350 Portland

We have had an eventful first few weeks of fall! Thank you to everyone who came to our Candidate Forums. A combined 200 people were educated at these forums and helped make them a big success. Thank you to our co-sponsors, to the great moderators from the Portland Mercury, and to the candidates. In case you missed out, you can now watch the Forums on our Youtube, thanks to KBOO Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein!

Ballots have now been sent out to voters and there are only 20 days until Election Day. If you want to fill out your ballot together with others in the 350PDX community, join us at a Ballot Filling Party on Tuesday, October 27 at 6:00pm at our Climate Justice Workshop (3639 N Mississippi Ave). This will be a casual space to be with others where you can hang out while you individually fill out your ballot, ask questions about ranked choice voting, and view our Voter Guide. There will be pizza! Please RSVP to Dineen so we get enough food: dineen@350pdx.org.

Last month, 350PDX welcomed Amanda Conroy to the team as our new Director of Development! For close to two decades, Amanda has led development and marketing efforts for mission-driven organizations across California and Oregon. A passionate nonprofit leader, she specializes in relationship-based fundraising, strategic communications, and building organizational cultures rooted in philanthropy and community impact. Read more about Amanda here.

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Thanks to great collaboration among community-based organizations, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability staff, and the leadership of Councilors Green, Pirtle-Guiney, Kanal, Koyama Lane, and Clark, Portland City Council is set to pass a Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub Policy with many of the amendments our community coalition suggested! We’re ensuring the CEI hub is safer and less risky in the future than it is currently, and we also started a plan for drawing down the amount of fuel stored at the hub. There will be one more vote on the final draft of this policy on or around Nov. 5, incorporating approved amendments. We want to see this whole package passed as amended with no changes — feel free to let your councilors know this!

This CEI Hub Policy is stronger because you participated — through public comments, rallies, phone calls and emails to councilors, questions at town halls, and much more this year — and for the last decade! THANK YOU! This policy instructs staff to return to City Council next September with a modified drawdown plan based on the companies’ data about tank fill levels, so we’ll keep working on this in 2027, and beyond, until this area is safer.

Portland is taking a major step toward decreasing building emissions and increasing regional climate resilience through a new policy: Climate and Health Standards for Existing Buildings. Buildings account for nearly half of Portland’s greenhouse gas emissions, and this policy would address the largest of these (>20,000 square feet) to create healthier homes, lower emissions, and provide greater transparency and protections for renters. This is big!

October 20 at 2:00 pm there’s a public hearing in the Housing & Permitting Committee, and community voices matter. Show your support through testimony!

• Modify and send this email to City Council

• Use this toolkit to draft a written or verbal public comment

We’ve been involved in various strategies at the local, state, and national levels to hold Big Oil companies accountable.

In September, a No Immunity for Big Oil resolution passed the Portland City Life Committee! It will likely come to the full City Council this month. This resolution states that it’s vitally important to continue to have the right to take Big Oil to court, and support legislation such as the Make Polluters Pay coalition’s climate superfund bill.

Now, federal lawmakers and the American Petroleum Institute are trying to give polluters immunity from accountability. Our Members of Congress have the opportunity to stand against this by indicating their opposition to these immunity bills, and a resolution in Portland gives them extra backing.

 You can help by: 

• Urging your US Senator and Representatives to give No Immunity to Big Oil (Sen. Merkley and Reps. Bonamici and Dexter have already made statements in opposition to such immunity bills)

• Encouraging City Council to pass the No Immunity for Big Oil resolution

On October 29, a Right to Breathe policy will have its first hearing in the Community & Public Safety Committee. This will prohibit the use of chemical weapons (such as tear gas) in Portland. You may recall the Action Night we had in February about the environmental and public health concerns around tear gas and other chemical weapons (where we premiered this incredible and informative short film, “Gas Me, Teddy”), and this has been an ongoing issue 350PDX has worked on since we signed onto a lawsuit in 2020. In addition to concerns around rights of free speech and assembly, chemical weapons pose health problems for our rivers, trees, and wildlife. Check out our Take Action page for this and other current actions you can take today, and read more about this policy and the overall concerns around chemical weapons here.

Reach out to dineen@350pdx.org and cherice@350pdx.org to get plugged into the Energy Justice Team. We work on everything from fighting data centers, Zenith, and the CEI Hub to advocating for PCEF and transportation justice!

This week the Forest Defense Team joined forces with organizations and community members from across Portland to say NO to PGE logging of Forest Park’s ancient trees. On Wednesday, we attended a rally at City Hall and hosted a watch party at the 350PDX workshop!

Last year, Portland City Council voted unanimously to deny PGE’s permit to log five acres of Forest Park. Now, PGE and the City of Portland reached a backroom agreement to allow PGE to seek a new permit. We need another unanimous vote opposing this permit from City Council!

The Forest Defense Team meets on the first and third Monday of each month, alternating between virtual and in-person meetings. Our next meeting will be on October 19 from 6 – 7:30 PM. Reach out to tyler@350PDX.org for details.

Are you attending No Kings this Saturday? Make sure to stop by and say hi to our puppeteers this weekend as they bring joyful activism to the Vote Early Rally downtown. Interested in becoming a last minute Puppeteer? Email: arts@350pdx.org.

Last month, the Art Team hosted the Forest over Profits conference for a combined Art Build! We also screen printed small flags that were used by the Energy Justice Team at City Council to fight for better CEI Hub regulation, saying, “Rose City wants our river back!”

In an exciting update, our team leads have introduced monthly planning meetings in addition to our regular art builds. These meetings are an opportunity to meet the team in a more relaxed setting and a chance to help us brainstorm our plans for the next art build. The planning meetings will be on the last Wednesday of every month while our regularly scheduled art builds will continue as usual on the second Sunday.

• Next Planning Meeting: Wednesday, October 28, 6-7:30 PM
• Next Art Build: November 8, 1-4 PM

Meetings are held in the 350PDX workshop (3639 N Mississippi Ave). RSVP to arts@350pdx.org.

The 350PDX Book Club meets every month on the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30PM. Every other month is in person and the others are virtual. Reach out to books@350PDX.org with any questions or to join our list, and please RSVP so we can inform you of any meeting changes.

We are in the process of deciding our next few books! Email Kami and Lizy at books@350PDX.org to recommend a read (all genres welcome) or to sign up to vote.

Save the date for our upcoming discussions:

• TBD November meeting

• Wednesday, December 2 at 6:30 PM (in person; fiction) — book to be selected in October

• Wednesday, February 3 at 6:30 PM (in person; nonfiction)

The Milwaukie Neighborhood Team has two events this month. We hope folks will join us and help spread the word!

Last Saturday, October 10, we hosted our kick-off potluck event with a featured presentation and guided conversation on how to reduce fossil fuels facilitated by our friends on the SW Neighborhood Team. We enjoyed connecting with people in Milwaukie who are interested in learning more about climate justice and getting involved, and those who are already passionately engaged!

Next Monday, October 19, we will be hosting a PGE Rate Increase workshop with Citizens Utility Board from 6:00-8:00PM. This workshop will take place at the Ledding Library Community Room (10660 SE 21st Ave, Milwaukie) directly after our abbreviated monthly meeting from 5:30-6:00 PM.

The MAC team meets monthly on the 3rd Monday from 5:30 – 6:30 PM at Milwaukie City Hall — all are welcome! To get connected, sign up here or email MAC@350pdx.org.

The Washington County Team invites all to our next monthly online meeting at 6:30 PM on Tuesday October 13. We are currently working on getting out the vote and defending democracy, and look forward to catching up with each other online.

We always welcome newcomers to our events and to our (mostly) monthly online meetings (6:30 PM on the second Tuesday of the month). For the link, join us here or contact us at 350washco@gmail.com.

The 350PDX Southwest Neighborhood Team includes neighborhoods on the south and west sides of Portland. We work together to raise awareness of the climate emergency.

Our street corner demonstrations continue weekly in October every Friday from 4:00 – 5:00 PM at SW Terwilliger & SW Taylor’s Ferry. Some parking is available in the Chez Jose and Anytime Fitness lot, or reach us via bus or bike.

Our monthly meetings happen on the third Monday of the month. To get involved, please contact Pat Kaczmarek at patk5@msn.com.

Before closing our newsletter, a few reminders:

• Check out our Take Action page, which we update regularly. It includes actions that may not be in our newsletter.
• Join the 350PDX community Slack channel! This is a great way to stay connected on an ongoing basis. Contact to info@350pdx.org and we can add you.
• 350PDX is still searching for a wonderful, new home. Please reach out to info@350PDX.org if you have ideas for a space where we can have meetings, our arts team can create show-stopping puppets, and more!

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Thank you for reading our monthly newsletter. We hope to see you soon!

With gratitude,

Amanda, Cherice, Dineen, Jessica, Maeve, and Noelle

The post 2026 October Newsletter! appeared first on 350PDX: Climate Justice.