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*** Attention: March 15th – Community Meeting ***
350 Eastside Community Meeting When: Wednesday, March 15th @ 7pm Zoom Link: Meeting ID: 828 7707 3725 Passcode: 798154 Focus: Legislative Session – Update on RPacer bill and PCA Plans for 2023
Wednesday night, we will have Court Olson, who worked tirelessly in the 2022 legislative session to pass the CPacer bill which provides a financing mechanism for owners of commercial buildings to purchase energy-savings upgrades like weatherization, solar panels and heat pumps and repay the cost over time with energy cost savings through their utility bills. Court will also update us on the People for Climate Action Coalition and their plans for 2023.
FEBRUARY MEETING RECORDING: Last month we focused on how to empower you to participate in the 2023 legislative session in a way that is effective, powerful, and filled with options to meet your availability and passions. We began the information session with a short video from 350 Seattle’s Civic Action Team’s (CAT) launch followed by a presentation from a CAT representative, and ending with Q&A
Check out the recording here if you weren’t able to attend:
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STOP Dirty Banks National Day of Action! - 3.21.23 |
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Since the 2015 Paris Climate Accord was signed, four banks, Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank, have provided over one trillion dollars in financing for the fossil fuel industry, an industry that continues building new or expanding oil and gas projects. 💵
JOIN US on March 21st, noon-1:30 at the 🛑 Stop Dirty Banks National Day of Action 🛑, for a fun (music and food), educational, family-friendly event to call out these banks and cut our ties if they don't stop investing our money in the fossil fuel industry.
Join us at Downtown Park Bellevue. You can sign up to attend using this link: https://thirdact.org/national-
See you there! 👋
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Not able to get to Bellevue for our event? Other events are happening around the Puget Sound region!
Sign up for an Action near you!: · Seattle - Contact Lisa Verhovek or Margo Polley - Register HERE · Bainbridge Island - Contact John Kydd - Register HERE · Eastside - Contact Lin Hagedorn - Register HERE · Vancouver, WA - Contact Kristin Edmark - Register HERE This list will surely grow, so look for more information to come on Third Act Puget Sound’s Facebook page and Third Act central’s action map, where you can learn about and register for actions taking place locally and across the nation. The 3.21.23 Day of Action will be a jumping-off point for other activities to keep the pressure on banks and other institutions to divest themselves of fossil fuels. In the next several months you can expect to hear more about training sessions and other direct actions around divesting funds.
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STOP the GTN Xpress pipeline project!
Help us stop the expansion of a fracked gas pipeline that goes through Idaho, Oregon and Washington. This project would add more than 3.47 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year – the equivalent pollution of adding 754,000 passenger vehicles on the road each year until 2052. It has also been determined that the project would be inconsistent with the goals of Washington’s Climate Commitment Act which calls for decreasing climate emissions by 95% by 2050. In addition, the project would subject communities located near the pipeline route and compressor stations to increased health risks. Note that the company behind this project is TC Energy, the same company behind the failed Keystone XL Pipeline, and whose safety record Senator Cantwell has highlighted in the Senate Commerce Committee.
Because we are expecting a decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the next couple of weeks, we are asking you to help stop this project by submitting opposition comments to FERC. To submit your comments, use FERC’s E-File system. NOTE: you must make an account first! For first time filers especially, the process can be a bit tricky, but this link will guide you through the process. Use GTN Docket # CP22-2-000. If you have any issues in filing you can email FERC’s Office of Public Participation at [email protected] or by phone at (202) 502-6595.
Sample comment:
I strongly oppose the GTN XPress proposed project (CP22-2-000). Although my community is already feeling the impacts of climate change with record heat, wildfires, droughts, and flooding, this project would increase the emissions contributing to these conditions. (Feel free to add any personal comments as well about how climate change has affected you.)
In addition, FERC’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) doesn’t fully capture the scope of upstream emissions and the GTN XPress proposal contradicts the emission reduction goals Oregon and Washington have set. Washington State’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act set the path for Washington to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and this pipeline expansion is in direct opposition to that goal.
Another concern is the fact that the Environmental Impact Statement fails to identify the potential for leaks and accidents that could occur due to the increased pressure placed onto this old pipeline infrastructure. We don’t want a massive ecological disaster in our backyard.
Clean energy is getting less expensive all the time, with the cost of wind and solar energy currently at record lows. Yet we could be forced to pay higher utility bills because of expensive and unnecessary infrastructure projects like GTN XPress.
FERC did not give our communities the opportunity to speak out against this pipeline expansion at earlier decision points. I oppose this project and I am calling on FERC commissioners to consider the input of our Western states’ Attorneys General and the voices of people across the Northwest. Please deny the GTN XPress project. BONUS POINTS: And if you haven’t yet called our Governor and Senators to ask them to oppose this project and have a bit more time, please use this document to make your calls.
Thanks for taking the time to stop this horrific project!
Linnea Scott and Selden Prentice 350 Seattle Federal Policy Team |
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Making Washingtonians’ Money Matter The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) manages more than $192 billion of state retirement plans, insurance funds, and other public assets ― money that it manages on behalf of 552,000 retirement plan beneficiaries and public trust stakeholders. WSIB invests its members’ savings across the economy, holding shares in thousands of companies, including in many corporations that are actively fueling the climate crisis.
So What’s the Problem? WSIB has the opportunity to take action on the climate crisis (and to protect the economy from climate-related financial risk) in a variety of key ways, including voting in favor climate resolutions, such as the “no fossil fuel expansion” resolutions that were filed at major banks and insurance companies in 2022, and voting against corporate directors that are failing to steward their companies in line with a 1.5°C pathway. The problem is that WSIB is regularly voting against climate resolutions. In 2022, it votes against dozens of critical climate resolutions at banks, utilities, fossil fuel companies, and insurance companies.
What Are We Going to Do About It?
Stay tuned for more info, coming soon! |
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Weatherization Plus Health
Lawmakers are working now to build a budget for the next two years. Affordable housing, jobs, public health, and climate action are priorities for investment, but very few programs deliver on all of them. Weatherization Plus Health does.
Washington’s innovative Weatherization Plus Health (Wx+H) program addresses the intersection of housing, jobs, health, and climate justice like few others. With the influx of almost $50M in highly restrictive federal weatherization funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) over the next five years, it is crucial that we leverage state resources to meet the full potential of the program. We fully support the Governor’s $46 million request in the 2023-2025 biennial budget for Weatherization Plus Health to serve more than 4,200 households. We look forward to working with you and the legislature to assess the most strategic sources of funding that preserve flexibility, leverage DOE funding, and include the workforce development support necessary to scale up Wx+H to meet the ambitious goals of the state energy strategy. Weatherization Plus Health has effectively doubled resources statewide through leveraging of federal and utility funds, supporting low-income Washingtonians to make their homes more affordable, efficient and healthy. Not only do these investments decrease utility bills, they also create local family-wage jobs, reduce carbon pollution, and alleviate health risks.
Read more HERE about why the Weatherization Plus Health program continues to be an excellent use of state funds and worthy of ongoing support, why we need state funding to leverage federal funding, and what to ask for this session from your representatives.
Learn more at WAPartnership.org and ShiftZero.org’s Weatherization One-Pager |
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Move Redmond 🚲
At 350 Eastside, we cherish the health and environmental benefits of biking instead of driving. To reduce stress from sitting in traffic and get some great exercise and fresh air, all while helping reduce emissions for your community, check out Move Redmond’s series of events in March centered around biking:
“Redmond is on the precipice of major transportation changes with light rail coming soon and the investments in Eastrail. These regional connections will make Redmond more accessible from around the region for people who live, work and go to school in Redmond. Not only do we advocate for better walking, rolling, & transit in Redmond, we also aim to support people shifting their transportation habits by providing people the tools they need to transform their commutes!
Move Redmond, Redmond Library, and Brian Watson, a certified League Cycling Instructor & Cycling Savvy Instructor, are collaborating on a series of biking events, highly subsidized by Move Redmond, to help you get a start in transforming your trips to Redmond through biking! By pairing biking with transit, your bus stops just got a whole lot closer!”
CLASSES - Remaining:
How to Buy a Bike & Bicycle Petting Zoo March 18th 2023 10:30am – 12pm Redmond Library
Driver’s Ed for Bicyclists: Essentials of Bicycle Driving March 25th 2023 10:30am – 12:30pm Redmond Library
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350.org Fossil Free Campaign (https://350.org/fossil-free-newsletter-73/) All over the world, the climate movement is raising our voices to put an end to the destructive fossil fuels era. Come with us on this issue to know more about what happened in the last month, and how you can join us for what comes next! Why don’t you join our Fossil Free mailing list for all the latest stories on climate organizing from around the world. Stories that matter. Campaigns that inspire. All delivered directly to you every month.
Sunrise Movement (https://www.sunrisemovement.org/) After a lengthy period of self-reflection and reorganization this group of under-35 young people have an ambitious post-Covid agenda. Check out their website! Efforts are underway to organize a Sunrise Hub in Bellevue and to create hubs in local middle and high schools.
***** In Solidarity, |
