350 Humboldt

LETTER WRITING OPPORTUNITIES THIS WEEK (INCLUDING ON-LINE PETITIONS)

Write on your own or join our letter writing chat and write zoomerama at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85643874306?pwd=Tm1yeXJBVVhWMGt5ZjZXVTVYbGFoZz09

All electric building code: speak in favor at the California Energy Commission

First off, I want to thank 350 Humboldt for supporting our letter to the CEC asking for an all-electric building code starting in 2022. Thanks to your support, and the support from organizations across California, we got well over 50 groups representing a broad swath of Californians to sign onto this letter in just a few short days! As the CEC moves into its final decision making phase about what the next building code will be, your voice has helped to shape how they are making that decision, and is making it more likely we will get an all-electric baseline. Thank you!  

We need to build on the momentum and public pressure that our sign on letter has generated, and the next opportunity to do that is at the CEC’s monthly business meeting on 2/10. This meeting is a fantastic venue for us to make public comments directly to the CEC commissions, and ensure that they understand that California can accept nothing less than an all-electric building standard in 2022. We have updated the talking points for the meeting here so that we can make the most compelling and up to date public comment. The CEC meeting will start at 9 am on 2/10 and will go for several hours, if you would like to notified when public comment starts, please text or email me at 619-459-4267 or [email protected]. We will be speaking near the end of the meeting during public comment (agenda item 14).  I hope to see you or another representative from 350 Humboldt at this meeting! Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

For information related to call into the meeting, please see below.

Verizon: To participate by telephone and provide public comment, call the CEC’s Verizon line at (888) 823-5065 on February 10, 2021, after 9:50 a.m. (Pacific Time). Enter the passcode business meeting. To make public comment about a specific item, provide your name, affiliation if any, and the item number to the operator (we are agenda item 14). Once connected, press *0 for help or to speak with the operator. The operator will open your line when it is your turn to speak. Restate and spell your name for the record. The operator will mute your line when you are finished commenting. To avoid audio feedback, mute Zoom or do not join Zoom when calling via Verizon.

 

Ask AT&T to stop donating to politicians subverting democracy

Can you sign the petition from our friends at CREDO calling on AT&T to permanently end its political donations to the members of Congress who objected to President Biden’s electoral college victory?

Sign the petition to AT&T: Permanently end your donations to the politicians who are undermining our democracy:  https://actionnetwork.org/forms/att-donations?

 

Help address the problems of de-commissioning refineries Hi, all, from Stew in the Silicon Valley. In the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m part of an RJT (Refinery Just Transition) work group of 15+ organizations who are addressing the need at the local and California state level to plan for a just transition for refinery workers, for people living near the refineries, and for dealing with the refinery land during de-com- missioning. There are several key individuals in the Biden administration and in Congress who may also be interested in discussing the issues around refinery de-commissioning. Thanks to Greg Karras from our group and to CBE (Communities for a Better Environment), we have an excellent tool [a new report] at our disposal to communicate the need for Federal intervention in planning for refinery closures under Just Transition roadmaps and plans. Note: the report which is downloadable at link above, lists, on page 4, a number of actions which can be taken and who should be asked to take them. Read the executive summary, then pick a legislator or agency to write to. Write a letter of support for SB54 to its author Ben Allen State legislators from nine states have announced a coordinated effort to hold producers responsible for the end-of-life management of plastic packaging. States included California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Each of these legislators is introducing extended producer responsibility (EPR) bills or introducing legislation as part of a long-term plan to get there. Extended producer responsibility is a strategy to incorporate all of the environmental costs associated with a product throughout the product’s life cycle. A full bill list is available through NCEL’s website. Current estimates show that the United States only recycles about 50% of post-consumer packaging. EPR policies could increase recycling, reduce the current volume of packaging, and help divert single-use plastics from landfills, ocean dumping, and incineration. “Plastic waste is a global crisis that is threatening our oceans, marine life, the environment, and public health,” said California State Senator Ben Allen. “It’s also hitting regular folks who are being asked to pay more and more through their trash rates to put band-aids on our system. Our cities have a waste management crisis on their hands, and let’s not forget the disproportionate impact on communities living near landfills. California is choosing to act now with SB 54 along with a package of bills to address this urgent financial, health, equity and environmental crisis.” Increased recycling will divert additional waste and plastics from landfills. Even in landfills, plastic pollution takes hundreds of years to break down and creates microplastics. During this process, plastic can leach toxins into the earth and make its way into our food and drinking water supply. Incinerators are often located in and have disproportionate impacts on low-income and minority populations. By reducing and phasing out the incineration of harmful plastics, these communities will have cleaner air to breathe and reduced toxins in their environment. Packaging products, like those used for food and beverage packaging, often contain hazardous substances that are harmful to human health. Including recycled content provisions in EPR packaging policies can force manufacturers to eliminate harmful substances in packaging products, so these substances aren’t recycled back into products. “We know how to solve the problem of plastic waste and the accompanying environmental health problems that production and overuse of single-use plastics has created in our communities,” said Maryland State Delegate Brooke Lierman. “This year we have seen people of color disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and we know that these very same communities are also being negatively impacted by plastic production and plastic waste. We must act with urgency to address these public health emergencies.” In addition to jointly introducing legislation, these legislators are also coming together to form an EPR for Packaging Network. By creating this network, legislators are establishing a group of lawmakers to exchange policy ideas, strategies, and lessons learned. States know they are more powerful when acting together. These legislators are moving the conversation forward around how to combat plastic pollution and move towards a circular economy and zero-waste through a united effort. “We cannot keep pushing environmental costs on to states and municipalities while the industries that profit from polluting continue to peddle the myth that local, taxpayer-funded recycling programs are a real solution,” said Hawaii State Representative Nicole Lowen. “In Hawaii, plastics and other packaging waste threaten our marine resources and pollute our beaches, impacting the economy, public health, and our way of life. By working with other states through NCEL’s network, it is my hope that together we can move the industry to take action on a national scale, and move the public to demand that they do so.” Over the past few years, states have pursued a wide variety of plastic legislation. Each year sees an increase in the number of bills introduced and passed. Last year alone, 35 states introduced legislation aimed at reducing plastic pollution. Today, these eight states are taking their action a step further by committing to long term planning and moving towards a circular economy. “These state legislators are committed to reducing plastic pollution waste and ensuring healthy communities,” said Jeff Mauk, Executive Director of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. “By acting together these legislators are able to ensure strong and ambitious EPR policies that can be adapted by future states. They are demonstrating the value in having state legislators work together across state lines.” Created by and for state legislators, the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that organizes over 1,000 environmentally-committed state legislators from all 50 states and both parties. NCEL provides venues and opportunities for lawmakers to share ideas and collaborate on environmental issues. Write him here: https://sd26.senate.ca.gov/contact/message

Get involved in stopping export of plastic and hazardous waste to poor countries

Twelve California legislators have taken an important step to help stop the export of plastic waste to countries that cannot properly manage it, through introduction of Assembly Joint Resolution 4, which urges the Biden Administration to ratify the Basel Convention. The Basel Convention is a multilateral environmental agreement that aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes. Currently, the European Commission and 187 countries are parties to the Basel Convention, but the United States is not. Read the press release, which includes a quote from the National Stewardship Action Council’s Policy Committee Chair and which is helping support this Resolution and the United States’ ratification.  Email [email protected] for more info to get involved or pass a similar measure in other states.

Help fight against the wholesale approval of oil and gas permits in Kern county; if you have a friend or relative in the central valley they can help even more.

In our October 2020 article, Environmental Justice, AB345, and CalGEM, we summarized some of the organizing which has attempted to regulate oil and gas development and establish 2500 ft. setbacks to protect residents and communities near oil and gas extraction sites. The Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment (CRPE) is one of the organizations in the VISIÓN Coalitionwhich have been focusing on these regulations. One campaign which CRPE is currently engaged with is #StandWithKern, which is working to stop oil expansion in Kern County. An ordinance proposed in Kern County would fast-track almost 70,000 new oil and gas wells without any meaningful environmental oversight. Kern County has been trying to expand fossil fuel extraction since 2015, and has issued more than 9,000 oil and gas drilling permits since then. This effort was finally struck down by the Fifth District Court of Appeal earlier last year, when the Court found that the County failed to adequately disclose or mitigate the significant harms this ordinance would cause to the county’s water, air and public health. Despite these failures, the County is still pursuing the ordinance, and has released a new draft environmental impact report that does little to address these and other significant, harmful impacts.

CRPE has been calling on the public to take action in several ways, and will continue to support community involvement in this campaign. Kern County Residents: Take a moment to write to the County Supervisorsand urge them to reject this harmful ordinance, and sign the Stop Kern Oil Ordinance Petition. Non-Kern County Residents: Support the campaign by signing the Stop Kern Oil Ordinance Petition or writing to Governor Newsom.  Sign: https://crpe-ej.org/stopkernoilordinance Looking to do more? On Feb 11th at 7 pm, there will be the opportunity to give public comment at the Planning Commission Hearing and Recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. We’d like to flood the Planning Commission with Central Valley voices speaking out in opposition to the proposal to double the number of oil wells in Kern County and instead call for 2500-ft setbacks to protect the health of frontline communities. Your presence at the meeting will add support. This video is one example of the many messages and videos posted during the December public comment period by concerned community members, and directed at the Kern County Board of Supervisors. Here are ways you and your networks can take action: 1.     Submit a voicemail comment to the Planning Commission through our comment line: 844-332-1339. These voicemails will be played during their Feb. 11 meeting. 2.     Register to attend the virtual Feb. 11 Planning Commission meeting. IMPORTANT: If you want to provide a public comment during the meeting, you must register by 5 pm the day before: call the Planning Commission Clerk of Communications at 661-862-8647 and provide your name, phone number, and the agenda item number of this issue. (CRPE will post and distribute the item number as soon as the commission releases the agenda, or you can find it on the commission’s website once they post it.)

Sign a petition to Biden to reduce plastic pollution

As we welcome the new Congress, we are closer than ever before to passing the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act — the pioneering federal legislation to hold corporations accountable for the plastic pollution crisis. However, we don’t have to wait for Congress to act, and our communities can’t afford to wait! President Biden has the power to take immediate action during his first year in office by issuing executive actions to help tackle plastic pollution, and we must make sure he hears our voices!

Add your name today to urge President Joe Biden take immediate priority actions to tackle the plastic pollution crisis!

This urgency is why Greenpeace and a coalition of more than 600 organizations are calling on President Biden to commit to taking eight sweeping executive actions¹ during his first year in office to put the U.S. on a path towards a plastic free future.

These eight priority actions will be instrumental in tackling the plastic crisis by:

1. Using the purchasing power of the federal government to eliminate single-use plastic items and replace them with reusable products

2. Suspending and denying permits for new or expanded plastic production facilities, associated infrastructure projects, and exports

3. Making corporate polluters pay and reject false solutions

4. Advancing environmental justice in petrochemical corridors

5. Updating existing federal regulations to curtail pollution from plastic facilities by using best available science and technology

6. Stopping subsidizing plastics producers

7. Joining international efforts to establish binding commitments to reduce plastic production and eliminate single-use plastics

8. Reducing and mitigating the impacts of discarded and lost fishing gear

Act now: Urge President Biden take executive action to tackle the plastic pollution crisis during his first year in office.

Help protect Tesla Park by signing this petition

Tesla Park was established in haste in the late 1990s when the division of the state parks system that oversees off-highway motor vehicle parks bought it. The division happened to have some money, and the land happened to be for sale.

Since then, the parks system has pushed for it to be turned into a motorized park. Tesla Park is probably the worst place to consider putting a park for motorcyclists and all-terrain vehicle riders.

Its biological and cultural importance is immense. But those features will be destroyed if the area is turned into an off-highway vehicle park.

Tell Governor Newsom that he must protect Tesla Park from motorized recreation today to save its biodiversity and cultural heritage.

 

 

Thank you for acting!