August, 12 2013, 12:53pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Judy Berk | 207.462.2192 | judy@nrcm.org
Dylan Voorhees | 207.462.3221 | dylan@nrcm.org
Beth Ahearn | 207.671.5071 | beth@maineconservation.org
Glen Brand | 207.749.3896 | glen.brand@sierraclub.org
'I Will Act on Climate' Bus Tour Arrives in Maine
Maine Business, Health, Elected, Academic, Conservation Leaders Express their support; urge support for federal climate change standards
Bangor/Portland
A coalition of local business, health, elected, academic, and conservation leaders, are joining the "I Will Act On Climate" bus as it arrived in Bangor and Portland, Maine Monday, August 12, as part of 27-state tour. The "I Will" bus is touring places, like Bangor and Portland, which have been directly affected by climate change, to highlight the need for our federal and state representatives to support bold action to protect our communities from the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
"I WILL ACT on climate change because global warming is a non-partisan issue and we need to work together, said Caroline Pryor, Board chair of Maine Conservation Voters. "The solution is complex but it starts by working together, across party lines."
"Climate change is a threat to our economy and way of life in Maine and we have already started to see the effect it's having on our fisheries, for example," said Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. "But the way we respond to that threat is an opportunity to create new jobs through the development of clean energy sources and new technologies, and clearly the President has recognized that opportunity with his comprehensive climate plan."
"Climate change is real and cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, gridlock in Washington has stalled progress on a whole host of issues, including this one," said Maine Congressman Mike Michaud. "I strongly support the President taking the lead and announcing important steps his administration will take to address climate change and promote clean energy. But it's long past time that Congress becomes a productive part of a national strategy. I'm hopeful this tour and the resulting calls to policymakers will help send a strong message that we want action, not more of the same."
"We all need to be better stewards of the environment, including by addressing climate change as quickly as possible," said Jim Merryman, lobsterman and owner, Potts Harbor Lobster Company in Harpswell. "The ocean and its lobsters provide our livelihood. Lobsters are part of Maine, and I hope our leaders do their part to help keep it that way."
"Maine is defined by our forests," said Alec Giffen, a senior scientist at the Clean Air Task Force and former director of the Maine Forest Service. "Forests are already impacted by climate change, this is not a hypothetical. Bigger changes are in the offing and we need to aggressively start addressing climate change NOW. Rather than being a part of the problem, forests can be a major part of the solution in reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
The "I Will Act on Climate" bus tour has hit the road on the heels of President Obama's June 25th announcement at which he unveiled a national climate action plan, which includes the nation's first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants along with measures to strengthen our nation's infrastructure against the effects of climate change and new investments in clean energy and energy efficiency. Maine conservation groups and others invited the bus to events in Bangor and Portland. Bus tour participants encouraged citizens to call on Senators Collins and King to act on climate by supporting the President's climate action plan and particularly industrial carbon pollution limits.
"In a few days, I will become a grandfather and I want to be able to tell my grandchild that we have done everything we can to slow climate change," said Portland Mayor Michael Brennan. "Climate change is a global problem that requires action at all levels city, state, country, and planet to cut carbon pollution. Just as we have placed limits on other pollutants to protect the health and safety of our community, we need to apply those same controls on carbon and President Obama's limits on carbon pollution for new and existing power plants is the right place to start. I want to know that the beautiful environment my grandchild will enjoy in Portland will be there for his grandchild, too."
"The predictions regarding the adverse health impacts of climate change have begun to occur in Maine and across the globe, including the spread of infectious diseases, more heat related illnesses, more outbreaks of water-borne diseases from contaminated drinking water, more respiratory illnesses due to elevated ozone levels, and impaired nutrition due to declining crop yields from drought and heat," said Dr. Paul Perkins, a physician practicing in Bath and chair of Physicians for Social Responsibility's Climate Change Committee.
"I see climate change as an issue of vast importance to our children's and grandchildren's health," said retired physician Dr. Bill Horner. "Seeing climate change as a health issue is important to bringing people together around the problem and solutions."
"Maine's two Senators have a record of speaking up on the problem of climate change, the need to reduce air pollution, and the opportunities for expanded clean energy," said Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy Director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine. "Now the Administration is poised to move forward with some of the most important clean air standards ever to protect us from extreme climate change. We hope they will both be among the early supporters of real action."
"President Obama's historic climate protection plan to reduce carbon pollution moves our nation away from dangerous and expensive dependency on fossil fuels, and towards a cleaner, safer and more reliable energy future," said Glen Brand, Sierra Club Maine Chapter Director. "For Mainers, this means healthier air, greater energy independence, and new economic opportunities."
"Climate change is no longer a distant threat, New Englanders are already feeling the impacts with seasonal change and increased heavy precipitation," said Curt Spalding EPA Regional Administrator for New England. "We must work together to make our communities more resilient to impacts while reducing carbon emissions to ensure a healthy environment and economy for our future generations."
"We urgently need action on climate change," said Kate Rush, a partner at Evolo Energy Solutions in Newport. "As a solar installer, I'm happy to be part of the solution while contributing to the Maine economy. We also need federal action, like the President's plan to cut global warming pollution from power plants."
"Maine has the highest per capita oil consumption and the highest per capita CO2 emissions in New England, which is bad news for residents as well as the visitors who support our #1 industry, tourism," said Phil Coupe, co-founder of ReVision Energy. "The good news is that Maine has abundant renewable energy resources in the form of tidal, biomass, wind and solar power. ReVision Energy's mission is to help Maine make the necessary long-term transition from finite, polluting fossil energy to clean, renewable energy."
Maine and eight other northeast states have already adopted global warming pollution limits for their power plants through a regional market-based program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or RGGI. This program puts a fixed limit on the total amount of pollution regional power plants can emit. Recently Maine passed legislation approving large, mutually agreed upon reduction in this limit. It is expected that RGGI could now play a significant role as the implementation mechanism for new federal global warming standards for power plants in the northeast.
The "I Will Act on Climate" bus is traveling through Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. The entire journey is being chronicled in podcasts and blogs throughout the trip and can be viewed at https://www.iwillact.us.
The "I Will" Act on Climate bus tour (#ActOnClimate) is supported by a diverse set of local, state-based, and national public health, progressive and environmental organizations. Organizations across the country are joining in this effort by bringing the 'I Will' bus to their local community, highlighting impacts of climate change and opportunities created by climate action, and calling for local action.
For more information about the "I Will Act on Climate" tour's stop in Maine or to schedule interviews with its participants, contact Judy Berk at 207.462.2192, judy@nrcm.org; or Dylan Voorhees at 207.462.3221, Dylan@nrcm.org.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine is the leading nonprofit membership organization working statewide for clean air and water; healthy people, wildlife and forests; and clean energy solutions. NRCM harnesses the power of science, the law, and the voices of more than 12,000 supporters to protect the nature of Maine. Visit NRCM online at www.nrcm.org.
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Critics Blast 'Reckless and Impossible' Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
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Environmental defenders on Tuesday ripped the company behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline for asking the federal government—on Earth Day—for permission to start sending methane gas through the 303-mile conduit despite a worsening climate emergency caused largely by burning fossil fuels.
Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
"In a manner typical of its ongoing disrespect for the environment, Mountain Valley Pipeline marked Earth Day by asking FERC for authorization to place its dangerous, unnecessary pipeline into service in late May," said Jessica Sims, the Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices.
"MVP brazenly asks for this authorization while simultaneously notifying FERC that the company has completed less than two-thirds of the project to final restoration and with the mere promise that it will notify the commission when it fully complies with the requirements of a consent decree it entered into with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last fall," she continued.
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Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition—which called MVP's request "reckless and impossible"—said in a statement that "we are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real-time: The reckless MVP is barreling towards completion."
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POWHR and activists representing frontline communities affected by the pipeline are set to take part in a May 8 demonstration outside project financier Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Appalachian Voices noted that MVP's request comes days before pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream is set to release its 2024 first-quarter earnings information on April 30.
MVP is set to traverse much of Virginia and West Virginia, with the Southgate extension running into North Carolina. Outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other pipeline proponents fought to include expedited construction of the project in the debt ceiling deal negotiated between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans last year.
On Monday, climate and environmental defenders also petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging FERC's approval of the MVP's planned Southgate extension, contending that the project is so different from original plans that the government's previous assent is now irrelevant.
"Federal, state, and local elected officials have spoken out against this unneeded proposal to ship more methane gas into North Carolina," said Sierra Club senior field organizer Caroline Hansley. "The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over. After MVP Southgate requested a time extension for a project that it no longer plans to construct, it should be sent back to the drawing board for this newly proposed project."
David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia, said: "Approving the Southgate project is irresponsible. This project will pose the same kinds of threats of damage to the environment and the people along its path as we have seen caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline during the last six years."
"FERC has again failed to protect the public interest, instead favoring a profit-making corporation," Sligh added.
Others renewed warnings about the dangers MVP poses to wildlife.
"The endangered bats, fish, mussels, and plants in this boondoggle's path of destruction deserve to be protected from killing and habitat destruction by a project that never received proper approvals in the first place," Center for Biological Diversity attorney Perrin de Jong said. "Our organization will continue fighting this terrible idea to the bitter end."
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U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
"The FTC's final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market," Khan added, pointing to the commission's estimates that the policy could mean another $524 for the average worker, over 8,500 new startups, and 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year.
As Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Heidi Shierholz explained, "Noncompete agreements are employment provisions that ban workers at one company from working for, or starting, a competing business within a certain period of time after leaving a job."
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has suggested it plans to file a lawsuit that, as The American Prospectdetailed, "could more broadly threaten the rulemaking authority the FTC cited when proposing to ban noncompetes."
Already, the tax services and software provider Ryan has filed a legal challenge in federal court in Texas, arguing that the FTC is unconstitutionally structured.
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Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
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Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) executive director Mike Pierce pointed out that the FTC on Tuesday "recognized the harmful role debt plays in the workplace, including the growing use of training repayment agreement provisions, or TRAPs, and took action to outlaw TRAPs and all other employer-driven debt that serve the same functions as noncompete agreements."
Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at Open Markets Institute, highlighted that the addition came after his group, SBPC, and others submitted comments on the "significant gap" in the commission's initial January 2023 proposal, and also welcomed that "the final rule prohibits both conventional noncompete clauses and newfangled versions like TRAPs."
Jonathan Harris, a Loyola Marymount University law professor and SBPC senior fellow, said that "by also banning functional noncompetes, the rule stays one step ahead of employers who use 'stay-or-pay' contracts as workarounds to existing restrictions on traditional noncompetes. The FTC has decided to try to avoid a game of whack-a-mole with employers and their creative attorneys, which worker advocates will applaud."
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Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
In Monday's decision, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs—an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama—sided with the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, who argued that the 1877 law discriminated against Black people.
"The challenged statute was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters," Biggs wrote in her 25-page ruling.
Therefore, according to the judge, the 1877 law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
"We are ecstatic that the court found in our favor and struck down this racially discriminatory law that has been arbitrarily enforced over time," Action NC executive director Pat McCoy said in a statement. "We will now be able to help more people become civically engaged without fear of prosecution for innocent mistakes. Democracy truly won today!"
Voting rights tracker Democracy Docket noted that Monday's ruling "does not have any bearing on North Carolina's strict felony disenfranchisement law, which denies the right to vote for those with felony convictions who remain on probation, parole, or a suspended sentence—often leaving individuals without voting rights for many years after release from incarceration."
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"It also makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society, specifically Black voters who were the target of this law," Brown added.
North Carolina officials have not said whether they will appeal Biggs' ruling. The state Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision.
According to Forward Justice—a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South, "Although Black people constitute 21% of the voting-age population in North Carolina, they represent 42% of the people disenfranchised while on probation, parole, or post-release supervision."
The group notes that in 44 North Carolina counties, "the disenfranchisement rate for Black people is more than three times the rate of the white population."
"Judge Biggs' decision will help ensure that voters who mistakenly think they are eligible to cast a ballot will not be criminalized for simply trying to re-engage in the political process and perform their civic duty."
In what one civil rights leader called "the largest expansion of voting rights in this state since the 1965 Voting Rights Act," a three-judge state court panel voted 2-1 in 2021 to restore voting rights to approximately 55,000 formerly incarcerated felons. The decision made North Carolina the only Southern state to automatically restore former felons' voting rights.
Republican state legislators appealed that ruling to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which in 2022 granted their request for a stay—but only temporarily, as the court allowed a previous injunction against any felony disenfranchisement based on fees or fines to stand.
However, last April the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the three-judge panel decision, stripping voting rights from thousands of North Carolinians previously convicted of felonies. Dissenting Justice Anita Earls opined that "the majority's decision in this case will one day be repudiated on two grounds."
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As similar battles play out in other states, Democratic U.S. lawmakers led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in December introduced legislation to end former felon disenfranchisement in federal elections and guarantee incarcerated people the right to vote.
Currently, only Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow all incarcerated people to vote behind bars.
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