How Big An Issue Is Climate Change? Just Ask Candidates In Florida

A lot went into Markey's big win over Kennedy in Massachusetts Tuesday but Climate Change and the Green New Deal-- co-authored by Markey and passively supported by Kennedy-- was probably the single biggest factor. Perhaps, come November, it will be as big a factor is one of the most Climate-threatened states, Florida. The Environmental Defense Fund spent $1.7 million on the ad above, running it for a week in the Tampa Bay area, where there are a number of red hot races, from President to state legislature.

Kelly Hayes, writing for FloridaPolitics.com, reported that a new poll showed a 7-point swing in favor of Biden in the Tampa media market after a week of TV play. The Tampa media market, Florida's second largest, includes Hillsborough, Pinellas, Citrus, Pasco, Hernando, Manatee, Sarasota and Polk counties

Before the ad campaign, polling from AGL Research had shown President Donald Trump leading in the critical market. That poll, released July 6, showed a competitive margin between the two candidates-- at the time, Biden trailed by just 3 points in the Tampa market. However, the July poll showed Biden with a 15-point lead in Hillsborough County. Biden also held a 5-point lead in Pinellas County.

After the run of the ad, which criticizes Trump’s leadership on environmental issues and his declarations that climate change is “a hoax,” Trump now trails Biden by 4 points in the Tampa market, according to polling released last Wednesday.

“Florida is the most valuable swing state and the Tampa area is an essential piece of the electoral puzzle,” Vice President of ALG Research Kevin Atkins said in a news release. “Tampa area voters have felt the impacts of sea-level rise, stronger storms, and issues like Red Tide. It’s no surprise these voters are souring on a President who calls climate change a hoax.”

Trump won this market by roughly 8.5 points in 2016, according to the memo, although Hillary Clinton took Hillsborough County.

In the poll completed after the ad aired, the number of voters who are worried about climate change-- and voters do not approve of Trump’s handling of the issue-- increased. Nearly two-thirds of voters in the Tampa media market report being worried about climate change in the most recent poll, a plus-10 increase since mid-May, according to the Aug. 26 polling memo.

Additionally, 56% of voters gave Trump a negative rating on his performance in regard to environmental issues. About 40% of voters gave a positive rating.

Overall, across the Tampa Media Market, Trump’s favorability has dropped 10 points-- the President is now losing against Biden 45-49 in this area, a 7-point shift since having a 3-point lead in May, according to the memo.

Climate messages resonate with voters in the Tampa media market, according to EDF. Florida is still a dominant swing state, and recent polling shows Biden leading statewide.

Dr. Janelle Christensen is chair of the Florida Democratic Environmental Caucus and she and her team are responsible for recruiting and supporting more than two dozen environmental activists to run for state legislative seats that the Florida Democratic Party has been willing to cede to the GOP without a fight. She told me that most of the candidates her group recruited are now co-creators and signatories on the Florida Climate and Economic Defense Initiative. Overall 1/3 of the state legislative candidates have signed on Initiative. She also pointed out that "The younger candidates took the lead: Rock Aboujaoude, Anslem Weber, Heather Hunter, Rachel Brown, Katheryn Norman... The environment is an issue that Florida voters of all parties care about. Some are just more willing to be tricked into believing Republicans will actually do something for the environment, even though they have done nothing but hurt it for the past 20 years. When one looks at the legislation and the votes, it is clear only Democrats are willing to take action on ensure that the environment, economy and our health are cared for in a responsible way."

Many of the Florida Democratic candidates running for office up and down the ballot this year have told me the single biggest motivator for them jumping into electoral politics was the Climate Crisis. I asked several candidates who have seen the ad to tell me how voters in their districts are reacting to Climate as an issue. From the very first time I spoke with Katherine Norman, the progressive state Senate candidate going up against Joe Gruters, one of the state's most powerful Republican Climate deniers, she wanted to discuss the overwhelming urgency of dealing with Climate change. Again, yesterday, she told me that "We are seeing unprecedented momentum because we have decided to contest previously uncontested districts, so we can expect everything to be groundbreaking. We are building infrastructure for decades because our citizens are begging for the truth. It is unprecedented for America to deal with a leader with 70% fake followers and who regular lies with impunity on National TV. His supporters are also forced to spout straight lies to support the president against science, morality, and national interest."

Norman has tied the contrast between Gruters and herself on Climate to other salient issues for her districts voters as well, "My opponent," she told me, "seconded the president’s nomination at the RNC, in his speech he called the virus the ‘Wuhan Virus’-- this kind of rhetoric is not just some slight to China, this is a dangerous and deliberate attempt to frame the coronavirus as some absurd extension of the presidents ongoing mismanagement of our relationship with China. It is an elected leader attempting to blame the deaths of Americans at the hands of this administration on another country, and fuel the xenophobia that energizes his base. The GOP has demonstrated countless times that they will lie to the American people and every day we have more and more Republicans speak out against the egregious deterioration of our democracy at the hands of this administration. Here in Florida candidates like myself are incredibly proud to be offering a compassionate, transparent alternative for voters this year."

Bob Lynch is the Democratic candidate in a Miami-Dade swing district the Democratic Party prefers not to run in. Lynch is making them uncomfortable, something he doesn't shy away from. "In my district in particular," he told me, "which is 90% Hispanic, Climate Change and protecting the environment is an incredibly important issue. Around 75% of Latino voters, nationwide, support efforts to address climate change. A lot of Miami-Dade County’s immigrant population came from countries that have experience major problems due to climate change, others are in fact climate refugees. Our state, and county in particular are heavily reliant on our tourism industry. The Covid-19 should be a wake up call for us as to what the perils of not addressing climate change are. The pandemic has led to a 60% reduction in tourism in Florida. Imagine what will happen if we continue to see sea level rise that floods our cities even on sunny days? We have a massive fish kill in Biscayne Bay. Our beaches often are closed due to fecal matter in our ocean. We need to upgrade our old septic systems to sewer lines before they poison our ground water. If DeSantis and Trump allow offshore drilling and we wind up with an oil spill? It will cripple our tourism/hospitality industry even worse than Covid has. People are starting to wake up, but the Republicans refuse to even mention climate change, let alone address it. They continue to offer corporate tax breaks in exchange for lining their pockets to companies that pollute all of our waters. It is sickening."

Republicans Oppose The Green New Deal-- But So Does My Blue Dog Opponent

by Tom Guild
Democratic candidate, OK-05

A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that humans can still prevent the worst effects of climate change, but that we have less time than previously thought to undertake a dramatic and speedy transformation of the global economy. Every day, there is more concerning news about rising sea levels and climate-fueled disasters. The task ahead of us is urgent. We must fight for the ecological well-being of the planet we call home. The climate change crisis is an existential threat to humans and to the animals and plants with which we share planet Earth. We must redouble our efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses and to institute sustainable energy practices.

My June 30 primary opponent Kendra Horn has refused to sign onto the Green New Deal proposal. There is scant evidence that she considers climate change important enough to take the steps needed to protect our environmental future. One of my goals when elected to the U.S. House is to support bold action to fight climate change. The principles of the GND will be a good guidepost to help us reverse the damage done by excessive use of and dependence on fossil fuels. We will create tens of millions of good paying green jobs as we transition to an environmentally friendly renewable energy policy. According to a consensus of the scientific community, time is running short to effectively deal with climate change. We must not fail to act and thereby help create an irreversible situation that leads to the destruction of our environment that scientists say may in the foreseeable future render planet earth unsustainable for human life.
   
Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-CA) is a current Democratic member of Congress. He is fighting to make sure the Trump administration does not destroy our environment in the name of saving our health when it is primarily concerned with saving the investments of the top 1%. Lowenthal recently said, "The Trump Administration has spent years rolling back decades of hard-fought environmental progress. The White House has worked to undermine science, accelerate climate change, undo decades of work to protect our air, water, and health, and compromise the health of our planet." Lowenthal is doing the hard work it takes to protect the environment by working to stop Trump and protect the future of our planet--something Trump does not spend any time thinking about, while claiming the climate crisis is a "Chinese hoax."

The Paris Climate Accord was negotiated by representatives of 196 nations in Le Bourget, France, and adopted by consensus on December 12, 2015. The previous U.S. Administration of President Barack Obama took a leading role in pushing for the climate treaty. As of February 2020, 189 countries had become party to the agreement. The Paris Agreement's goal is to pursue efforts to limit and substantially reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. This is to be achieved by reducing emissions as soon as possible, to "achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases" in the second half of the 21st century. The accord also aims to increase the ability of parties to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and make "finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development."


 Under the Paris Agreement, each country must determine, plan, and regularly report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate climate change. No mechanism forces a country to set specific emissions targets by a specific date, but each target should go beyond previously set targets. In June 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement. Under the compact, the earliest effective date of withdrawal for the U.S. is November 2020, shortly before the end of President Trump's current presidential term. The American threat to withdraw from the treaty is a giant setback for the global effort to reduce climate change and to protect our planet.

We need to break down the corrupt corporate and establishment walls that are holding back progress on the environment and climate change. If you agree that we need bold action to effectively address the crisis, we invite you to join our campaign. If you would like to donate you can do that by clicking on the Blue America 2020 congressional thermometer on the right.

Be safe. Love Your Neighbor. Engage in Random Acts of Kindness. Peace.

Striving for A Future We Can All Believe In.

GreenPeace Finds Bernie Is The Best Candidate On Climate And Bloomberg The Worst

Bloomberg's campaign has been writing endorsement quotes for the elected officials who want to announce they are backing him. One talking point the campaign wants to float is that he's great on Climate. But he isn't great on Climate. The Sunrise Movement has vetted his plan carefully and doesn't seem impressed. And over the weekend, GreenPeace released an updated scorecard for all the presidential candidates. All of the Democrats did better than Trump, of course. Trump scored an F. But not all the Democrats have equally good plans and records. Bernie's at the top with an A+ and Bloomberg... way at the bottom of the pack.

Of Bernie, GreenPeace noted that he "has committed to take on the fossil fuel industry and enact a Green New Deal. He’ll halt new fossil fuel drilling and phase out existing coal, oil, and gas production. He’ll prioritize vulnerable workers and communities in a well-managed transition to a 100% renewable society. He’s championed climate justice in the Senate for years and has a detailed plan to continue his legacy if elected president."

At the other end of the spectrum, their comments on Bloomberg aren't great. "Bloomberg supports reaching 100% clean energy before 2050. He supports eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and halting drilling on public lands. However, he does not fully support a Green New Deal, nor has he put forward a detailed plan to phase out fossil fuel production for good while supporting working families and frontline communities along the way."

Klobuchar was also seen as lacking although she "supports ending oil and gas drilling on public lands and eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. She set a goal of reaching net-zero U.S. emissions by 2050. But her climate plan lacks the level of detail and ambition She co-sponsored the Green New Deal resolution in Congress but has called it 'aspirational.'"

Can Congress Save America? Not This One, Hopefully The One We Elect In November

Today is Presidents' Day... but we'll forgo taking about that until we have a legitimate president in the White House again and, instead, say a few words about the legislative branch of government that was created with the power to check a possible tyrant in the White House. Political parties were not taken into account by the framers of the Constitution, particularly not one as supine and cowardly as today's GOP working hand in hand with a would be tyrant to undermine that constitution.

A substantial number of people would likely agree that the biggest problem facing mankind right how is the Climate Crisis. The GOP's response has largely been to deny there's anything to worry about-- let alone do anything about. Conservative Democrats generally agree with them to some extent, playing ostrich and hoping the problem will just go away or that when the full force of the problem becomes manifest, they'll be dead and gone anyway. Right now there are only 98 members of Congress co-sponsoring the Green New Deal resolution, all of them Democrats, a dozen of them freshmen.

Last cycle saw the election of 87 new members of the House and 9 new senators. All 9 of the senators have accrued voting records that have been graded "F" by Progressive Punch. Almost all of the House freshmen have also been graded "F"-- that includes all the Republicans (no exceptions) and 40 DCCC Democrats. These are the Democratic freshmen-- listed from best to worst in terms of the ProgressivePunch scorecard:

• Andy Levin (D-MI)- 100 A
• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)- 100 A
• AOC (D-NY)- 98.33 A
• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)- 98.33 A
• Chuy Garcia (D-IL)- 96.67 A
• Joe Neguse (D-CO)- 96.67 A
• Ilhan Omar (D-MN)- 95.00 A
• Veronica Escobar (New Dem-TX)- 93.33 A
• Sylvia Garcia (D-TX)- 91.67 A
• Tori Trahan (New Dem-MA)- 91.67 A

• Debra Haaland (D-NM)- 90.0 B
• Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA)- 89.23 B
• Madeleine Dean (New Dem-PA)- 88.33 B
• Jahana Hayes (D-CT)- 84.75 B

• Donna Shalala (New Dem-FL)- 85.00 C
• Mike Levin (D-CA)- 81.67 C
• Chris Pappas (New Dem-NH)- 78.33 C

• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (New Dem-FL)- 81.67 D
• Greg Stanton (New Dem-AZ)- 81.67 D
• Sean Casten (New Dem-IL)- 78.33 D

• David Trone (New Dem-MD)- 78.33 F
• Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA)- 76.67 F
• Steven Horsford (New Dem-NV)- 75.49 F
• Joe Morelle (New Dem-NY)- 75.38 F
• Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ)- 73.33 F
• Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)- 73.33 F
• Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA)- 70.00 F
• Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)- 70.00 F
• Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX)- 70.00 F
• Kim Schrier (New Dem-WA)- 70.00 F
• Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)- 70.00 F
• Susan Wild (New Dem-PA)- 69.84 F
• Lauren Underwood (D-IL)- 68.97 F
• Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)- 68.33 F
• Collin Allred (New Dem-TX)- 67.80 F
• Ed Case (Blue Dog-HI)- 67.12 F
• TJ Cox (D-CA)- 66.67 F
• Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)- 66.67 F
• Josh Harder (New Dem-CA)- 64.41 F
• Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)- 63.33 F
• Lucy McBath (New Dem-GA)- 63.33 F
• Katie Porter (D-CA)- 63.33 F
• Antonio Delgado (New Dem-NY)- 61.67 F
• Chrissy Houlahan (Blue Dog-PA)- 61.67 F
• Andy Kim (D-NJ)- 60.00 F
• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- 58.33 F
• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)- 53.64 F
• Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)- 50.00 F
• Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)- 48.33 F
• Abby Frankenauer (D-IA)- 46.67 F
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- 46.67 F
• Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)- 45.76 F
• Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)- 45.00 F
• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)- 40.00 F
• Jared Golden (D-ME)- 35.00 F
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- 31.67 F
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)- 30.00 F
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- 28.33 F
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)- 23.33 F
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- 21.67 F

"Progressive policies are popular." That was how AOC began an e-mail to her supporters over the weekend.

"The corporate media and naysayers," she continued, "might try to convince us that we should compromise our values, but the facts just don’t lie. In Iowa, 92% of caucus-goers said that they support the Green New Deal-- our plan to transform our energy infrastructure, reach net-zero emissions, and create millions of union-wage jobs for communities that have been left behind. But as we speak, many in the Democratic Party still refuse to believe it’s possible to rise to the occasion of the climate crisis... The Green New Deal was introduced just over one year ago. In that time, with the help of organizations like the Sunrise Movement, we’ve built an incredible consensus in the Democratic Party. But the Green New Deal isn’t just popular with Democrats. Huge margins of independents and even Republicans support it, because Americans from all walks of life understand the necessity of saving our planet. We can’t let fear goad us into inaction."

But fear is what has largely kept almost all the corporate-friendly freshmen the DCCC selected and elected last cycle from getting behind AOC's resolution. In her words, "Passing a Green New Deal is not just a plan to save our planet-- but a chance for us to come together, to improve the lives of millions, and to ensure a better quality of life for our children. Let’s get to work."

Yes, let's get to work replacing members who do not recognize that the Climate Crisis must be a national priority, with challengers who are ready to devote their professional careers to enacting the Green New Deal. Alexander Kaufman wrote that "Sunrise Movement is pulling back from the presidential contest and redirecting its efforts toward a trio of March 3 congressional primaries in Texas, hoping a victory in the oil and gas industry’s mecca will add momentum to the two-year-old Green New Deal movement... [I]n the coming weeks, Sunrise Movement is sending its army of canvassers to knock on doors in support of [Heidi] Sloan, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar’s left-wing challenger Jessica Cisneros and Mike Siegel, the progressive Green New Dealer running against two other Democrats in the race to take on Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX). The group plans to direct its nearly 350 local chapters across the country to make phone calls for the three candidates. 'For us, Texas is both the frontlines of the climate crisis and the extreme energy fossil-fuel industry,' Sunrise Movement’s political director Evan Weber told HuffPost by phone Thursday morning. 'If we can show that running boldly on the Green New Deal without moderating or hedging is a path to victory for Democrats, we think it can transform the entire conversation in this nation.'" I spoke to Jessica Cisneros about how she was endorsed both by the AFL-CIO and by the Sunrise Movement. "We know that a just transition to renewable energy," she told me, "will provide our first opportunity in decades to truly invest in the working people of our district. Coming from a border district in Texas, we have an obligation to be a voice for workers during the transition, one that brings thousands of good-paying union jobs to our communities and ensures a sustainable future for generations to come."

Like Jessica, Eva Putzova is also running against a reactionary Blue Dog-- Tom O'Halleran. "My opponent, the incumbent congressman," she told me, "opposes the Green New Deal, or any bold climate action for that matter. Yet large areas of my state consist of Native American reservations that have been poisoned by the fossil fuel industry-- namely coal and uranium extraction-- for decades. There is a burning need for renewable energy production on the reservation. Solar, wind, conservation and light rail transportation systems would rejuvenate the economy of the reservation and produce thousands of good paying union jobs. This is what is envisioned in the Green New Deal that my opponent refuses to support. We need to elect representatives with the political will to fight the fossil fuel industry and invest in the green infrastructure we so sorely need. I will be that representative."

The Climate Crisis and how it impacts the farmers and rural communities of Iowa was part of the impetus that led to J.D. Scholten running for Congress against Climate Change-denier Steve King. "The climate crisis," J.D. told us, "is already ravaging our communities and economy in Iowa. Farmers are losing profit, crops, equipment, and their homes and fields from record-breaking floods, droughts, and temperature changes and southwest Iowa has climate refugees who have lost everything from devastating floods. We don't need more scientific evidence, more studies, or delaying tactics-- we need action. We need to bring rural America including our farmers to the table to enact solutions that will avert this crisis, create jobs, update our infrastructure, and ensure the health and well-being of our people."

"CA-16 has the least breathable air in America, and this is not by accident," said Kim Williams the reformer and insurgent running for a seat occupied by reactionary Blue Dog, Jim Costa. "Our corporate-backed incumbent rides atop a rigged system using right-leaning media, plants in environmental groups, and Exxon dollars to push out a message that he’s climate friendly. He’s not. He’s a millionaire farmer who has directly profited from his own policy decisions. He placates the worst polluters in the Valley and America knowing that his own constituents will see their lives cut short. But his days are numbered. Voters in the Valley are waking up to alternatives and demanding a Green New Deal. They understand that he is both 'bought' and 'bossed' by giant corporations and that he will never deliver the change our residents so desperately deserve. This primary is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver the fundamental change we need. We all know Bernie is the champion who will fight for us in the White House and I’m committed to fighting alongside him in Congress. Because we’ll need more than him to bring thousands of worker-protected, green jobs to the Valley to solve our air and water crisis. We’re going to need a progressive wave of representatives to send the Green New Deal to President Sander’s desk."

Will County Board member Rachel Ventura, the progressive Democrat running for the Chicagoland seat occupied by New Dem multimillionaire and incrementalist Bill Foster has an excellent chance at replacing someone who does nothing but stand in the way of progress. "Winning this seat as a Green New Deal Democrat against a scientist who is taking fossil fuel money and supporting carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery," she said, "is going to send a strong message that other Illinois Democrats will notice. I am actively campaigning on the GND. I envision using healthy tax incentives or direct rebates for people to make their homes more energy efficient with weatherization and gut rehabs, incentives to buy EV’s or hybrid vehicles and incentives to use wind or solar when it makes sense geographically. The same tax levers could be used for businesses and municipalities who want to make their automobile fleets electric or improve the efficiency of the building envelope, or HVAC system. We can push municipalities to build large-scale, public power projects using wind, solar and hydro technology where it makes sense. We need to upgrade commercial and residential building codes to achieve the highest levels of energy efficiency. The focus is to reward people and businesses who make carbon-free decisions, and move to publicly owned over corporate owned utilities."

She also noted that the 11th congressional district "is home to two oil refineries and a converted coal plant that has left coal ash pollution leaching into our water.  Additionally, the district encompasses the second and third largest cities (Aurora and Joliet) in Illinois that are home to high poverty rates and dominantly minority communities. These people work in low wage, temp agencies with few workers’ rights. Most of them work at the warehouses in CenterPoint, the largest inland port in the world. The Green New Deal would put people in the 11th CD to work retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, and installing solar panels and wind turbines. These jobs would pay union wages and reduce our carbon footprint. The Green New Deal isn't just a solution to the climate crisis but also a solution to fixing our economy. Nancy Pelosi has replaced the Green New Deal with another framework piece of legislation called the 100% clean economy bill. This bill allows the fossil fuel industry to continue to generate carbon as long as they find a way to capture the carbon through carbon sinks or other means. This makes absolutely no sense when the rest of the industrialized world is making huge technological advances in renewable energy and energy efficiency advances. I want to see America be a leader in these technological advances, not keep pumping out carbon with unproven carbon capture devices. My opponent is supporting both the 100% Clean Economy Bill and the Use it Act. This is a danger to our generation and for those to come."

Robin Wilt is also taking on a do-nothing New Dem, Joe Morelle. She told us that "As the mother of three, ensuring that our future generations inherit a habitable world is of utmost importance. We need bold political leadership that will not settle for ineffective and inequitable solutions to the climate crisis that fail to meet the urgency of the threat posed. I support the Green New Deal because it centers the needs of frontline and marginalized communities that have been historically most impacted by polluters and are currently most vulnerable to the impact of the climate crisis. We must address everyone’s basic needs for clean air, water and soil in order to build a broad coalition for fighting climate change. While my opponent has sat on his hands, refusing to meet the demands of the planetary crisis and failing to support the Green New Deal; by contrast, I have led on a local basis, supporting the implementation of Community Choice Aggregation in our town, in order to pool our community’s purchasing power to allow for sourcing our energy from 100% renewable resources at lower prices. When in Congress, I will not only immediately sponsor the Green New Deal and the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, I will ensure that we price carbon at its source, remove subsidies for fossil fuel companies, restore the authority of the EPA, bring clean water to Flint MI, ban fracking, stop the TPP, and implement the measures and principles articulated by Paul Hawken in ‘Drawdown’, in order to create a just and livable world, with the promise of improved human health, security, prosperity, and well-being."





Mark Gamba, mayor of Milwaukie, Oregon, is another stalwart progressive largely motivated by the Climate Crisis. His opponent is treacherous Blue Dog Kurt Schrader. Gamba declared a Climate State of Emergency, making Milwaukie the first city in Oregon to do so. "There is no question it’s an emergency," he told me. "The Antarctic was 65 degrees last week. That’s an all-time record high temperature. Last summer the Arctic was on fire! The Amazon Basin is on fire! Australia is on fire and billions of animals have perished, potentially driving some species to extinction. Parts of the Midwest were underwater for months. Houston has had three 500 Year floods, three years in a row! Eastern Oregon is flooding-- that would be the dry half of the state. How is this not an emergency? We are facing the greatest existential crisis our species has ever faced. But the federal government, who has known about this for 35 years has not only failed to declare an emergency, it has not done a damn thing, because most of Congress and the con man in the White House are sold out to the fossil fuel industry."

He noted that states like Oregon are trying to do the right thing and that a lot of cities like Milwaukie are doing everything they can to fight climate change. "But the Oil Barons and the timber barons fear a different kind of existential crisis-- one that will alter their ability to amass vast fortunes. And so, they will spend millions lying to loggers, lying to farmers, lying to politicians lying anyone that will listen, telling them that their lives will get worse if we address climate change the way we need to. We need to engage the climate crisis, with the ferocious intensity and all out investment that we engaged in WWII. In the process we need to make sure that we leave no one behind. As a matter of fact we need to use the catalyst of this crisis to lift everyone who is suffering-- out of poverty. To Create millions of family wage jobs, union jobs, jobs with good benefits to do all the things we need to do, to stop Climate Chaos over the next 10 years. We know how to do this, we have all the tools we need, we just need politicians with the backbone to stand up to the billionaires and let them know that the time has come for them to pay up for the damage they have been doing to our planet for decades."

He concluded by reminding us that "our young people are counting on us. The young people from the Sunrise movement have been kicking ass all over this country. Young people are not going to put up with our incremental, profits first, suicide cult. They want to live in the beautiful world we all got to enjoy, and they can. We can do this, we can heal our home and heal our people. It is time to elect a new president and a new Congress, one that is made up of members that are not taking millions from the fossil fuel industry. People like my opponent, Kurt Schrader are not only taking money from all sectors of the fossil fuel industry but he takes money from the Kochs! We can’t have “Democrats” whose actions are as bad as the climate denying Republicans. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for humanity and the effort must be led by the country that has done most of the damage-- the United States of America. It is why I’m running for congress to be a relentless fighter for our future, for the very lives of our children and grandchildren."

On February 6 Antarctica Was Warmer Than Orlando, or Why I Support Only Sanders

Location of Esperanza Station on the northern tip of Antarctica

by Thomas Neuburger

The climate news out of Antarctica isn't good. As Vice News put it on February 7, "Good Morning. It's 65 Degrees in Antarctica. That's warmer than Orlando today."

Since then the news from the South Pole has gotten worse. From the World Meteorological Association on February 14 (emphasis added):

The Argentine research base, Esperanza, on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, set a new record temperature of 18.3°C on 6 February, beating the former record of 17.5°C on 24 March 2015, according to Argentina’s national meteorological service (SMN).

A committee for WMO’s Weather and Climate Extremes Archive will now verify whether this indeed is a new record for the Antarctic continent, which is defined as the main continental landmass.

“Everything we have seen thus far indicates a likely legitimate record but we will of course begin a formal evaluation of the record once we have full data from SMN and on the meteorological conditions surrounding the event. The record appears to be likely associated (in the short term) with what we call a regional "foehn" event over the area:  a rapid warming of air coming down a slope/mountain,” according to WMO’s Weather and Climate Extremes rapporteur, Randall Cerveny. ...

WMO is seeking to obtain the actual temperature data for a montitoring station on Seymour Island, part of a chain of islands off the Antarctic peninsula. Media reports say that researchers logged a temperature of 20.75°C. Mr Cerveny cautioned that it is premature to say that Antarctica has exceeded 20°C for the first time.

Twenty degrees Celsius (68°F) is a marker for obvious reasons, an even number that's never before been crossed. It's been crossed now. You could wear shorts and a T-shirt on a 68° day, even on Seymour Island.

Building Rome in a Day

A personal note: As part of my "day job" I interact in many venues with people at the most progressive end of the Democratic Party infrastructure, and I keep being told by some of the smartest in these groups that we need to be practical (in the real sense, not the fake "I want to slow you down" sense) in our attempt to enact policies like Medicare For All and the Green New Deal. I keep being told that you can't build Rome in a day.

And those who say that are right in a sense; these things do take time. The Republican Party didn't destroy a third of the electorate and more than half of the federal government in one or two cycles — it took decades of evil, dedicated work and endless seduction of eager neoliberal Democrats to create the mess we're in now.

And yet, at the rate things are advancing — not just on the climate front but on the "rebellion against the pathological rich" front — we just don't have a decade to work with. The climate news says that. The election of Trump says that. We may not even have five years.

Which leads me to argue back: Look, even if we elect a better-than-Trump, half-measures candidate, we're still not better off. Our grandchildren will curse us all the same.

I don't think that sinks in, even to some of the better minds among them. Perhaps seeing a building that's about to fall, but hasn't, isn't enough. Perhaps the building has to start its descent before most in position to act will take the urgency of the crisis seriously. After all, the bricks haven't fallen on their grandchildren's bodies yet.

But they soon will, all too soon for all too many. It's not enough to act. We need to act in time enough to matter. I guess that's why I support Sanders and no one else, the only one who will even try to build Rome in a day.

A slow-handed, good-hearted captain of the Titanic is still a disaster just about to happen — a person blind to what hovers in the mist, a person who cannot feel its approaching breath.
  

Andy Levin And AOC Are Working To Tear Down A Barrier For Consumers Interested In Buying An Electric Vehicle

When Trump first got to the White House, he saw infrastructure spending as a perfect way to transfer taxpayer dollars into his own pocket and the pockets of his campaign donors-- until Pelosi and Schumer told him that isn't the way it works. So he colored on his campaign promises of rebuilding American infrastructure. He now sees infrastructure as building his useless wall on the southern border.

Last week, two of Congress' best members, freshmen Andy Levin (D-MI) and AOC (D-NY) introduced the Electric Vehicles (EV) Freedom Act, H.R. 5770. The purpose is to create a comprehensive nationwide network of high-speed electric vehicle chargers along America’s highways within five years. Yesterday, Levin told his constituents that "When it comes to purchasing an electric vehicle, many consumers are worried about the lack of public charging stations, especially along the highway. But the EV Freedom Act will ensure that drivers along the National Highway System will have ready access to charging stations that can power up their EV in the shortest time technology allows. It’s time to bring our highway system into the 21st century."

He wrote that the bill offers the opportunity to eliminate barriers to consumers who ate interesting these cars and paving the way for rapid mass adoption of electric vehicles. "This transformational legislation will not only help reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change, but it will also create thousands of good-paying automotive and infrastructure jobs. Jobs that are created through the EV Freedom Act will adhere to Buy American and prevailing wage requirements to protect the hardworking people behind America’s new EV future. And, it will make sure our poor communities and communities of color are included in both the new green infrastructure and job opportunities."

On introducing the bill, AOC said that "Cars, above all else, have historically represented America's problem with dirty oil. Establishing a nation-wide network of electric vehicles charging stations helps us reduce emissions, creates good paying jobs, and will help transition the U.S. economy to a cleaner future."

Specifically, the EV Freedom Act:

• Establishes a comprehensive, nationwide network of high-speed EV chargers within 5 years;
• Helps secure the automotive and infrastructure jobs of the future and create thousands of good-paying jobs with robust Buy America and prevailing wage requirements to protect the hardworking Americans who will build an EV future;
• Ensures the chargers built along the National Highway System keep up with new technology to achieve a simple goal-- fully power up EVs in the time it takes to fill up gas and diesel tanks;
• Promotes interoperability so drivers don’t have to fear that chargers won’t be compatible with their cars; and
• Prioritizes accessibility by guaranteeing that payment methods are secure, convenient, and equal access, and that all charging stations are ADA compliant.

The EV Freedom Act directs the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Energy to devise a plan to create the network of EV chargers, submit the plan to Congress and create the network of EV chargers within five years.

The EV Freedom Act has the support of a diverse group of labor, environment and climate groups, including:

Blue Green Alliance, League of Conservation Voters, Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, Earthjustice, Ecology Center, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC), Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), United Steelworkers (USW), United Automobile Workers (UAW) and the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE).

The immediate co-sponsors were Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). Yesterday I spoke with several members who I know are big boosters of electric vehicles, like Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who had written a similar bill when he was in the Maryland state legislature, Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), who all told me they are either going to sign on or are studying it and are likely to sign on. In fact, Tom Suozzi, many of whose Long Island constituents, are commuters, was the first to co-sponsor the bill yesterday... followed by Ro Khanna just moments later.

I also asked some of the top progressive candidates who are likely to be in Congress next year and will be the ones to get this passed, since McConnell is likely to block it from being debated in the Senate in 2020. I recall telephoning Mike Siegel once when he was on a picket line at a car factory supporting local strikers. So I asked him. "This is what the fight against climate change looks like: we must rebuild the American economy, piece by piece, to allow for a sustainable future. Representatives Levin and Ocasio-Cortez speak for all of us, by fighting for the infrastructure we need for electric vehicles. We know America can do this. 100 years ago we provided electricity to rural America. Under FDR we rebuilt our electric grid through the New Deal. Eisenhower built the interstate highway system. And now, as we face climate change and massive wealth inequality, we need a new generation of federal programs that will create good new jobs and protect our planet. I look forward to pushing these types of efforts forward when I join the House in 2021."

Jon Hoadley represents Kalamazoo in the Michigan state legislature and he's likely to be the next member of Congress from the southwest corner of the state. He's very enthusiastic about Levin's and AOC's bill. "The Electric Vehicles Freedom Act is a common sense step in the right direction toward transitioning the U.S. away from fossil fuels and toward a cleaner future. Frankly, it should have been done years ago. By establishing a nation-wide network of electric vehicles charging stations, the EV Freedom Act will help us reduce emissions, create good paying jobs, and provide the much needed infrastructure to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels."

This legislation, if passed and signed, will be amazing news for Indiana's economy. We have two candidates running there, Jim Harper, the newest candidate endorsed by Blue America, is very excited about it. His district in northwest Indiana would benefit immensely. "The EV Freedom Act," he told me yesterday, "would be a boon to the working families of Northwest Indiana. The proposal will not only help us kick our addiction to dirty petroleum, but it will also help create good-paying, union jobs. Green infrastructure and technology are the future for our region, particularly in light of a history of industrial pollution that has fallen disproportionately hard on communities of color."

And Jennifer Christie, who is running in a more swingy district north of Indianapolis, is just as excited as Jim. "I love it!," she said when she read about the bill.  "In October, our campaign released a Climate Agenda calling exactly for this and other measures to decarbonize to zero emissions. Comprehensive Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure is essential to solving the transportation component of the climate crisis. What’s more, this will create jobs while we upgrade our highway infrastructure. We also have the opportunity to invest in rural communities and Tribal Nations as we install EV charging networks; There are opportunities to invest in solar projects around charging stations as well as local commerce that will surely develop along the EV grid. In addition to the boost EV infrastructure will give to electric car usage, it will also protect water quality. Gasoline is typically stored in underground storage tanks (USTs). Leaks, spills, and overfills from gasoline service stations are one of the most common sources of ground water pollution according to the EPA. Approximately half of the American population relies on ground water as their drinking source. With an eventual goal of replacing gasoline stations with EV charging stations, imagine the good that we can do for the environment and the economy. I am glad to see this bill introduced. We need more legislative action on climate that directly helps to reduce carbon pollution. Let’s support this bill by calling our current representatives. If I have the opportunity to vote on it, count me as a YES!"

Morgan Harper, the progressive running for the Columbus, Ohio congressional seat, realizes how important this bill will be for central Ohio. She told me this morning that she strongly supports the legislation. "Not only is it critical in our fight against climate change to invest in Electric Vehicle infrastructure, but it provides auto manufacturers, many of whom have a strong presence in Ohio, the clear incentive to invest more, sooner, in their Electric Vehicle programs."

Texas Labor Movement Does The Right Thing At The Intersection Of Politics And The Climate Crisis-- DCCC Weeps Bitterly

This story has a happy ending-- but it didn't always seem like it would while Kate Aronoff was writing it in real time last week in Austin. The big Texas AFL-CIO convention was considering which candidates to endorse for November. The building trades unions and the unions involved with the fossil fuels industries were not nearly excited as the rest of the labor movement was about the progressive candidates who were firmly backing the Green New Deal. They made a move to stop the endorsements of some of Texas' most energetic grassroots campaigns. Saturday was looking pretty ugly. Then the sun came out... on Sunday.

Aronoff focussed on the most important congressional race in Texas-- the non-DCCC effort to win the gerrymandered central Texas district that, incongruously, winds from Austin and its northern suburbs into the exurbs northwest of Houston (TX-10). Progressive champion Mike Siegel, ignored entirely by the DCCC, nearly ousted Republican incumbent Michael McCaul in 2018, holding McCaul down to a narrow 51.1% win, his closest ever. McCaul, who married into one of Texas' wealthiest families, spent $1,754,122 to Mike's $477,926. The DCCC spent zero on the race, petrified another working class progressive would break into Congress. What did they learn from the 2018 results? To support Siegel as he tries to finish the job he started 2 years ago? Not on your life. Conservative and anti-democratic DCCC head Cheri Bustos, recruited a Republican corporatist, currently pretending to be a Democrat, Shannon Hutcheson, claiming she could raise more money than Siegel. Siegel has raised more grassroots support and virtually all the local endorsements, including from unions. (Blue America has also endorsed Siegel and you can contribute to his campaign-- and to the other Texas' candidates who support the Green New Deal and a progressive agenda-- by clicking on the 2020 Turning Texas Blue thermometer on the right.)

"Having been dual endorsed by the Houston-based Texas Gulf Coast Labor Federation, Siegel and Hutcheson battled it out for the Texas AFL-CIO endorsement he won in 2018, made at the regional federation’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) Convention in Austin this past weekend. While Siegel won it again, his harder-fought victory this cycle offers a preview of what it will take to win labor’s support for a new generation of climate policies."

Siegel and his supporters spent last weekend in nearly round-the-clock meetings with unions, some of whose international leadership have previously spoken against the Green New Deal. “Everybody throws in something about a just transition when they talk about taking on climate change,” Rick Levy, President of the Texas AFL-CIO, told me. “But I think there’s concern about how central workers issues are going to be to that process. ... It’s just really hard when you’re in that industry, particularly in a place like Texas,” Levy said of unionized fossil fuel workers in the Right to Work state. “You see all these slings and arrows headed your way to your livelihood, climate change being one of them.” The Green New Deal, he told me, “is either the panacea or the devil depending on where you’re coming from.”

“It’s going to take a lot of real work for people advocating for this type of legislation to prove that the cost of transition is not going to be in working class communities,” Levy added. “The way power is distributed, it’s a hard sell to say that that’s not going to be the case.”

Siegel was aware of the resistance to this core element of his platforms, and worked hard to make sure it wouldn’t cost him with members. “Spent 3 days caucusing... Only opposition was Green New Deal,” he told me in a text message after Sunday’s floor vote on the CD 10 race. “My job was to build trust and let folks know we won’t move forward until labor is on board.” It seems to have worked. What ended up winning Siegel the endorsement, Levy said, was his time spent “addressing working people’s issues, and giving them a sense that he cared about those concerns and would actively work to incorporate them.”

It was a good weekend for Green New Deal-backing candidates overall. The Texas AFL-CIO also endorsed the Green New Deal supporter and Justice Democrats-endorsed candidate Jessica Cisneros against Representative Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat representing Texas’s 28th Congressional District who has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of donations from fossil fuel interests. In the 25th Congressional District, the Texas AFL-CIO issued a dual endorsement for Julie Oliver and Green New Deal supporter Heidi Sloan.

Like most Green New Deal advocate, Siegel believes decarbonization will be a process of designing a suite of policies, not one hulking bill. To make that work politically, he says, labor will have to be “in the driver’s seat.”

“We’re not gonna snap our fingers and implement a national Green New Deal policy,” he told me. “It’s going to be iterative, a series of pieces of legislation over time.” Before the convention, he had already signed onto a pledge from unions committing to hire a labor representative to work on any such measures. “We can put labor guarantees into this legislation that reinforce the right to collectively organize, and even demand sectoral bargaining,” he said. Labor is often, mistakenly, treated as a unified bloc when it comes to climate issues, with press and policymakers assuming that the outspoken international leadership of building trades unions (generally skeptical of decarbonization plans due to job displacement fears) speaks for the AFL-CIO’s 12.5 million members and large non-AFL-CIO unions like SEIU and the Teamsters. It’s true that the trades, clustered in the AFL-CIO’s Energy Committee, can hold outsized sway. Echoing a letter from that committee saying that Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey’s Green New Deal “makes promises that are not achievable or realistic,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s spoke out briefly against it in April 2019. But the statements were also less aggressive than right-wingers attempting to gin up labor-environmentalist conflict made them out to be. Furthermore, several union internationals and locals, including SEIU, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the New York State Nurses Association, have endorsed the Green New Deal, which boasts hearty support among rank-and-file union members. Ocasio-Cortez sat down to talk about the Green New Deal last week with members of Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), locals of which eagerly supported water protectors at Standing Rock in stark contrast to union leadership. Building on the work of people like Tony Mazzocchi, groups such as Trade Unions for Energy Democracy have been rallying labor around climate action, around the world, for years. This weekend’s convention in Texas further highlighted a labor movement that’s anything but monolithic, both between and among unions.

Ryan Pollock is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 520 in Austin as well as the city’s Central Labor Council, which recommended that the Texas AFL-CIO endorse Siegel. The national IBEW and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1624 have also backed Siegel. At the Texas AFL-CIO’s Constitutional Convention last summer, he worked with members of other unions to get a resolution supporting federal climate policy passed unanimously through the state AFL-CIO, in a process that mirrored the kind of negotiations that happened at the COPE convention.

It wasn’t easy. Oil runs deep in Texas. The Permian Basin in the West has given rise to one of the biggest oil booms in history. The jobs bound up in the fossil fuel economy aren’t just limited to miners and drillers and refinery workers. They include utility and railroad workers and even-- in some sense-- public employees, whose salaries in many places are contingent on the tax revenue extractive industries furnish to states and cities. In West Texas boomtowns, few if any sectors are untouched by the oil and gas business and its volatility.

Much of the tension over jobs and environment comes down to the type of work union members are doing. Pollock is an indoor electrician wiring commercial buildings. Energy experts note that an energy transition will require effectively tripling the amount of activity that takes place on the grid, electrifying everything while converting combustion-based activities—from transit to home heating-- to run on electricity. Electricians like Pollock will likely see work proliferate during that transition: IBEW workers around the country have been enthusiastic about solar power-- Local 11 in Los Angeles, for example, has seen a windfall in work thanks to the state’s pro-renewables legislation. But UA plumbers and pipefitters have been less open to Green New Deal proposals, since “electrifying everything” would also mean replacing much of their work running gas lines. And IBEW members also include workers at the coal-fired Fayette Power Plant East of Austin in CD 10, which Siegel has urged shutting down over rampant pollution concerns: one of Siegel’s 2020 ads highlights a third-generation pecan farmer whose family business has been destroyed by pollution from the plant, which also left him with a massive brain tumor.

“There’s no easy answer to these folks other than we have to take care of you,” Siegel said of the Fayette plant workers. “We have to make our demands to take care of you as specific as our demands to unwind fossil fuel energy production. The only other choice is environmental destruction and calamity.”

Pollock spent no shortage of time convincing members of the plant’s IBEW Local 66 to support Siegel and the climate resolution at last summer’s Texas AFL-CIO constitutional convention. “I laid out that we’re both IBEW,” Pollock said. “I’m doing this to make sure that we are taken care of, that you are taking care of. This stuff isn’t going away. The ever-increasing cost of fossil fuels means your plant’s in danger no matter what we do. We can do this now or we can do it later, or we can kick this can down the road,” he says of mapping out what a just transition might look like. “This is about labor getting ahead of the ball for once in the last century or so, and it’s about us calling the shots and not letting someone else call them for us.” Siegel supports providing five years of the same salary for any workers whose jobs are eliminated by a Green New Deal, with an option for workers over 55 to retire with full pension and benefits.

Pollock and Siegel’s other labor backers managed to get Local 66’s agreement on the climate resolution, which passed unanimously. But they weren’t persuaded to endorse Siegel. Local 66 and UA made up the small minority that backed Hutcherson through the nominating process this past weekend.

Though she boasts of working-class roots, Hutcheson would normally be an odd fit to win a labor endorsement over a guy with a string of union supporters, background in labor activism and what Data for Progress has deemed the third most ambitious labor platform in the country. She runs a boutique, women-owned corporate law firm called Hutcheson Bowers, which, as the Texas Observer reported, has represented a for-profit prison company that runs ICE detention centers. Hutcheson also penned a handbook for employers called “Agencies Run Amuck,” full of tips for how companies can defend themselves against the tyranny of federal labor law.

Still, many workers see any talk of decarbonization as an existential threat greater than any management-side Democrat. From the decline of the auto sector to the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs under NAFTA, there’s never been what workers in the United States would consider a “just transition.” Many are understandably weary of empty promises. Historically, environmentalists have made vague promises of jobs in the future, while opposing existing infrastructure projects like oil pipelines, which provide union members with lucrative work. After decades of attacks on organized labor and a dearth of infrastructure investment, the Green New Deal’s employment promises can still ring hollow.

Joe Uehlein, Founding President of the Labor Network for Sustainability, is the former secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department, having entered the labor movement in the 1970s as a United Steelworkers member at an aluminum plant, and then as a LIUNA member working on heavy construction projects. He’s worked for decades now at the intersection of labor and climate. Uehlein emphasized the sheer number of jobs union members have to gain from a Green New Deal, from a transportation overhaul to energy efficiency upgrades to infrastructure investment to agriculture. These policies, he believes, have the potential to expand the labor movement by bringing more people into the work of decarbonization. “The fact that [a just transition] has never happened is the biggest stumbling block,” he told me. “But at the same time, our history is replete with things that never happened that people imagined and fought for and won.”

Another serious Green New Deal supporter in the Austin area-- Heidi Sloan-- was also endorsed by the AFL-CIO (co-endorsed, actually, along with another progressive Green New Deal backer) seems to be as campaigning as hard for Bernie as she is for herself. "Climate change is humanity's greatest threat," she told me yesterday, "but it's also our greatest opportunity to rebuild our economy for the many, not the few. Workers make the world go round, and we need leaders who understand both the urgency of climate crisis and the absolute necessity of centering the working class in our response to this crisis. Our underdog campaign won the endorsement of the Texas AFL-CIO because when we talk about a Green New Deal, we talk about a just transition for workers and we back that talk up with a demonstrated commitment to labor. Our campaign was ranked by Data For Progress as having the strongest labor platform among both candidates and incumbents, and for years I have walked picket lines, supported union drives, and stood with striking workers. Over Thanksgiving I was arrested in solidarity with airport workers on strike for higher wages and better healthcare. I'm ready to fight for workers in Congress, and during this campaign I will keep working to build trust with union organizers, labor leaders, and every day working class people."

The Texas Railroad Commission Has Nothing To Do With Railroads! It Has More To Do With The Green New Deal

-by Kelly Stone
candidate, Texas Railroads Commissioner

The Texas Railroad Commission is one of the most powerful elected offices that most people have never heard of, and I am working hard to make sure that more people know about this wildly corrupt government position. The thing is, the Texas Railroad Commission has nothing to do with railroads and everything to do with oil, gas, flaring, fracking, pipelines, earthquakes, unmonitored methane leaks, and the RRC is responsible for a great deal of the externalized costs borne by our health and our global environment.



To be clear: THE TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RAILROADS.



But Big Oil sure likes for voters to be confused when it comes to this particular office. They’ve been able to elect themselves to their own regulating body and to perpetuate a fox-guarding-the-hen-house style of government where large oil and gas interests are able to provide unlimited financial contributions to their puppets, maintaining their own monopoly to “regulate” themselves, and increasing profits rather than protecting public health and safety.

On Dec 16, the Texas Democratic Party announced that the 2020 race for the Texas Railroad Commision is “the most important environmental race in the country,” but not surprisingly, it received very little media attention. The announcement came in the form of a press release issued in coordination with their favored primary contender. The establishment anointed themselves a candidate. They hand-selected an oil and gas defense attorney to take on the Republican incumbent, Ryan Sitton, who has also been denounced by other Republicans due to his conflicts of interests. The powers-that-be chose to perpetuate this historic Texas trend of elevating fossil fuel insiders to regulate themselves. Because there hasn’t been a Democrat elected to statewide office in Texas in more than 20 years, the establishment strategy appears to be to prop up a Republican-lite ConservaDem to take a seat on this 3-person commission. It’s her turn, they’ve decreed.



So, when I strolled into the party headquarters this summer to shake hands, introduce myself, and share my vision for implementing the goals of the Green New Deal, putting an end to the wild-wild west lawlessness of our environmental exploitation in Texas, the men suggested that I sit down and wait my turn. This other gal is “smart,” they told me. “She can raise the money needed for this race.” To my credit, they admitted that I was clearly “genuine” and doing this “for the right reasons.”



I did not leave discouraged, as they may have hoped. No, I got back in my car, with a broken A/C, on yet another record-breaking-day-in-a-row of triple-digit heat, and I drove away listening to a report from NPR about how Texas had just exceeded all historical records for barrels of oil produced in any given year.



I knew I had to take on this fight.







Prior to this meeting, I had completed the Texas Water Safari, known as “The World’s Toughest Canoe Race” where I not only completed the 262-mile canoe race in a C1 canoe in 78-hours by myself, but I did it after breaking my boat in half at the 57th mile and rebuilding it with sticks and tape and zip ties. During this ultramarathon, I saw where pipelines crossed the river. I could always smell them. In some places, I could see bubbles. In one place, down by Tivoli, I saw four pipelines in a row, and each pipeline had signage on either side of the river to indicate which toxin was being carried. I noted that each sign listed a different emergency contact number and that each phone number was in a different state!



I wondered: who was actually looking out for me? For us? Why isn’t there one number that calls actual first responders in case of emergency? Why are we supposed to call the oil companies directly to let them know their pipelines are leaking?



I knew it would be pretty dang intimidating to take on Big Oil in the Biggest Oil State in the nation, but I’ve never been a gal ruled by fear.



Our system has kept us sick, uneducated, and afraid, but I’ve spent my entire career working to build a healthier, more confident and educated society by working as a health education specialist and being a teacher through the community and higher education.



I wasn’t supposed to find myself running for the most powerful position nobody has heard of. I was born to a 17 year old girl at Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston, Texas, and I’ve been told in a myriad of ways that I should  know my place, stay in my lane, keep my head down and my mouth shut, and that nice girls don’t talk about certain things.



Well, I’ve always had a hard time with that.



As the oldest of three children, I assumed it my duty to stand up to my abusive stepfather, and well, maybe that trauma helped prepare me for standing up to this corporate abuse that’s railroading Texas (and the planet).



Right now, the Texas Railroad Commission is allowing all the companies to burn as much natural gas into the air as much as they want (in 2010, they gave 500 permits for flaring exceptions, and in 2018, they awarded 5,500 of these permits without so much as one denial). They are also allowing these companies to claim eminent domain wherever they want to take our land and stick their pipelines through it.



You see, there’s a little check box on the permitting forms, submitted to the Texas Railroad Commission that allows companies to declare themselves a “public use.” Just by checking this box, they are granted the power of the government to claim eminent domain over private property owners to declare that they shall be taking their homes and/or their land. Legally, they must pay “a fair price” to the owner, and if property owners don’t want to accept their low-balling, they face the company’s prerogative to condemn their property or be forced into expensive legal battles. (This is roughly the same tactic Monsanto uses to squash small farmers and bury them in lawsuits until they give up, lose, or go broke.)



I spoke with an attorney in Big Spring, Texas who represents landowners, and he said that when his clients’ fights make it as high up as the Railroad Commission, he tells his them to give up. He said they’ll never win, and he can’t bear to keep taking their money. This is terribly disheartening.



In central Texas, Kinder Morgan is strong-arming communities to ram 430-miles of pipeline from west Texas to Houston, for the purpose of export, nevermind that it would cut through two karst limestone aquifers where 2 million people get their drinking water. (That population is expected to increase to 4 million by 2040.) Another 475-mile pipeline, for export, is being forced on communities from west Texas to Corpus Christi, and that doesn’t include the additional Kinder Morgan pipeline also routed to Corpus Christi.



We’re moving in the wrong direction, and we are exacerbating the climate crisis.



My data team plotted out a graph of the eminent domain activities in Texas that have been granted significantly more since the 2000’s for the purpose of increasing pipelines.

However, there is absolutely no rigor or proof required for these corporations to demonstrate that they are, indeed, for public use. They simply have to check a box, even if their goals of installing a pipeline are for the purposes of delivering their extracted fuels to a port city for export. Eminent domain for private gain needs to be stopped, and environmental impact studies must be required regardless of whether they cross state lines or not.



They say this “lack of pipeline capacity” is due to increased oil production from the ramping up of our extraction of fossil fuels. This, they say, is why they must burn natural gas into the air...it’s because they don’t have the pipelines. The flaring and the “need” for more pipelines is actually a symptom of the real problem:  the exponentially increased hydraulic fracturing (fracking) practices that are breaking apart our plate tectonics, increasing seismicity, and wasting large sums of water, exacerbating drought as well.



No, nice girls shouldn’t talk about those things.





Okay, so how about earthquakes? Our neighbor, Oklahoma, has experienced 6,000 years worth of natural earthquakes in a time span of 5 years due to the fracking and wastewater disposal in Texas. Can I talk about earthquakes? Because fracking is certainly causing huge increases in earthquakes.

Naturally, I signed the Sunrise Movement’s Green New Deal Pledge because I firmly believe this is the radical change we need NOW. The pledge reads: “The American people need a Green New Deal-- a 10-year WWII-scale mobilization, as put forth by Senator Edward Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to stop climate change, achieve environmental sustainability, create millions of good jobs, and realize economic prosperity for all.

“I pledge that I will use my office to champion a Green New Deal in any and all ways, including but not limited to: developing and supporting Green New Deal legislation and/or resolutions; building support amongst my colleagues for a Green New Deal; and publicly advocating for the necessity of a Green New Deal.

“In order to fully uphold this duty, I pledge to not take contributions over $200 from oil, gas, and coal industry executives, lobbyists, or PACs and instead prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits.”



This distinguishes me among my primary opponents as none are willing to speak about implementing the Green New Deal, and the first campaign financial reports reveal that some of them have already been willing to accept large donations from fossil fuel executives. The reports revealed that my campaign, fueled on grassroots, grit, and gumption, is no joke. We have more individual grassroots contributors than double the amount of all of my opponents combined. However, we have a long, long way to go in this battle for our future.

If I have to get to the finish line with a duct-taped boat, I’m up for this challenge. I’m determined to fight.



Did I mention I took on the high school football establishment in Texas and played as a kicker in the 90’s?