NEWS
B Y M I C H A E L TO B I N
ENVIRONMENTAL WATCHDOGS
HAVE EYES ON CITY POLICY
Coalition plans local work on climate change
C
itizens are acting as watchdogs over environmen-
tal policy as they form a coalition to follow the
city of Eugene’s developments for meeting the
goals laid out in its climate action plan.
The coalition, which was founded by environ-
mental activist group 350 Eugene and is formally known as
“Community Coalition for Eugene’s Climate Action Plan
Success,” will include progressive political organizations
and environmental groups.
The formation of the coalition comes as Eugene is at-
tempting to work out the details of a 10-year plan to reduce
greenhouse gas production; however, the mechanics of the
plan are not yet clear and currently being debated.
Linda Heyl, a 350 supporter, says the purpose of the co-
alition is to oversee the city’s proposed policies and evalu-
ate them.
“We will support anything that will help to meet those
goals,” Heyl says. “And we will call out and resist any-
thing that wouldn’t work.”
The goal of the coalition is to see that the city meets
the goals of the Climate Recovery Ordinance, which was
passed by the city in 2014 and then updated two years later.
The ordinance stemmed from Eugene’s 2010 Community
Climate and Energy Action Plan.
The language of the ordinance is somewhat technical,
but the objective is to lower greenhouse gas and carbon
emissions. One goal, for example, is to lower the city’s use
of fossil fuels by 50 percent compared to 2010 usage.
• In 2014 Joshua Hunt wrote in The
New York Times about rape allegations
against three University of Oregon
basketball players. Now he has an entire
book about the corrosive influence of
sports money on higher education —
and particularly on the UO. Due out in
August from Brooklyn publisher Melville
House, “University of Nike explores
the University of Oregon’s complex
relationship with its corporate partner,
Nike, and how the arrangement has
undermined the school’s academic
integrity, transparency, and campus
culture,” the publisher’s website says.
Rumor has it at least a few sacred cows
have been gored by Hunt; we’ve asked
for an advance copy to find out whose.
• Together with our fellow news junk-
ies, we’ve been keeping an eye on The
Register-Guard since it was purchased
by GateHouse Media. Functioning
democracies need good journalism and
transparency. We also need a healthy
dialogue, so we were a little freaked out
to see there were no letters to the editor
in the Monday, July 23, issue. A mistake
‘We believe
the coalition
represents
a dedicated
group of folks
who know quite a bit
about climate solutions
and will hold the city
accountable...’
— LISA ARKIN,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
BEYOND TOXICS
Lisa Arkin, executive director of environmental group
Beyond Toxics and a member of the coalition, writes in an
email to Eugene Weekly that “resistance” takes the form of
community involvement and sharing information.
“Resistance starts with sharing knowledge, offering a
productive analysis, involving the community to put for-
ward effective solutions, and raising our voices to demand
that we do what is necessary to tackle climate and carbon
in Eugene,” she writes.
Climate action plans are not unheard of in the United
States. In California, for example, cities must develop local
climate action plans.
The coalition doesn’t necessarily disagree with the city’s
goals, but rather the methods that are taken to achieve them.
One example of a policy Heyl and her group don’t sup-
port is agreements with “large level shareholders,” or enti-
ties that produce large quantities of greenhouse gases. Heyl
says entities responsible for large amounts of greenhouse
emissions may not make the changes for themselves.
Heyl says the coalition will take a different approach than
that taken by the city. For example, instead of working with
large level shareholders, the coalition will engage other enti-
ties Heyl says the city did not consult in its planning process.
So far, the coalition includes Beyond Toxics, progres-
sive political group Our Revolution, the Green Party, con-
servation group Cascadia Wildlands and Many Rivers, the
Sierra Club’s Eugene chapter.
Arkin expressed similar sentiments to Heyl, and says
that the coalition must be broad in its membership so that
the Climate Action Plan can meet its goals.
“Our particular reason to join the coalition is to help en-
sure that Eugene’s Climate Action Plan is informed by and
responsive to environmental and racial justice values,” Ar-
kin writes in an email to Eugene Weekly. “We believe the
coalition represents a dedicated group of folks who know
quite a bit about climate solutions and will hold the city
accountable for taking meaningful and effective action." ■
Oregon reports better than other states,
but the national numbers do show a
dramatic increase in hate speech and
hate crimes during the Trump presiden-
cy. No surprise when Trump talks about
“Mexican rapists,” chants “lock her up,”
and constantly makes anti-Muslim com-
ments. As Ward said, “It is time to speak
our values.”
thanks to outsourcing to Austin for copy
editing? Not a sign of future plans, we
hope. Readers and community members
need the forums the RG and EW provide
in our letters sections.
• What we’re reading: Chris Offutt’s
novel Country Dark. Our EW senior staff
writer Rick Levin says, “Trust me, you
won’t be able to put it down.”
• Oregon has the highest number of
reported hate crimes in the country, ac-
cording to ProPublica and the FBI. That’s
what Eric Ward, executive director of
the Western States Center, told the City
Club of Eugene on July 20. The topic was
“Free Speech vs. Hate Speech,” and Ward
shared the stage with Doyle Srader,
speech and communication professor at
Northwest Christian University. Maybe
the hate crime statistic means that
• As the crowded courtrooms in the
federal courthouse in Eugene showed
July 18, climate lawsuits are attract-
ing the attention they deserve. Oregon
is especially interested in the case
brought by Our Children’s Trust, which
likely will be argued before Judge Ann Ai-
ken in Eugene in October. Another series
of climate cases, with a different legal
theory, is playing out in courtrooms
across the country. These cases are su-
ing big energy companies for continuing
practices they knew were changing the
climate and damaging cities, counties
and states. So far, those cases are los-
ing but — like the famous tobacco cases
— they will keep coming.
• We want to wipe a phrase out of the
world’s dictionary. Stop saying “mother
of all wars,” please. Maybe try “father of
all wars.” That makes more sense. Even
better, let’s stop birthing war at all.
SLANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHA SING NOTES COMPILED BY THE E W EDITORIAL BOARD. HEARD ANY GOOD RUMORS LATELY? CONTAC T EDITOR@EUGENE WEEKLY.COM
eugeneweekly.com • July 26, 2018
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