The Ithacan

Commentary: U.S. dependence on Saudi oil causes major conflict

By Chris Jones • February 20, 2019

The US-Saudi relationship is a toxic one, based in faulty economic and diplomatic premises that have the United States supporting a tyrannical government for obtuse and increasingly regress reasons.

Oil workers on strike

By Faith Meckley, Staff Writer • February 9, 2015

Just yesterday, about 1,400 workers from two more oil refineries — BP's Whiting and Toledo, Ohio operations — joined the strike, now 11 refineries strong. The Climate March walked through both of these refineries. I imagine some of the very same workers we spoke to in Whiting are now risking their livelihood to demand better working conditions.

$A jar of silica sand used for hydraulic fracturing$

Risky Business

By Faith Meckley, Staff Writer • November 16, 2014

My heart was pounding as I brushed the excess sand off the jar, and it wasn't because I was risking trespass charges. It was because I knew there was a chance I was risking my life. Once I screwed the lid on, I frantically brushed my gloves off on my pant leg, and then did the best I could to shake the stuff off my pants. A little voice in my head told me that trying to decontaminate myself was futile, that if I had been smart I would have come here equipped with a mask. It could already be in my lungs.

Our Car-Centered Society

By Faith Meckley, Staff Writer • September 29, 2014

While walking along Route 65 out of Maumee and toward Toledo, a pick-up truck operated by a sleeping driver struck me head on. Unlike the unfortunate Peace Marcher in 1986, I can live to tell the tale.

The Fruits of Our Labor

By Faith Meckley, Staff Writer • August 29, 2014

...corporations have no right to be exploiting people, whether they live in Nebraska or Texas or the Ecuadorian Rainforest, and I know that this current system cannot last. Although the Tar Sands Blockade failed to stop TransCanada in the south, the northern section of KXL has not been built because of activists.

Letter to the Editor: Fracking’s detrimental effects

By Frack Off and Kaela Bamberger • November 14, 2013

If there’s anything to be gained from the controversiality of the fracking debate, it’s that the nature of your sources dictate the information you’re getting. It would not be hard to point to credible...

Foreign policy post-Chavez

By Rachael Hartford • March 23, 2013

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s self-proclaimed “Bolivarian” leader, passed away March 5, leaving many around the world asking: What will Venezuela look like without Chavez? Chavez, who led the country since taking power in 1998, seems to be just as divisive in death as he was when he was alive. Even his interim successor was contentious. Chavez…

BP to pay for spill

By Lewis Kendall • November 15, 2012

BP has agreed to pay $4.5 billion in damages – the largest criminal fine in U.S history – for its role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.

Mock wedding pokes at fracking corruption

By TinaMarie Craven, Staff Writer • April 19, 2012

Protests that rail against fracking are not uncommon within the City of Ithaca and on South Hill, but the activism took a different spin Thursday afternoon outside the Campus Center as IC Frack Off hosted a mock wedding to symbolize what members call a corrupt, close relationship between gas companies and the government.

Obama nixes oil pipeline

January 24, 2012

Backed by members of the Ithaca College and local communities, President Barack Obama announced last week that the State Department had rejected planned construction of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline.