Dear Peace, On Saturday, ExxonMobil spilled more than 42,000 gallons of oil into Montana's Yellowstone River. Officials can't even calculate the effect the pipeline spill will have on wildlife and local businesses, like fisheries. Yet even as its oil seeps downriver, Exxon is pressing forward with its unsafe plan to continue rolling "megaloads" along Highway 12 through Montana and Idaho. Already, Exxon's megaloads -- three-story, 200-foot long trucks carrying 650,000 pounds of equipment -- have snapped power lines, stopped traffic for hours at a time (blocking emergency vehicles in the process), and forced forest supervisors to cut trees to widen the road for their passage. Montana non-profit All Against the Haul works with dozens of citizens’ groups, environmentalists, small businesses, elected officials, Native American tribes, and National Forest supervisors opposing Exxon. Click here to join All Against the Haul's Change.org petition to ask Idaho Transportation Board and Montana Transportation Commission officials to deny or revoke the permits Exxon needs to keep rolling its dangerous megaloads. Highway 12 is one of only 120 National Scenic Byways and just 31 All-American Roads. It passes through national forests -- and along the route Lewis and Clark traveled. (You might also recognize the scenery from the book and movie A River Runs Through It.) If Exxon continues to roll its megaloads through Idaho and Montana, the damage to Highway 12 and the forests and wildlife habitats that surround it will be lasting. Any megaload-related accident or crash would take months to clean up -- and could cause catastrophic damage, especially to the creekbeds lining the route. Put simply, Exxon’s “one-time project” to deliver equipment will turn Highway 12 and the rural gorgeous Northern Rockies into an industrial corridor permanently. After facing pressure from All Against the Haul and others, Exxon is currently considering other, better routes for transport -- through the Panama Canal and on Canadian rail -- so now is the time to step up the pressure even further. Sign here to protect Montana and Idaho from further damage by ExxonMobil and preserve the beauty and integrity of the Northern Rockies: http://www.change.org/petitions/dont-ruin-the-rockies-stop-big-oils-dangerous-megaloads Thanks for taking action, - Patrick and the Change.org team |
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