Out in force: Thanks to all who attended Senator Wyden's forum & showed him Oregonians oppose dirty coal exports

Blog post by Brett VandenHeuvel, Riverkeeper's Executive Director—

Senator Wyden announced a listening session about 2 weeks ago and we rallied 400 people to denounce coal export at the federal building in Portland on August 13th, 2012. It was an incredible showing for force on short notice!

Great work everyone.

While the listening session was ostensibly about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (which could limit U.S. protections on coal and LNG export, among other things), we dominated the conversation with coal export. Three panelists directly addressed coal export. Morrow County Commissioner Rae spoke in favor of coal export, while Mosier City Councilwoman Kathy Fitzpatrick and I spoke against coal export.

I asked everyone who opposed coal and LNG export in the audience to stand and an estimated 400 of the 450 people in attendance stood. A very powerful moment in front of the Senator. The Senator also took comments for nearly two hours, the vast majority were against coal. Smart, passionate people, one after another, told stories about how coal would affect their lives and our climate. These face to face comments matter.

Thanks to all who attended! Special thanks to the those who helped turn out our people, including work by Friends of the Columbia Gorge, the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Task Force and LNG Committee, Climate Solutions, CREDO, and many others.

Donate today to join the fight with Columbia Riverkeeper and our many partners to stop coal export plans in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Click here to see The Oregonian's coverage of Senator Wyden's forum.

 

Learn more about Columbia Riverkeeper's work to stop coal and LNG exports.