Protect Cherry Point Once Again!
Urgent Action Alert
Environmental Justice Ministry Action Team
Hopefully, many of you will remember starting back in 2010, the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship began one leg of its long journey with Lummi Nation. We joined with Lummi in defeating the proposed largest coal port on their sacred lands and waters. After defeating it, many people worked to put protections in place to keep it relatively safe from the fossil fuel industry by amending the Growth Management Act.
Those amendments are now under direct threat.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
County Council will vote on whether to tell staff to finalize the amendments on Tuesday, June 16, with only a half-hour allowed for oral public comment, at 9 am. But there is no limit on written public comments! So we need to flood the Council with written comments! Happily, we here at the Whatcom Environmental Council have already submitted a detailed letter to the Council explaining where changes to the Plan Update need to be made (WEC Cherry Point Amendments Letter).
All you need to do is ask the Council to direct staff to accept the changes requested in that letter and send your letter by Friday June. 12 in order to provide the time for the Council members to read your submission.
Here’s a template you can use:
[As a resident of Whatcom County, I love this area for its beauty, protection of the environment, and strong sense of accountability. That is why I am so concerned about the fossil fuel industry assault on the Cherry Point Amendments.] The Cherry Point Amendments were unanimously approved by this Council in 2021 after five years of drafting, re-drafting, and public input by a stakeholder group of local community members, environmental advocates, county elected officials and staff, labor unions, and fossil fuel industry representatives. They developed language acceptable to all stakeholders and this Council. These amendments limit environmental and climate impacts from increased train traffic, marine shipments, and greenhouse gas emissions. Council’s intent was to limit expansion of Cherry Point industries and require thorough and independent County permitting processes and rigorous environmental review, including greenhouse gas analysis.
But now the fossil fuel industry has submitted amendments that undermine the Cherry Point Amendments, ignore this Council’s intent, avoid reasonable opportunity for consultation with the public and the environmental community, and effectively renege on the industry’s agreement to accept the Cherry Point Amendments. This is the wrong path!Please be sure to get it in no later than 9 am Tuesday morning, June 16, but preferably by this
Please direct staff on June 16 to accept the recommendations in the June 8, 2026 letter from the Whatcom Environmental Council that detail the changes that need to be made to the industry amendments and that track the original intent of the Cherry Point Amendments. (WEC Cherry Point Amendments Letter) That letter speaks for the community, the environment, and the climate. Alternatively, please reject the new policies (2CC-19, 2CC-20 and 2CC-21) introduced by Councilmember Ellenbaas.
Please listen to your constituents!
Respectfully,
[Your name]
Feel free to adjust the language of the very first sentence to personalize the letter for you, but please be sure to leave the link to the WEC letter, so that the Council sees the weight of public support for those changes.
Then submit your letter electronically to council@co.whatcom.wa.us. Friday, June 12, if you can—this will allow Council members to read the letters before the June 16 meeting.
Thanks for all you do.
Deb Cruz
dwcruz@comcast.net
Please send all questions, requests. feedback or submissions to