Noticing anything else going on in the world. July 21 last year, that was the day that the man who is now our new president gave his big speech at the Republican Convention. Thats the night he accepted the nomination of the Republican Party to be their president ial candidate. That day, leading up to the speech the big news, the big distracting news all day long is what had happened the night before at the Republican Convention. We were very distracted. This was a very distracting thing because senator ted cruz of texas just the night before had given his speech at the Republican Convention and he had been all but run out of the room, screamed at, booed at for refusing to explicitly endorse donald trump in his speech at that convention. So thats what was going on july 21, this past summer. We had a lot on our minds that day. But that day our neighbors to the north had a big freaking oil spill. It made zero news in the United States but it was a big deal. This was a pipeline. It was not a particularly old or controversial pipeline. But it busted open and it sent and it sent 50,000 gallons of oil into the North Saskatchewan River which, among other things, is the Drinking Water source for a lot of people downstream. And the river was running really high at the time of the spill, thered been a lot of rain in the area at that time. They did put boom into the river to try to contain some of the oil but it was basically completely you can see how effective the boom is being there, right . Basically completely ineffective. The oil spilled all the way downstream. More than 200 miles down the North Saskatchewan River. A whole bunch of canadian towns were not only polluted, a whole bunch of wildlife not only died but a lot of people, tens of thousands of canadians, lost their water source. The nearest town of any significant size to the spill luckily had some rainwater stored that it was able to use for Emergency Water on an emergency shortterm basis until they could mcguyver together a hose to bring in water from another town that had been lucky enough to not have its string ing water intake fouled by this crude oil in the river. It was a big deal. They started a cleanup operation. A lot of this was on native land in canada, in addition to the official cleanup led by the government a lot of local people came out to see the sight for themselves and to try to help with with the cleanup. This one guy i came across this in the contemporaneous news coverage. Hes a member of the key nation. Cree nation. He was out there at the site of the spill collecting dead animal life alongside the polluted river and you can see him making his feelings known there on his tee shirt which says when i die, im haunting you first. So, yeah, that spill was a bad one. It happened on july 21. The Company Whose pipeline it was, they apologized. All the towns that lost their Drinking Water source they were, of course, very angry. The company told them they thought for sure all the fresh Drinking Water would be restored by september . That was not the case. By the time we were holding our election in november many of those towns still did not have a source of clean Drinking Water because of that spill. 70,000 people affected directly in terms of their water but this major river in some ways irretrievably fouled by this big spill that happened july 21, the day donald trump became the republican nominee for president. Today it happened again. Another unexplained pipeline rupture in a not particularly old not particularly controversial pipeline and this one was just as big a spill, another 50,000 gallons or as they like to say in saskatchewan, 200,000 liters. Theres been another Major Oil Spill in our province. Officials say around 200,000 liters of crude oil leaked on Agricultural Land in Southern Saskatchewan. The pipeline is owned by Energy Marketing incorporated and it was shut down when the leak was discovered. Theres no word on what the cause of the spill was. In fact, theyre still trying to determine the source of the rupture under the frozen surface. This Southern Saskatchewan spill is significant at 200,000 liters, almost as much as crude oil that spilled as the husky energy spill into the north saskatchewan, that being about 225,000 liters. That affected the water supply for nearly 70,000 people down river. Because i believe the news gods are numerologists, we get these interesting bookends now, right . On the day he was nominated for president we got a 50,000 gallon Canadian Oil Pipeline rupture. Now today, now that he is president , on the day he signed president ial memoranda resurrecting the Dakota Access pipeline and the Keystone Pipeline, today we got another twin oil pipeline rupture. Another 50,000 gallons spilled. Thats 100,000 gallons of ruptured pipeline crude to bookend this decision today and the politics that made it possible. Because of that decision today about the Dakota Access pipeline and keystone, today we saw protests, basically spontaneous protests at the white house in washington, d. C. Also in new york city. People protesting up at Columbus Circle and near trump tower. Given the size of these protests in the past, the antikeystone protests that happened in the country but mainly in d. C. , the huge protests about keystone, given the enormous Dakota Access pipeline protests that stunned north dakota this past year after native americans took the lead in protesting that pipeline even into the bitter winter months on the north dakota plains, given the size of the protests that these two projects have attracted in the past, expect this action by the new president to resurrect them today, expect those that action to create an unequal and very opposite reaction that will likely be a sustained protest campaign to add to the other sustained protest campaigns that seem to be gearing up against this new and very unpopular president. The opposition to the Keystone Pipeline alone in nebraska alone i think the new president will find thats about to splash back in his face in a way he may not be expecting. But we dont yet really know how opposition like that and controversy like that is going to function in the trump era. We dont know how the new president is going to react. We just know with this decision on these two pipelines he has started something that will probably get a very, very big response. And now, speaking of a big response, lets pop over to oklahoma for a second because i want to show you a weather map. I want to show you a weather map from oklahoma from the first saturday morning in september. This is september, 2016, and this is a loop of the weather radar map that day and were going to run it on this loop here so you can see whats weird about it. See that blue green like burst . This is not something you typically see on weather radar. Its like a bloom or like a burst or flashbulb going off what that is is not clouds, not a storm, not a tornado or something, what that is, that big burst of blue and green on the weather snap thats birds thats all the birds in oklahoma taking off and flying away all at once. That happened at 6 47 a. M. On the morning of saturday, september 3. All the birds in the state flew away to the point where it was captured on weather radar. The birds took off apparently because they knew something was coming. Because 15 minutes after they did that, 15 minutes after 6 47 at 7 02 a. M. Something did happen. 7 02 a. M. Saturday morning september 3 there was an earthquake in oklahoma. And the birds knew it was coming. Isnt that weird . It was a big earthquake, though. It was the biggest earthquake to ever hit oklahoma. In fact it was the biggest earthquake to hit the continental United States in the last two years. Nearly a full minute of shaking in oklahoma, a state now rivaling california as earthquake country. It was the biggest one ive ever felt. Today a 5. 6 quake in the small town of pawnee. Ive got to have you inspect the damage. Emergency crews dousing fires while other areas saw 100yearold stone facades come crashing down and in Grocery Stores aisle after aisle in shambles. Right away you could tell this was something different. The quake fanning out across the country felt in nebraska, missouri, iowa, arkansas, texas, and as far as illinois and colorado. Crazy. But more alarming than the shaking, an upward trend documented by the u. S. Geological survey showing a spike in oklahoma earthquakes, a region with heavy oil and natural gas production. This year for the first time geologists putting out a map highlighting areas prone to humancaused earthquakes. Theyre linked to the promise of fracking and injecting waste water at High Pressure deep into the earth. That earthquake that hit oklahoma in september, the one that made all the birds in the state fly away 15 minutes before it arrived, the u. S. Geological survey says that was a 5. 8 magnitude quake which is big. Oklahoma not only makes its own earthquakes now, it makes its own big earthquakes. That one, again, was the biggest quake to hit the continental United States in years. The attorney general of the state of oklahoma is a man named scott pruitt. He took office, he was sworn in in 2011. That year the year he took office in 2011, the number of earthquakes in oklahoma that were a magnitude 3. 0 or above was 63. Last year, oklahoma had more than 600 earthquakes of that size. The u. S. Geological survey did do a study of manmade earthquakes in the United States. Induced earthquakes and they make it very clear, this is not, like, a big National Problem in the United States. This is not everywhere. The u. S. Geological survey did a study of manmade earthquakes, induced earthquakes and these are the maps from that study. Heres one of them. I think we have a couple of these other maps. Thats the one you saw in that nbc nightly news piece and weve got one more. So these are the maps from the study. Notice anything they all have in common . All of them are very, very focused on one area of the country, right . Like flashing red lights, danger will robinson, danger will robinson. This is all there on oklahoma. This is an oklahoma problem, oil and Gas Companies inject polluted waste water from the fracking process deep into the ground in oklahoma and oklahoma cant take it. The ground in oklahoma cant take it and now oklahoma had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of earthquakes every year, multiple earthquakes per day, everyday of the year in oklahoma, including the biggest earthquakes in the continental ited states. And its not random. Its not like god is mad at oklahoma and he keeps picking it up and rattling it like a snow globe. This is happening specifically in that state as basically an environmental crime, right . Its happening in that state because of what oil and Gas Companies are doing to the environment there. What they are doing to the earth in that state. And we have seen it bloom over the past five years in oklahoma. And for the last five years the attorney general of that state chose to do absolutely nothing about that problem. Actually, let me revise that. He did do one thing about that problem. In 2014 as attorney general he wrote to the federal government, he wrote to the epa to complain that they were being too intrusive in trying to do anything about this problem. They were being too intrusive in trying to regulate fracking and these waste water injection sites in the state of oklahoma. So thats the one thing he did. He did nothing about it himself. His only action was to try and stop anybody else from doing anything else about it, either. This complaint to the epa, stay out of our fracking industry, that was it. When scott pruitt became attorney general in oklahoma, there was an existing Environmental Protection unit in his office, in the attorney generals office. It had about a half Million Dollar budget. It was budgeted in the state budget as environmental law. Scott pruitt eliminated that office entirely when he became attorney general. There actually still is an environmental law line item in the Oklahoma State budget but its now zero. And it has been for a few years because scott pruitt shut it down. And now scott pruitt is the nominee to be the head of the epa. The head of the nations Environmental Protection agency. And today we learned a little more about how if you like what hes done for oklahoma, youre going to love what hell do for our country. On the same day that our new president signed the president ial memoranda resurrect the keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, on the same day, an epa employee surreptitiously got out to the world, that agency has basically been frozen in its tracks, its been brought to a halt. Now there has been no announcement about this from the white house. They did not put out a press release about it. The white house Spokesman Sean Spicer got asked about it today at the White House Press briefing. He appeared to have no idea what he was being asked about. The only reason we know about this is that an epa employee took it upon himself or herself to secretly tip somebody off inside a Congressional Office on capitol hill and somebody in a Congressional Office on capitol hill then told reporters. Thats the only reason we know. That all epa grants and contracts have been suspended Effective Immediately. Thats the bulk of how epa does its work. Epa oversees over 6 billion in grants and contracts, everything from monitoring air quality to cleaning up polluted industrial sites, all of that according to these documents smuggled out to capitol hill today all grants and contracts are suspended Effective Immediately. The agency has been effectively stopped. Again, theres been no official announcement about this. We only know it because an employee has blown the whistle. The only reason the employee had to blow the whistle is because epa employees have been ordered to stop talking to make no public pronouncements on anything. In addition to this information about the contracts and grants being halted, this document was this document was smuggled to a staffer on the hill. Restrictions that are Effective Immediately and will remain in place until further direction is received. This is what epa employees have been told and theyve been told not to talk about it. No press releases will be going out to external audiences. No social media will be going out. No blog messages, the beach team, meaning the incoming administration, they will review the list of upcoming webinars to decide which ones will go forward. Please send me a list of any external speaking engagements that are scheduled for any of your staff from today through february. Incoming media requests will be carefully screened. No new content can be placed on any web site. Even email lists are now under a gag order at the epa. List serves will be reviewed. Only send out critical messages as messages can be shared broadly and end up in the press. So the work of the agency is frozen. All existing contracts and grants are suspended immediately. And no epa employees are allowed to make any public statements, including any online postings, social media, anything. They cant even make public appearances that were previously scheduled. Even their webinars are now getting. People have been worried the Trump Administration was going to try to abolish the epa. It doesnt seem like they have figured out how to formally do that yet, but theyve put it on ice. They have bound and gagged the epa and put a hood on it. Even before the new head of the agency is confirmed and they tried to do it without anybody knowing. This gag order for people who work at the epa is also not a solitary case. This appears to be part of a broader gag Order Initiative that the new administration is pursuing with multiple federal agencies. Employees and agencies from the department of transportation to the department of the interior to the National Institutes of health, the health and human services, even the usda, employees at all of these agencies have now to a certain degree been told theyre no longer allowed to make public pronouncements. In some cases theyve been told explicitly they are no longer allowed to even provide information to Congressional Offices. The 2000 scientists at the Agricultural Research service, which is part of the usda, theyve been ordered to suspend immediately the distribution of any public facing documents. Gag order. You are not allowed to talk. Not in a way that the public can see. That apparently includes even letting people know about any scientific findings for publicly supported research that the scientists are involved in. Gag order. Today there was a little flurry of defiance from the twitter account from one of the National Parks. The ba