Recommended Actions for the Week of 20170814

Source: RC Member

Description: Want to know how you can help the workers striking Sarbanand Farm?   The linked document has current opportunities identified by Community to Community Development; Riveters Collective is supporting by helping to keep it updated with the latest news and requests, so keep checking back. Thanks for the outpouring of community support! EDITED: They have requested NO donations for the time being, as they’ve been lovingly inundated with supplies. We’ll let you know when they are need of more items!

Background:

Community to Community Development (C2C) and Familias Unidas Por La Justicia (FUJ) are leading the support effort for the displaced farmers and families at Sarabanand Farm. Read more on their Facebook pages (linked above).

The Seattle Times published an article with background and details.

Contact Information: Click here to donate.

Source: RE Sources for Sustainable Communities

Description: Vote for Stand Up to Oil through CREDO Donations. Stand Up to Oil is a regional coalition of dozens of NGOs working to protect the Salish Sea, and is in the running to win a huge grant for their work to stop dangerous projects to increase oil shipments by rail and pipeline through the Pacific Northwest. The size of the grant depends on each of us! CREDO apportions the funds by the percentage of votes for each organization! Please vote today, it only takes 30 seconds.

Contact Information: Click here to vote. Or, try googling “Credo Donations vote for Stand Up To Oil.”

Additional Information: 

Source: RC Member

Description: Send a message to the Bellingham City Council members supporting the renaming of Pickett Bridge. The council members are working with local historians, the Good Time Girls, on drafting a resolution for the renaming.

Contact Information: Bellingham Mayor and City Council Email Addresses

• Kelli Linville, mayorsoffice@cob.org
• City Council General, ccmail@cob.org
• April Barker, abarker@cob.org
• Gene Knutson, gknutson@cob.org
• Daniel Hammill, dchammill@cob.org
• Pinky Vargas, ptmvargas@cob.org
• Terry Bornemann, tbornemann@cob.org
• Michael Lilliquist, mlilliquist@cob.org
• Roxanne Murphy, rjmurphy@cob.org

Suggested Script: 

Dear Bellingham City Council,

It is my understanding the city council is working with local historians, the Good Time Girls, to help draft a resolution to rename the Pickett Bridge. I am writing to voice my support for drafting such a resolution and to recommend consulting other parties of interest like Community to Community Development and the Racial Justice Coalition since they are both organizations who brought the renaming of the bridge forward to the public. Also, it may be good to reach out to Black Lives Matter Bellingham, since the namesake of the bridge is intertwined with the history of slavery in our country. It is likely there could be insights from these groups that can be of help and importance in the council’s process of renaming in an effort to better reflect our current values and sense of honor.

Sincerely,

<Insert Your Name>

Additional Information: Click on the links below for more information on the organizations listed above.

• Community to Community Development
• Racial Justice Coalition
• Black Lives Matter Bellingham

Source: RC Member and Washington Environmental Women’s Alliance

Description: 

This week, Oregon ratepayers won a hard-fought victory when the Oregon Public Utility Commission rejected a proposal by an Oregon utility (PGE) to build a series of fracked gas plants that would have locked that infrastructure in for decades. The Commission further directed the utility to explore renewable alternatives.

Make sure the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) knows about this victory by including it in your comment!

Ask them to push for an early end to coal use for Washington. If you are a PSE rate-payer, let them know you don’t want PSE to raise our energy bills to fund their fossil fuel infrastructure.

Contact Information: Submit public comments here. If you are on Twitter, tell @PSETALK that you want them to go #CarbonFreePSE.

Suggested Script:

Additional Information:

• Read more about the Puget Sound Energy (General Rate Case)
• Dockets UE-170033 & UG-170034.

Source: Climate Solutions

Description: In the closing days of Washington’s 2017 legislative session, as negotiators worked to finalize a two-year budget, an old zombie made an unwelcome appearance. Buried in the middle of the budget bill was a new tax break which would grease the wheels for Canadian company Transalta to convert its Centralia coal plant to burn fossil fuel gas instead.  Ten years ago, this same company agreed to shut down the fossil fuel plant by 2025, but the proposed tax break would extend the life of the plant by converting it to gas.

Background: 

Transalta’s plan to replace its Centralia coal plant with a gas power facility is a betrayal of its promise to that community and to Washington State. With clean energy solutions widely available at a very low cost, there is no reason to continue investing in fossil fuel generation. Transalta’s plans will add to the climate crisis, continue to contaminate our air and water, and create a huge mess for future generations to have to clean up. Businesses and local governments in Washington and all across the United States have already committed to 100% clean energy. New investment in fossil fuel infrastructure has no place here.

Transalta must look past fossil fuels and invest in clean energy solutions in the northwest. We hope Transalta will uphold its end of the agreement to shut down fossil fuel power generation in Centralia.

Contact Information: Sign the petition here.

Source: Washington Environmental Women’s Alliance

Description: The EPA is proposing to withdraw Clean Water Act restrictions for the Pebble Mine, in a clear step away from the clear and unambiguous previous findings of this agency that the mine is an enormous threat to the water and irreplaceable salmon and wildlife of the Bristol Bay Watershed.

EPA is accepting comments during a 90-day public comment period, going on right now. Please submit your comments in support of maintaining these restrictions at https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-withdraw-clean-water-act-restrictions-pebble-mine-alaskas-bristol-bay

Background: Tell the EPA that facilitating the permitting process for a destructive, toxic industry that would threaten a $1.5 billion sustainable salmon fishery and provides 14,000 jobs and half the world’s sockeye salmon is insanity and is in direct opposition to the EPA’s responsibilities to protect the environment and health of our watersheds and our sustainable economies.

Contact Information: Comments may be emailed to: ow-docket@epa.gov with docket number EPA-R10-OW-2017-0369 in the email subject line.

Additional Information: 

• The NRDC has provided an excellent synopsis of what this proposed rollback could mean at https://www.nrdc.org/experts/taryn-kiekow-heimer/epa-withdraw-protections-bristol-bay-open-door-pebble-mine