Dozens of Eugene and Statewide Organizations Urge Eugene City Council to Take Action on NW Natural’s Polluting Infrastructure
For Immediate Release - April 12, 2021
Press Contacts:
Dylan Plummer, Grassroots Organizer, Cascadia Wildlands; 541.531.1858, dylan@cascwild.org
Avery Temple, Climate and Environmental Justice Fellow, Breach Collective, 941.932.7331, averydtemple@gmail.com
Dozens of Eugene and Statewide Organizations Urge Eugene City Council to Take Action on NW Natural’s Polluting Infrastructure
Letter Urges an Immediate Moratorium on New Gas Infrastructure
Eugene, OR - Today, dozens of organizations — representing environmental justice, tenants rights, green building, renewable energy, youth, and faith communities — called on the Eugene City Council to enact a moratorium on new fossil gas infrastructure and work with the community to develop an actionable plan to transition all gas infrastructure to clean electricity.
For months, community members and advocates have pressured the Eugene City Council to walk away from franchise agreements with NW Natural after the utility bargained in bad faith and refused to agree to binding commitments to reduce its carbon emissions in line with city policy. Now that the franchise agreement will lapse in May, Eugene residents and advocacy organizations are requesting that the City Council take action to directly regulate the health, safety, and climate impacts of dangerous gas infrastructure.
The sign-on letter reads, in part: “Eugene has existing authority to take bold action to limit or prohibit new natural gas infrastructure outside of the [NW Natural franchise] agreement, and should immediately pursue regulatory pathways for halting the expansion of natural gas infrastructure in Eugene.”
Signatories to the letter highlighted the City’s strong legal basis for local regulatory action due to the extreme and disproportionate health and safety risks associated with natural gas from the site of extraction, through transport, and where combusted; the rapidly growing evidence of the alarming health and safety risks of indoor gas usage and the efforts of the natural gas industry (reminiscent of the tobacco industry) to hide, downplay, obfuscate, and deny these risks;(1) and the vulnerability of gas infrastructure to expected significant seismic events and the threat this poses to Eugene’s residents.(2)
Avery Temple, Climate and Environmental Justice Fellow with Breach Collective, said:
“For the health and well-being of everyone in Eugene, we must stand strongly against the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure. Our future depends on us transforming our relationship with energy, climate, and each other. This means we must turn away from toxic industries like Northwest Natural and instead invest in our frontline communities.”
Sahara Valentine, a high school organizer with Earth Guardians 350 (EG350) and plaintiff in the Juliana v. United States climate lawsuit, said:
“My generation recognizes that we will be inheriting the climate crisis, and that’s why we are fighting to prioritize a safe environment for all. It is time for City Council to show that they value my future by justly transitioning Eugene off of fossil fuels.”
Aimee Okotie-Oyekan, Environmental and Climate Justice Coordinator with NAACP Eugene / Springfield said:
"At the end of the day, The City of Eugene determines the rule of law, not Northwest Natural. We must be bold and lean on methods that do not rely on the franchise agreement to advance climate action. As we shift towards the regulation of natural gas infrastructure, we also do not want to see low-income communities left without power for their homes. Approaches to climate change that worsen peoples' livelihoods are false solutions, so making sure we have resources and funding to support transitioning historically underserved communities to clean energy infrastructure is a crucial component of this. Without it, we risk duplicating existing inequities.”
Dylan Plummer, Grassroots Organizer with Cascadia Wildlands, said:
“It is past time for Eugene to begin discussing other, more aggressive approaches to regulate fracked gas in our city. If we are to meet our climate goals and lead the state in climate action, Eugene must immediately stop the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure, and instead invest in renewable energy.”
Damon Motz-Storey, Healthy Climate Program Director with Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, said:
“The scientific evidence is clear: not only does fracked gas accelerate the climate crisis — one of the greatest public health crises the world has ever faced — it also harms our health right inside of our homes. We must take bold action to phase out the use of gas in homes, increase home energy efficiency, and transition to clean energy by developing the local workforce.”
Selena Blick, Fossil Free Eugene Coordinator with 350 Eugene, said:
“If the City Council is serious about meeting Eugene’s climate goals, they need to stand up to NW Natural and enact immediate restrictions on new gas infrastructure while we design an actionable transition away from polluting infrastructure. NW Natural does not have our city’s or our planet’s best interests at heart and must be treated just like any other fossil fuel company and held accountable for their role in the climate crisis.”
The signatories to the letter include: The Environmental Center, Eugene Springfield NAACP, OPAL Environmental Justice, Beyond Toxics, Breach Collective, Cascadia Wildlands, 350 Eugene, Stand.earth, Springfield Eugene Tenants Association, Electrify Now Coalition, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Emerald Compassionate Action Network, Eugene Democratic Socialists of America, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Fossil Free Eugene Coalition, Sunrise Eugene, Sunrise PDX, Interfaith Earthkeepers, Earth Guardians 350, Community Alliance of Lane County, Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, Eugene (FUSEE), Students Cooperative Association, and the Sierra Club.
Background and Resources:
Read more about the ongoing campaign for climate justice in Eugene here and here. Find the full text of the letter on the button below.
Footnotes:
(1) Weiwei Lin, Bert Brunekreef, & Ulrike Gehring, Meta-analysis of the effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide and gas cooking on asthma and wheeze in children, 42 International Journal of Epidemiology 1724, https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/42/6/1724/737113 (children in homes with gas stoves have a 42% higher chance of having asthma symptoms); Brady Seals & Andee Krasner, RMI, Gas Stoves: Health and Air Quality Impacts and Solutions (2020), https://rmi.org/insight/gas-stoves-pollution-health (homes with gas stoves can have nitrogen dioxide concentrations that are 50–400% higher than homes with electric stoves); Noelle Cromble, Explosion reported in NW Portland; 8 injured, including 3 firefighters, The Oregonian (Oct. 19, 2016), https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2016/10/portland_firefighters_respondi_3.html (example of leaks and explosions commonly associated with natural gas infrastructure).
(2) Dylan Darling, A glimpse of Eugene-Springfield after the Cascadia earthquake, The Register Guard (Jan. 28, 2019), https://www.registerguard.com/news/20190128/glimpse-of-eugene-springfield-after-cascadia-earthquake (Eugene Emergency Management Analyst describing damage to infrastructure that would be caused by the Cascadia earthquake); Brian Vinson and Thomas H. Miller, Pilot Project: Eugene-Springfield Earthquake Damage and Loss Estimate Final Report, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (Jan. 1999), https://www.oregongeology.org/pubs/ofr/O-00-02.pdf.