COUNTY COMP PLAN ON SMELTER
Tuesday, December 3, 1:30 to 3:30 pm
Pend Oreille County commissioners will deliberate 2018 Comprehensive Plan Amendment CPU-18-001 that changes zoning of the proposed site of a PacWest silicon smelter in Newport, Washington, from public land to industrial uses [1, 2]. Amendment approval essentially allows the smelter project to continue, although the Pend Oreille County Planning Commission has recommended against such a decision. Northeast Washington and north Idaho citizens, the Kalispel Tribe, Citizens Against Newport Silicon Smelter (CANSS), Responsible Growth Northeast Washington (RG*NEW), and other environmental organizations in the region have overwhelmingly opposed the amendment.
During their regular board meeting on Tuesday, December 3, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm in the county courthouse at 625 West Fourth Street in Newport, the commissioners have set aside most of the afternoon for this agenda item, potentially the biggest event to date for community resistance to the Newport smelter. CANSS, RG*NEW, and other groups request that everyone who can attend this meeting participate, and they thank area residents for their support of this issue during the last year. Will the county commissioners listen to their constituents and the people they placed on the Planning Commission, or will they acquiesce to toxic, silicon smelter ambitions and pressures from PacWest and Washington governor Jay Inslee?
INLAND NW FOSSIL FUELS TALK
Wednesday, December 4, 12 to 1 pm
As part of weekly, public, Fall Speaker Series forums, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Moscow every autumn Wednesday, Lands Council executive director Mike Petersen will give a brief, PowerPoint presentation entitled Fossil Fuel Overview in the Inland Northwest [3, 4]. From 12 noon until 1 pm on Wednesday, December 4, in the 1912 Center Arts Workshop Room at 412 East Third Street in Moscow, Mike will discuss the history and current threats of Northwest fossil fuels proposals, covering coal, oil, gas, and tar sands trains and other rail and pipeline transportation in north Idaho and Spokane. Although Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists are concerned that Mike’s topic knowledgeable co-worker, Laura Ackerman, is not presenting, we are excited to attend, provide further information, and collect more #No2ndBridge petition signatures. While WIRT encourages resistance of other fossil fuels pipelines across Turtle Island (Trans Mountain, Pacific Connector, Dakota Access expansion, Keystone and Keystone XL, Line 3, Bayou Bridge, and many more), please do not overlook gas and oil pipelines in and near Idaho, depicted in linked descriptions and maps compiled by WIRT [5, 6]. No more fossil fuel infrastructure in Idaho and the Northwest!
WIRT MOSCOW MEETING
Thursday, December 5, 6 to 8 pm Continue reading →
In September 2019, Rising Tide North America (RTNA) joined Shut Down DC and disrupted the morning commute in the nation’s capital. RTNA and allies then blockaded major banks funding oil, gas, and coal, created a two-block, street mural that showed a livable world, and shut down San Francisco’s financial district. Both of those demonstrations included hundreds of people stepping up to take action on a massive scale. Since then, inspiring, Oregon groups fighting pipelines have blocked the Port of Vancouver and occupied the governor’s office [1].
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 