Paschal Osborn, Taylor’s attorney.

2016 saw the hottest global temperatures ever recorded; 2017, the second hottest year. The 400 parts per million of CO2 barrier has been exceeded – a key indicator of climate change – and the global average temperature continues to climb toward the two-degree Celsius threshold, a level that the international community has agreed should not be breached.  This rise is expected to unleash even more erratic and devastating climate events such as the extreme wildfires experienced in the West and the devastating hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.  In the U.S., we have long known that climate change is occurring but have failed to take action.  Thirty years ago The New York Times reported that Climate Change Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate, but efforts to head off catastrophe have been continually delayed and thwarted by the fossil fuel industry.

Spokane Plaintiffs Advance Climate and Self-Government Rights

Spokane Plaintiffs Advance Climate and Self-Government Rights

     by Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Today, Spokane activists, including several who were arrested for blocking fossil fuel trains in Spokane four months ago, filed suit against the federal government in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

The lawsuit, known as Holmquist et. al. v. United States, asserts that the federal law preempting city health and safety laws over fossil fuel rail shipments violates residents’ constitutional right to a healthy climate and local self-government.

This is a first-of-its-kind case directly challenging federal preemption as an infringement of constitutional rights when that preemption operates to prohibit the passage of health and safety laws at the municipal level.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a recent federal court decision in Oregon which recognized that people possess a fundamental constitutional “right to a liveable climate” pursuant to the due process clause of the United States Constitution.

In that case, Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana v. United States, Civ. No. 6:15-cv-01517 (November 10, 2016), Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon wrote, “I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society. . . to hold otherwise would be to say that the Constitution affords no protection against a government’s knowing decision to poison the air its citizens breathe or the water its citizens drink.”

Plaintiffs in the Spokane lawsuit include Dr. Gunnar Holmquist, the primary sponsor of a City of Spokane citizen-sponsored initiative to ban coal and oil trains due to climate change.  Additional plaintiffs are Rusty Nelson, Nancy Nelson, Margie Heller, Deena Romoff, George Taylor, and G. Maeve Aeolus, each of whom was arrested in August and September 2016 actions for blocking fossil fuel trains. The plaintiffs are being represented by Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, a lawyer with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

Dr. Holmquist, the lead plaintiff in the litigation, declared, “Now is the time to step forward to do everything possible to stem the global crisis of climate change. This lawsuit will inevitably be the first of many which seek to begin to align state and federal laws with the realities of global warming – liberating communities to begin to take the difficult steps necessary for our continued survival on this planet.”

The federal lawsuit coincides with the re-filing of an initiative within the City of Spokane to amend the City’s home rule charter. The initiative would recognize a “right to a healthy climate” and ban fossil fuel trains as a violation of that right. Supporters of that initiative are preparing to collect signatures to qualify the initiative for the November 2017 ballot.

About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit, public interest law firm providing free and affordable legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, local agriculture, local economy, and quality of life. Its mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.

Featured image: Steve Tatum, Flickr Creative Commons – Coal Train. View from the footbridge on the Huckleberry Trail crossing the Norfolk Southern tracks.

Dozens Protest Coal and Oil Trains

Dozens Protest Coal and Oil Trains

     by Nic Bowcut / Direct Action Spokane

SPOKANE- An estimated 50 individuals braved cooling temperatures and the threat of arrest to show their support for stopping the transportation of coal and oil by rail in Spokane, WA. The rally, drawing individuals from as far away as Montana, highlighted the growing resentment toward large corporation’s desire to use rail systems to transport potential dangerous materials across the country, along with the hazardous and potentially lethal precedent set in the continued use of fossil fuels.

Thomas Schmidt, a local activist, stated: “I know that our culture, based on consumerism, economic exploitation, material accumulation and profit, is exhausting our natural and human resources. Therefore I have decided I must nonviolently take direct action, placing my body in the way to stop their behavior and sincerely to engage them or whoever else will pay attention.”

Schmidt, along with others, stood tall, facing potential arrest as they blocked the rail way. Police from both the United Pacific and Burlington Northern Rail companies arrived roughly ten minutes into the rally. In the end, no arrests were made.

This rally was just one of a growing number nationwide, especially in the Pacific Northwest, drawing attention to an issue that has seen opposition growing on two fronts: public safety and environmental exploitation.

The rally was highlighted by several speakers, including Standing Rock protester Rusty Nelson, Spokane artist and activist Jacob Johns, Dr. Gunnar Holmquist, and “Raging Granny” and recent coal and  oil train blockade arrestee Margie Heller.

Spokane Veterans for Peace Blockading Fossil Fuel Trains

Spokane Veterans for Peace Blockading Fossil Fuel Trains

by Direct Action Spokane

A group of Spokane, Washington citizens are currently protesting on the BNSF railroad tracks off Trent, east of Napa. The action is being carried out to alert the region to the rapidly expanding impacts of climate change. The undisputed leading cause of global climate change is the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil that are currently being transported daily through Spokane in large volumes and destined to be burned.

“Oil and coal trains traveling through Spokane to west coast terminals are kicking the can down the road of adding to green house gases which contribute to global warming whether consumed in Asia or here at home in the United States”, says George Taylor, protester, Veterans for Peace member, and visiting pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church in Spokane. “For me, it is a moral issue to stop these trains carrying these fossil fuels.”

Trains from BNSF, Union Pacific, and Canadian Pacific that pass through the city and county of Spokane carry Bakken crude oil from North Dakota, Tar Sands crude oil from Canada, and coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. The crude oil is bound for refineries in the Northwest and Canada and will eventually be burned domestically and internationally. The coal is bound for export terminals in the United States and Canada for shipment to Asia to be burned in coal-fired power plants.

“The hyper-pollution won’t stop until the destructive extraction stops, and that won’t stop until ordinary individuals challenge the trafficking of the ill-gotten, obsolete fuel. I am an ordinary citizen, taking an ordinary stand against an extraordinary threat”, says protester and Veteran for Peace member Rusty Nelson.

Veterans for Peace is an international organization made up of military veterans, military family members, and allies. Their focus, through chapters including one in Spokane, has been speaking out against the true impacts and costs of war. However, Veterans for Peace recently released a statement in support of the protest at Standing Rock in North Dakota against an oil pipeline saying, “We understand that different nonviolent struggles for social and ecological justice are linked by the common thread of resistance to subjugation and oppression.”

Today’s action in Spokane for the climate and against the fossil fuel trains comes on the heels of a similar action that took place at the end of August where three Raging Grannies were arrested for refusing to leave the tracks. The three – Nancy Nelson, Margie Heller, and Deena Romoff – were charged with trespass and blocking a train. Separate pre-trial hearings have been set for each, with the first happening next week.

“It is my duty as a patriot and citizen of our city and nation to stand up against big oil and coal exports to China. The fossil fuel filled air of China travels on a jet stream right into North America. We as Spokane residents breathe this air too”, says Maevea Aeolus, who is sitting on the tracks as a nurse, counselor, and Veteran for Peace.

Direct Action Spokane stands in solidarity with ongoing actions around the country working to stop the burning of fossil fuels. Direct Action Spokane is also committed to stopping the transport of oil and coal trains through Spokane and calls on other communities, up and down the rail line, to do the same.

Also read about the recent Deep Green Resistance coal train blockade in Bellingham.

Spokane residents occupy railroad tracks in protest of fossil fuel trains

Spokane residents occupy railroad tracks in protest of fossil fuel trains

By Direct Action Spokane

Shortly before noon on August 21, a group of Spokane citizens occupied BNSF railroad tracks to protest the transport and eventual burning of fossil fuels in defense of climate change. The peaceful, non-violent direct action consisted of 30 protesters and eventually three arrests. The three people arrested were Nancy Nelson, Margie Heller, and Deena Romoff, all of whom are associated with the group Raging Grannies – an activist group dedicated to nonviolence in the name of social and environmental justice. The charges against each are obstructing a train and misdemeanor trespass.

Today’s action in Spokane blocked a number of rail lines including an empty oil car train headed east and a fully loaded coal train headed west. The track occupation stopped all rail traffic for over one and a half hours.

“There is incredible denial surrounding this issue of fossil fuels and no one is talking about the perils that await us if government and societies do not take action now,” said Deena Romoff, one of the arrestees, in a written statement that she read during today’s protest. “This is why I need to take action now…I can no longer wait!”

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Trains from BNSF, Union Pacific, and Canadian Pacific that pass through the city and county of Spokane carry Bakken crude oil from North Dakota, Tar Sands crude oil from Canada, and coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. The crude oil is bound for refineries in the Northwest and Canada and will eventually be burned domestically and internationally.  The coal is bound for export terminals in the United States and Canada for shipment to Asia to be burned in coal-fired power plants.

“Transporting fossil fuels is done for one purpose only: they will be burned”, said Margie Heller in a prepared statement. “If burned, they will add to the greenhouse gases which are already causing serious climate change. Continuing to add to climate change factors puts the health and perhaps the very existence of future generations at risk”

Direct Action Spokane stands in solidarity with on-going actions around the country working to stop the extraction, transportation, processing, and burning of fossil fuels.  Direct Action Spokane is also committed to stopping the transport of oil and coal trains through Spokane and calls on other communities, up and down the rail line, to do the same.

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