News

Climate, Jobs, and Justice Action Week April 5-9th 2021

Saving the planet is everybody’s business. There is something (or more than one thing!) you can do next week for Mother Earth.

Here’s what’s happening throughout NYS and the Capital Region.

1) A huge kick off call

2) 40 lobby visits

3) dozens of rallies

4) call relay

5) daily social media actions, and

6) a town hall with Senator Schumer.         

Climate, Jobs, and Justice Action Week April 5-9th 2021

Social Media, April 5 – 9

There will be social media activities to participate in each day of the Action Week.

➤TBA outreach toolkit (Social Media Publicizing this week)

—————————————————————————————————–

Monday, April 5

  1. Kick-off Mass Call, 12pm

➤ Sign up for kick off call here 

➤ Spread the word about this call using this template

          ➤ sign up to make two calls in the Call Relay 9am-5pm

Tuesday, April 6

  1. NYS Virtual Lobby Visits on the CCIA

➤ Sign up to attend a lobby visit (Legis. Hinchey or Fahy, 12:00pm) You will be sent the Zoom link 24 hrs before meeting

➤ Send an email out to your networks to attend the lobby visits 

  1. NYS Leadership Call Relay on the CCIA
  2. Huge social media action with our congressional allies

Wednesday, April 7

  1. CCIA/THRIVE Local Rallies Targeting State and/or Federal Legislators

                   ➤ sign up to attend a local rally West Capitol Park, Albany @ noon

➤ Send out an email to your networks about the rallies

  1. Virtual Lobby Visits with Members of Congress on THRIVE

                   ➤ sign up to attend a lobby visit with Rep. Tonko, 10-0:30am, email Jill Loew, browndog524@gmail.com ideally 2 members from each CCRP group

Friday, April 9

  1. Virtual Town Hall with Senator Schumer and Other Elected Officials

                   ➤ sign up to attend

                   ➤ Send out an email to your networks about the town hall

—————————————————————————————————–

RESOURCES:

Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA) fact sheet

THRIVE Act website

Kiss the Ground: Movie

Kiss the Ground covers a lot of ground, from the plains of North Dakota to the hills of California to the plateaus of China. If you’ve seen it you’ve met the farmers, ranchers, soil experts, and activists who are working to rebuild our soil and draw down climate pollution. It’s inspiring to see so many people throw themselves fully into this effort.

This film was a years-long undertaking from a team dedicated to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing our society — from climate change to soil loss to struggling farms. What they’ve laid out is a fantastic vision for what our country needs to do in order to bring back healthy farm ecosystems and economies.

We’ll be talking with the executive director and filmmakers of Kiss the Ground about what inspired the film and what these concepts mean for you in your day-to-day life. 

Featuring:
Ramón Cruz, moderator and president of the Sierra Club
Mary Chambers, chair of Sierra Club California’s Sustainable Agriculture Committee
Josh Tickell, director and producer of Kiss the Ground
Rebecca Tickell, director and producer of Kiss the Ground
Ryland Engelhart, co-founder and executive director of Kiss the Ground

April 5 – 9: Climate, Jobs, and Justice Action Week!

Our work for bold, broad and speedy action on the climate crisis is having an impact. There is a new awareness of the reality of climate change and the ways it plays out in communities around the country and around the world. And, very importantly, the changes in the political landscape of NY State and at the national level should give us all hope that we are on the verge of big changes.
Of course, we all know that hoping is far from enough. Now is the time for us to redouble our efforts. Now is the time to bring our forces together to make sure policy makers feel our strength. In just a few weeks we have an opportunity to do that.


NY Renews and One NY Indivisible are coordinating a statewide week of action to build support for landmark climate justice legislation both in New York State and nationally –the NYS Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA), and the national THRIVE Agenda!  (Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy) During the first week of April, the NY State Legislature and the U.S. Congress will be in recess, in their home districts. We have an opportunity to make it clear that we are demanding change in our  state and nationally.

The April 5 – 9 week of action will include virtual lobby visits, town hall online gatherings, local in-person actions (all with COVID safety precautions), as well as a massive social media presence. A great deal is already in motion, but we know the potential to make this as large and strong as possible rests on more of your groups jumping in to help organize specific activities, participate in the activities that are already planned, and to get the word out far and wide.

Here’s what’s happening throughout NYS and the Capital Region.

1) A huge kick off call,

2) 40 lobby visits,

3) dozens of rallies,

4) call relay,

5) daily social media actions, and

6) a town hall with Senator Schumer.         

Climate, Jobs, and Justice Action Week April 5-9th 2021

Social Media, April 5 – 9

There will be social media activities to participate in each day of the Action Week.

➤TBA outreach toolkit (Social Media Publicizing this week)

—————————————————————————————————–

Monday, April 5

  1. Kick-off Mass Call, 12pm

➤ Sign up for kick off call here 

➤ Spread the word about this call using this template

          ➤ sign up to make two calls in the Call Relay 9am-5pm

Tuesday, April 6

  1. NYS Virtual Lobby Visits on the CCIA

➤ Sign up to attend a lobby visit (Legis. Hinchey or Fahy, 12:00pm) You will be sent the Zoom link 24 hrs before meeting

➤ Send an email out to your networks to attend the lobby visits 

  1. NYS Leadership Call Relay on the CCIA
  2. Huge social media action with our congressional allies

Wednesday, April 7

  1. CCIA/THRIVE Local Rallies Targeting State and/or Federal Legislators

                   ➤ sign up to attend a local rally West Capitol Park, Albany @ noon

➤ Send out an email to your networks about the rallies

  1. Virtual Lobby Visits with Members of Congress on THRIVE

                   ➤ sign up to attend a lobby visit with Rep. Tonko, 10-0:30am, email Jill Loew, browndog524@gmail.com ideally 2 members from each CCRP group

Friday, April 9

  1. Virtual Town Hall with Senator Schumer and Other Elected Officials

                   ➤ sign up to attend

                   ➤ Send out an email to your networks about the town hall

—————————————————————————————————–

RESOURCES:

Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA) fact sheet

THRIVE Act website

THRIVE Agenda 101 webinar on March 31st at 6:30pm

Changing Leadership at FERC is Good for the Earth

A Big Victory at FERC | Ted Glick


One of Joe Biden’s very first appointments on January 21st, one of his least publicized but definitely one of his most important when it comes to the future of the earth’s ecosystems and human societies, was the appointment of Richard Glick to be chair of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Why was that appointment so important?


It is essential that we as a species urgently transition away from polluting fossil fuels and nukes to clean, jobs-creating, renewable energy sources–wind, sun, tides and currents and the relative heat, in winter, and the relative coolness, in summer, of the earth. Those non-polluting energy sources can then not just generate electricity for the world’s homes and businesses but to power electric cars, trucks, buses, and electric heat pump powered heating and cooling systems.
Electrification of power sources, transportation vehicles and heating and cooling systems is absolutely essential to make a clean energy revolution in enough time to prevent escalating and massive, worldwide climate catastrophe.


Richard Glick was nominated to be a FERC commissioner in 2017. Before his nomination he had a decades-long history of work in government and business in support of renewable energy. I learned this from him in person when we met about a week after I had been arrested during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on FERC in the summer of that year. Glick, who is no relation, was at that time the general counsel for the Democrats on that committee. He was in the room up at the front with all the Senators when I stood up as part of an organized nonviolent action and loudly said something like, “FERC is a rubber-stamp agency for the fossil fuel industry and a threat to the future of life on earth.” I was quickly removed by Capitol Police and ending up spending two days and one night in DC Central Cellblock before being released.


A couple of days later us two Glicks received an email from a staffer for one of the Democratic Senators on the Senate ENR committee. She suggested that the two of us might benefit from meeting and talking; I agreed to do so and a week later Rich and I met in the same room where I had been arrested.

By the end of 2017 he had been nominated and approved as a FERC commissioner, and since then I have watched with some amazement as Glick did something no other FERC commissioner has ever done: speak truth to power over and over again from within the corridors of power, particularly about the urgency of the climate crisis. The Republican majority over those years continued what had been happening under both Democrats and Republicans for at least 20 years, rubber-stamping every methane gas industry permit application to expand that industry. They were also making decisions to disadvantage renewables. In those 20 years, according to a House Committee on Oversight and Reform report last summer, of the 1,021 gas industry permit applications to FERC over that time only six had been rejected.


Glick dissented from just about all of those renewable energy disadvantaging and gas industry expansion permits when they came before the commissioners for a vote. He always wrote clear and well-reasoned dissents, primarily arguing that FERC was not doing serious analyses of the climate impacts of those new pipelines, compressor stations and gas export terminals. There’s little doubt that his dissents helped to educate people, including federal judges, about the reality of rubber-stamping FERC. By the fall of 2020 he was saying publicly that it was understandable why so many people were describing FERC as a rubber-stamping agency.

Glick’s first commissioners meeting as chair was last week, on February 18th. Once again, he didn’t disappoint. In his opening presentation, he made clear that FERC must become an agency where renewable energy and battery storage would be given space to grow and expand; where FERC’s rubber-stamping ways would be a thing of the past; where environmental justice concerns would become, for the first time, FERC concerns; where, 43 years after being authorized by Congress, there would be a FERC Office of Public Participation; and where the rampant abuse of landowners and property owners via eminent domain for corporate gain would be reined in. And from statements made by the other four commissioners, it was clear that some of those positions were more than just his.


As of June of this year, when Republican commissioner Neil Chatterjee’s term is up, Biden will be able to appoint a third Democrat to team with Glick and commissioner Allison Clements, giving them a majority for the next four years to transform FERC. It really is a whole new FERC world.
There is no question that there will be all kinds of pressures brought to bear to weaken what a Glick-led majority will try to do, including lawsuits brought by deep pockets fossil fuel and pipeline companies. There’s also FERC’s internal culture, corrupted by many years of partnership with the fossil fuelers. And if, in 2024, Republicans take over the White House, whatever positive has transpired up until then will be threatened.

That is why Beyond Extreme Energy and 240 other organizations, as well as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, among other elected officials, are supporting the idea of replacing FERC with FREC, a Federal Renewable Energy Commission. FREC would have a Congressional mandate to be all about helping to lead the transition away from fossil fuels to renewables. Leadership would be required to have a background of support for renewables. Environmental justice and community participation in decision-making would be guiding principles. Eminent domain abuse for corporate gain would come to an end.


BXE has been talking with House and Senate offices about this idea for the last several months, and we’ve been pleased by the response. We anticipate that legislation will be introduced, hopefully this spring, for FERC Into FREC.

In the meantime, we will continue to keep watch on FERC, expecting to like a lot of what we see and hear but prepared to take action as necessary to stand up for communities and the planet, as the movement against fracking and new fracking infrastructure has been doing over the last decade. It is good to know that this time, when we do so, we have reason to expect that our arguments will be taken seriously, finally.
 
Ted Glick has been a volunteer organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy since its founding in 2014. He is the author of Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left’s Resistance to the War, published last year. Past writings and other information can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://jtglick.com.

Clean Futures Act

This important information was shared by Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics and
Tracy Frisch, Chair, Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls in response to
Congressman Tonko’s provision in the “Clean Future Act” allowing
residential trash burning to be considered a “clean electricity source”.
Please share with your friends and lists.
 
Here’s what you can do to ask Rep. Tonko to remove that provision in his
bill:
 
1) If you are an individual, call Rep. Tonko’s office at 518-843-3400 or
202-225-5076; or submit a written comment at
https://tonko.house.gov/contact/. You can say/write something like the
following:
 
Re: Amendment Requested to the CLEAN Future Act
 
Dear Representative Tonko:
 
I appreciate your efforts in the CLEAN Future Act to begin addressing the
climate crisis.This bill includes many strong waste provisions that will
help address the plastic pollution crisis. Specifically, I applaud the
provisions pausing the permitting of new plastics production facilities,
requiring essential environmental justice protections, and supporting a
national bottle bill. However, I respectfully urge you to remove the
provision detailed in Title II, Subtitle A on page 39 of the bill, which
would allow incineration of post-consumer municipal waste to be considered
a clean electricity source.
 
2) If you are an organization, sign on to this group organizational
letter: https://forms.gle/r2GqykszrEyDMH2x8
 
3) Attend the virtual event below on Wed. March 31 at 6:45 pm with
the Saratoga League of Women Voters, *Congressman Tonko,* and student climate activists.
The program is entitled “*CLIMATE CHANGE – Solutions from the National to
the Local Level.” *Please register, attend and speak out about *false
climate solutions*, including the incineration of recyclables, garbage,
waste tires or anything else.
 
Register here: https://www.lwvsaratoga.org/events/2021/3/31/climate-change
 

Utility Shotoffs Moratorium About to Expire

New York’s moratorium on utility shutoffs is set to expire on March 31.

Call legislative leaders to demand they take immediate action to ensure New Yorkers have access to water during the pandemic!

Under normal circumstances, water is a human right, but during the pandemic it’s a public health necessity. Last year, the Legislature established a moratorium on shutting off water and other essential utilities during the health crisis. The State Senate and Assembly only have days to act to guarantee there are no lapses in service!

Making a call is a simple act, but it has a big impact.

Please call both Assembly Speaker Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins today. Here’s how:

1. Call 877-247-1820 AND 877-796-1949

2. Tell both offices:
“I urge the Legislature to extend New York’s moratorium on utility shutoffs.”

The evidence is conclusive: utility shutoff moratoriums prevent COVID infections and save lives. The Legislature must act NOW so that no New Yorkers go without water, power, and heat during the crisis, nor are punished for being unable to pay their bills.

Please take two minutes to call New York’s legislative leaders at 877-247-1820 and 877-796-1949 to urge them to protect public health and struggling families during this crisis.

Thank you for taking action,

Eric Weltman
Senior Organizer
Food & Water Watch

Tell FERC what they need to know

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently issued a notice for a series of “listening sessions” to hear comments about the creation of an Office of Public Participation within the Commission (Docket AD21-9-000).  The notice can be found on the Commission’s website and eLibrary.

FERC is the federal agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. FERC also reviews proposals to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines as well as licensing hydropower projects.  If you, your family, or your community have been negatively impacted by FERC approved infrastructure, or if you have experienced difficulty dealing with FERC processes and procedures, including access to information and transparency, this is your opportunity to be heard!

The sessions will give individuals an opportunity to provide their thoughts and ideas on how the Commission should create the OPP to encourage and facilitate public participation.  Following a brief introduction from Commission staff, each participant will have 3-5 minutes to speak.  

You do not need to have any particular background or expertise to speak in these sessions.  This is your opportunity, as an impacted landowner or resident, to speak about your experiences with FERC, and any difficulties you may have encountered.  How could an Office of Public Participation help impacted landowners like yourself in the future?

Pre-registration for speakers is highly recommended. FERC will give speaking priority to members of the public or representatives of Tribal governments who pre-register for a listening session. FERC will invite participants who have not pre-registered to speak after pre-registered participants if time permits. Click the links below to pre-register for the following sessions:

The Environmental Bond Act

Contact Your Leaders Now!

As we speak, our senators and assembly members in Albany are debating the largest and most ambitious environmental bond act in New York State history. This $3 billion dollar investment would modernize the state’s water infrastructure, improve public health, reduce flood risks, and enhance the quality of life for millions of people.

But this historic measure to protect New York from the effects of climate change won’t pass without your help! Tell your state legislators to support the Environmental Bond Act today!

The Environmental Bond Act isn’t just a smart move for the environment, it’s also a smart play for the economy. The passage of an Environmental Bond Act would inject billions of dollars into the economy and support more than 65,000 jobs in New York. It would also fund priorities, such as natural infrastructure projects, to restore wetlands and shorelines and to provide a vital buffer for communities from hurricane storm surge and sea level rise.

These efforts will help us build a more resilient, equitable and prosperous future for all New Yorkers. If enacted, the Environmental Bond Act will not only ensure New Yorkers have safe water to drink and clean air to breath but will:

  • Invest in environmental justice by ensuring 35% of funding goes to communities of color that have, and continue to, suffer disproportionately from flood risk, air pollution, exposure to toxins, and lack of green space and clean water
  • Expand open space and restore natural habitats by creating parks, protecting family farms, revitalizing waterfronts, and restoring habitat for birds, fish, and other wildlife.
  • Reduce climate risks by reducing harmful pollution and protecting communities from the growing risks of climate change such as sea level rise, flooding, extreme heat, and food and water shortages.

The time to act is now. Tell your representatives to invest in our environment and support the Environmental Bond Act.

Thank you for your leadership,Mark W. Rupp
Director, State-Federal Policy & Affairs, Ecosystems

2021 WALK FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN & MOTHER EARTH

2021 WALK FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN & MOTHER EARTH:

ELDERS AND YOUTH ON THE ROAD TO CLIMATE JUSTICE

KEEP FOSSIL FUELS IN THE GROUND  

SOLAR, WIND AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY NOW

March 26, 2021

We are not protesters. We are protectors.

We are not people protecting nature. We are nature protecting herself.

Why We Walk Now?

President Biden has repeatedly emphasized his love for his children and grandchildren. He has also promised bold action to address Climate Change. However, some of his proposals are inadequate to address the present climate emergency. And there is opposition within even the Democratic Party to some of his initiatives.  By Walking in the summer of 2021 we want to ensure that the Biden administration and others recognize that his and our love for our families requires a very rapid uncompromising transition away from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and an embrace of renewable energy, especially solar and wind power. ]

Who Will Walk?

In 2013 a hundred or so young and elder climate activists walked for a week from Camp David, Maryland, to the White House to dramatize the dangers of Climate Chaos. At the White House a thousand other people joined us. Now, eight years later, when the realities of climate chaos are even more obvious than they were in 2013, more and more young people, parents and grandparents (and great grandparents too) realize the dangers faced by future generations. We walkers are those young people, parents and grandparents.

We welcome people of all generations, faiths and cultures to walk the entire route, or any part of it, for a few hours or for the entire route. We will join hearts and hands in a Beloved Community of meditation, prayers, and action to protect Mother Earth and all her living creatures. As we arrive in Wilmington, we expect our numbers to swell.  We will have a special vehicle following the walk so those who tire during the day have transportation. 

When We will Walk: 

Our Walk will be 7-10 days in late June, when the sun is highest in the northern hemisphere’s sky and provides most energy to our mother earth. We will start walking near to  Sunday June 20 which is both  Fathers’ Day and the Summer Equinox, enabling us to bring together our love of family with the natural celestial forces which make life on the earth possible, and which ultimately must underlie our energy systems and our solution to the climate chaos challenge..

Where We Will Walk:

We plan to do some combination of walking and riding from Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is President Biden’s birthplace and a site of large-scale hydro-fracking operations. We plan to walk to Wilmington Delaware, which has been President Biden’s home for decades.  Along the way we will meet with community groups, activists, journalists and others committed to keeping fossil fuels in the ground and embracing renewable energy. There may also be feeder marches from other directions. These details are to be worked out depending on interest and numbers.

Who Will Host Walkers and where will we eat?

We will arrange with places of worship, campgrounds and community groups along the route to provide overnight accommodations and meals for the walkers. We are encouraging groups to plan public forums each evening. The walk will require dozens of support people each day, providing water, bathroom facilities, medical services, gear carriers, parking and shuttles for day walkers, lunches, support vehicles and communications. 

Seeds of Peace, which has the best mobile kitchen for activists in the world has expressed an interest in supplying healthy food during the walk.

Covid Considerations 

Safety and health are central to our concerns in planning this event. Because of the pandemic, we will remain both flexible and creative in our planning and timing of the Walk, and will update our plans as needed.  Participants in the Walk must be vaccinated, unless they cannot get the vaccine. For example, adolescents less than 16 years old will likely not have access to vaccine by June.

Organizing:

Fifteen to twenty of us from around the east coast have been meeting weekly to plan and organize the walk. We have formed a number of working groups which will focus on specific tasks, like fundraising, art, social media, messaging outreach, route planning, food and lodging, etc. Please contact us if you are interested in helping in any way with the planning.

Plans for the Walk are till being developed. This proposal is not final and will likely change in some ways.

For more information, 

contact Steven Norris, 

828-777-7816, earthsun2@gmail.com

The Public Health Case for a 100% Renewable New York

The Public Health Case for a 100% Renewable New York.

Join us on Wednesday, April 14th for the third forum in our 4 part series on the transition to 100% renewables in New York.

Dr. Sandra Steingraber, Dr. Tommy Rock and Dr. Patricia DeMarco, esteemed scientists and experts on health, energy and the environment will discuss the health impacts of fracked gas, uranium mining and nuclear power and why a swift transition to 100% renewable energy is the way forward for better public health.

Register Here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uaayF2ihQde0MJT_34_uEw