17 Burst results for "Evergreen Action"
WABE 90.1 FM
"evergreen action" Discussed on WABE 90.1 FM
"U.S. senators have blocked attempts to address it holistically. In 1994, senator Robert Byrd Democrat from West Virginia opposed president Clinton's plans for a national tax on energy based on output or BTUs. A few years later, bird and Chuck Hagel, Republican from Oklahoma, basically killed U.S. ratification of the Kyoto protocol. In 2009, president Obama and House speaker Nancy Pelosi got a comprehensive climate and energy bill through the house, only to see it die in the Senate. A few years later, the Paris climate agreement was structured as a voluntary deal, not a treaty, so it would not have to be ratified by the U.S. Senate. That streak seemed to be continuing when last month senator Joe Manchin announced he was no longer negotiating on a slim down version of President Biden's build back better agenda. Two weeks later, senator Manchin and majority leader Chuck Schumer shocked everyone when they announced a surprise deal on energy, taxes and healthcare. Now for the first time in history, the U.S. Senate has passed significant climate legislation. For those of us who've been following the growing climate crisis for years, the last month has been an especially wild emotional intense roller coaster ride. Chelsea Henderson as director of editorial content at republic EN and a former staffer on the Senate environment and public works committee. She worked for John Warner, Republican senator from Virginia when he attempted to enact climate legislation. Sam ricketts's cofounder of evergreen action and former adviser to Jay inslee's presidential campaign. Benicio Albert is co executive director of the climate justice alliance, and previously the movement building coordinator with the indigenous environmental network. To get through the Senate, the bill offered a lot of carrots to the fossil fuel and renewable power industries. I asked Sam ricketts how that all balances out. The inflation reduction act contains approximately $370 billion of investments in clean energy and climate solutions in the electricity sector in sustainable agriculture and forestry advanced in clean manufacturing and industrial decarbonization and clean and more efficient buildings and building appliances. And otherwise, and let your vehicles and transportation decarbonization. Those investments would help achieve based on modeling for a number of analyses and approximate 40% reduction in greenhouse gas pollution below 2005 levels by 2030, which begins the path towards President Biden's goal of cutting carbon and greenhouse gas pollution in half across the country across the economy under 2005 levels by 2030. Commitment is a 50% reduction in this bill will help achieve a 40% reduction most of the way there. That said, the bill is a compromise. I'm negotiating a result of a long painstaking and difficult negotiation between senator Schumer, senator Manchin and others involved in the Congress. And as such, it contains bad provisions, provisions that are going to harm Chinese provisions that will contribute more pollution more greenhouse gas pollution. Certainly, the analyses we've seen from some of the modelers show the climate pollution reductions associated with climate pollution additions from fossil fuel pieces that they'll be outweighing them by about 24 to one. So significant reductions in climate pollution. But really importantly, these provisions offered included in the bill by senator Manchin are not just bad because of their climate pollution. They're bad because of the direct pollution that it will impact communities. They're bad because of the fossil fuel extraction that has been ongoing in harming these communities, particularly in the provisions we're talking about. We're going to be dealing with particularly in the gulf south and then the Arctic and Alaska, but other parts of the country as well. And these provisions will continue harms and not alleviate environmental injustices and environmental race and racism that has been ongoing for decades. And so we need to hold both of those truths at this time that this is a historic bill with transformative investments that are going to drive down climate pollution that are going to get a chance to put real economic opportunity and pollution reductions in the communities create good jobs and begin to address the climate crisis at the scale that's necessary. But it also that there's going to be the continuation of extraction and pollution and the work of fossil fuel industries that will continue to harm communities. And those things both need to be held at this important moment. Benigni what good, bad and ugly, do you see in the energy and climate provisions of this big Bill? The way the way that our political system works is communities elect leaders to make these decisions. But also with the intention is that there's a direct relationship to those communities. But I say intention because the practice is not always the same, right? And so, you know, you have a bill like this that has a lot of what could reduce greenhouse gases and what's there, but is also devoid of real relationship to the communities who are being directly impacted. We call those frontline communities and frontline being those who are dealing with the harms of the climate crisis and have been dealing with them for decades. Those in the gulf south, folks who are dealing with extreme drought, wildfires. These are accumulation of impacts of climate change and communities have been dealing with them for a long time. Additionally, those communities who live along the fence line of polluting industries. We also call frontline communities. Those frontline communities in our political process often don't get consulted. There's pockets that happen every now and then. But by and far, what is there is devoid of rural community input of here's how this can be helpful for us. So I'll say I'll say that first. In terms of the harms, even though there's plenty of stuff there, that climate justice environmental justice communities have long fought for. There's also a lot of stuff that just makes it easier for further expansion of oil and gas development that ties some renewable energy development to oil and gas expansion. And then there's other things in there that are technologies that are about reducing greenhouse gases. But a lot of times we call some of those solutions false solutions and we have real criticism about some of those. Nuclear is in there as a clean carbon free energy source, but nuclear is not clean. It's not clean from its whole life cycle from mining to production to how it uses the energy to the storage of its waste. Like the lifetime of nuclear and its harms to community far spans our generation, you know, some of those spent fuel rods are going to remain toxic for hundreds of years beyond this moment beyond this generation. So to tell that that's a clean energy source and to prop that up, it's greatly concerning to us. So it's not transformative, it perpetuates a lot of the power dynamics and things that define our political system. Chelsea, much of the serious debate around climate policy centers on the tools should we use government regulation, tax incentive, you know, markets, risk exposure, kind of carrots and sticks. What does this bill rely on? Well, obviously this bill makes a historic investment with
KOMO
"evergreen action" Discussed on KOMO
"The first time Medicare will be allowed to negotiate lower prescription drug costs. Tapping the out of pocket costs of prescription drugs on Medicare part D at $2000, which is huge. And create 9 million jobs over the next ten years. Jamal rod runs evergreen action. And it stands to supercharge our transition to a clean energy economy. Feeding this in part is a 15% tax on the largest corporations, and to drop in the national deficit by $300 billion. John lumberton, northwest news radio. Congresswoman Kim schreier was in Tacoma today visiting a business business ravaged by supply chain delays and computer chip shortages, the new chips act which now clears the deck for more chip making in the U.S., came with the support of both Democrats and Republicans. We had a very compelling meeting with the secretary of commerce, who painted a very clear picture of what will happen if we don't manufacture these at home in our military is dependent on microchips. The chips act is designed to free the U.S. from its dependence on countries like Taiwan. Tim Iman, who has been found liable for years of violations of Washington's campaign finance laws and was fined millions in 2021 is now required to sell his share of his house to pay down his debts. I'm in the state of Washington agreed to do the resolution this week, to this point I'm in has paid a little more than a half a $1 million toward his judgment and currently owes an additional 5 and a half million. Word of Brittany grinder's 9 year sentence in a Russian prison for drug smuggling has saddened but galvanized her fellow WNBA players, Ryan Harris has reaction. And it doesn't end my life here. Britney grinder's words from behind bars in a Russian courtroom echo through the WNBA, including among Seattle storm players. Sue bird calls the sentence and griner statement heartbreaking and unjust, and she says the team and the league have been there to help them cope. I think everyone's done a really good job, whether it's our union, here with the storm franchise of just expressing their support for us, but also if they'll do whatever is needed to help Britney get home. In a previous interview, Brianna Stewart told me about the worry she has for her friend and Russian and Olympic teammate. For her to be there
TIME's Top Stories
"evergreen action" Discussed on TIME's Top Stories
"We have the technology to solve climate change. What we need is political will by Alejandro de la Garza. Decades ago, the state of California tried to strike a major blow against climate change, and failed. The state passed an ambitious rule in 1990, mandating car companies slowly begin replacing their offerings with electric vehicles. But in 2002 the state backed off the policy. Part of the reason was political, car companies aided by the Bush administration were fighting the state every step of the way. But the EVs of the day also weren't very good. The industry's best offerings could barely get 80 miles on a single charge. We've come a long way since then. Today's EVs work great and so does the rest of the widely available tech, renewables, battery storage, heat pumps, insulation, needed to claw our way out of our climate mass. The reason for the current absence of climate action, that is, our world leaders stupefying infuriating and utterly senseless fossil fuel suicide pact has very little to do with the need for further technological innovation. Rather, according to the most recent IPCC climate change report published this week, the blame falls more on a consistent lack of political will, financial institutions failure to disinvest from fossil fuels, and the enduring power of the entrenched interests dedicated to pulling every last barrel of oil and bucket of coal from the earth. I ride on technology and climate change. For me and others tasked with reporting on our current crisis and the systems we have to solve it, it's important to get our framing right. Though the newest flashiest technologies still under development are interesting, they aren't necessarily the most important. The fact of the matter, according to the world's leading climate scientists, is that the decarbonization tools we have right now are cheap and work well. The price of solar energy has fallen 85% since 2010, while wind power is half as expensive, and at this point we simply don't have time to wait around for technology that isn't ready now. We have to reach a peak no later than 2025 in our greenhouse gas emissions, says Tom Evans, a researcher at climate think tank E three G all of those technologies that are speculative, they are untested and untried. They're not going to be able to deliver in that time frame. The most urgent problem is getting politicians and businesses to quickly scale up the technologies we already have in order to make immediate emissions cuts and keep global warming from spiraling out of control. But you might not necessarily hear that. And much of the public conversation around climate change these days, reporters often write about nascent technologies like machines to suck carbon out of the air as fix it for climate change. Climate investors like actor Robert Downey Jr. make ridiculous claims that such technologies are just as important as immediately scaling up proven widely available renewable energy solutions, and politicians like democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin kill policies that would dramatically expand the rollout of green energy while simultaneously throwing billions of dollars at controversial unproven technologies, like blue hydrogen. That's not to say all these technologies are useless, or unworthy of investment, carbon removal tech, for instance, will likely be needed to offset hard to decarbonize industries like aviation. But we can't characterize the climate crisis as a technology problem to be solved by scrappy innovators and climate VC funds if their solutions won't be ready until long after our deadlines to cut emissions have come and gone. Such framings make it sound like it's okay if we blow past the atmosphere's carbon thresholds and simply hope that technologies like carbon capture or fission energy will help us rein in the problem later. An insanely risky gamble over the fate of human civilization. They also tend to play into the hands of industries that seek to use techno fixes as a distraction from real climate action. Shell, for instance, has promoted efforts to develop brand new decarbonization technologies, while simultaneously funding ad blitzes to oppose legislation that would deliver near term emissions cuts. Instead, says Jamal rad, director of climate advocacy group evergreen action. We need to keep our focus on the policy realm where in the U.S. we're at a make or break moment to ram through legislation to scale up current green technologies and cut emissions on the timescales science demands. He says, I understand more than anyone, as someone who's worked in politics for 15 years, that it's messy and gross. People would like to think that there's a way that you can skip it to solve problems. But unfortunately, you can not. For someone who writes on technology, it's not necessarily fun to hear that scientific progress isn't enough, that the world's fate relies on politicians. But considering how far behind we are in the race to decarbonize the world and how our leaders seem unwilling or unable to go up against vested fossil fuel interests to fix the problem, we need to be honest with ourselves. Scientists and engineers have already created the technologies that can save us. What we need now is the courage to use them..
WABE 90.1 FM
"evergreen action" Discussed on WABE 90.1 FM
"Prominence in a presidential campaign in 2012 and 16 It was basically invisible during the campaign In addition to really bringing climate to the center of the agenda and really getting some of those ideas and people into the Biden campaign I think one of inslee's lasting contributions was the brain trust from his campaign that formed evergreen action of policy advocacy group that is influencing policy today Long after the presidential campaign of Jay inslee has ended But just as the situation in Washington state shifted enough for inslee to get his legislation through on the state level on the national level we did see President Biden kicking off his term with a flurry of climate friendly executive orders and probably most significantly were the people he brought into his administration really brought the a team Right because personnel is policy right Yeah he brought back some veterans John Kerry Gina McCarthy plus voices and players Michael Regan the first black man to head U.S. EPA and Deb haaland major deal the first Native American secretary of the interior presiding over an agency that has done a lot of terrible things to indigenous people in our history And on the legislative front we just saw the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure deal Yeah let's talk about how big of a deal this new infrastructure law could be for climate There's still a lot more money for highways than for climate friendly initiatives We've got about a 110 billion of new spending for highways roads and bridges and only $39 billion for public transit But there's 65 billion for a great upgrades which will help renewables some of which will go into EVs $7 billion for EV charging and 47 billion for climate resilience for the first time and 66 billion for rail But a lot of how all this money will be spent is up to the states so the actual impact on climate isn't baked in Let's listen to a bit of our recent episode on this You had a conversation with Carla frisch principal deputy director of the office of policy at the U.S. Department of Energy Sasha mackler executive director of the energy project at the bipartisan policy center and Beth Osborne director of transportation for America Right I started by asking Sasha mackler how big a deal is the long awaited infrastructure act This is a really big deal Not only for energy and climate but for the infrastructure system and for the larger for the economy generally here in the U.S. we've been waiting for I would say more than 20 years for an infrastructure Bill it seems like every week has been infrastructure week for a very long time And we finally got this bill across the finish line And it really does represent a step change in our public commitment to many parts of the economy but especially for climate change Beth Osbourne you issued a statement after passage of the infrastructure act saying quote it will fail to produce meaningful shifts on climate and equity Why do you say that Well the change in the bill on the vehicle side is wonderful and exciting But it's very status quo on the transportation program It has taken a decades old transportation program that's produced very poor results in both equity and climate but also in safety in terms of building local economies in terms of dividing usually black and brown communities in terms of giving people equitable access to jobs and services in terms of costing people a lot of money It's performed very poorly in all of those areas and we're hoping for a different result from basically the same programs Now that's going to depend on exactly how aggressive USD OT is using in using their administrative capacity and authority And it's also going to depend on how much each of the 50 states wishes to change their behavior and investment So Carla I recognize you are with the Department of Energy not the Department of Transportation but can you respond to what Beth says there One thing Beth is pointing out is this is one step of investment The second piece is the build back better act And that includes additional investments But today I think we're talking about the bipartisan infrastructure law And I will point out it makes the largest federal investment in public transit in history and the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak and really significant investments in EV both the charging and also at DOE on the supply chain for electric vehicles Beth Osbourne your organization says that states often choose to spend federal dollars on expansion over highway repair It's more appealing for a politician to cut a ribbon or point to a new highway than it is to repair bridge Is this time any different Is there going to be a bias toward expansion over repair I certainly think we can all hope that everybody woke up the morning of the signing of the bill and was transformed by the hope for the future but in my experience they need a little bit of a push in that direction And this bill offers none In fact this effort rejected an effort on the house side to say that before a state could build new capacity They had to demonstrate they had a plan for maintaining it along with the rest of their system We require that on the transit side on the highway side we have and we continue to allow a state to say we have no idea how we'll maintain it and we're going to give up on other pieces of infrastructure And that has been maintained The fact of the matter is that this and approach to transportation will invest a historic amount of money and transit and the historic amount in highways in a 1950s approach has never produced the results that we are hoping for We really need to invest according to a goal or an outcome not just according to pouring amounts of money in individual pots That's not how people travel And the climate gods will not care that this was a historic amount of transit funding if the historic amount of highway funding results.
The Argument
"evergreen action" Discussed on The Argument
"Facebook leads the industry in stopping bad actors online. That's because they've invested $13 billion in teams and technology to enhance safety over the last 5 years. It's working. In just the past few months, they've taken down 1.7 billion fake accounts to stop bad actors from doing harm, but working to reduce harmful and illicit content on their platforms is never done. Learn more about how they're helping people connect and share safely at about dot FB dot com slash safety. My name is yandi come off it. I develop recipes for New York Times cooking. My Thanksgiving is a little Nigerian and a little American. I don't really make a Turkey. I don't know if I should say that out loud. I'm excited to share a bunch of Thanksgiving dishes with you. Like this incredible cornbread dressing that I learned to make in Baltimore Maryland when I went to college and also my mother in law's citrus glazed sweet potatoes. It gets cooked in this brown sugar and orange zest liquid that thickens and glazes the potatoes as it cooks. To be honest, this is something that I eat all year around. Thanksgiving is all about variety and that's exactly what we give you at New York Times cooking. From pies to pimento Mac and cheese, there's so much to explore. Visit New York Times cooking for inspiring new recipes to add to your holiday table, find it all at NYT cooking dot com. I read an interesting piece in the Sierra club magazines here. My mother is a subscriber by Jason Mark called yes actually individual responsibilities essential to solving the climate crisis. And he argued that a fixation and systemic change can lead to a cynical self absolution. But when it comes to climate, and you're like, okay, I'm interested in this. What is this going to require of me? Their first thought is you should not have kids or veganism is your only choice. I want to have explicit takeaways for listeners because I think what listeners get a lot is pardon my language, but we're all everybody's we're gonna die tomorrow. And if you're an older person, you're like, wait, where are we gonna die and 1975? What are explicit takeaways for people to have that are real and would make real difference? All right, well, let me talk about this point that you shouldn't have kids or you should have one fewer kid to lower your carbon footprint because it's just, you know, it's misanthropic, and it's just wrong. So there was one study that came up with the top personal carbon footprint actions. And one of them was have one fewer kid. But if you dig down into that study, you see that they assume that the consumption of parenthood would remain the same with each subsequent kid. People in the global south generally have large families. And it has an increased their carbon emissions at all. It's not the kids. It's the consumption. If we get to a place where we have decarbonized much of our economy, which is technologically and politically possible now, then you're talking about multiplying invisible carbon footprints. In 2070, we're in a net zero world. Nobody has a carbon footprint. So having more kids is not gonna make one difference in either direction. And I think we're still in a place where we can keep that goal in mind and fight to make that possible so that we don't have to do things like reduce family size. We can solve our problems more holistically and allow each of us to live the lives that we want to live on the planet throughout the modern world where especially in the wealthy nations of the west, we think about poverty and famine in other parts of the world, not just as acceptable, but almost as comforting because they remind us of how secure and comfortable we are today. And I had this interaction just before the pandemic and an event I did I keep thinking about anything about maybe every week, maybe every day where I give a talk about looking at how dire some of these situations could be. And afterward somebody came up to me who assured me that he was not a climate denier, and then he said, so really how bad is it going to get? And I said, well, you know, a 2° we're talking about a 150 million people dying of air pollution. And he said, but that's out of 8 billion. And I said, well, yeah, I mean, I'm not talking about the total extinction of the human race here, but a 150 million is a 150 million that's 25 holocausts. And he said, but out of 8 billion, and I think that that there is this danger. Since you were talking to Hannibal lecter, that's the most terrifying question I've ever heard. Honestly, what I was talking the person I was talking to was the United States. I mean, that is the perspective that we have as a country and as guilty as I feel as responsible as I feel as I'm sure genevieve and to some extent Jane you feel all of us are actually behaving in ways that are imposing that kind of suffering on people elsewhere in the world. It's almost unavoidable given the systems that we live in today. And that is really horrifying, but I think the more clearly that we can see that, the more likely we are to be demanding real change of our leaders and the systems in which we live, which is to your point about takeaways, Jane, really to me the most important thing, which is that we really need to get our House in order and to help the rest of the world get their house in order. How do we get our house in order? What do I as an individual or the people listening to this podcast? How do I make this happen on my level? Knowing all of that, what do I do? What do I personally need to do? Give me a thing to do, genevieve. Okay, I have a whole list of things to do. Oh, great, thank God. Pick one. Do it once a week. Okay, and things will change. First thing is vote. You can't do that once a week. But vote in every election. Vote for climate candidates, and then once they're in office, keep pressuring them, call their D.C. offices, call their local offices. Send them emails regularly. Okay, number two, join a campaign or a activist group. There are local chapters of groups called the sunrise movement and three 50 dot org in many communities. If you're really hardcore, you can join extinction rebellion. They do direct actions, which is a really good way of moving the overton window over and getting people awake. If you don't have the time to do that, donate money. Donate money to organizations that are putting their bodies on the line. Here are some of them, sunrise. Fridays for future, which is the youth organization that is organizing the climate strikes that Greta Thunberg started, Greenpeace and here are some social justice organizations up rose and we act. There are also two new organizations who are writing climate policy in a new way and lobbying on the hill to get them past. They are climate power and evergreen action, donate to them. Or you can donate to groups that are working on electoral politics directly, like the environmental voter project or Stacey Abrams verified action. The ability to put your preferred candidates in office is a huge part of the climate fight, or here's another thing you can do. You can organize your workplace to ask your company to make greener business decisions or to lobby Congress for climate policies. And.
Can He Do That?
"evergreen action" Discussed on Can He Do That?
"Joe biden has prioritize climate. Change like no president ever has before yet. That's still not enough. That's jamal rod. He's the co founder and executive director of evergreen action which is a climate change policy and advocacy organization. Jamal has been fighting for progressive change on climate policy and i was curious for a climate activists. Take on biden's performance. So i i asked him how he thinks. Biden is doing on climate. His legacy will be tested by numerous issues but none more so than climate change. They're going to judge him on whether he took bold enough action to defeat the climate crisis and create a new economy. Run on one hundred percent clean energy years from now. It'll be a question of whether we did enough or let the last best opportunity to reckon with this slip. By frankly at this point if i had to give him a great it would be incomplete because it's not the first six months of matter. It's the next six months you know. They started off boldly with the pause on fossil fuel. Leasing ending the keystone excel pipeline. Appointing folks like secretary deb holland who cares about climate deeply at the department interior gene mccarthy to run the new white house climate office these are all positive elements. I think it's just hard to say that anyone is doing enough right now. I think that they've done a lot of good. There's a lot to look back on this positive as far as climate. But it's not enough. There's more that needs to be done. Can we pass a reconciliation bill in the next few months here. That actually has bold standards in our most polluting sectors of economy that make major investments to create the clean energy jobs that we need that centers justice while doing it focuses on creating jobs and on the communities that have borne the brunt of the pollution the communities hit i in worse by the climate crisis. And if they don't get this reconciliation bill done. They're going to be coming with empty hands to glasgow at the un conference where we really need to show that america's back on the international stage as far as climate leadership. And why is it so important for the us to have a prominent role in fighting climate change. We are the historical biggest emitter of carbon emissions and we have to show leadership in if we are asking the world to decarbonised by mid century than we need to do that before. Then and what's really important here is that we look at the reconciliation bill as the cold to tackling that goal and there's a lot of provisions in the draft reconciliation bill in the budget top lines. That could get us there and one of the most important pieces of it is the clean electricity payment program that would act like a clean electricity standard. If we can clean up our electricity grid and then run everything on the grid. Are our cars our buildings and then make the grid clean. That would take us a lot of the way there and so i. I really want us to see bold investments in clean electricity grid. I really wanna see us. Invest environmental justice to meet the initiative to make forty percent of our investments in black and brown and indigenous communities. That have been hit first. In worst by this crisis we need investing clean buildings so that our buildings are run on that clean electricity sector and we need a green bank to help propel jobs in clean energy job creations so those are the things that i'm looking for as kind of key pieces. We need the reconciliation bill. We need to fight for them to be invested at at a at a higher level and to keep those provisions in as we go through this process but as a good positive first step. Those are in the bill as currently written now. Now all of these conversations and congress are happening on the backdrop of the release of the new u. n. Report this week. Experts are saying that this is yet another wakeup call to really act on climate change. So what do you think. Do you have hope that this moment will bring significant change you know the takeaway from this report is that we don't need anymore. Reports scientists have been telling us for years we need to act boldly now to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. I think of this summer the summer. Twenty twenty one as a point when americans realized that climate change is no longer a chart or graph or happening in some far off future. It's happening in their communities right now. In communities across america. I'm from seattle. Which was experiencing record breaking heat waves and had the driest spring since nineteen twenty four california's a tinderbox waiting to explode with droughts wildfires. We've seen extreme weather all across this nation. We've seen smoke from western. Wildfires hit new york city in dc a few weeks ago. This is something that people are seeing their own is that are feeling in their own lungs and we may surpass the one point five degree warming threshold but we have a window opportunity to prevent the most dire outcomes and save lives. We need to take this opportunity with the stakes being so high. So i'm curious for your perspective on this. Why do you think that climate change is such difficult political circumstances. Why is climate a political problem. I think the basic problem is that the science around this has gotten polarized much like everything else in our society. The republican party in the united states is one of the only few in the international community that reject climate science and don't think that burning fossil fuels is a systemic problem. This may be due to the fact that the republican party is bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry in case we have forgotten because we keep hearing that two thousand fourteen has been the warmest year on record. Asked the chair. You know what this is. It's a snowball and that just from outside here. So it's very very cold out very unseasonable so mr president catch this but it is a unique problem in the world. We've seen the conservative prime minister. Boris johnson in the uk call for ending the sale of internal combustion engines in cars and promote. Tv's by a date. Certain by twenty thirty five together we can reduce our emissions. We can radically cut out dependence on fossil fuels we can change our agricultural practices and in short we can reverse the process by which for centuries humanity has been quilting our planet in a toxic tea cosy of greenhouse gases. We've seen on merckel in germany bold steps to act on climate about us what we invest into climate change is expensive for the impact of climate. Change costs even more one. Setting disaster on its own is not climate. Change increased frequency of the mess. We must make big changes. Do not have that same mentorship here so anything that can be done at the scale and scope of the crisis needs to be done on a partisan basis which is unfortunate.
KZSC 88.1 FM Santa Cruz
"evergreen action" Discussed on KZSC 88.1 FM Santa Cruz
"Dot orgs an hour long days gas then it airs each night at 6 o'clock with a half hour edition on the weekends I'm Mark miracle Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee today grilled President Biden's nominee to be San Francisco based 9th circuit Court of Appeals Jennifer song signed on to a letter that criticized Yale law school leaders for supporting former president Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court Arkansas Tom cotton read from the letter You said that then judge Kavanaugh was quote a threat to the most vulnerable and you also thought that he was quote an intellectually and morally bankrupt ideologue The 2018 letter warned that people would die If Kavanaugh were confirmed to the nation's highest court it pointed to his positions on reproductive rights and said he disregarded the rights of vulnerable individuals Sung apologized to the panel for the letter said she would respect Supreme Court precedents I recognize that those statements were overheated rhetoric but they were a rhetorical advocacy And if by signing the letter I created the impression that I would fail to respect justice Kavanaugh's authority as a Supreme Court Justice or any of the justices authority or their precedence than I do sincerely apologize But I can commit to you today that I would if confirmed as I have throughout my career I would respect all of the courts precedents without reservation And needed questioning bio song refused to answer whether she still thinks Kavanaugh is morally bankrupt son would be the only third Asian American in the Pacific Islander woman to serve on a federal appellate court Progressive Democrats unveiled a bill today to phase out investments in the fossil fuel industry They fossil free financing act or to require big banks to fully divest from fossil fuels by the year 2030 Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan is a sponsor of the legislation which takes saying that the Federal Reserve the agency that oversees large banks like Wells Fargo and city bank and the Bank of America She says the fad is done little to curb fossil fuel funding despite the dire consequences these projects are having on the world's climate As our community flood and our planet burns the Federal Reserve has not felt an urgency to act I've been in the committees after committees where they come before our committee with no sense of urgency and movement as our residents continue to suffer because we are not acting on climate You should know from 2016 to 2020 banks provided 3.8 trillion in direct fossil fuel financing as many of the advocates know with most of that investment coming from pink holding companies under the beds supervision They fossil free finance act would require the Federal Reserve to prohibit the largest banks under its supervision from the financing of new or expanded fossil fuel projects after the year 2022 And forbid any thermal coal financing after the year 2024 and all fossil fuel financing after 2030 Representative calib says the bill's mandate is aligned with guidelines already set forth by the Paris climate agreement Proponents of the bill like evergreen action campaigns director Lena Moffat say they're hopeful that the bill would reverse the fed's failure to uphold its obligations So far we have seen that the fed has failed to fulfill its mandate to protect the American economy from this climate fueled crash by using the tools at their disposal They simply have not done enough So thankfully the fossil free financing act will bring us one step closer to sound financial regulation by ordering the fed to do something they already have the power to be doing but have like we've mentioned failed to do Limiting how much greenhouse gas pollution banks can finance For Massachusetts congresswoman ayanna Pressley the cost of inaction is clear citing the line three pipeline project in Minnesota which received $12 billion in financing from U.S. banks and is estimated to release a 193 million tons of greenhouse gases this year alone The hurricanes the wildfires the flooding the tornadoes and in my district I would say the as marats And the rate of COVID infection certainly because of the disproportionate impact of this crisis on low income and communities of color frontline environmental justice communities this is an existential threat to our right to breathe clean air to drink clean water and to live in clean safe communities And it is quite literally costing us lives The fossil free finance act would also require the Federal Reserve to mandate banks reduce their financed emissions in half by the year 2030 and reach zero emissions financing by 2050 It would classify financing of emissions as systemically risky for enhanced oversight by the Federal Reserve Clean energy groups are touting new zero emissions vehicle initiatives in the state of New York Part of that state's ongoing effort to reduce the greenhouse gases that scientists say are primarily responsible for global warming Michaela savit reports The new act establishes that new passenger cars and light trucks.
Think 100%: The Coolest Show
"evergreen action" Discussed on Think 100%: The Coolest Show
"Welcome to the coolest show. I am here with west and sarah. Y'all doing i'm doing well. I'm excited about this conversation. Because i have with the west bar and sarah nesbitt and they are here With the black oak collective. And so let's get right to it first and foremost due to the intro who is The start there guys I'm bareness bit the end. I'm a native columbia south carolina I graduated from college of charleston in two thousand eighteen. And i have more so social justice background. I majored in political science and african american studies And during my summers i would come up to dc in. Intern brewed various different organizations One where i met westcote bar we beaufort interns on the hill through the congressional black caucus And i've just been really passionate about social justice and advocacy and making sure that wastes are heard in spaces where we're not traditionally seen So that's a little bit about me. When it comes to environmental justice. I tend to talk about my grandparents. Who live on of town outside of myrtle beach south carolina call georgetown They're part of the community. Which now is a community of black black faces out on the coast. allina In our we can trace our history straight to plantations in that area for years Their communities have been Adversely impacted by hurricanes in different environmental disasters and they don't have access to the resources and so that that money to your home sue to assist in in times of need is coming straight out of pockets in pockets are running dry so That's my connection to environmental justice on a personal level. But that's me sarunas. I love that west khobar who is west bar. Thanks for have yeah. I'm from fredericksburg. Virginia have lived in virginia. Most of my life But my mama you know target the smithsonian the corcoran also became the dc of And i graduated from university. Virginia in two thousand eighteen and my primary interest was history. I thought i wanted to be a historian and Was really fascinated by reconstruction era history. And i think when. I really felt like i wanted to. I had to get involved couldn't just like you know say academic sidelines was when i became involved with our black Da and then you know become president that year we had You know. Nazis actually come through our campus in getting involved that summer in organizing and after college i start Continue to work in. Virginia politics and Foul to sort of working through some of those institutions in work for our tony general's office and when we go kept going to events i kept seeing people come up to us about the two pipelines beyond virginia the mountain valley pipeline in the signs of the place. Whether it's a rural community you know but you know watching the like buckingham county wherever and it was such an important issue. But i felt like i had no i was. I was a bodyman driver in aid for for that role but Having no avenue to address that. And i think after euros looking for a way to evolved and the vision for the greenie Animated me. I have a chance to get involved with evergreen action And help them build condition from the beginning. And so. that's what i do my day. Job now are coalitions lead and sort of manage our movement relations and coalition partner relations with a Evergreen which is building it federal policy has been really working closely with the biden administration in congress in out the inslee campaign. You also just pointed out the records behind my wall. Also above you know jazz music. Play trumpet than i'm now so And i try to write when i come to you. So there's some other things about me. Yeah yeah for those who are listening behind west he has some vinyl. You don't see too often and western. Ain't so i liked the vinyl. You know me. And that's a good look. If nothing else for the the nose the aesthetics of the look behind the way definitely he had it means something Well sarah go ahead. Oke is good now. I feel you would actually be access. Real west is pointing to his head and he was saying that you know some of us in our community. I like old souls. And that's like real on certain things. Andy mentioned jazz. I'm actually a jazz person to this. F wild. I'm a that's where the it stays in my car neha. Xm xm. dial a stay right there That's what's up. So i i may have some jazz questions for you In in in that in that regard Jazz import always goes hand in hand. So we may we. We may have i. May i may slide a few of those in here but listen. We're going to get right to y'all okay with that. We right right right to it okay. All right so i i. I didn't see you nodding on that oneself. So make sure you to the this is the coolest show so we on this. Actually i'll start. I'll start at ten and then it will go down from there so Both of you worked with the congressional black caucus in some capacity Gimme your real thoughts on this response. A lot of folks in our community has said that the congressional black caucus is more like the corporate black caucus. When you hear that wishes thoughts west since you're smiling. Yeah i think i think that's very real. I mean most of congress is corporate right. You know both parties right. That is the structure were working in And the constraints that anybody does advocacy. Just you know that. That's just sort of iranian ideology and influence last forty years. But i mean if you look at when the cbc started forty years ago The or over forty years ago the values and i think has not necessarily the same part of that is obviously be blunt. There are some people that have been in there too long. You know that need to retire. I was leading political article about policy. Uh hastens died in office. Which is sad. But i.
Can He Do That?
"evergreen action" Discussed on Can He Do That?
"This news. I think the biden administration president biden. John kerry have all said this is just more evidence that the kinds of things we proposed and and the fact that we've made climate change of priorities is the right way to be going that this is just really the latest signal in the latest evidence that we really truly need to be moving as quickly as possible away from a world that relies on fossil fuels and to find different ways to power our homes and the electrify our cars and all sorts of things that will that will really slow through the rate of emissions around the world. That does leave. Open the question of how much they are getting done on that front and able to get done on that front when you step back the. Us is very important and it's the world's second largest omitting country but it's still only about fourteen or so percent of global emissions so what the us does really matters and it sets a tone for a lot of the world but it does really have to be a global effort to sort of turn the tide on the trajectory that we're heading well on the point of what we're doing here the senate this week. Pass the bipartisan infrastructure. Investment and jobs act what sorts of climate investments are in that bill. Yeah there are tens of billions of dollars for things like incentivizing clean energy and building electric charging stations and prioritizing public transit. These kinds of things. It is certainly by any measure A large amount of money but also by any measure not nearly what president biden and and other democrats had hoped to include in this bill. And they're obviously hoping for much broader and bigger funding to come out from this budget reconciliation. Bill that's working. Its way through the congress right now so a lot of that remains to be seen but i mean i think between the two the by the administration and democrats are hoping to to make a really big push on a lot of these efforts that they argue will create a lot of jobs but also are aimed at combating climate change and as we continue working on a bipartisan infrastructure. Bill and a budget resolution. I have committed. We will make historic investments in reversing climate change. I'm proud to say i would clean. Cars for america is going to be a very big part of that. Democrats promised action on climate. And we're gonna make it a vital part of the legislation. We work on in the weeks to come. Joe biden has prioritized climate. Change like no president ever has before yet. That's still not enough. That's small rod. He's the co founder and executive director of evergreen action which is a climate change policy and advocacy organization. Jamaa has been fighting for progressive change on climate policy. And i was curious for climate activists. Take on biden's performance so i asked him how he thinks. Biden is doing on climate. His legacy will be tested by numerous issues but none more so than climate change. They're going to judge him on whether he took bold enough action to defeat the climate crisis and create a new economy. Run on one hundred percent clean energy years from now. It'll be a question of whether we did enough or let the last best opportunity to reckon with this slip. By frankly at this point if i had to give him a great it would be incomplete because it's not the first six months of matter. It's the next six months you know. They started off boldly with the pause on fossil fuel. Leasing ending the keystone excel pipeline. Appointing folks like secretary deb holland who cares about climate deeply at the department interior gene mccarthy to run the new white house climate office these are all positive elements. I think it's just hard to say that anyone is doing enough right now. I think that they've done a lot of good. There's a lot to look back on this positive as far as climate. But it's not enough. There's more that needs to be done. Can we pass a reconciliation bill in the next few months here. That actually has bold standards in our most polluting sectors economy that makes major investments to create the clean energy jobs that we need that centers justice while doing it focuses on creating jobs and on the communities that have borne the brunt of the pollution. The communities hit i in worse by the climate crisis. And if they don't get this reconciliation bill done. They're going to be coming with empty hands to glasgow at the un conference where we really need to show that america's back on the international stage as far as climate leadership. And why is it so important for the us to have a prominent role in fighting climate change. We are the historical biggest emitter of carbon emissions and we have to show leadership and if we are asking the world to decarbonised by mid century than. We need to do that before them. And what's really important here is that we look at the reconciliation bill as a vehicle to tackling that goal and there's a lot of provisions in the draft reconciliation bill in the budget top lines. That could get us there and one of the most important pieces of it is the clean electricity payment program that would act like a clean electricity standard. If we can clean up our electricity grid and then run. Everything on the grid are vs our cars. Our buildings and then make the grid clean. That would take us a lot of the way there and so i. I really want us to see bold investments in clean electricity grid. I really wanna see us. Invest environmental justice to meet the initiative to make forty percent of our investments in black and brown in indigenous communities have been hit i in worst by this crisis. We need invest in clean buildings so that our buildings are run on that clean electricity sector and we need a green bank to help propel jobs in clean energy job creations so those are the things that i'm looking for as kind of key pieces. We need the reconciliation bill. We need to fight for them to be invested at at a at a higher level into keep those provisions in as we go through this process but as a good positive first step. Those are in the bill as currently written now. Now all of these conversations in congress are happening on the backdrop of the release of the new u. n. Report this week. Experts are saying that this is yet another wakeup call to really act on climate change. So what do you think. Do you have hope that this moment will bring significant change you know the takeaway from this report is that we don't need any more reports. Scientists have been telling us for years we need to act boldly now to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. I think of this summer the summer. Twenty twenty one as a point when americans realized that climate change is no longer a chart or graph or happening in some far off future. It's happening in their communities right now. In communities across america. I'm from seattle which was experiencing record breaking heat. Waves had the driest spring since nineteen twenty four california's a tinderbox waiting to explode with droughts wildfires. We've seen extreme weather all across this nation. We've seen smoke from western. Wildfires hit new york city in dc a few weeks ago. This is something that people are seeing their own is that are feeling in their own lungs and we may surpass one point five degree warming threshold but we have a window of opportunity to prevent the most dire outcomes and save lives. We need to take this opportunity with the stakes being so high. So i'm curious for your perspective on this. Why do you think that climate change is such difficult political circumstances. Why is climate a political problem. I think the basic problem is that the science around this has gotten polarized much like everything else in our society. The republican party in the united states is one of the only few in the international community that reject climate science than don't think that burning fossil fuels is a systemic problem. This may be due to the fact that the republican party is.
Important, Not Important
"evergreen action" Discussed on Important, Not Important
"To try and make mental wellness and health. Care more available doc. Doc and headway have teamed up to improve in network access to a national network of therapists plus loosened. Fda rules allowed happe- fai health to launch new prescription only software designed to directly. Treat depression so your action. Step five minutes. Check out this washington post article that's linked in the newsletter about practical ways to deal with climate induced anxiety and depression. Your shit giver. But you're not immune and you're certainly not alone. Hey it's time for our job of the week. Develop groundbreaking policy for electrifying america as the policy lead for evergreen action. Our friends at evergreen. The shop behind every piece of significant climate legislation on joe mansions desk seeks fulltime policy to support the development of bold detail policies to decarbonised our economy and transition to one hundred percent. Clean energy apply today. The link is in the newsletter in food and water news. You like drugs danny. Yes the whole two. Things can be true at the same time especially in. Capitalism trope plant based alternatives are all over fast food menus. Great on the other hand beef. It's what's still selling. And it's still chock full of fucking antibiotics. Check out the chart in the newsletter. It's the worst so your action. Step donate to the food animal concerns. Trust the ngo behind the all star group holding restaurant chains to task the human machine interface. Deep mind says it will release the structure of every protein known to science from mit tech review quote back in december twenty twenty deep mind took the world of biology by surprise when it saw the fifty year. Grand challenge with alpha. Fold an ai. Tool that predicts the structure of proteins last week the london-based company published full details of that tool and released. Its source code now. The firm has announced that it has used. Its ai to predict the shape of nearly every protein in the human body as well as the shapes of hundreds of thousands of other proteins found in twenty of the most widely studied organisms including yeast fruit flies and mice. The breakthrough could allow biologists from around the world to understand diseases better and develop new drugs. Better news it's an out and out competition from stat to a group of researchers at the university of washington's institute for protein design..
Democracy Now! Audio
"evergreen action" Discussed on Democracy Now! Audio
"For this new spending. Can you talk more about the climate crisis in the west. I mean we live in information silos. That are determined and all different ways including geographically and for people to understand the significance of what's happening Throughout arizona california and beyond absolutely. You know i've only lived in california since two thousand fifteen and the droughts and fires and heat waves that i have experienced in that short time are really unprecedented. You know i lived through. Thomas fire which was then the largest fire in modern california. And there's been a information going around lately that that's actually now the seventh largest fire and that only took place in twenty seventeen so a lot of people in the western united states are just experiencing year after year of extreme heat waves. Extreme drought extreme. Fires that we've really never seen before. This is why scientists are beginning to talk about things like mega droughts and megafires mega heat waves. These huge scale events that don't just span. The western united states go all the way to the mid west with record temperatures happening in june. And then another record event likely to happen next week. It's only june. Normally these kinds of extreme heat waves coming august and we know from climate scientists that this is climate. Change that you know heat. Waves are more than twice as likely to be happening because of climate change and that's from science that's a few years old. I'm sure scientists are looking at what we're seeing right now. They're even more alarmed so the climate crisis is really happening right now. In every single year we delay climate bill. The worst crisis gets folks may remember that a decade ago we tried to pass a climate bill the waxman markey bill it failed in the senate and we already had. The president proposed this american jobs plant at the end of march and we have been waiting for almost three months to see congress act and while we wait we see climate. Climate change happening all across the united states professor. Stokes i wanted to ask you about the state roles in addressing the the climate crisis we're seeing reports all around the country. Now that state governments have more cash and more surplus than they've ever had in their histories as a result of rebounding tax revenues and also federal assistance california new york new jersey. All these states have have more money to spend this year than they've ever had before. And i'm wondering what your sense of what states could be doing to direct some of those funds since has basically a one-shot situation for this year perhaps next year in terms of being able to address climate change at the state level. That's a great question. You know the great thing about acting on climate change is that it is an investment when we're talking about infrastructure when we're talking about one time spending it's actually spending that pays itself back bo through the infrastructures spell as well as through job creation all kinds of things at the economy. So i think you're right. That governor should be looking at spending money on climate change building for example clean energy helping to build more public transit and support that infrastructure. Because if you put the money in at time one it can actually pay you back over many years. So i do think that the states have an important role to play but the federal government really has the power of the purse. And we're not talking about sort of a one time surplus talking about spending trillions of dollars on the climate crisis and that is really just a down payment on the scale of the crisis. So i think that we can't sort of look away from the federal government. We have to see them act alongside states. Can you finally talk about the report that you just co authored with the sierra club professor stokes called the dirty truth about utility climate pledges looking at greenwashing by utility companies. Absolutely so several months ago. I worked with the sierra club to research. What are utilities planning to do. And they put out a lot of corporate pledges saying that. They want to decarbonise by. Let's say twenty fifty but we compared those pledges to their actual investment behavior to their proposals that they make about what they'd like to build. The fact is across this country. We have about two hundred and thirty fossil. Gas plants currently proposed if those plants were built it would be absolutely devastating for the climate crisis and so on the one hand we have utility saying yes. We want to clean up. We wanna address climate change but on the other hand we have them proposing massive amounts of fossil infrastructure. And so how do we reconcile these two things. Well we have to recognize that if we really want to clean up our infrastructure we need to have federal legislation specifically a federal clean electricity standard president biden campaign one on a plan for one hundred percent. Clean power by twenty thirty five and it's clear that there's a lot of support from some utilities as well as within congress to pass a clean electricity standard that would target eighty percent clean power by twenty thirty and i wrote another report with evergreen action data for progress. Which looked at how exactly we can do that. As part of the budget reconciliation process so if we really want to get on top of the climate crisis the power sector is the most important place to start because we have clean electricity like eighty percent. Clean power by twenty thirty because of this clean electricity standard and we combine that with electrified. Things like electric vehicles electric stoves and heat pumps we can actually decarbonize about seventy five percent of our economy and when we talk about president biden's goal of cutting emissions by fifty percent by twenty thirty if we had that clean electricity standard and we pow. We pass that through congress. We go to eighty percent clean by twenty thirty. The fact is we be more than halfway to meeting the president's goals of cutting emissions by fifty percent by twenty thirty so really. There's no substitute for laws. Unfortunately it's one thing for utilities to say they'd like to do things but we actually need legislation to make sure they do. Things and that legislation at the federal level can actually be an investment to help them do things to help them get on track with the pledges that they claim that they want to fulfil leah's stokes who want to thank you so much for being with us assistant professor of political science at university of california santa barbara researcher on climate and energy policy author of short circuiting policy. Also co host of the podcast a matter of degrees. She's also on the advisory board evergreen action next up. Striking coal miners from alabama are here in new york to protest on wall street. The miners have been on strike since april. Stay with us..
Democracy Now! Audio
"evergreen action" Discussed on Democracy Now! Audio
"For this new spending. Can you talk more about the climate crisis in the west. I mean we live in information silos. That are determined and all different ways including geographically and for people to understand the significance of what's happening Throughout arizona california and beyond absolutely. You know i've only lived in california since two thousand fifteen and the droughts and fires and heat waves that i have experienced in that short time are really unprecedented. You know i lived through thomas fire which was then the largest buyer in modern california. His and there's been a information going around lately that that's actually now the seventh largest fire and that only took place in twenty seventeen. So allot of people in the western. United states are just experiencing year after year of extreme heat waves. Extreme drought extreme fires. That we've really never seen before. This is why scientists are beginning to talk about things like mega droughts and megafires mega heat waves. These huge scale events that don't just span. The western united states go all the way to the mid west with record temperatures happening in june. And then another record event likely to happen next week. It's only june. Normally these kinds of extreme heat waves coming in august and we know from climate scientists that this is climate. Change that you know heat. Waves are more than twice as likely to be happening because of climate change and that's from science that's a few years old. I'm sure scientists are looking at what we're seeing right now. They're even more alarmed so the climate crisis is really happening right now. In every single year we delay on passing a climate bill. The worst crisis gets folks may remember that a decade ago we tried to pass a climate bill the waxman markey bill it failed in the senate and we already had. The president proposed this american jobs plant at the end of march and we have been waiting for almost three months to see congress act and while we wait we see climate. Climate change happening all across the united states professor. Stokes i wanted to ask you about the state roles in addressing the the climate crisis we're seeing reports all around the country. Now that state governments have more cash and more surplus than they've ever had in their histories as a result of rebounding tax revenues and also federal assistance california new york new jersey. All these states have have more money to spend this year than they've ever had before. And i'm wondering what your sense of what states could be doing to direct some of those funds since has basically a one-shot situation for this year perhaps next year in terms of being able to address climate change at the state level. That's a great question. You know the great thing about acting on climate change is that it is an investment when we're talking about infrastructure when we're talking about one time spending it's actually spending that pays itself back bo through the infrastructures spell as well as through job creation all kinds of things at the economy. So i think you're right. That governor should be looking at spending money on climate change building for example clean energy helping to build more public transit and support that infrastructure. Because if you put the money in at time one it can actually pay you back over many years. So i do think that the states have an important role to play but the federal government really has the power of the purse. And we're not talking about sort of a one time surplus talking about spending trillions of dollars on the climate crisis and that is really just a down payment on the scale of the crisis. So i think that we can't sort of look away from the federal government. We have to see them act alongside states. Can you finally talk about the report that you just co authored with the sierra club professor stokes called the dirty truth about utility climate pledges looking at greenwashing by utility companies. Absolutely so several months ago. I worked with the sierra club to research. What are utilities planning to do. And they put out a lot of corporate pledges saying that. They want to decarbonise by. Let's say twenty fifty but we compared those pledges to their actual investment behavior to their proposals that they make about what they'd like to build. The fact is across this country. We have about two hundred and thirty fossil. Gas plants currently proposed if those plants were built it would be absolutely devastating for the climate crisis and so on the one hand we have utility saying yes. We want to clean up. We wanna address climate change but on the other hand we have them proposing massive amounts of fossil infrastructure. And so how do we reconcile these two things. Well we have to recognize that if we really want to clean up our infrastructure we need to have federal legislation specifically a federal clean electricity standard president biden campaign one on a plan for one hundred percent. Clean power by twenty thirty five and it's clear that there's a lot of support from some utilities as well as within congress to pass a clean electricity standard that would target eighty percent clean power by twenty thirty and i wrote another report with evergreen action data for progress. Which looked at how exactly we can do that. As part of the budget reconciliation process so if we really want to get on top of the climate crisis the power sector is the most important place to start because we have clean electricity like eighty percent. Clean power by twenty thirty because of this clean electricity standard and we combine that with electrified. Things like electric vehicles electric stoves and heat pumps we can actually decarbonize about seventy five percent of our economy and when we talk about president biden's goal of cutting emissions by fifty percent by twenty thirty if we had that clean electricity standard and we pow. We pass that through congress. We go to eighty percent clean by twenty thirty. The fact is we be more than halfway to meeting the president's goal of cutting emissions by fifty percent by twenty thirty so really. There's no substitute for laws. Unfortunately it's one thing for utilities to say they'd like to do things but we actually need legislation to make sure they do. Things and that legislation at the federal level can actually be an investment to help them do things to help them get on track with the pledges that they claim that they want to fulfil leah's stokes who want to thank you so much for being with us assistant professor of political science at university of california santa barbara researcher on climate and energy policy author of short circuiting policy. Also co host of the podcast a matter of degrees. She's also on the advisory board evergreen action next up. Striking coal miners from alabama are here in new york to protest on wall street. The miners have been on strike since april. Stay with us..
Democracy Now! Audio
"evergreen action" Discussed on Democracy Now! Audio
"For this new spending. Can you talk more about the climate crisis in the west. I mean we live in information silos. That are determined and all different ways including geographically and for people to understand the significance of what's happening Throughout arizona california and beyond absolutely. You know i've only lived in california since two thousand fifteen and the droughts and fires and heat waves that i have experienced in that short time are really unprecedented. You know i lived through thomas fire which was then the largest buyer in modern california history. And there's been a information going around lately that that's actually now the seventh largest fire and that only took place in twenty seventeen so a lot of people in the western united states are just experiencing year after year of extreme heat waves. Extreme drought extreme. Fires that we've really never seen before. This is why scientists are beginning to talk about things like mega droughts and megafires mega heat waves. These huge scale events that don't just span. The western united states go all the way to the mid west with record temperatures happening in june. And then another record event likely to happen next week. It's only june. Normally these kinds of extreme heat waves coming august and we know from climate scientists that this is climate. Change that you know heat. Waves are more than twice as likely to be happening because of climate change and that's from science that's a few years old. I'm sure scientists are looking at what we're seeing right now. They're even more alarmed so the climate crisis is really happening right now. In every single year we delay on passing a climate bill. The worst crisis gets folks may remember that a decade ago we tried to pass a climate bill the waxman markey bill it failed in the senate and we already had. The president proposed this american jobs plant at the end of march and we have been waiting for almost three months to see congress act and while we wait we see climate. Climate change happening all across the united states professor. Stokes i wanted to ask you about the state roles in addressing the the climate crisis we're seeing reports all around the country. Now that state governments have more cash and more surplus than they've ever had in their histories as a result of rebounding tax revenues and also federal assistance california new york new jersey. All these states have have more money to spend this year than they've ever had before. And i'm wondering what your sense of what states could be doing to direct some of those funds since has basically a one-shot situation for this year perhaps next year in terms of being able to address climate change at the state level. That's a great question. You know the great thing about acting on climate change is that it is an investment when we're talking about infrastructure when we're talking about one time spending it's actually spending that pays itself back bo through the infrastructures spell as well as through job creation all kinds of things at the economy. So i think you're right. That governor should be looking at spending money on climate change building for example clean energy helping to build more public transit and support that infrastructure. Because if you put the money in at time one it can actually pay you back the years so i do think that the states have an important role to play but the federal government really has the power of the purse. And we're not talking about sort of a one time surplus talking about spending trillions of dollars on the climate crisis and that is really just a down payment on the scale of the crisis. So i think that we can't sort of look away from the federal government. We have to see them act alongside states. Can you finally talk about the report that you just co authored with the sierra club professor stokes called the dirty truth about utility climate pledges looking at greenwashing by utility companies. Absolutely so several months ago. I worked with the sierra club to research. What are utilities planning to do. And they put out a lot of corporate pledges saying that. They want to decarbonise by. Let's say twenty fifty but we compared those pledges to their actual investment behavior to their proposals that they make about what they'd like to build. The fact is across this country. We have about two hundred and thirty fossil. Gas plants currently proposed if those plants were built it would be absolutely devastating for the climate crisis and so on the one hand we have utility saying yes. We want to clean up. We wanna address climate change but on the other hand we have them proposing massive amounts of fossil infrastructure. And so how do we reconcile these two things. Well we have to recognize that if we really want to clean up our infrastructure we need to have federal legislation specifically a federal clean electricity standard president biden campaign one on a plan for one hundred percent. Clean power by twenty thirty five and it's clear that there's a lot of support from some utilities as well as within congress to pass a clean electricity standard that would target eighty percent clean power by twenty thirty and i wrote another report with evergreen action data for progress. Which looked at how exactly we can do that. As part of the budget reconciliation process so if we really want to get on top of the climate crisis the power sector is the most important place to start because we have clean electricity like eighty percent. Clean power by twenty thirty because of this clean electricity standard and we combine that with electrified. Things like electric vehicles electric stoves and heat pumps we can actually decarbonize about seventy five percent of our economy and when we talk about president biden's goal of cutting emissions by fifty percent by twenty thirty if we had that clean electricity standard and we pow. We pass that through congress. We go to eighty percent clean by twenty thirty. The fact is we be more than halfway to meeting the president's goal of cutting emissions by fifty percent by twenty thirty so really. There's no substitute for laws. Unfortunately it's one thing for utilities to say they'd like to do things but we actually need legislation to make sure they do. Things and that legislation at the federal level can actually be an investment to help them do things to help them get on track with the pledges that they claim that they want to fulfil leah's stokes who want to thank you so much for being with us assistant professor of political science at university of california santa barbara researcher on climate and energy policy author of short circuiting policy. Also co host of the podcast a matter of degrees. She's also on the advisory board evergreen action next up. Striking coal miners from alabama are here in new york to protest on wall street. The miners have been on strike since april. Stay with us..
Think 100%: The Coolest Show
"evergreen action" Discussed on Think 100%: The Coolest Show
"Education read nick everything dot now. The world is not hit by first before we get started at this. Was you know. I've been listening to your book. It's amazing i love it so let's you know it is a it is a. It's a much read. Actually book was actually wonderful. I i was surprised. I mean it was. It was not surprised was good. I figured it would be good. That's not but i was really surprised at how for me as an activist. How important some of the things you will laying out at really kinda broke down almost hand to hand combat as you call it regarding policy and that really thank you for that that that meant a lot actually. It was very helpful. Oh well i'm so honored that you're reading slash listening to it. I am a big audiobook fan myself. And i really wanted a press to turn into an audio book and they finally did. And so yeah. It's been really amazing to see the reception all kinds of people. When you're writing an academic book it takes a long time so took me seven years to write the book and you know. Typically a lot of people don't read it. You know so. I was writing it. I thought no ever gonna read this. This is useless am not even helping climate change. I'm just wasting my time and you can ask my mother or my husband. I definitely said that all the time and then this crazy surprise happen. Which is that. People are actually reading the book. I hear from activists all the time that they have found it. Really reflects their experience working on energy So it's been this amazing complete surprise That that people are finding the book interesting and engaging to the coolest show So glad to have you here as great to be here. Yes so glad. We share a few advisory boards here and there and sal to our Evergreen action and other folks were doing the good work Thank you for doing all that you have done..
Talk 1260 KTRC
"evergreen action" Discussed on Talk 1260 KTRC
"So he is connected to them on the Labor Department. As you point out is a very Plays a central role on not only helping the job force get back, but also the statistics. What's going on? You know what's gonna work was not gonna work. So when Joe Biden his campaign theme if I remember correctly, there was rebuilt better. Build back. Better build back better held back better. Thank you. All right, so I mean, Go ahead. Well, I think what you're saying about, you know, labor being really important to Joe Biden and we're already seeing live up to those commitments and his, you know, by nominating someone like Marty Wolf, who really has a strong foundation. In labor, strong connections to union. I think he's showing that he's going to live up to those campaign commitments. OK on we have in New Mexico. I don't know if you've ever been here, but we produce a lot of oil and gas. We have the southeast corners of premium base and goes over in the West Texas. Produces a lot of on gas and the own gas industry will tell. You tell everybody until they're blue in the face that they are the reason that that we exist in New Mexico that the only reason we have schools and hospitals Is because of them. They have not realized yet they're still arguing that the president's Moratorium in oil and gas is going to destroy the industry, destroying the Mexica. And yet of the other half of this, we have tons of sunshine. Millions of acres of open space and lots of wind. So we have these two opposing forces. You're absolutely right. New Mexico is already leading in clean energy on the state level. I'm sure you know that in 2019 Governor Michelle in Hungary, Shine signed the Energy Transition act, which that same kind of 50% renewable energy use in the state by 2030 and 100% Carbon free electricity production by 2045. We're already seeing that pay big dividends. In New Mexico for job growth. Analysis from the natural resource is defense counsel found that it's just that 50% target would create more than 8000 jobs for new Mexicans. New Mexico also has amazing clean energy leaders on the federal level. In the last Congress. He then congressman now Senator Ben Ray Luhan introduced legislation for a federal clean energy standards that would help create millions of jobs across the country. So now it's upto Joe Biden's administration and Marty Walsh in the Department of Labor to find ways to support that job creation and clean energy progress that Mexico is already making and continue to invest in more new Mexican jobs. You know, only one of the more interesting things that that has been taking place is that as we get better, better computers, beer imputed, more powerful computers along with a A ay, we're seeing. We're seeing that climate change is actually accelerating. But it's been interesting to see over the last 10 15 20 years what some mayors have realized, like the mayor of Chicago and realizing that Chicago by 2100 will have the same climate as New Orleans. You see a mayor of a city like Boston. Seen maybe before other people did about the dangers of climate change and sea level rise to a coastal city. Yeah. Yeah. So we think that Marty Walsh is really prepared to hit the ground running because he knows that this this crisis, Austin had to put this finding crazy. Yeah, Boston had a plan and he knows that this crisis Is really a defining going to be a defining issue for his department. And we're excited to see him hit the ground running on this issue. Well, our governors heading out today to the White House to meet with the president and other governors and other mayors. To talk mostly about covert. And, of course, getting more vaccines roll out. I don't know getting more people volunteer, maybe getting more military people involved. It'll be mostly cove it but Meantime, Cove it will be Animal Cove. It will be dealt with long before climate change will be dealt with climate change is ex potential problem. Right, But we could be working on both things way last week and and one of our recommendations is actually for the Labor Department is actually making sure that we're protecting those essential workers. Um Some covert 19 because we need those essential workers that are in our clean energy, your cart economy and other parts of the economy to be thinks when they go to work, and that's something the Department of Labor can can work on. All right. If people want to know more about Evergreen action or maybe join or get involved that possible to the website. Yes, Absolutely. They could go to evergreen action dot com and they can sign up. They can download the evergreen action plan. Which is our plan for an all out mobilization to defeat the climate crisis. Well, I feel I know more about who? Marty Walshes before this morning. I really didn't know much about the mayor. Boston, But we know he will be the next secretary of labor, which is incredibly important. Stay well. Holly, where Mass stay healthy. Day Busy, you two Thank you. Thanks for having me. Alright. 46.
Talk 1260 KTRC
"evergreen action" Discussed on Talk 1260 KTRC
"Right. Joy is now a spokesperson for Evergreen Action. And she's in New York City. Holly Burke joins us now, Holly Good afternoon or good evening there? Yeah, just about thanks for having me absolutely snowy cold in New York City. Oh, uh, But not you know, he's right now. Okay? What is Evergreen Action? Yeah. So Evergreen was launched last year to put climate change at the top of the agenda for the incoming new president and new administration. We were founded by a group of former James Lee for America staffers who worked on his Presidential campaign and, you know, came together on a mission to elect a president to build support for a national mobilization to defeat the climate crisis and after he left the presidential race. We wanted to make sure his gold standard policy plans for fighting the climate crisis was replicated across the federal government. So we launched in 2019 and have been 2020 and have been doing that ever since. All right, evergreen action. You have a website yet? Yes, it's evergreen action dot com. It's pretty straightforward, pretty simple. All right. And you said across the entire administration, so you'd like to see kind of one Central message. I don't know. It's like me, John Kerry, or I know who's it gonna be that will be the light the climate czar and make sure that single message single action that all the agencies are pulling in the same direction. Is that the plan or the hope? Yeah, Absolutely. So President Biden has actually committed to and all of government approach to tackling this crisis, meaning that not just one person of ones are one Cabinet secretary. But actually every climate agent, every agency could be a climate agency. You know, there's the there's the agencies that we sort of think of it the typical environmental ones maybe the EPA or the Department of Energy, but actually agencies across the federal government can take action and really have a big role in the fight against this crisis. What does it have to do with The Department of Health. They got bigger things to worry about right now. Yeah, There's definitely a lot on their plate, but I mean studies there. I saw a study come out this week That said 20% of preventable deaths in the United States have actually been caused by fossil fuel pollution. So it's a new important consideration for the Department of Health. It's important consideration for every agency across the federal government. Yeah, that was that. There was a study out of Harvard. There was it was Shocking, surprising, but but also, you know, e mean, that's Fairly fairly serious news that air pollution is causing causing 20% of the dance. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's why we need every agency to really be stepping up to the plate on climate. Um, once No, Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was just gonna say one of my co workers put it to me this way. He says that taking over the presidency from Donald Trump is a lot like taking over released from a frat house, meaning that there's A lot of cleaning up to do on climate. President Trump was one of the most Anti environment presidents we've ever had. But we need to go further than just cleaning up Donald Trump's message. You know, the urgency of the climate crisis has only grown in the last few years, and we need to be really invest ambitious across the federal government to meet this moment. All right, um, part of what you are doing. Holly at the Evergreen Action nonprofit Environmental Organization is you're looking at At people who will be Cabinet secretaries looking at. I don't know, looking at departments and then assessing how how That's gonna work out. Is that part of the mission? Part of the work you're doing? Yeah, absolutely. We've actually launched a serious that we're calling five to mobilize and release him recommendations for 20 federal agencies or so far, we've released recommendations for 20 federal agencies on how they can help lead the national mobilization around climate. And these, uh, five to mobilize. We wanted to give it a little bit of a catchy name. So we've given five concrete action steps for each of these agencies. All right. Um, you're looking at the Department of Labor. Marty Walsh was nominated Be the secretary of Labor. Who the heck is Marty Walsh? Yeah. So Marty Walsh is currently the mayor of Boston. He's got a big labor background. He's a union guy, and earlier today and overwhelming majority of the Senate Health Committee voted to advance his nomination to be secretary of labor to the full Senate. So In an 18 4 vote in the Senate Help or Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. They moved his nomination forward and also signs point to him being confirmed soon, But we don't have an exact date on when that final consolation that the committee 18 to 4 is a good sign correct. That's definitely a good sign for him. Yeah, All right. So he's the mayor of Boston. So what? He's pro labor. So what? How does how does that help us here in New Mexico? Well, it helps New Mexico because of New Mexico is full of workers, right? Um, you know, as a group that's focused on climate action and fighting the climate crisis. We're really thinking about how the Department of Labor could be involved in a dress transition. Getting back to that point about cleaning up the mess that Donald Trump left. Marty won't can take action to strengthen protections for workers and labor rights that has been sort of chipped away at the last four years. They can also be really expanding Green drops training programs and being a key player playing a key role in workforce development for clean energy jobs. It can also be ensuring strong federal support for workers, industries and communities who that were, you know, relying on fossil fuels in the past and making sure that those places and those people have the resource is and the training They need to get jobs in the clean energy economy. They can also be. You know, the Department of Labor has unique resource is that no other departments have they have the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which can really study The impacts of climate change on our economy, our workers our society, and they should be deploying those deploying those to make sure that we continue to make good plans into the future about how we approach the climate crisis. Our guest is spokesperson for Evergreen Action Out of the New York City. Holly Burke. Holly. You guys actually have a headquarter? Are you one of these? You guys They're kind of headquartered. Wherever your people are. We're kind of headquartered wherever people are kind of spread out, which is cool, all right, But you're in New York City. So Labor was a big part of Joe Biden's win. He courted the unions, he pushed for the unions. He has a strong labor background and a strong union supporting background and they came out early for Joe Biden during the primaries..
Talk 1260 KTRC
"evergreen action" Discussed on Talk 1260 KTRC
"That is Sunday Monday, which is a birthday for Washington President's Day holiday For many of you holiday for me 30 will be the high 20 overnight snow returning Tuesday and Wednesday, right now in Santa Fe and 53. Degrees. All right, first half hours wide open. You want to call in anything? Just, you know, grating on you stuck in your craw things you want to talk about whether it has to do with the impeachment trial, which is Amazing to wash to think about Or anything else that you want to talk about is fine. 505424 12 61 30. We'll talk with state representative Melanie Stansbury. She's from District 28 in Albuquerque, where I talk about her Climate Solutions Act about missing and murdered indigenous women and other issues. That's a 1 32 o'clock today, Dr. Don von Head of product at a company called Invisibly. And they do a lot of pulling a lot of data research, and we're and talk about the difference and political parties. And the intent. Whether to get the vaccine or not. 2 32 Day, Cabinet Secretary Brian Blaylock from C Y F D and 3 30 today, Holly Burke. Holly Burke from Evergreen Action will talk about environmental issues and the fact that the secretary of labor Is passing through committee. Binds nomination in how does that impact New Mexico? So that's the plan First half hours open. You want to call in chat about anything? Fire a way. 505424 12 60..