Virginians are no stranger to coal. A state that currently generates 42% of its electricity from the old-school fossil fuel, we are used to living in a political culture that accepts
How to Get a Strong Senate Climate Bill, Part 4: Party!
The passage of the Waxman-Markey bill in June may not be reason to celebrate but it is certainly reason to party. That’s because we’re going to have to fight hard to get a strong bill from the Senate in the coming months and partying is actually one of the best ways to prepare ourselves for that fight.
With everything we’re up against including a coal lobby that forges letters to our congressional leaders, we need to do everything we can this August to strengthen our movement for the fight ahead. That means taking actions like our campaign to collect 1000 handwritten letters to Cardin, but it also means building our community, connecting with one another, having fun.
In other words, we need to have some parties. Climate community mixers are just as critical to growing our movement as the actions we take, and as with our actions, the success of our parties depends upon you.
Please volunteer today to host a climate house party this month. Hosting is really simple; all you need to contribute is a space for a few dozen local climate activists to meet, mingle and have fun. CCAN will help you work out the details, spread the word, and turn out the crowd.
Contact me (keith@chesapeakeclimate.org) today to register to host an house party. You won’t find a funner way to help our movement this summer. Once you’ve registered, I’ll give you a ring to help get the party started. Sign up now and help us make this an eventful August.
No prize for me but Sen. Cardin sure deserves one
As you know we have put out the call to get Letters to the Editor submitted in Maryland. And you answered that call! Last week CCAN volunteers submitted four LTEs, so as an act of solidarity I submitted my own to the Washington Post. To be honest they haven’t gotten back to me about printing it…because they are probably considering me for a Pulitzer and don’t want to spring it on me too quickly. So, while I wait on my prize I will publish my LTE here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
To the Editor:
Kari Lydersen’s piece about the important bill introduced by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) to prevent mountaintop removal mining [Miners Boycott Tenn. Over Alexander’s Bill, July 26] was missing a key explanation. Why would a Senator from Maryland
James Lovelock and the End Times
Future Hope column, August 3, 2009
British scientist and author James Lovelock has just had published a follow-up book to his 2006 book, “The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity.” This 2009 one is entitled, “The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning.” Throughout both books he presents scientific evidence to support his view that humankind has caused so much damage already to the Earth, burnt so much coal, oil and natural gas, cut down so many forests, and unthinkingly overdeveloped so many cities and towns in an environmentally destructive way that the chances are not good that we can avoid a worldwide climate catastrophe.
Lovelock believes that the likely result of our historic, short-sighted disregard for what he calls Gaia, “a self-regulating Earth with the community of living organisms in control,” (1) is the mass die-off of 85% or more of the human population over the course of this century. Despite this severely depressing belief, he has used his considerable intellect in these two books to try to think through how we can make the best of a very bad situation.
While generally supporting their work, he is critical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-supported organization of 2,000 scientists who have been studying climate change since 1989. He is critical of them for underestimating the severity of climate change. Continue reading
Coal lobby resorted to deception, identity theft
At least six letters sent to Congressman Tom Perriello (D-7th Dist.) from Charlottesville-based minority groups opposing the American Clean Energy and Security Act were forged, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported today. Congressman Perriello, a freshman Congressman from the Charlottesville area was considered a swing vote on the legislation.
First of all, was Congressman Perriello the only one to get these letters? I wonder…
Secondly, way to go Perriello for standing up to these lies and voting the right way on a important, if weak, clean energy bill.
The letters were sent by the Washington lobbying firm Bonner & Associates, which has lobbied on behalf of utility companies in the past. The firm did not register to lobby on behalf of any company or organization against the cap-and-trade bill.
Two of the letters purportedly came from the Albermarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP and Creciendo Juntos of Charlottesville.
Read the letters:
The American Clean Energy and Security Act, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives 219-212 in June, would put a cap on emissions of global warming pollution and invest money into the renewable energy and efficiency sectors.
According to the Center for American Progress, a $150 billion clean energy investment across the country would bring 45,000 jobs to Virginia and about $3.9 billion in investments, reducing unemployment by 1.1 percent.
Cartoon: Coal Miners Boycott Tenn., Mountains Rejoice
Did you know that coal miners are boycotting Tennessee because Senator Lamar Alexander is co-sponsoring a bill (along with Maryland Senator Benjamin Cardin – yay Maryland!) that would ban mountaintop removal mining?
It’s true, they are.
Here’s what Charlie Daniel, cartoonist for the Knoxville News Sentinel, has to say about that:
Eco-Therapy and Nature Deficit Disorder
Of all the problems linked to climate change, depression doesn’t appear high on the list of things to fix.
How to Get a Strong Senate Climate Bill, Part 3: Get Local Leader "Sign-Ons"
In the first installment of this series, I talked about the big difference that collecting handwritten letters can make in pushing our Senators to fight for a strong Senate climate bill. Few things are likely to leave more of an impression on an elected official than receiving a ribbon-festooned stack of hundreds of letters from constituents, all urging their leadership on a particular aspect of a particular piece of legislation.
Well, few things perhaps besides a stack of hundreds of letters from local leaders. After all, the strategy of our campaign is to do everything we can to demonstrate that there is a broad and diverse community of support for bold climate action among the Senators’ constituents. To do that we can mobilize the grassroots to show numbers
How to Get a Strong Senate Climate Bill, Part 2.5: Write (another) Letter to the Editor
Right now Senator Cardin is helping draft the Senate version of a clean energy bill!
The draft is expected to be released early September when the Senate returns from their August recess. This is OUR CHANCE as Marylanders to ensure that OUR VOICE and values are written into the bill.
Cardin will only fight for a strong bill in the Senate if he is hearing from the grassroots. Sen. Cardin has personally told us that he has recently heard more public feedback against clean energy policy than for it. We must be heard at this critical moment!
Here is just a small example of what we are up against. Check out this Letter to the Editor (LTE) in the Fredrick News Post:
“The world is laughing at us. Why would we ball-and-chain our economic future when it’s scraping bottom now? Oh! I almost forgot, global warming, with the emphasis on global.”
Letters like this are being printed across the state and its time for us to respond! Please, take a moment to respond and write your own letter. JOIN CCAN’s Truth Squad and get the latest updates.
Last weeks truth squad was focused on the broad benefits of a clean energy economy so this week we will focus on consumers specifically. Here are some talking points:
Consumer Pocketbook Protection
1. Thank our Senator’s for their leadership: I am encouraged by Senator Cardin and Mikulski’s past leadership on clean energy issues and are urging them to champion a strong clean energy bill in the US Senate.
2. Make Polluters Pay: The best way to protect the American consumer from rising energy costs is to make the policy fair by making polluters – not taxpayers -pay for cleaning up pollution. Make sure the Senate bill requires polluters to pay for the right to pollute.
3. Auction the Permits: The EPA says that a bill that gives permits to polluters for free will be more expensive. Protect my pocketbook by auctioning permits to polluters.
4. Rebate the Revenues to the Public: To protect my pocketbook, Senator’s Cardin and Senator Mikulski should push to auction all the pollution permits and return revenues to the public through direct rebates.
Check out Anne’s CCAN blog post to learn more about on consumer protection.
Please, let me know when you submit a letter and again when you get it published: ethan[at]chesapeakeclimate.org
Join the Truth Squad today!
Also, for more info check out our 10 ways to make your Senator a Clean Energy Champ toolkit
Obama: "I love Rick Boucher"
Cross-Posted from: here
I happened to catch the opening part of President Barack Obama’s health care town hall meeting in Bristol, Virginia. At the beginning of these, local politicians are usually acknowledged by the President. So Obama thanks the Virginia Senators and the Governor, and then mentions that the Congressman of this area is Rick Boucher. Now, Obama could leave it at acknowledging Rick Boucher like the others, but instead he goes on an elaboration of energy, saying Boucher was an early supporter of his campaign, and has worked to ensure an energy policy where clean coal is part of Virginia’s energy future, which will create jobs. Because of this, Obama proclaims “I love Rick Boucher.”
Now, as whole I’m a supporter of Obama’s presidency. After 8 years of Bush I’m infinitely happier with Obama as president. I think Obama understands the critical issues around clean energy and climate change. Although he needs to show much stronger leadership and be more vocal with the media, I have considered the stimulus investment, stronger fuel economy standards, as well as his administration’s aggressive behind the scenes arm-twisting over the Waxman-Markey bill(which I support) to be pretty good. At the same time, I’ve criticized his administration over the EPA ruling on mountaintop removal, as well as his stance on clean coal, which is no secret at this point. The tar sands aren’t looking too good either.
But the notion that Obama can stand there and proclaim such outstanding support for a bought out Congressman is absolutely disgraceful and damaging. Not just because of Boucher’s efforts to drain what should be clean energy funding into longshot carbon capture and sequestration. That you would expect Obama to support. It’s the fact that Boucher was the leader on the Energy and Commerce Committee in weakening Waxman-Markey’s emissions targets and he pushed to weaken them any further. It’s that Boucher took a 25% renewable electricity standard and a 15% efficiency standard and turned them into 20% combined together. These were the two biggest weakening effects. Although permit allocations and EPA authority are not at the top of my complaint list, Boucher had a big hand in those tamperings as well. If you could pick one member of the House that’s done the most damage to our efforts to pass a strong climate bill, it’s Rick Boucher. That’s why back in May, I was present at a direct action protest in the halls of Congress, where some blocked Boucher’s office and were arrested. At that event, one of the organizers Mike Tidwell, the director of CCAN and a friend talked about how Obama had all these goals for a good climate bill, and that Boucher was ruining Obama’s plan. If this really was so, Obama would not have such kind words for Boucher.
These kinds of remarks along with the EPA’s inability to block mountaintop removal mining makes me quite perplexed when I hear activists say we should kill the current bill so EPA can work its magic. I seriously doubt EPA would do better even if it moved in a timely fashion and cleared all the legal hurdles.
So, some general points I’m making to take away…
– I wouldn’t bet the planet on the EPA, and I doubt China or India would either. Let’s do our best to get a bill passed and improved out of the Senate that we can take to Copenhagen.
– I don’t like Rick Boucher.
– President Obama is doing some good things and some bad things. However, if he doesn’t adopt a much stronger public stance to pass a Senate bill and get a treaty in Copenhagen, his Presidency will go down in history as a colossal failure despite some of the good things he does.
– You can’t take a stronger public approach if you’re holding hands adoringly with Rick Boucher.