Yesterday, residents of Montana, Washington, DC, and the larger Chesapeake area took the demand that Forrest Mars Jr. divest from coal exports directly to Mars, Inc headquarters in McLean, Virginia. The action was a collaborative effort organized by Chesapeake Earth First!, Climate First!, and the Montana-based Blue Skies Campaign. Participants met in McLean Central Park, then walked to Mars headquarters, where they asked to speak to a Mars executive about Forrest Mars’ financial support for the Tongue River Railroad coal project.
“Coal train traffic already impacts cities like Missoula, Montana,” said Lowell Chandler, a Missoula resident who lives across the street from the railroad tracks, and who participated in yesterday’s protest. “Locomotive diesel fumes are frequently so thick you can taste the gases, black dust and grime cakes our outdoor furniture and garden soil, and coupling of empty coal cars every day and night produce bangs so loud they resonate as bombs and shake your home. If the Tongue River Railroad was built it would open the floodgates for coal exports and the culture of Missoula and the Northwest would be altered forever.”
Unfortunately (though not surprisingly), Mars executives weren’t eager to engage in conversation with the people affected by Forrest Mars’ dirty investment. Here, you can see how they responded to peaceful protesters’ request for a meeting:
Mars employees declined to even accept a letter about the impacts of investing in coal exports. Rather than support clean, sustainable energy sources, Mars is turning a blind eye to the fact that its partial owner is using money made from selling M&M’s and other candy to invest in one of the world’s dirtiest industries.
The good news is, communities from Montana to Virginia are coming together in new ways to unite against coal industry attacks on our communities. “Coal production, transport, and use harms communities, no matter where it occurs,” said Richelle Brown of Chesapeake Earth First!. ”We’re here in McLean to point out the direct line of responsibility between the Mars brand and the widespread and irreversible damage that would occur if this project goes forward. What happens in Montana matters in Virginia.”
There are plenty of opportunities to put pressure on Mars in ways the company can’t ignore. You can help. Organize a Mars stickering action in your community, to let shoppers know about the link between Mars candy and coal finance. You can also sign our new petition to Rosauers Supermarkets, a Northwest-based company with many customers who will be directly impacted by coal exports, and ask Rosauers to pressure Mars to divest from coal.
The Coal Export Action sit-in was the largest act of climate-related civil disobedience Montana has ever seen. Over the course of a week, 23 people were arrested for trespass at the Montana Capitol, in an act of civil disobedience designed to raise the stakes in the fight against coal exports.
The most important moments in our movement are when people take direct action to stop Big Coal. Sometimes though, we need online activism to amplify the impact of direct action. Today we’re having a day of social media action that will help bring our newest campaign – to get Forrest Mars Jr to 
Residents of Helena, Missoula, Bozeman, and other Montana communities met at Constitution Park at noon, one hour before the court hearing. Speakers at the rally included Lowell Chandler of the Blue Skies Campaign, Linda Kenoyer of the Livingston-based Montana Women For, and Corey Bressler a college junior who was one of the youngest people arrested at the Coal Export Action.
On Wednesday, November 14th, several members of the “Coal Export Action 23″ will make an appearance in a municipal court in Helena, as a follow-up to last August’s peaceful civil disobedience at the Montana Capitol. I’m one of those who was arrested, and will be appearing along with a diverse group of others, young and old, who decided we’re willing to get arrested for a brighter future.
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Deadline Approaching: Tell Montana’s DEQ to Stop Coal Exports!
Last August, 23 people were arrested at the Montana Capitol protesting coal export projects. We’ve put our bodies on the line, and we’ll probably need to do it again before this fight is over.
Today though, we need people – especially Montana folks – to take action another way: by submitting a public comment to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, about Arch Coal’s Otter Creek Mine.
The Montana DEQ and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation are about to start writing an Environmental Impact Statement for Arch Coal’s mining plan. As part of this process, they’re required to accept public comments on what environmental impacts they should take into account (I bet you have a few ideas). The deadline for comments is March 6th, and we need to collect as many comments as possible between now and then. That’s where you come in.
Here’s how it works: you can add your name to the list of comments we’re collecting for delivery to the DEQ and DNRC, using this online form. Once you hit the “submit” button, your name and any additional comments will appear on the list we’re collecting. Towards the end of the comment period, we’ll print out all the names and comments we’ve received, and deliver them to the DEQ all at once. If we get enough comments, we’ll deliver them in some really creative, publicity-generating way.
To be clear, at Coal Export Action we’re under no illusion that writing comments to the DEQ will stop coal mining by itself. After all, we organized the largest climate-related civil disobedience in Montana history last August, building a movement against just this type of project. That sort of direct action will almost certainly be needed again, to really stop Big Coal.
But if we flood the DEQ with comments, it will send a strong public message that people care about this issue. And that will put us in an even better position, going into the next big direct action. Some days we really do need to take advantage of official comment periods, and this is one of those days.
At some point down the line, we’ll invite you to take direct action again. But for now the action at hand is much simpler. Please take a moment to submit a comment to the DEQ, and help build the groundswell of public opposition we need to stop coal exports.