Over the last 15 years, numerous fossil fuel infrastructure proposals have threatened healthy ecosystems across Oregon and Washington with new and expanded coal terminals, oil-by-rail facilities, and fracked gas projects.
Each of the projects, as proposed, would have endangered natural resources and systems, increased air and water pollution, and put inequitable burdens on vulnerable populations where they proposed siting or expansion.
These projects became the focus of three powerful coalitions – Power Past Coal, Stand Up to Oil, and Power Past Fracked Gas, and each of these coalitions harnessed grassroots power to oppose, appeal, and defeat most of the dangerous proposals, time and again.
Threats to our air and water continue, but are shifting, and our efforts to advocate for a clean energy future must shift as well.
The fossil fuel industry has developed new tactics for “green” energy provisions that are often simply greenwashed versions of the same threats. Prevention of irreversible ecosystem damage requires persistent and relentless opposition to the construction and operation of these facilities, which are even more dangerous as climate change impacts worsen.