Main fundraiser photo

Stop Gas & Oil Encroachment

Donation protected


This link is a great synopsis of our appeal 

On September 11, 2014, Payette County commissioners decided to allow a natural gas refinery and rail tranport (including Flare) and storage facility next door to our place. We are the first in Idaho to have our home taken by our government for the gas industry, and we feel it would be unethical to allow this precedent in Idaho. They are not calling it a taking, and have not offered to relocate us.
This gofundme site is for the legal battle to protect Idahoans from the encroachment of the gas companies into our government and the laws of our state. With your help we will win this for all of us. Legislation could have kept our state as a safe haven. There is more, and ongoing, income for our state in that, because Oil and Gas is ruining every place they go. Take a look. Wherever they go it is ugly, noxious and crime ridden. Idaho can be saved. MOST Idahoans do not live here so they can get rich. It is a beautiful and rare place; even marketable as such, for the greedy and power-hungry. As beautiful, serene places are destroyed all around us, the inhabitants of those places will seek respite more and more. Gas and oil places are ugly and dime a dozen- multiplying rapidly- with few remaining places to escape them. Name one state that has said no to this aggression by greedy gas and oil companies and those who hope to profit from them.
Now, name one state as beautiful as ours.
Rare things have value. Any "one of a kind" item is priceless. Our state does not need gas and oil to be rich. Protected, Idaho can be singularly precious and enriched in every way.
As far as our own battle, the commissioners said that they did a lot of research and don't know if it will effect our business or property value...   This is our actual appeal presentation .

We own this place free and clear. We thought we could do our dog training business Goosebuster Retrievers here. This link is to our Youtube page, where we have posted videos of training. These show how we currently utilize our technical ponds.



The commissioners said it is the perfect place for our business. They even granted us permission to build, with money we saved,  a very nice kennel; THEN, they approved the gas plant.


So they let us spend all our money- real, not bank, money, then expect us to live and work less than 1000 feet from a propane plant... It is dangerous. We can't live here, work here or have our children or our grandchildren here. It would be wrong to do nothing. We don't  want the first case of its kind in Idaho to play out this way.
These people from AMI, offered us nothing but trees, in exchange for our lifelong work. The Idaho legislature is tripping all over each other to escort them in and roll out the red carpet and offer them a nice cup of tea, when they should be changing the code on the security system and loading the shotgun.
Ultimately our job is to guard the Constitution, which protects us from tyranny, when upheld.
One voter, one vote. It is not the biggest landowner gets to vote for every man, woman and child around them; this is supposed to be a country of the People. One citizen, one vote. People in Idaho are "force pooled". Meaning their mineral rights can be taken from them. This too is unconstitutional.
Example: If there is a subdivision of 500 voters (some being renters and children), and their homes are pooled with one farmer who owns a section of land, and the farmer signs a gas lease, those 500 people are all force pooled, and can have a well in their community park or back yard, along with all the dangers involved. They will receive a miniscule royalty check. And a nice fat BILL in the mail when AMI pulls out. (yes, they passed that legislation). The rich man (the one with the section of land) and AMI, are the only ones who profit, while everyone else pays the price. A person with conscience, rich or poor, should never tolerate this.
The consequence to me, if this legislation trend is not reversed, is that I would soon have to randomly close my business and leave my property (MY PROPERTY), and load up 20 high performance dogs, twice a week while AMI flares their toxins 600 feet from my place. By the way, they don't have to warn us either.
So this is how our life could soon be... we (and possibly several other people) will be training dogs in OUR legally leased field, when the flare starts, and we will RUN (not walk) to a truck (with 20 dogs, one by one), and take cover elsewhere, until we are pretty sure (?) AMI is done flaring, which would probably be done by the time all this loading takes place, so we and the dogs will have inhaled toluene, benzene and a bunch of other highly toxic VOCs, while breathing heavily because we are greatly exerting ourselves to get out of the way too late. Darn, our truck only holds 15 ... and a carload of dogs too... and we could only escape if their gas train is not blocking our access road... But they will flare when they load the train, so there won't BE a way to escape in any case. Our District Court challenge to this use of the property adjoining ours was also called "frivolous" in our second appeal, and we are ordered to pay costs. No one will ever want to buy our place, and we hold the deed representing our life's savings.
We offered to sell the place to AMI and they called it a "shake down". You tell me,  who got shaken down? This is allowed because of legislation.

If we all do nothing, all of Idaho's people will be in the same peril.
So, we will fight it to the end, if we get support from the private sector.
As you can see, our place (upper right) is next to where this plant will go (upper left).

The checkerboard area is our leased technical training ponds, and yes, we have concerns about water also. The green field on the left is where the plant is permitted to be built. The line that curves, running from bottom right to middle left as a railroad track. where they will be filling rail cars with natural gas, and yes, it crosses our access road.
So, it will be too loud and dangerous for humans to live where we do, and everyone who is making money on the thing, thinks we should either live here and grow tumors, or leave empty handed.

And we will forever lose our sunsets.

Because there will be a factory in the way.

What do you think? We think that we should be allowed to enjoy working and living here, which is our Constitutional right.
Again, our royalty from the gas people is $1.66. That is one dollar and sixty-six cents. We don't cash the check, and the lease we signed was a 2 year (long expired) lease. They think we still have an active lease. We don't know why. In any case, we are not a part of the group that gets rich and makes the rules.
This is the graphic Alta Mesa submitted of the plant:


We will not launch a supreme court appeal unless our attorney is paid for by you. We just don't have the money. We will not leverage our home, because we can't afford any payment. We just make it. Happily so.
This is not just OUR battle. Support us and share this with your friends. If funded, we will work very hard for you, and spare Idahoans from the fate suffered by other states.
Donate

Donations 

  • JoAnn O'Linger
    • $25 
    • 9 yrs
Donate

Organizer

Joli Eromenko
Organizer
New Plymouth, ID

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.