Your Response Determines Our Future
A big thank-you to those of you who have completed our survey and volunteered to take on tasks for A4D. It is encouraging and fuels our commitment to find the best way forward for A4D.
We still want to hear from as many of you as possible, even if you can’t volunteer. We want to be sure we make a good decision that reflects the wishes of our members. We are also still looking to fill one or more leadership positions.
Please complete the survey at this link. It will take only five minutes of your time. And thanks again for sharing your thoughts and insights!
COIN Meets Tomorrow
COIN’s general meeting takes place tomorrow, Tuesday, March 7, at 7:00pm. Get to know your fellow Indivisible activists across the state. To register for the meeting, go here. To read the notes from the previous meeting, go here.
Indivisible Tuesday Is Tomorrow
Meet with staff of Senator Wyden and Representative Blumenauer at Indivisible Oregon's Indivisible Tuesdsay tomorrow. Meet at 11:30am in front of their offices located at 911 NE 11th Avenue in Portland. It's a great way to join fellow constituents and make your voice heard.
Bentz and De-Remer Accountability Team (BAT/DRAT)
The BAT/DRAT meets via Zoom this Wednesday, March 8, at 7:00pm and they’d like you to join them, which you can do at this link. They also would like you to write a postcard, make a call, send an email, or write a letter to the editor using the information you’ll find at this link.
Campaign Finance Hurdle Passed
There’s good news on the campaign finance front. Initiative Petition 9 has finally passed its last legal challenge and the signature gathering process to get it on the 2024 ballot can begin.
IP9 was drafted by Honest Elections Oregon, Common Cause, Oregon League of Women Voters, and other good-government groups. It would limit political contributions and impose additional disclosure requirements on political advertising.
Although several campaign finance bills are pending in the legislature, they are not good bills and have major deficiencies as currently drafted (read more here). Simply put, the legislature has consistently demonstrated that they have little appetite for passing real reform and are hoping that if they pass one of these bad bills they can fool the voters into thinking that IP9 is no longer needed.
Support the Factory Farm Bill
A public hearing on SB 85-1, the Factory Farm Moratorium Act backed by A4D and COIN, was held March 4. Though the hearing is over, your support is needed to secure its passage. Please call your legislators and tell them to vote for it. You can read more here.
Similar legislation is proposed at the federal level in the farm bill coming up for renewal in 2023. Both Andrea Salinas and Lori Chavez-DeRemer are on the House Agriculture Committee. You can learn more here, and ask your member of Congress to support it.
Join Third Act’s Bank Protest
Big banks are huge funders of coal, gas, and oil companies. Since the Paris climate accords, they have loaned more than $3 trillion to these companies, even as scientists tell us that we must stop expanding the fossil fuel industry.
Where did this $3 trillion come from? It came from us, unsuspecting Americans with our ordinary bank accounts and bank-issued credit cards. It’s time to block this money pipeline!
On March 21, Third Act, an organization founded by environmental activist Bill McKibben, is calling for a nationwide protest at our country’s four dirtiest banks: Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo.
Third Act members across the country, including in Oregon, will show up at local bank branches to protest, cut up credit cards (both symbolically and actually), and pledge to close their accounts if the banks don’t cooperate.
To join an action in Portland, sign up here; in Corvallis, use this link. To learn about more actions or organize an action in your community, go here. And, lastly, consider signing Third Act’s Banking on the Future pledge at this link and reading Bill McKibben’s latest article about the March 21 action here.
It’s about time banks stopped funding fossil-fuel infrastructure and start funding sustainable-energy infrastructure!
Climate, Environment, and Energy Team Update
COIN’s Climate, Environment, and Energy Team is currently tracking 45 bills in the legislature, with team members submitting testimony on many of them. They are also engaged in two key regional issues: breaching the four Lower Snake River Dams and opposing the siting of the Goldendale hydro pump storage project, intended for land that is sacred to four Tribal nation.