June, 08 2018, 12:00am EDT
Clean Energy High on The Agenda As Nation's Mayors Meet
Votes expected on a number of key issues, including 100 percent renewable energy.
Boston, Mass.
This weekend at the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston, local leaders from across the country will have a chance to show their support for a future powered by clean, renewable energy, as well as other measures to tackle climate change.
The mayors are expected to consider resolutions setting sights on 100 percent renewable energy in American cities, increasing wind power development on- and offshore, and asserting the role of mayors in upholding the Paris Agreement.
"Mayors are well-positioned to drive the benefits of clean, renewable energy to their communities," said Bret Fanshaw, director of Environment America's Go Solar Campaign. "When cities invest in saving energy and switching to solar and wind power, we reduce the pollution that harms our environment and impacts our health, and we help ensure a safer, healthier climate for our kids."
Cities and their leaders have long been at the forefront of the transition to a clean energy future.
More than 70 U.S. cities and counties have previously set goals to repower themselves with 100 percent renewable energy. Earlier this year, 180 mayors signed a letter in support of solar power in their communities and across the country.
These commitments have been backed up by significant municipal action. As of 2017, the top 20 U.S. cities for solar energy had more solar installed than the entire country did in 2010.
At this weekend's conference, Columbia, S.C. Mayor Steve Benjamin, the incoming president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is sponsoring the resolution for "100% Renewable Energy in American Cities"; Mayor Jon Mitchell of New Bedford, Mass. is sponsoring the wind energy resolution; and Mayor Jackie Biskupski of Salt Lake City, Utah and many others are sponsoring the resolution supporting the role of mayors in combating climate change.
"These forward-thinking mayors have a vision for a world in which renewable energy powers our lives and protects our environment," said Fanshaw. "In the absence of national leadership, our cities can and will lead the way toward a cleaner, safer, saner energy future."
With Environment America, you protect the places that all of us love and promote core environmental values, such as clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean energy to power our lives. We're a national network of 29 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state. Together, we focus on timely, targeted action that wins tangible improvements in the quality of our environment and our lives.
(303) 801-0581LATEST NEWS
Sierra Club Urges Dem Senators to Uphold Biden Clean Vehicle Standards
One campaigner from the green group decried the "dangerous attempt to roll back progress on climate, clean air, and cleaner cars" by some lawmakers skeptical of the new EPA rules.
Apr 11, 2024
The Sierra Club on Wednesday launched a multistate digital ad campaign aimed at persuading seven U.S. senators—six of them Democrats—to back the Biden administration's already weakened tailpipe pollution standards for passenger cars and light-duty trucks.
The new campaign targets Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Az.), John Tester (D-Mt.), and Mark Warner (D-Va.), who have been critical of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) recently finalized federal clean vehicle standards.
"The Sierra Club urges all senators to protect their constituents from toxic vehicle pollution and support these clean car standards that will save families money and give car buyers more choice," Will Anderson, the green group's deputy legislative director, said in a statement.
"The popular clean car standards are the latest commonsense action by the Environmental Protection Agency to tackle our nation's most polluting sector—transportation—and they work," Anderson added. "Trying to undo them is a dangerous attempt to roll back progress on climate, clean air, and cleaner cars that will benefit communities across the country."
Some of the ads are custom-tailored to individual lawmakers. Responding to Fetterman's recent criticism of the new EPA rules, one of the videos argues that "repealing this standard would harm Pennsylvania's growing clean energy economy, undermine efforts to clean up our air, and hurt children and seniors with asthma and other respiratory problems."
"We urge Sen. Fetterman to protect Pennsylvania families who will benefit from this lifesaving standard that will create jobs and give car buyers more options—not Big Polluters and their Republican allies who want to roll back climate progress," the video adds.
The EPA estimates that the new standards will prevent 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and provide $13 billion in annualized net benefits for consumers and the climate. While some environmentalists have hailed the new rules as the strongest ever of their kind, others argue they don't go far enough.
Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign, last month claimed that "the EPA caved to pressure from Big Auto, Big Oil, and car dealers and riddled the plan with loopholes big enough to drive a Ford F-150 through."
The new Sierra Club campaign launched the day after a federal appellate panel upheld the Biden administration's 2022 decision to preserve California's strict vehicle emission standards, which have been adopted by 17 states and the District of Columbia. California's mandate is more stringent than the new EPA standards, which set no quotas for zero-emission vehicle sales.
Keep ReadingShow Less
2 Maine Republicans Say Lewiston Mass Shooting Was God's Retribution for Abortion Rights
"Viewing mass shooters as instruments of God seems like it's the perfect next step for Republicans," said one critic. "It combines everything that drives the modern Republican Party."
Apr 11, 2024
Two Maine state Republican lawmakers on Thursday were formally censured for saying during a legislative debate that the deadliest shooting in the state's history was the result of God's wrath over abortion, and issued apologies—but rights advocates said their views should not be treated as an aberration in the GOP.
"Viewing mass shooters as instruments of God seems like it's the perfect next step for Republicans," said writer Mark Sumner. "It combines everything that drives the modern Republican Party."
State Rep. Michael Lemelin (R-88) invoked last year's shooting in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday night during a debate over L.D. 227, a proposal to protect healthcare providers from being targeted by other states' restrictions on gender-affirming and reproductive care.
Lemelin urged his colleagues to consider last year's passage of L.D. 1619, which expanded access to abortion later in pregnancy and went into effect on October 25—the same day a gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others.
"When 1619 passed and went into law on October 25, you told God life doesn't matter," Lemelin said. "Keep in mind that the law came into effect on October 25. God heard you and the horrible events on October 25 happened."
Lemelin added that there would be "severe consequences" if the House passed L.D. 227, and also tied recent severe rain and snowstorms in Maine to God's opposition to the state's support for abortion rights.
"Radical religiosity is becoming far too common in mainstream politics," said Ryan Fecteau, a Democratic former Maine House speaker. "It is dangerous and threatens good governance."
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle denounced Lemelin's comments, but the outcry didn't stop Rep. Shelley Rudnicki (R-67) from rising to tell her colleagues she agreed "with Rep. Lemelin and everything he said."
"The GOP is now blaming mass shootings on abortion," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. "Seriously."
When L.D. 227 later passed in a vote of 80-70, Rudnicki called it "a very sad day for Maine."
Lemelin has previously downplayed the Covid-19 pandemic—just as then-President Donald Trump, Fox News personality Sean Hannity, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and others did in 2020—and called the climate crisis a "hoax," a view also shared by numerous Republican politicians.
The House voted unanimously to censure Lemelin and Rudnicki, requiring them to deliver "brief, identical apologies on the House floor" that allowed them "to resume their ability to speak and vote."
State House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-118) told the lawmakers Thursday that their remarks were "extremely offensive and intentionally harmful to the victims and the families of the Lewiston tragedy, the House of Representatives, and the people of Maine."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'History Will Judge': Sanders Says US Must Stand With Gaza Children, Not Netanyahu
"Our new position must be simple and straightforward: Not another nickel for the Netanyahu government if its present policies continue," wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Apr 11, 2024
Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote Thursday that the Biden administration must fundamentally alter the United States' relationship with the Israeli government as it continues to bomb and starve children in the Gaza Strip, often with the help of American weaponry and diplomatic support on the world stage.
"The United States has offered Israel unconditional financial support for many years," Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in an op-ed for The Boston Globe. "That relationship must now change. Instead of begging [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's extremist government to protect innocent lives and obey U.S. and international law, our new position must be simple and straightforward: Not another nickel for the Netanyahu government if its present policies continue."
The senator noted that the U.S. public opposition to Israel's catastrophic war on Gaza has surged in recent months, with a majority of American voters saying in response to one survey that they want the Biden administration to halt weapons shipments to Israel.
"Let's be clear: This is a monumental tragedy for the Palestinian people," Sanders wrote. "But from a moral perspective, it is also a defining moment for Americans, because the United States is directly complicit in this horrific war. No, the U.S. military is not dropping 2,000-pound bombs on civilian apartment buildings, but the United States is supplying those bombs. No, the United States is not blocking the borders and preventing food, water, and medical supplies from getting to desperate people, but we have supplied billions of dollars to the Netanyahu government, which is doing just that."
"History will judge what we do right now," the senator continued. "History will judge whether we stand with starving children, whether we uphold America's professed values, or whether we continue to blindly finance Netanyahu's war machine."
History will judge what we do right now.
History will judge whether we stand with starving children, whether we uphold America’s professed values, or whether we continue to blindly finance Netanyahu’s war machine.https://t.co/3M5BySdAQ0
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 11, 2024
Sanders' op-ed came days after President Joe Biden said in a phone call with Netanyahu that the U.S. could move to condition military aid to Israel if it doesn't do more to protect Gaza civilians and allow aid to flow to malnourished and increasingly desperate Palestinians. At least 28 children have died of starvation in Gaza in recent weeks due to Israel's restrictions on food aid.
While Israel agreed in response to pressure from Biden and the international community to open a new land crossing for aid deliveries, humanitarian groups said the move was woefully inadequate in the face of famine conditions, rapidly spreading disease, and other crises.
"Above all, what the people of Gaza need is a permanent cease-fire to end the death and destruction," Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam International's Middle East and North Africa director, said in response to Israel's announcement last week.
But Biden's rhetoric on conditioning U.S. aid to Israel has not translated to concrete policy change: The Biden administration is currently pressing Congress to approve a proposed sale of $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel, and the White House last month quietly greenlighted the transfer of more than 1,800 2,000-pound bombs.
For months, United Nations experts and humanitarian groups have been calling on the U.S. and other nations to cut off weapons shipments to the Israeli military, pointing to well-documented evidence of war crimes.
More than 250 human rights organizations have now signed a statement demanding that all countries "immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian armed groups." The statement had just 16 signatories when it was originally released in January.
"All states have the obligation to prevent atrocity crimes and promote adherence to norms that protect civilians," the statement reads. "The international community is long overdue to live up to these commitments."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular