Cascade Chapter -

The Sierra Club Endorses Jay Inslee for Governor of Washington State

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:38:14 +0000

January 30, 2012 -- The Washington State Chapter of the Sierra Club enthusiastically announces its endorsement of Jay Inslee to be Washington State’s 23rd governor. “Jay Inslee brings both a vision and expertise for making Washington a leader on clean energy and forging the good jobs and economic future for the 21st century,” said Andrew Lewis, Chair of the Sierra Club's Washington State Chapter. “We need the leadership that he brings to address the most pressing issues of our time - creating real jobs here in our state and addressing global climate change.”

Lewis said Inslee has consistently been a real leader in protecting and enhancing Washington’s air, land and water - working tirelessly to protect pristine wilderness areas, clean up Puget Sound, and curb dependence of foreign fossil fuels while growing clean energy at home. Jay even wrote a book about how to get our economy going again through clean energy development.

Announcing the Sierra Club's 2012 Legislative Priorities for Washington State

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:01:59 +0000

This year will present acute challenges to our efforts to advance an environmental agenda at the State Capitol. At the Sierra Club, we believe that environmental protections improve our quality of life and are essential to a long-term sustainable economy. Environmental programs and policies may have upfront costs, but will prevent staggering future costs. In 2012, our priorities in the Legislature are:

No rollbacks of environmental standards in a difficult budget situation;
Sustain I-937, the Renewable Energy voter-approved standards;
Ensure clean water and realistic, data-based management of limited water resources;
Sustainable transit funding in a transportation budget that emphasizes maintenance.

Learn more about our 2012 legislative priorities and get involved!

Help Us Raise Funds for Oil Refineries Litigation

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:46:05 +0000

You may have heard that we scored a huge victory against oil refineries last December. In a landmark decision, a federal judge ruled that the Washington Department of Ecology, Northwest Clean Air Agency, and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency have unlawfully failed to regulate climate change pollution from the five oil refineries operating in Washington State. Now we need your help raising funds to keep the pressure on the state. Please attend our fundraiser!

The Washington Environmental Council and the Sierra Club initiated the lawsuit in March, which claimed that state agencies have the duty to regulate climate change pollution from oil refineries because this pollution fits within the definition of “air contaminants” in Washington’s State Implementation Plan, which was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and is enforceable under the federal Clean Air Act.

You're Invited to the Food Justice Forum

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:30:49 +0000

Saturday, February 4th, 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Feb 4th 2012

The Washington State Chapter of the Sierra Club invites you to attend a free forum to explore food justice issues.

Guests will include:

Mike O’Brien, Seattle City Councilmember, will moderate the panel discussion.
Reverend Robert Jeffrey, pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in Seattle and founder of Clean Greens Farm, will speak about the role of food in the social justice movement.
Eddie Hill, founding Program Manager for Seattle Tilth Farm Works Program, will speak about food as infrastructure and healthy food as a right.
Ann Seiter, Fish Consumption Rate Project Coordinator for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, will discuss fish consumption guidelines and impacts on Tribal people who eat a lot of fish and are potentially at a greater level of risk from water pollution.

After the panel presentations, there will be small group discussions lead by the panelists and other special guests who are actively engaged in food justice issues. Healthy local snacks will be provided.

Update On Our Fight Against Coal Export Terminals in the Pacific Northwest

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:16:29 +0000

Wednesday night, January 25, in the town of Clatskanie, on the lower Columbia River, the St. Helens Port Commission held the first public meeting on coal exports in the state of Oregon. Despite having only a 6-day notice for the meeting, we had a large turn-out of citizens concerned about the impacts of coal exports—from Clatskanie and communities upriver and downriver and along the rail line in Oregon and Washington. 150 people packed the room and flowed out into the hallways. The public comments weighed in at 29 opposed to coal exports and only 7 for coal exports, with passionate speeches from Sierra Club volunteers and our coalition partners, especially Columbia Riverkeeper.

East King County Members: Learn How to Get Involved in the Washington State Chapter!

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:56:15 +0000

Thursday, February 2nd, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm, Feb 2nd 2012

Would you like to learn more about your Chapter and find out how you can get involved? Great! This meeting is open to members and activists interested in learning more about and getting involved with national forests, transportation and energy efforts underway by The Sierra Club and the WA State Chapter. In the meeting we'll look at how these efforts are specific to and unique for East King County.

Location:

Salud Room at the Bellevue Whole Foods located at 888 116th Avenue Northeast Bellevue, WA 98004.

Time: 6:30-8:30 PM, Feb 2, 2012

Transportation Advocacy Day Is January 31!

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:58:15 +0000

As always, it will be a full day of transportation lobbying with your legislators, getting to know fellow advocates, and possibly testifying in conference committee for transportation funding, policies, and projects.If you’ve never been, you should check it out. If you have been, you’ll want to join us again in this huge year for our issues.

Zip Car will be offering free rentals again, and TCC will be coordinating carpools. We need help to make this a success!

Get involved now!

Captain Charles Moore, Prominent Seafaring Environmentalist, Speaks On "Saving Our Oceans From Plastic"

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:19:54 +0000

Captain Charles Moore, a prominent seafaring environmentalist and researcher, shares his shocking discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, and inspires a fundamental rethinking of the Plastic Age and a growing global health crisis. Captain Moore is speaking in a 5 Western Washington cities in January: Seattle, Bellingham, Port Angeles, Tacoma, and Olympia. Don't miss this important talk to learn how our oceans are being polluted and how you can help.

In the summer of 1997, Charles Moore set sail from Honolulu with the sole intention of returning home after competing in a trans-Pacific race. To get to California, he and his crew took a shortcut through the seldom-traversed North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a vast "oceanic desert" where winds are slack and sailing ships languish. There, Moore realized his catamaran was surrounded by a "plastic soup." He had stumbled upon the largest garbage dump on the planet - a spiral nebula where plastic outweighed zooplankton, the ocean's food base, by a factor of six to one.

Help Our Orcas and Marine Wildlife: Support a Plastic Bag Ban in Seattle

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:04:29 +0000

The Sierra Club is part of a coalition with Surfrider Foundation, People For Puget Sound, Environment Washington and Zero Waste Seattle that is asking the Seattle City Council to pass a bag ordinance. Plastics harm (choke, poison, entangle) our wildlife, such as birds, fish, and whales. A big problem is that plastic bags are light-weight and easily blow into our waters. They break down into tiny bits but don’t biodegrade for hundreds of years. The tiny pieces of plastic, including plastic bag pieces, are called microplastics, and are floating in Puget Sound. Every water sample taken in Puget Sound so far by researchers at UW Tacoma have plastic bits. Another problem is that plastic attracts toxic chemicals like a sponge. Fish eat these plastic bits.

Judge Orders State and Regional Air Agencies to Regulate Climate Change Pollution From Big Oil

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:58:59 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : December 2, 2011

Challenge to reduce dangerous greenhouse gas emissions from WA oil refineries advances

Seattle, WA —A federal judge today ruled that the Washington Department of Ecology, Northwest Clean Air Agency, and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency have unlawfully failed to regulate climate change pollution from the five oil refineries operating in Washington State. Washington Environmental Council and Sierra Club initiated the lawsuit in March of this year. The lawsuit claimed that state agencies have the duty to regulate climate change pollution from oil refineries because this pollution fits within the definition of “air contaminants” in Washington’s State Implementation Plan, which was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and is enforceable under the federal Clean Air Act.

Volunteer Celebration - Washington State Chapter

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:10:36 +0000

Friday, December 9th, 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm, Dec 9th 2011

Please join us for our Annual End of Year Volunteer Celebration

It’s time again for us to celebrate each other, our friendships, and our work together.

We’ll have food, beverage, and entertainment, and, most of all, we’ll have great company and good times. As always, there will be no fundraising at the event, just fun.

When: Friday, December 9th; 6:30 to 10:pm

Where: Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle 98103 (map)

Join Us for a Forum On Energy and Environmental Justice

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 03:00:39 +0000

Saturday, November 19th, 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Nov 19th 2011

The Washington State Chapter of the Sierra Club is proud to present leaders in environmental justice at the first of our series of EJ forums. At a time when human rights and environmental concerns closely intersect, our panelists will explore the effects of energy extraction, production, and transportation on disadvantaged and underrepresented communities. Learn and share ideas about what we can do. Panelists will include:

William Anderson, Chairman of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians, which struggles with a coal-fired power plant located adjacent to their reservation.
Sandi Cioffi, documentary filmmaker of “Sweet Crude”, who has seen first hand the impacts of oil extraction on the people of the Niger Delta and was even been jailed in the process.
Patty Martin, former Mayor of Quincy, Washington, where large, energy intensive, data centers owned by Yahoo and Microsoft impact low income neighbors.
Steve Chestnut, attorney for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, with a long history of working on coal mining issues on and near their reservation.
Becky Castilleja, Sierra Club staff, who works in Oregon and Washington to stop coal companies from exporting coal to Asia through our region’s ports.

Logging Roads Must Meet the Standards of the Clean Water Act to Protect Our Salmon and Steelhead

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:00:41 +0000

In a unanimous decision issued in NEDC v. Brown, a case involving logging roads on Oregon State lands, the Ninth Circuit ruled that polluted stormwater generated by logging roads is subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The August 2011 decision requires that logging roads meet the standards of the Clean Water Act that would protect our clean water and salmon and steelhead. We are stunned that Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna would join with very conservative states such as Arkansas in urging the Supreme Court to overturn this court decision.

Register for Green Seattle Day!

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:01:09 +0000

Saturday, November 5th, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm, Nov 5th 2011

Without a coordinated effort, Seattle is at risk of losing 70% of its forests in just 20 years.

Join us and 1,000 of your neighbors for Green Seattle Day 2011. This event is the kick off to our planting season and is a celebration of our neighborhood parks and committed neighbors. Green Seattle Day is a fun way for you and your family to get involved by planting native trees and shrubs in a park near you.

For event details and to register, click here: http://greenseattle.org/events/2011-events/november/green-seattle-day-11-5

Spokane River PCBs Await Litigation

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:27:46 +0000

PCBs pollute Washington’s waters. From the Duwamish to the Spokane, this group of industrial compounds associated with liver dysfunction and cancer is a risk to human life and wildlife. PCB manufacture is now banned in the U.S. EPA and Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) should be prompt in developing cleanup plans to protect the public interest. They are not – raising troubling questions.