We’re the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we’re the last that can do something about it.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has just announced A New American Climate Mission. This is the most comprehensive and detailed campaign against Global Warming yet put forward.He has remarkably detailed plans to go with that mission. It will take us a few Fridays to unpack it all, along with the rest of the plans that have been announced by Presidential candidates and NGOs and technology innovators. If you want legislative language, too, Inslee has pointers to bills passed in a number of cities and states on a wide range of such measures.
Also, the week before,
Beto O'Rourke rolls out $5 trillion plan to combat climate change, a pivotal 2020 issue for Democrats
Earlier in April, it was Bernie Sanders.
Combat Climate Change and Pass a Green New Deal
Every Democratic Presidential candidate has had a great deal to say about the issue. Their plans are all a bit different, and I am sure, Dear Reader, that your plan is a bit different from any of them. Mine certainly is. I roll all of their proposed measures together, and add in many more, including the material I have been mining for these Diaries.
In spite of Republican maundering about getting rid of cows, we aren’t talking enough about fixing agriculture. Nor reducing emissions from production of cement, steel, ammonia, or petrochemicals, nor serious carbon capture (not bogus Clean Coal).
Actually, Robeson starts with the traditional shoes. And also, here and in many other versions, there are wings, robes, rhythm, crowns, harps, songs, and so much more. The bloomin’ capitulists may own the coal and oil and gas, but all o’ God’s children, or the Buddha’s children, or the children of the Mother, or the children of the Blind Watchmaker, got sun and wind and water, the Means of Production of life in the Archaean, and of a new age today.
HalleluFSM. rAmen.
Meanwhile, some Republicans and the fossil fuel industry have rolled out Greenwashing plans. Some of them have started to throw coal under the bus, but they are maintaining the moldy old lies that we can’t afford to go off gas and oil, and indeed that we need even more of them. Many Democrats have not entirely gotten how to push back on that: Renewables save Real Money™, as we saw last week.
Renewable Friday: TBucks in Real Money™ for All
All of the investments that we need for the next decade and more are profitable. Even geoengineering for carbon capture, when we come to that, costs far less than it saves.
I’m going to put Greenwashing aside for today, and come back to it on another Friday.
OK, who has what? I got links, you got links, all…
Pardon me.
But yes, links today, and then over time we can review particulars of various proposals, and discuss who has which bits right or not.
Climate Change and the 2020 Presidential Candidates: Where Do They Stand?
Donald Trump
The Man Who Would Be King of the Denialists. Nobody knows for sure whether he believes any of the guff that flows from his mouth and his Twitter account, or whether he just doesn’t care, or whether he glories in disaster (chaotic-evil, in game terminology).
I don’t care. I just want him gone, and indicted as many times as possible. And his co-conspirator children.
And…well, you know.
NRDC’s Bob Deans has written at length about the environmental damage Trump and his administration have produced. Both NRDC (Trump Watch) and National Geographic have also kept a detailed timeline of all his administration’s changes to environmental policy, including air and water pollution deregulation and rollback of Obama era climate rules.
Gov. Jay Inslee
As governor of Washington state, I am already working to ensure America is leading the fight to defeat climate change. We created a new Clean Energy Fund, which has invested more than $100 million in developing and deploying innovative energy technologies, and growing clean energy businesses and jobs. We passed the largest and greenest transportation infrastructure investment package in state history. And we funded the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington, which is pioneering research into next-generation renewable energy technologies like solar and battery storage. This year, we passed a ban on super-pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons, efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, and the nation's strongest clean energy bill that will make Washington state's electricity 100% clean.
But greater global ambition is necessary to prevent warming from reaching unacceptable levels…
2020: Jay Inslee on climate change and beating Donald Trump has lots of MSM and other media links, plus a Pod Save America video and transcript. I don’t know about Inslee’s chances for the Presidency, but I would put him up for a Nobel Peace Prize with this campaign, whether or not he gets the nomination.
Seriously. Renewables can put a severe dent in poverty, oppression, and war, not just vast weather damage and mass extinctions.
- 100% renewable energy
By 2030, his plan will:
● Reach 100% zero emissions in new light- and medium-duty vehicles and all buses;
● Achieve 100% zero-carbon pollution from all new commercial and residential buildings;
● Set a national 100% Clean Electricity Standard, requiring 100% carbon-neutral power by 2030, putting America on a path to having all clean, renewable and zero-emission energy in electricity generation by 2035.
Jay Inslee Just Promised to Shut Down Every Coal Power Plan [sic] in the Next 12 Years
- Millions of good-paying jobs
A bold 10-year mobilization to defeat climate change and create millions of good-paying jobs
- Justice and inclusion
Inslee also expects to sign a 100-percent clean electricity bill into law next week. It would eliminate use of coal power in his state by 2025 and require utilities to achieve 100 percent clean electricity generation by 2045. The law will also incorporate some of the environmental justice elements that Green New Deal advocates are championing. For instance, his bill would require that utilities take into consideration the social cost of carbon — the environmental and social damage inflicted per ton of emitted carbon. That’s another first nationwide, by the way. “It makes utilities potentially work on a performance-based system,” Inslee said, which means utilities will have incentives beyond profits for shareholders. “That’s a fundamental change.” A tale of two Washingtons: How Jay Inslee aims to take his climate plan nationwide
- End giveaways and subsidies to fossil fuel companies
Just in the US, that’s $20 billion dollars annually in cash, tax deductions, below-market pricing for resources on Federal lands, corn ethanol…
And, I keep having to say because too many Democrats don’t, we get to do all of that at a profit.
Inslee has particulars on each. Also,
- End the filibuster
- Research nuclear energy. It must be safer, much lower in cost, and with a solution to waste disposal in order to go forward with deployment.
- Have the DNC hold a climate-only primary debate.
I don’t believe that nuclear power can ever be made to work again, but I am fine with doing the experiments and having real results, positive or negative. Thorium molten-salt reactors could possibly be good for disposing of high-level radioactive waste, even if they are not economical power sources. But not this Friday.
Oil Change International: Fossil Fuel Subsidies Overview
How Much Money Do Governments Provide to Support the Oil, Gas, and Coal Industries Internationally?
Internationally, governments provide at least $775 billion to $1 trillion annually in subsidies, not including other costs of fossil fuels related to climate change, environmental impacts, military conflicts and spending, and health impacts.
When externalities are included, as in a 2015 study by the International Monetary Fund, the unpaid costs of fossil fuels are upward of $5.3 trillion annually.
Oil Change International’s most recent reporting looks at money for fossil fuel production only (including exploration, and extraction, and development) in the G20 governments – which includes many of the world’s most developed countries. These governments are providing support to oil, gas, and coal companies to the tune of $444 billion per year, between direct national subsidies, domestic and international finance, and state-owned enterprise investment.
Yes. When you hear Republicans and fossil fuel companies complaining about how much the Green New Deal and other such plans will cost, they mean how much it will cost them.
Inslee is a co-founder of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 21 states that have pledged to take action on climate change following Trump withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
[in 2007] I co-wrote a book [Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy, second edition 2010] about the need to transform our economy to one run on clean energy and the need for a national Apollo mission-style project to take on this herculean task.
The book is of course entirely out of date on all of the technical details, but it asked the right questions and got the essential policies right.
Rep. Beto O’Rourke
Some will criticize the Green New Deal for being too bold, for being too unmanageable. I’ll tell you what, I haven’t seen anything better that addresses the crisis that we face, a crisis that could at its worst lead to extinction…. Literally the future of the world depends on us right here.
Let’s open up technologies and markets to [everyone that wants to help] that provide an incentive for capturing the carbon that we’re currently emitting in the air…
Bring back Obama rules: Clean Power Plan, higher standards for vehicle emissions.
We generate more wind energy in Texas than any other state in the union. We’re close to closing the distance on solar, building out utility-scale solar. The two fastest growing jobs in the United States of America today? Wind jobs and solar jobs. Let’s make this about saving the planet and also connecting people with jobs that provide purpose and function and a living wage and a skill and a trade that they will have for the rest of their lives. That also means unions and labor, strengthening and prioritizing instead of diminishing the ability to organize and equip people with the skills they’ll need for the rest of their lives….And I’ve got to tell you, those who have written and championed the Green New Deal are absolutely right on the money.
-
Start Cutting Pollution on Day One and Taking Executive Actions to Lead on Climate
-
Mobilize a historic $5 Trillion for Climate Change with Investment in Infrastructure, Innovation, and Our People and Communities
-
Guarantee our Net-Zero Emissions Ambition by 2050
-
Defend our Communities That Are Preparing for and Fighting Against Extreme Weather
Now, we can support Texas being a proud energy leader in oil and in gas, but also in renewable energy.
Forget it, Beto. We have to kill oil and gas ASAP. No Greenwashing.
VP Joe Biden
There’s no reason that by 2025 all of North America can’t get half its electricity from non-polluting sources. It’s within our grasp, but for special interests!
Was Joe Biden a climate change pioneer in Congress? History says yes
The Delaware senator’s first climate change bill, introduced in 1986, died in the Senate. But the following year a version of Biden’s legislation survived as an amendment to a State Department funding bill. President Ronald Reagan went on to sign it into law.
The upshot of Biden’s Global Climate Protection Act was to call on the president to set up a task force to plan how to mitigate global warming.
Biden spoke about the bill on the Senate floor in January 1987 in terms that seem uncannily familiar to present-day warnings. He discussed, among other ills, the threat to human habitat resulting from melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels.
Sen. Cory Booker
Sponsored Green New Deal resolution.
We will build a clean energy economy, we will hold big polluters accountable, and ensure that every child can drink the water from their sink and breath the air in their neighborhood without getting sick.
Booker Statement on Trump’s Climate Change Executive Order
Today is a sad day for our nation, and for our planet. With the stroke of his pen, President Trump is doing serious damage to nearly a decade of progress on one of the most defining – and important – issues of our time. Climate change is an urgent economic and national security challenge that is already beginning to have disastrous effects.
“This Executive Order only makes sense if you think climate change is a hoax created by China and you’re living in a state of denial about the very real harm it is doing to our environment, our economy, and our world. This order will set back our nation’s progress in combatting the threat of climate change, and hurt the emerging clean energy industry – putting us behind global competitors and costing American jobs in the long run.
Mayor Pete
Endorsed Green New Deal.
When challenged with Denialist lies (banning cows, costing $93 trillion), he replied, in part,
When the western world faced the existential threat of Nazi Germany more than 80 years ago, this country harnessed the political will of hundreds of millions here, of the western democracies to win that war…. And lift millions in this country into the middle class.
So he doesn’t yet get the deal about the GND being a money-maker, not a cost.
He also talks about
…climate security, a life and death issue for our generation.
In 2018, Buttigieg committed South Bend to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.
Sec. Julián Castro
The biggest threat to our prosperity in the 21st century is climate change. Don’t let anybody tell you that we have to choose between growing our economy and protecting our planet. We can fight climate change and create great jobs in America.
Part way there.
As mayor of San Antonio, Castro pushed the local utility to shut down a 900-megawatt coal-fired power plant and to adopt a 20 percent renewable energy benchmark by 2020.
Rep. John Delaney
Carbon tax.
Opposes GND.
Never mind. But he isn't a total loss.
Delaney for President: Climate Change
Increase federal investment in renewable energy, in negative emission technologies to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and in green infrastructure projects
- 5-fold increase in DOE green energy research to innovate our way out of the problem
- The green energy research would invest in energy storage, battery performance, sustainable transportation technology, grid efficiency, renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon capture, and energy conservation technology.
- Invest in negative emission technologies to incentivize the development of a competitive market and hasten the deployment of the technology
- Bolster renewable tax credits
- Delaney’s infrastructure plan would include building sustainable infrastructure
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
Main focus is on getting out of Afghanistan and Syria.
Sponsored the “Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act” in 2017 which aimed to transition the country to 100 percent clean energy by 2035.
Tulsi Gabbard on Climate Change
Reaching 100 percent renewable energy as quickly as possible is required to save our planet from the worst effects of climate change. The #OFFAct sets a clear timeline to get there by 2035, with an 80 percent interim benchmark by 2027. We can do this.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Sponsored GND.
Carbon tax.
Let’s invest in our crumbling infrastructure, create sustainable green jobs, and protect clean air and clean water as a human universal right.And I’d like to go further than others who support this plan. I’d also put a price on carbon to use market forces to steer companies away from fossil fuels towards clean, renewable energy.
Gillibrand was a vocal proponent of the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill in 2009. She also co-sponsored Sen. Merkley’s “Keep It In the Ground Act” in 2015 and 2017.
Sen. Kamala Harris
Co-sponsor of GND.
I think we really need to diversify our policy on water, with an equal emphasis on recycling, on conservation, capture of water, storage, desalinization. We need to invest in electric cars. We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. All of that is in the Green New Deal.
And you know the greatest thing about it that I’m really enjoying? It’s causing these conversations to happen around the country in a way they have not been the past few years.
But we can have success! We’ve seen it in California: In California we made a decision that we would go back to the 1990 standards in terms of emissions by the year 2020 and we’ve already met those goals. This can happen. We can do it! But there has to be leadership in our country, and that is one of the main reasons we need a new president of the United States.
Gov. John Hickenlooper
With a divided legislature, we brought environmentalists and oil and gas companies to the table to create the toughest methane emissions laws in the country.
When I was mayor [of Denver] I got all 34 [suburban] mayors, two-thirds of them Republicans or conservative Independents, 34 mayors to universally support the largest transit initiative in the history of the country. We called it FasTracks, 122 miles of new track. I mean that’s how you address climate change!
We have also gone and worked with 10 western states, six Republican, four Democratic, to take some of the Volkswagen diesel fraud settlement money and put it towards rapid recharging electric vehicle stations in a western network so there wouldn’t be gaps and we’d really foster people buying electric vehicles. We also a year ago announced for the first time in the country’s history that we were going to close two coal plants and replace it with wind, solar, and batteries. And in so doing, no natural gas for the times when the wind isn’t blowing, with those batteries and the wind and the solar, we’ll close two coal plants and the average electric bill for the consumers is going to go down.
Opposes GND.
The [Green New Deal] resolution sets unachievable goals. We do not yet have the technology needed to reach ‘net-zero greenhouse gas emissions’ in 10 years. That’s why many wind and solar companies don’t support it. There is no clean substitute for jet fuel. Electric vehicles are growing quickly, yet are still in their infancy. Manufacturing industries such as steel and chemicals, which account for almost as much carbon emissions as transportation, are even harder to decarbonize…. In addition to technological barriers, the Ocasio-Cortez-Markey resolution sets the Green New Deal up for failure by shifting away from private decision-making and toward the public sector — including multiple provisions with little connection to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- In 2017 Hickenlooper signed an executive order requiring his state to cut greenhouse gas emissions 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. He also signed Colorado up to the U.S. Climate Alliance and has helped turn Colorado into a national leader on electric vehicles.
- He has defended fracking to produce natural gas. At an event on June 14, 2018, co-hosted by E2, Hickenlooper claimed natural gas was going to be essential for helping lift people around the world out of poverty.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar
…in the first 100 days of my administration I will reinstate the clean power rules, the gas mileage standards, and put forth sweeping legislation to invest in green jobs and infrastructure. And on day one, we will rejoin the international climate agreement.
Co-sponsor of GND.
On March 28, Klobuchar released her first major policy proposal: a massive infrastructure package that includes a climate change component. “Amy’s plan makes a down payment on transforming our economy from one reliant on fossil fuels to one that depends on clean energy,” her campaign’s press release says. “That means sweeping legislation that invests in green infrastructure, modernizes our aging energy infrastructure so that it is secure and efficient, strengthens bioenergy capabilities, puts incentives in place to overhaul our building codes, and invests in energy efficiency retrofits and rural renewable energy development. Amy will also help states and cities plan for the impacts of climate change by building stronger, more resilient transportation networks and public infrastructure to withstand rising sea levels, a changing climate, and extreme weather. This means good-paying jobs for people across the country, investments that ensure cleaner and greener communities and workplaces, and a commitment to doing something real about climate change.”
Rep. Seth Moulton
Endorsed GND.
Announcement video:
His vision for the country “starts with growing our economy with the new jobs, the green jobs, the tech jobs, the advanced manufacturing jobs that are going to make us the world leader in the next century.” His national security agenda “starts with tackling climate change and making sure we have a planet without an expiration date.”
Op-ed published on March 29 in the Des Moines Register
A successful Green New Deal will have many dimensions, and Iowa already leads the nation in one: renewable energy. But let me suggest two more that can start now and start here in Iowa: Federal Green Corps and carbon farming….The federal Green Corps would create an optional path for Americans to spend two years serving our country. It could retrofit our buildings with insulation to lower heating and air-conditioning bills, an… would focus on projects like reinforcing our levees to protect from future floods….
Carbon farming is even simpler: when farmers harvest crops, Congress should give them a subsidy to plant cover crops and not till their fields. This will take carbon out of the air and capture it underground, reducing the carbon in our atmosphere. And it can help farmers maintain their land, protecting against erosion and enriching their soil.
These two steps won’t solve our climate and economic challenges alone, but they’re a good start.
Rep. Tim Ryan
…wind and solar growing at 25-30% a year; electric vehicles, there’s two million made today, by 2030 there’s going to be 30 million electric vehicles. I want those vehicles made in the United States, I want the batteries made in the United States, I want the charging stations made in the United States, and right now China dominates 40% of the electric vehicle market…
Huge lack of imagination. If you don’t want imports, you don’t get exports.
Partly supports GND.
I don’t think we can get to a green economy, a carbon-neutral economy without having an honest conversation about nuclear energy.
Honest, you say? OK.
Nukes cost too much, including lamentably predictable cost overruns, are too inflexible, and produce gobs of dangerous waste. Any new nuclear technology will get through regulatory approval and lamentably predictable construction delays to come to market too late for this emergency. But we can keep the ones we have until all of the coal, oil, and gas are gone. If thorium or fusion turn out to be cheap after that, we can discuss how they compare with sun, wind, and water. Or we could consider using thorium molten salt technology to burn up weapons-grade uranium and plutonium.
Talk to people about how the GND means jobs.
Well, OK on that part.
Sen. Bernie Sanders
I’m running for president because we need to make policy decisions based on science, not politics. We need a president who understands that climate change is real, is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet, and that we can generate massive job creation by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
We have a moral responsibility in my view to transform our energy system and leave this planet healthy and habitable for our children and our grandchildren. And by the way, when we do that we create millions of good paying jobs…. In my city of Burlington Vermont, which is the largest city in the state of Vermont, I believe that all of our energy is now renewable. That’s something that I started way back when I was mayor, and other cities are doing the same! But here is the point, I happen to believe that we should phase out, not eliminate it tomorrow, but phase out nuclear power plants.
Combat Climate Change and Pass a Green New Deal
- Pass a Green New Deal to save American families money and generate millions of jobs by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100% energy efficiency and sustainable energy. A Green New Deal will protect workers and the communities in which they live to ensure a transition to family-sustaining wage, union jobs.
- Invest in infrastructure and programs to protect the frontline communities most vulnerable to extreme climate impacts like wildfires, sea level rise, drought, floods, and extreme weather like hurricanes.
- Reduce carbon pollution emissions from our transportation system by building out high-speed passenger rail, electric vehicles, and public transit.
- Ban fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure and keep oil, gas, and coal in the ground by banning fossil fuel leases on public lands.
- End exports of coal, natural gas, and crude oil.
Co-sponsor of GND.
Has introduced, co-sponsored, or recommended several other climate-related bills.
Rep. Eric Swalwell
Co-sponsor of GND.
Most Americans agree that to address climate chaos, to make sure your house doesn’t end up underwater or on fire, we should do something about it but make sure that we’re not pitting workers against their job…If you’re a worker who is on a [gas or oil] pipeline, you should have a skills and wage guarantee as you transition from dirty fossil fuels to a green economy.
Climate chaos is the existential threat facing our planet and our very lives. But here’s the good news: fixing it will allow us to seize upon a massive economic opportunity.
Now you’re talking. But coal miners are not listening. They regularly turn down retraining opportunities in favor of the Trump coal cargo cult.
And for the first time in history, businesses can now make more profit from the solution than they can make from deepening the problem. So let’s invest in those, set high labor standards, and make sure that climate change and climate chaos no longer starts an argument, it just starts a lot of people’s workdays.
On April 1, he led 140 members of Congress in asking the Appropriations committee to increase funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to at least $2.6 billion in 2020. “EERE plays a key role in advancing America’s ‘all of the above’ energy strategy,” he wrote, adding that “an overreliance on a limited range of fuel technologies and finite resources is short sighted – our strength lays in our ability to transition to new, cleaner, more sustainable and more innovative sources of energy.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Co-sponsor of GND.
Her campaign announced
Senator Warren has been a longtime advocate of aggressively addressing climate change and shifting toward renewables, and supports the idea of a Green New Deal to ambitiously tackle our climate crisis, economic inequality, and racial injustice.
She said
Stop stalling on spending money, real money, on infrastructure, on clean energy and a Green New Deal!
Any serious effort to address climate change must include public lands — fossil fuel extraction in these areas is responsible for nearly a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The Trump administration, with its casual denial of science and apparent amnesia about massive crises like the BP oil spill, has also proposed opening nearly the entire U.S. coastline to seismic testing and offshore drilling. It is wrong to prioritize corporate profits over the health and safety of our local communities.
That’s why on my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that says no more drilling.
As President, I will set a goal of providing 10% of our overall electricity generation from renewable sources offshore or on public lands. That’s nearly ten times what we are currently generating.
Warren co-sponsored Jeff Merkley’s “Keep It In the Ground Act” in 2015 and 2017.
Republican Former Gov. William Weld
and former Libertarian candidate for VP.
In his announcement that he will be mounting a primary challenge to Donald Trump, Weld cited climate change among his many reasons for entering the race.
In announcing his exploratory committee, Weld said
With respect to the environment and climate change, the approach of the current administration is antithetical to every principle of conservation and conservatism, and every tenet of Theodore Roosevelt’s Grand Old Party. Whether it’s as protection of a fragile ecosystem or as stewardship of God’s creation, take your choice, there’s a pressing need to act on climate change. The United States must rejoin the Paris climate accords and adopt targets consistent with those of other industrialized nations.
No specific proposals.
Sen. Michael Bennet
Fighting Climate Change while Growing the Economy
In 2017, he cast the deciding vote that kept in place standards to reduce methane emissions on public lands, which harm Colorado’s air quality. He fought sweeping rollbacks of climate policies—including the Paris Agreement, Clean Power Plan, and fuel economy standards—and opposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget. He also led an effort to standardize the metric that federal agencies use to measure the cost of climate pollution.
Bennet, Colleagues Launch New Senate Democratic Special Committee on the Climate Crisis
Washington, D.C. — Following Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to create a bipartisan committee on climate change, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, with ten Democratic colleagues, today established a new Senate Special Committee on the Climate Crisis.
“For many reasons—most of all, the corruption of money in our politics—Republicans in Washington refuse to treat climate change as a serious issue,” Bennet said. “Our children’s future can’t become another casualty of Washington’s mindless partisanship. We need to construct enduring solutions to climate change, and this committee is a step forward in accomplishing that goal.”
The Committee will be tasked with investigating, holding hearings, and issuing findings on the economic and national security consequences of climate change. It also will explore how acting on the climate crisis presents significant opportunities for jobs, public health, and the economy. The Committee will work with environmental, financial, and national security experts to find solutions for communities impacted by climate change and provide oversight of special interests that foster climate denial.
U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) will chair the committee, and in addition to Bennet, members include U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), and Tina Smith (D-MN).
What about the other Senate candidates?
The Chillun Do Got Plans!
Children's books about climate change
How can one talk to children about climate change in a way that empowers them to act rather than paralyzes them with fear?
This one looks particularly helpful.
How We Know What We Know about Our Changing Climate, by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch (Dawn Publications 2008/2010, 66 pages, $11.99 paperback)
When the weather changes daily, how do we really know that Earth’s climate is changing? Here is the science behind the headlines – evidence from flowers, butterflies, birds, frogs, trees, glaciers and much more, gathered by scientists from all over the world, sometimes with assistance from young “citizen-scientists.”
The grown-ups with the biggest spikes in environmental worry were conservatives, fathers and parents of daughters
Children Change Their Parents’ Minds about Climate Change
Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg became famous this spring for launching a student movement to compel adults to take action on climate change. Instead of going to school, Greta has been spending her Fridays in front of the Swedish parliament with a sign reading: “School Strike for Climate.” Students in more than 70 countries have since followed her lead. But before she started trying to convince the world to take action, Thunberg worked on her parents. She showered them with facts and showed them documentaries. “After a while, they started listening to what I actually said,” Thunberg told the Guardian newspaper. “That’s when I realized I could make a difference.”
Meanwhile
Meteor Blades: Open thread for night owls: 200+ groups ask Senate not to lock us into fossil fuel dependence
More than 200 national climate action groups on Thursday demanded that the Senate stop the passage of a bill that would serve to keep both Europe and the U.S. dependent on fossil fuels for decades to come—as millions around the world have marched in recent months to demand that governments rapidly shift away from carbon-emitting energy sources.
Passed by the House in March,
HR 1453 is in committee, where it will die. HR 1616 passed overwhelmingly, with Progressives not voting either way.
the European Energy Security and Diversification Act of 2019 (S. 704) would provide billions of dollars in support for natural gas infrastructure projects, propping up fossil fuel industries and leading to fracking projects in the U.S.—undercutting the goals of climate campaigners who are demanding that all industrialized countries move toward renewable energy systems.
Congress.gov: H.R.1453 - European Energy Security and Diversification Act of 2019
Rep. Kinzinger, Adam [R-IL-16] (Introduced 02/28/2019)
House - 02/28/2019 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. (All Actions)
Food and Water Watch:
Letter: Oppose S. 704 (European Energy Security and Diversification Act of 2019)
It includes the full list of those organizations. Feel free to thank them.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 · 12:07:37 AM +00:00 · Mokurai
Exclusive: Presidential hopeful Biden looking for ‘middle ground’ climate policy
The backbone of the policy will likely include the United States re-joining the Paris Climate Agreement and preserving U.S. regulations on emissions and vehicle fuel efficiency that Trump has sought to undo, according to one of the sources, Heather Zichal, who is part of a team advising Biden on climate change. She previously advised President Barack Obama.
The second source, a former energy department official advising Biden’s campaign who asked not to be named, said the policy could also be supportive of nuclear energy and fossil fuel options like natural gas and carbon capture technology, which limit emissions from coal plants and other industrial facilities.
“I respect where they (activist groups) are coming from,” Zichal said. “What we learned from the Obama administration is unless we find middle ground on these issues, we risk not having any policies.”
Moniz, who declined to comment, co-wrote an op-ed published by CNBC in March with a Bush administration official calling for a “Green Real Deal,” an alternative to the Green New Deal that calls for increased energy efficiency, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage technology to drive down emissions alongside renewable energy. He has said achieving a zero-carbon target by 2030 is impossible.
Reuters states in this story that
A recent CNN poll showed that climate change is the top issue for Democratic voters.
without giving a link. Here is the story from The Hill.
Poll: Climate change is top issue for registered Democrats
CNN poll by SSRS, results (PDF).
Polls of this kind are bogus. For example, gerrymanders and voter suppression were not asked about, and the climate number was only a few points above health care.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 · 3:56:24 PM +00:00 · Mokurai
Yet another Democratic candidate announces: Montana Governor Steve Bullock.
Steve Bullock on the issues, in under 500 words
Climate change: Bullock has taken a business approach to climate change and clean energy. He adopted the "Blueprint for Montana’s Energy Future" in 2016 with the goal of pushing the state toward more renewable energy, creating new jobs and providing a tax incentive for those who comply.
Pro-renewables, pro-efficiency, and pro-storage, but also pro-coal and pro-oil. Wants to expand the electricity grid to get power from places where it can be generated renewably, such as Montana, to population centers where it is needed, but also wants to export coal power.
Lowering tax rates for new pollution control equipment, providing tax incentives for enhanced oil recovery, and carbon capture and sequestration, and supporting legislation that recognized the incidental carbon storage associated with enhanced oil recovery.
Pursuing opportunities for new technologies to allow our coal plants to generate energy with less pollution.
Fuggedaboudit. Switch Montana coal plants to gas until you can build out wind, solar, and geothermal. Like California. Just do it.
Bullock supports bogus carbon capture to provide CO2 for "enhanced oil recovery".
Tuesday, Jun 4, 2019 · 7:54:15 PM +00:00
·
Mokurai
Biden issues climate plan [hint: the plan's details aren't what matters]
While there are many (good, okay, and, sigh, bad) details, angles, and elements to Biden’s plan to address the climate crisis, that isn’t what is most important. What is, to steal the words from Oil Change USA’s David Turnbull, is important
is the recognition that climate change is the defining issue of the 2020 election.
The climate crisis has arrived not just in our backyards, but in our politics