ANNUAL MEETING WRAP-UPREPORTS Volume 44, Issue 1, Winter 2015 Inside: Volume 37, Issue Winter 2007 n A word from our Montana public lands bust Chair.................PageRenewable 2 Energy and Conservation n People of the Plains – Ranch owners lose JeannieHighlight Brown............3 in federal-to-private Northern Plains’ Annual Meeting n Why I'm a Monthly Sustainer....................3 coal lease swindle his year’s Annual Meeting celebrated Northern Plains’ 35-year history, n Speakerwhile fired looking up aheadover to new efforts to create a clean energy future for fracking.......................4 n early December, President Montana. Obama signed legislation nT A need for protection Thefrom meeting oil & began gas............. on Friday,4 NovemberIapproving 10, with a massivetwo sessions giveaway focused on renew- to a coal company and significantly nable The energy war andagainst agriculture. Keynote speaker David Morris—vice president of the undermining landowners in the Bull Instituterenewable for Local energy....... Self-Reliance5 and an expert on biofuels—discussed how a biofuels Mountains, as well as other parts of nindustry Fighting could corporate meet energy needs, provide economic opportunities for farmers, and eastern Montana. createfood............................. sustainable local communities.5 nFollowing Coal mine the keynote,reclamation Morris was joined by John Van Delinder, street superinten- The move was part of a large public dentthe for pits........................ the City of Bozeman,5 and by Howard Haines, bioenergy program manager Member Julia Page is interviewed by a film Northern Plains Chair Mark Fix (left) as- lands package inserted into a must- nfor EPA the issuesMontana coal Department ash of Environmental Quality, in a panel presentation crew from the Virginia Organizing Project sists Rep. Wanda Grinde (center) and Rep. pass National Defense Authorization (VOP), a longtime ally. VOP filmed our An- Arlene Becker (right) as they conduct a aboutrules the without emerging teeth..... biodiesel 6industry in Montana. The speech and panel discussion Act. The package, which included nual Meeting as part of a documentary lobbying workshop, preparing members for nearned The DemiseNorthern ofPlains Coal.... favorable6 press about our Biodiesel: Homegrown Prosper- about grassroots organizing. the 2007 legislative session. important protections for the nity campaign, including a Billings Gazette editorial endorsing the use of biodieselLooking northeast from the Bull Mountains is some of the land beneath which federal coal Annual Meeting Flathead and Rocky Mountain of our new campaign—Protect Our Water Rights. This campaign aims to protect blendsresolutions.......... in Billings’ city 11-13fleet. was transferred to a private corporation. The "swap" effectively ends a long-standing ban on Front, unfortunately also continued strip miningMontana’s federal coal water in the rights Bulls. system from attempts by a methane company to sidestep n Carbon County halts a decades-old tradition of finding One part oflongstanding the package, requirements sponsored thatland water of Northernrights be usedPlains for members), beneficial purposes and citizen zoning...........14 ways to put public resources into by all threethat members the water of Montana’snot be wasted. Membersas well as were in Big also Horn able toCounty, tour Northern to Plains’ new n Council the hands of the coal industry and congressionalgreen delegation, building, transferred Home on the Range.Great Northern Properties (GNP), Roundup..............14-15 undermining the property rights of highly valuable coal in the Bull n As always, the Annual Meeting gave members an opportunity to enjoy food and en- A new funding idea..16 landowners elsewhere. Mountains (some of it beneath the tertainment while catching up with old friends.Continued On Friday night,on Page Yellowstone 14 Valley Citizens Council hosted their annual Cowboy Supper, and Northern Plains members Glendive oiland staff burstperformed at Theater sparks of the West, our homegrown talent show. The event concluded Saturday night with a champagne toast, a performance by Keystone Billings-basedsafety bluegrass concerns band, the Longtime Lonesome Dogs, and exciting live and silent auctions. Thanks to generous members and supporters who donated and bid pipeline carrying Bakken “People should understand how PULLOUT SECTION on items, our annual fundraiser was a great success. The proceeds from the auctions crude oil burst Jan. 17 serious pipeline spills are because will support Northern Plains’ work throughout the coming year. beneath the ice-choked they don’t just affect the specific site A -Laura Nelson Yellowstone River about five miles where the spill happens. They affect Photo by James Woodcock, Billings Gazette. west of Glendive. everyone for miles downstream – municipal water users, irrigators, Former Billings Mayor Chuck Tooley gives a PowerPoint presentationResponse on global byclimate officials change was slow as at Northern Plains’ Annual Meeting. wildlife, recreationists, soil, water, locals complained of an oil smell Inside: air, everything,” said Dena Hoff, in the air and in their water. About a Northern Plains member and 64th Legislature On Saturday, November 11, our luncheon speaker was twoKath days Williams, after the president spill, officials farmer/rancher whose land borders Primer of the World Green Building Council and principal of Kathclosed Williams the water + Associates, intake for the city the Yellowstone River near the site Pages 7-10 a Bozeman firm that supports sustainable education projects.of Glendive Williams and presentedbegan trucking in of the spill. “This spill is another a slide program about the benefits of green building andbottled discussed water energy for 6,000efficient residents. n Becoming a citizen example of why landowners don’t constructionDawson projects Resource around Council the member globe. Amy Myran lobbyist..................7 want the proposed Keystone XL draws murky water from her tap in Glendive A Bridger Pipeline spokesman said n Who ya gonna Former fiveBillings days Mayorafter the Chuck Yellowstone Tooley River drove oil homespill. the importanceabout 40,000 of gallons renewable, of oil spilled pipeline. Pipelines don’t have a good call?.......................7 sustainableAmy energy said her with water a powerful had a diesel presentation smell the about first global warming on Saturday track record. The Keystone XL would during the hour-long breach. n Committees and afternoon.three Tooley days isafter one theof 50 spill. people Five traineddays later by Althe Gore to give presentations on cli- cross just upstream from where my water was extremely cloudy because the water members............8-9 mate change based on Gore’s film and book, An InconvenientThis Truth is the. Tooley second described major spill on the irrigation water comes from. lines were being flushed out, but it no longer n the causes, evidence, and consequences of global warming,Yellowstone as well as Riversteps citizensin 3½ years, and it The importance of smelled. phone calls.........10 can take to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to reverse thisreinforces dangerous landowner trend. concerns about “We rural landowners are being n having the proposed KeystoneMembers XL (clockwiseasked to from be lowerthe sacrificial left) Wade lambsSikorski, Andy Mikes, Our Nellie Northern Israel, and PlainsClare Our 2006 Annual Meeting also featured a lobbying workshop with Montana state Witcomb participate in a lobbying workshop at the Annual Meeting. 10 pipeline cross their property. bill priorities........ representatives Arlene Becker and Wanda Grinde, as well as a panel discussion Continued on Page 3 TheThe Plains Plains Truth Truth Winter Winter 2015 2007 PagePage 1 to the members people of the plains Coal deal part of entrenched struggle Jeannie Brown fights for livable home along tracks n December, then-Representative In all likelihood, it will mean strip mining other items that got thrown into this massive t literally shakes informed, but also helps Daines and Senators Walsh and Tester in the Bull Mountains area for coal that will bill were bombers that don’t fly right (and things on my people to become more Icelebrated the passage of the public probably be exported to Asia. that the Pentagon didn’t even want), along “Ishelves.” Jeannie educated voters. lands package – attached to the National with a rollback of many of the banking Brown’s front door is exactly This marks the third time that Great Jeannie ran for the Montana Defense Authorization Act – as a victory for regulations that were supposed to protect us 280 feet from the train tracks Northern and its successors have gotten Legislature in 2014. Though bipartisanship. from another banking crisis. We did get more in Belgrade. billions of dollars of the public’s resources unsuccessful, she plans to run wilderness in western Montana, but this is for almost nothing. again in 2016. She believes But part of that package was certainly no way to do business. A stay-at-home grandmother, a “sweetheart” coal swap Jeannie raises her Montanans need sensible The first big giveaway was when the that put millions of tons of When we have setbacks like this we must granddaughter who has health people in office who will fight government granted the Northern Pacific publicly owned coal (in the Bull redouble our efforts to fight for landowners’ problems. Sleep is precious for individuals across our Railroad every other square-mile surface