The Inlander, a community magazine from Spokane published an article on March 2, 2023 about the role that environmental and faith groups have played in the campaign to stop GTN XPress pipeline expansion. Our operations manager, Maddie Smith and board member Naghmana Sherazi are quoted in this article.
Calling all faith leaders in ID, OR, and WA! The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will decide to approve or deny the GTN fracked gas pipeline expansion as soon as March 16. In partnership with our friends at Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and Oregon Interfaith Power & Light, we're collecting signatures of faith leaders in ID, WA, and OR on a letter asking FERC to protect our communities and deny the pipeline expansion.
Earth Ministry/WAIPL joined our partners in the Stop GTN Xpress coalition to hold a "People's Hearing" to call on FERC to deny this dangerous gas pipeline capacity expansion proposal. Our board member Naghmana Sherazi spoke about this project's moral implications and why faith communities in Spokane County are concerned about more gas running through their backyards.
By John McCallum, Spokane Favs Capacity expansion of a natural gas pipeline running under southeast Spokane Valley and western and northwest Liberty Lake will be the subject of a “People’s Hearing” on Monday evening, Feb. 13. Photo credit: John McCallum, Spokane Favs
SeaPort Sound Terminal, a bulk oil and fuel terminal on the Tacoma Tideflats, originally filed for a permit in 2020 to expand their tank storage capacity by 11%. While the city initially indicated that SeaPort Sound would not be required to do an environmental impact statement (EIS) for their project, the community (including many people of faith) spoke up and asked them to study the impacts of the proposal. Photo Credit: Manda Hansen, Unsplash.
FERC Downplays Concerns of States, Tribes, and Community Groups in Final Environmental Review. Photo credit: Rogue Climate, 2022
The Earth Ministry/WAIPL community joined with over 75 groups and 4600 individuals who submitted supportive written comment for updating Washington’s building codes for new residential buildings.
You may remember how we celebrated passing a Clean Fuel Standard through the Washington State Legislature last year. This bill was one of our legislative priorities for four long years, throughout which the Earth Ministry/WAIPL community kept showing up to articulate our moral responsibility to reduce transportation pollution and create more healthy, equitable options for how we get around. Now, we’re carrying forward this persistence to see the bill through to the finish line. Rulemaking about how to implement the Clean Fuel Standard is underway and we’re advocating for it to be as strong as possible. Submit your comment today!
Washington celebrated an exciting win this Earth Day when the Washington Building Codes Council passed groundbreaking building codes for new commercial and large multi-family buildings! Starting July 2023, new commercial and multi-family residential buildings will be required to be built with high-efficiency electric heat pumps for water and space heating.
Continued dependence on polluting fossil fuels, especially fracked gas, is not faithful. Join us in supporting an energy code that requires electric heat pump technology for water and space heating in commercial and multifamily buildings. Add your name to Earth Ministry/WAIPL’s clean buildings faith community letter to the Washington State Building Code Council!
The latest issue of our publication Earth Letter is here! Join Earth Ministry/WAIPL staff and community members as we reflect on our collective successes and continued resistance to fossil fuels.
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians and several community and environmental organizations are appealing the WA Pollution Control Hearings Board’s November decision to uphold Puget Sound Energy’s Tacoma LNG facility’s clean air permit in Pierce County Superior Court. The Puyallup Tribal Council said in a statement. “We were put here to protect these lands and waters and that is what we will continue to do. We will continue the fight. Too much is at stake.”
People of faith have been in a prayerful stance of solidarity supporting the Puyallup Tribe and co-litigants' appeal of PSE's immoral project. We are incredibly disappointed that the PCHB failed to make the right decision to uphold the Tribe’s request for further review of this dirty and dangerous fracked gas facility.
After four years of renewing temporary protections every six months, in November the Tacoma City Council passed long-term Non-Interim Regulations that ensure that no new fossil fuel facilities can be built on the Tideflats. Though not as strong as we wanted, it is a win that existing fossil fuel infrastructure cannot expand unless it’s part of a “Cleaner Fuels” blend, and even then expansion is limited. We look forward to continuing to engage on this issue in new ways through the Tacoma Tideflats Subarea Plan. Many thanks to the faith community and activists in Tacoma for advocating for strong protections for multiple years.
On August 25, the Tacoma City Council IPS Committee is holding a meeting for government-to-government feedback from the Puyallup Tribe on the non-interim regulations process. In the lead up to the meeting, Earth Ministry/WAIPL is asking people of faith to send a message to the IPS Committee asking them to listen to the Puyallup Tribe and incorporate their requests. Photo credit: Tender Young Pony of Insomnia
