Between The Lines - Dylan Voorhees: Jan. 26 Protest Organized to Stop Pumping of Canadian Tar Sands Oil to New England States (Week Ending Feb. 1, 2013)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

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Campaign Opposing Canadian Tar Sands Oil Comes to New England

RealAudio MP3

Posted Jan. 23, 2013

Interview with Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy & Global Warming Project, director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

On Jan. 26, hundreds of protesters are expected to converge in Portland, Maine, for what's being billed as the largest tar sands protest in the Northeast. The impetus is what organizers say are plans to reverse the flow of an existing pipeline that currently takes oil from ships arriving in South Portland harbor and pump it to Montreal, Canada. Activists say the Canadian company Enbridge is now considering pumping tar sands oil from Alberta through Quebec, to Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Both Enbridge and the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line Corporation, which is owned by ExxonMobil, say such plans were put on hold in 2009. But the National Wildlife Federation has released documents indicating that the proposal is still very much an active option.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy and Global Warming Project director with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of the groups that's organizing the protest, along with Environment Maine, 350.org, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and other groups. Voorhees explains that despite asserting they have "no plans" to reverse the pipeline flow, the companies have, in fact, expressed a keen interest in doing just that.

DYLAN VOORHEES: They've actually not said that they don't want to do this. In fact, what they've told public officials in a number of meetings is that they'd very much would like to do this. But what they're saying also in public is that they have no plan at this time to do it. That's like saying, "I don't have a plan yet for dinner tonight." They admit they'd like to do it because I think the prospect of sending oil into Canada these days is a diminishing market for them, and that's what the pipeline does right now. It takes regular crude oil off tankers that come into Portland harbor and it flows up to Montreal. And it's been doing that for 60 years. But there's a new day in oil, and that's because of tar sands in Canada. And Canada has, in the ground, enormous amounts of tar sands that oil companies are trying to get out of Canada. That's the situation across Canada, and that's led to proposals like the Keystone XL pipeline that would go from Canada down to the Gulf; there's a project proposed for taking tar sands west to British Columbia, and this is really more of the same.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Burlington, Vt., and Casco, Maine, have recently passed resolutions opposing tar sands going through their towns. What, if any, control do towns have over a pipeline going through their territory?

DYLAN VOORHEES: Very little, unfortunately. And the town of Casco, Maine, which is a small town on Sebago Lake – which is one of the larger lakes in the state and kind of a jewel in the tourism region in southwestern Maine – Casco passed a resolution which expresses the sentiment of the town. It doesn't really have a lot of binding impact, but it says very clearly and it was an actual vote of the townspeople at a town meeting, that they're opposed to this and they're very concerned about their economy and their environment. And I think that's what we'll begin to see in more towns across Maine and New Hampshire and Vermont, and we've already seen a little of it in Quebec – towns saying, "We don't want this." And hopefully, collectively, this sends a message. But towns don't have a lot of say and even states may not have a lot of say. What we've been starting to say is that we're calling on the U.S. State Department to require what's called a presidential permit, and that's because the pipeline crosses an international boundary, the State Department is the one that can control permitting. And we want to make sure a presidential permit will be required before this happens and that will enable us to see an environmental review happen. If that doesn't happen, then we're very concerned that this project could go forward without, really, environmental reviews.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Dylan Voorhees, tar sands is a lot more corrosive than other oil, and this pipeline is already 60 years old. Are there concerns about spills?

DYLAN VOORHEES: There's a lot of concerns in Maine about possible spills if tar sands was moving to this pipeline. And that's because tar sands has different physical properties than crude oil. It's much more viscous. It's much more toxic. It's actually diluted down with very dangerous, toxic chemicals. And because of the higher temperatures, higher pressures, and additional corrosiveness, acidity, and abrasives, we think the danger is significantly greater. What we particularly know is that tar sands pipelines in the Midwest that have been carrying tar sands for some time, have had spills or leaks at three times the rate of regular oil pipelines per mile of pipeline. Secondly, the consequences of a spill of tar sands are much more damaging than regular crude oil, and that's because it's so thick and it's so heavy and it has these toxic chemicals in it. And the huge oil spill, tar sands spill, in the Kalamazoo River in 2010 – which was an Enbridge pipeline – really demonstrated how practically impossible to clean up tar sands is if it spills.

BETWEEN THE LINES: This rally is being billed as the largest tar sands protest in the Northeast. What exactly is your goal in bringing people to Portland on January 26?

DYLAN VOORHEES: I think the rally is meant to really get on the radar that this is a very serious issue, and that the public – not just in Maine, but across the region – really don't want to see this happen, and are calling on elected officials, first and foremost, to act on the people's behalf and really make sure, as a first order, that there's an environmental review before this happens, and that's sort of common sense but it's not a foregone conclusion that there would even be a real permitting and environmental review process for this change. The direction of the flow is not in itself the threat. The threat is tar sands and that's why there's been this huge outpouring of concern. It's because the substance is not only heavy and toxic and threatens our water quality and the environment and people's health and the economy – and certainly Maine relies on a clean environment, in that region in particular – and also because tar sands is kind of climate destroying, and the pollution associated with tar sands is so much higher than regular oil, and also there's an increased awareness that we really need to be tackling climate pollution in a more serious way, so this switch to tar sands is really the wrong direction and the wrong idea for all kinds of reasons.

Find more information on the campaigns to stop the development and transport of tar sands oil by visiting the Natural Resources Council of Maine website at nrcm.org.