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For Immediate Release
May, 02 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Dani Heffernan, dani@350.org, +1 (305) 992-1544
350.org on 17 States' Lawsuit Against Trump Administration's Clean Car Rollbacks
Today, 17 states including California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for it's plans to rollback clean car standards, citing the administration's Clean Air Act violations. 350.org Executive Director May Boeve gave the following response:
Oakland, CA
Today, 17 states including California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for it's plans to rollback clean car standards, citing the administration's Clean Air Act violations. 350.org Executive Director May Boeve gave the following response:
"This lawsuit is yet another example of states, cities and communities stepping up where the Trump administration is failing. In the lead-up to California's Global Climate Action Summit, it's critical that public officials at all levels challenge Trump's climate-denying agenda and commit to moving us toward a fossil free world. We need real climate action that stops all new fossil fuel projects--like pipelines--and transitions cities and states to 100% renewable energy."
In September, Gov. Jerry Brown will welcome world leaders to San Francisco for his Global Climate Action Summit. Already, communities in California, across the country and around the globe, are preparing to mobilize for the Summit and put pressure on the world's public officials to commit to a just transition to 100% renewable energy and to a ban on new fossil fuel projects. Last month, that pressure was focused on Gov. Brown, when nearly 800 organizations sent a letter to his office, urging him to take action against fossil fuel extraction in the Golden State.
On May 14th, in the lead-up to the summit, climate and environmental movement leaders will hold a discussion on how California can become a global model for the fast and just transition away from fossil fuels to a 100% renewable energy economy. Panelists will discuss the steps already underway and the work that remains to build a fossil free California that supports communities and the climate. This "Real Climate Leadership" panel coincides with community-led events being held at city halls around the country calling for public officials to support resolutions that ban new fossil fuel projects and jumpstart transitions to renewable energy.
More information on the "Real Climate Leadership" panel can be found below and at the following link: https://350.org/may14/
WHAT: "Real Climate Leadership: How California Can Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground, and build a Just Transition to 100% Renewable Energy", a panel discussion.
WHEN:Monday, May 14, 2018 at 7PM PDT.
WHERE: The Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA 94612
WHO:
Moderator:
- Antonia Juhasz (author, investigative journalist)
Panelists:
- Bill McKibben (author, co-founder of 350.org)
- Pennie Opal Plant (Idle No More SF Bay)
- Juan Flores (Center on Race, Poverty, & the Environment)
WHY: Between record-breaking wildfires and on-going droughts, Californians have experienced the impacts of the climate crisis firsthand. At the same time, the fossil fuel industry that's driving the crisis forward is a dangerous and imposing presence across the state, from neighborhood drilling in South Los Angeles, to fracking in the Central Valley, and oil refineries dotting the coastline.
So far, California policy has only addressed the demand for energy, while avoiding measures to curb fossil fuel extraction. As Gov. Brown prepares to hold the Global Climate Action Summit during his final term in office, the Golden State is uniquely positioned to take precedent-setting action against the fossil fuel industry.
Panel Co-sponsored by: Idle No More SF Bay, 350.org, Oil Change International, Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, CultureStrike, Amazon Watch, Greenpeace U.S., Center for Biological Diversity, Stand.earth, SustainUS, Rock the Bike, Diablo Rising Tide, Californians Against Fracking, Rootskeeper, Friends of the Earth, Conscious Elders Network/Elder Activists Social Justice Team, Food & Water Watch, Sunflower Alliance, Fossil Free California, 350 Bay Area, The Sanders Institute, ClimateTruth.org and more.
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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Nearly 80% of Voters in George Santos' NY District Say He Should Resign: Poll
"Talk about buyers' remorse," cracked the director of Siena College Research Institute, which conducted the poll.
Jan 31, 2023
Close to 80% of voters in GOP Rep. George Santos' New York congressional district want him to resign—including 71% of Republicans—according to a poll published Tuesday, the same day the serial liar temporarily stepped down from his House committee assignments.
According to the Newsday/Siena College poll, Santos' overall approval rating is an abysmal 7%, with 83% disapproval. Seventy-eight percent of survey respondents said Santos should resign, including 89% of Democrats, 71% of Republicans, and 72% of Independents.
"Talk about buyers' remorse," Siena College Research Institute director Don Levy said in a statement. "Voters elected George Santos by a comfortable margin not even three months ago. But today, the vast majority of his new constituents—including the vast majority of those who voted for him—want him gone."
"Discouragingly, three-quarters or more of voters of every party say that Santos' behavior and now his refusing to resign show that our political system is broken, not that his behavior says little about the state of our politics," Levy added.
The survey of registered voters in New York's 3rd Congressional District was conducted last week.
\u201cSpecial Newsday / Siena College NY 3 Congressional District Poll:\nNY 3 Voters Say Santos Should Resign 78-13%, Including 71% of Reps\n\nhttps://t.co/29pwfP7Tx4\u201d— SienaResearch (@SienaResearch) 1675161006
From intrigue surrounding how his net worth skyrocketed from almost nothing to $11 million in less than two years; to demonstrable lies about his education, employment history, residence, and purported Jewish heritage; to allegations of fraud perpetrated in Brazil and against a U.S. combat veteran and his dying dog, Santos' lies have dominated his short congressional career.
On Tuesday, Santos said he would temporarily step down from the House Small Business Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee amid investigations into his campaign finances. The embattled congressman thanked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for "allowing me to take time to properly clear my name before returning to my committees."
Responding to this, the political action group MoveOn tweeted: "Stepping down from committees is just the start. Santos needs to resign."
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Just 30% of U.S. milk is now produced at family farms, while 83% of milk sales are controlled by just three dairy cooperatives: Land O' Lakes, DFA, and California Dairies, Inc.
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"We can and must build better, more sustainable systems that support people, communities, and the environment," the group tweeted.
\u201cIn addition to polluting air and water, our research shows that the growth of megadairies is bad for small farmers. We can and must build better, more sustainable systems that support people, communities, and the environment. https://t.co/BIzjauXfUI\u201d— Food & Water Watch (@Food & Water Watch) 1675191692
FWW traced the loss of family-scale farms back to factors including the loss of dairy price supports in the early 2000s, which caused production prices to rise even more sharply than they previously had for two decades, while sale prices rose far less quickly. This left the average family farm almost entirely unable to turn a profit—doing so just twice between 2000 and 2021—and in many cases, forced them to eventually close.
The "disastrous 1996 Farm Bill" also ended commodity grain supply management policies, allowing oversupplies to flood the market and "ushering in the era of factory farms," with family farms unable to compete with large facilities. Milk production rapidly increased since 1997, further driving down sale prices.
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Wisconsin dairy farmer Sarah Lloyd told FWW that dairy farm families "have our backs against the wall."
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The report argues that "there is a clear way forward," making recommendations including "a comprehensive federal supply management program that actively works to match supply with demand and does not use the export market as a dumping ground for oversupply."
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As the Federal Reserve kicked off its first policy meeting of the new year on Tuesday, economists and progressive advocates reiterated their now-familiar call for the central bank to stop raising interest rates amid growing evidence that hiring, wage growth, and inflation are slowing significantly.
"Pushing millions of people out of work is not the answer to tackling inflation," Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement. "Additional rate hikes could jeopardize our strong labor market—and low-wage workers and Black and brown workers would suffer the biggest economic consequences."
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The latest push for an end to interest rate increases came as fresh data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Tuesday showed that wage growth continued to cool at the tail-end of 2022, an outcome that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has explicitly been aiming for even as experts have rejected the notion that wages are responsible for current inflation levels.
According to the BLS Employment Cost Index (ECI)—a measure watched closely by Fed policymakers—wage growth climbed just 1% in the final three months of 2022 compared to the previous quarter, a slower pace than analysts expected.
"The Fed has lost its excuse for a recession," Mike Konczal, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, tweeted in response to the new BLS figures. "Over the last three months, inflation has come down exactly as a soft landing would predict, wage growth didn't persist but moderated with the reopening to solidly high levels within late 1990s ranges, and the economy added 750,000 new jobs."
"Too many hard-working families have everything to lose if the Fed stays the course with higher rates that only push the economy closer to a recession."
Though Powell has insisted that Fed decision-making will be driven by economic data, he made clear last month that the nation's central bankers don't think inflation has slowed enough to justify a rate-hike pause or reversal, brushing aside the recessionary risks of more monetary tightening.
On Wednesday, the Fed is widely expected to institute a 25-basis-point rate increase followed by another of the same size at its March meeting, bringing the total number of rate hikes to nine since early 2022.
Even the central bank's own models predict a sharp increase in the unemployment rate—and potentially millions of lost jobs—if Fed policymakers drive interest rates up to their desired range of between 5% and 5.25%.
Recent layoffs across the tech industry as well as data signaling a hiring deceleration have also intensified fears of a Fed-induced economic crisis.
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\u201cExperts are warning the @federalreserve against further job-killing rate hikes\u2014it's time for the Fed to stop needlessly threatening Americans' livelihoods while doing nothing to address the rampant corporate greed raising prices on essentials. https://t.co/8S66qwXT5b\u201d— Accountable.US (@Accountable.US) 1675177572
For months, economists and lawmakers have vocally questioned the Fed's aggressive rate hikes and laser focus on the labor market given the myriad causes of the 2021 inflation spike, from pandemic-induced supply chain snags to corporate profiteering to Russia's war on Ukraine to the climate crisis.
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In a blog post on Monday, Economic Policy Institute research director Josh Bivens noted that the Fed's dual mandate is "meant to balance the risks of inflation versus the benefits of fast growth and low unemployment."
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