I got this from Cy Berryman.  Cy, the NW Energy Coalition, and Eastern Washington Voters gathered 3,000 signatures in Spokane and Pullman to qualify Initiaive-937 for the ballot in 2006. 

I-937 passed and the law now requires Washington electricity generators to include true renewables in their portfolio.  It would be a shame for I-937 to be rolled back or even overturned.  Please contact your legislators and tell them to keep I-937 the way it is. 

Dear Bryan,

Several bills moving toward floor votes in Olympia would undercut our clean energy law, Initiative 937, and reduce Washington’s commitment to a clean and affordable energy future. Proposed changes include allowing coal purchases from the TransAlta plant to reduce utilities’ renewable energy obligations. 

 

Tell your state legislators to stop rollbacks to I-937 and clean energy! 

 

By preserving I-937’s intent to increase new clean energy development, Washington can remain a clean energy leader. I-937 is our state’s No. 1 means of reducing climate pollution. It is diversifying our clean energy mix at a time when our hydropower system is stressed with 93% of the state in moderate drought. It is bringing billions in renewable energy investments to our state and creating thousands of good, local jobs. This is hardly the time to start chipping away at our state’s most effective clean energy law.  

But proposed bills this session would weaken our state’s renewable energy standards. Three bills would count hydropower upgrades that are already happening now toward those standards. House Bill 2676 and Senate Bills 5992 and 6058 would cut back development of new clean resources by 52 to 75 average megawatts – equal to one new medium-size wind project. Another bill, SB 5298, would reduce the amount of new renewables a utility buying TransAlta coal power would have to acquire.  Combined, these bills would further slash new renewable development and clean energy jobs in our state.  

Tell your state legislators to stop rollbacks to I-937 and clean energy! Many of these bills will be up for floor votes very soon, so it is critical that you act today!

Together we can act to stop these rollbacks to I-937 and continue our progress toward the clean energy future we value so much.

 

Thank you for your support! 

Cy Berryman

Outreach Director

NW Energy Coalition

Photo credit to Harvey Brown

Our allies at SEIU local 1199 NW are still in dispute with the owners of Deaconess Hospital, Spokane, WA, and Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley, WA over the quality of patient care.  Community Health Systems Inc., from Franklin, Tennessee, owns both as part of a national chain of hospitals.  They have so far refused to meet the demands of their nurses and medical staff to increase staffing levels to better protect the health of patients. Kevin Graman, retired reporter from the Spokesman Review, wrote a great article on this dispute between labor and Deaconess and Valley Hospital over at SpokaneWatch.net. 

Meanwhile, Service Employees International Union 1199NW, the union that represents nurses at Valley Hospital and technical and service employees at both Valley and Deaconess Hospitals, presses its efforts to convince the state Legislature to follow California’s lead and impose mandatory nurse-patient ratios in Washington hospitals.

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