Democracy Now! Published on Oct 10, 2018
https://democracynow.org – A month before the 2016 election, anti-pipeline activists staged an unprecedented coordinated action to shut down the flow of oil from the United States to Canada. On October 11, 2016, activists in North Dakota, Washington, Montana and Minnesota turned the manual safety valves on four pipelines, temporarily halting the flow of nearly 70 percent of the crude oil imported to the United States from Canada. They came to be known as the “Valve Turners.” What followed was a lengthy legal battle that ended with some of the activists in jail. But on Tuesday, three valve turners who broke into an oil pipeline facility in Minnesota on that day in 2016 were acquitted. We speak with the valve turners themselves, Annette Klapstein and Emily Johnston, about their acquittal. Johnston is a poet and co-founder of 350Seattle.org and Klapstein is a retired attorney for the Puyallup tribe and member of the Raging Grannies. We also speak with their attorney Kelsey Skaggs and Dr. James Hansen, the former top climate scientist at NASA.
Part 2 of interviews:
Democracy Now! Published on Oct 11, 2018
SUMMARY: https://democracynow.org – On October 11, 2016, activists in North Dakota, Washington, Montana and Minnesota turned the manual safety valves on four pipelines, temporarily halting the flow of nearly 70 percent of the crude oil imported to the United States from Canada. They came to be known as the “valve turners.” What followed was a lengthy legal battle that ended with some of the activists in jail. But on Tuesday, three valve turners who broke into an oil pipeline facility in Minnesota on that day in 2016 were acquitted. In this web exclusive, we feature an extended conversation with two of the valve turners, Annette Klapstein and Emily Johnston, their attorney, Kelsey Skaggs, and former NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen.