July 2020 We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States. Preamble to the U.S. Constitution No State shall make or …
Deliberate decline focuses on the deep shifts in established systems that are necessary to realize decarbonization
Daniel Rosenbloom and Adrian Rinscheid, 26 July 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.669 Promoting low‐carbon innovation has long been a central preoccupation within both the practice and theory of climate change mitigation. However, deep lock‐ins indicate that existing carbon‐intensive systems will not be displaced or reconfigured by innovation alone. A growing number of studies and practical initiatives suggest that mitigation efforts will need to engage …
Supreme Court Could Soon Make Government Regulation — and the Next Election — Moot
Posted to Politics March 13, 2020 by Lee Price Email Print In recent years, the Supreme Court has issued ruling after ruling awarding more power to large corporations. Most notably, the 2010 Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates to an unprecedented deluge of corporate cash in our elections. Now, however, the court’s right-wing majority appears prepared to offer an even bigger boon: A …
Virginia Clean Economy Act to retire most of Virginia’s coal-fired facilities by Dec. 31, 2024
Va.’s 100% clean energy shift: Part of a ‘bigger wave’? E&E News | David Iaconangelo A landmark legislative session for energy came to an end in Virginia last week, after the Democratic-controlled General Assembly mounted a late push to pass numerous new regulations on fossil fuels and promote zero-carbon sources of electricity. One of the measures, which Democratic Gov. Ralph …
Chicago Has a New Way to Stop Drivers Who Misuse Bus and Bike Lanes: parking staff can take a picture and ticket
By John Greenfield, Feb 20, 2020 How many times have you seen drivers decide that the bike or bus lane would be the perfect place to idle in their cars — even if it forces cyclists out into dangerous traffic, or slows down what’s supposed to be a rapid bus route? Chicago has a great idea to stop that — and …
Performance-Based Regulation: Getting Down to Business Model Reform in Colorado
September 18, 2019 | By Cory Felder and Dan Cross-Call RMI This Spring, Colorado ascended to the top tier of state-led clean energy policy in the United States. In the final days of May, Governor Jared Polis signed 11 bills ushering in a wave of key policy changes to advance decarbonization and clean energy in the state. The legislature codified an electricity sector greenhouse gas (GHG) …
Climate Policy Foes Seize on New White House Rule to Challenge Endangerment Finding: it gave the fossil fuel industry new ways to oppose and delay science-based policy
The new rule, quietly issued as a Trump administration memo in April, gave the fossil fuel industry new ways to oppose and delay science-based policy. By Marianne Lavelle, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants if it found that they were a danger to human health and the …
How America’s food giants swallowed the family farms: Across the Midwest, the rise of factory farming is destroying rural communities
Across the midwest, the rise of factory farming is destroying rural communities. And the massive corporations behind this devastation are now eyeing a post-Brexit UK market by Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 9 Mar 2019 When the vast expanse of rural Iowa was carved up for settlers in the 19th century, it was often divided into 160-acre lots. Four farms made a …
3 key traits of good climate policy, tackling the problems we have and making a large, meaningful impact on carbon emissions and climate change
Good climate policy has 3 key traits: It has a large, meaningful impact on carbon emissions and climate change. It specifically tackles the problems that aren’t already being tackled by the market. It actually gets passed into law. All of that is compatible with a Green New Deal. In just the past decade, solar power has gone from being uneconomical anywhere on …