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.

Fix the Grid and its Governance

April - There have been positive developments in America’s efforts to meet national climate goals. Technological innovations have radically reduced the cost of producing renewable energy and we are turning from fossil fuels to renewables. The Inflation Reduction Act will funnel over $400 billion into subsidies to Americans to buy electric cars and electric heat pumps. However, a major bottleneck is slowing down the flow of fossil-free electricity into our outdated grid that has insufficient capacity. This bottleneck is throttling efforts to change the way we generate and distribute electricity and slowing our transition to renewables.

There is now a huge backlog of renewable energy projects seeking permits from grid operators to feed their energy into the grid, while fossil fuel applicants often enjoy faster turnarounds. For example, PJM, a Mid-Atlantic grid operator, now has 2,700 energy projects under study and has paused all new reviews. It can take as long as four years to get approvals for renewable energy projects, a debilitating wait for impatient investors and stakeholders. The key problem is physical and regulatory fragmentation. When it comes to governance, the US does not have a national grid, but a grid divided among Eastern, Western, and Texas Districts, with regulatory input from states and even some municipalities. To move forward significantly and rapidly with renewable energy across the country, we need a fully integrated national grid with national oversight.

ACTION:

Urge your senators to help fix the national electric grid and to pass legislation that will reorganize our grids’ connectivity, governance, and regulatory structure, and to provide the funds so the new grid structure will more quickly allow fossil-free electricity to supply our growing call for renewables.

CONTACT: Your Senators

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.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 (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510

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.

Biden's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) Is Disappointing

March - The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a legislatively-mandated review undertaken by each President that establishes U.S. nuclear policy, strategy, capabilities and force posture for the next five to ten years. In October 2022, President Biden made public the unclassified version of his NPR. Before becoming President, Joe Biden was a leader in nuclear arms control, but now some of his actions and policies are going in the opposite direction. Consider these quotes:

1. In 2020 Biden wrote: "... the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal should be deterring and, if necessary, retaliating against a nuclear attack." By contrast, Biden's NPR states, “We conducted a thorough review . . . including both No First Use and Sole Purpose policies and concluded that they would lead to “unacceptable risk in light of ... non-nuclear capabilities.” His NPR states that the US could respond with nuclear weapons even to a non-nuclear attack.
2. Former President Trump had championed the W76-2 as a small, "more usable", nuclear warhead.  In contrast, Joe Biden declared that "I don't think there's any such thing as an ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon." Sadly, shortly after that remark, Biden’s NPR supported that very “more usable” W76-2 nuclear weapon. 

On the positive side, Biden's NPR states that the U.S. "will seek opportunities to pursue practical steps to advance the goals of... reduced reliance on nuclear weapons, and, ultimately, a world without nuclear weapons.” We need to encourage him to actually create these opportunities.

ACTION: Contact President Biden. Use the information above to express your surprise and dismay that his NPR is, in several important ways, contrary to his earlier statements. Also, urge him to host a 2023 conference of the nuclear states to prepare the ground for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. This may not be easy, but it will be harder still once Iran and Saudi Arabia join the nuclear club.

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.

Our Personal Piece of Preventing the Worst of Climate Change

February - In the US, individuals directly control roughly half of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the rest is under the control of industry, agriculture, and governments. The Paris Accords of 2015 adopted a goal of a rise in temperature of at most 1.5C (2.7 Fahrenheit), because we've all seen what a rise of merely 1.12C (2F) has already caused in terms of wildfires, floods, tornadoes, droughts, and desperate migrant waves seeking a livable life. These disasters are guaranteed to get worse as the temperature rises.

To stay under a 1.5C increase in temperature requires us to cut our US current GHG emissions from 16 tons CO2 per person per year, to only one single ton per person per year. Yikes !!!! How can each of us possibly do this?

ACTION: The three most important, impactful, steps you can take are:

1. Avoid roughly 4.2 tons of CO2 emissions annuallyper household by signing up with your electric company for fossil-free electricity, or call your city or town to inquire how to do that, or install solar panels on your roof to supply your electricity.
2. Avoid roughly6 to 10 tons CO2 annually per household by installing electric heat pumps to supply your heat and hot water.
3. Make your next car electric, avoiding 4.6 tons CO2 annuallyper car, driving 11,500 miles.

These three actions eliminate MORE THAN HALF of your CO2 emissions. There are federal and state subsidies to help you get heat pumps, solar panels, and electric cars. But you need to do more to stay inside your Personal Carbon Budget. Drastically cut back on the "stuff" you buy, cut way back on flying (0.6 tons CO2 is emitted per person to fly across the country and back), and avoid meat and dairy (0.8 tons CO2 avoided per year).

NOTE:  Here's how the lifetime per person budget was arrived at: The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated the earth's Global Carbon Budget (the CO2 tonnage that would result in a rise of 1.5C), to be 380 billion tons of CO2. Taking half of that (the half controlled by individuals) and then dividing by the current 8 billion humans means that a person's remaining lifetime CO2 budget is a mere 24 tons, on average, less for older people, more for younger, so an average of under one ton per year. 

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.

No Mow May

May 2022 - No Mow May is a tiny idea with huge consequences. The idea is simple, stow the lawnmower for the month of May and let the “weeds” come to bloom. Plants that we consider weeds are actually food that is essential for pollinators just coming out of hibernation. The US has nearly 5,000 species of native bees and many of them overwinter underground. When they come out of hibernation in early spring, they are hungry and No Mow May is all about feeding the bees.

No Mow May is a movement that is successfully growing in Appleton, Wisconsin and spreading to communities across the USA. Dr. Israel Del Toro, an assistant professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, states, “Through No Mow May, we not only feed the bees but also educate ourselves and our neighbors on the many little things we can do to help our struggling pollinators. Not only do we encourage folks to reduce the amount of mowing they do but we also encourage participants to plant native flora, remove invasive species, use fewer lawn pesticides, and herbicides and create more bee friendly habitat. By being good stewards of our biodiversity and protecting our natural resources we too benefit from all of the pollination. Nearly 1/3 of all the foods we eat are pollinator dependent. No Mow May is just a simple initiative to give our bees and other pollinators a leg up and a healthy start to the growing season.” 

Dr. Del Toro and his colleagues studied the impacts of No Mow May on Appleton’s bees. They found that No Mow May lawns had five times the number of bees and three times the bee species than did mown parks.

ACTION: Sit back and watch the grass grow! Put away your lawnmower or contact the person who mows your lawn and give them a month off. If you don’t have a lawn, forward this 2020 Action postcard to friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family who do. If you are inspired, write a letter to the editor of your local paper (easy to do online) so that many more people will learn about and take part in No Mow May.

CONTACT: The Editor of your Local Paper  

• Use the text above to write and submit a letter to the editor about No Mow May.

Click here to read about No Mow May in the March 28, 2022 article in the New York Times.

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.