Big Mountain Survival School 2013
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St. Louis Ballot Initiative Against Peabody’s Tax Breaks
By Tim Logan. From STL Today
Local progressive activists this week will open a new front in their long-running battle with Peabody Energy: They’re going after tax breaks for the coal giant’s business partners.
Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment plans Wednesday to file signatures for a ballot measure that would ban St. Louis tax incentives for any company that engages in “unsustainable” energy production or that does $1 million a year in business with any such company. They’re aiming for a public vote in the spring.
If the measure passes, it could upend the city’s menu of business subsidies — it covers everything from tax abatement to tax increment financing to city-backed bonds and loans — and critics say it could drive companies out of St. Louis altogether. But supporters say it’s a way to stop subsidizing law firms, banks and large-scale polluters and shift public money to more grass-roots efforts.
“The game is rigged, and we’re never going to win if we keep handing money to these companies,” said Jeff Ordower, MORE’s executive director.
The debate hinges on Peabody Energy, the global coal producer that is, in terms of revenue, the largest company headquartered in the city of St. Louis.
Peabody has been the focus of countless protests by local environmental and social justice groups in recent years. It also received city tax breaks in 2011 when it signed a new lease in the Gateway One Building on Market Street, keeping its 600 local employees downtown through 2026.
The measure to be submitted Wednesday would prohibit those sort of breaks in the future for “unsustainable energy producers” — extractors of coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear materials. It would also prohibit them for any company that does at least $1 million annually in business with those sort of companies, a clause that Ordower says could include utilities, some banks and law firms, perhaps advertising agencies or PR shops. For white-collar service providers, it would force a choice, he said: Work with Peabody, or receive tax breaks, but not both.
“Not only do you have to be doing business with a fossil fuel company, you also have to be getting public money,” Ordower said. “If you’ve got a private business doing private business-y things, this won’t affect you.”
But critics of the measure say it could have a much wider reach.
Jane Dueker, a St. Louis attorney who said she’s representing “people who oppose this,” points to a clause in the measure that would prohibit “any monetary or nonmonetary benefit related to any public fund or program” and warns that could be interpreted broadly enough to block basic city services from any company that spends $1 million a year in electricity.
“Think about how many large employers spend $1 million a year on electricity. This was so clearly not thought through,” she said. “How could anyone take this credibly? It’s a stunt.”
Dueker said her group plans a legal challenge to knock the measure off the ballot, should it get there. Ordower said MORE has collected 36,000 signatures, well above the roughly 22,000 needed to qualify. If the Board of Election certifies those the Board of Aldermen may then vote to approve the measure, but if they don’t it will go to a general election, likely in April or May.
The bill also includes measures to encourage subsidies for alternative energy and to market city-owned vacant land for energy uses. But most of the debate will likely focus on the incentives piece.
Ordower said he expects “the opposition will be large,” but said his group has been lining up support for months, organizing social justice, environmental and some labor groups. They’ve met with aldermen and the mayor’s office, too. It’s unclear where those politicians will come out; a spokeswoman for Mayor Francis Slay said Friday he’d have no comment until after the measure was filed.
Peabody, though, wasted little time before blasting MORE’s campaign.
“It takes a special anti-everything activist group to oppose the economic development, charitable giving and job creation of some of the city’s largest employers,” the company said in a statement. “We’re confident the people of St. Louis appreciate civic leadership and corporate responsibility, and Peabody Energy is pleased to have provided sustainable, affordable energy for St. Louis and the world for 130 years.”
Other companies that may be affected by the measure held their fire, for now. The Laclede Group, for instance, is considering sites for a headquarters expansion. It has said it wants to stay in the city. When asked if this sort of bill might change those plans, a Laclede spokeswoman said the gas utility would wait until the petitions were filed and study their potential impact before commenting.
Attorneys who work on location deals warned the bill could well drive companies out of the city, and that if it does it would hurt the entire region both economically and environmentally.
“The name of the game is jobs and economic development and we desperately need to bring that back into the central city,” said Bill Kuehling, a veteran development lawyer at Polsinelli in St. Louis. “Steps that have the potential to drive that away have other potential environmental issues attached to them, like sprawl.”
But Ordower said the city needs a more sustainable approach, both to energy and to incentives and the jobs they’re designed to create. This is an effort to make that happen.
“The economy is not working for most residents of this city,” he said. “We need to try something different.”
Gathering: June 3-9 Honoring the Resistance at Big Mountain/Black Mesa
WE TASTE THIS NEW POWER
WE STEWARD WE SHELTER
…
WE WITNESS WE PRAY WE GATHER
WE FIND NEW KINDNESS
WE PAUSE
WE KISS THE GROUND”
-Vanessa Huang
Greetings, We’d like to update you on and request your support for the upcoming gathering on Black Mesa that is focused on decolonizing the mind/mine. The gathering will include workshops and conversations between and among the Big Mountain/Black Mesa resistance community and other frontline resistance communities from around the country, Native youth organizer caucus, cultural sharing, work parties, an elders’ circle, a community meal, and a concert with Rebel Diaz, Bronx-based hip hop artists and youth organizers, and Shining Soul, grassroots hip hop duo from occupied O’odham land in Southern Arizona.
There will be participants from a wide array of struggles: Palestinian Youth Movement, (Un)Occupy Albuquerque, Hawaiian Sovereignty movement, Ka Lei Maile Ali’i, Radical Action for Mountain Peoples Survival (RAMPS), Seventh Native American Generation (SNAG), Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance, Sixth World Indigenous Peoples Organization.*Participation for this gathering is currently full. There are, however, other ways to support.
*We are seeking financial support for the gathering. Funds will go to: Indigenous organizers and other frontline communities’ travel, documenting of the event by Native Youth Media Collective, Outta Your Backpack Media, sheep for meals, and supplies for on-land work projects. We are asking folks for help in spreading this Rocket Hub link around on social media to fund the travel for Rebel Diaz from NYC. To be clear, funds raised will be used more broadly for many other aspects of the gathering (like those listed above), but since Rebel Diaz is well-known and has high travel costs, we made a special initiative to get them to the gathering.As always, you can send checks to “Black Mesa Indigenous Support” at PO Box 23501 Flagstaff, AZ 86002 OR donate online here.If you donate online, don’t forget to put BMIS in the designation box.Thank you for your continued support!
With Gratitude,The Black Mesa Indigenous Support Collective: Berkley, Liza, Derek, Hallie, & Tree
Support Native Youth Spring Break on Black Mesa & Organization-Based Gathering on Black Mesa
BMIS has been collaboratively planning two exciting on-land events that could use your support!
Because this exciting gathering differs from other BMIS gatherings and the participants have already been determined, there are other ways for the BMIS supporter network to plug in and support. This is an opportunity to move your resources, as folks who have had the rich experience of spending time with the on-land resistance communities, to enable folks from other frontline resistance movements to connect to the 40 year-long struggle for self-determination on Black Mesa/Big Mountain. The gathering builds on the legacy of diverse support and cross movement building with members of the Xicano movement, Farm Workers, anti-Contra organizations, Black Liberation movement, Japanese and U.S anti-nuclear movements, and peace movements who participated in the Big Mountain support network. Currently, we see the anti-extraction and climate justice movements centering Indigenous issues and sacred sites and treaty struggles gaining visibility; this is a great moment to foster these cross-movement connections on Black Mesa/Big Mountain. We are asking for your financial support to help fund travel for the various organizations who will attend. Checks made payable to “Black Mesa Indigenous Support” with “Organization-based Gathering” in memo line.
Letter from Fern Benally (Black Mesa, AZ) and Don Yellowman (Tuba City, AZ) to Peabody CEO Greg Boyce
St. Louis, MODear Mr. Greg H. Boyce and other Peabody Officials,
We have traveled from the Navajo Nation located in what is now the State of Arizona. We are in St. Louis on behalf of some of the elders from Black Mesa/Big Mountain who are impacted by the coal mining back home. This letter is to request a face to face meeting with you or others responsible for the coal mine out in Black Mesa, to address our issues and concerns. We personally live within the boundary and vicinity of Peabody Western Coal Company.
The 46 year old strip-mining on Black Mesa is devastating for our people. Our Dine’ (Navajo People) are facing forced relocation as Peabody Western Coal Co., makes way for the strip-mining; in addition to the many environmental and health issues which they face on a daily basis. The pollution from Kayenta Mine on Black Mesa is visible every day. The coal mine does not effectively extinguish coal fires to prevent the toxic gases from being emitted. The gaseous pollution poisons and endangers the respiratory health of the residents. Many coal miners suspect they have lung diseases caused by the coal but Peabody Western has adamantly denied coal being the direct cause of pulmonary diseases. The residents have noticed increased prevalence of lung problems since the coal mining began in late 1960s and 1970s. It does not require a high education to make the correlations.
Before Peabody’s arrival, natural springs were plentiful. Our animals, both wild and domestic, quenched their thirst effectively without needing to search for waters. Wildlife was in abundance, as were domestic livestock. Natural springs are extinct now. Black Mesa residents now face the daily chores of hauling water. They drive as far as 30 to 40 miles round trip to deliver potable water to their homes and livestock, while wild animals are left to fend for themselves. Water is essential for life. However, Peabody has wasted billions of acre feet of irreplaceable water. The pristine Navajo Aquifer is irreversibly damaged according to researcher Daniel Higgins, PhD.
The only option, Peabody Energy, is to transition to solar. It is well known, fossil fuels are the dirtiest energy and coal emits the most carbon dioxide, contributing to global climate change. Coal causes detrimental effects to the Indigenous Peoples of Black Mesa. Peabody needs to be active in the immediate healing of Black Mesa residents. The healing process can begin with Peabody Energy ceasing further coal strip mining on Black Mesa. Now is the time to about face and turn to renewable energy. To take initiative in healing, Peabody Energy and Peabody Western should put profits into solar and allow the residents of Black Mesa to create their own way of life as we see fit.
Our people live with these impacts, as Peabody Western reaps financial profits in the billions each year from the bountiful resources extracted from the heart of our ancestral land. The Dine’ people are unable to focus on their prayers and sacred offerings because of coal mining impacts. We, also request that there be a study to collect scientific data available for respiratory diseases from coal mining on Black Mesa. We have personal knowledge and we witness the damages, losses and impacts the Black Mesa people have endured physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Black Mesa is where it all begins. The Dine’ people struggle to survive, as the southwest cities benefits from cheap resources.
Finally, a direct message from our elders living on their ancestral homelands in the former joint use area now known as the Hopi Partitioned Land: they have asked for you to stop mining on Black Mesa and to stop the forced relocation of our people immediately. Tens of thousands of our people were forced to leave their land to make room for your mine, making this the biggest forced relocation of Native people in this country since the Trial of Tears. Do not expand your mine anymore!
Sincerely,
Statement from Big Mountain resister
In connecting colonial legacies, resource extraction disproportionately impacts indigenous communities, and the tragedy of strip mining in Appalachia started over 500 years ago with the first forced relocation of indigenous people in North America, such as the Mingo and Cherokee. Two Big Mountain resisters, Black Mesa Indigenous Support (BMIS), RAMPS andMountain Justice join Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) tomorrow to confront Peabody Energy at their home in St. Louis, Mo.
Demand Peabody Energy take Accountability for their Actions Today!
Hi There,
Today in St. Louis folks are standing up to Peabody Energy and demanding they take accountability for their actions. Among the protesters are members of the Navajo tribe from Black Mesa and residents of the coalfields of Appalachia. They have come together in solidarity against Peabody’s devastating practices; from the relocation of Navajo and Hopi people of Black Mesa in Arizona to the stripping of Appalachian miners pensions, Peabody exploits the communities wherever it works. Can you take a minute today to tell Peabody that their practices aren’t okay? Peabody is the largest coal company in the world: let’s shut down their switchboard today!
Here’s a script you are welcome to use for your call:
Hello Mr. Boyce /Peabody. I’m ____________, I’m calling to hold you accountable for your role in the destruction of communities and the environment as the CEO of Peabody Energy. To begin to repair the damages you and your company have caused you need to immediately stop stripping indigenous lands, take financial responsibility for the Patriot pensioners and stop your role in the climate crisis.
You can call Greg Boyce’s (CEO of Peabody) home phone at (314) 925-8005 or Peabody itself at (314) 342-3400. Feel free to email him at ghbusa@aol.com if you’d like to tailor a longer message to him!
Your friends at RAMPS, BMIS, and MORE!
http://rampscampaign.org/
https://supportblackmesa.org/
http://organizemo.org/
Caravan 2012 Reportback
BMIS wishes to extend thanks to all the residents of Black Mesa, regional coordinators, fundraisers, donors, wood choppers, and sheepherders who made this year’s caravan a powerful time of sharing, mutual support, growth, and fun!
We feel truly honored to be able to continue to build as a support network and as a larger resistance community. It is in times of sharing meals and stories, working hard together, and challenging each other to deepen our analyses around Indigenous resistance and our varied relationships to it that we can really sense this building. Our host family at base camp made us feel warm and welcomed, Grumble from Seeds of Peace and the Guerrillas of Guerilla Food not Bombs (LA) nourished us. We are grateful!
The roving wood crew along with Clan Dyken (in their inspiring 20th or so year of steadfast support of the communities of Big Mountain/Black Mesa), were able to make over 40 loads of wood. Sabin (long-time Black Mesa supporter) also secured a huge organic food donation that we were able to distribute around the HPL with Clan Dyken. Additionally, with funds raised at events around the country, BMIS was able to pump some money into the local Black Mesa economy and commission twelve extra loads of wood from residents. Thirty supporters went and stayed with families. We ended a week of hard work with a supporter circle during which we discussed various facets of decolonial politics, unity building, and allyship (Check our Anti-Colonial Resource Page soon for the articles we discussed along with other resources).
We were then honored to host an elders circle on Saturday the 24th where we heard from various residents of Big Mountain/Black Mesa, got to see arts and crafts, song and dance, and eat delicious mutton. Many of the elders spoke about the importance of community gatherings as a source of continued strength for their resistance and expressed their thanks to the solidarity community for their continued support. The elders also held a meeting and decided to send representatives from Black Mesa to a protest in St. Louis against Peabody (see the link here).
So, from BMIS, thanks again! Ahe’hee! to everyone who helped make the caravan possible. We look forward to working with you throughout the year. Remember, the Black Mesa/Big Mountain resistance communities request on-land support all year long. Contact BMIS to set up a stay!
