| On Tuesday, something amazing happened: After a year of campaigning, canvassing, lobbying and marching, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed the Building Emissions Performance Standard. |
| The campaign to electrify Seattle’s biggest and most polluting buildings has been a roller coaster. At the end of the summer, it looked like the policy was toast, that the Mayor wasn’t going to budge. But then in November, Council member Herbold not only decided to revive BEPS, but to form the Select Committee on Climate Action, a whole new committee just to pass BEPS. Council member Herbold wanted to make BEPS her capstone policy because of how much she heard about the policy from her constituents. And that my friends, is what good organizing can get you. Together, we sent Council member Herbold close to a thousand messages, we canvassed District 1 extensively; youth BEPS organizers met with her about the urgency of the climate crisis and local priorities. This is just one example of how good organizing rescued this policy from the brink. It shows that a small group of activists and organizers can make a huge difference. Together, we’ve won some immediate benefits for our communities: life-saving cooling to homes and workplaces across Seattle, and thousands of green union jobs. This means our schools, libraries, hospitals, grocery stores, big apartment buildings, downtown offices and more will be running on clean energy in the coming decades. Thank you so much to everyone who made this victory possible. Cheers to you and to Electrify Seattle! |