Some Thoughts on the Democratic Party’s Failure to Fight on Climate

By Ted Glick

“I am firmly convinced that the passionate will for justice and truth has done more to improve (the human condition) than calculating political shrewdness which in the long run only breeds general mistrust.”
Albert Einstein, “Moral Decay,” 1937

1)—Harry Reid’s statement yesterday about why he would not be putting forward legislation on the climate crisis blamed the Congressional Republicans. It’s true that, with a few exceptions, Senator Susan Collins of Maine being at the top of the list, the Republican Party deserves withering criticism for their joined-at-the-hip allegiance to Big Oil and Dirty Coal.

2)—But the Republicans don’t control the White House, the Senate and the House. The Democrats do. And there are oil and coal appeasers—“soft” climate change deniers, in effect–very much within the leadership of the Democratic Party. If the Democratic Party were united behind the need for strong action to address the climate crisis, it is likely that they would have gone forward, and done so long before now, with an effort to pass climate legislation, if only to lay the basis for Democratic candidates this fall to contrast their party’s position with that of their Republican opponents. After all, numerous polls show that big majorities of the American people support a shift away from fossil fuels to renewables. This support was demonstrated during the 2008 elections when both Obama and McCain talked about the climate crisis and the need for action to address it.

3)—It is absolutely clear that Barack Obama either doesn’t really get it on the seriousness of this issue or, if he does, hasn’t yet developed the guts or the courage to give the needed leadership on it.

4)—Indeed, a likely point at which Obama began to lose his political nerve on climate was in the spring of 2009 when the Senate voted down a key, climate-related section of his proposed fiscal year 2010 budget authority resolution. Obama proposed that $650 billion of revenues be included over a ten year period that would come from expected-to-be-passed, future climate legislation, from an auction of emissions permits to polluters. I remember hearing last year from people who had White House connections that this vote by the Senate really upset the White House. This may well have been the point at which Obama started down the road of vacillation and indecision regarding how much he would make climate legislation a priority.

5)—But Obama’s continued vacillation and indecisiveness even after the BP blowout disaster, his unwillingness to connect the dots and rally the American people at this time when the seamy reality of our fossil fuel addiction is so obvious to everyone, is really inexcusable. “Pathetic” is the word that comes to mind.

6)—Given the deepening of the climate crisis—2010 the hottest year on record, major methane releases in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf—and the fact that leadership from the President of the United States is absolutely essential if we’re to get the kind of federal legislation we need, it seems to me there are two course corrections that climate groups should be making.

7)—One course correction is to jettison the failed cap-and-trade model. There are better options, better in terms of their practical effect and better politically as far as support from the American people to undercut the Republican and fossil-fuel-Democrat problems. Cap and dividend, in particular, as put forward in Senator Cantwell and Collins’ bi-partisan CLEAR Act, has been picking up support ever since it was introduced last December, from climate groups, AARP, religious organizations, The Nation magazine, Senators Cardin and Merkley and others. And this approach—100% auction of permits, most of the money returned in direct dividends to the American people, a chunk of it used for various clean energy investments—is exactly what Obama campaigned on consistently as a major part of his 2008 platform! He got elected with this as a major piece of what he talked about!

8)—The other thing we need to do is to appeal to Barack Obama as a father, not as the President or even as a politician. Barack Obama needs to be hearing over and over that we want him to think Sasha and Malia when he thinks of what he should do about climate and energy.

I’m afraid of heights. But in October, 2006 I climbed 25 feet up a ladder to an 18 inch wide ledge over the main entrance to the D.C. area headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. With Paul Burman I unfurled a banner which said, “Bush: Let NOAA Tell the Truth,” in reference to the suppression of climate scientists at NOAA by the Bush-appointed top leadership. Paul and I clung to that ledge for four hours before we were brought down and arrested by the police.

Paul and I spent hours practicing before this action, including climbing up a ladder. I remember that the way that I overcame my fear of doing so was to think about my two nieces, Abby and Ellie, then two and four years old. I kept thinking about the kind of world they will inherit if we are not successful in our efforts to prevent the catastrophic climate change that is our fate if we as a species don’t get serious very, very soon about getting off fossil fuels, protecting and rebuilding our forests and treating our Mother Earth with love and respect.

Thinking about Abby and Ellie gave me the courage I needed to climb that ladder. Hopefully, a Barack Obama who thinks “Sasha” and “Malia” when considering what he needs to do to recover from an absolutely terrible defeat on climate in the Senate would be different than the one we’ve seen so far.

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In an ever apparent effort to prove that there is nothing the company can’t do, Google has officially become a utility. Yes, you read that right: Google can now add “green utility” to its laundry list of bold and ingenious ventures.

In 2007, Google made headlines when it announced the company intended to voluntarily become carbon neutral. To achieve this goal, they’ve vastly minimized their energy consumption (no small feat considering the magnitude of their data centers), begun powering their facilities with renewable energy, and purchasing offsets for the carbon emissions they cannot eliminate directly.

So when the opportunity arose for Google to directly purchase wind power from the source, it seemed to be a natural growth of this commitment to sustainability. Yesterday, the company announced that it will begin a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement to buy 114 megawatts of wind energy generated at NextEra Energy Resources’ Story County II facility in Iowa. This comes after announcing in May that the company had invested $38.8 million in two North Dakota wind farms.

With its track record of successful innovation, Google could give the wind power industry a much-needed boost. The company has plans to seek more long-term wind power purchase agreements. Welcome to the clean energy revolution, Google Energy LLC. We’re happy to have you.

P.S. Google- We could really use some help over here on the east coast, if you aren’t too busy. Have you heard of the Mid-Atlantic bight?

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On the 3 month anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, an explosion that ended the lives of 11 workers and irreparably damaged the livelihoods of countless others, I was at a rally held across the street from the U.S. Capitol building.  We were there to say “Congress: You Have Oil on Your Hands!” and to ask our elected officials to end handouts for dirty and dangerous fossil fuel companies and instead embrace the clean energy future that we need.

CCAN’s own Ted Glick drew on the inspiration of the 41^st anniversary of the first man on the moon when he made his plea for Congress to change, “Senators need to make a choice, and the American people need to let them know what it must be,” he said.  “Senators can side with BP, ExxonMobil and other dirty energy companies that have dominated U.S. energy policy, or they can take action to support the clean, 21st century energy sources that must, absolutely must, be our future, and soon. Just as the federal government in the early 60’s made it a priority to get a man on the moon by the end of the decade, we must do the same now as far as breaking our fossil fuel addiction. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.”

Leaders of several faiths were also present to speak about the moral imperative of saving our planet while we have the chance.  As Rabbi Arthur Waskow put it so eloquently, “Jews, Christians, and Muslims are joining today in this action out of spiritual commitment,” he said. “We must free ourselves from addiction to fossil fuels, free our Congress from Big Oil’s top-down control-and heal our wounded Earth, the sacred Temple of all peoples and all life-forms.”

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CCAN has partnered with groups like Energy Action, 350.org, the Hip Hop Caucus and many more in the first online art contest exploring climate change in its many forms – how it is impacting our lives and what can be done to ensure a sustainable future for all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Participate in the CoolClimate Art Contest and get the chance to have your submission judged by Philippe Cousteau, Van Jones and the comedian Chevy Chase!

Here are the details:

Submit a work of art that explores our relationship with the climate – from clean energy jobs to pollution-free oceans – the subject choice is yours. You can submit a piece you’ve already made, or pass this email along and get an artist friend involved. Post your art on www.coolclimate.deviantart.com and you will be eligible to win prizes, be featured on the Planet Green Planet100 show and be displayed at key leader events nationwide on 10/10/10.

A panel of esteemed judges will select 20 finalists from hundreds of submissions. The finalists will then move to Huffington Post for public voting utilizing the Huffington Post’s innovative online social voting tool.

Submissions are now open and will close on August 23, 2010. You can read the Official Contest Rules on the CoolClimate Group website.

The creative community has always helped to create new and expanded visions of possibility during difficult times. We look forward to seeing your vision for a cool and sustainable future.

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Why would a guy from Maine with a degree in sociology pack up his car and move 739 miles to Fredericksburg, Virginia? Social justice…

I’ve been on the ground with this campaign for eleven days now working with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and I am loving every second of it. It is giving me the opportunity to address three distinct social justice issues at the same time.

We are working to stop a proposed $6 billion dollar coal plant that would be 32 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, increase transparency within a local electric cooperative, and elect a clean energy supporter to their board of directors.

The massive, unnecessary coal plant proposed by the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC), and its affiliates across the state, undoubtedly presents a grave danger to our environment (specifically the fragile but beautiful Chesapeake Bay), the health of humans and wild life that will be exposed to its toxins, and the entire planet as it contributes to global warming. If built, this plant will emit 110,000 pounds of toxins into the air daily; this is not acceptable. Simply put, we have a duty to each other and the natural world to be implementing clean energy technology and reducing our overall energy consumption.

In addition to the most obvious problems with this coal plant, a second social justice issue presents itself. At $6 billion this is the most expensive plant ever proposed in the U.S. Where will this $6 billion come from? Well, the co-op members of course. These ratepayers, by-and-large, have yet to hear of this plant; never mind how it will effect their financial well-being. Another area power supplier, Dominion Virginia Power has recently sought to increase their rates for new power plants they are currently building. In a June 29 article from The Virginian-Pilot (“Utility seeks permission to raise electricity rate”), the author breaks down the rate increases and concludes that the increase will amount to “about 5 percent, of the monthly bill for the 1,000- kwh customer.” As it stands co-op members pay more for their electricity than non-co-op Virginia consumers; for various reasons including the distance that the electricity must travel to reach its consumers. This, in conjunction with the reduced amount of capital available in rural compared to more densely populated areas, has the potential to be devastating on the daily lives of our fellow citizens.

Lastly, co-op members are not simply ratepayers; they are part owners. This means that they have a right to know what is going on in THEIR electric utility and have a right to hold the board of directors accountable. A cooperative system that thinks it is appropriate to propose a $6 billion coal plant is not necessary without telling their members is clearly broken.

This pending eco-tragedy and travesty of democracy is why I came to Virginia. As one of my favorite 90’s political rock bands put it: “What better place than here, what better time than now.”

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As some of you may know, Allegheny Power no longer exists in Virginia. The customers that were with Allegheny have been divided between Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) and their affiliate, Shenandoah Cooperative, as of June 1, 2010. In another perfect example of just how bad the transparency problem in REC is, almost none of the former Allegheny customers had any idea that they had been switched until they got their first (considerably higher) bill from REC.

The better part of Clarke County was transferred from Allegheny to REC. Almost every person I have spoken to in this area has complained about power outages ranging from a few minutes to several hours. Most people who did know about the switch were first informed when they called Allegheny to complain about these outages. Ex-Alleghany co-op members have been grateful when I’ve told them about the coal plant, the upcoming co-op election, and our clean energy candidate, Rob Marmet. It’s frustrating that the only information some of these co-op members have received has been from CCAN, rather than their new co-op.

Last Tuesday, July 13th, REC held an informational meeting for new members. Justin, Leslie, Carrie and I piled into the car and traveled from our Fredericksburg office to the Clarke County government center, where the meeting was held. We arrived just in time to find REC executives setting up refreshments and brochures and to see huge rain clouds roll in.

Incredibly, almost as if REC could control the weather, the downpour lasted almost exactly the length of our stay before, after, and during the meeting. Unfortunately, the inclement weather seemed to affect the meeting’s turnout. Luckily, one person who wasn’t deterred by the weather was our candidate for the REC Board of Directors, Rob Marmet! Rob and his wife made it just in time to talk with us for a few minutes and head into the meeting.

During the question and answer session, Rob asked why new members who may have lost or thrown away their ballot must travel all the way to a REC office to request another ballot in person. There are REC offices in Fredericksburg, Culpeper, Bowling Green, and Front Royal. The co-op area spans about 15 counties, many of which are hours from an office, and it is unclear if they will even be distributed ballots at every location or only in Fredericksburg. He also brought up the proposed coal plant near the Chesapeake Bay, but the Board of Directors managed to sidestep the issue entirely. Rob is quoted in an article about this meeting in the Clarke Daily News.

Here is an excerpt:

“Marmet said that he is running for the REC Board of Directors because he believes in the cooperative system and thinks that direct public ownership is the best approach for running a good utility. Marmet also expressed reservations about plans by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, REC’s primary electric power provider, to build a coal-fired power plant in Surry County, Virginia.”

“Why does a Virginia utility want to invest in antiquated coal technology?” he rhetorically asked.”

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According to the Mirant Corporation – one of the country’s top 100 air polluters – Maryland’s Montgomery County Council is guilty of a shocking act of discrimination – climate polluter discrimination that is.

It all started in May of this year when the council passed the nation’s first county-level carbon tax. At the time Mirant’s big charge against the legislation – which had the full support of environmental advocacy groups such as the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network – wasn’t that it was discriminatory, but that it was anti-environmental. The company even recruited an angry mob of global-warming-denying Tea Party activists to the hearing to drive home their point, but for some reason the county council wasn’t convinced.

Perhaps realizing that environmental activism just wasn’t its strong suit, Mirant decided to turn to civil-rights advocacy. In a suit filed last month against the carbon tax, Mirant claimed that the tax “violates [its] constitutional rights”…

Click Here to Read More

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Cross post:
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R.) is in hot water. Make that hot bottled water. It seems the man loves bottled water so much that he’s willing to sacrifice a state low-income school breakfast program to drink it.

Here’s what happened: This week, McDonnell reversed an existing directive to phase-out state spending on bottled water. The goal was put in place by his predecessor and was set to save Virginia about $34,000 this year and also further the state’s “greening” goals. But then the state’s bottled water industry stepped in and, luckily, they had McDonnell’s ear, as the group Corporate Accountability International notes.

Chris Saxman, board member of the International Bottled Water Association and employee of a major water bottler in Virginia, supported McDonnell’s move. His company, the Shenandoah Valley Water Company, was, “far and away the single largest recipient of government spending on bottled water.” Last fiscal year, the company were paid more than $100,000 from Virginia government agencies for their water fix.
What’s more, the spending increase on bottled water comes during a tight budget squeeze. In these tough times, the governor has proposed a budget that would cut millions in education funding and eliminate a school breakfast program for low-income children, Corporate Accountability International says.

So let’s get this straight: the Governor wants to end a program that would this year save $34,000 on bottled water — money that could buy, I don’t know, let’s say hundreds of low-income children some breakfast? Ironically, but maybe not coincidentally, bottled water company executive Saxman also served as an education adviser to McDonnell in the past, according to The Washington Post. Sounds like good education advice to me.

“His actions today seem to suggest he is more interested in protecting cushy state contracts for the bottled water industry than protecting the environment or prioritizing state funding for vital public services,” said Leslie Samuelrich with Corporate Accountability International, in a press release.

Virginia’s governor is swimming against a turning tide. Many states, cities and businesses, including Illinois, New York, Colorado and San Francisco, are trying to save money and save the environment by reducing bottled water use. In 2007, San Francisco’s government found that it was spending almost a half-million dollars a year on bottled water. In addition, plastic water bottles are terrible for the environment — most end up incinerated, buried in landfills or discarded as litter. And despite what water companies may claim, the supposedly “pure” water is usually no better for public health than tap water.

Sign Corporate Accountability International’s petition here to tell Gov. McDonnell what you think of his decision to pour his state’s tax dollars down the drain at the expense of the environment.

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With sadness and best wishes, the CCAN staff will say goodbye this month to an extraordinary member of our family: Anne Havemann. Barely out of college, Anne began working for CCAN five years ago as an executive assistant and quickly rose to become our communications director for the past three years. During her tenure, Anne has given as much heart and soul and sweat to the climate movement as anyone on the planet. For five straight winters she jumped into the Chesapeake Bay as part of our annual “Polar Bear Plunge.” She was such a fierce opponent of dirty coal in Maryland that former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich directed the state police to illegally spy on her (true story). She melted away with the rest of us during summertime rallies on Capitol Hill and she had her eyelashes turn white during a snowstorm rally for clean energy in Annapolis. But mostly we at CCAN will remember Anne for accidentally setting on fire a small bouquet of flowers during a CCAN fundraiser in Silver Spring, MD. The carbon emissions!

In late August Anne will become a student at the University of Maryland Law School in Baltimore with the goal of becoming an environmental lawyer of great global renown one day.

Anne: We already miss you so much it hurts. You made CCAN a great place to work and be happy despite the great storminess of climate change.

With great love and respect, we say so long for now.

The CCAN Staff

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July 20th will be the three month anniversary of the BP oil blowout disaster.

To call attention to this fact–to demand strong climate legislation that reduces carbon emissions and promotes clean energy–to call for getting dirty energy money out of politics, a broad coalition of 19 national, regional and state organizations (see list below) issued a call a couple of days ago for local “Congress: You’ve Got Oil on Your Hands” events around the country on July 20th. The coalition urges that actions be held in front of the offices of members of the Senate or the House who have taken a large amount of money from Big Oil or who have refused to support strong action on climate. More info on Big Oil campaign contributions can be found at http://www.followtheoilmoney.org. MoveOn.org is setting up a website operation where local organizers can register their events and get more information.

Given the continuing ecological and economic disaster unfolding in the gulf, and because the U.S. Senate will be debating and voting on offshore drilling/energy/climate legislation this month or early in August, it is right-on-time that these actions are happening. This is the time to really step up grassroots pressure on the U.S. Senate!! Continue Reading »

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