A coalition of more than 50 local elected officials is pleading for action on the Public Lands Act, a bill that would add protections for more than a million acres of land and 500 miles of rivers in California.
The group released a letter today thanking U.S. Sens Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, both D-Calif., for their support of the legislation.
Ventura County Supervisor Carmen Ramirez said more must be done to safeguard the state’s pristine wilderness areas before it’s too late. “These are places with abundant diversity,” she said. “That’s where a lot of our clean water comes from. We have tribal cultural sites. And oil drilling and other harmful industries should not be permitted where we have our natural resources.”
The future of the Build Back Better Act may be in doubt in Congress, but New York labor leaders say the bill would create sustainable union jobs and make key reforms to support working families.
The Build Back Better Act proposes $110 billion to help spur the creation of new clean-energy technology and supply chains, such as solar and batteries.
Christian Gonzalez, organizer for the Industrial Division of the Communication Workers of America (IUE-CWA), said clean-energy jobs would greatly benefit New Yorkers and parts of the state that have seen job loss in the manufacturing sector. “Schenectady, N.Y., used to have 30,000 workers at GE,” Gonzalez recounted. “So companies like GE have a unique opportunity to bring that work back and create these good, sustaining union jobs that would help reboot the U.S. manufacturing economy as well as New York’s manufacturing economy.”
Health advocates say the continuous-coverage provision in the Build Back Better Act – which has hit a dead end in Congress – would benefit West Virginia’s kids by ensuring they receive regular checkups and developmental screenings, no matter where they live.
Julianne Yacovone – child health director for West Virginians for Affordable Healthcare – pointed out that kids have year-round health needs, even if their parents’ income or employer-sponsored coverage fluctuates. “They will be covered for a year without being removed, without their health insurance being questioned,” said Yacovone. “This is really, really reassuring to West Virginia parents, who will not have to be stressed or worried that their kids won’t have access to the health care that they need.”
In the Northwest, including British Columbia, a weather pattern known as a heat dome may have caused 1,400 deaths from the excessive warmth.
Aly Bean, climate campaign coordinator with the Idaho Conservation League, said scientists would typically expect an event like this to happen in the region once every thousand years.
Tax credits and direct payments to companies that capture and store their carbon emissions underground are a key feature of the climate provisions outlined in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Build Back Better Act.
State environmental advocates say West Virginia’s economy could stand to gain from emerging carbon capture technology.
Jim Probst, West Virginia state coordinator with the Citizens Climate Lobby, said a price on carbon could sway lawmakers and spur energy companies to jumpstart carbon capture and storage technologies. “So if West Virginia can find a way to capture carbon from the smokestacks of our coal-fired plants,” said Probst, “that can keep them running and can keep coal miners working. “
LOS ANGELES — A new report found American cities and counties should make it their goal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 63% by 2030 in order to live up to the Paris Climate Agreement and keep global warming in check.
Angie Fyfe, executive director of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA, which produced the report, said cities ought to set their sights even higher. “Because we are a more developed and wealthier nation, in order to achieve our fair share of emission reductions, we have set targets for cities at 63% reduction by 2030,” Fyfe explained.
LOS ANGELES — California-based facilities are refining half of all the oil drilled in the Amazon rain forests, according to a new report by the groups Amazon Watch and Stand.earth. Now, organizations fighting climate change are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to end oil imports from the Amazon region.
Paul Koretz, member of the Los Angeles City Council, said California should not be a party to the destruction of a region that sequesters a huge amount of carbon and circulates 20% of the world’s oxygen. “As the Amazon is being logged, burned and drilled, and converted to other land uses, we’re losing more and more of it,” Koretz pointed out. “And at some point, it could cause climate change to be impossible to reverse.”
Helpful science tips in playful videos that explain principles we all deal with to understand our climate crisis. The series is the creation of Olivia Baaten.
