“It’s understandable that people don’t think a transition will be just, because they’ve never seen one play out. Any just transition that looks to transition workers into training for jobs building wind turbines that might exist a hundred or two hundred miles away is a lost cause. I don’t think we deal with the climate crisis at the scale it …
Harvard study says tighter oil, gas rules that allow exemptions make little difference: Study reviews Pennsylvania law
By JUDITH KOHLER | jkohler@denverpost.com | The Denver Post, April 29, 2021 A new study that looks at Pennsylvania’s rules for locating oil and wells, and which notes Colorado’s new regulations, found that the distance between buildings and wells didn’t significantly change when the rules were tightened because exemptions were allowed. The study by the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard …
What’s the transition plan for transit maintenance workers in the move to cleaner, lower maintenance electric buses?
Just transition needed in transit electrification, labor leaders say, April 2021 Utility Dive | Chris Teale As public transit agencies electrify their bus fleets and other vehicles, they must ensure a just transition to protect workers who may be put out of work by the new technologies, transportation labor groups warned Monday. In a joint policy statement, leaders of two …
Colorado farmers are heading into one of the driest planting seasons in the last 20 years. 90% of the state is in at least moderate drought.
What makes this April stand out is how much land is an extreme or exceptional drought — nearly a third of the state. In the 21-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor, only Colorado’s 2013 drought shows more D3 and D4 conditions in April. CENTENNIAL, Colo — We’re halfway through April and the longer days are warming up the soil, …
Why Biden Is Right to Think Beyond the DOT in His Infrastructure Package
By Kea Wilson, Apr 12, 2021 When opponents of Biden’s infrastructure plan argue that most of the package isn’t devoted to building “traditional” infrastructure like roads and bridges, they’re ignoring something absolutely critical: that America’s transportation landscape will never be truly safe or sustainable until we tackle our broken social safety nets and our broken street designs. Top Republican lawmakers have decried the …
Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap
Offsets sound good, but in practice help perpetuate a belief in technological salvation and diminishes the sense of urgency surrounding the need to curb emissions now. We have arrived at the painful realization that the idea of net zero has licensed a recklessly cavalier “burn now, pay later” approach which has seen carbon emissions continue to soar. It has also hastened the destruction of …
Malcolm X said, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman,” he said. “The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”
Racists Come for Patrisse Cullors, LA Progressive, April 2021 Malcolm X said, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman,” he said. “The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.” It was true then and it’s true now. The ongoing violence against Black women has hit …
Biden DOJ echoes Trump on kids’ climate case
Maxine Joselow, E&E News, March 2, 2021 President Biden’s Justice Department signaled yesterday that it would mirror the Trump administration’s approach to the kids’ climate case. White House/Flickr President Biden’s commitment to combating rising global temperatures has not led the new administration to deviate from its predecessor’s approach in the historic kids’ climate case. The consistency with the Trump administration was …
Large shifts to electric buildings and vehicles, closing coal, and ending investment in fossil fuels needed
We need to do a lot more advocacy work with the Building Industry Association to clearly document the cost savings of all-electric construction and elevate cold climate heat pumps–the BIA is powerful enough to stop us, or slow us down, so I suggest we need a coalition of builders, particularly those in the Republican South, who build cheap, inefficient, all-electric …
Wildfire costs related to transmission, distributed solar could provide 30% of electricity need, more
The current benefits of avoided transmission do not include the costs of triggering wildfires. To do so we need to figure out total costs of wildfires, the probability that wildfires occur annually (100%. sigh.), the frequency/ probability with which transmission triggers/ causes said wildfire, and then spreading that cost over transmission that goes through dry-vegetation. Then we’d want to figure …