2020 Action

Call to Action! Dire Predictions on Climate Change!

November 2018 - The extreme hurricanes, fires, flooding, and temperatures this year are hardly surprising because it's all been predicted. The most recent predictions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are even more dire, and the report calls on governments, industry, and all the earth's individuals to take immediate and effective action. ALL HANDS ON DECK!!!!!

ACTION: Start Now

1. First, ask your Representatives and your Senators what they are going to do to address the horrific climate changes we face. Second, urge them to speak out loudly against the destructive Trump attempts to roll back the existing measures we have in place to reduce emissions from power plants and vehicles. The U.S. must mobilize to lower our carbon emissions and make our best effort to stabilize our changing climate.
2. a) Call your power company to order 100% renewable electricity. It may cost slightly more, but won't give the earth a fever. Ask if discounts or rebates are available.
3. b) Drastically cut your air travel, a surprisingly large source of global warming.
4. c) Switch from eating beef to poultry, or even vegetarian fare.

If you do all three, you'll save money, and get healthier. Most important, you'll make a real, concrete, contribution to your children's and grandchildren's well-being.

WE AND THE EARTH CAN'T WAIT!

CONTACT: Your Representative and Senators (and electric company)

• 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

Multiply this Message: Use this information to write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others—our job now & in the coming years!

How to Elect Peace & Environment Candidates Nov. 6

October 2018 - Nuclear weapons and climate change remain the greatest threats to the well-being and survival of our families, our country and the world. On Tuesday, November 6^th, you can help elect your federal Representative and Senator who will work to increase our security. Here are a few suggestions of what to do:

Be informed. Find out the positions of your Congressional candidates on:

1. Reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons
2. National spending on nuclear weapons
3. Federal policies on greenhouse gas emissions
4. National policies on clean renewable energy

When you have chosen your candidates, SUPPORT THEM! Donate if you can and volunteer to work in their campaigns: door-to-door outreach, phone calling, hold a house-party, reach out to friends and colleagues, put up a sign, wear a button, get-out-the-vote . . .THIS IS IMPORTANT!

ACTION: Work for, build support for, and on Tuesday, November 6^th, vote for candidates running for Congress in your Congressional district and state who support policies that will reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and develop renewable energy. If you have time, you can also volunteer and support candidates in other states.

CONTACT: Research candidate’s positions on climate change and nuclear weapons at these websites:

• League of Conservation Voters:
  http://scorecard.lcv.org/sites/scorecard.lcv.org/files/LCV_Scorecard-2017-Full.pdf
• Council for a Livable World: https://livableworld.org/

You can also visit candidates’ websites and contact their campaign offices to determine their positions on these issues, and/or, to volunteer in their campaigns. Thank you.

Multiply this Message: Use this information to write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others—our job now & in the coming years!

Tell EPA to Block Proposed Trump Regulations That Will Lower MPG & Reverse Clean Air Regulations

September 2018 - The New York Times recently updated its report, 76 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump. It says that the Trump administration, along with Republicans in Congress, have targeted environmental rules they see as overly burdensome to the fossil fuel industry.

From the Times: “Rules targeted for reversal so far include key Obama-era efforts to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, as well as broader air and water pollution controls, and protections for threatened animals and habitats. The Trump administration has, in many instances, pared back these regulations in favor of more expansive energy extraction policies — often as a direct response to petitions from oil, gas and coal companies.”

Trump’s current ill-advised proposal is that the EPA lower emission controls and fuel economy standards for cars, SUVs, and light trucks, model years 2022 —through 2025.

ACTION: Submit a comment on this proposal to the EPA by the October 2^nd deadline. Tell them why you oppose lowering MPG regulations, and reversing clean air and emissions controls.

CONTACT: The EPA—submit comments in any of the following ways:

Online: Go to https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0283   Click on ‘Comment Now!’ and type or paste in your comment. Follow the prompts.

Email: Comments may be sent to a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov   
Include Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0283 in the subject line of the message.

Fax: (202) 566-9744. Heading: Attention Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0283.

Mail: EPA, EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Mail Code 28221T, Attention Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2018-0283, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20460

Multiply this Message: Use this information to write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others—our job now & in the coming years!

Stop the Bailout of Coal and Nuclear

July 2018 - The President has instructed Rick Perry, the Secretary of Energy, to bail out obsolete coal and nuclear power plants by raising electricity rates. A draft Energy Department plan exploits the Cold War-era Defense Production Act and Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to force grid operators across the country to buy electricity from failing coal and nuclear plants. The Defense Production Act is an obscure wartime law that allows the president to secure scarce resources for national defense. There is, however, no case that failing coal and nuclear plants are essential to military defense. The Federal Power Act, Section 202(c) allows the Energy Secretary to issue an “emergency run order” where potential shortages of energy are imminent. Grid operators, industry experts, and utilities, however, have repeatedly and forcefully stated that there is no energy shortage and no evidence of an emergency.

ACTION: Contact your Senators and Representative. Urge them to oppose this initiative, which would require American families to bail out obsolete coal and nuclear power plants. Such initiatives would prop up polluting, dangerous, and expensive sources of power while disadvantaging efforts to provide clean, cheap, renewable alternatives.

Contact Your Representative and Senators:

• 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

Multiply this Message: Use this information to write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others—our job now & in the coming years!

The Astonishingly Good News on Renewable Energy

March 2018 - XCel Energy, a Colorado utility, recently explored alternatives to running its dirty coal-fired electricity plants and requested bids, including for wind and solar produced energy with battery storage (for when there's no sun and no wind). They received hundreds of bids at amazingly low prices. For example, wind plus battery storage came in at a median of 2.1 cents per kWh, and solar plus storage at 3.6 cents per kWh. By way of contrast, the current overall residential US average is 12 cents per kWh. 

The price of renewables will vary depending on the local wind and solar energy resource, but overall, renewables look to be cheaper than fossil fuel systems. Lazard Ltd., a global energy financial analyst, recently issued its 2017 report stating that in many regions of North America, the full life-cycle cost of building and operating renewables-plus-battery systems is cheaper than merely continuing to operate the already existing coal and nuclear plants! In developing countries, the advantages of renewables are assessed to be even greater.

ACTION:  Contact the Governor of your State. Urge him or her to look into renewables-plus-storage options because this could well result in lower electricity prices, cleaner air, much lower greenhouse gas emissions, less danger of nuclear disasters, and a huge increase in well-paying local jobs. All this at no cost to the government! Sounds like a winner all around.

CONTACT: The Governor of your state

Web: usa.gov/state-governor and then follow directions for mail, email, or telephone

Mail: Your Governor’s name, Capitol Building, name of your capitol city, State, zip code

Multiply this Message: Use this information to write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others—our job in the coming years!

Save the Clean Power Plan

December 2017 - The Trump administration is now working to end Obama's signature climate change program, the Clean Power Plan. This is in spite of the recent report from 13 federal agencies confirming the seriousness of climate change, the fact that humans are the predominant cause, and that major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are imperative. The Clean Power Plan would cover, for the first time, emissions from existing power plants which account for 35% of U.S. carbon emissions, the largest single source. It would reduce these emissions by 32% by 2030 relative to 2005. States may use a number of options to meet their established targets including investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency, natural gas, and nuclear power, and shifting away from coal-fired power.

Because power plants also release sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, the plan will also prevent thousands of early deaths, asthma attacks in children, heart attacks, and hospitalizations. 

On October 10, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signed a notice of proposed rule-making to repeal the Clean Power Plan. This started the clock on the public comment period, which ends January 16. 

ACTION: Submit your comment to the EPA before the January 16, 2018 deadline

Submit a comment to EPA opposing repeal of the Clean Power Plan. Weather catastrophes including floods, heat waves, hurricanes, and large wildfires have already cost the U.S. $1.1 trillion since 1980 and will continue to increase in frequency and intensity without major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The standards in the Plan are what we need to avert catastrophe.

Include ID# EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355 and submit comments in any of the following ways:

Online: Go to https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355  Click on ‘Comment Now!’ and type or paste in your comment. Follow the prompts.

Email: Comments may be sent to a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov   
Include Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355 in the subject line of the message.

Fax: Fax your comments to: (202) 566-9744. Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355.

Mail: EPA, EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Mail Code 28221T, Attention Docket ID
No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20460

Multiply this Message: Use this information to write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue. This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others.

Cap-and-Dividend Plan to Cut CO2 Emissions

 

August 2015 - There is nothing as effective as immediate self-interest to generate action—for both individuals and corporations. The Cap-and-Dividend plan of HR 1027 works on that principle. The government auctions off permits to emit CO2, and hands out all the money gained in equal dividends to every man, woman, and child. This will result in some price increases, and people who take many trips, live in houses needing lots of fossil energy to heat and cool, and buy lots of things that require energy to make and use, will lose on the deal, unless they cut back on their consumption. Families making less than $120,000 on average will come out ahead, because their dividends will more than cover the price increases.

 

Over time, the number of permits offered will be reduced, lowering our CO2 emissions. This will raise the auction prices, so the heavy consumers will pay more, while others will gain more, at a cost of zero to the country. All will have increasing incentives to reduce their CO2 emissions, and all will have some money to do it.

 

Ask your Representative to co-sponsor this important bill, HR 1027, the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act. It runs on "the genius of the market,” and is probably the fastest way to do a U-turn on our road to climate disaster.

 CONTACT:

 Web: www.house.gov

Telephone: (202) 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard)
Mail: Representative (first & last name)
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515 

Photo: Lois Barber

Be a Clean Water Champion

 July 2015 - In part because of 2020 member actions last June, the EPA has issued new regulations that close loopholes in the Clean Water Act. These loopholes leave nearly 2 million miles of our country's streams and the drinking water for 117 million Americans vulnerable to pollution. The House of Representatives recently passed legislation to block these new EPA regulations–but without enough votes to overcome an expected Presidential veto. Now the Senate is also being lobbied intensively to block these new protections. To ensure that our nation’s drinking water and more of our waterways are protected, help us keep the Senate from turning back these new EPA Clean Water Act regulations.

 

 

Will the Senate cater to the oil, gas, coal, developer, and agribusiness lobbies that want to move backward on clean water? Or will it restore Clean Water Act protections to nearly 2 million miles of our nation's streams? We're on the verge of a big victory, but your action is needed to protect the waters we love. Contact your Senators and urge
them to support the revised EPA clean water regulations.

 

CONTACT:

 

Web: www.senate.gov
Telephone: (202) 224-3121 (Capital switchboard)
Mail: Senator (first & last name)
U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

Photo: Lois Barber

Support Obama's Executive Action on the Environment

January 2015 - Frustrated by congressional inaction, President Obama is considering a number of impactful executive actions to protect the environment. Meanwhile, his inbox and the airwaves are filling up with accusations of overreach and urges to stop. The President needs to hear from those who back his efforts to work aggressively within the law to counter global warming and protect the natural environment. He is considering actions that would:

• Halt the Keystone XL Pipeline to slow the production of fuel from the Canadian tar sands, a process 17% more polluting than drilling for oil.
• Restrict pollution from existing coal-fired power plants, responsible for 40% of current heat trapping gas emissions, and set improved emission standards for future power plants. 
• Improve regulation of the environmental impact of fracking and keep fracking out of our national forests and away from our drinking water. One loophole that needs to be closed exempts billions of gallons of toxic fracking waste from our nation's hazardous waste law. 
• Increase protection of public lands and marine resources from destructive mining and drilling. Development currently proposed on our public lands by coal, oil, and gas companies would release more than 100 billion tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere.
• Improve fuel efficiency and emissions standards for medium and heavy-duty vehicles.

Contact the President with a simple message: you support executive actions that will help stabilize our climate and protect the environment.  If you wish, note one or more of the possible initiatives that are important to you. Encourage him to speak out on these issues in his 2015 State of the Union Address set for January 20th, and to reflect their importance in the nation’s budget that he will present. 

CONTACT:

 

PRESIDENT OBAMA
Web: www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Tel: 202 456-1111 (9:00 am to 5:00 pm)
Fax: 202 456-2461
Mail:
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Photo: Sea Nettle, Moss Landing, CA, Ron Wolf

A Politically Viable Plan to Fight Global Warming

October 2014 -Previous plans to cut CO2 emissions have foundered mainly on the objections that they would increase government regulation instead of bringing the “genius of the market” to bear on the problem; or that they would increase the money going to the government and thus increase its size and influence on the economy; or that they would hurt the economy and cost jobs. Amazingly, the new cap-and-dividend plan of House Resolution (HR) 5271 would avoid each of these.  

This plan has two components. First, it would require corporations that sell coal, oil, or natural gas to buy the corresponding CO2 emission permits at government-run auctions, with the number of permits reduced over time. Any price increases would likely be passed on to consumers by the corporations. But . . . 

Secondly, the plan would divide up the amount collected from selling the emission permits (less a very small admin fee), and pay it out in a dividend of equal size to every man, woman, and child. This means that lower-income households, who pay fewer dollars in price increases because they buy less fossil fuel, would gain, while the big consumers of fossil fuels would pay more. The break-even point is estimated to be at the 84 percentile household income of $120,000. Of course, everyone wins because the air we all breathe is cleaner, and the climate we all experience is more stable. 

As corporations and consumers act in their immediate self-interest to find alternatives to the increasing costs of their fossil fuel purchases, CO2 emissions will decrease. HR 5271 would also decrease financial inequity, generate new jobs—American jobs, and be a blueprint for other countries.

 

Urge your Representative to co-sponsor, and to speak in public support of H.R. 5271, the Healthy Climate and Family Security Act of 2014, a bill that has a real chance of addressing the global threat of climate disaster, which we are already beginning to feel. 

CONTACT 

www.house.gov

202 224-3121 (Capital switchboard)

Representative (first & last name)

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

 

Photo: Gourds, Bill Carbone 

To Learn more and sign a petition about Pricing Carbon visit: www.pricingcarbon.org