Activists from Blue Ridge Earth First! and Mountain Justice Summer blockaded the Richmond, VA headquarters of Dominion Energy on the morning of June 30. An all-woman team locked down in the street in front of the building, while another woman hung in the street suspended from a bridge.

The action came in response to the VIrginia Air Board issuing permits to Dominion Energy for a new coal-fired power plant in St. Paul, VA. It was a protest against Dominion’s plans for new coal and nuclear power plants, and against the practices of coal and nuclear power generation and mountaintop removal coal mining in general.

Police arrested all the activists and their supporters, 12 people in all. For updates and more information, visit the Blue Ridge EF! web site. See photos here and here.

It was a busy week for coal opponents. Earlier in the week, Greenpeace crashed a coal conference by co-sponsoring it via a front group, while a county judge rejected a permit for a new coal plant in Georgia, citing global warming concerns.

Alabama: The Alabama Department of Transportation is planning a new I-10 bridge across the Mobile River. A decision on one of 3 proposed routes is expected in 2009.

Arizona: Plans are under consideration for a freeway to allow I-10 traffic to bypass Phoenix. At a recent public meeting, citizens spoke in opposition to the plan due to its cost, its health and ecological effects, and the fact that it would skirt the side of a sacred indigenous mountain, destroying 600 homes.

The Inter-American Development Bank has issued $800 million worth of loans for the export of liquified natural gas (LNG) from the controversial Camisea gas field in the Peruvian Amazon. Peru plans to build a liquefecation plant, marine terminal and pipeline to enable the exportation of natural gas.

Because natural gas is highly explosive, it must be cooled and liquified for shipping, then regasified at a special import terminal. With North American natural gas reserves running out, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has plans for 40 new LNG import terminals.

An LNG import terminal in Manzanillo, Mexico, scheduled to open in 2012, is expected to import gas from Camisea.

The anti-I-69 treesit in Indiana has been evicted, and Roadblock EF! has called for people to contact state officials and construction company employees in response. Read about the eviction, various solidarity actions and ways to help at the Roadblock EF! website.

Read reports of other actions here, here and here.

Remember that there are lots of ways to help stop this Corridor of the Future! One way is by signing up for r X-69: a month of action, with different affinity groups each pledging to shut down construction for one day. Affinity groups sign up for a day between one and 30, but the starting date will not be known until construction actually begins. Contact Roadblock EF! for more info and sign up today!

Masked protesters invaded an I-69 Project Office in Bloomington on June 11, reportedly chalking both the inside and outside of the office and shattering the glass pane of an entry door. Roadblock Earth First! responded to the incident by saying, “We’d like to thank these anonymous folks who threw down against I-69 from the bottom of our collective hearts. Roadblock EarthFirst! is an organizing collective dedicated to employing non-violent direct-action tactics to guarantee the failure of the NAFTA Superhighway.”

Remember that there are lots of ways to help stop this Corridor of the Future! One way is by signing up for X-69: a month of action, with different affinity groups each pledging to shut down construction for one day. Affinity groups sign up for a day between one and 30, but the starting date will not be known until construction actually begins. Contact Roadblock EF! for more info and sign up today! If you are in Bloomington, a new list of ways to help has also been posted.

In one of its most audacious attacks yet, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked an offshore oil rig for the first time, forcing Shell to shut down the entire oil field and causing a 10% reduction in Nigeria’s oil output.

Before the attack, Nigeria’s output was already 20% below normal following a sustained campaign by MEND to target the nation’s oil extracting infrastructure. These attacks have been identified as a major reason for high global oil prices.

The Bonga offshore oilfield normally produces 200,000 barrels a day, and is Shell’s flagship offshore project. To date, it has been considered too difficult for militants to attack. But early on June 19, a boat full of gunmen raided the installation, damaging a storage and offloading vessel and taking a US worker hostage. The worker was released several hours later.

In addition to the sheer economic impact, the attack is considered an important symbol that no region of NIgeria’s oil production is beyond MEND’s reach.

The 15th Protecting Mother Earth Conference, sponsored by the Indigenous Environmental Network, will take place July 17-20 in Western Shoshone territory. For more information and to sign up, click here.

A weeklong uprising in Peru’s Moquegua region has placed strain on copper supplies worldwide.

The unrest began as a small protest over how little in the way of mining profits was being used to help residents of the region, but quickly swelled to 20,000 people blocking major highways and railways, including a border crossing into Chile. Protesters also blocked roads to a mine and smelter operated by Southern Copper, the country’s largest copper producer. The company warned that if access was not immediately restored, the Ilo smelter might have to be shut down due to supply shortages.

Union workers at the Cuajone mine in the region staged a two day strike in solidarity with the general unrest. Government and police offices were also burned.

When riot police attempted to clear the roads, protesters fought back, injuring 20 police and taking 60 hostage. The police were released two days later.

On June 19, the government and protest leaders reached a deal to end the blockades in exchange for public works in the region. A mostly unrelated strike at the nearby Cerro Verde mine (Peru’s largest copper mine) remains unresolved, however.

The troubles in Peru are only the most recent major supply disruptions to hit the copper industry in the last few years.

• I-10: Commissioners in Washington County, FL have voted not to endorse the construction of a new toll road connecting I-10 in Florida with Montgomery, AL. Local residents had turned out in large numbers to oppose the plan. The county’s decision is non-binding, and plans for the road are still being considered.

• I-15: The Nevada Transportation Board has endorsed a plan to build extra toll lanes along I-15 through Las Vegas (specifically: U.S. 95 to Interstate 15; I-15 to the Interstate 215 Beltway; and Summerlin Parkway to U.S. 95). The plan will now be sent to the state legislature for approval.

Canada recently announced that it has selected a location for a new Detroit-Windsor border bridge. The US site will not be selected until an Environmental Review is complete.

Currently, the only crossing between Detroit, MI and Windsor, Ontario, is the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, which does not allow hazardous cargo. The new bridge will be located in the Brighton Beach area of West Windsor and connected to Canadian provincial Highway 401. The US side will tentatively be sited in the River Rouge area and connect to I-75.

Construction is expected to start in 2009 and finish by 2014. It will reduce the distance trucks must drive to cross the border by only 5 miles, but is expected to deliver significantly more in time savings. Currently, the Ambassador Bridge is North America’s busiest border crossing, with 1.6 million truck crossings per year

For more information, including public meeting schedules, visit www.partnershipborderstudy.com.