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Check out the video! Sometimes, you just have to laugh and let humor bring the issue to light. Our goal is to educate the public so we can make a speedy and just transition to clean energy. Thanks to the 350 Eugene volunteers who staffed the Fossil Free Eugene table at PIELC and provided updated beautiful materials on our campaigns! See you again next year! (PIELC - not just for lawyers!)  Take Action Support UO’s Climate Justice League’s demand for a just transition off the university’s massively polluting gas boiler system - now! Join the students for a loud rally at 8:30 am on Tuesday, March 12th outside at the entrance of the Ford Alumni Building at 13th & Franklin. You can also send an email TODAY to the Board of Trustees urging them to take speedy and bold action. It’s all done for you. Just click here. Thank you! The UO has been a participant in the City of Eugene’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) since the beginning. It also has its own CAP and is currently considering options in its Thermal Heating Systems Transition Study to move its heating systems off of polluting and unhealthy methane gas. Of course we want the option with the greatest emissions reductions and the highest efficiency! Did you know over 72% of UO’s emissions come from heating buildings with methane gas? This also makes it the City of Eugene’s single greatest source of climate-polluting emissions. It’s time for a change, for our city’s climate goals, for healthier indoor air quality and to ensure a habitable planet for these students’ future! Send the letter today! Just click here. Thank you!  We know too many cars contribute to congestion and pollution from the transportation sector. That’s why “active transportation” (biking and walking) is a huge climate solution. Our friends at Eugene Citizens United for Better Sidewalks want the City of Eugene to put more resources into fixing our sidewalks so that they are safer & cleaner. More people out of their cars = greater sociability, healthier neighbors and safer streets. Sign the local petition here. It will be presented at Eugene City Council in April. Grassroots gets the goods! CampaignsElectrify Eugene WHAT IS THE CITY OF EUGENE DOING TO IMPLEMENT ITS CLIMATE ACTION PLAN? Here’s what we’re watching:
Electrify Now is hosting a webinar on March 21 @12pm PST discussing gas appliance pollution. Read more about what's in store and register for the event here. Fracked Gas Resistance “Coal, Oil, Gas - None of these shall pass.” The GTN Express, owned by TransCanada Energy (TCE), is a 1,400 mile, 61 year old pipeline, bringing fracked methane gas (i.e., natural gas) from western Canada to the west coast of the U.S. The pipeline runs from Alberta through Idaho, Washington and Oregon to connect to pipelines in California. Because the badass Pacific Northwest activists have stopped ALL new fossil fuels projects, one new industry tactic is to expand existing infrastructure. TCE is investing $335 million to increase capacity by “biggie-sizing” the current compressor stations to move more methane at higher pressures. A 61 year old pipe... What could go wrong?! Between 2010 to 2021, there have been 368 documented pipeline explosions resulting in 440 injuries and 89 deaths. That's one thing that can go wrong. Two dozen environmental organizations (Including 350 Eugene), Senators Wyden and Merkley, Oregon's and Washington's Governors, as well as Attorneys General from Washington, Oregon and California have all told the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to deny this project. But rubber-stamping FERC Instead approved it last fall! The fight isn't over. Our allies have filed a lawsuit and more actions are planned in April. Methane gas is toxic to the planet and people. It is not necessary and continuing its use is not in the interests of the public. Stay tuned!  Forest Defense is Climate Defense The wood pellet industry is coming for west coast forests! Drax is a multinational energy company that is proposing to build a woody biomass pellet production and exportation facility in Longview, Washington. The making of biomass wood pellets here to be exported and burned in power stations overseas to replace coal is a false climate solution. It has the potential to devastate our forests in the Pacific Northwest as it is already doing in the Southeast and in British Columbia. We must stop Drax before they get a toehold on the U.S. West Coast. We've stopped all the fossil fuel projects and now we're going to stop Drax's plan for a mill in Washington. AX DRAX! The film "Burned" brings to light the devastation visited upon communities where pellet mills are sited and the ecological harm that accompanies this false climate solution. You can watch the trailer here. Watch for the local screening. The Southwest Washington Clean Air Agency (SWCAA) will have a public meeting on this in Longview March 28. Public comment closes March 29. More information on Drax, biomass, and talking points for testifying can be found here. Statewide Legislative Updates I imagine you have all received many emails with information and requests about many bills this short session. The Session started February 5 and ends March 10. GOOD News: Making your voice heard makes a difference! -Healthy Homes SB 1530 received $15m! It passed overwhelmingly, with bipartisan support. -Congratulations to everyone who pitched in, with over a dozen groups sending action alerts resulting in more than 1000 emails! -SB 1596 Right to Repair: Will allow owners of most consumer electronics products to do their own repairs or have the repairs done by local small businesses. Passed! -HB 4083 “The Coal Act”: Begins to divest Oregon public funds from companies with holdings in coal. Passed the House 33-24. Passed the Senate on a partisan 16-1! -3HB 4015 Clarifies and streamlines the process for siting battery energy storage systems. Passed House 44-13. Passed the Senate on a partisan 16-13! EV Rebate Bill Supports a $20 million allocation to keep the Charge Ahead Electric Vehicle program operating throughout 2024 with consistent funding. This bill is needed to help reduce transportation-related climate pollution. On March 7, the Board of Forestry voted to finalize the State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP)! The HCP will protect essential habitat for 17 imperiled species of salmon and wildlife on 640,000 acres of Oregon state forests, establish buffers protecting forests from clearcutting, and create large Habitat Conservation Areas for species dependent on mature forests, like the marbled murrelet, coastal marten, and spotted owl. Divest Oregon Sometimes good things come in threes, and they’ve been happening FAST in our efforts to decarbonize Oregon’s BILLIONS OF DOLLARS of investments, including the $100 BILLION PERS fund. — First, the COAL Act in some form has passed both houses of the Oregon legislature! The COAL Act calls for the PERS fund to decarbonize from coal investments. The House passed the bill in this “short session” and sent it to the Senate. The Senate added a minor amendment to the bill (clarifying a definition) and passed the amended version on March 5. Since the House and Senate versions of the bill are not word-for-word identical, it is being sent back to the House for “reconciliation” — i.e., to pass the amended language. Legislative supporters are confident that this will occur before the end of the session Sunday. Here is a link to information about the COAL Act. — Second, on February 6, State Treasurer Read released his Net Zero Plan to lead the state toward decarbonization by 2050. Divest Oregon has vigorously lobbied the Treasurer and the Oregon Investment Council to move in this direction. Although we would like these actions to occur more quickly than outlined in the Treasurer’s plan, we applaud this important first step. See more about the Net Zero Plan and Divest Oregon’s comments at their website. — Third, on April 2 Divest Oregon will sponsor the Oregon Treasurer Candidate Forum in Portland. Optional live streamed for those who sign up. Current Treasurer Read is term limited from running for re-election. Divest Oregon has invited all announced candidates to share their vision for Oregon investments and learn how (and whether) they intend to implement the Net Zero plan. Here’s a link to forum information and free ticket reservation: Whew! We’re making progress. Contact Gary Wallmark at [email protected] if you have additional questions. Get Out the Vote The 2024 general election approaches! In the last election, the 350 Eugene Get Out The Vote postcard writers sent 10,000 postcards to registered infrequent voters and it made a difference! Current data show that 60% of Americans live in poverty, often barely making it "paycheck to paycheck". At the same time "poor and low wealth" citizens are less likely to vote than their wealthier counterparts. Their voices matter! In May, we will launch the 2024 350 Eugene "Get Out The Vote" (GOTV) campaign! If you're interested in participating, please send an email to Debby at [email protected] with the subject line: Get Out The Vote. I will send you all you need to know to participate in our 2024 GOTV campaign, in what might be the most important election of our lives. Together we make a difference! Thank you.  Resilience The Dream of Now - William Stafford When you wake to the dream of now from night and its other dream you carry day out of the dark like a flame. When spring comes north and flowers unfold from earth and its even sleep, you lift summer on with your breath lest it be lost ever so deep. Your life you live by the light you find and follow it on as well as you can, carrying through the darkness wherever you go your one little fire that will start again. On a new Spring Creek podcast, distinguished professor emerita of Philosophy at OSU, Kathleen Dean Moore, tells a story about how W.S. Merwin’s prose poem, “Unchopping a Tree,” helped her students think through the question that possesses us all: How can one heart hold both a deep love for the natural world and the knowledge that it is being destroyed?
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