Oregon's Eco-Crackdown

Under legislation now speeding through the Oregon general assembly, some of the most effective and media-savvy forms for environmental protest would be outlawed. One bill, drafted by Sen. Bill Fisher of Roseburg, makes it a felony for environmentalists to stage protests within a quarter mile of a logging site. Fisher's bill shrewdly defines the perimeter of the area to include all access roads to the logging site, effectively banning protests within miles of the actual clearcutting.

The sanctions for violating the terms of the proposed law are stiff, including up to five years in jail and a $100,000 fine. A companion bill extends similar penalties for protests at mines and agricultural operations. The legislation, denounced as an assault on civil liberties by environmental groups such as Earth First!, has been pushed by anti-green Wise-Use organizations and logging companies. "I felt something had to be done to combat what I consider acts of eco-terrorism," Fisher said. "The problems we've had with protesting when they have taken the form of blocking [logging] roads is something that needs to be stopped. I just think that a lot of us are very disgusted with the fact that some people can demonstrate and there's no judgment against them and no follow through."

Fisher's bill, which creates the crime of "unlawful presence," is aimed at stopping protests such as tree sitting and road blockades which have effectively delayed and sometimes halted logging in ancient forests. One recent blockade at Warner Creek in Oregon's Willamette National Forest lasted for more than 16 months. In some cases, tree sits, when environmentalists climb more than 150 feet up in trees slated for cutting, have succeeded in protecting forest groves until federal courts have had a chance to rule on lawsuits. In northern California, Julia "Butterfly" Hill, has been perched in a redwood tree on lands owned by Maxxam for more than a year.

Fisher's bill is modeled on an Idaho law that has landed dozens of environmentalists behind bars. But Fisher and other pro-industry legislators want to go even further. He's also prepared legislation that would target people who contribute to environmental organizations that engage in acts of civil disobedience. Fisher admits there may be a few "constitutional hang-ups" with the bill. "I don't have a legal background on these things," he said.

Chevron in Nigeria

Spurred by reports of killings and other human rights abuses, a group of House members is asking for a congressional investigation into the operations of Chevron in Nigeria.

In a March 5 letter sent to Benjamin A. Gilman, who chairs the House International Relations Committee, representatives Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney, and Donald Payne said, "We now have information that ... violence against civilians was committed with the knowledge and direct complicity of one of our nation's largest multinational corporations, Chevron."

According to their letter, Chevron officials conceded in a meeting with Kucinich that the company requested troops on May 28, 1998, after more than 100 demonstrators refused to leave an oil-drilling platform in the Niger delta, located in the resource-rich but desperately poor southern part of the country. Delta residents have been demanding a fair share of the oil wealth, an end to environmental destruction, and control of their homelands.

The demonstrators were unarmed youths, and the company allegedly transported Nigerian troops to the platform aboard Chevron choppers, accompanied by Chevron's chief of security. According to the House members' letter, Chevron admitted that two youths were shot and killed, but claimed that their deaths occurred after they tried to disarm the troops. The bodies allegedly were held by the company for a month while it negotiated with the families over compensation. Although Chevron provided burial expenses, it did not admit fault.

In another incident noted in the letter on January 4 of this year, Chevron confirmed reports that it had provided choppers, boats, and other hardware used by Nigerian security forces to attack the villages of Opia and Ikiyan, where civilians were murdered. An eyewitness account of an attack on January 2, released by Human Rights Watch, described how a soldier "used his knife to cut off the bottom of [the local chief's] ear," adding, "The soldier took it and told him he should eat it."

According to Human Rights Watch, another witness told of seeing a Chevron chopper flying low, opening fire on civilians, followed by the arrival of Chevron boats loaded with soldiers, who raked civilians with machine-gun fire. "In conversation with Congressman Kucinich," the letter states, "Chevron officials claimed this incident took place following a confrontation between armed villagers and security personnel at one of their oil rigs. They also claimed that their helicopters were commandeered by the military."

In its own letter to Gilman, Chevron said its employees had been held hostage by intimidating protesters, and added that the company does not own boats or helicopters in the delta, although its partners, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation--a government company--makes use of "the Joint Venture's leased equipment for purposes deemed necessary." The company said it deplored violence, feared the kidnapping of its own employees, and was committed to "mutually beneficial relationships with all of the communities in which we have operations."

Gilman told Kucinich and his group that full committee hearings are out of the question, although they were welcome to try to persuade subcommittees to open an inquiry. Undeterred, Kucinich promises that if the House committee refuses to act, he will conduct unofficial hearings to look into possible criminal activities by Chevron.

Two weeks ago Chevron barred a credentialed Pacifica Radio news reporter from attending a public news conference with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Wendell Harper, a 20-year veteran in news reporting for Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, California, was denied access to the press conference at Chevron's San Francisco headquarters. He was there to cover Chevron's announcement that it was phasing out MTBE additives from its gasoline. Fred Gurrell of Chevron's Public Affairs office told recently fired KPFA station manager Nicole Sawaya that "Pacifica does not report news" and hung up on her.

Three Mile Island

It was 20 years ago that the near meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in central Pennsylvania spread panic in cities throughout the East, including New York, which was downwind from the plant. Despite claims from nearby residents that they became ill following the accident, anecdotal evidence of the births of mutated animals, and a recent study by Steve Wing of the University of North Carolina that found an increased incidence of cancer around the plant, the government has stuck to the line that not enough radiation escaped the facility to have caused widespread health damage.

As a result, people who claim to have been injured still wait for their day in court. Currently, personal-injury suits on behalf of approximately 2,000 people remain on appeal. Frustrating the plaintiffs, federal district court judge Sylvia Rambo threw out most of the expert witnesses. Metropolitan Edison, which owned Three Mile Island, has paid more than $3.9 million in out-of-court settlements, many involving children, with the largest more than $1 million for a child born with Down's syndrome.

Originally promoted in the '60s as electricity "too cheap to meter," nuclear power has proved to be a costly disaster. Today there are 105 nuclear plants producing power at some of the highest electric rates in the nation. No nuclear reactors have been commissioned since 1973, and by 2035 every nuclear reactor currently licensed to operate in the U.S. is scheduled to be shut down.