NO ON HOUSE BILL 1081 & SENATE BILL 5228!

Submitted to Shelton Blog by Pat Rasmussen Mason county Progressive

SAVE THURSTON COUNTY BIOMASS MORATORIUM

Tell Your Legislators to vote NO on House Bill 1081 & Senate Bill 5228

We need your help NOW to stop a highly polluting biomass incinerator proposed for the campus of Evergreen State College next to its child daycare center. This incinerator would endanger human health and our environment throughout the region. Here’s how you can help:

1. We need you to click on the two links below and send urgent letters to state politicians.

2. On Feb. 2, at 1:30pm in Hearing Room # 4 of the Cherberg Building on the State Capitol Campus, we need you to come to Olympia to speak against the incinerator and a state bill that would allow it to be built. Or come to support others who speak. We need lots of people present. You can register opposition simply by signing in. Any Washington resident is welcome.

3. On February 7, at 5:30pm in Building # 1 of the Thurston County government campus in Olympia, we need you to speak in support of a moratorium that would delay permitting biomass facilities in Thurston County for one year so health and environmental impacts can be further studied. Or come to support others who speak. We need lots of people present. Any Washington resident is welcome.

On December 21, 2010, the Thurston County Commissioners imposed a 12-month moratorium on issuing permits for biomass facilities in the county. Burning biomass for energy threatens serious impacts on the health of our communities and on the health and vitality of our treasured forest land.

Two bills introduced in the state legislature would end the Thurston County Biomass moratorium and remove authority from our elected officials in any Washington county to protect the health and environment of citizens. HB 1081 and SB 5228 are companion bills that would, “if passed, mean the end of the moratorium”, according to a highly placed Thurston county government official.

1. The Evergreen incinerator would not be"carbon neutral". It would emit twice as much carbon dioxide as the current natural gas boiler heating campus buildings. Source: Manomet Study conducted for State of Massachusetts, July, 2010.

2. Fuel supply for the Evergreen incinerator could harm our forests. Until the Washington Department of Natural Resources completes its statewide Biomass Inventory later in 2011, no one can say if the Evergreen incinerator—or any incinerator in the state-- can be fueled without causing serious harm to our forests, wildlife, and waterways. Source: Washington Forest Law Center letter to Port Angeles Planning Commission, 9/22/10.

3. All biomass incinerators emit large amounts of toxic pollutants. Per unit of energy produced, biomass combustion emits twice as much particulate matter (PM) as coal combustion. PM is a sinister pollutant that studies link to premature death, heart attacks, strokes, birth defects, pulmonary diseases, asthma in adults and children, and abnormal lung development in children. Sources: Dr. Wm. Sammons, MD and the American Lung Association.

Tell state legislators to keep this authority at the local level so that our elected county officials can do the job we pay them to do – to protect the health of our communities and the health or our region.

Please click on first link below to send our letter, or a custom one written by you, to all 19 members of the House Technology, Energy and Communications Committee.

Please click on the second link below to send our letter, or a custom one written by you, to all 9 members of the Senate Environment, Water, and Energy Committee.

Even if you cannot attend the Feb. 2 and Feb. 7 meetings, PLEASE CLICK!!!

House of Representatives: http://www.votervoice.net/groups/sscc/advocacy/?issueid=23532

Senate: http://www.votervoice.net/groups/sscc/advocacy/?issueid=23530

Thank you!

No Biomass Burn
World Temperate Rainforest Network

SHELTON BLOG NOTE:

Link to online Thurston County Moratorium Petition:
http://environment.change.org/blog/view /the_evergreen_state_college_a_lesson_in_how_not_to_green_a_campus

Link to send email of support to Thurston County Commissioners
Cathy Wolfe, Sandra Romero, & Karen Valenzuela:
http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/bocc/