This post was written by Nick Engelfried, a volunteer for Sierra Club and one of the organizers of the Paint Past Coal event.
On Tuesday students and supporters involved in the Beyond Coal campaign used art to put our vision of Oregon’s clean energy future on canvas as part of an event titled Paint Past Coal.
The Oregon Sierra Club has a lot to celebrate this year. The death of Bradwood Landing LNG for starters. Then there’s the almost certain early closure of the state’s only coal-fired power plant near Boardman.
So Saturday’s annual Shindig should be a happy event. Even Mother Nature seems to be celebrating by turning down the heat and providing some almost perfect Oregon summer weather.
PGE's coal fired Boardman Power Plant. Photo from Ted Timmons
The news must have landed at PGE like a ton of coal.
Oregon DEQ says its looking at three options for an early closure of PGE’s coal-fired power plant at Boardman. They call on the utility to spend millions more to keep the plant running, or shutting it down a lot earlier than PGE wants.
Oregonians opposed to LNG and the Palomar Pipeline turned out in big numbers for Thursday’s protest outside the annual meeting of Northwest Natural Gas.
I was out of town when I got a phone call from Brock Howell of Environment Oregon who was in the middle of this protest at the time. Too bad I wasn’t able to record the audio. I could hear lots of cars in the background – honking in solidarity with the protesters. It was something to hear, if not seen.
EO, Sierra Club and Climate Solutions put this together at a gas station that sells BP petroleum products.
PGE's coal-fired power plant near Boardman, OR. Photo from Brian Pasko.
During my attempts to keep up with the big news about Bradwood Landing, I missed another good story last night.
DEQ held a public meeting about renewing air quality permits for PGE’s coal fired power plant near Boardman.
According to the Oregon Sierra Club, the place was jammed with people wanting to speak out.
Yet another environmental group says it can’t decide who’s the better candidate in the race for Governor, John Kitzhaber or Bill Bradbury.
The Oregon Sierra Club says its endorsing both of them in next month’s Democratic primary.
As far as these kinds of things go, this was one happy news conference.
LNG opponents were celebrating their newest legal victory – a ruling by Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals to reject plans for the Bradwood Landing LNG project in Clatsop County.
The ruling probably isn’t a fatal blow. But it’s given LNG opponents new confidence that they can block Bradwood Landing, and all other plans for LNG in Oregon.
For the second time, Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals has rejected Clatsop County’s approval of the Bradwood Landing LNG terminal.
