January, 05 2022, 12:49pm EDT
Florida Youth File Petition for Rulemaking with FDACS for Goal of 100% Renewable Energy by 2050
WASHINGTON
On Wednesday, January 5, 2022, over 150 Florida youth - led by four former youth plaintiffs in Reynolds v. State of Florida - filed a petition for rulemaking with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) asking it to establish a goal to generate 100% of Florida's electricity from renewable energy by 2050.
The proposed rule submitted by young Floridians calls on the FDACS to require "each electric utility that produces or purchases electricity for consumption in the State of Florida" to set and achieve goals to generate 100% of Florida's electricity from renewable energy by 2050, with three interim goals to guide and evaluate the transition: at least 40% renewable energy by 2030, at least 63% renewable energy by 2035, and at least 82% renewable energy by 2040. The proposed goals come from energy experts who have concluded that it is economically and technically feasible to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050. Other experts have found that transitioning to renewable energy would create 222,082 construction jobs and 90,727 operation jobs, reduce energy costs, and save lives.
"Florida law is clear that Commissioner Fried has the statutory authority to set goals to increase the use of renewable energy in Florida," said Andrea Rodgers, one of the Our Children's Trust attorneys representing the youth petitioners. "The youth are simply asking that she follow the black letter of the law and heed the advice of energy experts. Now more than ever, young people in Florida need a political leader who will stand up for them and protect their constitutional rights."
Florida is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the United States and, as of 2020, only 4.3% of Florida's energy came from renewable sources, while natural gas made up 75% of Florida's electricity system. Meanwhile, people and communities in Florida experience numerous devastating impacts of the climate crisis: rising sea levels and resultant flooding, beach erosion and damage to coastal property, extreme damage to marine ecosystems, spread of infectious diseases, increased severity of storms and extreme weather events, and suffering tourism, agriculture, and recreation industries. In 2011, the Florida legislature mandated FDACS to increase the use of renewable energy and reduce the state's dependence on fossil fuels; however, Commissioner Fried has still not implemented this law and Florida's electricity system is still dominated by fossil fuels.
"Most adults in charge today simply talk about the issue and fail us, our future and our environment by nearly never actually acting to address the core problem; fossil fuel pollution that creates greenhouse gases that are warming earth to dangerous levels," wrote Delaney Reynolds, one of the lead youth petitioners, on her blog for "The Sink or Swim Project." She continued, "The good news is that we have a law in place that allows Florida's government to enact actual change right now if only our leaders were compelled to do more about the problem than talk about it while they protect the special interests and polluters that want to avoid or delay the changes we must implement to solve this crisis."
This petition for rulemaking, signed by over 150 young people ages 25 and younger from across the state of Florida, is part of an international, youth-led legal campaign that is supported by the nonprofit public interest law firm, Our Children's Trust, which also represented and supported the Florida youth plaintiffs in Reynolds v. State of Florida and currently represents the 21 youth plaintiffs in the federal constitutional climate case, Juliana v. United States.
Additional information, including the petition for rulemaking submitted by Florida youth today, can be found at www.ourchildrenstrust.org/floridapetition.
Our Children's Trust is a nonprofit organization advocating for urgent emissions reductions on behalf of youth and future generations, who have the most to lose if emissions are not reduced. OCT is spearheading the international human rights and environmental TRUST Campaign to compel governments to safeguard the atmosphere as a "public trust" resource. We use law, film, and media to elevate their compelling voices. Our ultimate goal is for governments to adopt and implement enforceable science-based Climate Recovery Plans with annual emissions reductions to return to an atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration of 350 ppm.
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President Joe Biden has requested that Congress to lift most of the restrictions on Israel's access to a U.S. stockpile of weapons in the country, The Intercept reported Saturday.
The request came in the administration's supplemental budget request to the U.S. Senate, sent October 20. It concerns the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) that the U.S. has stored in Israel since the 1980s for its own use in a potential conflict in the region. The U.S. allows Israel to access the stockpile under certain conditions, but Biden's request would remove most of these conditions, including a requirement that Israel only use surplus or obsolete weapons and a cap on how much the U.S. can spend resupplying the stash.
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The news comes in the midst of a four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which has given journalists and humanitarian organizations a moment to assess the extent of the death and destruction unleashed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking around 240 hostages. In retaliation, the Israeli military has killed more than 14,800 people in Gaza, around 10,000 of them women and children. That means the number of women and children killed in Gaza in less than two months is more than double the number confirmed killed in Ukraine in two years of fighting with Russia, The New York Times concluded Saturday. One of the reasons for the high civilian toll, the Times said, is Israel's use of 2,000-pound, U.S.-made bombs in a densely populated Gaza Strip.
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The Intercept story came the day after Biden seemed open to the idea of putting conditions on military aid to Israel while answering questions from reporters in Nantucket.
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On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden said the idea of putting conditions on aid to Israel was "absolutely outrageous." But the administration's seemingly unconditional support for Israel as it carried out its siege, bombardment, and invasion of Gaza has led to backlash among progressives, who have marched for a cease-fire and carried out direct actions in several major cities. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on November 15 found that 68% of the U.S. public backed a cease-fire.
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In explaining the delay, Hamas also said that Israel had not released enough long-serving prisoners.
"Civilians should not be pawns in a deadly standoff between warring parties who flout basic principles of humanity."
"This is putting the deal in danger," said Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, as AP reported.
Sari Bashi, the program director of Human Rights Watch, criticized both sides for the delay.
"Hamas is obligated to release hostages, whether or not aid enters Gaza," Bashi tweeted. "The Israeli government is obligated to supply Gaza with aid, whether or not hostages are released. Civilians should not be pawns in a deadly standoff between warring parties who flout basic principles of humanity."
However, Egypt, Qatar, and Hamas later said everything had been resolved and the exchange would go forward, according to AP, sparking great relief from the hostages' friends and families.
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Egypt had also said earlier in the day that it had received "positive signals" from both sides about a possible extension of the cease-fire, Reuters reported. Netanyahu had previously said the pause would extend one day for every extra 10 hostages that Hamas releases.
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Zambrano told the UNAM Gazette that axolotl numbers had rapidly declined in surveys: from 6,000 per square kilometer in 1998 to 36 in 2014, a decline of 99.5% in less than two decades.
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