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DAY ONE | DAY TWO | DAY THREE | DAY FOUR | WRAP UP
--Larry Fahn, Sierra Club President
Day four of the Pacific Northwest CAFTA education tour is winding down
early -- it's before 11:00 pm. (Dave Foster has gone back to Minnesota after a busy and productive 3 days.) I just returned from a fundraiser and
entertaining auction to benefit the King County League of Conservation
Voters, where I ran in to some old friends and new, and talked to a dozen
or so elected officials, many of whom had heard a lot about the Sierra
Club/Steelworkers CAFTA collaboration. I had debated a spokesman from a
"free market advocacy group" (aka a right wing think tank) called the
Washington Policy Institute on "The Conversation," a lunch-hour daily
program on Seattle's NPR affiliate KOUW. The show also featured
Congressman Adam Smith, who announced his opposition to CAFTA yesterday,
based primarily on its threat to labor and environmental standards.
 Smith's Political Director was at the LCV event and reported that his
decision had resulted in hundreds of positive messages from constituents,
and virtually no negative comments. Everyone I spoke with, from Seattle
Mayor Greg Nickels, to state senators and port commissioners, agreed with
our strong opposition to CAFTA, even though many expressed a need to expand
and diversify fair trade.
The day began with a meeting at the Northwest Energy Coalition, which has
been a terrific advocate for agressive renewable energy portfolio
standards, green building legislation and conservation initiatives in
Washington as well as Idaho, Oregon and Montana. We talked about areas of
mutual concern (the Sierra Club is a charter member and sponsor of NW
Energy Coalition), and they agreed to post an anti-CAFTA article in their
upcoming newsletter. We fear that trade rules as written in NAFTA and
CAFTA, could some day be used to overturn renewable energy standards as
trade barriers by foreign power companies.
Before lunch I needed to find a land line to take part in the NPR radio
show, so I stepped into a Pioneer Square area book store, Wessel and
Lieberman, where the proprietors gladly offered me a phone and a computer.
Later I picked up a few rare books by one of my early heroes, Washington
native William O. Douglas, who was the longest-serving Supreme Court Justice
and one-time Sierra Club Board member.
Afternoon visits to the Washington Toxics Coalition and the People for
Puget Sound found very receptive staff, agreeing with our CAFTA position,
and willing to help spread the word to their members, via website and
newsletter postings. The Executive Director of People for Puget Sound is
Kathy Fletcher, who was also a Sierra Club Board member, for two terms in
the early and mid-90s. When she heard that CAFTA might pose a threat to
Washington's tough rules prohibiting discharge of ballast water from cargo
ships in the sound, she too offered to help on the cause.
During meeting breaks I made and received calls from the offices of
Congressmen Smith, Baird, Inslee and McDermott, as well as Mayor Nickels
and Governor Gregoire. The Governor's office extended an invitation for me
to speak at her signing ceremony and press conference for the new "clean
car" legislation which happens tomorrow in Kirkland, Washington. This is
only the second bill in the country that will require all cars sold to
begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and hopefully it begins a new
trend to start making serious progress on the fight to curb global warming.
As I was leaving the LCV event, I ran into Adam Ruben, national field
director for MoveOn.org. He expressed his thanks for the Sierra Club's
involvement in the judicial nominations fight (they are planning another
series of national bake sales to help deter the "nuclear option") and
promised to talk with his board and staff to see if MoveOn might be willing
to weigh in on the CAFTA issue.
All in all, a great wind-up to a great tour.
Photos: Susan Knight/Sierra Club collection; all rights reserved.
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