Wahmhoff To Face Trial For Pipeline Skateboarding Action
Battle Creek, MI – Environmental Activist, Chris Wahmhoff will be going to trial in December to face charges of misdemeanor trespassing and a felony resisting and obstructing in relation to a protest against Enbridge Energy.
On June 24, 2013 Kalamazoo, MI resident Chris Wahmhoff skateboarded into a section of Enbridge’s Line 6B pipeline near Marshall, MI as part of a MICATS protest which was in response an oil spill on an Enbridge Energy pipeline. Ten hours later, Wahmhoff came out of the pipeline and was arrested.
According to the EPA, the spill was the largest inland oil spill in United States history, spilling more than a million barrels of tar sands bitumen into the Kalamazoo river.
Related Story >> MICATS Allege Oil Spill Clean Up Cover Up
The case against Wahmhoff has been dismissed twice by Calhoun County Judge Kingsley. In an initial motion to quash the charges, Wahmhoff’s attorney argued that the police report did not indicate that an officer demanded he get out of the pipe. According to MICATS, the Michigan Supreme Court has overturned the dismissal and has refused to read an appeal from Wahmhoff’s attorney.
Wahmhoff’s head council, John Royal of the National Lawyers Guild, said, “I intend to bring in some experts about climate change,” Royal said. “The defense is that it was a necessity because global climate change has reached a degree to harm humans and all living species and people like Chris Wahmhoff have to take action to bring this to a stop.”
[Tweet “Activist Chris Wahmhoff compares oil & gas to WMD: “Wildlife are killed in the blast, and our communities suffer the fallout. ””]
Wahmhoff is a member of Occupy Kalamazoo and Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MICATS), and he ran for U.S. Senate in 2014 as a Green Party candidate in a bid to fill the seat left empty by retiring Carl Levin. “My passion is listening to the ideas and desires of others, and creating they change they desire to see,” said Wahmhoff.
Activist Joe Hock, of Pueblo, CO, met Wahmhoff at an InterOccupy meeting in the fall of 2011 in Kalamazoo. “[This is] Enbridge’s way of making an example to others who choose to challenge corporate rule,” said Hock. Hock describes Wahmhoff as someone with “Impeccable ethics and a man of his word.”
Wahmhoff compares fossil fuel technology with weapons of mass destruction. “Wildlife are killed in the blast, and our communities suffer the fallout,” said Wahmhoff. “The oil and gas industries need to be stopped.”
The trial is to take place at the Calhoun County Justice Complex on December 16th and it is expected to take about two days. If convicted, Wahmhoff could face up to two years in prison.
Additional information:
The Whammer Trial
The Calhoun County Justice Complex is located at 315 West Green Street
Marshall, MI 49068
