Protests Against America’s First Approved Tar Sands Operation Rage in Utah at Chevron Refinery
(EnviroNews Utah) – On March 23rd, protestors of the now approved tar sands project in PR Springs, Utah delivered a row of small coffins to the Chevron Refinery in Salt Lake City, in response to the refineries recent expansion plans that would enable them to accommodate future tar sands oil from the Uintah Basin.
The child-sized coffins symbolized the death and destruction that protestors claim Chevron will inevitably be responsible for in the state of Utah should the tar sands project come to fruition. The mini-caskets were delivered to the front gate of the refining plant to a a chorus that included chants, and songs of hope and change.
Approximately 60 people showed up to the rally organized by a coalition of Utah environmental and social justice groups, standing together in solidarity with Tar Sands Blockade protests currently raging around the country.
The Utah sate government has approved PR Springs as the location for the nation’s first commercial tar sands operation, and mining is scheduled to commence there later this year.
Representatives from Peaceful Uprising, Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance, the Sierra Club, Canyon Country Rising Tide, and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE) spoke out about the impact that tar sands mining and the subsequent accommodating refinery expansions would have on Utah’s already critical air pollution crisis.
In related news Chevron is currently under the gun for a major diesel spill last week that has shut down parts of Willard Bay State Park.
If Chevron can’t be trusted to take care of their current operations safely, how can anyone trust them with more?
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FILM AND ARTICLE CREDITS
- Shad Engkilterra - Co-Author, Narrator
- Emerson Urry - Producer, Co-Author, Director of Photography, Videojournalist, Video Editor, Sound Editor, 3D Animator
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The oil boom that is happening AGAIN in the Uintah Basin in Utah is just sad. Such beautiful country, and it’s bad enough with just straight drilling….then comes FRACKING, and now TAR SANDS! WTF!? I mean there won’t be anything left of this beautiful place by the time they are done up there.
Furthermore, I read an article this last winter about how the ozone is now off the richter scale up there when they used to have no air pollution problem at all. https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865573588/Uintah-Basin-ozone-study-points-to-weather-as-driving-factor.html?pg=all
I think a tar sands pit would destroy what is left of this beautiful part of the country. So sad if it happens.
Very sketchy article on the ozone up there. How much longer can this go on before we are in a totally unfixable situation?
I saw the other backkside interview to this story and they are very scared about Urainium being released in the refining process. That is a very scary prospect and I really hope they stop this crazy mine somehow…… 🙁
The coffins wehre probably fitting if this dirty project goes through……