In-depth report by Korina Lopez and Ramona du Houx

September 28, 2020

The California Latino community has been disproportionately infected by the coronavirus. Latinos make up 39 percent of the population in the state, but account for 56 percent of COVID-19 infections and 46 percent of deaths, according to the California Health and Human Services secretary, Dr. Mark Ghaly. That’s three times the rate as Whites. State officials say, many employers have not reliably provided protective equipment to workers or implemented social distancing or mask wearing rules. This is systemic racism.

Elected Officials to Protect California (EOPCA) insists that the Latino community should not have to suffer in toxic work environments and live in areas of environmental injustice.

Latinos are America’s lower paid essential workers. From grocery store workers, to healthcare technicians, firefighters, transportation workers, maids, janitors and agricultural workers. In order to keep their families from financial ruin most have to continue to work, they don’t have the luxury of choosing to work from home. They work in jobs where social distancing is not a practical option. They live in homes that often are packed with family, and extended family. More.

Veterans who are elected officials fought for a fully funded LWCF — now GAOA is law

By Ramona du Houx

WASHINGTON D.C. – On July 22 the United States House of Representatives passed the Great American Outdoors Act with a vote of 310-107. The measure passed the Senate by a vote of 73-25 last June. The bipartisan legislation will fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), while addressing a backlog of maintenance needs for national parks and other public lands. The veto proof bill was signed into law in August.

“As veterans who are lawmakers, protecting our public lands is part of defending our country. We fought to ensure every American enjoys their inherited right to public land access,” said Alex Cornell du Houx, a former Maine state lawmaker, Marine combat veteran, and President of Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA). “We are elated to see that the Great American Outdoors Act passed Congress and soon will be law, creating increased prosperity, health, and the freedom to enjoy our nation’s national treasures for generations.” More

 

Water in Crisis: Part II – Uninhabitable Homes: Climate migrants and the water-driven conflicts that undermine American security

By Brianna Cunliffe, P.E.N. chief investigative reporter

If nothing is done to drastically alter our relationship with fossil fuels, in fifty years nearly a fifth of the world’s population will live in zones so hot and dangerous they will likely become uninhabitable. Thirty years will see over 150 million people displaced by rising seas that swallow up towns and cities. Eight of the nation’s twenty largest metropolitan areas, New York chief among them, are under serious threat. Nowhere is immune. As wells dry up, crops fail, and violence rises — where will these climate refugees go?

We’re beginning to find out. In 2020, wildfires raged across the west, causing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands. Some only escaped with their lives, losing all their earthly possessions. The climate crisis’ implications for Americans have finally drawn worldwide attention.

Globally, people have been forced into exile because of the climate crisis for years. The consequences of these swells of migration are costing nations dearly. Southern Mexico’s already-strained resources are on the verge of collapse with the influx of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from dought-stricken nations like Guatemala. More.

 

During apocalyptic fires, elected officials call on Newsom to declare a state of emergency for climate crisis

By Ramona du Houx

September 27, 2020

Eerie orange skies smoothing the sun turned day to night as thousands sheltered inside from the smoke or fled deadly fires. Many couldn’t go outside as ash and toxics particles rained down in triple digit weather. This was August in California. Even today fires continue to erupt as dry brush from drought conditions is easily ignited.

According to the California Air Resources Board, the climate crisis considerably increases the frequency and severity of wildfires. This year 26 times more Californian acreage has burnt than in 2019. As of September 14, a total of 7,718 fires have burned 3,451,428 acres, more than three percent of the state’s roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest Californian wildfire season in recorded history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The annual number of fires has increased lock step with changing climate. As the temperature has risen there is a direct correlation with the intensity and amount of fires that have increased over a thirty to fifty-year period, according to Miles O’Brian, science correspondent, of the PBS Newshour. Between 1985 and 2015, wildfires in California doubled as a direct result of changing climate conditions. More.

 

California to ban sales of new gas-powered cars but as top oil producer not meeting climate goals

By Ramona du Houx

September 23, 2020

Fifteen nations including Norway, France and the UK, already have adopted bans on new internal combustion engine cars, with various targets from 2025 to 2040. California is the first American state to join them.

While deadly fires were still raging in California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state’s new electric vehicles (EV) sales goal as part of an executive order to curb climate change. Hence, every new passenger car and truck sold in the state has to be electric by 2035. Still, the order does not prevent Californians from owning gas-powered cars, selling used cars with internal-combustion engines or buying them outside the state.

A 15-year timeline isn’t groundbreaking. The Union of Concerned Scientists calculated that under Newsom’s plan, gas-fueled vehicles could still make up almost half the cars on the road in 2035. More.

 

Maine’s floating offshore wind turbine farm project gets a second wind with $100 million investment

By Ramona du Houx

August 12, 2020

In August, The University of Maine announced a collaboration with Diamond Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation, and RWE Renewables, the second-largest company in offshore wind globally, to develop UMaine’s floating offshore wind technology demonstration project off the coast of Maine. The design was innovated at the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites incubator program that produced the project’s unique floating -platform technology.

The newly formed company, called with New England Aqua Ventus, LLC (NEAV) will invest the $100 million to build and deploy a full-scale, floating wind farm at the site, about 14 miles off Maine’s coast.

“The experience and investment that RWE and Diamond Offshore Wind bring are really unparalleled in the strength they will give to the project,” said Habib Dagher, executive director of the University of Maine Composites Center, leader of program and its technology. “And, if all goes well, it will be mean we will get the first full-scale floater off the US into the water within three years.” More.

 

New Jersey has nation’s strongest law to protect overburdened communities from pollutants

By Ramona du Houx

September 19, 2020

New Jersey became the first state in the nation to require mandatory permit denials if an environmental justice analysis determines a new facility will have a disproportionately negative impact on an overburdened community. Governor Phil Murphy signed the legislation (S232) into law on September 18, 2020 after twelve years in the making.

“Today we are sending a clear message that we will longer allow Black and Brown communities in our state to be dumping grounds, where access to clean air and clean water are overlooked,” said Governor Murphy. “This action is a historic step to ensure that true community input and collaboration will factor into decisions that have a cumulative impact for years to come. I’m incredibly proud that New Jersey is now home to the strongest environmental justice law in the nation.” More

 

Odds of a double-dip recession high, unless states receive Congressional stimulus

October 3, 2020

By Christopher Douglass

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics has warned that, “states and local governments are going to have to curtail spending very quickly,” unless funding arrives soon from the federal government. Zandi stated that “it’s vitally important” that Congress enacts a second stimulus package and that funding for state and local governments should be on the “top of that list.” Without a stimulus Zandi thinks, “the odds of a double-dip recession are high.” The stakes are only going to increase as state and local governments strain under increasing pressure of mounting debts and limited funds.

Moody’s report found that state and local governments are reaching a critical breaking point. Forty-two states will “need to fill budget gaps of 5-percent or more; 34 states would need to fill gaps of 10 percent or more.”  More.

RGGI, the northeast region’s cap-n-trade auction program brings in millions, improves health outcomes

By Ramona du Houx

September 26, 2020

Researchers estimate Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Regional (RGGI) has helped the north east reduce toxic air pollution and avoid hundreds of preterm births, asthma cases, low birth weights and possible cancer cases.

RGGI was established in 2005 and administered its first auction of carbon dioxide emissions allowances in 2008. RGGI has been an economic success story and has become a model for other states and regions hoping to reap economic, health, and social benefits in the transition to a clean energy economy.  Between 2009–2017, RGGI states have seen a net economic benefit of $4.7 billion from the program. More.

By Horace Wang

October 4, 2020

While most Americans concerned about anthropogenic climate change may choose to focus on pressuring the President, executive agencies, and Congress to take action, many Americans overlook the role of the Supreme Court in shaping responses to climate change.

There are many points of origin for the Supreme Court’s modern-day involvement in climate change and environmental issues, one of them being the Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency (2007) decision. Narrowly decided in a 5 to 4 vote, the outcome empowered the federal government with the ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. That included the power to curb pollutants from the two largest sources of emissions that cause climate change — power plants and vehicles, – it is no surprise that climate activist of the 350 movement Frederick Hewett wrote, “Massachusetts v. EPA is as critical to the climate movement as Roe v. Wade is to the pro-choice movement.”  More

By Ramona du Houx

September 12, 2020

On the day before the anniversary of September 11, a letter signed by 1,100+ academics was made public. In the letter scientists, researchers, analysts, professors, and academics demanded New York State fully divest fossil fuel investments from the state’s pension fund.

The nation’s third-largest public pension system is The New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF) which issues more than $1 billion in benefits to retirees each month. The fund’s investment portfolio is worth more than $210 billion but part of it is in jeopardy, according the signatories and to a group of elected officials. This bipartisan organization, Elected Officials to Protect New York (EOPNY) want the retirement fund to divest from fossil fuel industries in order to affirm New York’s policy goals of transitioning and supporting renewable forms of energy. More

By Ramona du Houx

October 3, 2020

Governor Murphy’s office is reviewing the results of a poll conducted by The Nature Conservancy that shows New Jersey residents strongly support the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI), a regional collaboration of the District of Columbia and 12 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

TCI seeks to improve transportation, develop the clean energy economy and reduce carbon emissions, including mandates that reduce emissions in overburdened communities and market-based mechanisms that will fund investment in critical transportation improvements. More

By Brianna Cunliffe, P.E.N. chief investigative reporter. September, 2020

The United States will face a full-blown water crisis by the end of the century. In many ways, we are in one already. A recent study confirmed that American West is in the grips of the first human-caused megadrought — our continent has only seen one like it in the past 1,200 years. Thirsty cities and rampant wildfires further deplete water supplies in the arid landscapes of California. Countless Western rivers face existential threats as farms require more and more irrigation to cope with the unpredictable weather and changing rain patterns driven by our climate crisis. The situation is precarious today. The future promises no relief, only resources stretched thinner and less stable. A government study found that in 50 years, less than half of the freshwater basins in the United States will be able to meet monthly demand.  More

September 1, 2020

By Masha Vernik, Policy Advisor at Peace Rising

Soil is nature’s recycling system. It turns death into energy for life. Industrial agriculture throws a wrench into this cycle, turning abundance into scarcity instead. Such a system is doomed to fall, and when it does, so will we. Human survival depends on a just transition towards regenerative agriculture, and not just because of carbon capture. Without such a transition, global soil stores of nitrogen (N) could drain. While soil is naturally endowed with the gift of nitrogen transformation, excessive fertilizer use robs it of this gift. Unable to produce or store its own nitrogen, the soil’s productivity and resiliency to climate change suffers. Instead of replacing natural nitrogen cycles, regenerative soil practices amplify them. In doing so, regenerative agriculture assures food security, especially in the face of climate change. More

August 26, 2020

By Brianna Cunliffe, PEN chief investigative reporter

Bankruptcy, devaluations and defeats in court have been plaguing the fossil fuel industry, one after the other, from BP’s massive devaluations to the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Recently, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette claimed that these interferences with pipeline construction are a national security issue. But many elected officials who are veterans of foreign wars are pushing back, insisting that his rhetoric of security appears to be only one of convenience. Security is hardly the priority, they argue, when American pursuit of oil interest puts citizens’ lives at risk, or when worsening disasters driven by the climate crisis rock our coastlines year after year. More

The world’s fossil fuel reliance has birthed Super Storms — leaders have to act now before it’s too late

August 26, 2020

By Brianna Cunliffe, PEN chief investigative reporter

Hurricane Katrina. Superstorm Sandy. Maria. These names stand out in our collective memory as anomalies, moments that shifted the human spirit and shook our country to its core. But as the climate crisis rises to a fever pitch, these storms are fast becoming just three among many, as unnatural disasters rock our coasts again and again.

Two storms, one after the other, are churning towards the East coast, and even the seasoned Louisiana citizens who have weathered decades of hurricane seasons agree: something’s different this time. With Marco dumping massive amounts of rain and Laura strengthening into a formidable hurricane as it prepares to hit the coastline, the one-two punch of the storms is described as an “unprecedented threat.” It’s the latest in a devastating string of disasters that aren’t so natural at all.  More

September 1, 2020

By Ramona du Houx

The nation’s third-largest public pension system is The New York State Common Retirement Fund issues more than $1 billion in benefits to retirees each month. The fund’s investment portfolio is worth about $200 billion but part of it is in jeopardy, according to environmental groups and a large group of New York elected officials, called the Elected officials to Protect New York (EOPNY). They want the fund to divest its shares from fossil fuel industries in order to affirm New York’s policy goals of transitioning and supporting renewable forms of energy. The fund’s sole trustee is state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who has held the statewide office for the past 13 years. More

September 2, 2020

By Sarah Heins

Sacramento, CA- In the midst of this unprecedented public health, environmental, and economic crisis the need to move away from fossil fuels has never been clearer. In California leaking oil and gas wells have been poisoning communities — putting the lives and livelihoods of millions at risk. But is not just the toxins these wells emit that are of concern, they also release the most potent greenhouse gas — methane.

During the Obama administration, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations were put into place that targeted three major sources of greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide emissions from cars and coal-burning power plants, and methane leaks from oil and gas wells. The coal power plant regulations were rolled back in 2019 and the automobile emission rule was rolled back this past spring. With the Trump administration rolling back existing methane regulations they’ve completed their trifecta, a recipe for fueling the climate crisis.  More

By Olivia Baaten

While the nation’s gaze falls elsewhere, a silent threat lurks underneath the ocean waves. The sea is acidifying at an unprecedented rate, threatening marine species and the economies that rely on them. Human activity, specifically the unfettered combustion of fossil fuels, is indubitably responsible for the degradation of the world’s oceans.  One climate action non-profit, Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA), calls for phasing out fossil fuels to prevent the complete ruination of the oceans, an essential cultural and economic resource.

Ocean acidification is the process by which the pH of the ocean decreases as a response to an increase in dissolved carbon dioxide. Typically, the ocean acts as the world’s most important carbon sink, but there is an upward limit on the amount of carbon dioxide that the oceans can healthily sequester. As a global community we have far surpassed this threshold, and as a result the levels of dissolved carbon dioxide are decreasing the pH of the ocean in a catastrophic manner. More

Elected Officials to Protect America urges lawmakers to defend our First Amendment rights from the fossil fuel industry

By Maegan Brejnik

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are pieces of history that have become increasingly more relevant in modern day. Currently, individuals and groups are under fire for peacefully protesting, an action which is specifically protected by the First Amendment.

The right to peacefully assemble is paramount in any functioning democracy, as it allows citizens to exercise their freedom of speech without fear of government retaliation. There are many long standing issues that continue to be protested, yet corporate reactions to anti-pipeline protests are setting a dangerous precedent. The Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) sees this as a threat to America’s rule of law, and strongly condemns the wave of legislation in numerous states that have been eroding the First Amendment. More

By Brianna Cunliffe, P.E.N. chief investigative reporter

September 2, 2020

Few Californians were spared from the grueling heat wave that recently baked the state. Not only were they coping with life-threatening heat, they were forced to live with an energy regime that, when they most need support and stability, left them in the dark. 

With rolling blackouts that have rippled across the state, as many as 3.3 million Californian households were left without power as temperatures rocketed up past 100 degrees, reaching 130 in Death Valley. The political fallout was immense, with citizens demanding to know who’s to blame for this staggering systemic failure. Newsom said in an August 17th press conference: he is “ultimately accountable” for the rolling blackouts.  More

CA, the third largest oil/gas producer, has no safety zones surrounding its wells

August 28, 2020

By Ramona du Houx

Some are stunned when they realize California is the third-largest producer of crude oil in the United States, for the state has a reputation of being a leader fighting climate change. Many Californians pride themselves on their state’s leadership on issues of public health and the environment. A staggering new NRDC analysis of oil and gas development in California shows that approximately 5.4 million people of the state’s population live within a mile of one, or more, of more than 84,000 existing oil and gas wells.

More than a third, 1.8 million, people also live in areas most burdened by environmental pollution as identified by California EPA’s tool.  More

By Ramona du Houx

During the end of July, nine native Alaska tribes filed a petition calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to halt the removal of protections for the Tongass National Forest, the country’s largest reserve of public woodlands, which the tribes say is vital to their livelihoods.

“Not only is it devastating for the land, but for our people and for the survival of our culture,” said Marina Anderson, tribal administrator for the Organized Village of Kasaan, who signed the petition. “It’s really essential that we keep these old growth timber stands intact.” More

By Maegan Brejnik

The lack of normalcy has resulted in COVID-19 taking a toll on the economy. To help recover from this deepening recession evidence points to the necessity for Congress to adopt a national stimulus plan aimed at building back the economy on the basis of clean energy. There is precedent. President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 proved to be the stimulus plan needed to end the Great Recession. The ARRA package included $90 billion in clean energy investments and tax incentives. More

July 21, 2020

By Ramona du Houx

During his daily pandemic news briefings, on many occasions New York State’s Governor Andrew M. Cuomo would say, “we must build back better,” refereeing to how his state would reenergize and rebuild the state’s beleaguered post-COVID-19 economy.

On July 21, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the largest combined clean energy solicitations ever issued in the U.S., seeking up to 4,000 megawatts of renewable capacity to combat climate change. More

By Dominic Frongillo, Executive Director, Elected Officials to Protect America, and Arjun Shreekumar, New Jersey Coordinator, Elected Officials to Protect America

Article from New Jersey Urban Mayors Association, Urban Mayors Press, Summer 2020 -Volume 3, Issue 2

The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically hit cities across New Jersey hard. Over a million people are out of work statewide. Many of those jobs may not return. We need to stimulate our economy with good-paying jobs. We can start by modernizing and cutting pollution from our transportation sector. More