On Monday, June 21st, Extinction Rebellion PDX joined a coalition of more than 15 local environmental organizations to deliver another 2000 signatures to City Council asking them to deny the Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) that Zenith needs to apply for the air quality permit from Department of Environmental Quality.
In a festive, colorful and enthusiastic event, folks marched from Salmon Springs Fountain to City Hall where they listened to speakers and handed petitions over to City Council staffers who had been dispatched to receive them. (Notably absent: the City Commissioners themselves.)
Adah Crandall, a 15-year-old organizer with the Portland Youth Climate Strike, had some especially powerful comments:
I didn’t think climate change was something that affected us now—or here.
But nobody told me that Portland was home to a massive oil terminal, or that ODOT wanted to widen a freeway into my school to increase their own profits. Nobody told me that our leaders were willing to sit idly by and allow these things to happen, or that our planet is literally on fire.
I’m involved in the climate justice movement because I am terrified about the future my generation stands to inherit, and because I am sick of being lied to about the severity of the crisis we are facing.
Let’s hope our City Council can summon a bit of courage for themselves and do the right thing and stop Zenith! Two years ago, a similar coalition delivered more than 7000 petitions to the City Council asking for action to be taken to put an end to the multiple local and global threats Zenith poses to both Portland and the world.
Today, our attention is focused on calling Dan Ryan and the rest of the City Council campaign to flood them with thousands of calls telling them to deny the LUCS and Stop Zenith!
