We figured there was more to the story on the emergency fossil fuel moratorium passed by the County Council.  Boy oh boy is there!
Did you see this?
On August 9, 2016 the Whatcom County Council passed an emergency resolution that put a moratorium on accepting applications for any project within the Cherry Point industrial area that would be shipping fossil fuels.

This moratorium seemingly came out of the blue. We were not the only ones shocked by it. Matt Petryni immediately sent out an email (partial picture at right)to their supporters in which he states "I was stunned".

But was he? Read on to find out where the emergency moratorium originated and who knew what and when.
Follow the emails
According to documents acquired in a Public Records Request, the original text of the emergency moratorium brought forward on August 9 did not originate from one of the Whatcom County Council Members.  

The file was sent to Carl Weimer's personal email account on July 25 by Matt Krogh of the environmental group Stand.Earth.The original owner of that document was Kate Blystone as per Word document tracking. Here is a list of people involved with this scheme:
  • Carl Weimer- council member on a personal email account
  • Barry Buchanan- council member on a  personal email account
  • Matt Petryni- from a RE Sources email
  • Kate Blystone- formerly of RE Sources and now with Pipeline Safety Trust
  • Matt Krogh- formerly of RE Sources and now with Stand.Earth
  • Alex Ramel- formerly of Sustainable Connections and now with Stand.Earth
  • Tim Trohimovich - from Futurewise in Seattle 
There were several emails back and forth and then Carl Weimer sent out a reworked version on August 3. The group then sent the resolution to Tim Trohimovich from the environmental group Futurewise in Seattle for a legal opinion. The Futurewise opinion was forwarded on to the entire Whatcom County Council


Without ever being discussed in committee or mentioned to the public, this resolution was brought forward as the very last item for the evening on August 9.

The resolution passed 7-0. 

Does Carl Weimer represent you?

It is no surprise that Carl Weimer would be working with RE Sources and other environmentalist companies on a project that would hamstring the industries at Cherry Point. After all, he did start RE Sources and served as the Executive Director from 1991 to 2004.

He doesn't try to hide the fact that he is in cahoots with these local environmentalist companies, In fact, he seems to flaunt it. Even going so far as to wear a red shirt on the night of a public hearing because RE Sources told their supporters to wear red. And in a recent Facebook post he used the wording "thin green line"  which is copied verbatim from RE Sources emails. 

However, it is surprising to see this level of coordination from an elected official who is supposed to be representing all of Whatcom County.

Are you comfortable with that?
What is even more surprising is that Kate Blystone is no longer working for RE Sources but is now working for Carl's company Pipeline Safety Trust.  

Are you ok with an employee of a Council Member creating a resolution for Council?

Are you ok with environmentalist companies writing legislation for our County?

Were you represented in this process?
Little white lie revealed

It seems that Matt Pettryni of RE Sources was included in the above email stream.  For him to later say "I was stunned" seems a bit disingenuous. However, RE Sources seems to rely heavily on hyperbole in their anti business campaigns. Now we know the extent to which they will distort the truth!
 Deja Vu
The email stream surrounding this moratorium resolution reveals that for sure Council Members Buchanan and Weimer were in on the scheme. However, Donovan and Mann were also mentioned. It looks like Mann and Donovan where very aware this was happening. How were they kept up to date? Phone calls? Secret meetings in smokey back rooms? Certainly this was not all done out in the open so the public was aware.

Does this story sound familiar? We thought so too. The County Council used the same scenario when they brought the 5 District proposal to a vote. Everything was done behind closed doors and then sprung on people at the last second so no one had time to react.

The Fourth Corner reported extensively on those shenanigans. You can find the article here .
And now for some good news!
We recently heard some good news. This email   Ken Mann sent to Whatcom Democrats political operative Lisa McShane turned up in a public records request. Seems like Ken Mann is thinking he will not run for public office again.

Based on the colorful language in his email we think it probably IS time for him to move on.

Especially when we saw this post on the Facebook page Bellingham Stolen Bikes.  Be warned....very foul language. Ken Mann recently got his bike stolen and apparently he is still not over it.

Perhaps he should not have been so opposed to the new jail!                                                
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