Portland Youth to Escalate Campaign Against Dangerous “Climate Villains” as Climate Strike Demands Go Unmet
Local youth will rally to call out “lack of accountability” from government officials regarding “dangerous and dishonest actions” by Zenith Energy and NW Natural
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2023
Media Contact:
Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International, allie@priceofoil.org, (703) 298-3639
WHAT: On Friday, November 10, Sunrise PDX and Portland Youth Climate Strike (PYCS) will host a rally against Portland’s Climate Villains along with other community partners Breach Collective, Mosquito Fleet, and 350 PDX.
The youth will call on DEQ to deny Zenith Energy’s pending Air Contaminant Discharge Permit (ACDP) application – to get Zenith’s oil tankers out of the Willamette River, its storage tanks off of the river’s seismically unstable soils, and its oil trains out of residential neighborhoods. They’re also demanding that Governor Tina Kotek’s office call on DEQ to use the agency’s clear authority to review the City’s Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) process for legal insufficiencies and investigate instances of public records tampering.
WHEN: Friday, November 10 from 3:00 - 5:00 pm PST
WHERE: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Northeast Portland headquarters, 700 NE Multnomah Street, #600
WHY: The demands from the youth follow recent investigations that revealed Portland city officials’ scandalous negotiations with Zenith, including a secretive meeting at Zenith’s oil terminal site before approving a new LUCS permit without public involvement. Local advocacy organizations submitted a detailed letter to DEQ on August 10, 2023, describing the legal insufficiencies of the City of Portland’s LUCS process and the legal authority for DEQ to deny Zenith’s ACDP permit.
Josie Moberg, Climate Legal Fellow with Breach Collective, said:
“Governor Kotek and DEQ Director Feldon have a duty to keep us safe from known risks like oil spills and oil train derailments. Zenith Energy has flagrantly ignored the state and local rules and regulations. Despite investigative journalists shining a light on this issue, scandal after scandal, our leaders appear willing to ignore it. How bad does it have to get before our electeds finally hold these companies accountable?”
Youth organizers are also demanding that Governor Tina Kotek’s office publicly request that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) investigate misinformation campaigns and health impacts of NW Natural’s natural gas products. This demand is backed up by recent evidence that the company is engaging in ”Big Tobacco-Style” misinformation efforts and actively concealing health risks of natural gas despite evidence that gas stoves have serious health risks. Legislators and advocates sent a letter to Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum last Fall asking for an investigation, but the DOJ has thus far failed to take any substantive action.
Both Zenith and NW Natural operate terminals with fuel tanks in the Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) Hub, a six mile stretch of seismically unstable ground in Portland between Forest Park and the Willamette River. Recent studies have shown that, in the likely case of a Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake, the fuels and chemicals released from the CEI Hub would result in an enormous catastrophe, including a massive toxic gas release and the largest oil spill since BP Deepwater Horizon - potentially even setting fire to Forest Park.
Jacob Apenes, Outreach Co-Lead with Sunrise Movement PDX, said:
“The CEI Hub might be located in Portland, but it stores over 90% of the state’s dangerous liquid fuels. This is the State of Oregon’s responsibility just as much as it is the City of Portland’s. Oregon government bodies can’t keep sacrificing our riverfront, neighborhoods, and forest to these companies’ corporate profits.”
These profits are not negligible. For example, NW Natural President and Chief Executive Officer David H. Anderson makes an annual salary of $3,148,856. As the profit margins of these companies continue to rise, youth find it frustrating to see government officials failing to demand accountability for the environmental and health risks they’re profiting off of.
Niomi Markel, Logistics Lead for Portland Youth Climate Strike, said:
“Governor Kotek’s Office refused to meet our September 15th Climate Strike demand that her office use an Executive Order to declare a state of Climate Emergency. Their reasoning was that the ‘climate emergency isn’t a specific enough issue.’ So here we are with concrete asks about just two companies that are putting us at the most serious climate risk. It doesn’t get any more specific. We hope this time she will act.”
Portland youth are not alone in their escalation of demands towards government officials. There has been a recent upswell of mobilizations for the climate across the country. In September, tens of thousands of climate protestors marched in New York to demand that President Biden and other world leaders stop new oil and gas drilling ahead of U.N. meetings. Locally, Portland residents also organized an action to protect Oregon’s forests from the logging industry, and even blocked a Zenith Energy crude oil tanker from departure.
As climate change worsens each year, we can expect a greater sense of urgency with the demands being made to elected officials. The upcoming Youth Rally Against Climate Villains on November 10th is just one example.
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