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Continue readingLabor Leader Rally for Clean Energy

Labor Leader Rally for Clean Energy
Last week labor leaders joined climate advocates in what would normally be considered an unlikely cross-over episode. They rallied on the National Mall, in Washington, D.C. to show congress their support for an immediate passage of President Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” with a 100% Clean Energy Standard.
Read the full transcript below.
Charles Olsen 0:01
Hi, my name is Charlie Olson, and this is Upside Down the podcast from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Last week, climate advocates and labor leaders from around the DC area joined together on the National Mall to show their support for President Biden’s American jobs plan and the 100% clean electricity standard. The audio of this episode is taken from that rally. Enjoy.
Unknown Speaker 0:33
So here’s our message to Congress. Y’all got a lot of work to do over there. The bipartisan senate infrastructure bill last week does not come close to taking care of workers and the climate doesn’t come close. The roughly $600 billion in new spending is a start. But it leaves out nearly three quarters of President Biden’s vision under the American jobs plan released in March includes among other features $400 billion in investments for wind and solar construction of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and weatherization of 2 million low income homes. The plan also explicitly calls for passage of the protection of the right to organize act a bill that our labor colleagues have prized for decades. So I’ll let my friends in labor and from the hill explain more. But Congress, you must do more. Every feature dropped by the slim down insufficient senate infrastructure deal must be restored through additional bipartisan votes or more likely through budget reconciliation, all $2.3 trillion. All $2.3 trillion of Biden’s original jobs plan must become law, not $1 last for workers and clean energy. Now on to our first speaker. Now when Joe Biden first unveiled the American jobs plan in Pittsburgh and march It was a union worker who introduced him with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. So we are thrilled to kick off this rally with Tom Clark, a 30 year member of the IBEW Local 26, here in the metro area region and a member of their executive board Tom.
Unknown Speaker 2:32
Good afternoon. As a proud member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, I anxious anxiously await the passage of the American jobs plan. This forward thinking piece of legislation puts America to work in 2021, but its effects will last well into the 22nd century. With the promise of installing 500 electrical vehicle chargers across the nation, President Biden has tat the IBEW to lead this clean energy project. Our president knows that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are right now training young men and women for the green energy jobs at a future at no cost to the state. President Biden knows that union electricians collectively bargain for health care, annuities and defined pensions at no cost to the state. The White House knows that these very benefits will not only lead to a thriving middle class for my fellow electricians, but ensure future generations the same opportunities for success. The American jobs plan is not only multi generational, but addresses the gender pay gap as well. Because when union jobs, men and women get paid the same period. I’d like to thank President Biden and all congressional leaders for getting the American Job plan to this point. The future this bill is now in our hands. It’s now time for the American people to get to work. I asked all citizens to notify their representatives about the importance of passing the American Jobs Act. I ask all elected officials on Capitol Hill to get to work, compromise and pass all aspects of this vital jobs bill. This once in a lifetime bill that promotes clean energy and the American worker. Finally, I asked my fellow blue collar members to in organized labor, let’s strap on our tools and get to work. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 4:51
Thank you, Tom Clark with IBEW Local 26. Now, you know after the disappointing and pared down Senate Structure agreement last week, there’s been a slogan that’s been circulating among climate advocates and congressional leaders. That phrase is no climate. No Deal. But I picked that phrase as incomplete. I think it should say, no unions, no deal as well. So I’m gonna speak here. And when I, when I yell something out, I want you all to respond with no deal. Okay, are you ready? No climate. No unions. No climate. No unions. No climate. No unions. Okay, y’all, they can’t hear you at the Capitol. All right. So we’re gonna do that one more time. You’re ready. No climate. No unions. No climate. No union. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is David Steven. He’s the political and legislative director of the metro Washington Council of the AFL CIO, David
Unknown Speaker 6:08
Haye, thank you. It is beautiful to be out here. Amongst all of our labor folks. On this beautiful day, y’all Give yourselves a hand for coming out here. To help me out, show me what democracy looks like. Show me what democracy looks like. Show me what democracy looks like. All right. All right. Now, you know, it was Dr. Kane that said that justice, or excuse me, peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice. And I want to take this opportunity to thank congressman Bobby Scott, Congressman john Yarmuth for coming out here and standing with us as we fight for economic justice with our union brothers and sisters, y’all give them a hand. Now, President Biden knows unions are key to rebuilding an economy that works for the rebuilding. That starts with the passage of the American jobs plan. The Washington, DC metro Labor Council, is urging Congress to listen to the 10s and 1000s of union members right here in the District of Columbia, who are sick of a system that benefits billionaires at the cost of workers, it is time for Congress to pass the American jobs plan. This package will not only make critical investments into our nation’s infrastructure, but will help build a growing clean energy economy that is powered by millions of good paying jobs. Now, show me what democracy looks like. Thank you, God bless you.
Unknown Speaker 8:06
Thank you so much. And I want to ask congressman Bobby Scott, to step forward, it’s your turn. And congressman Scott, representing the third congressional district has been in Congress since 1993, is chair of the education and Labor Committee, a great friend of labor. And I want to begin, Congressman Scott by handing you a letter that was signed last week by 1700. Union households, not just from this region, not just from Virginia. But this letter calls for passage of the American jobs plan. And a clean energy revolution in this country was signed by 1700. Union households in all 51 States of America. And all their names are right here. So I want to hand this to you in recognition of your work. Please tell your colleagues that labor is with you. The climate movement is with you. And we are with you.
Unknown Speaker 9:14
Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I am Bobby Scott representing Virginia’s third district and that’s where the James River, Nansemond river and Elizabeth River all meet the Chesapeake Bay. And I want to thank you all for what you do to try to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. I’ve been working on it since I was in the Virginia General Assembly. In 1978. I was on a Maryland, Virginia, bipartisan legislative committee to see what we could do. And the first thing we decided to do is that Maryland and Virginia wasn’t enough. We didn’t get everybody involved. We’re wasting our time. And that’s why the Chesapeake Bay commission was formed many years ago. And so we’ve been working on this a long time and we’re making some progress. But we’re gonna thank you for all that you do. Now I also chair the committee on education and labor where I’m proud to advance the interests of working men and women. And I’m also the proud sponsor of the project, which passed the House of Representatives and do what you can to get it out of the Senate. Now, as we gather today we’re suffering through in the Pacific Northwest, we’re suffering through a dangerous heatwave precedent setting they used to have I’ve heard 90 degrees used to be noteworthy. They’ve had several days in a row where it’s over 110. I heard that an ice cream parlor had to close because the air conditioning couldn’t keep the ice cream cold enough. I mean, you think an ice cream parlor would be making money hand over fist similar weather like this not able to close because they couldn’t deal with the weather you got people in Detroit suffering from from flooding and coastal communities, including those hit by hurricanes last year preparing for another hurricane season. All of this is happening because of climate change. And you know that there’s another direction we ought to be taking and workers are leading the way. I’m proud to be here with my colleague, the Budget Chairman, John Yarmuth of Kentucky and hopefully, Joe Morelli, from New York will be here in a few minutes. And we’re working hard to get the American jobs plan to the American families plan passed in the United States Congress. We recognize this as a once in a lifetime capital investment, just like it was once in a lifetime when Dwight Eisenhower right after world war two created the interstate highway system, we have the opportunity to have a once in a lifetime infrastructure plan that not only does roads and bridges, and tunnels, and ports, and schools, the CDC said functioning ventilation systems are an essential element opening school safely. So we need to make sure in Virginia, half the schools the more than 50 years old, we need to make sure that we have school reconstruction, housing advice has already been mentioned, and broadband to bring communities into the 21st century, we need to do they have charging stations, people are gonna buy electric cars that they can charge them on the highway, people aren’t going to build charging stations and people aren’t buying electric cars. So we start off with the electric charging stations, people buy more cars. And next thing you know, every restaurant on it near the interstates is gonna have a charging station, because they’re going to attract people to those they’re gonna hook up with and then they’re gonna go right in the restaurant and buy a meal. That’s how you do it. But you have to have somebody with the vision to do the dude to do it first. We also need to do what it takes to put people to work. That’s like daycare, childcare, and early childhood education. So people can go to work and job training. So they’re so they have the skills to perform the work. All of that can be done in a climate friendly manner if we do it right. And that’s why rallies like this are so important. Why I’m so happy to be here. And I look forward to working with each and every one of you as we do what’s necessary to pass not only the American jobs plan, but also the American families plan and do it in a critical climate friendly way. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 13:33
Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Congressman Scott, and thank you for all your leadership and making time for us in this heatwave. I next want to bring up another committee chair. We are very, very fortunate to have congressman John Yarmuth. Again, he is also from the third district but this one in Kentucky. He is in his eighth term in Congress. He is chair of the House Budget Committee. It is through congressman Yarmuth that any kind of reconciliation bill is going to have to travel and so we are fortunate to count him as a friend and Congressman Yarmuth, I too want to hand you this letter from 1700 labor households in all 51 states. So that includes the district, and we appreciate all that you do.
Unknown Speaker 14:27
Well, good afternoon, everybody. It’s great to be here. Thanks for standing up for the future of our civilization. It’s a good thing to be for. It’s great to be here with my colleague, Bobby Scott. Bobby’s my chairman. I’m his chairman. And incidentally, Joe Morel is on both the budget and the education labor committees as well. So we’ve got a monopoly here on the program. You know, about two years ago, I made a speech to the Louisville reference Louisville, Kentucky, by the way, I gave a speech to the local Rotary Club. And I said, The theme of the speech was that we’re in this incredibly interesting and probably unique time in our history. And that is that art history is catching up with us, and the future is getting here faster than we thought. And one of those things that illustrates that is climate change, we have our neglect for the environment, over generations and generations has brought us to this point. And it’s climate change. The climate threat is reaching us faster than anybody anticipated. Another area that that? Well, there are a lot of things. But I said, there are three things we need to be doing right now, as intensively as possible, if we’re going to have a future for our country. And number one is to deal with climate change. Number two was to deal with early childhood education, because unless we make sure that every young person in this country has the strongest possible Foundation, there isn’t going to be much of an economy or future for anybody then. And when I look at the American jobs plan, and the American families plan, and then you add in the American rescue plan, there is one unmistakable theme. And that is, we are trying to build a future for our country, for our children and grandchildren. And, that future involves dealing with climate change, so that there is in fact, a future. And right now, as Bobby mentioned, we’re seeing the manifestations of climate change every day, everywhere in our country, everywhere around the world. And it’s time to act. And one of the things that I’m so excited about with American jobs playing in American families’ plans is that finally, after decades and decades, we have leaders in Washington, who are asking the important questions in the right order. Now, what do I mean by that? For decades and decades, whenever we identified a problem we thought we needed to deal with, what was the first thing we asked, what can we afford to do? That’s not the right question. That’s not the right question. The right question is, number one, what do we need to do to serve the American people? Not the people we’ve been serving, who are the ones in the top 1%, and so forth. That’s, that’s the other party that serves them. But President Biden has finally started asking those questions in the right order. What do we need to do to prepare our young people for their labs? What do we need to do to save the country? environmentally? What do we need to do to build a 21st century economy and not a 19th century economy? What do we need to do to build an economy that actually looks forward to the future as opposed to looking back to the wagon trail days, again, that other party does that. And when we passed the American rescue plan, with its emphasis on children, the expanded child tax credit, which is the checks are going to start going out in about two weeks, to give every parent the means to lift their children up. Half the kids living in poverty are going to be lifted out of poverty with this, to give it to Gibbs, yes.
Unknown Speaker 18:28
To give state and local governments and school systems the resources they need to do things in an environmentally friendly way. And so to retrofit schools to build new schools and buildings that are environmentally friendly, that conserve energy, and so forth, and giving cities and towns and counties and states the money to do that as well. But there’s a reason that this major proposal, the American jobs plan, is not called the American infrastructure plan. The Republicans want to have a debate over what’s infrastructure. They don’t think childcare is infrastructure, they don’t think care for the elderly is infrastructure. They don’t think of the electric grid electrification for electric vehicles, any of that stuff’s infrastructure. Okay, who cares? That’s not what the name of the bill is. The name of the bill is the American jobs plan. Because the idea is to create millions of jobs while we realize this, this future oriented economy that we’re trying to build. I was thrilled to have my name on the American rescue plan. That was the day we passed that I said to myself, I asked myself, have I ever had a better week in my life? And I said, not even close. To have my name associated with something that changed lives so dramatically and made the kind of investment in our people that we did was something that I will always cherish. I had that opportunity. And now I have the opportunity to do it again and again. And believe me, I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure that the American jobs plan on the American families plan. And then whatever we do next year, when we can do reconciliation again, and do something that serves the American people, I’m going to be right there as well. So thank you so much for your passion, your commitment, and, and your interest in making sure that our future is a bright one, an environmentally friendly one, and one, which serves all of the people in this country, and not just the very few. We’ve seen how that works, we’ve seen the trickle down theory, not so good. We’re gonna build the next economy from the ground up, and make sure that the 99% who have been figuring out how to get by, won’t have to worry about that. They’ll work and they’ll get by, and the jobs will be there, and the future will be there for them. So thanks for all your work. Thanks for having me here today and get on with the rest of them, because we’re gonna need some help. It’s not going to be easy. But I think everybody in the Democratic Caucus, we’re not expecting to get any Republican votes. But everybody, the democrat credit caucus, we may have different ideas. But we all know that what we’re trying to do is the right thing, and we’re all agreed on the objective. So we’ll get there. Thanks for your support. We need it.
Unknown Speaker 21:29
Thank you, Chairman Yarmouth and our next speaker is also a member of Congress. Congressman Joe Murali, a Democrat from New York, he’s on both the House Budget Committee and the house education Labor Committee, proudly serves New York’s 25th congressional district. He’s got some really important business to deal with back on Capitol Hill involving something like armed services or something like that. So we wanted to bring him on up to the stage, I present to you Congressman Joe Murali.
Unknown Speaker 22:05
Good day.
Unknown Speaker 22:07
Good afternoon, I think it is a good afternoon. It is. Good afternoon, everyone. And thanks for being here. It’s wonderful to see you here at the nation’s capitol. I am honored to be talking alongside two of my favorite members of the House and to Chairman on whose committees I serve Bobby Scott, chairman of the education and Labor Committee. I’m very proud of our work there. And of course, John Yarmuth, who chairs the Budget Committee, a committee I also have the privilege of serving on, I do have to run back to an armed services committee meeting that we’re hosting right now. But I wanted to make sure I came down and said a few words about the importance of you being here. And the importance of the work that we have to do together to rebuild America. I have a pin on my dresser that I look at every single morning before I go to work. It’s the 55 year pin for my father, who was a member of local 13 plumbers and pipefitters in Rochester, New York. And I think about my dad every day. Because first of all, I don’t think I ever saw him in the morning. When I’d get up at 6: 37 to go to school. My father was already out to work. And he worked every single day. He was relentless. But he was incredibly proud of the work that he did. And what he would say to five of us that were lucky to call him dad. He talked about how the middle class was built by organized labor, and that the United States of America owes the fact that it has the middle class to organize labor now I’m pretty blessed in New York, have a buddy Mario Salento is the head of the AFL CIO in New York State, Gary labarbera, who heads our building trades in New York State. We have great progressive leaders in New York. But we have a lot of work to do around this country. If we’re going to build the middle class once again. And I think and I’m sure Bobby and John mentioned this, but I think the right to organize is as fundamental as any right guaranteed us and the US Constitution, the right to organize. And this is why this has been one the rights we have today have been one through the blood, sweat and tears of a lot of brothers and sisters who have come before us on whose shoulders we stand but it is our job our generations job now, to continue to expand those rights and to make sure that the right to organize, isn’t lost when they started calculating this data 22% of Americans were in Union households is down to 10%. That talks about the erosion of the labor movement, not because of the men or women in the labor movement but because the forces that have aligned against us and it’s time for us to take it back. That’s why we need to fight to pass the proact to raise the wage to enact the American jobs plan to create clean, sustainable, accountable tinyme for working families in the millions across this country. So I know I joined with my brothers and sisters and certainly with Bobby and John Yarmuth, Chair Two great committees, we have a great deal of work to do. And I also think we’re all blessed to have Joe Biden in the White House along with a comma Harris. They’re fighting for us every single day. And they’re bringing the fight to the Congress. And we have to join with them and join with all of you by the millions to come to Washington and capitals all around the 50 states in every village City Hall everywhere in America, to fight for these important things. So thanks so much for the opportunity to be here to be with you. But thanks so much for what you do every single day to fight the way for millions of Americans. God bless you, thank you.
Unknown Speaker 25:35
Thank you, Congressman Murali of New York, I really appreciate you making time. Okay, now we’re gonna take a quick break from the DC labor course. If you’ve never heard about them, you’re about to hear them. They are legendary in this town. They are all union workers from the area and they’re gonna sing a couple of songs for us and we’re so thrilled to have them. I present to you the DC labor course. And they’re gonna get set up and be ready in just a second.
Unknown Speaker 26:26
We are members of the DC labor chorus and we’re thrilled to be part of this event today. We have two songs for you and here we go through the change that we’re trying to change we are gone. Gone the last part, honor labor here we are gonna change we’re gonna change the last car race racism, no racism or sexism or homophobia. Jobs and justice jobs. We are gonna change jobs. Changing jobs is gonna change. Last time Yeah. Bronco, Bronco, Bronco. Very soon. We’re gonna change. Hey. Ready for the nice, strong. Pro. Show run. Where there can be no power right around the Sun got my forest on earth solidarity. Sa strong they have taken on toto oil to iron out our drain turn we learn
Unknown Speaker 30:43
straw in our hands is placed a power greater than their hard head told we can recover straw Espanyol. So your solidarity.
Unknown Speaker 32:09
All right, give it up one more time for the DC labor chorus coming out here on a hot day. Thank you so much. We really appreciate that lift. And I want to invite Tasia to the podium who’s going to speak to us for a mom, I thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 32:28
What would you do beaky? Jesus gives you an indigent cause and I got you in on doing Juba magazine. Oh, damn. Hello, everyone. My name is Taylor Martin. Oh, I’m from the Fond du Lac reservation in northern Minnesota. I’m a well known water protector. Being a water protector, makes me anti pipeline, but we are not anti worker. You know as proletariat’s, you have the right to demand ethical pay, you have the right to demand fair wages. And you have the right to demand ethical work that isn’t harming indigenous people. But in the global south, which, if climate change, as it’s currently happening, the first people to feel those repercussions is our indigenous relatives to the global south. So I love the fact that we’re speaking about solidarity today. I love the fact that we’re standing up for your rights. I love the fact that you’re out here, not only demanding that those in Congress, you know, treat you fairly, but standing up for what you believe in as a core value of the water protector. So we’re really happy to see that as an indigenous person. I’m coming for everything that they told my grandmother’s that we could not have, and I hope to bring each and every single one of you with me Magwitch
Unknown Speaker 33:34
Thank you so much. tasia. Our next speaker is Josh Armstead. With Unite Here union Josh is the vice president of the DC chapter of Unite Here local 23, which represents over 7000 food service workers in DC, Maryland and Virginia.
Unknown Speaker 33:55
Alright, right, can everybody hear me? All right. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Josh Armstead. As Jeff introduced, I’m a food service worker at Georgetown University. Most of the Vice President of Unite Here local 23 here in DC. When I started working at Georgetown, I immediately joined the committee for Unite Here local 23. And at Georgetown, we pressured Aramark for a fair living wage of $15 an hour and then using our power pressure DC to $15 an hour as a bare minimum for the work that we do. When we talk about climate justice. Right, we have to talk about fair treatment of workers along with the environment, one cannot go without the other. Winning $15 an hour or more now has changed my life. One of the first is my vision. I was unable to actually have good health care without actually joining the union and fighting for my rights on the job and for fair pay and for good health care. Now because of that fight. I’m More or less free to see you clearly, all workers need a fair living wage of at least $15 an hour. I’ve organized in many places across the country, including across the Potomac River and Virginia, which is a right to work state. And it’s shameful. It’s very shameful that there are millions of Americans right now who literally work 40 or more hours a week, and they don’t know how they’re going to pay the bills. They don’t know how they’re going to take care of their kids, as a single father of a three year old. I don’t know how I could personally survive. And I’m very thankful every day that I made the decision to join the union. But it shouldn’t be like that for anyone and the richest country on the face of the earth. It should not be that way. And speaking to, you know, COVID-19, right, like my union took a big hit. My union is the hospitality and restaurant workers union. If you’ve been in Estonian, you’ve probably seen most of our members. Or if you’ve gone to the airport, 98% of all of my brothers and sisters lost their jobs. But even then, we still were fighting. Joe Biden got elected because 1000s of members went to Florida, Pennsylvania and Nevada, Arizona, and made the crucial difference, knocking on doors. And then 1000 more members went to Georgia, and knocked on more doors to secure a Democratic Senate. Right. Like we need our government that we as workers put into office to actually care for us by passing and moving through the proact the American Jobs Act, and to make sure that all workers are uplifted, it does not make sense with the government that we as workers have put through, that we are still left behind, whether they be in airports, whether they be in restaurants, whether they be anywhere, we need to make sure that our government that we put in is passing this and so workers will keep on fighting until that happens. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 37:07
Thank you so much, Josh. Thanks for everything you have been knocking on doors in Georgia and Pennsylvania and making it happen we really appreciate all our friends that unite here. Our next speakers are Anya vines and Ryan are leery of one fair wage. Man, I tell you, this organization gets stuff done. I told them earlier, I wish I had their well, whoever their media consultant is because every time I pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio, I hear about one fair wage causing good trouble. John Lewis always called it. So I want to invite Anya and Ryan up, they’re gonna let you know what they’re up to express some solidarity with the rest of us and actually give everyone a chance to take action right after this event. So y’all come on up.
Unknown Speaker 37:55
All right. So before I get started, if you guys support the ajp Make some noise. No, I don’t think I heard y’all right. If y’all support the American jobs plan, make some noise. Perfect. Thank you so much for inviting one fair wage here today. My name is Anya Vines, and I am speaking on behalf of one fair wage, and also on behalf of Generation Z. I’m 21 years old y’all and I am a part of the climate movement. That is very imperative. There is a stigma that is saying the next generation is not willing to pick up the pieces and help out with this fight. But I’m just here to tell you guys that that’s not the case. We’re out here. We are out here. We are fighting, we are standing in solidarity, we are a part of this fight, because we are the future at the end of the day. So again, thank you so much for having us here. And of course, speaking on the intersectionality between climate change and restaurant workers, you cannot support one without the other. You cannot support one without the other. You cannot bring attention to $15 plus tips on top nationwide, without paying attention to the climate change that is happening in the world. When it comes to climate change, it discourages people from leaving their homes from hurting neighborhood eateries. We support the American jobs plan. Why do we support the American jobs plan? Not only does it help unions, but it also addresses climate change with clean energy jobs that benefit everyone, including restaurant workers. So again, one fight is all of our fights. One fight is all of our fights, we have to understand internet intersectionality for both, so you cannot have one without the other. So one fairway stands in solidarity with each and every one of you. And I’m going to pass it off to Ryan so that he can inform you about our direct action because direct action that’s a part of the movement where revolution. So, we’re going to pass it. I’m gonna pass this off to Ryan. And at the end I’m gonna go over some chants with you guys and we’re gonna rock out together. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 40:14
Thank you Anya. My name is Ryan, I’m another organizer with one fair wage. There’s two pieces of action that I want to mention today. The first is that we have officially submitted a proposal, a ballot initiative, to the DC council to once again vote to eliminate all sub minimum wages in DC and pay all tipped workers $15 with their tips on top. Make sure you sign that petition we got to get on the ballot. The other thing is that after this we are going to be taking a short walk down to the capital grille owned by the Darden restaurant group. Darden is the largest restaurant group in the country, they own all of the garden, they own the yard house, they own all of the Capitol grills and they are the biggest opponents to raising the tip minimum wage, a wage that has been set at 260 an hour since 1990. federally, so one fair wage is going to sue them. We’re suing them while we’re driving. We’re walking down later today after this rally, and we’re going to be serving them papers. We’d love for you to join us. We’d love for you know, we love talking to talk up here but it always helps to end it by walking a little bit of the walk. So please stick around afterwards. Look out for us. We’d love to have you come down for our, our serving. Alright, thank you guys.
Unknown Speaker 41:39
Thank you so much. By the way, I’m gonna be joining them. I’m walking down with one fair wage down to the crowd capital grille. And I hope if you all have an extra 1015 2030 minutes that you’ll join us, I think it’s really amazing that they’re giving us an opportunity again to walk the walk. So our last speaker and I saved him as cleanup. His cleanup hitter is Don Sleeman, and he’s going to be speaking on behalf of the Northern Virginia Council, the AFL CIO, and as a member of IBEW Local 26. Also, no one more than opened doors for this event and introduced me to a lot of new friends was always encouraging. And, you know, it feels like the goal here was not just to have a rally today and support the American jobs plan in support of union jobs and clean energy. The goal here was also to expand our networks to make our coalition bigger to create permanent relationships between the climate movement and the labor movement. And frankly, those bridges have not always been sturdy. And after today with the help of Don Sleeman, they are so much bigger and better and I give it to you, Don slamet.
Unknown Speaker 42:51
Good afternoon. How’s everyone? I want to compliment Mike on getting budget Chairman Yarmouth here, Bobby Scott here the head of the Labor Committee who wrote the best labor law I’ve legislation in the history of my lifetime. And Congress Murali is really a real pleasure to listen to him. You know, we’ve been waiting a long time to invest in people and infrastructure in this country. We’ve been waiting, how long, how many infrastructure weeks have we celebrated 1000s this bill, and it’s only one to two bills that we need. This bill will build back better and build a union like President Biden says he mentioned. And he mentioned building a union to change our climate when he spoke to Congress. This bill would expand broadband. This bill would revitalize Union Station and help the Brotherhood locomotive engineers and the union of transportation unions and the Teamsters. This bill will be the single largest investment in mass transit in the history of this country, which is not only good for our workers and good for folks that spend more time with their families so they can get home quicker, but it’s also good for our environment. This bill will clean our waterways. And you know, this bill doesn’t go far enough, right. We could spend trillions, trillions. 6 trillion is my you know 4.3 trillion is what the engineers society says just to get us upgraded where we should be. But this bill will be the largest investment ever. And it is a great start. And the focus of this bill, where we are going to build an apprenticeship. We’re going to build with prevailing wage, we’re going to build with safety. We’re going to build careers, not jobs, and all in creating a stable environment because we can build stable jobs and a stable environment we have to the alternative is insurrection after insurrection, as this country becomes more fascist, because the workers have no hope and don’t have any and can’t vote and can’t rely on each other to have rights and a voice at work. That is why it’s also so important to have the project as a vital part of this bill. To lift up all the voices, you know, I’m I’m happy I’m building Amazon, that’s gonna be a build 100% Union, their new headquarters and that is going to diversify our economy, though I have a lot of problems with Corporation and other things, but they are going to diversify this economy bring AI and robotics. But you know, what is AI artificial intelligence? How can quick machines learn? Well, how about real intelligence? How about giving workers a voice on the job, how about listening to the people to put things together who have experienced every single day in day out, that’s where real intelligence is, that’s where we’ll have productivity gains. And that only happens if you give the first amendment to people where they work and live where they spend their waking hours, build their relationships, even to get their last name. If you don’t have the right to have a voice on the job, you don’t have the First Amendment where you work, you don’t have anything, and only 6% of the private workers in this country, have a voice on the job, have a right to face your accuser have a right to prove their innocence and the right to stand up. If something is said about him without a union, they make up stuff about you, you’re fired, you’re out the door, and you don’t even have a chance to even say your piece. That is why it’s so important to get the project to be part of this climate action bill. And we have to do it. You know, in the last 75 years, every war we fought has been over fossil fuels and droughts. We can’t we can’t ignore reality. We have to fix our climate, save our climate. And there’s and this bill does it in a way where we’re also fixing our democracy. We’re fixing our trade unions, we’re fixing the balance of power between workers and capital, nothing’s going to change in this country to rebalance a property and workers and capital and give us a stable climate. And so this is the first of many times we’re going to get together. Because obviously, we’re not going to have this bill done by Fourth of July. And obviously, we’re not gonna have it. So it looks like Labor Day. So we have a lot of work to do. There’s going to be two bills, we have to have the American families plan as part of this American jobs plan. We have to invest in our children, we have to invest and take care of our elderly, we have to invest in paid, paid sick leave to Ireland’s in one nation, an entire world that doesn’t have paid sick leave. That’s us and, and marisha and some other places Borneo, Bernie, we have to make a difference. We’re so far behind. This is a start. And by getting these two chairs here, you know, the democrats have five or six marginal votes to play within a house and no margin in the Senate. But they’re going to have to do it because they saw the alternative. The alternative of doing nothing is having a bunch of fascist take our capital, so they got to get to work. And they got to give two bills to the president by Labor Day. And we’re all going to be there to make it happen. Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 47:45
Thank you, Don. slammin Nova afl-cio IBEW Local 26. Real last speaker is with a soccer team. And I’m going to let her tell you more.
Unknown Speaker 47:59
Hi, everyone. I’m Lindsay Behrens, with the Washington Spirit, a professional Women’s Soccer League here in the DMV and the National Women’s Soccer League, the most competitive Soccer League in the whole world. I’m here to invite you all to our salute to labor on July 10 at outfield and September 26 at segra Field in Leesburg, if you would like to join us and extend an invitation to all of your members, please let me grab me afterwards or my colleagues, Zoey, raise your hand. We’d love to have you thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 48:38
So I want to thank all our sponsors one more time and then I want to send you away with some action items I want I think Metro Washington council the AFL CIO, the AFL CIO, Northern Virginia Labor Federation, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, local 26, the amalgamated transit union. Unfortunately, Ray Jackson couldn’t make it today. But they’re totally in solidarity with us. Again, the restaurant workers at one fair wage, and Josh will unite here and all the great work that they do. I also want to thank everyone who sees CCAN Action Fund, our board member Andres Jimenez. Natalie Piane, one of our board members for Northern Virginia, if you work for C can or C can Action Fund staff raise your hand, these people worked really, really hard to make this happen. Let’s give him a round of applause. Thank you so much. Thank you to the DC labor corps for singing. Thank you, Tasia and everyone else. So here are two things. The first one, one fair wage, folks, raise your hand. I’m going to be walking with them over to the Capitol grill. I hope all of you can come with us. Just one more thing we can do for everyone else. Let’s make the American jobs plan part of your life. We’re not talking about 10 years to get it passed. We’re not talking about five years. We’re not going to burden you with one year. We need your health for the next nine 90 days, this thing is either going to happen or not happen in the next 90 days, we’re going to resolve the destiny of our global climate. In the next 90 days, wrap your head around that. We’re going to decide once and forever: Are we going to have fair wages for a fair day’s work or not? We’re gonna resolve that in the next 90 days. We can do it together, good jobs, good wages, Union protections, clean air, clean water, solar power, wind power, electric vehicles, we can have all of that if we get the President’s back. We keep the pressure on Congress. We stay together, we stay informed. We stay united. So thanks again for coming. You guys. Really appreciate it. We’ll see you down the road.
Charles Olsen 50:45
Thanks for listening to Upside down. This podcast is produced by me, Charlie Olsen. with incredible support from the entire weekend staff. Check out the show notes for links to all the things discussed in this episode. If you want to know more about how you can get involved with C kin in the climate fight, check out our website at Chesapeake climate.org. If you want to get in touch with us, follow us on instagram and twitter at sea kin. And if you enjoy the work we do, why don’t you share it with your friends. Sharing the show is a super easy way to help spread the word about the work we’re doing in the fight for bold climate actions. Thanks again for listening. We’ll see you next time.
Maryland Legislative Preview

Maryland Legislative Preview
In this episode, CCAN helped pass the most ambitious climate legislation in the American South, the Virginia clean Economy Act. Sadly, we did not fare as well across the Potomac in Maryland. However, advocates in 2021 are optimistic that this is the year that Maryland will pass sweeping climate legislation. This episode is the recording of CCAN’s legislative preview event for Maryland. Our phenomenal organizers were joined by Maryland delegates, Paul Pinsky, Lorig Charkoudian, and David Frasier-Hidalgo, where they outline their goals for 2021.
Read the full transcript below.
Charles Olsen 0:01
Hi, my name is Charlie Olsen and this is the Upside Down podcast from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. In this episode in 2020, CCAN helped pass the most ambitious climate legislation in the American South, the Virginia Clean Economy Act. Sadly, we did not fare as well across the Potomac in Maryland. However, advocates in 2021 are optimistic that this is the year that Maryland will pass sweeping climate legislation. This episode is the recording of CCAN’s legislative preview event for Maryland. Our phenomenal organizers were joined by Maryland delegates, Paul Pinsky, Lorig Charkoudian, and David Frasier-Hidalgo, where they outlined their goals for 2021.
Mike Tidwell 0:42
Thank you, and welcome everybody. Again, I’m Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Chesapeake Climate Action Fund, and welcome to this Maryland legislative preview call for the year 2021. And boy, doesn’t that sound good for 2021. Good riddance to the battle year of 2020. But in the year 2021, we can be sure to expect two things. One is that climate impacts will continue, we’re going to continue to see more rain bombs, the kind of rainstorms that we’re seeing to entertain events are almost routine. Now, in the DC area, more sea level rise, more heat waves are in our futures. So the climate impacts are not going to go away even as the calendar year turns over to 2021. The other thing that is going to continue is that Maryland can and must continue its leadership on clean energy policies to combat climate change, even during the challenges of the pandemic. And I’ve been really proud for the last 18 years as a Marylander. To work with the delegates and senator you’re going to hear tonight with members of the General Assembly who’ve passed amazing legislation in the last two decades, to clean up our coal plants to ban fracking to incentivize and mandate solar energy and offshore wind. And you’ll hear more of that. We need to do more. We’ve pushed the planet outside its comfort zone. And now we have to push ourselves outside our own comfort zones in terms of what is politically possible and what we’re willing to do as activists and volunteers. So I’m looking forward to it. So I want to begin tonight by thanking the legislative champions who you’re going to hear tonight. In a moment you’ll hear from Senator Paul Pinsky of District 22 in Prince George’s County, he and delegate Dana Stein of District 11 in Baltimore County are sponsoring one as he can action funds, top priorities, and Tony. And that’s the climate solutions now Act, which you’ll hear more about shortly. Then you’ll hear from my dear friend, delegate David Fraser Hidalgo of District 15. In Montgomery County who is sponsoring Senator Ben Kramer District 19. Also in Montgomery, the climate crisis in Education Act, a bill that I think is one of the most fascinating pieces of legislation and perhaps one of the most timely bills, both in terms of climate, and in terms of the budget health of our state. And I’m looking forward to hearing David talk about that. Then finally, you’ll hear from my state delegate, Laurie Turkuaz, of District 21, garment county about her excellent and long overdue bill called the Public Service Commission, climate and labor tests. She’s also sponsoring that bill with Ben Kramer, Senator Ben Kramer of District 19. All of these leaders are climate hawks, they go the extra mile. They’re obsessed and committed to climate change, just like all of us on this call, and where would we be without these legislative leaders? So I want to thank them in advance. But it’s going to be a tough year. We all know that. COVID is here. We’re in a recession. There’s budget issues. It’s hard. It’s hard time to push forward on these bills. But we can do it. I know we can. But we can’t do it alone. One nonprofit and legislative leaders can’t do it. You on this call you the voters, us the citizens, you the activists are that link to get us over the top. I just want to say one quick thing about COVID and all the challenges that we’re going to face. I was on a call earlier today where a member of the city council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said all of the following in Ann Arbor, Michigan in November 2019, that city declared a climate emergency. Then COVID came and they still stuck to their guns. And they came up with a climate action plan on March 30. As the stock market was falling and unemployment was going up, they came up with a Climate Action Plan proposing a billion dollars in investments to fight climate change over the next 10 years. And then in May 2020, the Ann Arbor City Council passed a bill that authorizes these investments during again code Good time, so it can be done. There are inspiring stories out there. And I know that Maryland is going to do the same in 2021, while simultaneously working with the new Biden administration. So the goal tonight, hopefully is to give you some facts you didn’t know, hopefully to inspire you a little bit. But ultimately, the goal tonight is to move you to help us pass the bills. You’re going to hear about turnout tonight, help us get ready, get ready to make calls, get ready to send emails, attend virtual lobby days. And I would finally issue the last issue, I would be remiss if I didn’t encourage you to join the 16th annual sea cam polar bear plunge on February 13. That’s my last plug. Go to keep winter cold. org, we’re going to do it virtually a climate Bucket Challenge. It’s going to be great, keep winter cold.org. And now I’m going to hand it over to our Maryland policy director Jamie DeMarco.
Jamie DeMarco 5:52
Thank you, Mike. And I am going to introduce the incredible Chairman Paul Pinsky, who is part of the very origin story of climate policy in Maryland, from the very beginning, he has been are one of our strongest champions, and we are so grateful to have a leader like him, as the chair of the education health and Environmental Affairs Committee. Chairman Paul Pinsky was instrumental at the hip to passing the Healthy Air Act years ago. And that remains one of if not the strongest legislation of its kind. And he voted for the original renewable portfolio standard in Maryland. And in the year since there’s not been a single climate bill that’s passed without tremendous support from Chairman Paul Pinsky. And we are now incredibly thrilled that he is our sponsor for the climate solutions now act. I’m going to turn it over to Chairman Paul Pinsky.
Paul Pinsky 6:44
Thank you, Jamie. And thank you, Mike. For the last four or five years, Mike and I have served on the Maryland climate commission. But I have to tell you, we’ve done it with a great deal of frustration. We have heard a lot of talk, but very little action. The administration has prepared a plan, which is so ephemeral, you couldn’t figure out what the plan is. And that’s actually helped drive the climate solutions now
Paul Pinsky 7:11
And I want to thank CCAN for helping shape this bill. There are a lot of groups and grassroots groups working on it. But see, Ken has been instrumental in helping shape the many aspects of it, let me very briefly talk about the bill. It calls for a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas by 2030. That means in the next nine years, it calls for us being carbon neutral by 2045. And besides those broad 30,000 feet things, it wants to hold the administration’s feet to the fire. You know, they’ve talked about doing this and doing that, but they haven’t done it. The bill calls for planting 5 million trees by 2030. And we know how they capture carbon dioxide. It calls for the whole state fleet of cars to become zero emissions vehicles. You know, they’ve used money to talk about infrastructure and charging stations, but they haven’t spent $1 on leading by example. And we think by 2030 every automobile under the state auspices should have zero emissions there. You know, energy efficiency, we know it can save a lot of money, a lot of energy. We upped that number by 50% from 2% to 3% in energy efficiency. We’ve also learned Mike talked about inspiring stories. The Empire State Building is an amazing inspiring story of the greening of the Empire State Building. They put a multi million dollar effort. And some great thinkers, environmentalist said we will recapture your money in five or seven years. If you do this, now, they have increased energy efficiency by 40%. Their new elevators create energy. We can do that here in Maryland. So we actually are calling for new building standards for large renovation for office buildings, residential and for new construction, and not just for the state for the private sector as well. If they aren’t willing to do these efforts, and it won’t be a loss of money, it’ll actually be a savings to the business community. They don’t build, you know, they have to show energy efficiency and energy savings. You know, we have to encourage fuel switching to clean energy. You know, the governor’s plan says that road widening will reduce greenhouse gases. I mean, that’s nuts. You know, they say if you expand roads, cars will idle less, but we know there’ll be 1020 50,000 additional cars. So they are, you know, their effort is very misguided. But this legislation in front of us does a lot of things. It changes how we look at nothing. They said it to me 100 year life cycle, we say because of work of scientists and Mike and other people see can it could be a 20 year horizon. You know, they measure methane coming from landfills. Well, we now have airplanes that can capture atmosphere that are much more accurate. We are going to transform the state, but we need you. as Mike said, It’s a unique session, we’re going to have virtual hearings, people won’t be allowed in the building. So we need a massive upsurge. We need hundreds upon hundreds of people to confront every legislator to say, Are you on board? You know, there shouldn’t be a time when you have a conversation and send an email, can we count on your vote, because you won’t be there to see them in the hallway, we have to put pressure, we have to make people a little uncomfortable, but also to show them this benefits and state. You know, Mike mentioned a lot of the issues that the flooding etc. The biggest problem that’s starting to develop is saltwater intrusion. I mean, it is really our farms on the eastern shore, who are creating foodstuffs. So we have new additional allies, we think in the farming community. So we have to bring everyone together to do this. But we need you and again, I want to thank all of your staff for their great contribution. But this isn’t going to happen from a great speech on the floor by Paul Pinsky. It’s going to happen by hundreds and 1000s of people demanding a change. I think we can do it. We’re counting on you. Thank you.
Jamie DeMarco 11:32
Thank you very much, Chairman. We really appreciate that. Next, we’re going to hear from delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo and let me tell you, there is no one in Annapolis who speaks about climate change with more passion than delegate David Frasier doggo. I think that’s a big statement. But I think it’s true. I mean, a lot of us when you talk about climate, we talk about co-benefits. We talked about all these other benefits that are going to come with climate action. When delegate David Frazier, it also talks about climate change. He reminds us that we are in a visceral existential fight for our lives. And in order to survive, we need to mobilize all we have to reduce emissions as quickly as humanly possible. He stood up for the clean energy jobs act when no one else would. And without him that legislation would not have passed. And delegate David Fraser Hidalgo, channels, all of that ambition into this bill, the climate crisis and Education Act. I’ll let him talk about it more.
David Fraser-Hidalgo 12:31
Well, thank you. Thank you, Jamie. I will try to do you justice. So the carbon pricing bill that I have, I have it along with Senator Ben Kramer, we’ve had it for three years now. And before I get into the meat of the bill, but I want to kind of talk a little bit about what Senator Pinsky alluded to, and that is, we are going to have a session. Last session was crazy the way just kind of imploded in the end. And now this session, we have a little bit better idea of what it’s going to look like on the House side, we’re going to be broken up into two sections, the annex section, which is going to be in the house office building, and then the general state house, we’ll have the other half of the Maryland State delegates, and we’re going to go in on January 13 for a few hours to get session going and then everybody will be home. You know, Senator Pinsky, myself delegate Chuck Cooney, and all of the delegates and senators will be, most of them will be working from home they will be. So exactly what that and what Jamie said earlier, it’s going to be a little harder to get a hold of people. So you’re going to have to be really creative. And you’re going to have to be diligent and you’re going to have to work really hard because we can’t and I can’t tell you how much we need your help. So on the carbon bill itself, as most of the people on this call know that there is approximately $100 billion, depending on how you define it, that are given away every year to the fossil fuel industry in the form of grants and tax credits and incentives for them to go out and dig holes in the ground to pull up dead dinosaurs. So what what this bill does is it says okay, well, if you’re going to burn all those dinosaurs, if we’re going to to burn all those fossil fuels, and pollute the earth and cause global warming and cause climate change, and do all the things that one of the things that are Pinsky said about the rising sea levels out on the eastern shore, that doesn’t, that doesn’t even take into consideration all the the whole west coast of this country burning to the ground or, you know, the violent storms that we have. Now, if that’s not enough for you. Just think about all of those costs for burning fossil fuels, all those costs, that doesn’t include the kids going into the emergency room for asthmatic attacks or premature births, or any of those things. So the totality and extra totality of all of those things together need to be paid for and they shouldn’t be just paid for by US citizens and the taxpayers. They should be paid for when you do business. So if you’re going to buy a gallon of gas and burn it, you shouldn’t be paying two bucks per gallon. You should be paying a lot more than that. If you’re new You’re paying a lot more than that you’re paying two to three times that. And for generations for over 100 years, we really haven’t been to security, the oil industry hasn’t really been paying the total cost of doing business. And so when we talk about leveling the playing field, which is what they often say, when we talk about electric vehicle tax credits, when we talk about solar tax credits, when we talk about wind turbines and generating renewable energy, when they, when they talk about that, they said, We just want a level playing field we’re against, it shouldn’t be any tax credits. And then my comment to them is okay, well then give back your 100 million dollar $100 billion a year, every year, the tax credits that will have a lengthy playing field, I usually add a couple of adjectives in my head, but I hold those back. I don’t say them publicly. And so that’s essentially what this bill does. I mean, the carbon bill, which I’ve been working on, Pete’s on the call, he has been working for years with Climate Exchange. And, and, and when she can, and Mike and everybody, it’s just a bit of big effort. Last year, we had the best hearing we’ve ever had, it was a really good hearing, we had, I think close to 70. co sponsors 65, or six co sponsors, we had a great bill hearing on the House side last year, and then kind of, you know, as the hearing was going on delegate recruiting I was talking with her earlier today. And she has, you do know that as you are in the middle of your hearing, the governor was shutting everything down, everything was shutting down in the middle of your hearing. So with COVID, we had a great bill hearing that brought a lot of great advocates to the table. And we hope to do that again this year. I don’t know what is going to happen this year with COVID, I think that there’s going to be a small number of bills that have to do with balancing the budget that get passed. And some of the bigger lifts, I don’t know how leadership is going to look at them, because they don’t want a lot of Florida debate. Everybody’s worried about COVID. So anything that’s controversial, that’s going to get a lot of Florida bait is going to be harder, it’s just going to be harder this year.
But with that said, it’s a great opportunity for us to push forward on this bill. And one of the great things about this bill is it generates hundreds of millions of dollars to the state and that and the big part of the bill makes sure that those people and lower income earners get rebated and get made home. So we don’t worry about necessarily the low income earners, this is really going after those folks that can afford to pay for it. And to some degree, it’s going to be put back on the backs of the fossil fuel industry. So depending on how the final bill comes out, it’s a 47 page bill, it’s very complicated, and there are so many things that can change in the middle of it. But that’s that’s it, I mean, it’s just really an attempt to kind of level the playing field. So people know what when they stick that pump, you know, into their car, and they pump gasoline in or when they burn natural gas at home or methane at home. Or when they, you know, turn on their heat they’re actually thinking about a little bit where that electricity is coming from, we just really have to, we really have to transition yesterday as quickly as you possibly can toward the electrification of the grid through renewables. And we can do that. And that’s what this bill really helps to do. And I think that’s the big part of it is it just gets people thinking about what they’re doing. And there’s really not a, there’s really not a downside to it. So with that, I will stop and let us go the rest of the way. And then I’m happy to answer any questions at the end if anybody has any. Thank you very much.
Emily Frias 18:36
Yeah. So we kind of jumbled our order a little bit. And we skipped going to ask Senator Pinsky. And then we will do a question for delegate Fraser Hidalgo. So Senator Pinsky. The question I have is, so in your recent op ed, you mentioned the need to center black and brown communities and our conversation about climate change. Can you speak a little bit more about how the climate solutions bill will address those points?
Paul Pinsky 19:08
Thank you for that question. And as soon as I finish trying to cover the bill, there’s so many parts to it. I realized I didn’t talk about environmental justice. Yes, I’ve been an environmental justice commission for 10 years or more. But I have to tell you, it’s more that IT has been ignored. It’s been dismissed, and the Department of Environment has not paid any attention to it. Now, we’re told the administration is going to reinvigorate it and pay more attention. Well, we think people have to be accountable. So actually, in our bill and the climate solutions now act, we set up 345 charges to the new revamped commission. We say they have to define disproportionately affected communities, these poor black and brown communities, they have to talk about how much spending is going on there or not. and develop a tool to start using a lens To see how policy actually affects those communities, we also require the new commission to look at spending in those communities to make up for the lack of effort, the lack of focus over the many, you know, in urban areas, it’s been a total dismissal and it has to change. We think it can’t just be swept under the carpet, you know, we do some other things we say, of the 5 million trees 10% have to be in urban communities to, to have tree cover to capture carbon dioxide. But more than that, we have to use a lens every day, in every issue on the environment and beyond the environment. So as much as we can, and there’ll be other environmental justice bills, there’s a workforce that will come up with a restructuring of the condition, but we think they can’t dance anymore, they have to do something concrete. So we have a large section of the bill that will hold them accountable. Because it’s been way too long. It’s been over time where there has to be a better focus. You know, asthma, and other illnesses are affecting the black and brown community in Baltimore, Prince George’s and other areas. There’s been a lot of the facilities, the coal fired power plants have been around Baltimore, Baltimore County, North Adelanto County, and those communities have been affected, you know, and their cumulative effects as well. So it is a major part of our bill, I’m glad you asked that question. I was on the phone today on a zoom call with Dr. Jacoby Wilson, who’s a professor at Maryland, and has done a lot of work on this. So we’re going to ensure that no one is left behind. And in fact, those that have been left behind addressed first.
Emily Frias 21:52
Thank you so much for your answer. All right. Our next question is for delegate Fraser Hidalgo. And the question is, can you speak to the fiscal note for the climate crisis in Education Act? Just what is that looking like? Has it changed from last year? What do you expect to see?
David Fraser-Hidalgo 22:13
So we don’t have the fiscal note back, it’s probably going to be similar to that of what it was last year, and I’m not particularly concerned with the fiscal note, because it’s very, very positive for the state. So it’s not like the state has to lay out tons of money or, you know, millions of dollars in order to make sure this goes in the staff set. It’s just going to be so much. I mean, the benefit of the bill is that there’s going to be, you know, three to $500 million that starts to come in within a few years. So the, the issue with the bill isn’t the fiscal note is as much as it is, it is convincing leadership that the climate crisis is not now the climate crisis isn’t tomorrow, the climate crisis has been going on for, you know, 50 years or 40 years, at least, the oil companies very well know, their scientists very well knew, by the 1970s, what was going on, and they continue to do things anyway. So it’s just really getting people up to speed on this is real, and we can’t wait. And we have to elevate crisis issues, the climate crisis issues to the same level that we talk about when we talk about education. So there are big things that Annapolis we talk about, that are the big drivers in Annapolis education, public health care, public safety, those kinds of things. And quite frankly, the environment needs to be up on that same level not below not an afterthought. It needs to be on the same level as the other things if, if not higher, and the a lot of environmental justice is addressed in in my villas, as well and delegate Stein was on a briefing call that we did the latino caucus in the black caucus in the Asian American Pacific Islander caucus did a briefing a few about a month and a half ago. And it was only on environmental justice. It was a great, great briefing.
Jamie DeMarco 24:01
Thank you delegate. Next we’re going to hear from delegate Charkoudian and delegate Charkoudian, as I think most of us on this call know is a force in this world like nothing I have ever encountered before. When the Maryland clean energy jobs act was on the ropes in 2019. We weren’t sure if it was going to pass. She was rightfully chosen to represent it on the floor and her brilliant defense of the bill ensured that it was passed. Just in her first term as a state delegate. She has built a reputation and positioned herself at the very center. She is sort of the center node of climate policy. in Annapolis. There’s some legislators who love to dive into the details of policy, some who love the politics of policy. delegates are comedians and are the rare legislator who masters both and I can’t speak enough about her reputation, not just today. I was talking to a delegate, who said when delegates are kuhnian brings me a bill and asks for my co sponsorship. I don’t have Have you read it, I just signed up, because I know that she only brings good bills. And that’s the kind of reputation she’s built for herself. And I think that is represented in the bill. She’s sponsoring the Public Service Commission climate test, Bill, and I’ll let her talk about it more.
Lorig Charkoudian 25:17
Wow, that is what my mother wrote for you, Jamie, thank you, I am honored to be here. I’m honored to be here with ckn, who I have so much respect for and and with all of you and I see faces and names that I know are crucial to really getting good climate legislation through in Annapolis. And, I’ll just give a shout out. Also, before I get started, for the polar bear point, I gotta think of something really creative. Mike, I don’t know what we’re gonna do this year. But my daughter and I have done the polar bear plunge for like the last nine years together. So we’re good. So I can’t recommend it enough. And I’m sorry, we can’t do it together. So my bill this year is for the Public Service Commission to have to consider climate and labor in their decision making. And what’s wild about this bill is as I talked to people about it, if you don’t know the Public Service Commission makes decisions related to and regulating the utilities in the state. So this includes making decisions about new energy generation facilities. It also includes decisions about rate setting and rate making, mergers, pipelines, so all kinds of energy decisions and regulatory decisions related to energy are made by the Public Service Commission. And when I tell people that the Public Service Commission is required to consider things like localized environmental issues, they’re required to consider the economy of the state at reasonable rates. But they are not required to consider climate in their decision making. People are stunned. And it is wild to me that in 2020, with the crisis that we’re in, we somehow still are at a place where our Public Service Commission doesn’t have to consider climate and their decision making. And in case anyone was wondering if maybe we didn’t have it in statute, but they believed and understood that they were supposed to consider it in their decision making. We had a chance two years ago to find out that No, in fact, in a decision, and many of you, I see some Howard County folks on here, who were active in the in the fight on the the transition of the crane plant, to natural gas facility, and in the complaint made the case that actually climate change would affect the plant itself. So it wasn’t that the plant would affect climate change, although that was true as well, but the climate change would affect the plant. And the judge ruled and the commission backed up explicitly that the Commission is not required to consider climate change in their decision making. So in case we had any doubts about it, now we know for sure, so that led to us putting this bill together. And what the bill says is, basically they have to consider climate change. And there’s a couple of different places where this is important. I think it’s important, certainly in the cpcm process, which is the certificate for public CPC convenience in need, which is the decision making around the placement and the rules around the actual generation facility. So that’s considering climate change in deciding to authorize a new natural gas plant, or considering climate change in the decision making around a utility scale solar project. And so in both of those you want climate to be considered in one case, it would be sort of a reason to slow down or have to mitigate a project and the other it would be a reason to move it and move it faster along.
But also in every decision that’s made, and that’s really important, because for example, there was a merger, folks may be aware that the Washington gas Alta gas merger that occurred a couple years ago, the Public Service Commission approved the merger, and the Hogan administration and the Maryland energy administration asked that part of that merger be that 30 million $30 million be set aside for a natural gas expansion fund. Yes, in 2018, a natural gas expansion fund that is now being used to promote natural gas and this pipeline on the eastern shore. And the Public Service Commission authorizes that. And so again, it’s one of those things where in every decision they make that means in mergers, also they need to consider climate change. And so again, it would be a case where, where people too, and people did push against that particular merger decision. But that component of state statute would have required that the Public Service Commission consider that in a merger. So those are just a few very specific examples. But when we look at all of the decisions the Public Service Commission makes, it’s really important that climate is front and center. The other thing that this bill does is it requires that the Public Service Commission consider labor and I think folks know that we really need to be if we’re going to have a green sustainable, healthy, just future, equitable future. We’ve got To do that with environmentalists and labor unions working hand in hand with environmental justice communities, and really keeping labor, family sustaining wages, environmental justice, equity, and reduction of greenhouse gases, making sure we’re building policies where all of those are intertwined and linked. And so it’s really important that when we’re looking at the institutions that are going to build this green future, that they are considering climate, and that they’re considering labor and labor standards. And so this bill really gives us a chance to put those together in the same bill highlight and work in partnership with C can is a lead on this year, a club is supporting this, and laina labor union. This is one of their priority bills this year, as well. And so, it’s a really important partnership. And it’s, you know, we’re not always on the same page. But whenever we can be on the same page, and the more we can work together to build that green, sustainable family sustaining wages, economy, we need to be doing that. And this bill is a great opportunity to highlight that. So I’m really excited to be bringing this bill, I look forward to working with all of you in Annapolis, even if it’s virtually in Annapolis, and then hopefully celebrating together in person over the summer, or fall next year.
Emily Frias 31:22
Great, thank you so much. So we have some good questions here. If this bill is passed in this upcoming session, might it have an impact on the Del Mar pipeline and the Chesapeake utilities project?
Lorig Charkoudian 31:41
I think the short answer is, is it Yes, I suspect it would in some ways. I don’t know that it would stop it. Just because that’s the approvals have kind of come through already through a variety of sources. And people know that that’s been an obscure kind of and run around the state’s climate policy. But I think that there will be some decisions related to that project that will have to go to the Public Service Commission. And so it could influence to some extent how that plays out.
Mike Tidwell 32:16
I also want to give a plug to another bill that we’re not talking about a lot tonight, that Lord’s gonna be sponsoring and that’s the Community Choice energy bill that would allow our county Montgomery County as a pilot to basically control its electric electrical destiny by taking control of our grid. And it’s the top priority of our county of 1.1 million people to meet his climate reduction goals, which are frankly beyond even what Maryland’s doing. And so I want everyone to keep a lookout for Lawrenceville Community Choice energy, a really, really important paradigm shifting bill, so we want to support that as well.
Jamie DeMarco 33:00
I want to thank our three sponsors, I know that your time is really valuable. So thanks for answering questions each and don’t feel like you need to stay on if you feel like you need to drop off. Anthony, if you could share a screen, I’m just gonna run through the bills we just heard about and go over the provisions in them one more time to make sure it sticks. So climate solutions now. It requires us to reduce our emissions 60% by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2045. It requires that a certain percentage of all state funds going forward be spent on climate change, and go to underserved frontline communities. And that percentage will be decided by the Commission on Environmental Justice and sustainable communities. This is a pivotal piece of the bill. This is going to make it illegal not to invest in underserved frontline communities. This is modeled off of the New York bill, the New York climate leadership and community Protection Act, which is widely considered the gold standard of environmental justice policies around the country at the state level. This also creates a workgroup to protect fossil fuel workers and enact a series of policies that will reduce emissions immediately like planting 5 million trees. And two thirds of all the funds that go to plant those trees will be spent in urban communities that have been historically redlined. We know when these oppressive heat waves come they’re killing people. And they’re killing people and heating islands where there are no trees disproportionately. Also zero emission vehicles, reductions in existing buildings, everything. Chairman Pinsky talked about the public service Service Commission climate test that’s a lorex bill, this is not in the order of sponsors. So it’s just keeping you on your toes, making sure you’re paying attention, and it requires the Public Service Commission to consider climate change when deciding whether to approve a project or merger. Just consider that that’s all it does, and also requires companies applying for energy prices. At the Public Service Commission to disclose the benefits they would give to their workers. This is a key place where we are building an ally ship with labor. When we’re with labor, we’re strong when we’re against labor, we lose. And so we need to find every opportunity we can to work alongside labor. And the climate crisis and Education Act invests hundreds of millions of dollars every year into clean energy, climate resiliency, and just transition. It also puts $350 million a year into public education. Because we know this is an intersectional fight between public education, and disparities and public education are one of the greatest drivers of racial disparities across the board. It also raises these funds directly from shareholders while protecting consumers and giving every marylander a rebate. And that is our quick summary. I’m going to turn it over to Anthony to talk about our pipeline work. Great,
Anthony Field 35:54
Thank you so much, Jamie. And again, thank you to the three legislators that were able to join us again. We understand your time is valuable and very appreciative to have three leaders here on the call on discussing such important pieces of legislation tonight. So for those of you don’t know me, my name is Anthony field I use he him his pronouns, and I am the campaign lead for C. Cannes no new fossil fuels campaign, working on issues such as advocating for stronger landfill methane regulations, making sure methane is adequately evaluated within our state, stopping retiring coal fired plants from converting the gas fighting gas infrastructure and brand new wind on the eastern shore and other possibly proposed infrastructure as they come up a number of things that were talked about by all three legislators on the call today, and I’ll have parts within the pieces of legislation that we’re discussing. But today, I want to touch on one specific issue. And that is the issue of the Eastern Shore pipelines and where we’re at on that front. So for those of you who do not know, there are two proposed pipelines on the eastern shore, the Del Mar pipeline, seven miles of pipelines shown on the left image here in yellow, and 11 miles of pipeline, called the Chesapeake utilities project, shown in red here on the right. Both of these pipelines cross multiple wetlands and waterways, both will impact air quality to the communities and threaten the land that they live on. Both will saddle already overburdened communities with a pipeline we know that the state should not be advocating for in light of our climate commitments and our emission goals. Both are being pushed through as part of Governor Hogan’s plan to invest millions into expanding fracked gas, which is what delegate lorig was referring to with the 30 over $30 million. It is worth noting that when requesting applications for energy sources, the state only requested applications from gas companies, only one company applied, that was Chesapeake utilities. They were selected. And then the Maryland environmental service stated that the process was both exhaustive and competitive. We obviously know that that was not true. If nothing else, taking away the community’s opportunity of a thorough vetting of alternatives is a grave injustice. So take one more look at this map and the path here. And on this screen, you are seeing the census tracks from a spatial analysis that was conducted, showing that the project will run through majority minority and low income communities. on this call. We’ve already talked about the issue of environmental justice multiple times. And here we are seeing, again, a specific example of environmental justice concerns when we’re talking about climate, but also fossil fuel infrastructure. Specifically, there are only four of the 41 mile study area tracks within this area that are not ej eligible. ej eligible means that more than 30% of the residents are minorities, and or 20%, or more live in poverty. Make no mistake, this pipeline will further burden these communities by endangering their water, land, air quality and health. And this pipeline is an environmental justice issue. On December 2, the Maryland Board of Public Works chose to ignore the many and justices in approving a key permit for the Del Mar pipeline, which is again one of two pipelines.
Leading up to that vote a lot happened in the recent months and I want to cover some of the things here. So as mentioned just now a commission study uncovered troubling environmental justice issues. The Maryland State NAACP chapter added the pipeline’s to their list of environmental justice priorities and local chapters took a stance in opposition. CCAN with the help from our partners with the Maryland chapter of Sierra Club and the local Wicomico environmental trust released a white paper outlining concerns about the economics of these pipelines. We know that investing in pipelines and gas infrastructure is a gamble at best with multiple companies facing bankruptcy and pipeline projects failing all across the nation. Something new that we discovered was that the Acting Director of the Maryland environmental service stated that therefore the decision to forego applications from renewable energy sources was based on a 2012 Request for Information report, where almost a decade ago they determined that renewables wouldn’t be adequate. But a lot has changed in the years since that, and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that the decision to forego alternatives was based on such an old report. Additionally, the Maryland climate commission or the Commission on climate change, released their 2020 report calling for the state to reach net zero emissions by 2045. And for the state government to consider environmental justice impacts during project planning. I hope you’re seeing a trend here. There is a lot of talk about environmental justice, and that’s because it’s largely been ignored and underappreciated in the past. Additionally, over 700 letters were sent by Eastern Shore residents urging the Maryland Board of Public Works to reject the pipeline’s that’s over 700, specifically from people that are from the communities that this pipeline will impact. So as mentioned, on December 2, the Board of Public Works held a hearing where they voted three to zero to approve a key permit for the Del Mar pipeline. What does this mean? Well, it means that the Board of Public Works ultimately ignored the multiple issues raised by CCAN partner organizations around the state and most importantly, they ignored concerns from residents of the local communities I call the shore home, it means that this fight is not over. And we know that we will not give up. See, Ken will continue to fight and organize against the pipeline, including the upcoming vote for the Chesapeake utilities portion, which is expected to come in the early months of January. I anticipate around March or so we will do everything we can to stand with the local communities and amplify their voices. This is their land, their health on the line. And we want to be sure that we are doing everything we can to advocate for them. It was clear since the beginning that this would be a fight. And I NRC can in the hundreds of concerns Eastern Shore residents will stop fighting. I think it’s worth mentioning that at this hearing many supporters of the pipeline, including the Lieutenant Governor Rutherford, who chaired the hearing, had the talking point that only western shore elitists and big green organizations were posted this pipeline, and we were trying to keep and take away the choice of these communities to use gas. And I think that is a grave. That is willfully ignoring the hundreds of Eastern Shore residents and locals that have put their blood sweat and tears into fighting this pipeline, and who are just very concerned about the health and well being of their communities and their land. And I think the Lieutenant Governor stating that and the supporters of the pipeline stating that was entirely disrespectful to those members. And I also want to mention that there were a number of people in line to comment at that Board of Public Works hearing, including elected officials that were not called upon to speak on behalf of the eastern shore. And I can’t tell you enough how disappointed I am in the way the state has been conducting themselves with regards to the process of this energy infrastructure and the approval process and the hearing process of these pipelines. And I think the eastern shore has been given the cold shoulder often in the past and they deserve better. So what’s next, and how can you get involved? So I only touched on one major issue this evening. And that was Eastern Shore pipeline. But there are many important things that we are working on simultaneously within our new fossil fuels campaign. And I urge everyone to follow a link in the chat that I’m about to put in to sign up for one of the action teams listed here. There’s five major action teams focusing on different issues across the state, methane, the eastern shore pipelines, the Potomac pipeline and the rockwool power plant, public health and environmental justice and of course, no new fossil fuels legislation, which is including the climate crisis and Education Act and the PSE climate test. joining these teams will allow you to keep up to date on everything that’s going on within those issues, but also provides you with opportunities to
act and support our fights for those issues. So please stay engaged, stay informed, and continue helping us advocate for fossil fuel free, Maryland. Thank you very much, everybody. And now I’m going to go ahead and hand it over to Emily.
Emily Frias 44:45
Thank you so much, Anthony. And go ahead and put that link in the chat for the new fossil fuels teams. Definitely a really important way to fight to stay engaged. Alright, so I’m going to Keep my slides very short so that we have time to get to several questions. I’m just going to go over quickly, how you can stay involved. So we have a number of events lined up for the legislative session that you should mark your calendars for right now. The next one is going to be next Tuesday. That’ll be our letter writing party for climate solutions. Now, we will be watching, we’ll be writing letters and watching a year without a Santa Claus, which is about characters, you’re not familiar with the stop motion animation film from the 70s. And it is about an unseasonably warm Christmas. So very fitting for climate activists, then on the world holiday break, and then well, we’ll, we’ll all have very little time, after the holidays before the legislative session starts on January 13, that Wednesday, is the first day of session. So really coming up quickly. So throughout the session, what we’d like you to do is call email and tag legislators regularly. But especially before the vote, we will be sending you actions. So please make sure that you’re paying attention to your inbox, as well as communicating with us through our smaller channels to make sure that you’re staying aware of when it’s time to really reach out to your legislators. Then, on the week of the 25th, we will be having our lobby week for the climate crisis in Education Act, which is working with our partners on that campaign. So lobby week is obviously going to be a little different this year, we would normally have this one Bobby day. But this year, we’re putting an emphasis on having virtual meetings. So we’ll be walking you through that process, the more that we learn, and hopefully, we’ll have a lot of success in reaching out to our legislators. And then the week of the 22nd of February, we’ll be having our lobby week for the climate solutions bill and the PSC climate test. So the reason that we’ve split up these two lobby weeks is that both the climate crisis and Education Act is a very complicated bill. So is the credit solutions bill. So we wanted to give both bills and equal shots of really, really showcasing what they have to offer in our lobby meeting. So that is why we made that decision. Hopefully, there’s enough time in between that you’ll be able to attend both. And then at the end of March and early April, if our bill has still not moved, our bills have still not moved, we are planning to have some safe in person actions. But we are, you know, we’re it’s hard to plan too far ahead on those things. So we will keep you informed. Okay, so how to stay involved. Stay in touch with Anthony and the no new fossil fuels kit campaign by signing up for an action team, we just sent you that link, you can stay in touch with me and the climate solutions campaign by joining our slack workspace, which I will share in the chat link to join. Or you can email me directly at Emily at Chesapeake comet.org to be added to our smaller Google group. And if you need help with Slack, if you’re new to slack, it is a tool that is used by so many and has been used successfully by so many political campaigns during the elections. And it’s a great way to stay in touch instantaneously with other concerned citizens and concerned volunteers. And if you’re not as familiar, we have done training on slack. We have great training on our website, visit our volunteer resource page. Or honestly, if you have a lot of questions and you really, really want to use a tool, please email me directly. I do occasionally have office hours to be able to explain these tools to folks.
Unknown Speaker 49:03
Okay.
Emily Frias 49:05
So with that, we are going to take a few questions. I hope that wasn’t too quick. I’m also going to share our event and our link to our climate solutions slack. And while folks go ahead and join that, I’m going to ask myself to read out a question that we got earlier. So this question was about the carbon pricing bill. And the question was, does this still have any elements? That would be a non-starter for republicans? And how do we address that?
Jamie DeMarco 49:52
Anthony, do you want to take that ticket?
Anthony Field 49:55
Oh, feel free Jamie.
Jamie DeMarco 49:57
Um, you know, Republican In Maryland have a tendency to surprise us. Governor Hogan surprised us when he expressed his strong support for the fracking ban even when democratic leadership wasn’t there yet. And, you know, last year, when we passed the climate solutions act out of committee, two republicans surprised us by voting for it. And that really surprised us there, too. We think this is a really good bill. I don’t think there’s anything in it that will make all republicans flee from it. I think a lot of the extreme ones are not going to be gravitated towards this. But we don’t give up on republicans but at CCAN we’re not necessarily counting on them to vote for this bill. Luckily, we’ve got super majorities of Democrats in both the House and the Senate. We do want Governor Hogan to sign it. So if this bill passes, then if any of these bill pass, then you should be making sure you should be looking after the calling campaign to Governor Hogan to make sure that he doesn’t veto it. Great question. Mike, did you want anything? Anything?
Emily Frias 51:13
Okay. The next question is about the PSC climate test. Does the climate and labor test have binding language? Or is it just to consider these things? Like what? What is it that they’re going to be bound to do by the skill?
Jamie DeMarco 51:37
The labor piece is really binding. If you’re applying, you have to fill this out. This is information that has not been disclosed in the past, and has to be disclosed now under this law. So that’s really finding the climate peace is a considered peace. It’s not saying you have to reject every single pipeline, or every single fossil fuel project. But it’s saying consider climate change. And we know that if we can consider climate change there, then we can win on the merits. We lose right now at the Public Service Commission, because they say we explicitly do not consider climate change. We’re like, it’s gonna destroy the climate. And they’re like, the legislature has not asked us to consider climate change among the list of things that they have asked us to consider. So we are not going to consider that. So this is getting into the debate. And then we are going to have to win the debate at the Public Service Commission.
Emily Frias 52:31
Great, thank you. And then the final question on the climate solutions now, Bill. So what is different about this bill there, there was a bill last year the climate solutions act, what is different this year? That wasn’t in the bill last year.
Jamie DeMarco 52:53
This bill is very similar to the bill last year, one of the biggest differences is the tree portion. Last year, we introduced a bill and just said to plant 5 million trees. This year, we said it’s not enough to just plant trees, we need to plant trees, where they’re needed most in communities that don’t have access to green space, and are hurt because of that. And so we added this environmental justice provision making sure that two thirds of all the money spent planting these trees is planted in urban underserved areas that have been historically redlined. That’s one of the biggest differences. A lot of the other provisions are the same. There’s some other pieces like it that require new large buildings with lots of roof space to be solar ready. And that wasn’t in there before. And obviously, a lot of the years have been changed, because we’re one year later now. But for the most part, it’s the same bill. Jamie, if I could add, Yes, Senator,
Paul Pinsky 53:51
Among the people who helped shape the bill, we call on the architects. And they played a very good role progressive architects across the state. So a lot of the language around either new construction or large renovation or building in schools is more nuanced. And we brought in the experts. So you know, sometimes you take language from another bill, or you do a 30,000 foot statement. But we actually got some of the experts who’ve done some kind of visionary activity. So there are a number of pieces of Bill where it’s more subtle, it’s more nuanced, that we think can apply to the state of Maryland, and really move our environment forward. And at the same time, in many cases, the business community should benefit not lose. So look, well, some of them oppose the bill. Absolutely. But we think we can also make an argument that a strong dynamic environment is also good for the business community. So we touch the trees that Jamie said, ensuring that some percentage goes to the urban area. So, you know, the other fact is that we continued working on the bill in the mid February last year. As someone who was responsible, it probably wasn’t ready for primetime. We spent the summer in the fall with a lot of environmental experts trying to get this right. We think it’s a great bill, we can go put us in the top tier nationally in the top three, or maybe five bills in the country in terms of the omnibus approach to the bill. So a lot of the same, some changes.
Emily Frias 55:37
Thank you so much. There’s one we don’t have time for many more questions. There’s one that’s very easy to answer that I see in the chat. There’s a 60% emissions reductions goal including only electricity or all emissions, I believe it is all emissions.
Emily Frias 55:57
And with that, we are right at eight, eight o’clock. So thank you so much to everyone who joined. We had a wonderful turnout for this event and are always honored as the organizer to see that. So thank you, thank you, also to our legislators, and to everybody who joined, we really hope that you stay in touch with us and we can end the session with a number of wins. So thank you, and have a wonderful night.
Charles Olsen 56:31
Thanks for listening to Upside down. This podcast is produced by me, Charlie Olsen. with incredible support from the entire CCAN staff. Check out the show notes for links to all the things discussed in this episode. If you want to know more about how you can get involved with CCAN and the climate fight, check out our website at chesapeakeclimate.org. If you want to get in touch with us, follow us on instagram and twitter @CCAN. And if you enjoy the work we do, why don’t you share it with your friends. Sharing the show is a super easy way to help spread the word about the work we’re doing in the fight for bold climate actions. Thanks again for listening. We’ll see you next time.