When: Tomorrow, Monday October 6, 2008 from 11 to 1 (or 2)
Where: State Capitol Legislative Building Steps (North side of building)

The No LNG workshop at Traditions earlier tonight was informative. I learned that there are a number of good reasons to be opposed to a proposed LNG terminal on the banks of the Columbia River in Southern Washington State. The composition of the opposition is grass roots; it's a coalition of local stake-holders who would be affected by the Bradford Landing liquid natural gas terminal, as well as advocates for environmental justice.

Tomorrow's rally will call on Governor Gregoire to assist the peoples' opposition to this unnecessary and environmentally harmful project. The office of the Governor has made noises about even going so far as suing to stop the Houston based NorthernStar Energy Group's efforts to develop LNG terminals and pipelines - given the lack of appropriate state level input, environmental review, and oversight. The proposal has thus far been pushed and ferried through under authority of the 5 person Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), although one member of the Bush Administration appointed commission, Jon Wellinghoff, who is also the only one to have met with concerned stake-holders, has written a powerful and substantive dissent of the FERC position (to permit) the NorthernStar LNG endeavors. Find out more about that at tomorrow's rally! (More detailed information is available on the FERC website, as well.)

Jay Manning from the Dep. of Ecology will be among the speakers. There will be important information about what exactly is going down with proposals for pipelines and shipping terminals, the natural gas market, and the dangers and environmental pitfalls of the LNG trade.

No to global warming! No to LNG! Yes to renewable/sustainable energy! Yes to a better tomorrow!

More information: No LNG [http://nolng.net/]

[correction: It's the "NorthernStar Natural Gas" Energy Group that has proposed the Bradwood Landing LNG Terminal and associated pipelines, not the "Northstar Energy Group", as previously stated above, article amended to reflect correction.

Also for more information please see: River Vision: Renewable Energy Sources, Columbia River Vision.]

More than 4400 Olympia voters have signed the Capitol Park Foundation Initiative, well over the required number. Friends of the Waterfront and others will continue to gather signatures until Thursday, when the signatures will be submitted to the city. The last time a successful initiative petition drive happened in Olympia was over a half a century ago in 1955, when citizens rose up to block the logging off of the Olympia Watershed and to create, instead, Watershed Park.

Given how rare an occurrence a successful initiative is in the City of Olympia, I'm surprised the Olympian hasn't reported on this.  4400 is a lot of naysayers!

Earlier I blogged about the Capitol Theater facade and about the aquifer. Here they are during Procession of the Species and I think really demonstrate their potential. As I mentioned, the awning on the Capitol Theater is a great place to watch a parade.

Also, people are just hanging out on the cement blocks by the aquifer. Imagine how cool it would be if this was an even larger space with more places to sit! Maybe I'm just being greedy. There is also something extremely great about this space being so rugged and unpolished. I agree with the earlier commenters that making it into an official park may gentrify it. But does it have to be one or the other? Can we make an intentional and inclusive public space that works?

http://www.theolympian.com/570/story/398892.html

I'm going to get on my soapbox here.

I'm tired of the graffiti. I'm tired of our town being plastered with it. Free walls are just fine and dandy, in fact some are really beautiful. It's the garbage on my neighborhood stop signs, street signs, power utility boxes, local mini-mart, bus stops, and now this crap. Whip out a can of $2.50 Krylon and cause a $1000 worth of damage.

No intellectual discussion here, no sir-ree. Just a rant.