Greetings Environmental Activists!
Thank you for your interest in the right to clean air and water! We were inspired by the enthusiastic response to Maya van Rossum’s webinar on a WA constitutional amendment proposal a few months ago. There is movement with this idea and NOW is the time to move this idea forward.
We need you to take action today!
This action takes 15- 20 minutes. The deadline is Tuesday Jan 25, 2022 by 9pm. Details are below.
Ask committee members to give HJR 4209/SJR 8210 a hearing.
Last week, Representatives Debra Lekanoff and Liz Berry, and Senators Mona Das and Christine Rolfes (along with six co-sponsors) proposed a joint resolution HJR 4209/SJR 8210, which would let the public vote in a general election to add a right to clear air and clean water to the Washington State Bill of Rights.
Our legislators are meeting this week to decide whether to move HJR 4209/SJR 8210 forward. We need you to tell the committee members: Give this resolution a hearing.
What you can do:
1. Create an email:
The first sentence of the email should be:
Dear (name of legislator), I am asking you to give HJR 4209/SJR 8210 a hearing in its respective committee.
Craft a message to the legislator by choosing 1-2 additional sentences from the options below or feel free to write your own.
-Here in the U.S. people have rights to free speech and religion, to bear arms and to freely assemble, but we do not have the legal right to clean water and air, and healthy environments. This resolution would let the people of Washington State vote at the ballot box to make clean air and water legally protected.
– Only three states — Pennsylvania, Montana, and New York — clearly identify the rights to a clean water and air as fundamental, inalienable, and individual rights that must be protected by the government to the same degree we protect other fundamental rights. Let’s add Washington State to that list.
-Our right to pure water and clean air should be inherent, indefeasible and inalienable rights retained by the people now and for future generations. It is time that our state’s Constitution legally recognizes these rights.
– By letting the people vote to add clean air and water to the Bill of Rights, this resolution will strengthen the healthy economic growth that avoids the costs of pollution, including illness, cleanup costs, flooding, drought & declining property values by ensuring government laws and actions prevent pollution rather than respond to it after-the-fact.
– I am supporting this Resolution because it establishes a legal infrastructure for avoiding pollution now and for future generations.
-Both economic prosperity, and the well-being of society are founded upon the health of our shared natural resources.
-Moving this resolution forward would protect human health, and also salmon recovery, forests, and future generations.
Suggested last Sentence: Please give HJR 4209/ SJR 8210 the important and timely consideration that it deserves so that Washington state can be a leader in ensuring the welfare of all people today and in the future. Thank you for your work!
2. Send your crafted email to legislators and their assistants listed here:
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Legislator |
Legislators Assistant |
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Jesse Salomon@leg.wa.gov |
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3. Forward this call to action to your network.
If you have a bit more time
4. Email the co-sponsors and thank them for their support of HJR 4209/ SJR 8210.
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legislator |
legislative assistant |
Thank you for all you do!
Support phone for this action: David 206-407-7128. Feel free to call.
Please contact us at dakipnis@gmail.com for further information or to join the Green Amendment Organizing Team. We’d love to have you!
Your 350WA Civic Action Green Amendment Team.
Resolution HJR 4209/SJR 8210:
“BE IT RESOLVED … that… at the next general election the secretary of state shall submit to the qualified voters of the state for their approval and ratification, or rejection, an amendment to Article I of the Constitution of the state of Washington: ‘The people of the state, including future generations, have the right to a clean and healthy environment, including pure water, clean air, healthy ecosystems, and a stable climate, and to the preservation of the natural, cultural, scenic, and healthful qualities of the environment….’” (read the Original Bill Here).