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2018

2018: Largest Oil Terminal in the Nation Defeated For five years, our state has rallied together to support the community of Vancouver, WA in resisting a proposal by Tesoro Savage to build the nation’s largest oil terminal on the shores of the Columbia River. The massive increase in dangerous oil trains and threats to our environment and economy galvanized communities along the railroad lines to show up for hearing after hearing through the very end. We saw many victories along the way, from elections of two Port commissioners to unanimous rulings by state boards to a strong decision by Governor Inslee. WEC and the Stand Up To Oil coalition are proud to have organized hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians to say no to oil and yes to protecting the health, safety, and sustainability of our state!

2017

2017: Legislature Ends Decades-Old Big Oil Tax Loophole After years of work, Washington decision makers closed a tax loophole that has benefited out-of-state oil companies for decades. While the tax loophole was created in the 1940s for wood biomass fuels and not originally intended for oil companies, these dirty industries have enjoyed tax cuts instead of paying their fair share to support our state. Closing the loophole will provide $70.8 million to state programs over the next four years.

2017

2017: First of Its Kind Scorecard Shines Light on Pollution Prevention Toxic stormwater runoff is the largest source of water pollution to Puget Sound, due to paved surfaces and hard rooftops that prevent rain from soaking naturally into the soil. Instead, it picks up pollution and runs through our communities and into our waterways. To highlight cities and counties that are actively changing their ways to protect their residents – and those who are not – we developed Nature’s Scorecard that ranks Puget Sound communities and speeds up our progress to make our cities more livable, walkable, and resilient. WEC and Puget Soundkeeper have tracked the 81 cities and counties around Puget Sound and graded them on five key indicators of if they accomplished the low-impact development goals the law set out. Together, we are helping our communities improve their practices and reduce pollution!

2016

2016: Passing Regional Mass Transit Initiative

Transportation produces the majority of Washington’s greenhouse gasses and increasing transit options is key in reducing single occupancy vehicle travel. That’s why we went all in on supporting a ballot measure to expand regional mass transit to provide cleaner options for getting around. The bold Sound Transit proposal will connect 16 cities with light rail, 30 cities with bus rapid transit/ST Express Bus and 12 cities with commuter rail across Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties. We dedicated our time to turning out our members to vote yes on this initiative which will result in an annual reduction of 667,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking nearly 142,000 cars off the road!

2016

2016: Intern Program Serving 20 Young Environmental Leaders Each Year We are committed to building and supporting the next generation of environmental leaders through our internship program! Offered quarterly, our internship program creates ways for young people to plug into environmental change-making. Doing everything from organizing volunteer events to leading phonebanks to helping turn out people to vote, each intern plays a key role in mobilizing our members to take action and make a difference. Each year our program is growing, particularly for young women and people of color. We can’t wait to see the interns today be the movement leaders of tomorrow!