2025 December Newsletter! – 350PDX: Climate Justice

December 18, 2025

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What a year it’s been – filled with change, challenges, and important victories. If you’d like to revisit highlights, check out our news page for moments that have helped define our work.

Before we dive into team updates, we’d like to remind you that there are many ways to get involved with 350PDX – from volunteering to attending Action Nights. And while we are a couple of days past Giving Tuesday, there’s still time to donate!

Thank you for being such a strong, supportive, and compassionate member of our community. Together we’ll continue creating the beautiful city and world we want.

Upcoming Events

Note, some of these have more info/actions in our Team Updates. You can also check out our calendar for details!

December 7 – Hike Middle Big Noise timber unit sale
December 16 – Rally, Party, and Comment CEI Hub Policy Project
January 7 – Rumble on the River – Data Centers. You will have the opportunity to hear from speakers who will provide information and ways to take action. 5:30pm tabling and snacks, 6:00pm speakers, free to the public at Havurah Shalom, 825 NW 18th Ave, Portland
January 13 – Testify Portland Tree Code

Team News

Forest Defense Team

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Join the Forest Defense Team to experience Middle Big Noise, a timber unit sale of mature forest near Astoria.

December 7, 10:30am-1:30pm. This is a great way to get to know 350PDX members and talk about state forest protection in light of the Governor’s Natural & Working Lands and Waters Resilience directive, EO 25-26, signed in October. Find RSVP and Carpool info here.

Save the date! January 13, 5:00pm! There will be an opportunity to provide testimony in support of applying Portland Tree Code to heavy industrial areas to cool adjacent communities, improve air quality, abate noise, and more. The Economic Opportunities Analysis is one of several related projects that will affect the long-term health of our communities, waterways, and economy.

The 2025 Portland Urban Forest Plan is now available! Sincere thanks to everyone who submitted written and oral testimony in support of shifting street tree care responsibilities to the City and removing barriers to long-term cooling for low-middle income community members in low-canopy neighborhoods.

Would your neighborhood café be willing to feature a forest photo display? The Forest Defense team has printed several beautiful images of the Middle Big Noise timber unit in the Clatsop State Forest and is looking for potential installation locations to raise awareness. Contact noelle@350pdx.org to arrange.

Good news:

Scientists report that the positive effects of Klamath dam removal are occurring faster than anticipated
Governor Kotek issued EO 25-29, assigning state agencies responsibility for implementing Oregon Energy Strategy.

GET CONNECTED: Join the Forest Defense Team meetings on the first and third Monday of each month from 6:00-7:30pm. Contact volunteer team leads Felice Kelly (felice.kelly@gmail.com) or Tyler Gilmore (tyler@350pdx.org) to get involved.

Climate Policy Team

Make Polluters Pay

Our Oregon Make Polluters Pay (MPP) coalition is gaining momentum! Check out the new Oregon MPP website. Mark your calendar for January 22, 6:00–8:00pm. Our January Action Night will be an opportunity to learn more about the MPP bill and get involved so it can pass the Oregon legislature in February!

We’re still scheduling “house meetings” to educate people about this bill. Do you have friends you’d like to invite to learn about this bill? Can you host a small (8–12 people) gathering? Contact Cherice Bock (cherice@350pdx.org).

Fossil Fuel Resistance Team

We sued the City about the Zenith LUCS—and won!

In March, we let you know we were suing the City of Portland, along with Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC), Willamette Riverkeeper, and 18 Portland residents over the City’s recent approval of a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) for Zenith Energy, which gave the Texas-based fossil fuel company a green light to expand operations in Portland.

On November 13, we found out we won! In a major procedural victory for environmental and community advocates, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) decision. Read more here and here’s an article from The Mercury.

The Danger of Data Centers. Opportunity to comment.

While we’re trying to reach our state’s goal of 100% clean energy, data centers are adding massive energy loads, and we’re paying the bill in our utility costs. Right now, we have the opportunity to speak up about data centers, making sure they will pay their fair share. Due to the POWER Act, a bill we helped pass in the 2025 legislative session, we can comment on UM 2377. Starting with PGE, this case will become the template for how data center customers are charged for energy costs for all of Oregon’s for-profit utilities. Comments are due by December 15. Modify and send this one-click email or use these talking points to write your own comment.

Rally + Party + Public Comment: CEI Hub Policy Project Planning Commission Hearing

Thanks to you, over 850 comments were submitted to Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) in October regarding the CEI Hub Policy Project! The next step is that BPS has released a proposed draft, which will be evaluated by the Planning Commission at a hearing on December 16. The proposed draft includes a drawdown of liquid fuels (fossil and otherwise) stored at the CEI Hub, which is what we asked for!

We need to show a groundswell of community support for:

removing these toxic fuels from their location near the river
drawing down the use of greenhouse gas-emitting fuels as we transition to clean energy—starting now.

So, we invite you to come together for a fun and festive rally on December 16, then head in to offer our comments to the Planning Commission! There will be music, speakers, hot drinks and snacks, and huge holiday energy for taking care of our people and land together!

When: rally at 3:00pm, hearing from 4:00-8:00pm

Where: 1900 SW Fourth Avenue, Portland

Submit written comments by December 19. Sign up to give verbal testimony December 16.

Join the Fossil Fuel Resistance team

If you’d like to get involved with Fossil Fuel Resistance team’s campaigns, join us at our next meeting on Zoom on Tuesday, December 9th at 5:30pm. Please reach out to Ben Platt for the Zoom link: benplatt59@gmail.com.

Arts Team

The big news for the 350PDX Arts Team is the amazing shelves we now have for storing lumber, puppets, fabric, paint and posters! So let’s use our materials, and let’s make stuff! We’re focusing on our appreciation of insects with new puppets: bees, more dragonflies and butterflies. What insect would like us to make and puppeteer? Let us know at our next Artbuild, December 14, 1:00-4:00pm, at our new neat and tidy workshop space!

Coming up, we need lots of puppeteers for the December 16 CEI Hub festivities and rally.

And Save the Date – – February 3, 2026 is the Mississippi neighborhood Mardi Gras and they want us there again!

Our team needs lots of help, and it’s fun work! We hope you can join us at our next Artbuild. Let us know! Donna, Lauren, Dannika, Allison

Email: murph1949@aol.com

Book Club

Want to learn more about climate issues, envision creative solutions and alternate worlds, and relax with fellow humans in a casual setting? Join the 350PDX Book Club! We meet on the first Wednesday of each month, alternating between in-person and virtual meetings and between fiction and nonfiction. Bring snacks or drinks to share, or just your wonderful personality. All are welcome, regardless of whether you’ve read all, some, or none of the book.

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Join our next gathering on Wednesday, January 7 at 6:30pm on Google Meet. Our virtual meetings are less structured and more responsive to the group’s conversations of the previous month; we’ll pick our January book at the December 3 meeting. Email books@350PDX.org to get the book title and meeting link.

Save the date for our next meetings:

Reach out to books@350PDX.org with any questions, RSVPs, or to join our list. See you soon!

Volunteer Spotlight

Rosie Sharrard

Rosie came to 350PDX in fall of 2023, looking for ways to make change on a broader scale and combat her climate anxiety. She attended the “Who Will Own the Forest” conference protest and was motivated by the speakers and movement building. She jumped right in with the Forest Defense Team. Since then she’s been involved in the Ax Drax and biomass campaigns, helping coordinate this year’s Pedalpalooza and Shade Equity Action Night, and liaising with other groups as part of the Defend Forest Park coalition, working to stop PGE from logging 5 acres of Forest Park.

Rosie also enjoys helping with Action Nights and getting crafty with the 350PDX Arts Team. She loves the community she’s found in the Forest Defense Team, and values the perspective and insight that comes from volunteering with a wide breadth of ages and tenure in the climate justice movement.

Outside of her volunteer work, Rosie enjoys wandering through the forest, identifying plants and fungi, tending to her garden and picking up new hobbies.