Its that time once again dear friends, for the Monday Good News Roundup, where we look at all the good news to get your week off to the start it deserves. Brought to you by your GNR newsroom (Myself, Killer300 and Bhu). We got lots of good news this week so lets get right to it.
So he took her advice, volunteering with advocacy nonprofits Citizens’ Climate Lobby and the League of Women Voters and throwing himself into decarbonizing their family’s home. In the years since, Smillie has replaced most of the home’s single-pane windows with double-pane ones, sealed ducts, added insulation to the attic, and installed a heat-pump water heater and a heat-pump air conditioner/heater — steps that together have enabled them to slash fossil gas use by 84 percent and their home’s calculated CO2 emissions by 46 percent.
Smillie, who lives in the 16,000-person town of Crawfordsville, Indiana, had also initially considered getting solar panels, but his roof stymied him. The home’s dormer windows take up too much roof space and would shade the panels, rendering them far less efficient.
As he looked around at other buildings in his neighborhood, it struck him that he could still install solar panels — just not on his own roof.
The Montgomery County Youth Service Bureau was located right down the street and had a flat roof that was perfect for solar. He pitched the idea to the nonprofit’s executive director Karen Branch and offered to donate $30,000 — the amount he’d have spent on a solar array for his own house — to help the organization solarize.
Always look for the helpers.
On the last Friday of summer break, Stacy Davis Gates was in high spirits. At a back-to-school party in the parking lot of Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) headquarters, she bounced from one group to another, smiling as she posed for photos with alderpersons, union activists, parents and children.
Davis Gates, who has been the president of the CTU for a little over a year, has good reason to be happy. In April, Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher and CTU organizer, was elected mayor. And Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez, who often mentions that he’s a product of CPS, was also at the party, beaming and shaking hands.
For once, it seems the teachers union, CPS’s C-suite, and the fifth floor of City Hall are in some kind of alignment. In Chicago — where past mayors have warred openly with teachers and the union has gone on strike more times than the Bulls have won a championship — that’s no small miracle.
After the event, Davis Gates sat down with the Weekly for an interview that touched on the new political atmosphere, the challenges the school district still faces, and her hopes for the city and the new administration. What follows has been edited for clarity and length.
Even in mid September the summer of labor is going strong.
EW YORK CITY — Anyone perusing Twitter or reading the works of Karl Marx will notice that socialists can get fractious with one another. But as one hardworking ecosocialist leader in the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) will tell you, an existential threat to humanity like climate change can bring people together. “It’s not like we’re debating about Lenin,” Charlie Heller joked over coffee in June (though he acknowledged his comrades did have diverse perspectives on Lenin).
“Something about being focused on climate makes you crazy in a unique way,” Heller says. “We are here to win and we have to seize the power of the state, because nothing else can address this global crisis at a scale that can match it.”
Heller was reflecting on a major ecosocialist victory, a phrase that would have seemed oxymoronic five years ago. That victory was New York state’s Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), a big step toward a Green New Deal. While other states have taken steps as well — Illinois’ 2021 labor-led Climate and Equitable Jobs Act comes to mind — New York is the first state to do so in a way that explicitly rejects the neoliberal obligation to put corporate profits first. Instead, the BPRA puts the publicly owned New York Power Authority in charge of building renewable energy with a mandate to do so in the interest of working people.
We keep winning when it comes to the environment, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
Not only do heat pumps function in freezing temperatures — they work far more efficiently than fossil-fuel heating systems in the cold.
That’s according to a team of researchers in Europe affiliated with the independent nonprofit Regulatory Assistance Project. They published a study in Joule this week that provides yet more evidence to debunk the myth that heat pumps can’t handle cold climates.
Electric heat pumps both heat and cool indoor spaces by moving warmth into or out of them as needed. And while global sales grew by 11 percent in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency, heat pumps still only account for about a tenth of the world’s building heating. To achieve the Paris Agreement’s target of net-zero emissions by 2050, heat pumps will need to replace far more fossil-fuel boilers and furnaces — including in places with frigid winters.
Heat Pumps sound really cool, sadly my dad says they are too expensive to install at our apartment building. Ah well, maybe someday.
A battery storage development is replacing a fossil-fuel-burning power plant in western Massachusetts, providing a model that supporters say could be emulated elsewhere.
The project is only financially viable, however, because of a unique state incentive program designed to cut emissions related to peak electricity demand.
Power company Cogentrix is developing the facility at the site of the former West Springfield Generating Station, which was shut down in June 2022. The $80 million project includes 45 megawatts of storage that will be able to send electricity to the grid for up to four hours. It is expected to come online sometime in 2025.
Yet more good environment news.
White mainline Protestant clergy are more supportive of LGBTQ rights, abortion rights and racial justice than their congregations, according to a new survey that reflects how political divisions are roiling many American churches.
Why it matters: The survey by the Public Religion Research Institute is the latest indication of why disagreements over social issues have rippled through many congregations — often leading to "political church shopping" and increasingly polarized views of religion.
I know that there is a stereotype that Christians are a bunch of bigoted fanatics, but trust me that’s just a small minority of us.
Its that time again friend, for another GNR Lightning round
What could go right? As safe as walking
Golden eagles in Scotland are at highest levels in 300 years
Ozempic may let type 1 diabetes patients skip insulin
Smart thermostats are helping Arizona grid ride out brutal heat
How Guatemalans are mobilizing to defend their fragile democracy
Banned books in Georgia face protests from students and community members
The Democratic party’s strong 2023 performance matters a lot
I think that’s good enough for this lightning round. Back to regular good news.
I stopped my cargo ebike and surveyed the vast “menu” of healthy produce, and briefly talked up the wonderful young woman who fulfilled my order of spinach, portabella mushrooms, and carrots. My total came to $6.50, far less than I would have paid at my local Wegmans or Tops market.
In Rochester and cities across our country, “food deserts” (low-income communities that don’t have access to healthy, sustainable food such as fresh produce) are far too common. Approximately one-quarter of all Rochester residents do not own a car, most for financial reasons, and thus do not have convenient or reliable access to a grocery store. Foodlink’s Curbside Market program works to fill that gap, selling $300,000 worth of healthy food to underserved communities annually, according to their website.
My wife and I are privileged to have easy access to healthy food, but so many in our community and our country are not so fortunate. Through the Curbside Market program and countless other ways, Foodlink is tirelessly working to bridge this despairity by providing convenient access to healthy foods for families across our region.
This is neat, and its happening right in my own proverbial backyard.
Workers walked off their shifts on September 14 at midnight to cheering crowds as the United Auto Workers launched its first simultaneous strike against the “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The initial work stoppages were not company-wide but instead targeted three locations: GM’s Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, and Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., just outside Detroit. The plants employ some 12,700 of the roughly 150,000 UAW members who work for the Big Three.
The strike strategy, developed under the leadership of reform challenger Shawn Fain, was defined by its element of surprise. The union did not publicly reveal the strike targets until 10:00 p.m. on September 14, two hours before the contracts jointly expired. The UAW calls this approach a “stand-up strike,” which is “a new approach to striking. Instead of striking all plants all at once, select locals will be called on to ‘stand up’ and walk out on strike.”
Yep, the big strike happening recently. Hope things go well for them.
hree years ago, anybody constructing a building in most parts of St. Paul or Minneapolis would have had to deal with a long set of parking requirements. These requirements ranged from seemingly reasonable (though arbitrary) to fully absurd.
St. Paul, for example, required an apartment building to have one parking space for each 1- or 2-bedroom unit, but more parking for bigger units. Meanwhile, St. Paul golf courses would need four parking spaces per hole, but their mini golf courses would need just one space per hole.
Today, these rules are gloriously gone: if you’re constructing a new building, you can build as few parking spaces as you deem prudent. In 2021, both St. Paul and Minneapolis voted to fully eliminate minimum parking requirements from their zoning codes.
By ending strict minimum parking requirements, the Twin Cities have been able to improve both housing affordability and our urban form. Based on evidence both local and from across the country, it’s becoming clear that this is a winning policy choice.
Here at the Monday GNR, we hate minimum parking requirements, and are glad to see them gone.
Speaking of parking, its time for me to bring this GNR into harbor. We’ll see yo u all next week.
