Members of Occupy Houston will rally in silent protest at Energy Day on Saturday October 15, 2011.
Energy Day is sponsored the big oil companies responsible for the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and for building the Keystone XL pipeline, a potential environmental disaster running from Alberta, Canada right into our backyard. Valero and other oil refining companies are seeking a tax refund to the tune of $135 million to cover the cost of hydro-treating equipment to reduce the extensive pollution resulting from the refining of the tar sands oil transported by the pipeline.
This refund is coming from our property taxes. Money meant for schools may go to large oil companies to cover these costs! We need to educate festival goers that there are serious threats to our planet, local tax money wasted, and a serious corruption chain behind big oil.
We will march the perimeter of the festival in white shirts and red bandannas or $1 bills over our mouths. Why do we cover our mouths? Why are we silent? Because the 99% of the citizens in this country do not have a voice in this country! Why do we wear white? It’s the opposite of black, the color of oil, and a symbol of the corruption and collusion rampant in the big energy industry.
Meet at 12:00 noon on Saturday, October 15, 2011 at lower Tranquility Park. Show up in your white shirts, bandannas, and bring a $1 bill. After we gather ourselves, get organized, and settled, we march at 12:30pm one block south to Hermann Square Plaza, right outside City Hall. It’s all-right if you don’t show up in a white shirt. We’ll have you covered.
This rally comes as Secretary Clinton, despite all evidence to the contrary, claims she has "no reason to believe" that the review process of Keystone XL has been biased in favor of approval.
Let's be clear: stopping Keystone XL -- in the face of thousands of protests and the direst of warnings about its environmental impact -- is a lost cause. And that is exactly why the fight must continue. Read the comments at the links to the stories here and here, and in the link to the announcement of this protest, and keep in mind the words of Mohandas Ghandi:
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Be aware
METRORail will operate its normal schedule this weekend. The previously scheduled rail interruption for Friday-Sunday, Oct. 14-16, has been canceled.
2 comments:
"Valero and other oil refining companies are seeking a tax refund to the tune of $135 million to cover the cost of hydro-treating equipment"
The refiners are not asking to cover the cost of the equipment. It's paid for, in place and operating. The refiners paid those costs.
The requested refund is for property taxes on the equipment. Pollution-control equipment isn't taxable, thanks to the Democratic-majority 73rd Legislature and then-Gov. Ann Richards.
If you think it ought to be made taxable, that's fine. But it's contrary to the rule of law to make companies pay tax on exempt items, just as it would be contrary to the rule of law to make you pay income taxes on your charitable contributions from four years ago.
Such a shame that TCEQ did not see it your way, Matt, with today's news.
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