Cross-posted from: here

The Chamber of Commerce has been fighting the regulation of carbon dioxide for a long time, and has been very intense in its opposition this year because of pending Federal legislation. Wonkroom has a great history lesson of all the shenanigans of the Chamber, most recent of which was calling for a “Scopes Monkey Trial” on global warming.

Many large businesses that sit on the Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors have taken issue with the Chamber’s inability to represent their views on climate legislation. As a result, Excelon, PNM Resources, PG & E have left the Chamber. Duke Energy and Alstom left coal front lobby group ACCCE, after their controversies. Johnson&Johnson wrote an angry letter to the Chamber. But one of the strongest advocates for climate action, Nike, was still on the board of directors of the Chamber. Nike is a member of Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), a business coalition that supports federal clean energy and climate policy. As GetEnergySmart lamented, Nike just couldn’t “do it”. Well, on the day the Senate climate bill is being released, Nike Did It. Now, as EnviroKnow says, when will Nike leave for good?

Which begs the question. Will the Chamber of Commerce have anyone in it by the end of the year if it keeps advocating for the destruction of civilization? Nike’s statement below.

“Nike believes US businesses must advocate for aggressive climate change legislation and that the United States needs to move rapidly into a sustainable economy to remain competitive and ensure continued economic growth.

As we’ve stated, we fundamentally disagree with the US Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change and their recent action challenging the EPA is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action.

We believe businesses and their representative associations need to take an active role to invest in sustainable business practices and innovative solutions.

It is important that US companies be represented by a strong and effective Chamber that reflects the interests of all its members on multiple issues. We believe that on the issue of climate change the Chamber has not represented the diversity of perspective held by the board of directors.

Therefore, we have decided to resign our board of directors position. We will continue our membership to advocate for climate change legislation inside the committee structure and believe that we can better influence policy by being part of the conversation. Moving forward we will continue to evaluate our membership.”

Posted in Business

The fight to make the Pacific Northwest the first region of the United States to completely sever its ties to the coal industry is moving forward in leaps and bounds.  A couple of weeks ago, I reported on Portland General Electric’s release of this year’s Integrated Resource Plan, in which PGE advocates tying the state to coal for at least another 30 years.  The idea of Oregon relying on the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world for three decades is so patently ridiculous that the plan’s release arguably represents little more than a really good chance for environmental groups to highlight PGE’s double-talk regarding clean energy and global warming.  Sure enough, just last Friday the Oregon Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Environment Oregon held a press conference at Waterfront Park in Portland, at which all three groups criticized PGE’s short-sightedness and lack of environmental responsibility.

A couple of days ago, a few of us from the Sierra Club headed down to Eugene, Oregon, for a Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NWPCC) hearing at which the Council took public testimony on their 6th Northwest Power Plan – a document that will help determine energy policy in the Northwest for the next 20 years.  In Eugene, we were joined by University of Oregon students and other concerned citizens for a rally across the street from the Eugene Public Library, where the hearing was to be held.  Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson spoke out against coal use in the Northwest, to much applause.  Our numbers were bolstered by a sizable group of local high school students who started a spontaneous chant in favor of a clean energy future for Oregon, and joined their elders in holding up a banner reading “Oregon Deserves Clean Energy Now.”

After the rally, about 40 people of all ages headed inside the public library to give public testimony on the Northwest Power Plan.  Though the NWPCC’s own findings have shown that a coal-free future for Oregon is a reachable goal, and the current draft of the Northwest Power Plan makes it clear that we can meet most new energy demand in the region with conservation and efficiency measures, this draft of the plan unfortunately would not phase out existing coal use in the Northwest, such as the PGE-owned Boardman Coal Plant.  Fortunately, many people at the hearing spoke up to criticize this problem with the current plan.  Others highlighted the need to protect Oregon forests from irresponsible biofuels policies, and for the removal of harmful dams that are endangering our region’s salmon runs.

For myself, one of the most encouraging things about the hearing was the number of people who specifically mentioned how nice it was to see a good turnout of young people – mainly University of Oregon students – at the event.  After the hearing, several people came up to me to say how glad they were to have students involved in this process.

Students from University of Oregon pointed out in their testimony that young people in the Eugene area are already doing their part; U of O activists are at the forefront of organizing for Power Shift West, which will be held on their campus the weekend of November 6th-8th.  MeanwhLinfield, in the Portland area, students from Pacific University, Mount Hood Community College, and Clark College are preparing to converge on the NWPCC hearing scheduled to take place in Portland on October 14th.  This campaign is just getting started, so stay tuned for more!

Posted in Act Locally, global warming

I have recently moved to Oregon and I just attended my first energy hearing on the West Coast.  As someone who comes from the Southeast US, it was extremely refreshing to be at a hearing that was about a regional energy plan focused on efficiency, conservation and renewable energy and NOT about any new coal or nuclear plants or reducing mining protections!  The plan was created by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a group created by Congress to give the citizens of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington a stronger voice in determining the future of key resources common to all four states.  The plan is definitely more on the right track than anything I’ve seen in the Southeast, but considering the dire status of our climate (a new study predicted that even with some carbon cuts we will see 6.3 degrees F of warming by 2100) including our need to reach 350 ppm of CO2 from our current 387, the plan must go further.

Thankfully, pretty much everyone at the hearing pushed the council to reach for a coal-free Oregon and Northwest, including many folks who weren’t even affiliated with the Sierra Club’s exciting “Coal-Free Northwest” Campaign.  There was additional opposition to burning trees for energy, support for the addition of substantial GHG reduction goals to the plan and support for removal of dams on the Snake River to support salmon recovery.  I was excited to see multiple other youth present including a recent graduate from Portland and University of Oregon students organizing Powershift West (at UO Nov. 7-8), which includes a goal of “Moving America beyond coal through regional activism.”  However, the plan and everyone at the hearing were pretty silent on the issue of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the proposed terminal northwest of Portland.

I even saw utility staff testifying in favor of this plan’s focus on efficiency and renewable energy (although they were concerned about how conservation credits would be distributed, since many of them have been focused on conservation and efficiency for years).  For example, Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) in Eugene, OR  already invests 5% of it’s revenue in conservation and 40 out of their 500 staff work on conservation!

Here’s a quote on the focus of The Draft Sixth Northwest Power Plan from the plan’s summary:

In each of its power plans, the Council has found substantial amounts of conservation to be cheaper and more sustainable than many forms of additional electric-generating capability.  In this Sixth Power Plan, because of higher costs of alternative generation sources, rapidly developing technology, and heightened concerns about global climate change, conservation holds an even larger potential for the region. The Plan finds enough conservation to be available and cost-effective to meet the load growth of the region for the next 20 years.  If developed aggressively, this conservation, combined with the region’s past successful development of energy efficiency could constitute the future equivalent of the regional hydroelectric system; a river of energy efficiency that will complement and protect the regional heritage of a clean and affordable power supply.

Specifically, the plan states that the Northwest can meet 85% of all needs over the next 20 years solely through conservation, and can do so at half the cost of building power plants!  Many environmentalists (including me) and others have been asking Southern utilities and utilities commissions to do this for years, so it’s exciting to see an offical federal body saying this.  Although, as I mentioned earlier the plan still needs to include a GHG reduction goal and phase out coal in the Northwest as soon as possible.  If Oregon and the Northwest set a goal of going coal-free, they would be the first state and region that currently uses coal to kick the coal habit.  This would be an incredible precedent for the country and the nation!

Want to get involved? Submit a comment on the plan before November 6th, come to Power Shift West November 6-8 in Eugene, OR and/or get involved with the Sierra Club’s Coal-Free Northwest Campaign.

Posted in Act Locally, Coal Campaign, Efficiency

Tonight, EPA Admin Lisa Jackson spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.  I put on my best duds and bought some tickets so that some friends and I could go, hear her talk about our “Green Future” and ask her some pointed questions about mountaintop removal.  The room was packed with EPA employees, PG&E employees (they were a co-sponsor of the event) and folks from ENGOs.  Lots of others as well.

I went with folks from RAN, Greenpeace and Climate Ground Zero.  All my friends are passionate about coal and mountaintop removal.  We felt compelled to go and ask her pointed.

Her speech was little too sunshine-ey for my tastes.  I’m not too keen on politicians telling me it’s going to all be ok, simply because we’ve had a change of administrations (who seem to be aligned with a few too many of the same interests as the previous one.)  I’m more of a “show me ,don’t tell me” kinda guy.

As activists we employed agit-prop tactics to get our point across to Lisa Jackson that we’re not taking the issue of mountaintop removal lightly by patiently waiting for Obama’s EPA to act.  

• It started with my co-campaigner, Annie, asking Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope to wear a bright green “Stop Mountaintop Removal” hat as he sat on the front row right in front of her podium.
• The Q&A was done by form, so we stacked it with questions about mountaintop removal and the 2nd and 3rd questions were about mountaintop removal.  The 4th and 5th questions were about the Tennessee coal ash spill and “clean coal.”  She answered the questions as a skilled politician, but not committing to go on a flyover of Appalachia publicly. She instead said it was more important that her staff visit instead.
• At the end of talk, Charles from Climate Ground Zero and I joined the crowd that swarmed her to ask questions and make introductions.  When I finally got my turn, I presented her with 2,000 more petition signatures asking her to go on a flyover (two weeks ago, we delivered 20,000 petition signatures to EPA Wetlands Director David Evans in D.C. with coalfield resdents).  I told her that while it was important that her staff go to Appalachia it was more important that from a big picture public perspective of the issue that she journey to Appalachia and see the devastation and meet the communities harmed by mountaintop removal.
• As her aides and bodyguards tried to whisk her way, Charles refused to let her leave her go without giving her his say.  He finally caught up to her and said “My name is Charles, I’m with Climate Ground Zero the people that have been getting arrested in West Virginia stopping mountaintop removal operations. As long as the liquid wash process for coal is legal, coal will never be clean and continue to poison communities’ water supplies.  Natural gas also destroys communities’ water just as bad as coal slurry does.“  She told him that she admired his passion and said she’d visit Appalachia.

While the EPA has been giving us some good news, I’m unconvinced that we’re turning any corners on mountaintop removal.  It’s time for us to be making more noise on this issue and taking more action.

Posted in global warming

Cross Posted From Grist.

Flooding in the Philippines yesterday displaced over 600,000 people. As if we didn’t need more of an urgent call to solve the climate crisis.

Increased intensity of flooding is among one of the may well-documented impacts of global warming. The implications have hit our organizing here at the UN in Bangkok too – as some activists had to go to support their families amidst crisis.

But Filipino groups are still here in full force, emboldened to call for the solutions their communities need – this morning The Peasant Movement of the Philippines and the National Federation of Peasant Women in the Philippines held a demonstration in front of the United Nations Climate Change Negotiations in Bangkok.

With vivid street theater, the groups called to abandon false solutions to climate change – such as biofuels.

Demonstrators this morning said “Climate change is not only jeopardizing our future but is being used by multi-national and trans-national corporations who are the main contributors to global warming to rake in more profit from our misery…vast tracts of agricultural lands around the world are being controlled and converted by plunderers into cash-crop plantations such as biofuels and other corporate schemes that forcibly drives us out from our land.”

Their calls for climate equity in negotiations were echoed by even more demonstrators today from Jubilee South and many others, calling on rich countries to pay their ecological and climate debt to the rest of the world. Activists from Thailand, Nepal, Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Africa, and Latin America mobilized to push Northern countries to recognize their historical and disproportionate contributions to climate change, and the disproportionate negative impacts suffered by the Global South. This concept of climate debt is increasingly gaining traction among international civil society, flipping on its head the idea of the debt owed by the South to the North from loans from international finance institutions.

As civil society groups call for financing and compensation for the averse affects of climate change for affected peoples, delegates inside the UN continue to debate on our 3rd day of the climate talks. The pressure is on, and the 600,000 people displaced in the last day only add to the urgency.

Posted in United Nations