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PSE RATE HIKE FIGHT CAMPAIGN ~ Electricity is essential. Our world is built around it. When a PSE customer can no longer afford the increased electrical rates- worst-case scenario of having your services discontinued - it is devastating. When costs for everything are rising, people can choose what they spend money on, to an extent. Sometimes you can use less of something, or choose a cheaper version. With electricity, there is a threshold to how little you can choose to use, and with PSE as a monopoly, there are no cheaper alternatives. If PSE raises rates, customers must pay more, whether they can afford it or not.
Under a more normal capitalist system, if PSE wanted to make more money for its investors, it would have to make a better product to compete with other companies. Without that competition, PSE has no pressure to improve for its customers. In fact, it is making things worse for its customers by continuing to invest in fossil fuels rather than renewable energy, and therefore contributing to climate change and pollution. If people could make a choice other than PSE, a choice that was cheaper or created a better environment, they would. PSE should not be able to force people to pay more for something they absolutely need when they can't get it anywhere else, and the consequences of paying that extra money will make their lives worse. ~Ben
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has once again proposed ANOTHER rate hike to the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), and once again blames environmental policies for the price increase. This time, they're requesting an almost 30% increase in electric bills and almost 20% in gas bills! Puget Sound Energy has increased its electricity prices faster than any other state utility and is more expensive than the national average.
Your voice is needed. We need the UTC to hold this for-profit utility accountable and protect the public.Send your letter today!
MAKE POLLUTERS PAY CAMPAIGN - easy action steps
Tell Your WA Reps: Make Polluters Pay With the devastating fires in Spokane, WA, lawmakers need to hear from you about why polluters, not everyday people, should pay for climate disaster response and recovery. Big Oil spent decades burying climate science while burying us in climate pollution. They knew the damage they were causing, and they did it anyway. Every dollar from polluters is a dollar that doesn't come from our pockets. These funds will help us build stronger, more resilient communities that can weather the climate storms ahead. Together, let's make polluters pay; take action by clicking here. Send your letter using the form below. While you don't have to personalize it, know that your power as a constituent is in your story - if you or your loved ones have been impacted by wildfires or other climate disasters, we encourage you to share. Constituent stories are especially impactful in moments like these, where you can shape how elected officials connect the headlines to the real lives of people in their district. Learn moreabout our statewide campaign to Make Polluters Pay. Powered by everyday people like you, who want a healthy climate future and think Big Oil should pay their fair share! Check out the campaign website.
Eastside For All ~ Circles of Care and Impact In 2026, Eastside For All increased our opportunities for people to connect with each other and make an impact. It can be hard to know what to do in these times. Some of you have been doing a LOT, and we see you! Thank you! Others are struggling in your own lives in different ways, and we see you, too. Come to be supported, or come to help others. It's all important. Coming together is what matters. We look forward to seeing you and caring for each other in community. EVENTS: Community Table, September 9, 12-1 PM The Community Table is a monthly virtual lunch hour for our donors and donors-to-be. We share advocacy updates, exchange insights, and explore meaningful ways to take action. Stay connected to the impact you’re helping create. Sign up for the series and join when you can.
Welcoming Week September 10-19 Celebrate the 11th Annual East King County event as part of the International Welcoming Week. See the local calendar - skip to September. Have an event to share? Submit the details here by 9/8 to be included in the event calendar.
Safe Haven Cafecitos, September 16, 9-10:00 AM Join monthly “Cafecitos” meetings to identify advocacy priorities, share information, and collaborate to support local immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. Safe Haven Cafecitos is open to people and groups that serve immigrant communities; it centers the voices and experiences of local immigrant leaders.
This year we have a goal of 26 donors contributing $100 or more each month to provide sustained support. At the end of the year, we'll have a special acknowledgement for this unique group of supporters whose recurring gifts help us plan, act, and grow with confidence. Can you help us meet that goal? All donors are invited to join the monthly Community Table.
501c4: Eastside For All launched a sister 501(c)(4) organization called the Build for Belonging Action Fund.
Purpose: It serves as a political home for communities of color in East King County to grow political power, develop leaders, and advocate for equitable policies in housing, public safety, and community development.
Fiscal Sponsor: Fiscally sponsored by Just Strategy, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization located at 3518 S. Edmunds St, Seattle, WA 98118. Website: https://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=QBB8On&m=3ck3kK9H8xjxn7S&b=6JSg1vloUcixTXImXtfu1A
You're making a difference, and we appreciate you! Debbie Lacy Founder, Eastside For All
NORTHWEST ENERGY COALITION UPDATES ~ NWEC Fall Conference & Member Meeting Update:
Some other NW Energy Coalition News & Events:
Elle Gasperini (she/her) Events and Membership Manager | NW Energy Coalition 206-621-0094 x 120
NORTHWEST AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONS ~ Northwest Against Nuclear Weapons (NWANW) envisions a future safe from the humanitarian, health, and environmental threats posed by nuclear weapons. We understand that the use of even one nuclear weapon would have disastrous consequences, and so we aim to ultimately abolish all nuclear weapons globally. NWANW is building a local movement against nuclear weapons through education, grassroots action, coalition-building, and direct advocacy. Our Message:
The extreme humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons – felt disproportionately by our most vulnerable communities, including people of color and low-income populations – make it necessary to deem these weapons illegal internationally. We wholeheartedly support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
The US government is set to spend $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years rebuilding our entire nuclear weapons arsenal and creating new nuclear weapons. Every nuclear weapon is a theft from our schools, our health, our environment, and our communities.
The long history of accidents and near-misses involving nuclear weapons demonstrates this, as do the consequences of production, testing, and waste.
From the largest concentration of nuclear weapons in the US located at Bangor, WA, to Hanford, the most contaminated nuclear site in the Western Hemisphere, to the poisonous remains of uranium mining on the Spokane Tribe of Indians Reservation, these are issues that all Washington residents should know about, and that all elected officials have a duty to address. We need to build and revitalize a broad and robust Anti-War movement if we want to see policy wins on nuclear weapons. Take action HERE.
BACK FROM THE BRINK ~ Back from the Brink is a US-based grassroots coalition of individuals, organizations, and elected officials working together toward a world free of nuclear weapons and advocating for common-sense nuclear weapons policies to secure a safer, more just future. We call on the United States to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war by:
Here's the text of the House and Senate versions of the Back from the Brink resolution we're advocating for in Congress right now, along with TAKE ACTION HERE: a website where you can find an example letter to your members of Congress with talking points that you can customize and send. Currently, 70 members of Congress have signed on, including Rep. Jayapal in WA, and we'd be delighted to encourage more of our WA congressional delegation to sign on before the end of the year! The more who sign on, the stronger our movement's voice will be in the media, the public, and the halls of power.
350.org ~ A United Nations report has just confirmed that the world is on track to breach 1.5°C of global heating, probably within the next few years. Governments promised to keep global heating below this critical limit. But we are now on track to overshoot it. Some scientists think we could hit 1.8°C before we manage to bring it back down.1 We’re already seeing what a hotter world looks like. Over 1,000 people are dead after the flash floods in Nepal and Tibet last week.2 Over 3 million people are choking on wildfire smoke in Indonesia right now.3 And a new report just estimated that 35,000 people across Europe were killed by this summer's relentless heatwaves.4 It’s tough to accept that we will probably exceed 1.5°C soon – entering a period where events once considered exceptional will increasingly shape people’s daily lives. But how high temperatures rise, and how long it takes us to get back below that critical level, is still being decided this year, by political choices we can actually influence. Will you pledge to take more action this year to help make the solutions we need inevitable? Many of us are feeling horrified, overwhelmed, angry or scared about the impacts we’re experiencing this year, and that's a normal human response we shouldn’t push away. But a recent headline from journalist George Monbiot really stuck with me: “Don’t despair about what’s happening to our planet. That’s what they want you to feel.”5 It’s a rallying cry to channel the outrage we’re feeling into a social tipping point where the seemingly impossible becomes inevitable. Big Oil and all their major investors are delighted when we feel too defeated to act. A hopeless movement doesn't mobilize, and it definitely doesn't force governments to tax their obscene profits and transition our entire energy system away from them. Over the next few months, we’re putting our energy into holding the fossil fuel industry to account, fighting for affordable, accessible energy, and standing with frontline communities. We won't be able to do it without supporters like you, Lin. Join the pledge – then send this to three people who would most likely be the ones to join you. Staying below 1.5°C is a vital goal for survival that we have been fighting for since 350.org began, and we’re still fighting to hold onto it, but governments and fossil fuel companies have denied the problem, delayed solutions, and profited from the ever-growing crisis. We can’t let them off the hook for a single second. In solidarity, Lisa and everyone at 350.org Sources:1. UNEP: World set to cross 1.5°C global warming, but can still limit, adapt to and return from higher temperatures2. Nepal-China glacier collapse and flash floods3. ‘Everything is covered in ash’: Indonesia wildfires leave people in crisis4. At least 35,000 excess deaths recorded in Europe’s back-to-back heatwaves5. Don’t despair about what’s happening to our planet. That’s what they want you to feel
ROADLESS RULE CHANGE - please take action soon ~ Roadless Rule DEIS Comments due by September 20, 2026 The documentation and instructions for opposing the Rescission of the Roadless Rule DEIS are here.
This folder contains copies of the full DEIS, Resolutions from both the National Congress of American Indians and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, comments from the previous scoping period, and more. The document entitled "September 20, 2026 Roadless Rule DEIS" includes background information, a summary of the DEIS with commentary, talking points, and guidance on where and how to file a comment.
Rescinding the Roadless Rule would remove protections from nearly 45 million acres of pristine forestlands from across 38 States—from Alaska to Appalachia, from Minnesota to New Mexico—and Puerto Rico. The Roadless Rule prohibits new road construction, existing road upgrades, logging, and other extractive industries in these areas.
Read more here.
Removing the Roadless Rule's protections would open the last of our remaining wilderness to massive logging projects, motorized traffic, extractive industries like mining and fossil fuel extraction, and other devastating activities and projects.
The last scoping process generated 220,000 comments from 625,000 submissions, and we need to surpass this.
GREEN AMENDMENTS FOR THE GENERATIONS, update ~ The dedicated members of the Washington Green Amendment team have worked hard since 2021 to secure a constitutional environmental rights amendment that would forever enshrine the people's rights to clean air, pure water, a safe climate, and a healthy environment in the Washington Declaration of Rights.
Over the past five years of advocacy, organizing, and community engagement, the people of our coalition - and the state at large - have watched as environmental injustice, extreme weather, and pollution from numerous sources continue to devastate our Washington communities. In the face of these tragedies, WA state advocates keep up the fight for a better and more just system of environmental protection that puts power in the hands of the people - not polluters, corporations, or partisan political schemes. We continue this fight for the benefit of current and future generations.
The Washington Green Amendment states:
Article I of the Constitution of the state of Washington shall be amended by adding a new section to read:
(a) The people of the state, including future generations, have the right to a clean and healthy environment, including pure water, clean air, healthy ecosystems, and a stable climate, and to the preservation of the natural, cultural, scenic, and healthful qualities of the environment. (b) The state, including each political subdivision of the state, shall serve as trustee of the natural resources of the state, among them its waters, air, flora, fauna, soils, and climate. The state, including each political subdivision of the state, shall conserve, protect, and maintain these resources for the benefit of all the people, including generations yet to come.
(c) The rights stated in this section are inherent, inalienable, and indefeasible, are among those rights reserved to all the people, and are on par with other protected inalienable rights. The state, including each political subdivision of the state, shall equitably protect these rights for all people regardless of their race, ethnicity, tribal membership status, gender, geography, or wealth, and shall act with prudence, loyalty, and impartiality in fulfilling its trustee obligations. The provisions of this section are self-executing
GET OUT THE VOTE (GOTV) ~ The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is a stark reminder that a lot has changed since that time - a constitution with 26 amendments, including critical human rights and policy evolutions to meet the modern moment the original founders could not have fathomed. None of these changes would have occurred without advocacy and struggle, and the will of the people. As we near the midterm election, we are reminded that democracy is fragile. Participating in elections is essential for governing a civil society, justice, and re-imagining our relationship with ourselves, each other, and the world. We have the opportunity to help create the laws and policies that govern our daily lives. Voting is the heart of our democracy in the UsS., and yet, Pew Research shows both the 2022 and 2024 midterms in the United States saw fewer than 50% of eligible voters participate, which fell well below the historic high turnout seen in 2020. This year, we will have a consequential midterm election – are you ready to vote? This election will impact our future- the recovery of salmon and orcas, the health of the air, lands, and waters where we live, and the opportunities and quality of life we seek for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. Join the Get Out the Vote Campaign and encourage your friends, family, and community to vote with salmon, orcas, and rivers in mind. Make your voting plan today!
We have posters and Half Sheets available to help get out the message to vote. If you can get these out in the community, please contact me: [email protected], and we can make arrangements to get the materials for you. Thank you.
PODCAST AND CONVERSATION WITH THE AUTHORS ~
Podcast - What If We Get It Right, Anya Elizabeth Johnson
Ayana and Bill McKibben are teaming up as podcast co-hosts! ✨
Season 5 of the What If We Get It Right? podcast focuses on environmental issues in the midterm elections—what’s at stake and how the planet can win. We are going to get INTO IT.
Conversation with the authors: Trillion Dollar War Machine, co-authored by William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman. The work investigates how excessive U.S. military spending fuels continuous international conflicts while draining domestic resources. The authors show how the military-industrial complex extends far beyond standard lobbying and into everyday American culture. OTHER GREAT ORGANIZATIONS TO CHECK OUT ~ Be well, Elena, Emily, Lin, Lynn, Marilyn, and Phil
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