Mid-July 2024 Newsletter
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the 350PDX newsletter, where we highlight action opportunities, upcoming events, and more.
350PDX Summer Rest
Every summer, 350PDX closes our office for two weeks to give staff and volunteers a rest. 350PDX believes that rest is a vital part of our work for climate and social justice, giving us time to heal, process, imagine, invent, and overall — become better organizers. This summer’s break will be from August 5-17. While there will still be light activity during this time, most of our programs and teams will be taking a break. Here’s to creating a sustainable and nourishing movement!
We’re so close to reaching our goal of 50 new donors for our sustaining donor drive! So far, 44 people have committed to becoming sustaining donors of 350PDX, allowing us to continue organizing and taking action in alignment with our values as a radical, systems-change organization. Will you help us meet our goal?
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
Fossil Fuel Resistance Team
Stop GTN XPress: This month, we’re working with our partners at 350 Deschutes to pressure Cascade Natural Gas to end their contract with GTN XPress! Cascade customers do NOT want higher utility bills to finance a dangerous gas expansion project. If you’re a customer of Cascade Natural Gas, please sign this petition today. We will be holding a Rally and Press Conference to Stop GTN XPress on Monday, July 29 at 11 am in Bend. Already planning on being in the area that day, or want to make a trip out to support an important cause? Join us!
Stop Zenith
From mid-August to mid-October we will have a long-awaited and crucial opportunity to tell the State of Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that Zenith Energy must be stopped. Zenith has applied for an air quality permit with the DEQ, and there will be a 60-day comment period where we can tell the state why Zenith’s operations are not in line with our state’s air quality laws. We know the truth: Zenith has been expanding their operations, all while greenwashing and lying to the public and to our city government about this expansion. Nothing about Zenith’s operations is safe for our air (or our communities, our river, or our climate). This is our chance to stop Zenith. We need EVERYONE to get ready to be available during this 60 day comment period. There will be public hearings where you can testify, and we will ask you to submit public comments. Stay tuned for more information about this. Let’s do this!
Shade Equity Pedalpalooza Ride and Action Night
On Wednesday evening, July 17, more than 100 bikers rolled out of Lents Park to take to the streets and observe differences in tree canopy by neighborhood – from the very under-canopied Lents, to treefull and cool Laurelhurst. To start out the ride, we heard from Dr. Vivek Shandas, whose groundbreaking research made clear how heat disparities in Portland flow directly from racial discrimination, and Gena Gastaldi form PBOT who is heading the new “Trees In the Curb Zone Pilot Project”. Our route included the stretch of SE Duke between 82nd & 94th where construction is about to start on this project – ripping up pavement and planting trees! On streets like Duke, where there is no existing space for public trees, this innovative project is the only way to increase shade and liveability.
As we biked west, we saw more space for trees in the public right of way and many larger trees lining the roads, culminating in a cathedral of neighborhood trees as we neared Laurelhurst Park, where the 350PDX Action Night was ready to receive the bikers.
At Laurelhurst Park we shared food donated by several local businesses, including Cokiea’s Kitchen, Secret Pizza Society, Brews Brines and Breakfast, Rudy’s Pizza, Mississippi Pizza, and Luna Bay, as well as Obun Shokudo for the yuzu tree saplings! We also celebrated the recent success of the Shade Equity Coalition’s campaign for the City of Portland to assume financial responsibility for maintaining street trees (YAY!). Participants chatted with the 10 City Council candidates who joined the event, and visited tables from partner organizations including GreenMe, DePave, Neighbors for Clean Air, Community Cycling Center and 350PDX.
It was a wonderful summer evening, and a great reminder of the power of community and the importance of our urban forest.
Check out photos here!
PCEF Update
Thanks to everyone who wrote to Portland city commissioners in June about two new programs funded by the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF): Strategic Program 10: Community-Based Organization Capacity Building Program and Strategic Program 6: Comprehensive E-bike Access.
Both these programs passed in June!
Support the Climate Protection Program…Again
Those with long memories may recall that we advocated for the passage of the Climate Protection Plan (CPP) in 2021, and won! It went into effect through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in 2022, requiring oil and gas companies to cut their pollution 35% by 2035 and 90% by 2050. Unfortunately, some of the oil and gas companies being regulated sued to overturn the CPP on a technicality. As part of the Coalition for Climate and Economic Justice (CCEJ), we are now working to restore the CPP.
Please make your voice heard to the DEQ in support of reinstating the Climate Protection Program in its current form—or with even stronger emissions reduction targets. Sign this petition today!
There will be an opportunity from late July through August for Oregonians to submit comments and testify in support of the CPP. Learn more and sign up for action alerts from the CCEJ here. We’ll also send emails with updates about public comment periods.
When re-implemented, the Climate Protection Program will require oil and gas companies to cut their pollution by 90% by 2050 and create a fund to reinvest in Oregon’s most impacted communities. Without your voice, oil and gas companies may get their way and use this opportunity to weaken this program’s ambitious emissions reduction goals and community investments. Take a moment to sign the petition today to clean Oregon’s air and invest in Oregon’s people.
Climate Justice Voter Organizing
We’ve been having a great time gathering for Action Nights in each of the four new City Council Districts! We’re energizing climate justice voters for the historic elections that will occur this November. Do you want to get involved? Contact our climate policy manager, Cherice Bock (Cherice@350pdx.org).
This summer we will be hosting environment and climate justice tours, showcasing important issues to city council candidates, and offering opportunities for you to meet candidates. We just hosted our first tour of the summer: the Urban Shade Equity Pedalpalooza Ride and 350PDX Action Night.
Upcoming events include:
- July 22, 6:00–8:00pm: District 4 Action Night at Willamette Park, look for sunflower umbrellas RSVP here
- July 27, 6:30pm: Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub Tour, meet at 4931 NW Front Ave (plenty of parking). After the tour, please join us at Breakside Brewery, 1570 NW 22nd Ave! RSVP here. (Please note, while we’d love to cover everyone’s drinks, we kindly ask that you plan to cover your own tab.)
- August 2, 10:00am–2:00pm: PCEF Tour. More info soon. We need one or two large vehicles to transport people to four different sites. Please contact Cherice (Cherice@350pdx.org).
To stay informed about upcoming Climate Justice Voter events and activities, check out our new election page. We’re also gathering information about Portland residents’ climate concerns, so please complete our Climate Conversations survey!
Community Engagement
Katie Hutchinson, our new Community Engagement manager, has been busy settling in and integrating into the community. As many of you know, Katie was trained up by our beloved Chris Palmer, who moved to the east coast to be closer to family with his new baby.
We are excited for the new energy Katie is bringing to 350PDX! Our blog has both an introduction post from Katie as well as a goodbye post from Chris.
Katie will be hosting our next Volunteer Orientation on Tuesday, August 20th, from 6-8 PM at our office– you can sign up here. Feel free to reach out to Katie ahead of that time if you’d like to get plugged into 350PDX, or schedule a 1:1 with her.
An Evening with Bill McKibben
On July 5, 350PDX co-sponsored an “Evening with Bill McKibben” at the First Unitarian Church hosted by Third Act Oregon. Bill McKibben’s informative and hopeful message reached over 1,000 people in person and online, despite a heat wave nearing 100F. His intergenerational climate conversation with three youth activists from Oregon was a highlight. Check out the livestream broadcast here.
Worker Solidarity Actions Throughout the week, across the city – visit the Portland Jobs with Justice page for more info. Also see their list of solidarity actions.
In love and gratitude,
The 350PDX staff –
Anissa, Brenna, Cherice, Denise, Dineen, Irene, Katie
