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EXPLODING OIL TRAINS IN FREMONT?

What You Need to Know About the Oil Trains
Slated for the Tri-Cities
CREDO-stop-oil-trains
A presentation and community organizing meeting:
Thursday September 11, 2014: 7:00-9:00 pm.
Fremont Senior Center
40086 Paseo Padre Parkway
Fremont, CA
This event is free of charge, though donations will help to defray rental costs. 
 
WHAT THIS PROGRAM IS ABOUT Since much of the public doesn’t know that mile-long trains of tank cars carrying oil are likely to start running along the East Bay urban corridor, right through the Tri-Cities, the main purpose is to inform the public about these prospects—and about these trains in general. And once informed, those attending will choose among possible plans of action.  Learn more at the event website:  http://eotif.weebly.com/
 
THE MAIN SPONSORING NON-PROFIT GROUP
Citizens Against Hazardous Oil Trains (CAHOT) – the group’s Steering Committee includes the following Tri-City residents, all of them known for their civic involvement:
 
·      Vinnie Bacon, Fremont City Councilperson and long-time environmental leader;
·      Jane Bark, organizer and activist in Fremont and Tri-Cities;
·      Bruce Cates, Fremont (Niles) programmer, organizer, and activist; President of Local Ecology and Agriculture Fremont (LEAF) in Niles;
·      Paul W. Rea, Ph.D, Newark author, organizer, and activist;
·      Rev. Jeff Spencer, Senior Pastor, Discovery Church, Niles; event programmer and activist in Fremont and the Tri-Cities.
 
GOALS FOR THE TOWN MEETING
–To promote awareness of the hazards involved with the oil trains projected to be coming through the East Bay Corridor—and through Fremont.
–To encourage those in attendance to see the relationship of oil trains to the boom in gas and oil production enabled by hydraulic fracking, and to climate change.
–To empower those attending to move from awareness of climate change to local action.
 
PLANNED PROGRAM
 
1. First Speaker’s Presentation (30 min.)
What the crude oil trains involve and why people should be concerned about them (the hazards and dangers, the public-safety issues, etc.) Speaker is Jess Dervin-Ackerman, a dynamic activist who deals with the crude oil trains as well as other energy issues. She’s the Conservation Program coordinator at the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter who regularly conducts workshops in the East Bay.  
 
2. Second Speaker’s Presentation (30 min.)
How the spike in oil trains is connected to the U.S. energy boom and to global climate change: what will be the consequences of burning all this fossil fuel? Confirmed speaker will be Diane Bailey, Senior Scientist, Health and Environment Program, at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in San Francisco.
 
3. Attendee Involvement with Additional Learning (60 min.)
Participants will move into small groups of their choosing – such as “Reaching Out to Other Groups,” “Organizing Neighborhood Meetings,” “Engaging Public Officials,” “Connecting with Broader Efforts to Oppose Fossil Fuels,” “Getting Media Coverage,” and “Using Social Media for a Better Environment” – to further engage the issues raised by the speakers.
 
FOCUS
 
You can learn more about the oil trains that are proposed to be coming through the Tri-Cities at these links:
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/03/11/trains-carrying-fracked-oil-could-pass-through-more-bay-area-cities-report-says/
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2014/03/26/richmond-and-berkeley-oppose-fracked-oil-and-tar-sands-rail-shipments).
You will learn much more at the event.
 
CO-SPONSORS FOR THE EVENT (as of August 10, 2014)

Tri-City Ecology Center
Tri-City Perspectives (one of the sponsors of the Second Saturday Documentary Film Series)