 On the 53rd anniversary of Earth Day, we marked the intersection of forest defense and climate defense with a fun-filled afternoon in downtown Eugene with a rally, parade & flashmob, including great speakers (Mayor Vinis, Councilor Keating and Miriam Oommen), singing (Raging Grannies), drumming (Samba Ja) and jazz favorites with the All Eugene High School Band! Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers who made this event possible. And a special shout out to the Department of Climate Emergency Fire Engine & Emerald Valley EV Association drivers, and Wildcraft Ciderworks for a fabulous community Earth Day party! There will be lots more fun around forest protection coming up this summer. Read on! CampaignsForest Defense is Climate Defense Phase One - Last year’s Executive Order to inventory federal forests. Phase Two - We Demand Durable Protections for Forests! Last year, President Biden ordered an inventory of federal forests and this year we need strong rules to protect them. Great news! Last week, the BLM and USDA (which houses the US Forest Service) announced a pathway to protect mature and old-growth trees and forests as part of a strategy to improve the climate resilience of federally managed forests. The rulemaking process will involve a public comment period to gather input on new policies the agency can adopt. Our goal is to generate over 500,000 comments. The deadline is June 20th. Stay tuned for talking points and toolkits! We’re going to set a new record for comments submitted! Join us! Conflict Navigation for Activists - Wednesday, May 10th from 6:00 to 7:30 pm In preparation for the Deep Roots Forest Climate Camp, the Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance has provided Activist Training webinars to skill up with best campaign practices. The final session in a hard-hitting four-part series is about Conflict Navigation. You won’t want to miss it. Register here.  Forest Defense Continued Deep Roots Forest Climate Action Camp - June 1st through 4th in Southwest Washington This is how we win! We build grassroots support and power for the change our elected officials don’t have the political courage to make! Thanks to the groundbreaking work of the Climate Emergency Fund, 350 Eugene received its second generous grant for a Deep Roots Forest Climate Action Camp. The Climate Emergency Fund raises funds and makes grants to the disruptive nonviolent climate movement and we are proud to be grantees. Deep Roots is a space for trainings, relationship building, and great food! Trainings include: organizing & participating in direct action, creating vibrant protest art, forest defense, strategy and tactics, and more! The location is not being released at this time; it is within several hours of Seattle and Portland and will be shared with people who register for the camp. You can find out more about the camp here & register with this link. June 24th - July 2nd - Forest Climate Week of Actions in the Pacific Northwest We’re planning to hit the Eugene streets with some of the magnificent banners & posters from Earth Day during this week of action. We’ll need lots of people to animate the art. Stay tuned for details and plan to join in. Electrify Eugene As many of you have heard, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently ruled against the City of Berkley, potentially invalidating their ordinance mandating the electrification of new construction. This is very disappointing and has significant implications for Eugene’s electrification ordinance mandating electricity in all new low rise residential construction. This necessarily changes our strategy and we’re considering all our options. Meanwhile, somethings are certain:
Here’s some amazing coverage in the national media: Washington Post 4/21/21: A fight brewing in Oregon could decide how we heat our homes and cook (In Eugene, the natural gas industry plans to spend millions to defeat the city’s ban on gas in newly built homes. If it succeeds, the industry may take the fight to other U.S. cities and counties.) Bloomberg 4/25/23: An Oregon City Banned Natural Gas. The Gas Company Fought Back. (Eugene’s ordinance restricting gas hookups in new construction was set to be the state’s first - until a local utility and its allies launched a $1 million counterattack.) State Legislation Update Last Thursday was Lobby Day in Salem for the Building Resilience bill package. These 4 bills are crucial to creating a framework and mandate for energy efficient buildings. If passed, they will to enable Oregon to access monies from the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to help us have more climate resilient homes and offices and save money on our utility bills. These bills are in Ways and Means Committee; if your representative is Paul Holvey, please let his office know you support these important bills. [email protected] Low Carbon Buildings / Efficiency Upgrades SB868 SB868 A Staff Measure Summary LINK: OLIS SB868 2023 Regular Session Requires the Department of Consumer and Business Services to study how to build resilience and efficiency into buildings. STATUS (as of 4/17/2023): Passed Senate Committee On Energy and Environment with amendments 3-2. Referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by order of the President. SB869 SB869 A Staff Measure Summary LINK: OLIS SB869 2023 Regular Session Directs Department of Consumer and Business Services to facilitate greenhouse gas emission reductions consistent with statewide goals. STATUS (as of 4/17/2023): Passed Senate Committee On Energy and Environment with amendments 3-2. Referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by order of the President. SB870 SB870 A Staff Measure Summary LINK: OLIS SB870 2023 Regular Session Declares an emergency. Oregon government agencies to specify energy performance standard for covered commercial buildings that seeks to maximize reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. STATUS (as of 4/17/2023): Passed Senate Committee On Energy and Environment with amendments 3-2. Referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by order of the President. SB871 SB871 A Staff Measure Summary LINK: OLIS SB871 2023 Regular Session Specifies requirements for energy savings performance contract and provides that contracting agency may solicit and award energy savings performance contract without competitive process and without requirement to issue request for proposals. STATUS (as of 4/17/2023): Passed Senate Committee On Energy and Environment with amendments 3-2. Referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by order of the President. Climate Resilience Hubs HB 2990 HB2990 A Staff Measure Summary LINK: OLIS HB2990 2023 Regular Session Requires the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), in consultation with the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE), and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), to provide grants, support, and technical assistance for Resilience Hubs and Networks in Oregon. Defines "Resilience Hub" and "Resilience Network." STATUS As of 4/17/2023: Passed the House Committee On Climate, Energy, and Environment 4-1. Referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. Help our Natural Working Lands and the farmers and foresters who make their living there have the money and tools to become more climate resilient while sequestering Carbon! Carbon Sequestration SB530 Natural Climate Solutions SB530 Staff Measure Summary LINK: OLIS SB530 2023 Regular Session Supports increased carbon sequestration on our forests, agricultural lands, and wetlands and improved resilience of our water, wildlife, and communities by providing incentives and technical support to forest owners, farmers, and ranchers to implement STATUS (as of 4/17/2023): Passed Senate Natural Resource Committee 3-2. Referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. HB2998 Healthy Soils HB2998 Staff Measure Summary LINK: OLIS HB2998 2023 Regular Session Creates Oregon Soil Health Initiative, a voluntary, incentive-based approach that is focused on expanding strategies to advance soil health including: technical assistance, outreach and farmer-to-farmer education, financial incentives, and research. STATUS (as of 4/17/2023): Passed House Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water Committee 3-2.Referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. GTN XPress Good news… the FERC has pushed the deadline for a decision out another month. Meanwhile, Oregonians are calling on Governor Tina Kotek to oppose the GTN XPress fracked gas expansion, as she promised to do while campaigning for office. Let’s keep up the pressure – Urge Governor Kotek to keep her promise and publicly oppose GTN XPress! Send a message or call her office today! Dial (503) 378-4582, then press “3” to leave a comment. Sample Talking Points:
Take Action!Say No to the Oregon Domestic Terrorist bill. Email your legislators with a short note (talking points provided) by clicking here (easy; takes 2 minutes). Thank you! Dissent is patriotic and we must be able to freely protest under our Constitutional rights. Save the DateSunday, April 30th, 6:00 pm - Film screening of The Animal People at the Eugene Garden Club, 1645 High Street; $5-15 sliding scale. Show your solidarity at this fundraiser with those fighting back against Cop City. The Animal People is a documentary about the SHAC 7 case, followed by a Q&A with two of the defendants, Josh Harper and Jake Conroy. Hosted by the Civil Liberties Defense Center and the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar, this event will include prisoner letter-writing, and Certain Days calendars will also be available. Wednesday, May 3rd at 7 - 8:30 pm - "Oregon’s Wall Street Forests and the Climate Emergency” with Chuck Willer of the Coast Range Association at the Eugene Garden Club, 1645 High Street. Chuck Willer will explore the role of Wall Street finance in Oregon’s private forests and how financial management harms the environment, people, communities and rural economies. He will focus on the rise of investor-owned timber corporations locked into ecologically destructive forest management, forest carbon loss and polluted watersheds. All the while, an unrelenting climate crisis challenges financial forest management. Free admission - donations accepted; Hosts are Community Rights Lane County and Protect Lane County Watersheds. June 8th through 11th - End the Era of Fossil Fuels - National Days of Distributed Actions Join our friends at 350PDX and other Portland orgs on June 11th for a day of action on the water! We will be standing up to Zenith Energy and the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub as well as acting in solidarity with other fossil fuel fights taking place across the country. The CEI Hub is a six-mile stretch of old tank farms, located in NW Portland along the Willamette River. The CEI Hub holds more than 90% of all liquid fuel in Oregon. The entire CEI Hub is in an earthquake liquefaction zone. Located within the CEI Hub is Zenith, the source of dangerous oil trains plowing through our communities. Despite years of public outcry against Zenith’s dangerous operations, on October 3, the City of Portland quietly approved a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS)—giving Zenith the green light for five more years of oil trains and all the threats it presents in our communities. Biden promised to be a climate president – yet under his watch, the U.S. continues to be the biggest producer of oil and gas in the world. In the first few years of his term, he approved more lease sales for new oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters than Trump. And his administration has approved new oil and gas projects, like the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska and multiple oil and gas export terminals in the Gulf. Global scientists have been abundantly clear – we cannot avoid the very worst impacts of the climate crisis if we allow for any more fossil development. Starting this June, national climate organizations are mobilizing to turn up the heat and make Biden take real climate action – by ending the era of fossil fuels. We’ll join a national week of action during June 8th through 11th to demand Biden use his executive powers to end the era of fossil fuels and declare a climate emergency! The pressure to end fossil fuels is growing. Stay tuned for more details! Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.” — Václav Havel
Some beautiful resources from Rebecca Solnit’s new work, “Not Too Late - Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility” at https://www.nottoolateclimate.com/.
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