Renewables are getting cheaper, but taking these fossil fuels (common resources) out of the ground and selling them is still more lucrative. We’ll need radical intervention, as big oil companies are driven by profit and won’t decarbonize by themselves.

Comment: Big oil companies are driven by profit – they won’t turn green by themselves by Brett Christophers, The Guardian. May 26, 2021 Tue 25 May 2021 551 Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world’s leading energy authority, laid bare the scale of the challenge in keeping the world on track to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050: a massive acceleration …

New York’s Public Power Bill Could Be a Model for the Rest of the Country. NY State Build Public Renewables Act sets path for faster, cheaper, better decarbonization.

The New York State Build Public Renewables Act. “We could see, for instance, federal money going to states so that they could set one up themselves so that they can build out public renewable energy in their states, bring down the cost, make it accountable to the people, and bring down energy poverty at the same time.” Dharna Noor 5/13/21, Gizmodo …

Fossil fuel risk bond programs underway in Oregon and Washington, now part of national legislation

Center for Sustainable Economy’s (CSE) work on fossil fuel risk bond programs (FFRB) – a signature ‘polluter pays’ project on fossil fuel infrastructure that was launched about 2 years ago — would provide a major deterrent for building new fossil fuel infrastructure as well as incentives to retire existing infrastructure early in any jurisdiction that adopts it.   2019 and 2020 brought …

U.S. regulates vehicle greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of an automaker’s average fuel efficiency across its entire catalog

The U.S. regulates its greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of an automaker’s average fuel efficiency across its entire catalog, rather than setting hard caps on the allowable emissions for individual automobile models. In practice, that means that every electric vehicle that GM introduces will give it a little more room to release a high-polluting vehicle that could erase the …

California’s Plan: Crowdsource Distributed Energy to Replace Grid Upgrades

The Partnership Pilot could start to enroll solar, batteries, EVs and other behind-the-meter assets as non-wires alternatives later this year. By Jeff St. John, GreenTechMedia, Feb 5, 2021 California regulators are planning a new approach to enlisting behind-the-meter batteries, solar, electric vehicles and other assets to replace grid upgrades. 1 California’s investor-owned utilities have argued against this approach. In comments …

Facebook as a regulated utility?

Excerpt from Steven Hill, Should President Biden Revoke Section 230? https://www.laprogressive.com/revoke-section-230/ Jan 2021 Facebook is no longer simply a “social networking” website – it is the largest media giant in the history of the world, a combination publisher and broadcaster with approximately 2.6 billion regular users, plus billions more on the Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Instagram. A mere 100 pieces of COVID-19 …

Just recovery policies

Foundations for a Just Recovery Many of the policy solutions we advocate for a just recovery are cross-cutting by nature. They aim to shift mindsets, cultural norms, how people are treated, how our voices are heard, and how bedrock environmental laws are upheld, creating an overarching structure from which to fight for social, environmental, and economic justice. Honor those whose …

Can Cap and Trade Actually Address Environmental Justice?

Denny Khamphanthong, community organizer for Asian Pacific Environmental Network, in front of the Chevron Richmond Refinery in California. Photo by Federica Armstrong/YES! Magazine. Since California’s program launched in 2013, questions have swirled about whether cap and trade has helped or hurt people living in the shadow of the state’s largest emitters. Why you can trust us BY JULIA ROSEN – California, Nov 20, …

A Moral Policy Agenda to Heal and Transform America: The Poor People’s Jubilee Platform (Aug 2020)

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 …