As we all know, the majority in the US Senate\u2014upon which most climate plans depend\u2014will be decided by two run-off elections in Georgia. Usually Republicans do well in these due to higher voter turn-out (which is why Georgia has run-offs). Our job is to make this the exception for both Jon Ossoff and Ralph Warnock.<\/p>\n
If you can afford to contribute, send money to:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/electjon.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/warnockforgeorgia.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Here is information for writing\/calling to Georgia:<\/p>\n 1. \u00a0 \u00a0 Flip the West: https:\/\/www.flipthewest.com\/calendar<\/a><\/p>\n 2. \u00a0 \u00a0 Democratic volunteer center: https:\/\/demvolctr.org\/phonebanking-guide\/<\/a><\/p>\n 3. \u00a0 \u00a0 Postcards to swing states: https:\/\/postcardstoswingstates.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n 4. \u00a0 \u00a0 Sierra Club<\/p>\n Calls: https:\/\/www.mobilize.us\/sierraclubbattleground\/event\/272291\/<\/a><\/p>\n Letters: https:\/\/www.mobilize.us\/sierraclubbattleground\/event\/285407\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Write or call on your own or join our letter-writing party. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Letter writing party Sunday Nov 15, 7pm (Zoom detail at bottom)<\/strong><\/p>\n https:\/\/us02web.zoom.us\/j\/85643874306?pwd=Tm1yeXJBVVhWMGt5ZjZXVTVYbGFoZz09<\/a><\/p>\n Please read on. There are several quick email or petition possibilities as well as letter targets.<\/em><\/p>\n LAST WEEK\u2019S LETTER-WRITING TARGETS<\/strong><\/p>\n If you did not get a chance to write about both cap and trade and refrigerants here is that information again:<\/p>\n Jared Blumenfeld: Secretary for Environmental Protection 1001 I Street, P.O. Box 2815, Sacramento, CA 95812-2815<\/p>\n Write to urge Blumenfeld to undertake a full-scale and radical revision of California\u2019s Cap and Trade program. His letter indicating some level of investigation is attached.<\/p>\n Here are two things you could ask for (provided by the 350 Humboldt Legislative Committee):<\/p>\n 1. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Further climate justice by eliminating cap and trade barriers to local and industry-specific regulation. Environmental justice groups label cap and trade \u201cpay to pollute,\u201d with good reason. We must regulate pollution separately from emission of global warming gases. Regulatory agencies at every level must be free to reduce pollution.<\/p>\n 2. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Increase the cost of an \u201callowance\u201d for one tonne of CO2 equivalent emissions. It stands at $17 now. Current scientific calculations say it should be at $100 and increase annually. https:\/\/yaleclimateconnections.org\/2020\/07\/trump-epa-vastly-underestimating-the-cost-of-carbon-dioxide-pollution-to-society-new-research-finds\/#:~:text=The%20latest%20research%20by%20an,to%20nearly%20%24600%20by%202100<\/a><\/p>\n Protest the new rules on refrigerants. Please see the CARB announcement of a hearing on the Global Warming Potential of refrigerants (mostly supermarkets) at: https:\/\/content.govdelivery.com\/accounts\/CARB\/bulletins\/2a69ab5<\/a><\/p>\n What to ask for:<\/p>\n 1. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Earlier company-wide implementation of low GWP refrigerants (earlier than 2030)<\/p>\n 2. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Changing the 150 GWP standard to 1, by using \u201cnatural\u201d refrigerants like carbon dioxide<\/p>\n 3. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Heavy fines for leaked refrigerants (according to the EPA supermarkets leak 25% each year; CARB data for Humboldt show about 14%, but that comes out to about 8% of all Humboldt greenhouse gas emissions); combined with more incentive money (there is only $1 million now) for installing natural refrigerants. [Natural refrigerants are used to a much greater extent in Europe and Japan than here.]<\/p>\n OTHER LETTERS<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a variety of letter writing opportunities this week. Two are simple on-line petitions, so please sign those as well as writing to Georgia.<\/p>\n Kern County wells ordinance: \u00a0Petition and letter to Newsom. Information at website. \u00a0 https:\/\/crpe-ej.org\/stopkernoilordinance<\/a><\/p>\n 350 Minnesota has asked us to sign a petition to help stop the \u201cLine 3 Tar Sands Pipeline.\u201d More information at the website: \u00a0https:\/\/act.350.org\/sign\/tell-biden-no-line-3\/?source=em20201114-2-us&akid=135321%2E4400867%2E4Z59KO<\/a><\/p>\n Now Available for Public Comment: Draft 2020 Update to the SB 350 IRP Electricity Sector GHG Planning Targets<\/p>\n California Air Resources Board sent this bulletin at 11\/09\/2020 09:00 AM PST<\/em><\/p>\n https:\/\/content.govdelivery.com\/accounts\/CARB\/bulletins\/2a3c25c<\/a><\/p>\n Actual proposal from CARB: https:\/\/ww2.arb.ca.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-11\/sb350-draftreport-2020.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Things to say: a) Setting a goal of 60% renewables rather than 50-% by 2030 is good but not enough; b) with the Governor\u2019s order to electrify vehicles, we will need an even higher percentage and need it by 2035. Here is a plausible scenario. See this report for details: https:\/\/www.2035report.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n Date \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Interim Target %<\/p>\n 2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 40<\/p>\n 2024 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 46<\/p>\n 2026 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 53<\/p>\n 2028 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 60<\/p>\n 2030 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 68<\/p>\n 2032 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 77<\/p>\n 2035 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 90<\/p>\n c) Or urge the CARB to adopt this language from the report:<\/p>\n “An alternative scenario developed as part of the 2017 Scoping Plan Update includes additional energy efficiency gains, additional ZEVs, and an increase in the RPS, among other measures, that result in electricity sector GHG emissions as low as 30 MMTCO2e.” Please reconsider your targets to align them with this Alternative.<\/em><\/p>\n SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Gov. Gavin Newsom has a major appointment looming \u2014 and it has nothing to do with Sen. Kamala Harris<\/a>‘ seat.<\/p>\n Newsom has an opportunity to put his stamp on the Golden State’s pioneering environmental policies by appointing the influential chair of California’s leading policymaking body on climate change and air pollution. Already, potential leaders are jockeying for the position before California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols departs after more than a decade at the helm.<\/p>\n The battle is laying bare tensions over the future of the agency that could determine how the state will rein in both conventional and greenhouse gas pollution. The air board’s policies not only affect California but have national and international reach, such as its tailpipe emissions standards that are stricter than the federal government’s.<\/p>\n In letters to Newsom, environmental justice groups are advocating for a chair who will steer the agency away from its cap-and-trade program that allows companies to pay for permits to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. The groups want a greater focus on conventional air pollution \u2014 still a major issue in the Los Angeles basin and the San Joaquin Valley \u2014 and believe cap-and-trade lets companies still pollute at the source.<\/p>\n Industry trade groups view the program as a relatively cheap way to meet the state’s emission targets and advocated for the Legislature to reauthorize it in 2017 over environmental justice groups’ objections.<\/p>\n The growing influence of environmental justice groups, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement, are also amplifying calls to name a person of color to chair a board that is currently 75 percent white.<\/p>\n “It’s a critical position to fill,” said Adrian Martinez, an attorney with Earthjustice whom environmentalists are backing as a potential appointee. “Whoever it is is going to have to pass major policies and regulations in the coming years. And it’s going to be against pretty significant opposition from some in industry. I think it’s a barometer of how serious we are about clean air and climate change, who’s selected.”<\/p>\n The top internal candidate is Hector De La Torre, a former Democratic assemblymember and mayor from Los Angeles County who has been on the board for nine years. De La Torre has Nichols’ support, sources told POLITICO on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n Former Sen. Dean Florez, a Democrat from Bakersfield who’s been on the board for six years, is another candidate who currently sits on the board.<\/p>\n As former lawmakers, De La Torre and Florez would be well positioned to improve diplomatic relations with the Legislature, which has bristled in recent years at the agency’s broad authority. In 2016, CA AB197 (15R)<\/a> imposed six-year term limits on the board’s 14 voting members and added two lawmakers in non-voting positions.<\/p>\n Nichols has served as chair for 13 consecutive years through three different governors \u2014 as well as during Gov. Jerry Brown’s first stint as governor in the 1970s. She has steered the state’s climate programs through their inception and set up a multi-state resistance to President Donald Trump’s rollbacks of the state’s auto emission rules.<\/p>\n Her replacement will have to double down on reducing greenhouse gases and conventional pollutants to meet the state’s 2030 climate target; its new 2035 goal of ending sales of new internal-combustion cars; and its air pollution targets for Los Angeles and the Central Valley.<\/p>\n The new chair will also have to continue defending the state’s right to regulate vehicular greenhouse gas emissions if President Donald Trump wins reelection or work with Joe Biden’s administration to restore and accelerate joint state-federal emissions standards.<\/p>\n Newsom’s office signaled that the governor wants to focus on both climate change and air pollution.<\/p>\n “The Governor is committed to selecting a candidate who will advance the state\u2019s climate leadership on a global stage while enacting innovative policies at home to clean the air our children and families breathe,” spokesperson Jesse Melgar said in a statement.<\/p>\n The agency is also due to reexamine its suite of climate policies in 2022, which could provide an opening for the next CARB chair to shift course on cap-and-trade and other policies.<\/p>\n State lawmakers extracted a pledge<\/a> this year from California EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld to evaluate how much CARB should depend on cap-and-trade to meet its emissions targets, relative to other programs.<\/p>\n Lawmakers sympathetic to environmental justice concerns proposed in 2017 reforming cap-and-trade by raising the price of allowances, which would have encouraged companies to reduce emissions at the source rather than buying permits. Florez said he would recommend invalidating the cheaper permits that companies bought early in the market in order to encourage them to fix or replace high-emitting equipment instead.<\/p>\n “It has to be somebody focused on pollution at the source as much as chasing a climate change legacy,” Florez said. “The chair has to be able to ask the question, ‘Is the cap-and-trade program really working, for those in front line communities?'”<\/p>\n Environmental groups have floated a long slate of names from outside the board. A dozen environmental justice groups submitted nine names<\/a> to Newsom’s office in August, including Martinez, Bay Area Air Quality Management District Deputy Executive Officer Veronica Eady, former Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leo\u00ecn, and several current state officials, including CalEPA’s Blumenfeld, CalEPA Deputy Secretary Yana Garcia and Arsenio Mataka, environmental adviser to Attorney General Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n They followed up that letter with another one in September<\/a> highlighting Public Utilities Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves in particular. And earlier this month, an overlapping set of 25 environmental groups sent a letter calling for “fresh leadership”<\/a> and explicitly asking Newsom not to pick De La Torre.<\/p>\n De La Torre alienated environmental justice groups last year by voting to approve<\/a> the agency’s Tropical Forest Standard, which set up a way for the state or other governments to eventually accept carbon offsets from rainforested countries. EJ groups fiercely opposed the standard because they said it would lead to indigenous groups losing their land and would buttress the cap-and-trade system.<\/p>\n “There’s been some concern about Hector in terms of his kind of commitment to environmental justice overall,” said Caroline Farrell, executive director of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment. De La Torre declined through a CARB spokesperson to comment.<\/p>\n A Republican consultant said Newsom would likely try to preserve legislative goodwill, especially after bypassing lawmakers in September<\/a> with an executive order for CARB to ban new gas-powered passenger vehicles by 2035.<\/p>\n “I think at the end of the day, he’s asking for trouble if he gives the EJ community whoever’s at the top of their list,” said Rob Stutzman, deputy chief of staff to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appointed Nichols as chair in 2007. “That won’t go over well in the Legislature.”<\/p>\n Republicans and more moderate Democrats who voted for the extension of the cap-and-trade system in 2017 would likely oppose anything that would increase the cost of compliance with climate programs, such as the reforms put forth by more liberal Democrats.<\/p>\n Florez said a new chair should call industry\u2019s bluff by tightening the supply of credits, which would raise prices or encourage more emissions reductions. \u201cIs Shell Oil really leaving? Chevron Oil leaving? Nope, but we believe it, thus allow this glut of credits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Industry groups haven’t been as vocal about their preferences; the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Manufacturers and Technology Association declined to comment. Newsom’s office refused to release any letters advocating for an appointment, citing Public Records Act exemptions for correspondence to the governor and his staff.<\/p>\n The Western States Petroleum Association, the main trade group representing the oil industry, said it wanted someone who would listen to them. \u201cIf we were to \u2014 which we haven\u2019t \u2014 make a recommendation for the new CARB chair, we\u2019d suggest someone who is collaborative and interested in the expertise, innovation and science our industry can bring to discussions on climate policies and regulations,” WSPA President Catherine Reheis-Boyd said in a statement.<\/p>\n “I would love to see Gina McCarthy,” said former Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker, another appointee under Brown. “I can’t think of anybody else who approaches Mary.”<\/p>\n Newsom can put even more of his imprint on CARB in the years to come. In addition to Nichols, four other members of the board have terms expiring this year: John Balmes, John Gioia, Judy Mitchell and Alex Sherriffs. Another six members’ terms will expire at the end of 2022. Black agency employees asked in their letter<\/a> for at least one of those 11 seats to be filled by a Black appointee, and at least two others to be people of color.<\/p>\n Florez said the next CARB chair “has to be a person of color.”<\/p>\n But to some state lawmakers, that doesn’t mean someone who supports environmental justice goals of more restrictions on industry. After Black CARB employees recently sent an open letter to the agency<\/a> raising equity issues, Black lawmakers accused the agency<\/a> of focusing too much on climate change and “costly mandates.”<\/p>\n They said CARB has exacerbated racial disparities by spending heavily on electric vehicle rebates and taking longer to approve a new sports stadium in a Black neighborhood than in a white one.<\/p>\n “As a Black man, I look at your board, I look at your past board chairs, I look at the board makeup. I do not see folks that look like me,” Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) said at a board meeting last month, which featured discussion of the letter and the creation of an office devoted to racial justice. “And that is truly disturbing in this time and age. It’s time for a change.”<\/p>\n Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, which is backing Guzman and Martinez, said the racial reckoning at last month’s board meeting could accelerate Newsom’s timeline in making an appointment. Nichols’ term lasts through Dec. 31, but Newsom could make an announcement at any time.<\/p>\n The meeting “drew a lot of attention to the board and some internal issues,” she said. “I suspect this will prompt Newsom to focus some attention now on upcoming appointments to the board.”<\/p>\n Stop the Money Pipeline has a QUICK EMAIL TO SEND TO JP MORGAN CHASE<\/span><\/p>\nWeigh in on the percentage of renewables that should be included in California\u2019s electric generation by 2030<\/h6>\n
WRITE A LETTER ADVOCATING FOR WHO\/WHAT WE WANT IN THE NEW CARB CHAIRPERSON (the news story should help you figure it out)<\/h6>\n