Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Our efforts had the desired effect. We got the attention of thousands of commuters on
the Eastex Freeway as they wound into the city; we drew media choppers and reporters,
along with their cameras; and we raised the ire of the sheiks, energy ministers, and oil
executives exiting their limos on their way into the conference. We swung gloriously in
thewindlikeabigspinnakercrewonthefrontofayacht.Weevenfeltheroicaswewere
taken to the ground by big ladder trucks from the fire department, and we were almost
exhilarated as we were dragged off to the police station.
Itwasatriumphantday!Thatis,untilwehitthecountyjailandweretoldwewerebe-
ing charged with multiple felonies—such as the serious offense of conspiracy to commit
property damage—instead of the misdemeanor trespassing charge we'd expected. Ap-
parently,anenergyexecorsomeoneequallyhighuphadpersuadedtheburghersofHou-
ston to take a “Don't Mess with Texas (or Big Oil)” stance against us, and if the charges
stuck, we'd be in jail for years, if not decades. Our bond was 10 times that of a typical
alleged murderer's,andIwasheldforthreedaysinacellwith22otherinmates, someof
them drug runners from Colombia who actually befriended me, sympathizing with our
campaign to stop frontier oil development in places like Nigeria and the Amazon.
With gratitude and relief, we accepted the offer of legal counsel from a bulldog of a
lawyer named Mike DeGeurin—the “Johnnie Cochran of Texas”—who obtained for us
massive media exposure on a national scale and even interest from the likes of
Court
TV
and Oprah Winfrey. Ironically, the more our persecutors came after us, the more our
plight interested the media, which clamored to hear our side of the story.
Myfavoritemomentwasdoinganewsconferencewhilestilllockedup—stilldressed
inthejail'sorangejumpsuit,myhandscuffedandanklesshackled.Iwastakentoabrief-
ing room, where we got to justify our stance and blast Big Oil and Dirty Energy at the
same time. Local TV broadcast the appearance live, so I was greeted by cheers when I
arrivedbackatmycell.Theseguysinsideandmanymoreoutsidegottohearthereasons
for our protest, and most of them agreed with our side. Realizing this, the city dropped
the most serious charges against us. We pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and were re-
leased.
While I sat waiting with my fellow jailbirds for all of that to transpire, two of our
colleagues from Greenpeace were back at the convention center, using other methods to
changeminds.Thesefriends—IainMacGill(whobecameaprominentacademicpromot-
ing clean energy in Australia) and Gary Cook (who went on to force Facebook to un-
friend coal in a great 2011 campaign)—were pushing DVDs on any conference delegate
who would take them, hoping that the package would inspire a change of heart in these
energy-industry diehards. The video package contained plans on how British Petroleum
(now BP), one of the world's largest and most dastardly oil corporations, could become
