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

Volunteer, grassroots, WIRT organizers invite and appreciate your assistance in arranging upcoming presentations, training workshops, demonstrations, outreach, and #No2ndBridge litigation. We urge you to participate in December 2019, potluck, WIRT gatherings, enjoy climate action documentaries, talk about tactics and strategies, and offer your unique advice and assistance, as we together relentlessly confront the fossil fuel causes of climate change, through direct resistance and frontline solutions.  The WIRT climate activist collective welcomes opportunities to talk with you about critical issues, and to share images, dispatches, and actions with the regional, environmental and indigenous community, while we continue our opposition and vigil on the north Idaho, fossil fuels pipeline-on-rails and #No2ndBridge frontline.  Join activity-planning conversations on the first and third Thursdays (now instead of Wednesdays) of every month, starting at 6 pm (not the usual 7 pm) on Thursday, December 5, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, and on Thursday, December 19, at the Gardenia Center, 400 Church Street in Sandpoint [7].  Meanwhile, please check WIRT website and especially facebook pages for posts and pictures, and listen to WIRT’s weekly, Climate Justice Forum radio program, for updates about ongoing, recent, and emerging, Northwest and continent-wide, fossil fuel infrastructure invasions and protests.

#NO2NDBRIDGE CLIMATE STRIKE

Friday, December 6, 12 to 2 pm

(excerpted to the WIRT website)

SUPPORT WIRT ON GIVING TUESDAY!

Wild Idaho Rising Tide is part of Rising Tide North America, an international, volunteer, grassroots network of groups and individuals who organize locally, promote community-based alternatives to the climate crisis, and engage in direct actions to confront the root causes of climate change, during the last two decades. Please join us at upcoming events and consider contributing physically as a volunteer and/or fiscally as a funding supporter of WIRT campaigns building the regional, climate justice movement and confronting the fossil fuel sources of climate change.  Whether $5, $50, or $500 on “Giving Tuesday,” December 3, and beyond, pitch in online through our website Donate to WIRT button, or via mail to our Sandpoint and Moscow addresses [8].  Thanks!

[1] Big News!!! November 27, 2019 Citizens Against Newport Silicon Smelter

[2] Tentative Agenda: Tuesday, December 3, 2019, Pend Oreille County Board of Commissioners

[3] Calendar of Events, League of Women Voters of Moscow, Idaho

[4] LWV Fall Speaker Series, League of Women Voters of Moscow, Idaho

[5] While WIRT encourages resistance of other fossil fuels pipelines…, November 21, 2019 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[6] Yellowstone Oil Pipeline Removal from Clark Fork River…, November 21, 2019 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[7] WIRT Meetings, Comments on Keystone XL Pipeline, November 18, 2019 Wild Idaho Rising Tide

[8] Donate to WIRT, Wild Idaho Rising Tide Everbutton