New York mandates Bold Cuts in Greenhouse Gas Emissions to address Climate Change

Transition from Fossil Fuels to Renewable Energy 

will Cut Emissions and create New Jobs

By David Kowalski

On July 18, 2019, NY Gov. Cuomo signed into law the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). It is the most ambitious legal mandate in the nation for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The CLCPA mandates:

- by 2030, 70% of electricity will be generated by emission-free, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar

- by 2040, electricity generation will have zero greenhouse gas emissions

- by 2050, 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels, and a goal of net-zero emissions in all sectors of the economy

The CLCPA has specific goals and timelines for different types of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Distributed solar is expected to have a capacity of six gigawatts by 2025. Offshore wind is expected to reach nine gigawatts of capacity by 2035. There's a target for energy efficiency improvements (a 185 trillion BTU reduction by 2025) and storage (3 gigawatts by 2030) as well.

When he signed the CLCPA, Cuomo announced some initial steps toward the goals, including contracts for two offshore wind power projects that will generate 1.7 gigawatts, enough electricity to power 1 million homes. These wind power projects will create 1,600 unionized jobs and over $3 billion of economic activity.

Cuomo said there would be nearly $280 million in new investments in infrastructure to distribute the power and a $20 million program at the state university system to train clean energy workers.

The CLCPA also focuses on adaptation mechanisms, including increasing the resilience of infrastructure to withstand disasters. The legislation also establishes a process ensuring that investments from clean energy and energy efficiency funds benefit frontline communities that have been historically burdened by pollution or are at high risk from the effects of climate change.

Achieving drastic emissions cuts will also require tackling transportation, the largest source of emissions in the state, and buildings where natural gas and other fuels are the primary source of heating.

A 22-member panel, which will include state agency commissioners and others appointed by Cuomo and legislative leaders, will be given broad authority and three years to come up with a "scoping plan" to recommend changes the state can make to reduce its emissions. Specific industries or areas, such as transportation, will be the focus of sub-panels.

The text of the CLCPA is here.

NY's Master Plan for Offshore Wind Power is here.

 BATTERY STORAGE

Grid-sized Battery Storage Facility under construction | NY Times photo

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UPDATE: 8.01.2019

$1.1B Niagara Power Project upgrade is NYPA's biggest investment ever

ALBANY – The New York Power Authority will invest $1.1 billion in a massive modernization effort at the Niagara Power Project, the state’s largest producer of electricity.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, in a statement announcing the investment Wednesday, said the project will help the state meet its ambitious plans to transition a carbon-free energy system throughout New York by 2040.

“The Niagara Power Project is New York’s largest source of clean electricity and this modernization project will allow it to continue operating for another 50 years," Cuomo said in a statement.

Read the article in The Buffalo News

NY State Senate Passes Historic Climate Leadership And Community Protection Act

Albany, NY -- The Senate today [5.19.2019] passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) to address and mitigate the effects of climate change by drastically cutting greenhouse gases, diverting the state’s energy reliance to renewable sources, and creating green jobs to promote environmental justice across New York State. This bill is the most comprehensive and aggressive climate change legislation in the nation.

"Today marks a historic day for New York State in the fight against climate change," Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. "As our leaders in Washington fail to take action, New York needs to lead in this time of great crises for our planet. I commend Senator Todd Kaminsky for championing this bill and protecting New York's future generations."

Bill Sponsor and Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee, Senator Todd Kaminsky, said, “While Washington is asleep at the wheel, New York is leading the way. The CLCPA will virtually eliminate New York’s greenhouse gasses, foster renewable energy production, create green jobs, invest in lower-income communities, and protect our planet. New Yorkers and the world cannot wait any longer. This is the moment for bold, global change--and I’m proud to say New York is leading the nation.”

The Senate Majority held a series of hearings on the Climate Leadership and Community Protect Act (CLCPA), led by Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee, Senator Todd Kaminsky, in Albany, New Paltz, Syracuse, New York City, and Long Island. These hearings allowed concerned citizens, stakeholders, and environmental experts to provide testimony on how climate change has impacted their communities and recommendations for New York State moving forward.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, S.6599, will:

•     Minimize the adverse impacts of climate change by reducing statewide greenhouse gas emissions.

•     Improve the state’s resiliency to the certain effects and risks of climate change.

•     Ensure that the ongoing transition of the state's energy sector will create good jobs and protect workers and communities during the transition process.

•     Prioritize the safety and health of disadvantaged communities, control the potential regressive impacts of future climate change mitigation, and adopt policies for these communities.

ENERGY: Report finds strong bipartisan support for 100% clean, renewable energy -- Majority see economic benefits

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

REPORT: Energy in the American Mind -- December 2018

By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Abel Gustafson, Parrish Bergquist, Matthew Ballew and Matthew Goldberg

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Executive Summary

Drawing on a nationally representative survey (N = 1,114; including 966 registered voters), this report describes Americans’ energy-related beliefs, attitudes, consumer behaviors, and support for different energy policies. Among other important results, we found strong bipartisan support for requiring electric utilities to use 100% clean, renewable energy, that a majority of Americans say transitioning to clean, renewable energy will benefit the economy, and that support for renewable energy research has increased by 30 percentage points among conservative Republicans over the past five years.

Beliefs and Attitudes about Clean, Renewable Energy

• Most Americans consider both “clean energy” and “renewable energy” to be good things. Liberal Democrats were more likely to rate the term “clean energy” (99%) positively than “renewable energy” (83%), while conservative Republicans were more likely to rate the term “renewable energy” (63%) positively than “clean energy” (46%).
• About six in ten Americans consider coal energy (62%) to be “moderately” or more harmful to people’s health. Democrats (76%) are more likely than Republicans (57%) to say that coal is harmful. About half of Americans (53%) say nuclear energy is harmful. In contrast, almost no Americans think solar (5%) or wind energies (5%) are harmful to people’s health.
• A majority of Americans (58%) – including three in four Democrats (75%) – think policies intended to transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy will improve economic growth and create new jobs. Only 18% of Americans – and 7% of Democrats – think such policies will reduce growth and jobs. More Republicans think such a transition will improve economic growth (39%) than reduce it (31%).
• Americans’ most important reasons to support a transition to 100% clean, renewable energy are reducing water pollution (75%), reducing air pollution (74%), and providing a better life for our children and grandchildren (72%).
• About seven in ten Americans (71%; including 87% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans) think clean energy should be a “high” or “very high” priority for the president and Congress. Very few Americans (7%, including 3% of Democrats and 11% of Republicans) think it should be a “low” priority.
• A majority of Americans (61%) – including about eight in ten Democrats (79%) – think that if all nations switch to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2050, it will be “moderately” or “very” effective at limiting global warming.

Help Pass Strong Climate Legislation in NYS Now -- Take Action!

We are on the verge of passing the strongest climate legislation in the country, right here in New York!

But Governor Cuomo, who says he supports strong climate legislation, is not standing as the bold leader he’d like us to believe he is and has called proposed legislation “a political placebo.” 

We need to tell him to get his priorities straight and pass a strong Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) now.

It's more important than ever to Call Governor Cuomo and Email Your Representatives to tell them it is beyond time to pass a strong CCPA!

It's EASY: simply Click the Link above and select Call or Email. A message is supplied.

Despite Cuomo’s feet dragging, pressure to #PassTheCCPA is at its all time high. Our New York congresspeople endorsed this landmark legislation this week, from Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brian Higgins and most other members of the NY congressional delegation (see letter and signatories, below).
 

The time is now. Let’s get this done. Let’s pass the CCPA this legislative session!

~  Environmental Advocates of New York - EANY.org

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Endorsement of the Climate and Community Protection Act by U.S. Representatives 
(click images to enlarge):

Free Film Screening: National Geographic Film on Climate Change

National Geographic Climate Change Film: 

'Paris to Pittsburgh'

Set against the national debate over the United States’ energy future — and the explosive decision to exit the Paris Climate Agreement — 'Paris to Pittsburgh' captures what's at stake for communities around the country and the inspiring ways Americans are responding.

Free Public Film Screening:

Monday, April 8, 7:00pm, Daemen College, Schenck Hall (Rm. 107), Amherst [Map]

From coastal cities to America’s heartland, ‘Paris to Pittsburgh’ celebrates how Americans are demanding and developing real solutions in the face of climate change. 

And as the weather grows more deadly and destructive, they aren’t waiting on Washington to act.

“There are now more jobs in renewable energy in the state of Pennsylvania than coal, natural gas, and oil combined.” — Bill Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh

View the film trailer: click here.

TALK: Diesel-Electric Locomotives and Environmental Sustainability

Environmentalist and life-long rail fan Walter Simpson will present his new information-packed, beautifully illustrated book which explains in detail:

•     How all energy-related components of a contemporary diesel-electric locomotive work

•     Locomotive fuel economy measures shrouded in secrecy by the railroad industry

•     Emissions regulation and technology

•     Railroad motive power options to address the threat of climate change

The Museum’s model railroad layout will be open and running 5-6 pm and the Singing Brakemen will sing train songs beginning at 5:30. Walter’s book will be available at special event discount price. 

Admission: Museum members free; others $5. 

For more information about Simpson’s book, see www.diesel-electric-locomotives.com. For more information about this event, email enconser@buffalo.edu

Sponsors: The Buffalo History Museum. Co-sponsored by the Citizens for Regional Transit, Niagara Frontier Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, Partnership for the Public Good, Sierra Club Niagara Group, WNY Environmental Alliance, WNY Peace Center, WNY Railway Historical Society.

NY Climate and Community Protection Act targets Renewable Energy, Jobs & Justice

Momentum grows for New York’s Landmark Climate-Equity Bill

By Greta Moran | Feb 16, 2019 | Grist

Walter Cooper, a labor union leader, stood on the steps of New York City Hall to fight for new kind of contract.

“We need a contract for a future of our state and for our communities,” Cooper said in support of the Climate and Community Protection Act, a bill making its way through the state legislature.

Cooper’s labor union is part of New York Renews, a broad coalition of 160 labor, climate, and community groups that has been pushing for climate justice since 2015. The Climate and Community Protection Act would move New York to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. The bill’s labor and justice measures have garnered it wide grassroots support. And increasingly, the attention of lawmakers.

On Thursday, as part of New York Senate’s first-ever hearing on climate change, testimonies were heard on behalf of the bill. The legislation would make its goals across energy, transportation, and buildings legally enforceable — a contract with the environment.

The hearing, chaired by Senator Todd Kaminsky, signaled the Democrats’ fresh resolve to address climate change.

It’s not the first time the CCPA has come close to becoming law: Last April, it passed in the Assembly for the third time. But the Senate’s leaders didn’t allow it to come to the floor for a vote. Now that Democrats control the Senate, the passage of the bill — or a similarly ambitious climate bill — is looking more likely.

“The CCPA is the main vehicle through which we will address climate change and these hearings will go a long way toward ensuring that all stakeholders will have input in the legislative process,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement.

Along with mandated energy goals, the CCPA would require that state agencies consider not only climate but also equity in their decisions. It would require fair labor standards for jobs created in renewable energy and would invest 40 percent of the state’s energy funds in communities likely to be hardest hit by climate change.

The CLIMATE KIDS are Coming! Young People Fighting for Their Future

The Climate Kids are Coming
With a Green New Deal and Student Strikes for Climate, will young people save us yet?

 By Mark Hertsgaard | January 28, 2019 | The Nation

If you don’t know who Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg is, you can think of her as an international climate-change counterpart to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like the rock-star congresswoman from New York, Thunberg is a charismatic young woman whose social-media savvy, moral clarity, and fearless speaking truth to power have inspired throngs of admirers to take to the streets for a better world and call out the politicians and CEOs who are standing in the way.

Ocasio-Cortez, 29, is known for championing the #GreenNewDeal and schooling right-wing haters on Twitter. Thunberg, 16, is known for launching the #SchoolStrike4Climate movement—tens of thousands of high-school students worldwide are skipping school on Fridays until their governments treat the climate crisis as an emergency—and for torching billionaires and heads of state at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

Demolishing the convenient notion that we are all to blame for climate change, Thunberg told a Davos panel that included president Trump’s former chief economics adviser Gary Cohn, “Some people, some companies, some decision makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they have been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money.” She paused before a final thrust of the knife: “I think many of you here today belong to that group of people.”

Call them the Climate Kids. Like Ocasio-Cortez and Thunberg themselves, the grassroots activist movements they have roused are comprised almost exclusively of teenagers and twenty-somethings. These are not your father’s environmentalists: supplicant, “realistic,” and accepting of failure. These young people are angry about the increasingly dire climate future awaiting them and clear-eyed about who’s to blame and how to fix it. And they seem to have the bad guys worried.

Continue reading at The Nation

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Below is a repost of my article posted at Re-ENERGIZE Buffalo (Dec.16, 2018) along with an UPDATE:

Young Activist Condemns World's Inaction on Climate Change at U.N. Summit

Greta Thunberg, a 15 year-old high school student from Sweden, realized at a young age the difference in what climate experts were saying needed to be done and the actions that were being taken in society.

She decided to take matters into her own hands.

With focus and poise beyond her years, Greta spoke truth to power in an audience of adults including U.N. officials and world government representatives at the recent Climate Summit (COP 24) in Poland. She cited inaction on climate change as a burden that adults are leaving on their children:

You say you love your children above all else, and yet you're stealing their future in front of their very eyes. Until you start focusing on what needs to be done, rather than its what is politically possible, there is no hope. 

Watch a short video of Greta's powerful and moving speech at the U.N. Climate Summit below:

On Hope: 
Elsewhere, in a TEDx Talk, Greta said, "Yes, we do need hope, of course we do. But the one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere."

School Strike for the Climate:
The U.N. Summit speech was not Greta’s first climate action. Earlier this year, Greta demanded that her government in Sweden undertake a radical response to climate change. She protested for more than a month in Stockholm, sitting on the steps of the parliament building, every day during school hours for three weeks. She has returned to school for four days a week; she now spends her Fridays on the steps of parliament.  Read more about Greta and what makes her special in The New Yorker


UPDATE: Greta was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Here is part of Greta's message to Davos before leaving by train from Stockholm to Switzerland:

“Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we all have created. But that is just another convenient lie because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame.

Some people, some companies, and some decision-makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they are sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money.

I want to challenge those companies and those decision makers into real and bold climate action. To set their economic goals aside and to safeguard the future living conditions for humankind.”

Watch the video below and Listen to this articulate young human being:

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Greta's Speech at the World Economic Forum

Greta’s bottom line:
“I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.”
Watch a short video of Greta’s speech and read the full text of her speech at The Guardian

School Strikes over Climate Change continue to Snowball:
Greta Thunberg, whose solo protest outside Sweden’s parliament has snowballed across the globe, will join a strike by Swiss school children in the Davos ski resort on Friday — the final day of the World Economic Forum.  Read the report at Grist

Climate & Energy: Cuomo's 'Green New Deal' is not comprehensive, NY Renews says

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Gov targets 100% clean energy by ’40; Some say it’s not enough

January 21, 2019  | The Villager

BY SYDNEY PEREIRA | Governor Andrew Cuomo recently announced his version of a “Green New Deal” to tackle climate change and ramp up clean energy.

Under his plan, 100 percent of the state’s electricity would be generated by clean power by 2040. This would be achieved by using a mix of energy sources like solar, wind, nuclear and hydropower.

A new Climate Action Council would develop a plan for carbon neutrality across the entire economy — meaning reducing the carbon footprint across industries and sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change.

“We know it’s coming,” Cuomo said in his State of the State address on Jan. 15. “Let the economy be here.”

Cuomo’s “Green New Deal” also includes green technology development, a $1.5 billion investment in offshore wind projects, and a $70 million property-tax compensation fund to help communities transition when old power plants close.

“We want those old plants closed. We want more efficient plants,” Cuomo said. But the state should fund the transition, so “those communities don’t shoulder the burden themselves,” he said.

Cuomo’s announcement comes after years of planning by a coalition of community groups, NY Renews, that have pushed for their own version of a climate action plan. Their plan forms the basis of the current Climate and Community Protection Act, sponsored by state Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Steve Englebright.

That bill would have mandated the state’s electricity be generated by 50 percent renewable energy by 2030, and that all industries eliminate 100 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The community-initiated bill passed three times in the Assembly but has languished in the Senate.

NY Renews welcomed Cuomo’s announcement, but criticized his failure to set a timeline for a transition to clean power economywide.

“For years, the Climate and Community Protection Act has represented a true climate-justice agenda for our state,” NY Renews said in a statement in response to Cuomo’s address. “It is heartening to see progress toward a fossil-fuel-free New York.”

However, the coalition added, a “truly comprehensive plan to tackle climate change needs more specific deadlines, planning processes and accountability for moving our whole economy off of fossil fuels than are currently included.”

WNY CLIMATE CONVERSATIONS - Saturday, Feb. 9, 1-4PM

Register for the event on Facebook and Invite Friends: Click here

Registration:  

https://wnymasterteachers.wufoo.com/forms/wnyclimateconversations/

A New Year’s Message About Climate Change - Act Quickly

Bill McKibben Has A New Year’s Message About Climate Change — Act Quickly

January 1st, 2019 by Steve Hanley | Clean Technica

Bill McKibben has been writing about climate change for 30 years. Along the way, he has been arrested multiple times, spat on, had his life threatened, and been spied on by minions working for fossil fuel companies. Oh, he also founded 350.org, whose stated mission is to keep the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere below 350 parts per million. The world blew by that benchmark some time ago and is racing toward the 450 ppm level.

He has written almost 30 books on the subject, including The End Of Nature in 1989 and Oil & Honey in 2013. If you want to be fully informed on the topic of climate change, the writings of Bill McKibben are the definitive source.

In a piece for Rolling Stone dated December 1, 2017, McKibben penned these words, “The technology exists to combat climate change — what will it take to get our leaders to act?” As 2018 draws to a close, it is appropriate to examine his thesis and see what, if anything changed this year. McKibben started his Rolling Stone piece with these words:

“If we don’t win very quickly on climate change, then we will never win. That’s the core truth about global warming. It’s what makes it different from every other problem our political systems have faced.

“I wrote the first book for a general audience about climate change in 1989 – back when one had to search for examples to help people understand what the ‘greenhouse effect’ would feel like. We knew it was coming, but not how fast or how hard. And because no one wanted to overestimate – because scientists by their nature are conservative – each of the changes we’ve observed has taken us somewhat by surprise. The surreal keeps becoming the commonplace.”

Watching The Arctic Melt

“[W]ith global warming, the fundamental equation is precisely what’s shifting. And the remarkable changes we’ve seen so far — the thawed Arctic that makes the Earth look profoundly different from outer space; the planet’s seawater turning 30 percent more acidic — are just the beginning. ‘We’re inching ever closer to committing to the melting of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, which will guarantee 20 feet of sea-level rise,’ says Penn State’s Michael Mann, one of the planet’s foremost climatologists. ‘We don’t know where the ice-sheet collapse tipping point is, but we are dangerously close.'”

As if to underscore Mann’s and McKibben’s warnings, on December 5, NASA posted a video on YouTube showing how the Arctic ice sheet has melted from September, 1984 through September, 2016. It’s pretty scary stuff. [To view the video, click here.]

“Another way of saying this,” writes McKibben, “By 2075 the world will be powered by solar panels and windmills — free energy is a hard business proposition to beat. But on current trajectories, they’ll light up a busted planet. The decisions we make in 2075 won’t matter; indeed, the decisions we make in 2025 will matter much less than the ones we make in the next few years. The leverage is now.”

Fossil Fuel Divestment: NY City Mayor acts to Protect Portfolios and Planet for Future Generations

 “Fossil fuel companies have misled the public for too long, and we must take action now..."  -- Mayor de Blasio

Mayor de Blasio, Comptroller Stringer, and Pension Fund Trustees Announce Significant Next Step to Divest Pension Funds From Fossil Fuel Reserve Companies

December 18, 2018

Issue landmark Request for Proposal to analyze fossil fuel risks and develop divestment plan

NEW YORK—Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott M. Stringer today announced the next big step in the New York City Pension Funds’ action to address the risk posed by climate change by divesting from fossil fuel reserve owners – an unprecedented process and the first-of-its-kind in the United States.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) released today seeks advisers to analyze, evaluate, and recommend prudent fossil fuel divestment strategies for the New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), the Teachers Retirement System (TRS), and the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS), together representing 70 percent of the total assets of the City’s $200 billion pension funds. The RFP will result in a comprehensive analysis of the City Pension Funds’ holdings and the risks the fossil fuel industry poses to pension assets.

This analysis – the first-of-its-kind of a pension fund of this size – will inform the development of a comprehensive and prudent divestment strategy to preserve the retirement funds of City employees and address climate change risks, consistent with fiduciary duty.

“Divestment is a critical part of our strategy to fight climate change while insulating our pension funds,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Fossil fuel companies have misled the public for too long, and we must take action now to protect our portfolios as well as our planet for future generations. I thank the Comptroller and the rest of my fellow Trustees for standing strong as we continue taking these steps to divest from fossil fuels.”

“The future of New York City can’t be tied to fossil fuels – and today, we’re taking the next big step to protect our planet and the retirement security of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “Climate change poses an existential threat. But by moving towards a fossil fuel free investment strategy, New York City is planting the seed for a clean, green, and thriving economy that can truly support future generations. The steps we take in New York City set a precedent around the country and the world, and the leadership from the Mayor and the trustees are charting a roadmap for responsible climate action.”

Read more at the Official Website for the City of New York

Pending Climate Bill could Transform NY Energy Market

Could New York go carbon free by 2050?

The Climate and Community Protection Act could transform New York’s energy market.

By Susan Arbetter | December 12, 2018 |  Excerpt

The Climate and Community Protection Act, sponsored by state Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Steve Englebright, is an expansive bill that requires New York state to generate 50 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030. By 2050, the bill would require the elimination of all greenhouse gas emissions.

The bill is process-oriented. Baked into the plan is a climate action playbook that proponents say will guide the state from its current level of fossil fuel use down to zero.

For workers who may be displaced by the proposed transition to renewables, the bill includes prevailing wage standards and addresses the needs of environmental justice communities where many fossil fuel plants are currently located. The bill is, in one activist’s words, “a B-12 shot for the state’s renewables.”

Currently, New York only uses 3 percent wind energy and less than 1 percent from solar energy. “This is the most important issue on Earth,” said Englebright, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation. “States now have to pick up the slack that has been created by the inaction of the federal government.”

State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, who was recently tapped to chair the state Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee starting in January, agreed. “There is no doubt we need to take aggressive steps to address climate change,” he said. “This bill will be the central vehicle by which we will accomplish that.”

Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, said the state needs a strong foundation for setting its clean energy goals in law. “Right now the goals don’t exist in law,” he said. “They are at the whim of the executive.”

New National Climate Assessment of impacts, costs and risks starkly contrasts with Trump Administration's fossil fuel agenda

But Who will Protect the People of the United States?

Climate Change Puts U.S. Economy and Lives at Risk, and Costs Are Rising, Federal Agencies Warn    
The National Climate Assessment describes increasing heat, fire and flood damage. It's a stark contrast to Trump's energy policies and climate claims. 
Inside Climate News - 11.23.2018: click here

Unable to Bury Climate Report, Trump & Deniers Launch Assault on the Science

Evidence and warnings in the National Climate Assessment are a high-stakes problem for Trump's fossil fuel-friendly agenda, both in politics and in court. 
Inside Climate News - 11.30.2018: click here

Progressive congressional lawmakers seek a 'Green New Deal' to mitigate climate change, protect health and create jobs

                                                                                                                        ji sub jeong/huffpost

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, diverse lawmakers prioritize climate change with 'Green New Deal'
'Our lives are on the line,' says Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez regarding climate change.
NBC News - 11.30.2018: click here
 

CLIMATE: Sanders plots Green New Deal-style bill

Senate bill would include a transition to 100 percent renewable energy and big investments in clean energy technology and green infrastructure.

E&E News - 12.03.2018: click here

CLIMATE CHANGE - Who will Protect the People of the U.S.?

Ocasio-Cortez and progressive Dems' Green New Deal gains traction as Trump shrugs off dire warnings from climate scientists
While President Trump attributes his climate change skepticism to his “very high levels of intelligence,” a growing legion of lawmakers and young activists are taking heed of dire warnings being issued by experts and scientists about the catastrophic consequences of inaction.
 
Progressives, led by New York City’s own Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are joining forces behind an ambitious plan to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels, boost renewable energy jobs and build a “smart” power grid.
 
The major push to make climate change a priority when Congress convenes in January got off to a high-profile start weeks ago when Ocasio-Cortez applauded young activists from the environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement protesting at soon-to-be-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill.  

A damning federal government report about the economic and societal impacts of climate change released last week, which Trump openly dismissed, has only emboldened believers steeling for a showdown with mainline Democrats and added weight to their calls for a so-called “Green New Deal.”
NY Daily News - 12.02.2018: To read more, click here



VIDEO:  Solving Our Climate Crisis - A National Town Hall
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, environmental author & 350.org founder Bill McKibben, CNN commentator Van Jones, Union of Concerned Scientists Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel and climate activists
Now This - 12.03.2018: To view the video, click here

A CLEAN START - Environmental Advocates of New York

Dear Advocates,

Former President Obama once said, “Elections have consequences.” That statement might be doubly true for the election we just had in New York.

New Yorkers have elected a new majority to the State Senate. In doing so, over a quarter of the Senate chairs will be filled by new members. With these changes comes great opportunity for popular, common-sense environmental legislation to finally see the light of day in the Senate.

You know from your involvement with us that there has been environmental stagnation in Albany. Critical pieces of legislation have been blocked by leaders who refused to step up and protect our environment, strengthen our communities, or improve our health. Bills with broad backing like the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) and the Environmental Bill of Rights easily passed the Assembly this year with bi-partisan support, only to be buried in the Senate. The CCPA actually had a majority of Senators listed as official co-sponsors.

Where the previous Senate Majority had failed to recognize the importance of having a right to clean air and water or the potential of good jobs in the clean energy economy, we trust the new Senate Majority will take a different path. We expect the new Senate will join the Assembly in being champions of the environment by prioritizing policies that benefit our health, our communities, and our economy. The Climate and Community Protection Act and the Environmental Bill of Rights would both be a good place to start. The incoming Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins has championed the climate bill.

Similarly, the change of leadership in the US House of Representatives holds promise for positive action on the environment. It starts with a fundamental flip of ideals—science is important again, climate change is real, and actual oversight of agencies like the EPA is necessary. While there may be scant hope for the House to be joined in their ideals by a federal government that remains hostile to the environment, they should provide a counterbalance to the dirty policies of the Trump administration.

This election does not mean our job is done. We still need to make our case—loudly—but now to more receptive ears. The opportunity to make real environmental progress is much greater today than it was a week ago. Let’s get to work.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Iwanowicz
Executive Director
Environmental Advocates of New York

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Environmental Advocates of New York strongly supports these bills:

Climate and Community Protection Act 

A.8270-B (Englebright, et al.)    S.7971-A (Hoylman, et al.)

The impacts of climate change are affecting New York’s economic security, safety, and public health. Poor air quality, which is worsened by climate change, is making our children sick and shortening the lives of seniors. Extreme weather events place people in danger, cost billions in lost production and revenue, and damage or destroy communities.

Read more here...

Environmental Bill of Rights 

A.6279 (Englebright, et al.)     S.5287 (Carlucci, et al.)

This bill establishes in the New York State Constitution a right to clean water, clean air and a healthful environment. It addresses a gap in our legal foundations, and provides an expression of values that other states have already seen fit to establish and to pronounce.

Read more here...

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UPDATE (11.14.2018):

The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) strongly supports the Environmental Bill of Rights legislation

This proposal would amend the State Constitution's Bill of Rights to include a right to clean air and water and a healthful environment. This proposal establishes for New Yorkers the constitutional right to clean air, clean water and a healthy environmental equivalent to other basic rights guaranteed in New York State’s Constitution Article 1 Bill of Rights, such as, the right of freedom of worship and religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, compensation for taking private property, equal protection of law, and security against unreasonable searches and seizures, among others. The basic human right to clean air and water and a healthful environment has been starkly absent from this list of constitutional protections, but recent threats to our water and air have reminded us that we cannot take for granted that these life sustaining elements will be protected. It is critical that we recognize the basic human rights to clean air and water and a healthful environment and detail these in the Article 1 Bill of Rights. 
Read more here... 


To Download the PDF document at the ADK website, Click Here

For this and other ADK Policy Positions, visit the ADK Website Here
 

Open Discussion: Climate and America’s Migration Issues

THE SIERRA CLUB

CLIMATE AND CLEAN ENERGY WRITERS GROUP

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Climate and America’s Migration Issues

Climate Change is driving migration throughout the world by demolishing homes, destroying harvests and disrupting local economies.  The UN states that “An annual average of 21.5 million people have been forcibly displaced by weather-related sudden onset hazards – such as floods, storms, wildfires, extreme temperature – each year since 2008”.  At the same time, immigration policy is an issue that is dividing America.  

Join a discussion of this crucial issue!

6:00-7:30 PM - Crane Branch Library - 633 Elmwood at Highland 
2nd Floor Meeting Room
  
Free and open to the public – writers and non-writers alike
billnowa@gmail.com for info

Rep. Higgins to Introduce McMurray at Endorsed Candidate Event

The Sierra Club Niagara Group is holding an Endorsed Challengers Meet & Greet Rally which will be FREE and open to the general public. This is an opportunity to hear each candidate briefly describe his/her platform and their views on a variety of environmental topics.

As a highlight of the event, Congress Member Brian M. Higgins has been confirmed to introduce candidate Nate McMurray, who is running for U.S. Congressional District 27.

Friday, October 12, 5pm-7pm, UAW Region 9 Hall, 35 George Karl Blvd, #100 (just off Wehrle Drive, near Transit), Williamsville, NY  [Map]

Besides meeting the candidates, attendees will have an opportunity to donate money and/or volunteer for those campaigns which they choose to support. FREE food and beverages will be available.

Turnout in New York’s September 13^th primary was almost triple that of the 2014 primary for governor.  Interest in this year’s elections is sky high with both the U.S. House of Representatives and the NY State Senate in play.  Excitement is building and a big crowd is expected for this event.

Candidates who will be featured at the Meet & Greet Rally are listed below.

Name                                      Race

Nate McMurray                       (US Congress, District 27)

Joan Elizabeth Seamans       (NY Senate, District 61)

Carima El-Behairy                   (NY Senate, District 60)

Karen McMahon                     (NY Assembly, District 146)

Patrick Burke                          (NY Assembly, District 142)

Michelle Roman                      (Mayor of Lockport)

Luke Wochensky                    (NY Assembly, District 147)


Watch this Video shared by Bill Nowak:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1107460882712472/

(After opening the link, click the Speaker symbol to hear the sound)

Presentation: Resistance and Resilience to Climate Change

Tim DeChristopher is a climate change activist and the co-founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising and the Climate Disobedience Center.

As a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School, Tim’s work combines environmental activism and religious thought.

His career as an activist was launched by an act of civil disobedience in 2008, when he disrupted an oil and gas land auction to protect land parcels around Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. His efforts led to the protection of the land and his imprisonment for 21 months.


PRESENTATION by Tim DeChristopher: 
‘Beyond Fatalism: Resistance and Resilience to Climate Change’
Thursday, October 4, 2:00-3:30pm
Niagara University
Galisano Center for Integrated Sciences, Room 101
Lewiston, NY [Map]

This event is part of the Office of Multicultural Affairs’ Diversity Thursdays Series, the Political Science Department’s Social Justice Speaker and Discussion Series, and is co-sponsored by the Environmental Science Program, the Sociology Department, and the Earth and Social Justice Program Houses.