I am on furlough from Bed Bath and Beyond and in the mean time am working as a ranch manager for United Cerebral Palsy teaching special needs persons how to grow a business growing fruits, veggies and chickens. Got raised wicking beds growing Shiso, Japanese mustard (tastes like wasabi oh yum) cut and come again lettuce, longevity spinach, moringa, luffa, sorrel and burdock root in straw bales and put all our peppers and tomatoes (what I call the Salsa garden) in wicking containers behind a fenced area to keep the cotton picking ground squirrels at bay. It’s a 10 acre ranch and they are using our pollinator garden as grand central. It’s war.
We had our first farmers market last Saturday and it was a roaring success. A good time was had by all. Special needs producing specialty crops is a great match. So thank you my dear friends some of whom have been wondering where I disappeared to. Been here the whole time “trying” to get this newsletter out and bring everyone up to date.
As Oil Price Plummets, Call To Nationalize Industry Rises
The price of oil dropped below zero, minus $35 a barrel to be exact, prompting new subsidies from the Federal Reserve. Progressive voices in the U.S. and Canada have a different idea: nationalization as a way to wind down the sector, tackle the climate crisis and create a just economic transition. Hay day is over from $120 a barrel to minus $35 a barrel. That’s sweet but can’t rest-still a ways to go. They are going to get dirtier, meaner and nastier in their desperation to get bailed out. But we still can relish this moment. Just have to make sure we make their last moments here on this earth an absolute misery. No mercy. We have the upper hand at this point.
On April 15, Judge Brian Morris nullified water-crossing permits in Montana that were granted for the Keystone XL, a major setback for the long-embattled tar sands oil pipeline. The ruling came just days after Keystone XL owner TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, obtained billions of dollars in subsidies from the Alberta government as global oil prices plummeted.
The legal precedent set in the Keystone XL case is already playing out in federal courts.
On April 30, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas against the Army Corps of Engineers over another controversial pipeline. The complaint says the Army Corps did not comply with NEPA in issuing a Nationwide Permit 12 to the 428-mile Permian Highway gas pipeline. Things are looking up my friends. We have been waiting a long time and things will never be the same for the fracking industry.
Now what’s happening locally?
Gov. Newsom is playing fast and loose with his commitment to ban fracking in the State. He has actually approved, since he took office in Jan. 2019, as many permits as greasy Brown approved in his last year in office. That would be 6,168. Shameful. I have sent him a letter reading him the riot act. We are not playing this game again.
And a new well has popped up at the AGOF.
Been in contact with the SLO county planning Dept and County Board of Supervisors about this and several other points of interest like, Is the oil field up and running? Do they have a mandatory UIC Class I permit to dump? Who and how was the new well approved? No hearings? No notice? Not good.
The questions are all rhetorical of course because I have checked and there is no record of any UIC permits issued to the AGOF. Have to ask them though just for the record. And this is all illegal and unlawful criminal activity. I know you have all heard that before and nothing happened. Well, I really believe and feel this time is going to be different. Got a few other irons in the fire but will wait till I get a confirmation before I post more sunflowers. Just want to reassure you that I am on this till the end. Thank you for your patience.
We are really living a moment in time that has never never happened before. The world has never been globally attached at the hip like it is right now and there are some extraordinary things happening. People are coming together like never before. Communities are reaching out to each other and making things happen and really acting like solid, upstanding human beings that you can be proud to call your friends and neighbors. So much is about just doing the right thing and not waiting for permission to do it. Just doing it. It took a freaking pandemic to wake us up out of our stupor and start asking questions and getting involved in this thing called living. If we count our blessings instead of sheep we have really made the best of this lock down and should come out of it with a fresh, new and improved way of being happy and feeling oh so grateful to be a part of this transformation.
And now for one last happy happy, you guessed it, sunflower to send you with so much love.
This is up close and personal and look at the florets arranged in that natural sacred geometry thing. Perfect. Nature is just a freaking miracle. I hope these happy little miracles made you smile. I was smiling the whole time I was writing this.
These are the articles on new well, oil prices and Newsom
SLO Clean Water 