There’s a chill in the air, and here’s the cure: Come dance at our party! More on that below, but first…
GAS IS THE WRONG BRIDGE
Let’s be clear: We should not be building any new “natural” gas infrastructure that locks us into decades of expanded usage in our state, and the notion that “natural” gas is a cleaner bridge fuel is just plain wrong. That means saying NO to PSE’s LNG plant in Tacoma, NO to the methanol plant in Kalama, NO to the new proposed ammonia plant in Longview, and NO to new gas appliances or fixtures in residential and commercial buildings. And a BIG YES to 100% Renewable Energy now!!!
That message was sent out loud and clear directly to Governor Inslee at his two town-halls on climate in Bellevue and Seattle recently, in collaboration with Protectors of the Salish Sea. And directly to PSE representatives and other participants of the NW Clean and Affordable Energy conference on November 2nd, where we attended with a Puyallup Water Warrior, asked some tough questions during the panel on the role of “natural” gas in our clean energy future, and deployed an impressive light projection on the building in direct view of conference participants.
Stay tuned for more work on this issue and stopping PSE’s Tacoma LNG project. And if you can, attend the Keep it in the Ground general meeting this coming Tuesday, November 7th at 6:00pm.
Please make sure to sign and share this petition asking Governor Inslee to stop PSE’s Tacoma LNG and enjoy this 3 minute wrap up video of our PSE regional Day of Action.
LONGVIEW, OH LONGVIEW
Can you believe it? Just as a humongous coal export terminal goes down to almost certain defeat, a huge ammonia plant is proposed. This new project would use as much fracked gas as the Tacoma LNG project, and require a pipeline extension alongside residential areas, and over the Cowlitz river. Longview, we cry for you.
Your comments are needed:
Send email to: PCFscoping@mylongview.com
Submit via the city website: www.mylongview.com/PacificCoastFertilizerSEPA
Comments are due by November 15th
Talking points from Sierra Club here.
TRANSMOUNTAIN EVENT
As First Nations and Canadians across the border continue to resist Kinder Morgan’s attempts to start building the TransMountain pipeline expansion, make sure to attend a powerful upcoming panel on this issue in Seattle:
Oil in the Water – How to Stop the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion
Wednesday November 15, 6:30 – 8:30pm
University Friends Meeting, 4001 9th Ave NE, Seattle
Panelists:
- Chief Rueben George, a Tsleil-Waututh leader in the coalition challenging the pipeline in the B.C. courts
- Dave Anderson, author of Spill: A Story of Oil and Orcas in the Salish Sea
- Judy Twedt, founding member of King County Labor Council’s Climate Caucus
- Chiara Rose D’Angelo-Patricio, co-founder of Students for the Salish Sea
NECESSITY DEFENSE GRANTED!
The Hon. Robert Tiffany, a district court judge in Clearwater County, Minnesota, ruled that valve turners Emily and Annette, supporter Ben, and filmmaker Steve can present a necessity defense, with expert witnesses allowed to testify on just how necessary the action was. History and legal precedent in the making: This is the first time ever that a US judge has issued a written opinion allowing the presentation of the climate necessity defense at a jury trial. Of course, the prosecution has filed an appeal to this ruling. Once that’s ruled on, we expect a trial sometime in the new year.
Meanwhile, in Montana
Leonard’s judge is going the other direction, pushing for a very fast trial, and unlikely to allow much of a defense. But Leonard will not be silenced.
Leonard Higgins Mock Trial
Saturday, November 18, 6:00–8:00pm Pacific, 7:00–9:00pm Mountain
Tune in to see courtroom drama the likes of which Montana will see only here. Don’t miss Michael Foster playing an oil executive! Cast also includes Arnold Schroder as Defense Attorney, Lauren Regan (in real life a climate defense attorney with CLDC) as Prosecutor, valve turner Ken Ward as a pipeline safety expert, and Leonard Higgins as our favorite Defendant. Broadcast live from Missoula! Register here in advance to join from the comfort of your own home. See this Facebook event page for more details.
Want to keep up with valve turner trial news? See the Montana trial Live Blog here, and sign up for email updates about the Montana trial here, and Minnesota trial here.
WE’RE HAVING A PARTY AND YOU’RE INVITED!
Help us celebrate 350 Seattle’s roots and resolve, and a year of incredible climate action! There will be great company and dancing!
Intertwined: A Fundraising Party for 350 Seattle
Friday, November 17, doors open at 7:45pm; program begins at 8:30pm
Centilia Cultural Center at El Centro de La Raza, 2524 16th Ave S, Seattle 98144
(Close to the Beacon Hill light rail station)
Program Highlights:
• Dance performance by JASE – “Resilient Together”
• Music by members of our Artful Activism music team
• Spoken word
• Dance party starts with the Rise Up Action Band
• DJ Ale Blakely, because no party is complete without dancing
• Bid on silent auction items to help raise money for 350 Seattle
All this for only $10 – get your tickets today!
(And here’s something to tip your scales: If you sign up as a monthly donor by November 10th you’ll receive a free ticket and free drinks all night.)
ARTFUL ACTIVISM
Join us to help make beautiful batiked cloth in time for the Intertwined Fall Party, and many events beyond!
Art Build: Learn to BATIK
Friday, November 10, 6:00–10:00pm
Powerhouse, 3940 Fremont Ave N, Seattle 98103
No skills needed! RSVP to Shemona.
Meanwhile the Art Leaders team is still in development for all the arts! Work with other fun and awesome people to develop our sub-teams to move people’s minds and hearts with our messages. We still need leads for art builds, silk-screening, dance, family art, data/computer/librarian/photo, visual arts and theater.
Or join a team to help run project stations at art builds, or join the deployment team at actions guiding volunteers to effectively set up, maintain, and take down our imagery. We’ll train you!
All skill levels and time commitments welcome, from completely unskilled to visual artists, dancers, theater people, poets, and musicians of all ages. Connect and have fun, contribute to our imagery through brainstorming, art builds, music, theater, dance, spoken word, working with kids, teens and families, organizational support, deployment at events and possibly a bigger permanent installation project! Join us!
Please RSVP to Ellen to join the work group or the leads team, and let us know of any particular interests or skills you have in arts or leadership. More Art Builds will be scheduled soon, so sign up for the artful list or watch the calendar!
FRONTLINE ALLIES AND UNDOING RACISM
Join our work group as we examine the ways that white privilege and subtle forms of racism are unintentionally embedded in our climate work, and how we can become allies who effectively work across traditional divides to build the unified and powerful movement we need to stop climate chaos. Please RSVP to Kara to be part of this work group.
Frontline Allies meeting
Monday, November 20, 6:30 pm if it’s your first meeting, 7 pm if you’ve been before.
As we do emotional work together to grow our understanding and face these issues, we share our learning and attend actions led by people of color that intersect with climate justice work. In upcoming months we’ll support immigration work to save the DACA program, Black Lives Matter events, and indigenous efforts to stop fossil fuel infrastructure.
We need food-serving volunteers who are not already signed up for this month’s anti-oppression training to help at Allies to Natives, Sunday, November 12, 12:00 – 6:00 pm, at the Duwamish Longhouse, 4705 W Marginal Way SW, Seattle. Please contact Paul to volunteer to help with food.
And we’re collecting names for a second Winter/Spring series of Undoing Racism Workshops, Our People Gonna Rise, led by Tara Villalba and the Mangrove Collective with our own 350 Seattle activists. Put your name on the wait list to find out more.
IN LOCAL NEWS…
Housing
350 Seattle recently joined the Housing For All Coalition—and this past Wednesday, many of us camped at City Hall to draw attention to the urgent need to address the city’s housing crisis.
And now there’s an opportunity to do exactly that. The HOMES Tax (Housing, Outreach, and Mass-Entry Shelter), as proposed by Council members Kirsten Harris-Talley and Mike O’Brien, would place a tax of only about $100 per employee on businesses grossing over $5 million annually, which is only the largest 10% of businesses in the city. The tax would raise an estimated $24 million — vital funds which would help us pay for more affordable housing. Yet several Council members are still on the fence. Can you take five minutes to call the City Council and tell them to support the HOMES tax? Then take a few seconds and send the Council an email.
We’ve known for a long time that housing justice is a climate issue—as people are forced out of the city, they are forced into cars to commute to work. But even without climate change, passing this tax is the right thing to do.
A Fossil-free, Livable Seattle
What can we do to move Seattle to 100% renewables in all sectors? Towards a low-carbon and livable city where people can get around without cars, and live close to work and play? From traffic to skyrocketing rents, the carbon economy simply isn’t working for Seattle.
100% and Beyond – A Fossil-free, Livable Seattle
Tuesday November 14, 7:00 pm
UCC Prospect Church, 1919 E. Prospect St., Seattle 98112
Connect with 350 Seattle’s work to move our city and region beyond fossil fuels. Learn about efforts to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure in King County, move Puget Sound Energy from gas to renewables, and build sustainable transportation and housing options in Seattle.
So what about Amazon?
Both Amazon and the City of Seattle are falling behind the levels of emissions reductions we need now… and both the city and the company are inextricably linked on climate action! To learn more, check out our new blog post here.
Do you want to see Amazon take the lead and pilot electric vehicle freight deliverystarting here and now? Do you want City of Seattle to make real progress on emissions reductions with transit and affordable housing?
Do you work in the tech industry and want tech companies to prioritize climate actionin their core business?
If so, let’s talk! Join us in the Amazon workgroup—lots of volunteer roles from research to writing to community organizing. Contact Rebecca to get involved.
TRADE UPDATE
Hard to believe, but…
Bedfellows in DC are getting stranger and stranger. Talks to re-negotiate NAFTA now include removing the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). That’s exactly what we want, since ISDS is the pro-corporate system in trade agreements that allows corporations to attack environmental and climate-related laws and demand damages for lost profits. What we didn’t expect is that the Trump administration is asking that ISDS be removed from NAFTA. As a result, Congress is now being mobbed by corporate lobbyists demanding that ISDS stay in place. Those pests! Time to contact Senator Cantwell (206 220 6400) and Senator Murray (206 553 5545) as well as your Congressional Representative, and remind them to smack down those lobbyists and oppose ISDS in any new NAFTA deal.
Tell your rep to sign on
And when you contact your Congressional Rep, ask them to sign on to Pramila Jayapal’s “Dear Colleague” letter to the US Trade Representative. It asks other representatives to join her push for a new trade policy that supports workers and the environment. If your rep already is Pramila Jayapal (206 674 0040), please thank her for the good work.
Washington Fair Trade Coalition
Speaking of Pramila Jayapal, she will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming breakfast benefiting the Washington Fair Trade Coalition, of which 350 Seattle is a member. Please join us at the breakfast on November 15, 7:30–9:00am, to support their great work in fighting trade deals that harm workers and the environment. Please let Selden know if you’d like to attend. Sierra Club is sponsoring some seats so you might be able to attend for free!
Calling all 36th District voters
Selden Prentice has organized meetings with the State Reps from the 36th District to discuss climate issues and possible climate legislation. The meeting with Rep. Frame will be on either Monday, December 4th at 6:00 pm or Tuesday the 5th at 6:30 pm in Seattle—date TBD. The meeting with Rep. Tarleton will be on Monday, December 11th at 4:30 pm in Seattle. Please contact Selden to attend one or both meetings.
AND HERE’S SOME GOOD NEWS
Last month, we supported our friends at Mazaska Talks as they organized the largest ever protest of banks’ investments in fossil fuels. Between Oct 23rd and 25th, there were actions in 60 cities, 10 countries and 4 continents around the world, with perhaps the largest of them all happening in Seattle!
Then, just a few days later, the Equator Principles, a guiding framework for how major banks invest their money, announced that it is re-writing its guidelines to take a firmer stance on climate and Indigenous rights!
This is a huge victory — and it’s not the only one! US Bank just announced it is going to stop funding the tar sands corporation Enbridge, and BNP Paribas, the 8th largest bank in the world, recently promised to stop funding all tar sands, Arctic oil, shale oil and shale gas. If ever we needed another sign to keep going, this is it! Help us continue to shine a light on the financial sector’s crucial role in the climate crisis by watching and sharing the #DivestTheGlobe wrap-up video. (And hey, feel free to like our page while you are there.)
DID WE MENTION THE PARTY?
As you probably guessed, volunteers are needed before, during, and after our Intertwined fundraising event, November 17, 6:00pm–1:00am. Shifts are about two hours each. Can you help? Email Meg Wade with your name, phone number, and what times you’re available to help that day. Shifts include decoration, setup, ticket-taking, helping with food and drink, and cleanup. Become an insider!
CLOSING PITCH
And if you like what we’re doing—bank disruptions, holding PSE accountable, housing solidarity, that sort of thing—please make a donation today so we can keep up the good work.
See you on the dance floor!
