{"id":14064,"date":"2016-01-21T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064///wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//article/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//planet-how-to-stop-an-oil-train-20160121/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//"},"modified":"2019-11-26T01:23:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T09:23:22","slug":"how-to-stop-an-oil-train","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064///wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//www.yesmagazine.org/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//environment/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//2016/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//01/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//21/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064//how-to-stop-an-oil-train","title":{"rendered":"How to Stop an Oil Train: The Hearts-and-Minds Climate Defense That Won Over a Courtroom/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064/u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"/wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064/n

In the quiet dark hours of early morning on September 2, 2014, a small group of climate activists made their way across the switching tracks of the BNSF Delta train yard in Everett, Washington. They erected a tripod over a section of track, locked themselves to it, and blocked the path of a mile-long, refinery-bound oil train for eight hours./wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064/n

The state’s rail lines, rivers, and ports have made it a target for fossil fuel companies./wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064/n

Four of the group, Mike LaPointe, Patrick Mazza, Jackie Minchew, and Liz Spoerri, anchored the bottom of the tripod, while Abby Brockway, who has described herself as “a mother, a Presbyterian, and a lover of democracy,” perched at the top, 25 feet off the ground. Later that day, wearing a green hard hat and holding homemade climate-action banners, Brockway gave a phone statement to local television news with the group’s demand that Governor Jay Inslee take action on global warming by rejecting permits for all new fossil-fuel projects in Washington state./wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064/n

That was very big ask, but it got a crucial and underreported issue into the news. The state’s rail lines, rivers, and ports have made it a target for fossil-fuel companies seeking to export massive quantities of oil, coal, and gas from the North American interior to surging economies along the Pacific Rim./wp-json/wp/v2/article/14064/n