Zahra Hirji at InsideClimate News writes—2016: When Climate Activists Aim to Halt Federal Coal Leases:
With the Keystone XL pipeline rejected and Royal Dutch Shell's Arctic drilling plans abandoned, activists have a new agenda for 2016: bringing climate accountability to the federal fossil fuel program.
The Obama administration's sweep of climate policies, from rules curbing power plant emissions to tightening fuel economy standards for cars, has so far bypassed one of the government's biggest carbon-polluting programs: leasing public land to companies for extraction of oil, natural gas and coal. In 2012, federal fossil fuel production released more than 1,340 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent—that's similar to the annual emissions of more than 280 million cars, according to a report by the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress.
This must change if the United States is serious about moving to a low-carbon economy and meeting its goal of reducing emissions 32 percent compared to 2005 levels by 2030, climate campaigners say.
"We can't even begin to move in that direction if the United States is going to keep auctioning off publicly owned coal, oil, and gas, effectively giving the fossil fuel industry every incentive to stay in business," said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director at WildEarth Guardians.
The Denver-based green group is focused on overhauling the federal coal program, the program's largest emissions source. The group won one high-profile lawsuit on this issue in May, when a federal court judge ordered regulators to redo a coal expansion application in Colorado; the judge ruled that they insufficiently accounted for climate impacts in their environmental assessment, among other issues. Next year, WildEarth Guardians expects decisions for similar pending lawsuits across Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Now WildEarth Guardians is teaming up with the larger environmental movement to pressure the federal fossil fuel program to get serious about climate change. That's why the organization joined more than 400 activist groups and scientists on Sept. 15 to launch the "Keep It in the Ground Campaign" with a letter to President Obama asking him to "stop new federal leasing of fossil fuels, and to keep those remaining fossil fuels—our publicly owned fossil fuels—safely in the ground."
HIGH IMPACT STORIES • TOP COMMENTS
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—We Won the Debates:
I'll get the declaration of winners out of the way first: the Democratic voters won tonight.
All four of our candidates were very strong. They all came across as likable. They are extremely sharp, incredibly well-informed and thoughtful. They have visions for how and where they would lead the country, and the role of America in the world. They want to challenge the American people by appealing to the sense of the common good.
They didn't attack government and demean its potential for positive change. They showed that they can all inspire Americans to strive for a better future for all of us. There couldn't be a more stark contrast between our tremendous field and the horrible Republican field than the back-to-back debates that just aired on ABC.
Our candidates also conducted themselves like responsible adults. They showed respect to each other, and in doing so showed greater respect for the viewers and the voters. Unlike the Republicans, who were mean and nasty to each other, the Democrats were almost unfailingly calm, they didn't take nasty tones with each other, they complimented each other, and they didn't interrupt. There was only one moment of significant crosstalk, when all four were trying to interrupt, but they were trying to interrupt ABC's host Charles Gibson, to reject the premise of one of his questions.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounds up 2016 horse race news, the new executive orders on guns, and notes the Malheur/Mormonism connection. The banal beginnings of some ISIS recruits: the British “bouncy castle” salesman, and the “hacktivist” who crossed over.
Find us on iTunes | Find us on Stitcher | RSS | Donate to support the show!