Native Americans demonstrating in Edinburgh yesterday Fish rotting in the Klamath river. The tribesmen are calling for fish ladders or other measures to allow salmon to move upstream. Picture: David Moir
Posted on 07/24/2004 2:35:05 AM PDT by MadIvan
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Native Americans demonstrating in Edinburgh yesterday Fish rotting in the Klamath river. The tribesmen are calling for fish ladders or other measures to allow salmon to move upstream. Picture: David Moir |
NATIVE Americans embroiled in a dispute with the energy company ScottishPower have pledged to take their case to the governor of the State of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The tribesmen were in Edinburgh yesterday to demonstrate at ScottishPower’s annual meeting. They say dams owned by a subsidiary of the company have damaged their fishing grounds.
They publicly challenged the chief executive of ScottishPower, Ian Russell, to make a personal commitment to resolving the long-running feud.
Mr Russell, who held private talks with the tribes on Thursday, promised to take charge of the company’s negotiations.
But the chairman of the delegation representing the tribes, Leaf Miller, said he would bring further pressure to bear on the company by seeking Mr Schwarzenegger’s support.
Mr Schwarzenegger is one of only a small number of people with the power to intervene in the dispute and force a solution.
The row concerns six dams in the north of California owned by ScottishPower’s US subsidiary, PacifiCorp. Four tribes - the Klamath, Karuk, Yurok and Hoopa - say the dams have devastated the salmon stock in the Klamath river basin.
The salmon are an important part of their economy, religion and history, and the tribes are trying to persuade ScottishPower to modify or remove its dams to allow fish to migrate up-river.
A member of the Indians’ delegation - whose native American name is Mohiswaqs but who introduced himself at the shareholders’ meeting as Jeff Mitchell - made an impassioned plea for support from the mostly Scottish audience.
He said: "I want to thank you, the people of Scotland, for your hospitality and for allowing us to come into your homelands to speak to you in this way.
"My people have suffered enormous harm. We would like to see a full range of alternatives - consistent with our principles - to address the issues we have raised. I will come back here again and again until we find a solution."
Mr Russell replied that the tribes had his "absolute commitment" to finding an answer to their dispute. He said: "We completely respect the sovereign nations who are represented here today. They have behaved with great dignity."
ScottishPower is currently seeking a new licence to operate the dams from the US water regulator. The tribes are pressuring the regulator to insert a clause in the licence requiring ScottishPower to provide solutions such as fish ladders - which allow salmon to leap upstream.
Scottish & Southern Energy, the Perth-based rival to ScottishPower, has installed similar devices on some rivers in Scotland. Some of the Californian dams are too tall, however, to accommodate fish ladders, requiring different solutions.
As governor of the state of California, Mr Schwarzenegger can demand the regulator inserts guarantees to protect the tribes’ interests. Mr Schwarzenegger’s office was unavailable yesterday to comment on its intentions in the case.
Mr Miller said he would press for the governor’s support shortly. "We have had an initial contact with the governor’s office and I will take a campaign to them when I return to the US," he said.
"In fact, we believe we already have strong support from some of the state’s agencies, such as the Water Resource Control Board."
Mr Russell told The Scotsman he was unwilling to set a deadline to resolve the discussion. "Some of these licence applications can take up to ten years," he said.
Mr Mitchell said he hoped the company would report at its annual meeting in 2005 that the two sides had agreed a solution.
ScottishPower shareholders heard that the Indian tribes had spent more than three years in negotiations with the company’s American subsidiary. They have been pressuring it to add - of its own volition - the desired clauses into its licence application.
But when the company recently submitted its draft application to the US water regulator, there was no mention of the salmon issue. The document is understood to weigh 80lb and stand three-and-a-half feet high.
Mr Mitchell said: "My people have spent years in meetings with PacifiCorp, one week of every month. We have committed enormous resources and hard work. The company’s interest in the dams is a very small fraction of their energy production."
He said ScottishPower’s commitment to the environment on issues such as green energy was "impressive". Such concerns were in the interests of shareholders, he said, and he asked them to press the company to extend its consideration to California.
Molly White, from the Karuk tribe, who had travelled to the protest with her 14-month-old son, Nicknekich, said: "We hope the shareholders hear our message and we hope it has an effect, because the fish are dying and we cannot live without our fish."
The chief executive of PacifiCorp, Judi Johansen, said she was "100 per cent committed" to finding a solution to the tribes’ requests. She had joined Mr Russell in the talks with the delegation on Thursday.
Mr Schwarzenegger - also known as Conan the Republican and The Governator in American political circles - pledged recently to "fight like a warrior" for the people of California.
Is that what you think is going on here? I don't give a rats behind about whether you support Arnold or not or how the election turned out. I'm desperately trying to save what is left of our property rights. That is what we need your help with. That is why Sierra and I are so frustrated. We are not attacking Arnold we are attacking the socialist policy he is putting in. I would think you would be interested in stopping socialism no matter who is doing it.
I'll tell you what, you come up with a way to declare the conservancies unconstitutional, and I'll back the turnover of all conservancy lands to the general public. The state can go screw itself into the ground.
I have no love for these land grabbing a.h.s.
Yes, I had three. I repeat. Have you looked at the issue? Have you written your letter? Have you helped spread the word to others?
Did you ping people to our threads about the bills we are fighting? Did you say "I supported Arnold but we need to get him to stop this"? Did you rally the other Arnold supporters to this issue?
No, even though I'm on this thread, I haven't heard of this issue. And yes I'm trying to keep this a secret.
You guys can't even be civil to people who agree with you. Lord help you converting those who don't.
You know, I'm getting very sick of your attitude and the attitude of those who didn't vote for Schwarzenegger. I didn't cash in my conservative credentials just because I refused to allow Butamante to get elected. I don't think anyone else who voted for Schwarzenegger on this forum did either.
You and Sierra Wasp have done a good job informing folks of this problem. I do not, and never have, congregated with people who support Schwarzenegger, so no I haven't pinged them here. I don't have a list to do so.
I support your efforts. Now go pester someone else for a while.
We would have had less socialism with Bustamante because the Republicans would have found their balls and faught it.
Now go pester someone else for a while.
No problem.
We would not have recieved the refunded car fees. Those fees would still be in the process of being charged. Illegal aliens would today have California Driver's licenses. Bustamante would have proposed a $9 billion dollar tax increase, which more than likely would have scooted on by in one form or another. Bustamante' appointments would have made Schwarzenegger's appointments look ultra-conservative.
Perhaps the Republicans would have blocked an outright tax increase, I'm still betting the dems would have gotten some back door hikes that would have ammounted to the same thing.
Arguments for declaring conservation easements unconstitutional:
(1) They rob future generations and the legilative bodies of future local governments of the right to conduct land use planning, including the fundamental function of government - to protect the public health and safety from substantial injury.
(2) Conservation easements violate the spirit of the legal rule against "perpetuities," which dates from the Seventeenth Century. It was devised to curb a feudal fondness for controlling property from beyond the grave.
That help?
Thank you. Sounds good.
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