09/12/18 09/12/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from san francisco, this is demomocracy now! you are risking your life here. >> it is exactly what is going on. amy: how much do you make? >> one dollar an hour. amy: some have called a slave labor. >> no matter if we are incarcerated were free, we're getting paid one dollar an hour. amy: as california faces a record-setting fire season, 20% of the firefighters battling the

wildfires are prisoners. they are beingng paid just $1 an hour, saving the state up to $100 million a year. is this a modern-day form of slave labor? we will travel to a california prison fire camp to speak to some of the incarcerated firefighters. then to death on the dakota access pipeline. >> i uncovered two deaths that occurred during the dakota access pipeline. that led me to it is one of the deadliest jobs in america. amy: we will speak to investigative journalist antonia juhasz. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

"the storm of a lifetime." that's how one national weather service meteorologist is descriribing the massive categoy 4 hurricice florence currerently barreling toward the c coast of ththe carolinas, slalated to mae landfall on friday. the nationonal hurricane cenr rs warning of a life-ththreateningg storm surge, as well as massivie flooding and highly destructive winds. this is north carolina governor roy cooper. >> this storm is a monster. it is big and it is vicious. it is an extremely dangerous, life-threatening, historic hurricane. that is why i am ordering a mandatory state evacuation for our barrier islands. and i am directing the people of north carolina to obey local evacuation orders that have already been issued and will be issued along our coast. amy: more than 1.5 million

people have been ordered to evacuate north carolina, south carolina, and virginia as hurricane florence approaches. yet prison officials say they will not evacuate nearly 1000 prisoners at the ridgeland correctional institution, in just canada, south carolina. in virginia, the mountain valley pipeline, threatened to pollute christian waterways w with erosn and virginia. in n north c carolina, experts e warnining that hurricane florene ululd kill thousanands of farm animals and trtrigger catastropc waste spills from sewage trtrtment plants, toxic coal a h ponds,s, hog waste l lagoons and chicicken farms. manyny of the factory hohog farn north carolinana store their wae by sprpraying it on n nearby fis and neigighborhoods, or by depositing it in lagoons, which can overflow during hurricanes, causing the toxic pig manure to pour into nearby waterways. north carolina is bracing for

-superchargedhange storm six years after passing legislation prohibiting state and local agencies from making planning decisions based on the latest climate science about sea level rise. now the state is facing the threat of a life-threatening storm surge, which could cause billions of dollars in damage. on tuesday, during an oval office briefing on hurricane florence, president trump tried to celebrate his administration's response last year to hurricane maria in puerto rico, which killed up to 3000 people, if not more, making it the deadliest stotorm in u.u. history. femaatrump: the job that and law enforcement and everybody did, working along with the governor in p puerto rico, i i think was tremendous. i think puerto rico was an incredible am a unsung success. amy: meanwhile, buzzfeed is reporting that fema has approved

only 3% of requests for funeral assistance from puerto ricans who lost their loved ones during hurricane maria. as hurricane florence bears down on the east coast, senator jeff merkley has released documents showing the trump administration took nearly $10 million from fema -- the federal emergency management agency -- and gave it to ice -- the immigration and customs enforcement agency -- to build more detention centers. this is senator jeff merkley speaking with msnbc's rachel maddow. >> working hard to find funds for detention kim's. this is part of the child separation policy. that is how this information came into my hands because of my wowork on the issue ofof tryingo stop t thehildld sepeparations. but in fact -- so $10 million comes out of fema when we are facing our hurricane season, knowing what happened last year. amy: this comes as the health and human services department

says it will triple the size of the tent camp where migrant children are imprisoned in the desert outside el paso, texas. the trump administration established the tent camp in tornillo in june as a temporary shelter amid the administration's zero tolerance policy, which included forcibly separating children from their parents. officials say they arere now expanding it to contain 3800 beds for migrant children. meanwhile, the former rabbi of white house adviser r stephen miller, the architect of the family separation policy, condemned miller during a fiery sermon during services for rosh hashanah, the jewish new year. rabbi neil comess-daniels of beth shir shalom in santa monica, california, said -- "from the jewish perspective, the parent-child relationship is sacrosanct. disrupting it is cruel. mr. miller, the policy you helped to conceive and put into

practice is cruel." tens of thousands of syrians have fled the northwest province of idlib, the last major rebel-held territory in syria, amid fears the syrian government will launch a full-out ground offensive. the united nations has warned an offensive could lead to the worsrst loss of life in 21st century. this is a man who fled from idlib to ththe turkish border. >> what hahappened was d destrun all over. burning. something you cacan't descscrib. it was strange. military planes. they did not differentiate between civilians and others. there are no bases. they wanted to target civilians. amy: in afghanistan, the death toll from tuesday's suicide bombing in the eastern province of nangarhar has risen to 68 people, with 165 more wounded. the attack came during a protest against a local police commander. no group has claimed

responsibility for the attack so far. in brazil, jailed former president luiz inacio lula da silva has officially pulled out of the presidential race next month, after a supreme court judge rejected his latest appeal and said he could not run from prison. lula announced tuesday he was stepping aside to allow his running mate fernando haddad to stand in his place. to see our full interview with the former president luiz inacio lula da silva, go to democracy now.org. in spain, up to a million people took to the streets of barcelona tuesday, to celebrate catalonia's "national day" and to demand catalonia's independence from spain. last october, the spanish government seized control of catalonia after its leaders held a banned independence referendum. in the horn of africa, ethiopia and eritrea have reopened the border after 20 years, following the two countries' signing of a historic peace deal in july to . hundreds of people have gathered

at the two reopened border .rossings this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from san francisco, the site of this week's global climate action summit. we begin today's show behind the scenes of california's raging climate-fueled wildfires, with the hidden men and women on the frontlines of the state's ever-growing fire season -- prisoner firefighters. of the 13,000 firefighters battling blazes s across california, , more than 2500 are incarcerateded. while salaried firefighthters en an annual mean wage of $74,000 a year plus benefits, prisoners earn $1 dollar per hour when fighting active fires. according to some esestimates, californiaia saves up p to $100 million a year by using prison labor to fight its bigiggest environmental problem.

in august, c california governor jerry brown thanked the firefighters on the front lines, including those who are incarcerated. >> there is a tremendous effort fighting these fires, and i want to personally thank all of the firefighters who are on a line. the members of cal fire come also the national guard, and the thousands s of inmates who are also on line fighting to protect lives and bring these fires to a quick close to the extent that is at all possible. amy: incarcerated firefighters live i in 44 low-security field camps throughout california, including camps for women and three one for juveniles. they are routinely called upon to fight the state's mostst dangerous fires. in the last year alone, the state has seen the largest fire in california history -- the mendocino complex fire -- and the most destructive -- the tubbs fire in 2017, which killed 24 people e and destroyed d more than 5 than 5600 homes.

in 2017, prisoner firefighters spent 4 million hours on active fires. as climate change leads to longer and more dangerous fire seasons in california and the state's firefighting agency cal fire is running out of money, california is increasingly relying on its prisoner fire force to combat wildfires. prison firefighters earn time off of their sentences for good behavior, typically two days off for each day sererved. but critics of the program say the state is exploiting prisoners' eagerness to earn time for early release. the democracy now! team traveled to the delta conservation camp about an hour north of san francisco on sunday, a low security prison where more than 100 men are imprisoned. we i interviewed incarcerated firefighters who had just returned from a 24-hour shift fighting the snell fire in napa county. we spoke to them under the close surveillance of prison administrators.

i began by talking to some of the officials s from the california department of corrections. >> and the assistant camp commander. amy: what five do they come from? >> the snell fire. it is both east the middletown. amy: how long has it been burning? >> yesterday afternoon. i think it started about 3:00 yeststerday. how important are these fire camps of incarcerated people to fighting fires in californiaia? they're a are the backbkbone of california. assignmnmente toughest there is out there. amamy: what is the t toughest assignment? >> whatever they're asked to do. dozery it is where a cannot go. they get the toughest assignments in the worst conditions, 110 degrees in the middle of the sun, wearing two

layers of clothing carrying 40 pounds of gear. they have to carry all of their food and water for a 24 hour shift. amy: you are saying they do the toughestst jobs? >> they get the toughest assignments there is. amy: how much do they get paid? >> one dollar an n hour. amy: the state is really dependent on these prisoner firefighters. >> yes. they save a lot of money for the state. i've heard anywhere from $60 million to $100 million a year. >> my name is tracey snyder. i'm a correctional have turn -- captain. amy: talk about what happens here. how often do they firefighters? how often are they at camp? isfighting fires, that unpredictable. last year was one of our biggest fire seasons. 2015 was another big fire season. last year, obviously, fire season lasted for six to eight months. the santa rosa fire, the never fire. these guys responded to that.

the thomas fire in southern california. amy: would you call these heroes? >> i would. they do an excellent job for the state of california. yeareee the devastatation lastt surgeonguys, as the said, they are the backbone. they do a great job. i appreciate them. amy: after the returning firefighghters have breakfast, i sit down with a few of them under the watctchful eye of prin officials. >> my naname is dante youngbloo. camp 14 months ago. i have been in jail nine years. amy: how much momore time do you have to serveve? >> one m more year. amy: talk about the work you do here. are you risking her life? >> i guess you could say you're risking her life, yes, that you are not really y in lilife-threatening s situations.

95% of the time you're not in a life-threatening situauation. you are in a controlled environment. if you have been doing it for a while, you know to do. it it is a hard job, for sure. the fire could be right there and then we be cutting line on the fire to stop it from coming. amy: what deeming, cutting line? >> we cutting line with a macleod. amy: what is that? >> a tool. it is something like a hoe like you use in your garden. we cut line with the. we stop the fire from coming. amy: you have had the fire is closed as a couple of feet from where we are? >> yes. amy: is it scary? >> on you first start, you'd be scared. to me, it is not. it is just regular to me. to me, it is just regular work. go, we disco. it don't even bother me.

it's all right. it is just work that we are doing. amy: last night, one of the guys fell down the hill? >> yes. amy: what happened? >> it is slippery. rocks. slippery. he did not follow that path. it was just a little fall. he sprained his anankle or something. it to happen. trees s fall on you. the last fire we were at, a month ago, a firefighter died.d. a firefighter? >> a tree fell on him. that is how it goes. he gets crazy sometimes. most of the time we know what is going on. amy: are you shoulder to shoulder with the cal fire firefighters? >> yes. we are not split up from them. we're not like, oh, bring them ininmates over here. it is not like that. we are all out there together. we're helping each other. if i like walk by one nsc a cal fire or any firefighter that needs help or something with a

hose or something, i help them. they help us, too. we're here to help each other and major everybody is safe. amy: how much money do you make? folks one dollar an hour. amy: when you're fighting a fire? >> yes. one dollar an hour. last night, how long refighting the fire? 20 hours.y we probably made $22. amy: what do you think of that? >> i think we should make -- of course i would say anybody that got the job that you think you should make more. i always does i thought we were getting two dollars until i came to fire camp. it is cool, though. we are making money for something we would probably do for free anyway just for the cut. it is all right. i would prefer, yes, we get more money, of course. anybody in a working position would want to make more money. amy: you are saving the state, to say the least, a lot of money. some would say $100 millllion he

or. >> i don't know. of course, i'm sure. i mean, some people -- we look -- the time cut is more than the money to us. we would rather make the money,, for sure, because we can send money to our families.s. we still send money hohome. it will limit one dollar an hour on fires. amy: how old were you when you first went to prison? >> it was nine yeyears ago. i ththink it was 27. amy: do you want to talk about what happened? >> nah. i just made bad choices. amy: has being here at camp changed your thinking of the world? >> yes. i could say i have learned a lot , that i can do more than i used to do, that i can do right, i can do better things in my life than just commit crime and do things like that. i figured out i can do a job. i never had a job a day in my life. i never cashed a check. literally, i ain't never cashed

a check or used a credit card. it is crazy. i sound like i'm from the mountains or something. amy: what made you decide to do this interview? >> because i might want to go to hollywood to be an actor. i want to see if i can do it. [laughter] i'm serious. plus, i want to give our perspective. i know you can year from the guards and the captains, but i know love people here probably don't want to do t the intererv, probably scared or just don't want to do it, but i'm nonot. i do whatever i want to do. amy: can you vote? >> no felons can vote. amy: in vermrmont and maine, thy can vote from jailil. >> no felons can vote in california. amy: would you like to see that change? >> yes. >> we can talk -- amy: ok. let me tell you the reason i asasked that. at this point in the interview, the sergeant steps in to end the ngnversation with dante, telli

us political questions are not allowed. later the commander comes over. >> and the camp commander here at delta conservation camp. amy: talk about how hard this work is. >> for an inmate in the state of california, this is the hardest work that you're going to find when they're out there on the line, doing the work they are expected to do. physicallymely demanding. the hours can be exhausting at times. for example, last year when we have the napa fires, they were out for three days straight because the resources within the state or so to have to that it took that long just to get them relieved and off the lines. amy: and they make just one dollar an hour fighting these fires next to cal fire firefighters? >> that is correct. undederstand is a big difference between cal fire firefighters and an inmate firefighter. amy: do you think they should be paid more, the prisoners? >> i believe they should make

more than the dollar an hour. they have been at that rate of pay for many decades at the point in time. amy: seems like the state would be threatened of people's time was even cut or as a result of overcrowded prisons more prisoners were released. of course, they would be the lowestrs who had the sentences, and those are exactly the prisoners who get into these kind of camps. they would lose that kind of labor, the firefighting labor. >> potentially, very much so. there is definitely a need for this type of a resource. the hand crews to cut line. areas that are not accessible to quitman such as bulldozers and things of that type. california needs hand crews. if we do not have the inmates to perform that function, the neck -- and they got to find a labor from somewhere else. amy: do you think the prisoners should be paid more for fighting fires? >> yes. they're doing the same work as

cal fire, the firefighters who are free. >> i think we do harder work. i think we get the harder a sinus. nobody else can touch us. amy: the question of how much california relies on prison labor, particularly when it comes to fighting wildfires, came under scrutiny in 2014. lawyers in the state attorney general's office argued in federal court that a program to paroled more prisoners wintering source of cheap labor. the california attorney general at the time was, well, now u.s. senator kamala harris. she later said lawyers in her office argued the case without her knowledge post up harris said the idea of incarcerating people as a source of labor evokes images of chain gangs. i sit down with another prisoner who just came back from fighting the snell fire. >> my name is marty vinson.

i am 25 years old. i came to this cap about mid july this year. amy: what has been t the most difficult t fire you have fough? that first i wanted to sayay water. it was a pretty bad fire. but the river fifire this year t delta i think topped it. it was the most -- i guess harm's way i have been in. it was a situation where we were back burning. bong down with c crew three to cut o on the other side on the green to wear if there are embers comoming across them ththey still push back. it led to a point where it flared up more than it has to on the fire that was burning and when it did that, it jumped the line. when it jumped the line, mind you, the polar i left out we carry a gallon of gas on ouour back.

when that happened, we pretty much immediately had to run down the mountain. as we did, we ran into the highway. as we ran into the highway, one of the captains escorted us down the street. but as we were going to mistreat, now the fire jumped from where it was burning at, where it was supposed to burn to the green across the road.. within seconds, and whole highway would from a nice bright day to just dark smoke and fire everywhere. we had to run as far from much done at highway until it was green again. then as it continued to burn and the black was there and it was safe to go back, we had toto wak again there. just being put- in a bad p predicament like that wewere the adrenaline e is realy pumpining and you trtry to figie out ththe best thing to do becae possibly your life is on the line, i want to say the river fire this year was the worstst e for me. amy: d you think of yourself as a euro? >> i like to look at myself as

somebody that i want to be here for whoever -- whoever needs me, i want to be there for them, and just last night on this fire with summit who came back not totoo long ago where the terrain of where it was climimbing up, cutting line, there were too many loose boulders. we always try to do what we have to do, but still provide safety wall doing it. it is just one of the situations where it is no one's fault, but it happens. while there is cuttiting line, a bouldeder fell and hit him. he popped somethihing in his kne and it just sweld d up. it came to a point where we didn't really have no answer to what we were going to do to get them out. it is not. they do not do airlifts that night. they don't want anything in the air at night. it led to the possibility of u s just bedding down at the bottom of this c creek and wait until morning. it was just something -- it is a

natural thing about me, i want to be there for people. i volunteered and said, look, me personally, , i don't feel liket is relevant for us to stay down here. to o take myunteered pack off and carry him up the mountain. amy: so you carried him up from below year the creek? >> yes. the firsrst part was maybe the worst part. it was real steep. a lot of people did not think it would happen like that, but it was something that i just pushed mymyself to say i'm going to do and i got it done. we went going ststraight up tile happen to go side hill, which is that is ananother cautious area because the road was probably like two feet wide. went from 2:00 in the morning to a almost 5:00 inin the morni, but we got him up there. now he is here. amy: you are risking your life here. >> it is exactly what is going on. everything we do, you know, no one has really promised to come

back. amy: how much do you make? >> one dollar an hour. amy: when you're fighting a fire. >> when you arare a typical gret day.g make $1.455 a amy: some have called it slave labor. what do you think of that? >> i don't really want to call the work slave work, but i feel like it is the holman tel aviv. what they're thinking about at the end of the day. no matter if we are incarcerated or free, we're getting paid one dollar and they are -- we're getting paid one dollar an hour. amy: that was marty vinson, an incarcerated firefighter at the california department of corrections' delta conservation camp. it's a low-security prison camp in fairfield, california, where more than 100 incarcerated firefighters are housed. they earned one dollar an fighting california wildfires, hour saving the state $100 million per year. special thanks to democracy now!'s libby rainey, john hamilton, carla wills, ariel

boone, and mike burke for that report. when we come back, we will be joined by amika mota. she, too, fought fires when she was incarcerated. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from san francisco, this weeks of -- the site of this week's action global climate summit. we continue our conversation about california's incarcerated firefighters with a look at the women fighting the state's climate change-fueled blazes. we are joined by amika mota, former prisoner firefighter. she didn't even make a dollar an hour while on duty as a firefighter. she may just $.53. amika is now the director of prison reentry at the young women's freedom center in san francisco. welcome to democracy now! i am sure this brought back many memories for you as you saw these young men talking about their experience just yesterday in the day before, fighting fires hehere in california. how did you end up fighting fires in california in prison? .olks i was incarcerated

i began my prison sentence in 2008. about five years into my sentence, i became eligible for fire camp. i had kind of always had my eye be anting to make it, to prison firefighter. amy: what makes you able to make it? >> yet to be a certain level of security clearance. i started off at a level three security. i had to work my way down into a level two. it has to do with security risk, your supervision level, your behavior in prison, and the crime that you committed. amy: so talk about where you ended up. . which ended up at ccwf is in chinchilla, california, a prison in one of the three women's prisons in california. i ended up at ccwf, which has a

firehouse, a fire department that has a mutual aid agreement with the county that the present is situated in. firehouse.ll amy: this is different than a fire camp. >> it is. chinchilla is unique in that sense, they have this institutional fire department where we respond to fires happening inside the institution and also within a 30 mile radius of the prison. amy: so pupils homes? >> we do church fires, vehicle fires, car accidents, medical calls in people's homes. things, notight of just wildfire fighting. amy: what was your firefighting asked race like? women. team of all >> yes. amy: you go on a fire truck to someone's house on fire. >> yes. we are well trained to get the

job done when we are there. we are trained up as heart of our initiation into the firehouse. we do about six weeks of training of just the physical pieces of it, learning how to on the equipment and ride the truck. amy: where did you live? >> in a firehouse that sat right outside the prison gates. we were looking inside to the prison the whole time. we came home to what was called a firehouse, but we were still under supervision. we were still incarcerated. amy: how much did you make fighting these fires? >> i made about $.53 an hour. my total check per month was about somewhere around $64, i believe. i was one of the highest-paid at the fire department. so the other women i worked side-by-side with were making about $.38 an hour. amy: some may say, with you got incredible training to be

firefighters. you get out of prison. can you become a firefighter? >> no. i cannot become a firefighter in a municipal fire department. most of those required ms certifications and we are blocked from getting that certification as felons. although, we were performing those duties when we were incarcerated. amy: weight, explain. >> we responded to medical calls in people's homes. we were not the-certified, but we were first responders. amy: explain the rationale of because you were a felon. you can do it when you are in prison, but not out of prison? >> yes. i don't understand the rationale. i wish i could say i did. i think there are occupational licensing issues that prevent us from doing the work when we come home. there is also the stigma of being a formally incarcerated person when we come home.

they will use us when we are on the inside, but on the outside, i think there's a hold of her level of explaining to do and you might have some of you riding on a fire truck were responding to o someone's home about criminal history. amy: when you had been in prison for years and this all women crew goes in and saves people's lives, saves houses, putting out fires, did the homeowners, did the people you saved -- did they know you were prisoners? >> some of them did. some of the folks that were in the small community's next to the prison with you fire truck full of women and no it was the fire girls -- that is what they called us. but most people did not. ear thatot wear g distinguished as as inmate firefighters. we were in normal turnouts. we looked like every other firefighter out on the scene. so responding to a car accident on highway 99, you know, nobody

would know that we were inmate firefighters. amy: how do you respond to some people saying this is slave labor? the prisons will say this is voluntary. you did not have to fight the fire. >> there is a level to that that may be true, but voluntary? so folks that are there with the incentive of earning good time credit are trying to make it home to their families. there is no other option in prison turn as much goodtime as much- to earn goodtime credit. so incentivizing this job is the only way that folks can get home to their families. voluntary.re that is even if you are there and not burning goodtime credit, for instance, i did not earn goodtime credit. i was not eligible for that. my incentive for being a firefighter was different.

but, you know, i think it was really emotional watching that because i kept thinking, one dollar an hour, there are basic things we need to survive in prison. we need hygiene. we need deodorant and soap and coffee. the things that we need to buy in prison that are not provided to us. tampons is one of those. those are the basic cost we need to cover while earning -- working a prison job, but we also have families outside that have expenses. the phone calls were the visits to come see us, taking care of our children. we also leave with massive court fines and fees. to me, the idea that there is no mechanism for us to start writing those things and paying off the debt that we will leave with --

amy: so many of you come from poverty and you then learn this remarkable skill, clearly, one that is so needed in california massivew with these climate change-fueled fires, and you are forced back into poverty afterward. these are actually well-paying jobs if you are not a prisoner. right. absolutely. i think that is a pretty devastating piece of it. this is an opportunity for folks coming home to have a real sustainable living wage and a career that is in a minimum-wage job, which, you know, we are trying to take care of our families. it is pretty devastating that we can come home and final ourselves into something we have been doing that we may be really good at. amy: you were sometimes saving the lives and homes of the

guards families? >> absolutely. i remember christmas eve fire at a correctional officer's home. we were doing our best to save that holiday for that family. i remember responding to a vehicle accident with a correctional officer's daughter and granddaughter and extricating them from the car. were basically, you know, there are 70 correctional officers that live in the community we responded in that we were serving our jailers. .nd we were doing it proudly amy: and the ideas of the california attorney general's lawyers fought in 2014 against the release of prisoners, talking about how much money they save the state? >> so would we talk about slave labor and we talk about policy

like that, i think that speaks for itself. on to this hanging force, this labor force, and not allowing us to return home to our families and not allowing us to serve our time and be done, it is crazy. amy: are you trying to change x-felon that says as an e you can't be a firefighter, you can't do the job you were trained to be? >> absolutely. we're working on a number of bills such as occupational licensing, the ems certification here in california. unfortunately, that bill was gutted. there is another bill that we're working on that has -- it is moving forward.

that addresses con of the broader issue of how far back we can look at some of his criminal history. amy: were you surprised to hear the officers at the prison camp -- i mean, you would not know this was a prison if you are driving down the road because it said "delta conservation corps area," but it is a prison. were you surprised to hear the officers at the camp saying, yes, they should make more money , they're doing the most dangerous parts of this very dangerous job, which is fighting wildfires? >> i am not surprised because they are the ones that see us work -- they work most closely with us. they see how hard we work and they know that there is something wrong with that picture. when w we hear often we are the hardrdest workers out there will stop amy: again, that place that we were, that we just went to, the delta conservation camp. governor brown appointed you to

the state advisory committee on juvenile justice and dylan with the prevention and your prison retreat director for young woman's freedom center here in san francisco. as we wrap up, talk about what you're doing with these young women. hohow d do you help them the mot coming from prison and what are you doing at the state level for governor brown? >> with the women's freedom center ou are building a andment to work on policy advocacy that directly affect us. i think -- i'm on the state advisory board. i'm a voice for those women. women and girls that are involved in the juvenile justice system. always continuing to bring voices to the table of the folks thesere most impacted by policies. amy: congratulations on your little infant daughter, who you brought in today.

>> thank you so much. amy: three months old? gloria? >> yes, gloria. amy: thank you for being with us. amika mota is a former prisoner firefighter. she is now the director of prison reentry at the young women's freedom center in san francisco. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the world peace report as we broadcast this week from the global climate action summit. we will speak with the investigative reporter antonia juhasz about death on the decode access pipeline. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from san francisco, the site of this week's global climate action summit. thousands, tens of thousands of people marched he e in s francisco tuturdayo dedema action on imimate,obs,s, a justice ashehey kied o offhe rise against climate capitalism conference, a counter-conference to california governor jerry brown's global climate action summit. today the conference will highlight the common goals of climate activists and labor. that's also the focus of an explosive new report headlined "death on the dakota access: an investigation into the deadly business of building oil and gas pipelines." published today in pacific standard magazine, it looks at the deaths of two men who worked

on dapl, the dakota access pipeline, and the massive oil and natural gas boom that has generated some of the deadliest jobs in the country. for more, we are joined by the report's author antonia juhasz, , a longtime oil and energy journalist. her books include "black tide: the devastating impact of the gulf oil spill" and "the tyranny of oil: the world's most powerful industry -- and what we must do to stop it." wewelcome back to dedemocracy n! it is great to have you with us. began thisut why you peace, why you started this investigation, death and the decode access. >> i have been covering standing rock for some time. i was doing an interview with ladonna brave bull allard and standing rock and she told me in 2014 when she first learned of dakota access pipeline, she knew she was going to oppose it. and the reason why she told me was no one is going to build an oil-over my son's grave because of how close it would pass to where her son was buried.

that death got me to thinking about the pipeline itself in injury and harm itself, not just spills that might come or leaks or where it was being built, but the people involved in building it. i started looking at construction and learned of the death of a young man who was building the dakota access pipeline. 27 years old. his death is reported by the ap. i started to dig into what had happened to him. as i started doing that investigating, i learned that just three days later at the opposite end of the pipeline, another worker building the dakota access pipeline had died during construction. so then i said i need to learn titlebout the oil and gas in construction. i went to look at the tel aviviv rate data. i had already learned that the ,rilling of oil and natural gas

extraction workers, has been found to be one of the deadliest jobs in america with fatality rates as high as seven times the national average. i would to see what were the the tally rates for the construction workers only to learn they had never been run. the bureau of labor statistics had never run that data. they did not even start counting deaths in the sector until 2003. i pulled the data together with instruction from bureau of labor statistics and figured out how to run a foot tel aviv rate data myself. i did and learned building oil and natural gas pipeline is also among one of the most deadliest jobs in america and that in 2016, they had a fatality r rate of 6.9 times the national average and theyey had also reached highs of seven times the national average as the highest point. so these are deadly jobs. deadly job sector that has not

been exposed or discussed. amy: telephone nicholas died. >> this took some finding out because he had died alone. one of the things that makes it more dangerous is the pace at which they're being built to keep up with the boom in production, which is result of the boom and fracking. north dakota is the heart of this. there being built at an extremely fast pace, but also a much further distance is from towns or cities centers, very very ruling areas, an exception more so. he is out toward the top of the decode access pipeline in north dakota. he is alone. i had to piece together from interviews with police through information act requests, a lot of

investigation, what happened. and what happened was, we think, he was working at the very tail end, which should be one of the safest parts of cap line construction. he never done it before. he was only three weeks and of the job. he was at the part were the pipeline is in the ground, the dirt has been laid over it, and oiling in area. he is driving a tractor. something goes wrong with the tractor. he goes out to fix it on his own, rather than waiting to have a repair person fix it because i probably, logic being that would cost money and you don't want to cost the company money. he fixes it himself. there's no manual in the tractor. tractor hadned the been jerryrigged by the company that owned it to make it work of early than it was designed to work. he gets out in this tractor is -- it has a piece of a quitman on it called up river. -- ripper.

he sticks something into it and the spring recoils back and hits him in the school, fracturing his school. he gets back into the tractor, slumps over the tractor, and happens to be discovered by his foreman who is striving another worker to another job site, and notices his tractor sitting idle. laters less than 24 hours at a small hospital in north dakota. amy: who was he working for? >> this is the part of become sort of a mystery of how you even connect worker injury and death to pipelines. the pipeline companies have taken advantage of loopholes in corporate -- the way a company can be composed that have allowed for a great distancing between the person doing the work and the company that runs the pipeline, making it often very difficult to even identify a death or injury with the pipeline they are working on. is working a temporary

employee hired through his union for indianhead pipeline services, which is a subcontractor to precision pipeline, which is a subcontractor to decode access llc. decode access llc is the developer of a company owned by energy transfer partners, which is itself an equity, which is itself is a subset of a company called legpllc. just one set of companies associated with this pipeline because the dakota access pipeline is part of a publicist in which carries the oil first from north dakota to illinois them from illinois to texas. the bakken hi-fi system, i could spend the next 20 minutes going through the companies that own the bakken pipeline system, none of which were then associated and the death of nicholas the second death i uncovered, which had not been previously reported is associated with dapl

because it was not known to be associated with dapl. troy was hired b by precision. those are the only companies named in the deaths. amy: what happened very quickly to troy? >> he was working at the other end of the pipeline. he essentially had been suffering from heat stroke all day long. it was clear he had been. he was never sent home. he was never told not to work. he was put in the position of flagger, which is the moving of the equipment to and from the job site. he accurately went to go seek shade underneath a truck trailer and probably passed out in the truck driver pulled forward not knowing he was there and ran him over and killed him. amy: they were both very -- they don't know each other. they're working at opposite ends of the pipeline -- on the same day? >> that's right. their funerals were both held

the same day. what i found interviewing pipeline workers -- evan whitford, with thehe union, the largest union representing dakota access pipeline workers, was that there is a tremendous sense of mississippi of security and protection for their workers , like most oil sector workers, many of these people are former veterans who came back -- when they came back, they liked the teamwork of this type of work. they understand there is danger involved. but they also say this work has gotten much more dangerous. then there is concern that it is more dangerous still under the trump administration because of the rollback in the already weak protection. amy: iconology of september 2, 2016, the day we arrived, democracy now! arrived in north dakota, september 3 being the day of the dogs when dakota access pipeline guards unleashed

dogs on the native american water protector's who were protesting the destruction of their sacred ground. all of this converging. you mentioned trump. i want to turn to may of last year when now president trump traveled to mandan, north dakota, where he celebrated his decision to pull out of the landmark 2015 climate deal, while speaking outside an oil refinery. pres. trump: in order to protect the american industry and workers, we withdrew the united stateses from the jojob killing charis climate accord will step job killer. people have no idea. many people have no idea how bad that was. dakota,t here in north the dakota access pipeline is finally open for business. trump. that is president antonia juhasz notes that standing at trump's side was "fracking king" " harold hamm, e

so-called baron of the bakken, chief executive officer of continental resources, one of the bakken's largest producers. >> that is right. he was referred to before and after the election as trump's energy whisperer. he had some of the largest holdings in the bakken in the most investeted in getting that oil out of north dakota because the problem faced by producers in north dakota was that the regulation in the onset of fracking allowed for this massive boom, 10 times increase from 2006-2016, 10 times well production in north dakota that they were having trouble getting it out of the state. so the pipeline was a necessity for him. and while began during the obama administration, it was significantly slowed down at the end of the administration. but one of the very first things trump did was sign an executive order authorizing completion of the pipeline. as soon as it was done, it served its purpose and

production increased dramatically again in north dakota after the pipeline was completed. and for harold hamm, that led to a significant increase in production in the state, and the value of his stock -- literally a reduction in the cost of ever single barrel of oil he produces, everywhere him and his very first shipment ever of oil to c china. amy: you have a set piece within your larger piece "trump and friends cashin: members of the trumpet administration are profiting from dapl while scheming to make even bigger bucks shipping oil and petrochemicals overseas." you have harold hamm and kelcy warren. >> they ceo of energy transfer partners, major backer of the trump campaign. then of course, the immediate -- the completion of the dakota access pipeline. actually, kelcy warren, $5 million investment in kerry's

campaign. your was on the board of energy transfer partners, the mccain energy secretary -- then became energy secretary. advance the completion of the public. amy: and commerce secretary wilbur ross. he was known as the king of bankruptcy. his main area is going in and finding bankrupt companies, turning them over to make a profit. in the bakken, many of these small companies had been suffering before dapl was completed and were going into bankruptcy. a lot of companies committed to make money off of this, including wilbur ross' companies. he is also heavily invested in shipping. the shipping of natural gas of petrol chemicals. his companies are set up to partner with energy partners.. also to infrastructure convert that oil and natural gas into petrochemicals to make plastics, and then ship that product overseas, including

through wilbur ross' companies, would contract that are already signed for china. --t the companies are saying all of this work we are seeing an rise for climate justice, one of the end goals is to see a reduction in fossil fuels for use of energy and use of transportation. well, the companies are saying this, too. they are looking forward to petrochemicals. exxon mobil alone is predicting or invested in a $20 billion investment in petrochemical the wilbur ross' copies are predicting a $100 billion. amy: you like to see water pipelines built? >> the building of oil and natural gas is incredibly dangerous work, but what we really need is a massive investment in water pipe and

construction, same job skills and unions, same workers can build water plants. amy: we will do part two and posted online at democracynow.org. antonia juhasz, oil and energy journalist. we will link to her latest piece in the pacific standard headlined "death on the to code access."