We Will NOT Be Silenced – Day of Action

Joining in with hundreds of community groups across the nation, Defend Ballona Wetlands this week stood on the Los Angeles coast in support of Greenpeace as their grassroots activists stand up to a big fossil fuel bully – Energy Transfer (Texas).

The oil company is attempting to silence this organization by filing a $300 million lawsuit in North Dakota that would shut down Greenpeace USA’s operations, while they have been working diligently to stop new and expanding fossil fuel operations (like the pipeline at Standing Rock) and move toward genuine renewable energy in efforts to calm the climate crisis the Earth is experiencing. Greenpeace was supporting Indigenous Tribal Leaders at Standing Rock because of the sacred waters that the pipeline would have harmed.

Likewise, the community coalition, Defend Ballona Wetlands, has stood up to SoCalGas, recently filing a lawsuit to challenge approval of a piecemealing of a massive construction project. That project would enable SoCalGas to expand its oil and gas operations at the Playa del Rey Oil Field at the Ballona Wetlands where it stores fossil gas they pipe in from other states and where they also bring up 100 barrels of crude oil each day. The Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve is considered a sacred site by Indigenous Tribal Leaders in Los Angeles, including Chief Anthony Morales of the Gabrieleno San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, who objected strongly to the California Coastal Commission approving the current fossil gas project there.

“We know from experience that fossil fuel operators like to silence activists. I've seen the letter written by Chief Morales, which the regulators have ignored - and who is opposing this project that is masquerading as a 'restoration' when it is not scientifically sound. SoCalGas has joined with the CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife to support a 9-year $400 million project that instead of protecting the Ballona’s imperiled wildlife, would add more climate impacts by plowing under hundreds of acres of wetlands, woodlands and grasslands currently sequestering and storing carbon, as well as desecrating these sacred lands,” explained environmental scientist Robert Jan van de Hoek of Defend Ballona Wetlands.

Greenpeace is saying today they “condemn the abuse of the legal system that would shut down legitimate advocacy.”

Defend Ballona Wetlands stands with Greenpeace, as it was one of the original dozen groups that joined in with others to defend the Ballona Wetlands and associated Los Angeles’s rare coastal lands from a massive development in 1996. In 2003 640 acres of land were acquired by the State of California, now placed at risk by SoCalGas and its parent company, Sempra, that apparently has plans to keep this oil and gas operation going at Ballona, in spite of there being an ecological reserve with 7 endangered species relying on it and in spite of climate impacts.

Additionally, the lawsuit filed against Greenpeace has Los Angeles activists worried about larger implications for Free Speech in this country.

“If this lawsuit would have been filed in California, the Court would dismiss it, as this state has strong laws that disallow what are known as SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation),” noted Marcia Hanscom, an activist that has worked with Greenpeace since the 1990s. “We are concerned where this case, filed in North Dakota, will go – as it might end up in the US Supreme Court, which could put California’s anti-SLAPP law at risk, as well, so, it’s even more important to note: We Will NOT be Silenced,” Hanscom emphasized!