Transcripts For LINKTV Glenn Greenwald Our Civil Liberties At Risk 20160816

To basically sustained 13 families. He did this for a decade. When the sanctions on the regime were lifted. And 202003 he became an outspoken advocate of the proposed attttack on iraq. As a nuclear engineer, he was incrededibly welllsuited, very credible to argue e that saddam had no active program, that the war was being sold based on an in l litany of misinformation about a rack about iraqi weapons of mass to russian, arguing that removing saddam by foreign popowers would spawn h n suffering, basically warning of everything that would happen. As a result he attracted a lot of attention from the u. S. Government. Blue, 35out of the federal agents showed up at his home, armed, while his two teenage children w were there, showing a search warrant for his home, spending the next nine hours in hihis house removing everything they could find. Passports, documents, photos, marriage license, heieirlooms, huge documents. Beenich they have never returned to them. Onlyly three years latater did e learn the charge the government was able to indict him for. It was basically a single count ofof technically violating the w thats part of the sancnction on the regime that arent any american from sending money back to a rack sending money back to iraq. The u. S. Government acknowledged that every p penny that he sent was intended only for purely humanitarian assistance for these 14 families. Intended forit those purposes, even the government acknowlwledging the money never went everywhere anywhere but those recipients to buy food, by shelter, medicine. Nobody contends that a single tony went toto saddams regime buy weapons, to o terrorist groups, anything else. Yet the u. S. Government indicted him for what i think he called, aptly, a crime of compassion. Two months ago, he stood in a federal court in missouri expecting to receive probation because what he was accused o of the wing has n not been a crime now for nine yearars. Yet t he was sentenced to ththre in federal prison, which he beganan serving two wes ago at fort leavenworth. I was able to speak to his son and soninlaw on thee devastation this has wrereaked n dr. Moody also his family. He has several collegeage students. Has another son who is 16 years old and is a junior in high school, and his brother told me about the way in which this has affected his brother at a very vulnerable time, six years old, to hahave his father disappear. 60yearold man, highly educated, now consigned to a cage for the next three years for literally having done nothing other than try to save his famimily from starvation, starvation that occurred because of the same government that just prosecuted him for doing that. This is the kind of story that if you go into muslim communities in the United States you will hear over and again. Its the sort of thing you can become angry about if you tnk about it or read about it without the human connection. It takeses on a different dimensioion when you realize the are all human beings whose wives have ashlock said been destroyed in the family members continue to suffer. Its not just meeting the aims of these injustices that makes my going around so valuable but also the people who are fighting them and combatingng them on a daily basis, usually in obscururity and often at great personal risk to themselves. The unitedways States Government has terrorized muslsl communitities using the w is to use material stuck boards statutes ethereal support statutes to make it a felony punishable by decades in prison to have any involvement wiwith y elelement t t United States government deems offlimits comer reregardless of whatat tht entails. Its really quite risky, quite scary for p people, esespecially muslim activists and lawyers, to providee aid to people accused y the government of materially supporting tererrorism, to prove legal networorks, financing forr them, a support network and infrastructure so the u. S. Governments goal of disappearing them, having us forget they even exist. The two organizations who have sponsored this event tonight our organizatitions i have really ce to know very well over t the pat year. Theyre doing brave and important work. Without them, many of the people targeted by the u. S. Government would have no defenses. One of the things i think about quite a bit and i debate with myself quite a bit about and go back and forth on is when i think about these issueues of Civil Liberties, abuses, the like. Whether or not thehere is really anything unique about the way in whicich primarily muslim americs and others in the uniteded stats hahave been targeted with this kind of persecution. As alluded to earlier tonight, the history of the United States is one that has a continuous stream of minority groups who have been targeted landscape goaded and victimized by abususs of power, africanamericans being ththe most commoand consistent example, but other groups as well, whether immigrantsts or accuse communiss were japaneseamericans during world war ii have been similarly targeted based on the knowledge that these marginalized minority groups that the government can seize power without anyone much caring about it. The air is an argument that the muslims are the latest in this continuum, the cururrent exampme that hasas replaced communists d other groups as this Favorite Group from the u. S. Govovernment to target and demonize to justify abuses of power. There is an argugument that one should look atat it that way. I actually think there are some unique attributes about this persecution that distinguish it from those other prior examples. I think is very difficult to compare injustices quantitatively to see which arae better or woworse. Its not profitable to do that, there are unique attributes to the way in which the civivil liberties are being justified. The first of those unique attributeses is all of the Civil Liberties abuses are taking place within the context of multiple wars. The reason why that is so important is because the number one tactic of the government in vogue, true since e the historyf war was begun, is the enemy of the war has to be dehumanized, has to be completely demonize to the point of almost subhuman state of nonexistence. The reason for this is even the most sociopathic citizenry willl not sustain very long a knowledge that it is supporting a continuous killing of their fellow human beings. Its why thosese people have te dehumanized, so that knowledge can be abated. What you have over the past 11 years of continuous bombing and killing and attention and torture is the continuous dehumanizatition of the victimsf this violence which no most every case are muslims. You have americacan politicians who will stand up and say, we are not at war with islam, we understand the majoritity of muslims are peaceful, and we are only interested in punishing and bringing to justice those muslims work stream s who were viololent. The reality, the impact of this this constant of dehumanization is to render muslims completely voiceless. The most striking instance of how potent this dehumanizatioion is occurred recently. To m me at least. If you look back at what happened in the immediate aftermath of the 9 11 attack, what was amazing about the media reaction of the mayor can people was that for decades there had been this list of grievances in the muslim world about the United States, that it supports dictators, that it brings violence to the muslim worldld, that it renders the wishes of powerless and irrelevant, that it steadfastly supports israeli aggression, a whole litany of grievances that if you Pay Attention to the discourse of the muslim world or you would be familiar with. After 9 11, the reaction of the majority of americans, which was quite genuine, was bafflement. It was, i dont understand why anyone would possibly want to attack the United States. Wewe are such a peaceful nation. All we want t do is go about livingng our lives with freedom and liberty, yet people seem to really hate us and its impossible to understand why. The question that was asked of the mirkin people was of the American People was the famous why do they hate us question, and the u. S. Government needed to provide an answer bececause people wanted to know why they were attacked. The answer was, they hate us for our freedom. Whats remarkable aboutut that, that was understandable because muslims and their grievances have beenn basically excluded completely from public discourse. The e reason americans did not know that is because they were not subjected to it. They were never exposed to it. 11 years later, here we are, after the United States has fullscaletwo ininvasions and i invasions of predominantltly muslim couountr, has bombed many others, has created a worldwide torture regime, has created a lawless prison in the middle of the ocean that has brought thousands of muslims, and even after all this violence and aggression and lawlessness, a full decades worth, when recent protests broke out in the muslim world that were antiamerican directed at the United States, that same question arose, why could they possibly be so angry at us . It has evolved to the point where there was bafflement they were not grateful to the United States for all the freedom we brought them. This to me really underscores how completely muslims are excluded from anything we think about or talk about in the United States. Themve debates about without their participation, we have d discussions aboutut whaty are thinkingng without actually hearing what they are thinking. We have constant reports about who we arere killingng and how y people we are e killing g withot ever stopping g and thinking abt who those people are or whether they have done anything that warranted that violence. So much so it was recently revealed a couple montnths ago y the New York Times the Obama Administration has adopted a new definition of mililitants, which says that any military aged male and a strike zone, meaning any male who dieies above the age of 16 or below the age of 55, is automatically deemed a militant without knowing anything else about them. This is how we have come to think about muslims, to the extent we think about them all, they die at the hands of our violence justitifiably because even when we dont know anything about them, we assume they are militants or terrorists. This has been so indoctrinated fofor so many years in the mindt ofof americans that i think it really distinguishes this form of persecution from prior once. I dont mean it i i mean it is a u unique form f hohow this persecutionon is justified. Another unique attribute of the current Persecution Campaign is that as we move further away from the prerecipitating e even, in justifypitated the abuses, the 9 1111 attack, e injustices actually worsen. To b become more extrereme, not less. What is amamazing about that, if you look at the precipitating event thatat led to the intermrt of japanese americans, the attack on pearl harbor and the war with the japapanese, the japaneseon against americans was very intense during the initial conflict, but after the initial trauma wore off, the persecution lesson. Japaneseamericans were integrated back into thehe american communityty relatively quickly. As the country moved a away from the precipitating event, the persecution got better gradually. What you see in n this campaigns the opposite. We have one successful terrorist attack on u. S. Soil 11 years ago, get if you look at such things never get better. Never or the abuses curtailed. Even f further away from the 9 11 attack, things cocontinue to worsen. You see far more fbi raids and arrests where the fbi creates and funds and conceals a plot that it t tricks young muslims into joining, then they trumpet that they have dismantled the plot. Then they y put them in prison r decades, far more so now than 10 years ago. When you look at the form of material prosecutions, they are far more remote connections to his designated terrorist groups, literally 20 twoyearold Muslim Americans who upload Youtube Videos critical of u. S. Foreign policy are being indicted based on the grounds of the Youtube Video encouraging support for terrorist group, done in coordination with them, therefore being indicted. Far less proximate to any terrorist organization then materialal s support was 10 yeas ago. Then probably the most disturbing example is the claim by the o Obama Administration tt it actually has the ability to target even american citizens for e extrajudicial assassinati, to kill anybody a president decides without a whit of transparency is guilty of terrorism, a power that not even george bush and dick cheney attempted. You see the worsening of this trend rather than the curtailment. I think that is also unique. Importation ofhe the war that i just described onto american soil progressively as we momove further away from 9 11. One of the things that m made te post 9 111 theories of dicick cheney a and george bush so extremist isis there is no more limimitless power t that a prest han the power he can exercise during a theater of war. On a battlefefield, there really is no law. Everybody acknowledges that. Terrorist t say when men take up arms, law false. More is the u ultimate expreresn of lawlessneness in lilimitless powerful stuff on the battlefifield, people shoot each other without having trials or due process. S. Everyone agrees s that is war to nobody thinks soldiers have to give o opposing soldiers a trial before shooting them. That is what war is. What made these post9 11 theories s so radical is t the assertion was made for the first time theaters of war were no longer confined t to find a physical faces, the battlefield. It was now thehe case the entire planet was thehe battlefield. Including u. S. Soil. Therefore, the limitless power that the p president can exercie on a battlefield are now no longer confined to physical spaces. Essentially the president is omnipotent everywhere because that is where the battlefield is found. What you havave seen the past several years, the concern was at some point the world as a battlelefield and the prpresidet can exert more power is inside the United States. What you have seen over the last couple years is very much moving in that direction. Security. S. National officials five years ago talked about al qaeda as the greatest nationalal Security Threat werel qaeda and the arabiaian peninsua or various affiliates, now they talk about almost uniformly the greatest threat eating what they call homegrown terrorists. What you have seen the civilil liberty abuses, new ones, spreading up almost exclusively on american soil. Two o years ago, the obama juste departmentnt announced new rules where miranda rights were diluted. Deluded you have legislation being proposed to strip people of citizenship a and eliminate legl protections they have. And the end of last year, you had the e national defefense authorization act which codified the power, probably the most unamerican power there is, looking at america and he romanticize sent, on u. S. Soil as well. You see this incncredibly rapid importation of war theory that used to be applied both outsidie the United States now being applied o on u. S. Soil, to the u. S. Citizenens and those being residents of the u. S. I also think that is unique. A attribute i want to talalk about t that i think distinguishes this current prosecute Persecution Campaigngn is the e way in which extremism rapidly becomes normalized. This is probably the most difficult to describe, but also the most o odious. Think about what happened in the immediate aftermath of 9 11. The country was traumatized by the attack. The political and m media class became mac we us into political power. Whatever the u. S. Government wantnted, everybody was willingo give themm for the mt t part. Very few objbjected in that immemediate timeframamafteter te attack. Acquiescent, even submissive all mosost every secr of American Society was to the u. S. Government, when the government stood up and introduce the patriot act, that really set off lots of alarm bebells. Go back to october and november i in01 and you will find most major american newspapers people reacting wiwith a fair amount of alarm over the fact the government had now suggested and opposed that thehey seize nw surveillance and detention powers that were quite radical. The patriot act became the and thef extremismsm danger of overreach on the part of the government. So much so that when the u. S. Congress, as compliant ass they were, and acted the patriot act by an overall majority, even the u. S. S. Congress two weeks after september 11 inserted into the patriot act a provision that says the power this law creates will expire in four years. The reason being that everyone recognized this was an incredibly radical piece of legislation and that nobody wanted this to become permanent as p part of americas political landscape. It was justified only because the situation was so extreme. Later, thears situation was no longer extreme and the idea was those powers could be curtailed and everything would return to normal. Later, in 2005, the patriot act came up for renewal and it was renewed with almost no debate by a vovo of 8910, even in the face of abundant evidence powers had been abused. In 2009, the Obama Administration issued a statement saying they wanted the patriot act quickly renewed. The handful of senators said, maybe we should modify this a tiny bit because there are some abuse taking place and this will help prevent that, and they wewe immediately accused by harry reid, the democratic majority leader, of risking a terrorist attack on the United States and a quickly passed with almlmost o debate. Nobody thinks the patriot act is radical anymore, even thougugh after 9 11 it was viewed as that because extremism becomes normalized once we accept it for a long enough time. It blends into the woodwork and becomes a permanent fixture in american political culture. One other example of that is i mentioned a little bit ago the Obama Administration has claimed the power to target american citizens even for j judicial and extrajudicial assassination with no charges, no due process, no oversight, no judidicial review. Look atmazing is if you what the controversies were of the bush administration, things that had democrats and progressives running around with hysteria, screaming and yelling in p protest, the s shredding oe constitution, the e war on americican values,s, the things george bush and dick cheney did to provoke that protest were things like asserting the power to detain people, including american citizens, without due to eavesdropimply on the conveversations of ameren citizens without first going to court and getting judicial review. This was years ago, considered so extreme asas there was no insult you coululd expres that would be considered too extreme for how radical these powers were, yet here we are three years later and the current president is asserting that the power to detain people without charges, a although he s doing that, and not merely the power to ease drop on conversations without going ththrough court, thohough he is doing that as well, but also the power to execute people, to assassinate people without going to court or invoking j judicial review. Yet there is very little controversy becausert time ago has now become normalized. The reason why i consider this to be the most odious aspect of all these developments was rereally underscored a few monts ago. I was speaking at a college in indiana, purdue university, and several highgh School Students o write for their High School Newspapers drove several hours to hear me speak. I tatalked about the state of Civil Liberties in the United States and the way these russians had taken place. They interviewed me after for their high school newspaper. One of the things they said, they said a lot morore interereg things than i did because it reallyly has an impact. One thing they put it ouout as they s said, look, you keep talking about all these changngs to the Civil Liberties landscace and d the way in which we have freedoms in this country, but one of the things you keep talking about is you make it seem like there are these great changes, there was the world pre9 11 and now post9 11. They told me e for people who ae ouour age, 15, 16 years old, we were four years old at the time of 9 11. Really, there is no pre9 11 world we know. Our political consciousness has been shaped almost exclusively by the post9 11 world. As is all l we know. What we consider extremist and radical and threatening is for them increasingly more and d moe americans coming of age in the post9 11 world all they know. Its normal. Not objectionable, something they dont even pay much thought to in terms of questioning are challenging because its the only experience theyve had. That underscores why this long time in which these russians have been permitteted to take hd or so significant. Important issue to me whenever i write about these issues is the term Civil Liberties. People try to guess about my political ideology or where i am on the spectrum of political ideology and believe. Thats alwaysyshe phrase thats really the only phrase i accept. The reason is i considider it completely central to everything we are talking about tonight. In order to have that discussion, i think it is important to step back. So many terms in our political discourse are terms ththat get thrown around all the time without paying attention to o wt they mean. We heard before the term internal support thahat sends people to prison for decades even though almost nobody can say what it means. The term terrorist and militant are terms that are at least as consequential, yet almosost have no real dedefinition. I think Civil Liberties is the same way. Everybody talks about, yet very few people stop and think about what it means. The reason thats important to do is it actually has a very clear meaningng, one thatat is pretty s simple. All Civil Liberties really means is the list of limitations that we have imposed on what the government can do to us. Its the things that firstst wee conceiveved by the foununders to prevent a replica of the monarchy they had just fououghta war t to liberate themselves frm an over the next two under 50 years it h has been added to and elaborated on in all kinds of ways. Its s the list of limits we hae imposed on the government. T. We dont neneed to guess what y are, we have a c constitution ad bill of rights that tells us what those limits are. Ose limits are very clear they are intended to be very clear. They are absbsolutist in their nature. Anybybody can read them and seee what they say. The First Amendment saysys Congress Shall make no lawaw abridging freedom of speech. Before t the men it says nononef us will be subject to unreasonable searches of our person our home withthout probae cause. E. The e fifth amendmenent says tho person shall be e deprived of le or liberty witithout due process of law. These are exexactly the limitations that we have allowed the government systematicacay to transgress without much backlash or objection. I just want to spend a little time as the last main point to talk about thinking about t what the implications are of allowing the government literally 2wood nor all of the limitations alallowing the governmenent to ignono all the limitations we have told them they have to abide by for us to consider their power legitimate. Some of those implications are fairly obvious. If you allllow the government to transgress these themes that you have a government of the lawless, that means as citizen we lose crucial rights to change our society, touches what freedom of speech and freedom of the press is intended to guarantee. It means we lose the right of privacy if we can be eavesdrop on without a demonstration we have done anything wrong to a court of law, if we can be killed or imprisoned without due process. I means we are at the mercy of the government. But there is something more insidious about allowing the government to violate the Civil Liberties systematically that i think is to me the most important. Its a little difficult to describe, but i think its worth doing because its not very obvious. The main implication of allowing this to happen, allowing the government across these lines without implications or repercussions is itit fundamentally changes the relationship between the citizenry and the government. What i mean by that is this, i n an ideal world, peopople exercie , they have fear over the people they are exercising power thatat if they abuse that power, bad things will happen. That fear has always been a to thery deterrent temptation to abuse power. Thats what happens in an ideal society that a government fears it citizenry. Look at what happened when tyrants and kings abuse their power. Look at the world and history and you can see what happened to kings. They see of rulers abuse power, they have something to fear. In a tyranny, the opposite happens. Overtyranny, the people whom power is exercised fear the people who are exercising power. I think very much that is what has happened in the United States is the climate of fear that has been created and that is increasing, t that is being bolstetered all the time and has changed relationship between the citizenry and the government. I want to share an anecdote about when i first really realize this not in a theoretical way but a a very visceral way and s started thinking about it more. In january 2010, the firstt time i ever wrote about you ororganization wiki leaks, devod to transparency and exposing secret goverernment wrongdoing. January 2010 was a time when almost nobody had heard of wiki leaks, including me. The way that i came to learn about wiki leaks was that the had prepared d a totopsecret report. In this report it decreed that wiki l leaks was an enemy of the state, a threat to national sesecurity. Prepared as topsecret plot at ways to destroy wiki leaks, to expose feed them faketo documents that when published would destroy their credibility. Ironically enough, this topsecret pentagon report about wiki leaks was linked to a few weeks it was leaked to wiki leaks, which published it. The New York Times wrote an article about this in 2010, which is very y short because nobody knew who this group was in a talked about this weird, smalll transparency y group had been decreed as an enemy of the state by the pentagon and had plotted to destroy it. I remember reading t this artite thinkiking that an group t thate pentagon had d declared an enemy of the s state in secret was a group that merited a lot more attention and probably a lot of support. I did a bunch of research and found out wiki leaks had brought trtransparency in n all sorts of important ways to other parts of the world, africa, berlin, exposing the secrets of corporations and the governments. I talked about the promise that i i thought wiki leaks held for exposing the worlds most powerful factions in bringing liked what they were doing. I interviewed the groups founder and publish the audio tape of the interview. At the end of the article, i incurred people to donate money to the organization because i knew they were sitting on a bunch of important secrets. This was before they had releleased the video of the baghdad incident where megan soldiers and apache helicopters killed in unarmed journalisisand civilian, before all the big newsmaking leaks. They c cannot process these leas and they made it more, so i encourage people to donate money to them and provideded a l linko how they could d donate moneneyo them by paypal or to their Bank Accounts and other information. ,n r response to that article specifically in response to my anchor u urging people to o done money to wiki leaks, i had dozens of people, literally dozens and dozens in various , and the comments section, events like this say to me essentially somethingng along the lines of, look, i concur completely with what you wrote about wiki l leaks, i see t the valulue in the work they are dog in the promise t they hold. I definitely want to support them. My fear, though, is if i wire money to wiki leaks or use paypal, i will end up on a governrnment was somewhere. Or even worse, if at some point wiki leaks is formally decreed to be a terrorist organization i could be subjected to liabilili, criminal liability for materirially supporting a terrorist group. These are not people prone to weird conspiracies that you hear from occasionally. These are very sober, rational amamericans. The reason i found that strtrikg is because these were american citizens who were petrified of exercising their core First Amendment constitutional right, which is what donating money to an organization or political causes. They were petrified they would be punished if they e exercisedd those rights. What made it more remarkable is wiki leaks was an organization, is still an organization thatt has never r been charged with little loan convicteted of any crime. Yet here we are with all kinds of people voluntarily relinquishing their own rights at all fear the government would abuse its power and punish them for exercising the right the constitution guaranteed. D. The reason i f found that so significant is you can provide all the rights you one on a piece ofof paper w word piece of parchment, but if you intimidate the citizenry from exexercising their rights, signaling there are no limits which the government has to abide by, those rights become completely worthless. One other antidote. 10 months after i wrote that first article abouout wiki leak, i was the first person to write manning, the extremely inhumane and detention conditionsns of longterm solity confinement without beingg convicted of any crime, all caps of harassment designed t destroy y them psychologicallyl. At the time i wrote the article, a lot of people were asking me i was asking myself, too why would the u. S. Government subject this 23yearold army private to ththis form of serers oppressionon . Au and investigatition concluded was that conclcluded it was inhumane and borderline torture. ,t did not make sense to me because it turned manning into a martyr even if people israelel with what he did. They were sympathetic to the mistreatment. It risked having statements he made while in custody excluded from any trial on the ground it was forced. It created a small scandal. Even o obamas chieff s spokesmn publicly denounce the treatment and resigned after he criticized the president for it. It did not make sense to me why they would want to subject him to this kind of abusive treatment that the whole world could see. E. After a little time thinking about that, i realized the reason they did that is the same reason that they are so aggresessively putting fear into peoples hearts about supporting wiki leaks and threatening to prosecute wiki leaks, its the same reason the u. S. Government spends all those years a abductg thousands of peoeople from aroud the world and shipping g them ta lawlwless prison in the middle f the ocean and dressing them in. Range jumpsuits and shackles the reason is it wants to o sena signal to anybody who may oppose them or try to impede their will in any way. Itit wants everyone to knonow te are no limits on what we can do to youou. If you oppose us. If you want to expose things we have done in secret that are a legal or deceitful or wrong, look at what we have just done to bradley manning. If you want to oppose our foreign policy, look at the people on this board that wewe sent to prison for decades for doing, really, nothing. If you want to oppose our foreign policy, look at the guantanamo detetainees who have been tortured and are starting to die in that camp without any hope of ever escapaping. It is a purposeful way of creating this climate of fear as a means of pacifying people and preventiting anybody from opposg or meaningfully challenging what they are doing even when it comes to exercising the rights of the constitution. Of fear is most palpable to me when i speak to people who live in muslim communities in the United States, where they believe, many of them, with great reason, that every conversation they have on their televivision and everyry email exchange they have with their friends or family are being monitored and recorded and explored. Where they fear whenever somebody new shows up at theirir mosqsque that this is not a stranger whom they can befriend, that somomebody sent by the fbio trick and dececeive them and get things to prosecute the mamaster rerest. Its people who are petrified of expresessing political opinions because those political opininis can be u used to convincnce a jy they intntended to harUnited States. Look at the rights that people are petrified in the United States, muslim communities, of exercising the r right to priva, the right to free speech, the right to association. The core rights the constitution guarantees, that america is defined by, that people on the road a are relinquishing out of fear that people on their own are relinquishing out of fear. Its very easy to intimidate people out of exercising their rights while preventing them from even realizing its happening. You can reach the point where you essentially tell yourself you have no real interest in opposing the government, you have no interest in protesting what theyre doing or objecting to what theyre doing, when in reality you have been intimidated out of it. The socialist activist Rosa Luxemburg said he does not move does not notice the chain. Convince yout can that you actually dont want to do any of the things you are actually not able to do, you wont even realize you have been restricted in any meaningful way. You will think you are free, even though you been intimidated out of it. The only other pointnt i want to happens is ifwhat you gather at an event like this and talk about all the horrible things taking place and y you dissect them and analyze them and focus s on the harm its doing, one of the things you can do is sort of spread this horrendous gloloominess. Everybody walks out depreressed. Like, i just listened to the last few things over an hour, i want to jump off a bridge. I think its important to think about why thats not a rational reaction. Not for rosy eyed reasons, but because reality suggest there is no need to think that way. Temptations for groups historically in the United States will a been targeted for persecution is to believe that they can simply go in hide, that they can stay object, tole, not nothing, andndhey will be left alone. That never works. There was this woman a at an evt i wawas at at t the university f mimissouri last week whoo was oe of the earliest founders of the st. Louis chapter of care. Which she described was fascinating. She talked about how prior to 9 11 when they start the st. Louis chapter of care, she and her fellow muslim activist thought they would have this nice innocuous little group. They would create tshirts that said muslims care, a play on the word, they would have bake sales and show the community they were happy,y, fun peoeople a and note waves. She said after 9 11, when the entire world changed for muslims in america, she realized that is not a solution. That is what makes communities vulnerable, by notot demanding their rights they will curry favor and protect themselves stop the only way she realized for muslims or any other group in history to have improved their situation is to find allies outside of the group and band together and demand those rights rather than hoping they will be accorded to o them. There is a lot of sentimenent in the United States that makes clear there was really grounds for optimism f for believing thats true. A couple months ago therere wasa mosque in joplin, missouri, that had been the target of arson and other vandalisism over the past sevevel years that earneded to e ground. Leaders in that Community Set a goal o of a quarter Million Dollars they wanted to r raise oaltatll is an optimistic ga to rebuild the mosque. I wrote about it and several other people wrote about it, and within 24 hours they had wildly exceceeded their goal, r raising almost double the amount. Now they are not only going to just rebuild the mosque, theyy will build a much larger and more modern mosque with a muchch greater p presence that can d da lot t more for the community. These are the kinds of sentiments that we see quite pervasively in the United States that need to be tapped to redress these problems. Optimism isson for that the uninited states was but on a foundation, a premise that injusticeses were always going o take place, that the nature of leaders and human nature is such that power would be abuse. We have lots of differerent institutions that are designed to safeguard those rights and prevenent those abuses, but they dont do it on around. But they are there. Really are organizations out there that you can participate in and join and support in all kinds of ways that are very effectively fighting against these abuses. The two groups that are the sponsorsrs of this evenings evt and have invited me to go around the country for fourday speaking about different issues are the groups that i think deserve your support the e most. That is really why im genuinely excited to be part of this fourday event, to talk abobout thesese issues with each of you, and i really appreciate your coming tonight. Thank you very much. [ oooanogntnxnu revolution green closed captioned captioning sponsored by rock solidid picture l llc at ththat time what bioiodiesel. It wasas just barely being talked about at ththat time. There was a few plants in europe. Very little happening in the United States,s, other r than research. Narratator as bobs research intensified, an understanding of biodiesels place in history began to emerge. Before the turn of the century, petroleum had limited uses and was primarily distilled to create kerosene. John d. Rockefeller i confidently believe. Narrator enter john d. Rockefeller and standard oil. The titan of american industry, whose shrewd partnerships shaped the industrial revolution, his Standard Oil Company would create americas most powerful oil monopoly and turn him into the worlds wealthiest man. Cheap to drill, easy to refefi, rockefeller wouldld forge hhis visions o of crude oil to the lifeblood of americacan industry fofor e centurtoto come. Soon thereafter, a brilliant inventor, dr. Rudolph diesel, would revolutionize Mechanical Engineering with his new invention, the compression ignition Diesel Engine. Using peanut oil as fuel, the Diesel Engine debuted at the 1900 worlds fair in paris and would become the engine of choice for heavy industry. As both gasspowered combustion engines and Diesel Engines evolved separarately, america wouldld soon see technhnology merge with agriculture again, aas henry ford developed alcohl as fuel known tododay as ethanol for his model t. Meanwhile, chehemist George Washington carver would pioneer the use of soybean oil as fuel for the Diesel Engine. Dr. Rudolph diesel, henry ford, and George Washington carver strongly believed in agriculture as the essential componentnt ofof fuel prododuction. And for visionaries like bob king, looking to the past was a key to the future. Nothing could be more urgent than to tryry and develop his ideas about biodiesel. King ive e always been interested n alternate energy and efficiency from really when i was young. When i toldld my wife kelly that i wanted to start this biodiesel compapany, uh, i. I think there was a pause for, uh, a little bit there where she thoughht, oh, no, here we go again. N. Narrator with their own life savings, bob and kelly king formed pacific biodiesel. Kelly i knew his heart and soul was in it. So it was like,e, you love what youre doing. I i mean, how many peoplele get to d do what they lo . And even if we never make any moneofoff of it, itits somemething thatat you l. Hi. Come on in. King it was s good. It was real. It was right. But what wouldve happened if everybody else wouldve jumped on board in 96 when we first started, you know, embraraced this and took off . You know, where wowould we be e today . Right. Narrator in 1996, the average price for a a gallon of gasoline was 1. 16. Crude oil was averaging 21 a barrel. And the k kyoto protocol was two years away from worldwide ratifification. The idea of renewawable energy in the form of biodiesel was virtually unheard of. Bob and kelly kings progressive visioion of wastetoenergy biodiesel production set an important cornerstone for an emerging industry. King when i first thought of the idea here, we were working with the compmposting company maui eko systems. They really wanted us to do something with the oil. Narrator in 1995, the island of maui generated over 80 0 tons of wae fats, cooking l,l, and grease. Likeke thousandsds of countitis across thehe country, maui needed to find a way to disposose of its oil and grease properly and not bury the problem. Ruebens fonseca this is horriblble, dumping plastic babags there. See that . In fact, im going to pull that out. Yeah, you see, uh, glasses and socks. And, uh, ill just put it here. Ernie willwill get it with the loader. Compost is like wine. Ii like to use the same phrase as my boss the e older, the better. The more stable, uh, betteter it will d do to the plants, to the soil. King hey, hows it going . laughs ah, you got too noisy. laughs these are the guys that bring the sludge to, uh, from the Sewage Treatment plant to the composting operation. Narrator every landfill in America Today faces the very same dilemma what can communities do about these massive amounts of green waste and grease . Arakawa it all stems from the fact that because were a small island were not able to just take things and throw them out. Our land space is limited. King thiis location is, uh. Weve been at the e same place here a all along the compost hahas always been here anand weve been onon the other side. And where were standing was actually a hole in the ground. The landfill has raised up about 200 feet since we started, and ouour view of the mountatain has gone away,y, but this portion of it has been awesome at recycling. 30 of the diversion out of this landfill comes from this operation right here, the green waste and the. Andnd the grease. So this landfill w would have bn closed outut years earlier if we hadnt had this operation going g on. Narrrator landfills in america are much more complicated than they seem. The environmenl Protection Agency estimates every amerirican throws outut 3 pounds of garbage every dayay, generatingng a whopping 1. 3 tos of garbage each year for every individual. King i dont think people really know hohow much trash is being produced, and. You know, as you u can see, this is somethingng that people dont see often, so its out of sight, out of mind. And most communities dont know where their grease is going; they dont know what happens to it; and they, frankly, dont want to be bobothered w with it. Narrator over the course of a year, millions of gallons of Waste Vegetable Oil either goes down the d drain and into local water systems, gets dumped at a a landfill, or is collected from local restaurants by rendering companies. The rendering industry refines this w waste vegetetable oil ininto brown, yellow, and white grease commodities. These commodities are sold on the chicago board of trade for use in hundreds of coconsumer products, such as aanimal feed, cosmetics, and a variety of food ingredients. Of all the thousands of landfills across the country, there are only two that produce biodiesel from local Waste Vegetable Oil. More of the good stuff . Huh . More of the good stuff . Yeah, more of the good stuff. King well, sometimes i feel like the alchemist turning the, uh. The garbage into gold, but i it really. It really comes in looking like garbage. Alall the cooking oil ththats recycled on the isisland of mai comes right here, as well as greasetrap waste. Instead of going into the compost side, we take it over into our tanks on the biodiesel side, and we process all this grgrease into energy both the greaeasetrap waste a d the cookingng oil intnto energ. Amanda stewart trucks pick up the grease from the restaurant, bring it into the receiving area, and its, u uh, filtered, and then we store the oioil, then it goes overer to the biodiesel l plant, where the oilil is reacted with ththanol and a a catalyst, and. Then n it comeses out as biodod. Pure bibiodiesel you can see how clear that is. Narrator as biodegradable a asugar and less toxic than tablble sa, biodiesel is s a fuel that t is comparable to petrorm diesel at every level. 1000 biodiesel is referred to as b100, with different blends reflecting the pepercentage of biodiesel mix with petroleum diesel. B20, the most popular blend today, is 20 b biodiesel and 80 petroleum diesel. Terry mcbararnet biodiesesel, or b20, can be used in diesesel vehicls with no modification. Just simply pull in, fill u up your tank and go. So, this is the very first retail biodiesel pump in the United States, and people come. Would come here, uh, early and filill up their trucuck, ththeir cars, uh, take tanks away for their boat. I think most everybody is skeptical about it at first. I certainly was. The first time i put biodiesel in my truck, i was driving down the road thinking, this is. You know,w, this is rereally strange, because my trucks still running, and. Imm a diesel l mechanic;; i grew up wh h petroleum; anddand. You just dont thinknk about it. T. You donnt think about t options until youve e got mm and youu try em. Trez harrisson i try to. To run 100 biodiesel all the titime. Every now anand again,n, ill. Ill run o out of ss on the e weekend and hahave to run n the b20. One of the big reasons for doining this, yoyou kno, its a a renewablee energrgy source, and. Itits very readily availilable iif we, youu know, ttake the tie and grow the c crop. Kelly you develop, uh, this core understanding that youre all doing something good together. And i think that is a really powerful thing. Thats s something to hahand don to the e next generation,n, those kind of relationships in your commmmunity. Narrator as the island of maui continued to build a sustatainable communityt, serendipity would brbring neighbors s together whose frieiendships would eventuaually change the face of biodiesel. L. Willie nelslson abouthreeee years agogo, my wife annie came to me and sasaid, i want to buy a ar that runs oniodiesel. So i kind of laughed, you know . I think if you dont have someone on the other sidide saying youre e wrong, you might notot have the initiative to move forward and prove youre right. So she did. She bought that Volkswagen Jetta out there. Her car runs great, so i bought a mercedes. And did t the same thing. Took i iover toto pacific biodiesel. King he got to putting two and two together, and he said, well, wait a minute, this can also go in trucks, so its gonna support my truckers, um. Whwho he alslso has a real affinity fofor, and you u can make it out of crops that. His farmersrs can, u uh, grow. So this s helps the e farme, helps the truccker. Its all aboutut willie nelson. I mean, ththat. Thats w who he is. Nelson i could see that, you know, this is a way out for not only the farmers, the environment, the truckers, for you and me, for everybody. Narrator after recognizing the unlimited potential of biodiesel, willllie nelson and bob b king became business partners, anand alonththe way, creaeated a new family traditin that would see the thanksgiving turkey grease become purure biodiesel in a matter of hours. chatteriring hey, thesese are gooood okay, so here we go. All right. clapping yeah, dogie now, that parts good, but this part is even better. laughter theres our ride indistinct talking im lukas, anand today we made biodiesel. Yeah. Im micah nelslson, and, uh, ii helped mamake biododiesel. All our cars run on biodiesel. Lukas yeah. My dads tour bus, all his tour buses run on biodiesel. People are just starting to realize how. W. Useful it isis, you know, how w we dont need petroleum anymore, you know, movving on to the next levelel in the evolution of mankinind. lauaughs yeah. Soso, were gonna put the koh and the alcohol, and its exothermic reaction. indistinct talking were gonna put in this caustic here. Its basically. Potassium hydroxide and methanol. Nelson well, right now, i was proud to see my boys out there watching robert make fuel l out of turkey. Uh, i t think thats a good educational process. And theyve been aware of biodiesel fofor years because they saw mee and their mom drive around and talk about it anand everything. Butt as far as their future is concerned, iim concerned about keeping ththem safe. Im concernened ababout having them, whatever they decide to do for a living, to be able to do it without having to break it up to go somewhere and have a war r over oil. Jenna its really interesting, actually, because technology, kind of, has hurt our environment, i guess, in a way, because w we have all these nenew cars and things,s, but t the other thining that i kind of see is that technology can also really save it, you know . So, kind of like, biodiesel is one way to use technology for a positive effect on the environment. Micah biodiesel was a big g aspect of fararm aid this year. Realizing how farmers, you know, can get more jobs now because of biodidiesel. Kelly get on this side. I am. The family farms growing organic things that help, t that actually help the earth, you know. Lukas yeah. I i think its kind of pathetic that we havave to have a a fundraiserer every y year to get people to notice that. You know, that shouould be the main n priority. That should be whwhat people are thihinking ababout all the time. And thats not to say you cant have fun in life, but just, youou know, you have some duties as a citizen of the world. We just need to learn to slow down a littttle bit and just kind of take everything in and realizeze that its a beauautiful placace out hehere, you know . And realize thahat if we keep doing whwhat were doining, it wont be such a beautiful place. Now, thats the good stuff, right . Yeah. Thats the good stuff. You see that. Itits just the simple changee to the fuel l that is riright , and i think that people have to realize that technology thats r really amazing is actuallyy occurring rightht now, and that they can do something about it. Jennana they y started this business ouout of nothing. It looks s like witches brew. W. Theyve brought something over here that wasnt. No one ever heard of, and it wasits just. I think its a really, um. Reaally, uh. I gguess, im m really prprd ofof what theyeyve done. Nelson we have, uh, cooked the turkey, ate what was left, and this is what we didnt eat. Now we need a ride home, aand, uh, aint n nothing open, so, uh, what happens . S . I think we better, uh, put our thahanksgiving biodiesel l in h. There might be a low gobbling sound. laughing . When we crank it up. engine s starts king to watch the next gegeneration making t the fl l from the oill and reaealizing that i is their ener, and here they are, uh, maybe for the first time, themseselves makining the energy of their generatioion. It w was. It was touching. Nelson well, so far so good. King yep. Nelsoson well, thahat was great, bob king yeah. Nelsoson historical. King i think so. King our whole theory of how we do business, i think, is affecting a lot o of people that this c communitybased biodiesel productction isis veryry important and that sense of Community Comes through inin a lot of differerent ways, as it did with our petrolele company who dececided to put biodiesel in a namame brand, a major brand station, under the canopy with their pump and their label. And when that happened, i think they just thought, well thats kind of cute. Its in maui. What could happepen . Lets see what went o on. And now, actutually, chevrons umum, its corporate l level is actually very interested i in biodiesel. Mcbarnet we are showing the confidenc we have in this product and also making the economics right for the public, uh, keeping the price at a cocompetitive levell to alternative fuels likeke regular diesel, whihich we haveve done. Kelly i think thats been, um, kind of the anomaly in hawaii, is that usually when you have a monopoly, you know, you drive prices up because you can get it, and we have a monopoly, but were keeping our prices low. And so that makes us feel r really goodod because we feel like we are taking care of our comommunity. Everybody really apprececiates it. King and it feels really good that after ten years of operation with the compost, its not here. Its. It has been made into a useable product. Its gone out back into the community, where it should be. Our fuel hahas helped petroleum not be e brought ontto the island. Uhso its. Its just a. Its a great thing. This is cradle to cradle insnstead of cradadle to gravev. Lord john browne for bp, we said that beyond petroleum meant recognizing that petroleum wowould be used for many, many years there are, you know,w, 60 years worth of supplies at leastt uh, that we have to think differently. You have to think about the future before the future arrives. Narrator in early 2005, British Petroleum would spend over a billion dollars on its thunder horse platform, which would be the worlds most advanced deepwater rig. Browne this is not like making a chocolate bar. We cantt do it verquicickly. Uh, the time from the idea, you know, where i is the oil . To delivering it, is probably ten years at least, at least. Narrator at the same time, 2,500 miles away in salem, oregon, bob king would build oregons first milliongallon biodiesel refinery. Ted kulongoski this is a big day for oregon. Oregon n is moving forward with our first commercial biodiesel facility in this state. And so it is fitting that our biodiesel facility will use Recycled Cooking Oil from kettle chips as the stock for the biofuel production. King todaday was oregons day. Oregon stepppped into the. Stepped into t the future, real, and startrted makingg their own fl. L. Okay, so the governor is going to open the valve. There we go. The valve is open. Cameron healy oregon has always been an innovator, i think, as a state, and this benefits our environment and, uh, prprovides an exexample of, you know, kind of a n new order of things. And, uh, now the mayor will push the button thats going to start the, uh, this mixing tank. Look out. Here we go. Mix you can hear it. King in order for us to be where we want to be in ten yeaears or 20 y year, we have to getet started today. Johhn, do you u want to comeme over here. Kulongoski i was asked a minute ago about, what do i think the greatest risk to trying to move to alternative energy sources, and i said, other than education, i said, the other piece isis the government because those who do not want change actually y use the governmental process as the way y to prevent that t change from occurriring. One, two, three cheering browne i do believe that there is a very valid business in alternative energies, which bp one day will participate in at scale. Rorose and. B b do you thinink thatshow manyny years off bebefore its aa valuable busineness . Prprobably, uh, morere than fiveve, but withinin ten years. Scieience and d engineeriring and humaman behavioror together will mamake a big difffference herere. I jusust hope donont mess itit up. Narrarator what totook more thanan five years to construct, hurricane dennis would nearly destroy in five hours. Exactly two days later, bob and kelly opened their biodiesesel plant in salemem, oregon. Renewable energy is not an imposossible dreamfor america. Its happening right now. chirping indistinct radio transmission just about an hour south of dallas, carls corner truck stop, like thousands of other truck stops al across amamerica, provivide food and fuel for over three million truckers driving americas highways. Roots grow deep with carl anand texas, and longtime friend willie nelson, who grew up just south of here, is testament to loyalty among friends. These two men would endure challenges and time to becomome the linchpin fofor biodiesel to be sold to the p public in the heart of texan oil country. Man believe it or not, hes burning biodiesel in that thing. Carl cocornelius biodiesel is somethining tts comiming up and when willie brought it in, then the people like this gentlemanan and others started using it. These are the guysys that braragged on it because the could stand behind their truck for the first time in their lifetime and it wouldnt burn their eyes. And so i listen to the truckers. Narrator few understand grassroots campaigning better than willie nelson. Nelson when the whole biodiesel thing came up, one thing i knknew we werere gg to neeeed was a place to sell. And here we were in carls corner. Carl owns the whole town. We ouought to be able to geget onee biodiesel pump in there maybe, so. But sure enough, carl said, yeah, thats a great idea. And he was s honestly looking for a shot in the arm for the e truck stopop because business hadnt been that good. And sincece weve gone biodiesel here, the parking lot is full. Narrator carls corner t truck spp hahas bn seselling biodieiesel since the end of 2004, a and business has never been better. Mike frybarger i routed myself purposely down here just to be here for this grand opening because i know this is good for america. This is great. Willie will be prouder of this than anything because this is the first load out. Man im about to go in and authorize the pumps. So if you guys are ready. Man 1 im from maryland. I buyy biodiesel in marylandnd also. And this is the grand opening ofof willies bio down h here. This is the first fueling of b95 at carls corner. Im proud to be the first person to put it in my truck. Its americas future. Well, we need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. This is a completely renewable source; we can grow more. Its a little bit clear. Its clear. Americacas future by ththe tankful. And plus im not p polluting as much. And im promotingng somethihing thahat will be good for a ameri. Itll be good for american farmers. Itll be good for o our air. You know, its just totally a g good idea. J. R. Stone i filled up with biodiesel today. I figured if it was good enough for willie,e, its good enough for me. I heard on an interview where he was running his bus. And so, i figured, iill y y it, too. Bebefore biodiesel, we had not the business thatat we have tod. Yes, its grown in leaps and bounds since the biodiesel wwas put in out there. Every day, busier and busier. Its like they came out of the woodwork. Where did they come from . And they all would drive out of their way just to come by and try it. Yep. Ken lawawson im buying the e b20 blend. D. When i found out where i was going, i just bought enough fuel to get h here, so i cocould buy as mumuch of this as i cocould. Man yeah, there you go. Woman i hope it blossoms even more, which i think it wilill. Lawson one tank of biofuel, your first tank, you may go through two filters, just to, uh, just to clean out your engine. You get a little bit more satisfaction the more yourre not using theieir oil. Rod doherty i know of about a half dozen that have tried it. And theyrere like me, ththeyre hunting a around fofor it, you , and buy it when they can. With somemebody like Willie Nelsonon behind this, its gononna help give it a big boost, you know and get the word out, you know. Ththe word needs to get o ot to more peop so they can get it in more places. Narrator for the average trucker, ten hours per day on the open road can be lonely. To pass the time they listen to the truckerfriendly radio shows. Bill mack lets say high to flag waver. Flag waver hello, mr. Mack. How are you today . Narratoror bill mackk a legend in Radio Broadcasting is one of the most popular. Each wednesday is willie wednesday, with bill and willie taking calls from truckers all across the country. Nelsonn thereres a group out there called the mother truruckers, who are drivers and they call in all the ttime, and i talk to them a lot. Its very important that they get a good deal on their fuel because one cent a gallon means a lot to these guys. Narrator the demand for biodiesel at carls s corner has b been overwhelming. Frybarger cant get any more in there. Narrator . Revealing a unique opportunity to discuss building a biodiesel plant for the commumunity of carls corner. Nelson the best part is, that if it stays local, and everything is kind ofof a regionalally based dedeal because y you can put the e production plants on, how, how m much land . . King an acre. Right, then, you get farmers back on the land. And also to rotate a hemp crop in for the soil each time, for the oil and the soil. You know, thats the answer. laughter i knew you would. Narrator this unique partntnership of landholders, invevestors, mananufacturers, and other r private partners are e unified in one purpose to build a twomilliongallonayear sustainable biodiesel plant using g locally grown and pressed cottonseed oil as the primary feedsdstock to make the bibiodiesel for the local cocommunity of c carls corner, texas. King thats kind of whatat were abot is if we can n put this p plant, and youre using the crops from your area and it goes into the plant, youre selling the fuel in your area, whats. The risk of things going wrong are reduced. Wewe want to do projecects that are viable and t theyre going to b be longterm and they keep goining, and thatss, um. And thats the big goal here. Its not just to build the plant thats nott the goal. The gogoal is to make fuel and make money for all the pieces, you knknow, fromom the farmer to the biodiesesel plant to the e guy selling the fuelel and the trucker. R. You know, eveverybodys got to have, its got to be a winwin all the way through the system and thatats whatll keep it going. Lson i was raised in texas, and i worked on farms and ranches all my life, making schchool money to get through school. congregationon singing h hymn i grew up in an opera. I grerew up with people singing a all around me in differenent languagess and d different, you know. So i was a part of it, and i started sininging along early. I always believed and was taught that, that agriculture is the bottom line on the economic ladder. If the farmrmers are dodoing we, ththe rest of the coununtry is doing well. We all e eat. Were all dependent upon that fafarmer to do well. Now, the farmer is not doing well. That bottom rung is broken and everything above it is collapsing in on top of it. Ive been involved with farm aid for 20 years now and i had gotten pretty frustrated because i couldnt see anyny good farm bills coming out of washington that was helping the farmer. We were losing smallfamily farmers by the millions. And we have lost millions. We had over eight million at one time, and now were down to less than two million. And until we start going back to the basics and taking care of the family farmer, and the o other raw p producers in this country whether itits oil uh. No matter what it is, steel, iron, or whwhatever, all the raraw products of this country weve got t to preservr. Narrator for the biodiesel plant aat carls corner, the local cottonseed oil pressed in ein, texass will be the primarary feedstock used to make the biodiesel. By creating a local, sustainable biodiesel fuel source, this type of partnership is shaping the future of the american farmer. My names Brian Lundgren of the elgin county oil mill. Were a small cottonseed processing facility. Its been here for about a hundred years, and were just trying to hang in, keep going. Cottonseed oil can be turned into a cooking oil just like E Soybean Oil oror corn oil, anything like that. The large percentage of cottonseed oil, for whatever reasoson, is used fofor snack food frying. We generally try y to crush ababout 7,000 or 8,000 t tons a year. We e use quite a bit of natural gas for our boiler, and the mill is very powerintensive; we use a lot of electricity. This last year while we were opoperating the mill, our natural gas bill run about 3,000 to 3,300 a month, and our electricitys about 13,000 every month. It does go up, like theyre saying,20 to 25 . I i mean, you can sesee the t wewere gonna take on it. Its gonna be pretty tough. Our freight rates to the port, theyre up about 50 this year. Theres certainly a trickledown effect, you know. Everything that affects our margin has an effect on the c cottonseed price, which has an effect on the price they get for the seed at the ggin, and that all gets passed on, you know, to the farmers. So its really, its really affected the prices they get. Narrator for this cotton oil mill, the biodiesel plant at carls corner will create immediate demand for this incredible commodity. Lundgren itll definitely help. Possibly a few cents a pound on the oil, which can make a difference of five, possibly ten dollars a ton on whole coonseed. Of course, any time you have more demand, its not a bad thing; you just have more. Ifif nothing else, even the pricece is the same, u got morere options of places to go. Narratoror options, choices. Biodiesel creates opportunity on many different levels, creating hope for people in ways that are happening right now. Lundgren im really excited about it. Its intereresting to think that something weve always thought of as food, a food product can be used for Something Else like that to run our cars and trucksks. Of course,e, any time we can decrease our depependence on foreign oil, its a good thing. I just love it down here. A little bit hot sometimes, but i dont think id take anywhere else. Hopefully, we canan just keep this place going and stay around. thunder crashing nanarrator for decades, farming in america hahas been drawn deeper and deeperer into a relentless struggle againinst economics, the environment, and the staggering costst of farming. Biodiesel and ethanol have created a unique opportunity fofor all of us to redisiscover the unlimited pototential of biomass energy, andnd how the family farmrmer is the essesential compmponent to Generating Renewable Energy on a massive and immediate scale. Id love to be able to haul every kernenel i got to plant and have em make it into biodiesel. When i wasas growing up, every y farmer farmed around 160 acres of land. They had cattle. They had m milk cows. Ththey had chiickens, and you know, everything like thatlike my dad did. But now in this area, theres probably four or five farmers, and t they fararm 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 acres. And i dont know how theyre gonna, how they can handle the amount of dollars that they have to put out with this. The fuel cost. A year ago, we paid a dollar and 47 cents a gallon for diesel fuel. Now its two dollars and 32. This combine itself, every acre i run through, i run through about five gallons of fuel. Every acre about fivealallons ofof fuel. Corn has not changeded asas far as price goes in the last 3 33 years thahat you can even notice. Ive gotten as little. About 3. 20 a bushel, i think, was the highest ive ever r gotten for corn. And back when we got 3. 20 a bushel, our fuel prices wewere probably in the 60cent range, 5050, 60cent range. Farming has gotten to be such a hard thing to make a good living at that theres not too many young ones stay at it. He hasnt runun it yet ththis , but he started running it last year and he really liked it. Eric dippel l when it comomes to getting the machinery reaeady, im outut there rigight withth my dad were u underneath the machiney and changing parts on it right with h him. Yeah, i l love it. Nelson theres a different economy involved when you talk to farmers about growing food and growing fuel. Now they have an additional crop that they can grow they can grow fuel, and that was not an option, as far as they knew, a few years ago. So if you grow things that can be turned intoto oil, whetether its soybeanans, safflower, susunflowewers, cano. Theres so many thinings that can be used to make biodiesel. Gordon seggebru eress jusa lolot of pri in taking c carof the land and i i guess i always wanted to be a farmer since i was a little fart. Its just a good way of life. And theres been times when i thought, you know, id just get t out of it, but then i think of my, my boys. I mean, they want to live on the farm, and troy farms with me, and he loves the farm. He really likes farming. Narratoror now more t than ever, farmers of all ages hold jobs ofoff e farmrm to keeeep their farms goingg for the next generation to come. Troy i would say my job off the farm has, its probably made me a better opoperator woworking off the fafarm. My dad can tell that, too. My dad never worked off the farm until he was. 55. Narrator r the seggggebruch farm was one of the e first farms in t the a to use bioiodiesel in itsacachinery and has usedthe Renewable Energy ever since. Troy two, four, six, eight. Probably about. Ninine or r ten tractors. Nine e tractotors. Narrator the cost to maintain and fuel any type of farm vehicle is staggering. Uh, oh, itll probably use 125 gallon a day. Yeah, it is. Narrator gordons combine alone will easily use at least 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel to complete the fall harvest. Remember, he has nine other tractors on his farm, and hes only one farm out of millions across the country gordon we got four semis on the road. Right now were using 11 biodiesel, anand the farmrm equipmentt ththe same w way. Its cleanerburning. As far as power . I dont know. But i know its mindboggling that were paying those guys that much money for oil while weve got our own product here that we can subsidize ourself. Narrator farm communities across america would directly benefit from small local biodiesel plants to process their crops and the fuel. This idea of communitybased biodiesel production creates a local sustainable fuel source that could change the way fufuel is monopolized today. Gordrdon the more biodieselel we use, the better soybean market were gonna have because the elevator will be able to pay more because theyre gonna be able to recoup another ten, 15 cents. Narrator the american farmer, families fararming their land for overer a hundreded years are beieing affecteded right now by all of us who choose to use Renewable Energy like biodiesel. Gordon the fararmer needs to support himsmself. Were in it to make a dollar. So, if we can go to work and use soy diesel or ethanol, thats so many more barrels of oil we dont need to buy from foreign countries. Dippel with this hurricacane that came e in down in the souh thahat ruined a lot of the oil rigs and a a lot of the oil refiners down there, you know, that just goes to show you that were so dependent on foreign oil, that, you know, if we can go to work and make our own prproduct right herere in the united stats and u use it, we dont have to be dependent o on that stuff comininin out of ththe gulf and stuff like that. I hope that, you know, by the time hes to my age, and maybe farming this land, him and his brother, maybe theyre running totally on our, our own prododuct. Oh, that t would bebe wonderfu. I mean, if you could just say ive got totatal bio in that, that tank over there, im burning all my own producuct, what more could you ask . Narrator all around the world, agricultures evolving like never before with biodiesel. Its critical that agriculture Harnesses Energy responsibly because world deforestation is a real threat that is growing. Annie youre not gonna a want to clam that youre sustainable, or that you u live in this green way, when n in fact your fuel came from palm oil in indonesia. So, its sourcing, if you source your beef, you source your vegetables, if you want to contribute and participate in that sustainable model, then you would source your fuel. Narrator for bob and kelly king, the idea of all Sustainable Resources being local has inspired a strategy centered on communitybased biodiesel production. Kekelly its s not about making millions and millions of gallons so much as it is putting the ability to create your own energy sustainablyy in yoyour communinity, into the hands of people in the community. To me its, you know, we couould have, we couldld have spenent the same amount o of money and buiuilt one plalant that, y you, one tenmilliongallonayear plant, um, bubut what weeve de isis weve putut nine planas on t the groundd that equal close to that amount and we put them into different communities whwhere those comommunitiess now w can create a portion o of their own n enery and take a lot of prpride in it. And whahat it does s is it buildlds relationships in those communities as well. Narrator an example would be this zeroemission, solarpowered biododiesel plan. Today its being started up for the first time and w will see e the regionss largest cattle rancncher with fuel and jobs for many decades to come. Carlo luri theres a great tieiein with the agagricultural heritage of the areaea and the fact that we can grow seed oil crops here, uh, to make e the raw materias for the biodiesel so, theres certainly a lot of interest in the e agricultural comommuniy in making their r own fuels. King so, this is the raw canola oil. This w was gwn t this year. The canola in the market doesnt have any color to it and theres no odor to it either, or very little, and this has got a really y nice. A really nice, uh. Plant smell to it that i like. Whoa ththats the good stuff. F. Yeah. This is what we call a beaker batch. Its repeating exactly whats happening in n the plant is happening in the beaker. Nice weve got separation. Got separation already. Lelets do it. Whwhoa, brother. Thats awesome oil, uh . Im telling you. Yeyeah. So, this o oil here, they grerew it; theyey pressed; they tanked up. Now were g going to make i it into biodiesesel anand then theheyre going to n the equipment on the ranch. And this fuel,l, this fuelasas never r made it off thranch. H. Anand, and you talk cradle to cradle,e, this is it, it never made it more than 30, you know, 20 miles from where it started from. Exactly. And thats that, thats that whole t theory, right . Yoyou know, you take parart of r land d and you grow your enener, and thenen you take e part of it and you u grow your food and y take part o of it and you have fun. Carl l nagata 9 0 00. Nine, ten, 11, 12, one, two, three. Whwhew, another long g day. Okay, ready, bob . Open the golden valve okay hit the switch. Come on, baby lets do it is it coming . King oh, yeah sweet. T. This will tell you the stotory of your reaction. Yoyou see it now like ththis. When n the alcohohol and the cacatalyst go o in, you see the color change and then it aint gonna be cloudy like this; its gonna be clear. Thats why a lot of people, um, t theyre amamazed. I mean, youou know, and when thy sniff it, theres no smell. Kiking theres s nothing, nothing betr than a actually m making the f. My best d days. Putting i it in the carar is probably betteter than actually making it. Oh, no, i dont know. I dont t know. I mean, my best days arere when i get to come out and d actually runun the plalan; ii love thahat. Its, u uh, its good fun. There it went. Yes this yellow thats all your biodiesel. Awesome so, the glycerin is settling down now. Yep, we got one good reaction. King some processes, you know. Luri you dont see anything happening. King . You put it in there, and you k know chemically something has happened, but this one, its like, boom, t there it goe, yyou know, its biodieiesel. You can watch it break, and yourere there. In a building for the electrical needs, those things can be done with less dense energy, biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, you know, thats fobuildingss, hats for t the grid. Save this fuel for transpsportationon. Narrator nearly every single item you can imagine has been on the back of a truck that uses diesel fuel. Trucking is the backbone of the american economy. It happens every single day without fail. Then a day came that would tear at the fabric of the Trucking Industry and challenge our entire society. Reporter . The storm surge is of huge concern tonight some 20 feet in some cases and we have learned that three people are dead inin mississipp. Katrina has just been downgraded to a tropical storm, but is shaping up to be one of the costliest storms ever to hit the e u. S. Narrator Hurricane Katrina, broadcast live around the world, would shock our society, exposing our weaknesses by revealing a vision of america ththat was unimaginable. Reporter other problems shells mars oil and gas platform is damaged. Valeross st. Charles refininey is flooded. Chevron is rationing gasoline supplies to east coast customers while i it assesses damage to its mississippi refinery. Narrator the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed a critical vulnerability to americas fuel supply that spread quickly across the country. Port fourchon, americas largest refinery complex, and the Louisiana Offshore oil port shut down all refining operations, with over 600 interconnected offshore oil rigs and hundreds of miles of pipelines and oil Delivery Systems sufferingnearcatastrophic damage. Reporter crude oil above 70 a barrel this morning, hitting an alltime high. Narrator crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, jet fuel, and Consumer Fuel prices surgeged to their highest leves in history. This single event triggered a massive relief effort heavily relylying on thousands of independent truckers from all over the country. Which lanes open up here . Narrator mike frybarger, an owneroperator out of maryland was contracted by fema to carry a nineton military transporter filled with meals from silver spring, maryland to hattiesburg, mississippi, over 1,100 miles. I dont have a lot of money. Things are really tight right now. And as far as monetarily, i knew i wouldnt be able to help, but as far as helping. Getting something in there to help the people i knew i could do that. America rides on the back of trucks. And i mean, Something Like this. You know, itsits the trucks that bring it in there. Narratotor for biotruckers like mike, each tank of biodiesel he chooses as fuel is pushing the American Transportation industry into the 21st century. Frybarger beautiful scenery in tennessee. You know, beautiful sunrises, beautiful sunsets. And since ive been involved in biodiesel now, i tell you, when i drive in rural areas where theres fields, ii look at those fields, and say, boy, look at all that fueuel. Narrator finding biodieiesel in america is not easy. With over 175,000 fueling stations across the country, less than 1,500 offer biodiesel. Frybarger and heres our biodiesel location, and it looks kind of truckfriendly. It isnt going to be real easy to get to the pumps. Im not sure whichch pumps biodiesel. Theres one there thats silver; its different than all the other pumps, and i bet thats it. Im notot sure if were at the right pump, but well find out here in just a minute. Woman bye, dear. Im m getting the biodieiesel. Woman okay, you have to pay when you get done, cause it aint got no credit. Frybarger okay. Boy, i i hate it when n i pull p to the wrong pump. This stuff is so s sparse that when y you do find it, usually its kind of a pain to get to it. On the web site, it said it was b20. The place i buy y it in marylan its 100 soy. This is a slowvolume hose. Itll just take a while to put it in here. This is a pump that pumps at a rate that youd fill your car up. Whatat would normally take me 15 minutes to f fuel up doing g it this, itll prprobably takake 25, you knknow, maybe a hahalf hour. And times money to a truck driver. Most ive ever put i in at one time was 500, last year, actctually. I just think that the truckingng industry, the fueling side of it, hasnt realized how much truckers actually want it yet. 189. Every time i use biodiesel, i get better fuel mileage. And a h halfmile to a gallon increase doesnt sound like much, but when youre putting 600, 700 miles on a day, you know, thats a pretty good chunk of change at the end of the dad. Dueue to xmradi bill mamack promototing it, Willlie Nelson promoting it you know, theres a lot of truckers out there that know about it. But you know, theres thousands of Truck Drivers that dont know about it, never heard of it. Theres actually farmers that would directly benefit from the production of it thats never even heard of it. I wouldnt say ive been converted into an environmentalist. laughs but i have a lot of different outlook on things, especially sisince ive been doing research on peak oil. Narrator peak oil is a calculated prediction by the late dr. M. King hubbert, a noted geophysicist eemployed for shell oioil compy as chieief consultant of f geo. Frybararger m. King hubbert, when he did his peak oil study, that was 1956. And he predicted that the United States would peak in Oil Production in 1970. We did. But when he did his figures, he couldnt figure in the oil embargo of the 70s. For r a while, our r country wt to smallerer cars, higher fuelel mileage, which reduced a lot of consumption, but now were back to the gasguzzlers. People want to rereduce our dependence on foreign oil. We need to just reduce ourr dependence on oil, period. Nanarrator a single barrel of crude oil is actually 42 gallons, and comes to america from a variety of sources oil from the persian gulf, opec nations, and nonopec nations. 27 of all american oil imports originate in opec countries, with only ten percent of that coming from countries in the persian gulf. Fofor instance,e, if an oil company were to load one of its supertankers, it would depart from eastern saudi arabia, sail a around ththe strait hormumuz, move upup 100 milles throughgh the suez canal, and then spend approximately 30 days crossing 4,763 nautical miles to arrive at port fourchon, louisiana. Today, america will need ten of these supertankersrs to satatisfy our curnt a appete of more than 20 Million Barrels of oil each and every day. By using a b20 blend 20 biodiesel and 80 petroleum diesel, mike is reducing his Petroleum Consumption by 20 . And this biodiesel didnt have to cross an ocean to get into his tank. Frybarger i have 150gallon tanks on each side. 399. 34, and only 136 gallons. By the time im done, it wonnt quite be half of my capacity for fuel. Yeah, its a lotot of money. Okay, 143 420. Just double that ththat would d be 840. You know, i could have put 840 in there. Its a lot of money. Narrator today, mike will pay two cents more a gallon by using biodiesel. Frybarger theres only two cents difference. I thought it might be a lot more than that, but any time i can come with two cents difference, i love it. I got to get my log book out again to record this. And were off. Mississippi, here we come indistinct male voice on radio there we go. There go, billy. Man on radio . Mississippi, parts of alabama. Nelson trucking is the way we get it done. These guys are the guys who move it from a to b, anand without t the, you know, it just couldnt happen. So, theyre excited about it. They see a way to not only help the environment, help the farmers, but to help themselves. Frybarger america rides on the back of trucks. Trucks are the most efficient way to move freight. Its sad that we live in the country thats supposed to be thehe most technologically advanced, and yet, when it comes to this, were the farthest behind. And its m mainly cause, you know, people dont want to o change. You know, they want their cars, you know. Im just somebody that believes theres a better way than what were doing right now. Wwhats going on . Everybody just letting the convoy o out . Narrator at the same time mike drives through the roads of mississippi, diesel and gasoline fuel prices soared past three dollars nationwide. Everythining was shutut dow. Thehey were actually running, u, the fl pumps s on generatators. Frybybarger wow. So, yeah,h, it was almost a catastrophe as well here. Frybarger its amazing how something will brinamerica together, you knonow. Bringing everybody together. President bush but our citizens must ununderstand this storm has disrupted the capacity to m make gasoline and distribute gasoline. E. Anand theres going to be a lot of rebuildlding done. I cant tell l you how devevastating the, uh, the sites were. Nelson we are very addddicted to oil in this country. We are so dependent on foreigign energy, oil. But if wewe can break tthat addiction and start thinking about alternative things like e biodiesel, and l like s, lilike, uh, wind all these things can help replace our addictions for oil. I like to thank you, sir. All right bud. You have a good one and thank you for your service. Nelson i dont think that well ever completely be abable to do witithout oil because i thinknk, you know, well have to hahave it. But i if we can reduce our dependency on it just a little bit, it ll make an incrededible impact on n the economy, the enenvironment, and everythig in the middle. Narrator after delivering his cargo the next morning, mike has one more personal stop to make before he leaves mississippi. These dsds have beenen traumatid and they need, uh. Need s something to take their mind off whats happened. We got crayons for the kids. Anand coloring books foror the. Hopefulllly itll take these k mininds off whahats happened. You know, i remember coloring was always good for me. So id like to hand it to them personally because then i can see the smile, you know. grunts morgan frereeman wewe are killing oursellves with our use of energy. All kinds of ways. And this is one of tthe healinng agents thahat weve managed to find. Biodiesel. Im very pleased to be a part of it. Im really pleased to be connected through willie. Thank you, morgan. King petroleum has beeeen real easy for a long time. overlapping chatter we forgot that at one time we wewere supplyiying our ownwn e. These are small, economical plants that get supportedd by the community that the fuel is going into. Yay and this plant is opepen all cheering its just such a nice, uh a nice t thing for a cocommuniy to say, yes, we make. We make our own energy. Were driving on it right now. Nelson it has to happen. Therere has to be truck stops around the country where you have the farmers bringing in their produce, bobs plant turning it ininto fuel, piping it a few yards to the truck stop. If we had one of those every 200 or 300 miles networking across the country, wevve saved a whole lot of money. Andd weve saved a lot ofof environment problems, the pollution requirered or involved in transportation. Theres a big incentive there tto take the pressure off of people who are paying 5 for diesel. King i think on the food versus fuel issue, i i think itss pretty easy to show how much fuel is used to grow food. We put it on fertilizer to grow the crops, the tractors that farm the crops, the trucks that take it to the silos, and ship it across the country, across the world. It was a great system. And at four and five bucks a gallon, its hurting that model of shipping stuff whereverer you want to ship it. You know, the 3,000mile caesar salad is not a viable, sustainable thing. Tthats the problem with food right now, is that its heavily dependent on petroleum for production and thats why the price of food has to go up right now. Nelson wewe have to get around ththat someweway, anand education and knowleee is the e secret herere. Anand if a lot of peoplele dont know that sustainanable, local agriculture, fuel, food is the answer to our problem, then well contininue to import itit from a t thousan, two thousand,d, five, ten thousand miles away, which i is ridiculous. King biodiesels got a very important place in our future. Mymy prioritities are for fafarm tractors first, buses andand heavy trucks second. We cacan go to the farmers now and say, how much fuel do you need to run your farm . Lets say he needs a thousand gallons of didiesel fuel. Its back to growing his own energy. He grows his sunflower, brings it into us, we crush it make it into biodiesel, give him back his fuel,and now hess totally connected with how efficient he is at growing some sunflowers. Nelsonon ifif he can grow his food, which hess been doining fore, now, he can grow his fuel. Its going to save him a whole lotof money. The secret is growow it over here, use it here, keep the money in the community. And why thats hard to understand is a a little bit beyond this old guitar player from texas, you know. If i can understand it, why cant everyone, you know . Kelly oone person can ababsolutely make a difference. And all it really takes is to takeke that one step forwawd and say, ill do it. And i think every one of our customers thats running on n biodiesel took that step. King i hope america embraces biodiesel. Energy does need to be decentralized. It needs to come back to the community, just as many things do. We believeve that it can n work al acrcross americic alall around d the world. D. Weve got to start l looking at local productioo for local energy. One, two, three narrator turning points in history can easily be disguised as ordinary. History w will remember how one e decision bby an ordininary mann forged a revolution. Green. We seeee that cololor, that word, a lot these days. But what does it r really mean, and why does it even matter . The choice is yours. Captioning sponsored by announcer 2007, and littlec samba kuli bali is on his way to make medical history. Hes one of the first children to take part in a trial for a new vaccine against deadly meningitis. Marie many countrtries in sub Saharan Africa have called for these vaccines because of this dreadful and devastating disease which is called epidemic meningitis which was devastating g their population r over a century now. Announcer over one million cases of meningitis have been reported in africa since 1988, and thousands of people have didied. When an epidemic strikes people are desperate to be immunized. Announcer but the emergency injections do not work on infants and give only temporary protection to adults. Whats urgently needed is a vaccine that can eliminate african meningitis once and for all. music announcer 17 month old samba is one of 600 healthy toddlers taking part in a Clinical Trial for a new vaccine against african meningitis. Scientists at mali center for Vaccine Development need to find out if the inoculation is effective and safe. Samba this is a double blind vaccine trial, the doctor does not know which vaccine the participipant is gettingndnd the participant also does not know which vaccine hes getting. Uh, we are so far all doing very well. Uh, we have not had uh, observed any particucular papart with vaccine. Announcer sambas mother knows too well about the devevastating consequences of meningitis. Her sister died from the disease. Announcer the new vaccine is desperately needed. Across the border in neighboring burkina faso, an epidemic of deadly meningitis has broken out. music six year old jasasongo is fightg for his life