Coalition to Transition from Fossil Fuels on Orcas

Saturday, Oct. 21, 6-9 pm, Odd Fellows Hall, Eastsound

— from Sharon Abreu —

On Saturday, Oct. 21 from 6-9 pm at the Odd Fellows Hall, 112 Haven Road in Eastsound, Climate Justice Steward Sharon Abreu will host a Kickoff event for the Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy (AJCE).

The AJCE is a statewide coalition of 170 groups including environmental groups, labor unions, faith, social justice and community groups working together for a “Just Transition” off fossil fuels to a green energy economy.

This is an historic coalition that has been needed for a long time, so this is something to celebrate! Our Orcas Kickoff is an opportunity to learn more about the AJCE from some of its lead people, its proposed policy for a tax on carbon pollution, how the tax would work, where the funds would be spent, and how you can help.

The event is free and open to the public. Q&A is encouraged. Refreshments will be provided, and more are welcome. There will be some music, too!

A “Just Transition” program is an organized, well-funded way of speeding up the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and energy efficiency, that ensures no low-income communities or people currently working in the fossil fuel industry (or energy-intensive industries) will be unduly impacted by the transition off fossil fuels. It’s a socially responsible way to respond to the need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, clean up our air and water, and create lots of good paying new jobs at the same time.

AJCE Climate Justice Steward Sharon Abreu has been a union member since 1997 and a climate change educator since 2000. She and her partner Michael Hurwicz premiered their first climate change musical show, The Great Climate Caper, with students in the Orcas Island public schools. Their climate change musical revue, Penguins on Thin Ice, was performed by high school students at the United Nations for the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development in 2007. Sharon won the Spirit of Nature, Ecology and Society Environmental Justice Award at the City University of New York in 2011 for her one-woman show, The Climate Monologues, in 2011.