2020 Action

EPA Rebuilds Regulations to Clean Up Pollutants from Power Plants

June 2023 - The Environmental Protection Agency has opened a public comment period on its draft proposal to reduce emissions of CO2 and other pollutants from US power plants. The proposal concerns existing coal-fired power plants and new plants powered by natural gas. Over the years, the EPA has issued regulations for fossil-fueled power plants, both existing and new, for both CO2, and effluents toxic to human health. Some of these regulations were canceled by the Trump administration but are now in the process of being reestablished, updated, and improved.

The current proposal combines both regulations and more flexible guidelines for states, cities, and local communities to decide on their best way of meeting the regulations. This flexibility allows for local input from minority and poorer communities, which is where power plants tend to be situated. This means the regulations on how to achieve the standards would be set locally and may include Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) directly from smokestacks, not after the CO2 is in the atmosphere. If a power plant is close to shut down, it may avoid action altogether.

The EPA has estimated the benefits of rebuilding CO2 regulations to include: 

• $85 billion in climate and health benefits over the next two decades
• 1,300 avoided deaths per year
• 66,000 avoided lost workdays per year.

ACTION:

By July 24^th, contact the EPA in support of this proposal by submitting your comment at:

https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072-0001

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

How Well Has Delaying Nuclear Diplomacy Served Us?

May 2023 - In 1949, in its first action, the United Nations voted in favor of the elimination of nuclear weapons. Being the only nuclear state, the US refused. Then the Soviets managed to get nuclear weapons, and soon after, also the UK, France, and China, to a total of over 60,000 warheads. The threat of the proliferation of these weapons around the world produced the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, essentially a grand bargain: those 5 nuclear states committed to negotiate to eliminate their nuclear weapons, while non-nuclear states committed to forgo nuclear weapons. 

The intervening 53 years have yet to see the first negotiation meeting. Now Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea also have them, Iran and Saudi Arabia are making moves in that direction, and the threat of terrorists and criminal gangs getting them is even more terrifying. Clearly, delaying negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons has not made such negotiations easier. On the contrary, it has made them harder at every step along the way. We need to negotiate nuclear weapons elimination while we still can. The alternative looks bleak indeed. Fortunately, there is a House bill, H. Res. 77, that urges preparatory steps for such negotiations to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

ACTION:

Urge your Representative in Washington to co-sponsor this very critical bill, H. Res.77, to address this terrifying threat. If your Representative is opposed to the bill, ask what his or her plan is to protect and save you, your family, and the world. A superpower nuclear exchange would kill the "lucky" ones immediately, and the rest by starvation due to nuclear winter.

CONTACT: Your Representatives

• Web: Find his/her name and link to their website at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on their website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

"When can you pay us back? Because payment is overdue."

December - This is the urgent call of a 10-year old girl from Ghana, speaking at the climate change conference COP27 in Egypt. She may live to experience catastrophic climate disasters if we continue to burn fossil fuels to heat our houses, get electricity, run our cars, and fly to vacation spots, while our officials refuse to admit our responsibility for the damages we have caused—and continue to cause—worldwide. But at COP27, a breakthrough deal was reached at the last minute, at dawn on Sunday, Nov. 20, but with very ambiguous language, which was still being written after the vote was taken.

Over 130 out of 193 countries at the conference had demanded payment for "loss and damage" caused by the rich industrialized countries, who put out the vast majority of greenhouse gases (GHG). Of the most populous countries (> 40 million), the US is the richest, and emits the most GHG per person.  At COP27, we refused until the last minute to accept any responsibility for the damages we cause. So much for leadership on climate change, and on human rights.

ACTION:

Urge President Biden to publicly accept America's responsibility for the damages we continue to cause. Such an admission may be the critical linchpin for the rest of the world to take action to cut its emissions. In addition, urge the President to set up a commission of prominent ethical leaders, economists, and a balanced group of Republican and Democratic officials, to make recommendations on an ethical and effective path to paying our obligations. As a guide, they could consider this estimate of the damages caused by Americans: (332 million Americans) x (18.5 tons CO2e per person annually) x ($185 damages per ton of CO2e emitted) = $ 1.1 Trillion damages per year.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Backing Away from Nuclear Armageddon

November 2022 - Step by step, the world is heading ever deeper into the nuclear abyss. Nuclear missiles are getting faster, leaving less time for deciding how to respond to what may or not be a nuclear attack. North Korea has built up a formidable nuclear force, while there is talk in Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, and even Japan, about acquiring nuclear weapons. The trend is terrifying. The world needs to act.

As a first step, the US should remove our President's authority to act completely on his or her sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. Recall that General Milley, the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, felt it necessary to call China to reassure it that the US would not allow then Pres. Trump to go nuclear in his post-2020-election fury, which could have caused China to launch a nuclear response. Now, analysts fear that if Pres. Putin of Russia thinks he would lose his war against Ukraine, which seems very possible, that he, on his sole authority, might launch nuclear weapons. He keeps threatening to do exactly that and has said he's not bluffing.

ACTION:

Urge Pres. Biden to revoke the US Presidential power to launch nuclear weapons on the President's authority alone, and to urge Congress to incorporate that revocation into law. 

Also, urge Pres. Biden to call a World Nuclear Weapons Elimination Congress to work toward worldwide nuclear weapons elimination. This would carry out the commitment the US made in Article VI of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Think Ahead to Do Your Part in Getting to Global Zero

July 2022 - Clearly, federal, state, and local governments, along with industry have a huge job to do to increase their use of fossil-free electricity and to get themselves off all fossil fuels by 2050. 

But 2050 is coming to us regular folks also, and how do we get ourselves to stop buying gasoline and heating fuel? Switch to electric cars and electric heat pumps to heat our houses. Both cost more initially to buy, but both now have governmental financial subsidies, and both are much cheaper to use over their lifetimes.

The key is to plan ahead now. Furnaces often fail in the winter, almost never in the summer!  So the idea is to get several plans and financial bids ahead of time, so when your furnace fails, you're ready to install your planned heat pump. If you don't do your change-over at that time, you'll want or need to do it at some future time before 2050, when your furnace may still have "years of good life" left in it.

It's similar with your car. As it ages, be aware of electric car options, so when your car needs to be replaced, you'll be ready to buy an electric one. Start now on your way to Global Zero. 

ACTION:

Make plans now about your home heating system. It's critical to be able to move quickly if your furnace dies in deepest January with little time to make a fossil-free decision. The idea is to explore and decide now, ahead of time, before you'd be rushed into another fossil-fueled furnace, which would inevitably need to be replaced by a heat pump before 2050. 

Steps:

1.   Do a home free energy audit. Contact your municipality for information.
2.   Then do an energy and insulation upgrade. Government subsidies are available.
3.   Get 2-3 installation designs along with financial bids and testimonials from prior customers. 
4.   Be ready to make the switch to a heat pump and an electric car when needed.

Please forward this email to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed action.

Heat Pumps - A Triple Whammy Win!!!

June 2022 - When Russia invaded Ukraine, the US and Europe responded with military aid and sanctions, some of which bar European countries from sending money to Russia to buy its oil and natural gas. But many Europeans, especially Germans and Italians, are dependent on Russian fuels and face a cold winter in their homes and places of work. The climate activist Bill McKibben has suggested a proposal, supported by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and others. It asks Pres. Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act to engage America's vast manufacturing capacity to make electric heat pumps to sell to Europe to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels.

A heat pump works like a freezer. A freezer takes the cold air in the food compartment and cools it further by taking some of the heat out of the cold air and pumping that heat out of the freezer. Similarly, in winter, a heat pump takes in cold outdoor air, removes some of the heat out of it, and then pumps that heat into the house. Oh, the wonders of Thermodynamics! A heat pump is more efficient than a furnace in generating heat. In the summer, the heat pump is switched to act as an air conditioner. McKibben’s proposal would have three major benefits:

1. It would reduce Russia's income and thus its financial capacity to attack Ukraine.
2. It would give a fast boost to American industry as it gears up for the climate crisis challenge as Americans also change over to electric heat pumps.
3. It would generate lots of well-paying American manufacturing jobs.

This fits right in with an overall climate plan of total electrification powered by fossil-free electricity. The technology is there. We just need to use it.

ACTION: Urge Pres. Biden to use his presidential authority under the Defense Production Act to institute an emergency program to build heat pumps in the USA to sell to Europe to assist Europeans in not buying Russian fuels.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please forward this email to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

2021 Action Report

2021 ACTION REPORT
on Monthly Actions

January 2021: President Trump Must Not Attack Iran!  Fortunately, he didn’t.

February 2021: A New Sheriff in Town—A New Beginning  With Pres. Biden in office, we urged him to undo the Trumpian withdrawals from existing nuclear agreements. There were three: 

a) The Open Skies Agreement provides stability by allowing U.S. and Russian flights over the U.S., Russia, and Europe. Pres. Trump pulled out, then Russia also, effective Dec. 2021. Talks between the U.S. and Russia are ongoing.

b) The New START Treaty limits U.S. and Russian deployment of strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 each, with extensive verification. Pres. Trump pulled out of the Treaty, but Pres. Biden and Putin reinstated it on Feb. 3, weeks after Biden's inauguration.

c) The Iran Deal, to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Again, Pres. Trump pulled out, but in recent days, Iran has announced that it is willing to negotiate and talks are now scheduled to resume in Vienna on November 29^th, 2021.

March 2021: Support the National Climate Emergency Act  H.R. 794, the National Climate Emergency Act of 2021, called on the President to declare a climate national emergency under the National Emergency Act of 1976, to mobilize resources for large-scale climate mitigation and resiliency projects. The bill has 50 co-sponsors but has not been voted on. However, some of these provisions were approved in the Infrastructure Bill in early November.

April 2021: Iran Window of Opportunity  In the 2015 "Iran Deal", Iran gave up 90% of its partly enriched uranium, in return for the lifting of sanctions which had been imposed to prevent it from making a nuclear bomb. Pres. Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018, re-imposing sanctions. After a year, Iran restarted enriching uranium. In April 2021 we encouraged Pres. Biden's efforts to bring back the Iran Deal. Recently, Iran announced its willingness to continue negotiations and talks are scheduled to begin in Vienna on November 29^th, 2021.

May 2021: Eliminate Human Caused Emissions of Methane  Two bills were introduced in the Congress S.645 & HR 7435, to require the Secretary of the Treasury to levy a fee on methane emissions from oil and natural gas facilities, and from other sources.  The goal was to charge $1,500 for each metric ton of methane emitted above thresholds.  Later a provision of the Build Back Better budget proposal would charge oil and gas operators if they release methane above a certain limit and offer $775 million to help reduce and monitor this greenhouse gas.  Recently, the U.S. announced it will join a Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030. 

In Glasgow at the UN Climate Conference, China and the U.S. pledged to enhance emission control in the fossil fuel, waste, and agriculture sectors. They will meet in early 2022 to agree on standards and measurements.

June 2021: No-First Use  HR 921 is a bill that would establish a U.S. policy to not use nuclear weapons first. Although this bill has enjoyed a fair number of sponsors (52, all Democrats) and has been introduced twice, in 2017 and 2019, it has not yet been put to a vote. S272 in the Senate, with a similar purpose, has 7 co-sponsors  (6 Democrats, 1 Independent). It was introduced in 2019 and 2021 but has not yet received a vote.

July 2021: Infrastructure Act and Water Act  The infrastructure Act has passed both the Senate and House and was signed by the President. The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 202 provides funding for several programs related to controlling water pollution or protecting drinking water. Although this act was never voted on, some of its goals will be achieved in the Infrastructure Act which dedicates approximately $82.5 billion for a wide range of critical water investments including improvements in safe drinking water and sanitation.  

August 2021: Last Exit off the Highway to Nuclear Catastrophe?  We urged Pres. Biden to make the necessary arrangements to "negotiate in good faith" with the goal of worldwide nuclear disarmament. The press has mentioned no such efforts or arrangements. But our chances for negotiations may improve: China has recently demonstrated its hypersonic, steerable, radar-evading missile, against which our missile defense is useless because it is not steerable. Consequently, the U.S. may develop an interest in beginning negotiations toward nuclear disarmament. 

September 2021: End US Fossil Fuel Subsidies Here and Abroad  We asked that members of Congress act to eliminate all US fossil fuel subsidies within the US and for overseas projects. However, the Infrastructure Bill that Biden has just signed into law included additional $billions in support for fossil fuels, including subsidies for hydrogen made from fossil fuels, a $25 billion loan guarantee for a new liquified natural gas facility in Alaska, and an exemption from environmental review for new gas and oil pipelines across federal lands. The Build Back Better reconciliation bill, expected to be voted on before the end of the year, also includes an estimated $35 billion worth of domestic fossil fuel subsidies. President Biden had identified these for removal but the House has not eliminated them. 

The agreement that has just been finalized by all nations the COP26 includes the request that countries phase out "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."  No firm dates have been set however for the U.S. to do this. 

October 2021: Global Warming-The Most Certain Threat to our National Security  The Pocan (D-WI) Amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act called for a reduction of 10% in military spending, which would free up funds to address climate change, the most certain threat to our national security. In a rush of hundreds of votes in the House, dubbed the vote-a-rama, it was voted on, but lost.

November 2021: Stop Adding Fuel to the Fire  We urged Pres. Biden, while he attended the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, to ask all countries to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. He was only partly successful. Upon returning home, on, Nov. 17th, his administration complied with a Louisiana judge’s ruling that ended an earlier Biden Executive Order to stop new oil and gas drilling that was permitted by former Pres. Trump. This opens more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and in Western lands to oil and gas drilling leases on public lands. The US Department of Justice is appealing the Louisiana decision. Stay tuned.

We also asked Pres. Biden to call on all nations to regulate banks to no longer loan money for fossil fuel development. He directed all US agencies to seek to end all US and international investments by multilateral development banks in overseas fossil fuel development, and to invest in renewables instead. This does not address domestic fossil fuel development.

In addition, we asked Pres. Biden to call on wealthier countries to increase (and meet) their commitments to support the efforts of poorer countries hard hit by climate disasters. The document, called the Glasgow Climate Pact, urges the developed countries to meet their joint $100 billion annual pledge, and in fact calls for at least doubling it. There is no list of countries that agreed to do this.

2020 Action—Focus, Determination, Persistence

Help us keep Americans informed and engaged
for peace & the environment as we celebrate our 35^th year!

Please be generous with a year-end donation.
Your participation & donation now will help us grow.

Deep appreciation and Gratitude to all 2020 members, Core Group of Researchers & Writers, Donors, Colleagues, and Supporters

End US Fossil Fuel Subsidies Here and Abroad

September 2021 - American taxpayers have been subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, through direct subsidies and tax breaks, for over 100 years, resulting in climate damaging emissions, pollution, and destruction of habitats. For years this amounted to $15 billion per year, but these subsidies have increased in the past few years to $20 billion, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and others.  

In addition to these subsidies, the US government has been financing billions for fossil fuel projects overseas to benefit US fossil fuel companies, mainly through the Exim (Export Import Bank) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). In recent years, they have financed coal in Mongolia, a major integrated LNG project in Mozambique, the Sasan coal plant and mines in India, the Vaca Muerta fracking projects in Argentina, and oilfield services for Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos.

The Biden administration has made clear its intention to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and has announced restrictions on financing fossil fuel investments overseas.  However, these commitments have so far been limited in scope, require legislative action. and are being strongly opposed by the fossil fuel industry. 

A recent letter to Rep. Pelosi and Senator Schumer from over 500 organizations asked for the elimination, in the coming budget reconciliation process, of ALL subsidies for fossil fuel development; these deductions and credits serve to encourage increased oil and gas development, in a time of quickly worsening climate change.  

TAKE ACTION:  Contact your Members of Congress and ask that they end all US fossil fuel subsidies, in the US and abroad. Other major developed countries have made this commitment. Why should taxpayers pay to incentivize oil companies to extract more oil, which only increases the fires Out West, and the floods Down South? That makes no sense at all!

CONTACT: Your Representatives & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
  or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Last Exit off the Highway to Nuclear Catastrophe?

August 2021 - On Aug. 6, 2020, Hiroshima Day, Presidential Candidate Joe Biden proclaimed: “I will work to bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons.” That was encouraging to the many Americans who favor a world without nuclear weapons, and to the 122 countries that voted for the Nuclear Ban Treaty of 2017. 

But President Biden has instead joined in a 3-way hypersonic arms race with Russia and China, with basically unstoppable nuclear and non-nuclear missiles traveling 4,000 to 14,000 mph. This shrinks the time of deciding whether what seems like an incoming nuclear attack is really an attack, or just a false alarm. Having about 10 minutes to decide, as we had in the past, has twice saved us from worldwide nuclear catastrophe. First by Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov on Sept. 26, 1983, when he faced a computer warning of a US attack of "high reliability" calling for "full nuclear retaliation". Bless him for not following his orders, for what turned out to be the sun's reflection off some clouds. A second false alarm came before Boris Yeltsin on Jan. 25, 1995, but he could not believe that “my friend Bill” could do such a thing.

With hypersonic missiles, we’d lose those 10 valuable minutes. If the world is EVER going to save itself from nuclear destruction by eliminating its 13,132 nuclear weapons, this present moment could be the last chance. Russia has already deployed a hypersonic ICBM, with “reportedly” a nuclear warhead, according to the Congressional Research Service.

TAKE ACTION:  Contact Pres. Biden and urge him to make the necessary arrangements to “negotiate in good faith” with a goal of worldwide nuclear disarmament as we and the U.K., Russia, China, and France solemnly committed to do in the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970. It is high time. The world is heading into a continually deeper trap, so the sooner we do this, the better chance we have.

CONTACT: President Biden
Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/       
Tel: 1-202-456-1111 
Mail:   The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

The Infrastructure Act Must be Far-Reaching and Well-Funded

July 2021 - Negotiations on the Democrats’ proposed Infrastructure Act are currently ongoing. Republican counter-proposals leave out critical areas, in particular: water issues like sewer repairs, pollution controls, and lead pipe replacement. Years of cutbacks in federal funding have left woeful inadequacies in our physical infrastructure and ignored safety and social equity issues which must be addressed. Communities on their own cannot repair or build the safe water and sanitation systems required for their citizens. These issues overwhelmingly impact marginalized communities, rural and urban, and indigenous communities. Discrimination has allowed years of neglect and created environmentally toxic neighborhoods. 

Federal funding is essential. Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) offered by corporations wanting to get in on city water systems for example, have been destructive, expensive to citizens and often abused. Building better requires investment for the future as well as repair of the past. All areas addressed by a comprehensive Infrastructure Act are essential: water and sanitation, pollution control, broadband for all, health, schools and climate change. The Infrastructure Act hangs in political uncertainty. The House and the Senate need to pass a comprehensive infrastructure act and to vote for The WATER Act, S.916 in the Senate, and H.R. 1352 in the House, which address many of these issues directly. Health, jobs and a robust recovery all hang in the balance.

TAKE ACTION:  Call on your Representative, Senators and the President to push ahead with a comprehensive Infrastructure Act and to support The Water Act (S.916 and H.R. 1352.) The safe, healthy future we all must create is waiting. 

CONTACT: President Biden and Your Members of Congress

President Biden:      

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ 
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111
• Mail:   The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Members of Congress:

• Web: Find your Congress persons’ names and links to their websites at www.senate.gov, www.house.gov;    send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.