NWI Green Party Crossroads

‍, even though that groundhog said otherwise your Northwest Indiana Green Party feels that spring is arriving faster than we think. That is why we are getting ready for a very busy season for our grassroots environmental movement and we are ready to get out to engage our region once again. So come out of your winter burrow and join us Sunday, February 19th for our monthly strategize. The Northwest Indiana Greens are moving forward with our outreach, advocacy and some exciting political campaigns in the region.

The Northwest Indiana Green Party is gathering in Hobart for our February Meeting. We are returning to an old spot with a new name. Join us at Sip Coffeehouse (formerly the The Librarium Cafe) located at 310 Main Street, Hobart for our time to strategize and connect as Greens.  Our gathering will be Sunday, February 19th at 2pm, please note we moved it out a week because some people wanted to watch the Super Bowl instead.

‍A Message from Joe Conn

NWI Green Party Chair

Fellow Greeners,

Famed American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh recently published a story about how the United States and Norway collaborated to destroy the $26 billion Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system connecting Russia with Germany.

It was not a green thing to do.  For days after the explosions, the ocean off Denmark boiled with rising methane gas.

The biggest loser in this act of international sabotage hasn’t been Russia. 

It’s been Germany, ostensibly an ally of the U.S.

Russia, which is the most gas-rich nation on the planet, with 19.9% of known reserves, has other customers, most notably India and China.

Over the decade the two parallel pipelines of Nord Stream 1 were in operation, Russia had cut Germany a good deal. German industries and citizens enjoyed ample provisions of cheap Russian gas.  

The two pipelines of Nord Stream 2 were ready to open in September 2021, but their launch was stalled by the German government under pressure from the U.S. Had they opened, they would have doubled Germany’s Russian gas supply, enabling it to sell surplus gas to other countries.  

But further European reliance on cheap Russian gas wasn’t in the interest of the producers and exporters of gas from U.S. fracking operations.  Compressed into Liquefied Natural Gas and shipped in special tankers across the Atlantic to Europe, U.S. fracked LNG cost Europeans a lot more.

So, Hersh’s revelations of U.S. sabotage of a key component of Germany’s economic infrastructure should produce a crossroads moment for Germany and particularly its surprisingly hawkish foreign minister, Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock of the German Green Party.   

Baerbock recently announced Germany would green-light Poland to send some of its German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

Late last month, Baerbock faced blow-back from her political opposition in Germany when she called for Western unity in support of further arms shipments to Ukraine in its fight with Russia.

At a meeting of the Council of Europe, Baerbock said, "We are fighting a war against Russia, not against each other," which her domestic critics – and the Russians -- interpreted as admitting that Germany and other European nations are already at war with Russia.  

For years, the U.S. and its allies – rather than promoting peace -- have been funding and arming Ukraine in preparation for just such a war. That financial and military support has continued throughout the year-long conflict.

 All the while, Ukraine’s suppliers have claimed they’re not at war with Russia.   

Now, Hersh’s report, if accurate, further confirms the Russian perspective.

Baerbock should have had this “come-to-Green-values” moment long before.

Globally, the Green Party since its early years has been guided by what’s called the Four Pillars.

From Wikipedia, they are: Ecological wisdom, Social justice, Grassroots democracy and Nonviolence.”

In my view, what Baerbock and the German Greens – as well as American political leaders -- should be focusing on are ways to end the killing and destruction.

On Jan. 31, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, called for the creation of a group of countries, including China, whose representatives would meet and seek way to bring an end to the war.

That’s a lot more “green” than sending German tanks to Ukraine.

Joseph Conn

Chairman, NWIGP

The Porter County Commissioners set stage for Farmers vs Environmentalists in fight over Willowcreek Road Extension

Porter County has been moving through the process of extending Willowcreek Road in Portage south US 30. Willowcreek currently runs from the confluence of four major highways (I-90, I-94, US-12, US-20) south through the center of Portage to terminate at 700N. The proposed extension would continue the road south 5 miles through Union Township farmland and over the town of Wheeler. Farmers and residents of Wheeler spoke against the extension at last week's public forum hosted by the Porter County Commissioners. Faced with the public outcry, Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs (R) directed the county highway department to reconsider the option of the extension IN-149 instead.

The extension of IN-149 had been ruled out as a viable option because the cost to cross the Salt Creek wetlands south of the terminus of IN-149 would add an additional $26M to the project.  That option would run through conservation lands owned by the Woodland Savanah Conservatory. Rich Herr was quoted in the article about the public forum published in the Post Tribune. 

“Even that route, if it were to come to fruition despite the increased cost, faces obstacles. Rich Herr with the Woodland Savanna Land Conservancy, said the conservation group owns more than 100 acres of wetlands where that route would go, with plans to acquire another 40 to 50 acres. “If they put that bridge over there, they’re going to wreck that wetland,” he said, noting the high rate at which wetlands are disappearing. “We’re just as passionate about our conservation. We don’t want to see a bridge go across there.”

Even through the IN-149 option has long been off the table, it was suddenly placed back in consideration as Commissioner Biggs attempted to appease the growing discontent among a key demographic of the Republican caucus. With one comment Commissioner Biggs has now set up a showdown between Union Township farmers and Center Township environmentalists for a road that no one seem to wants. 

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