We have two topics of interest today: Carbon pricing bills and the June 13^th Lobbying Day . Massachusetts has two new bills that promote a gradually rising price on carbon. “Carbon price” is a buzzword that puts a monetary price on carbon pollution, or emissions from burning fossil fuels. Essentially, it is a “dumping fee” for putting pollution into the air. Though the phrase “gradually rising price” can be off-putting, the bills incentivize people to become more carbon neutral – a way of doing well by doing good.

DAPL activists were the target of military style counter-terrorism methods at Standing Rock and elsewhere, conducted by the TigerSwan security company. Is this even legal? (And why are these organizations obsessed with Secret-Agent-007-James-Bondian names for their sad little enterprises?) On a happier note, a young woman named Juliana has frightened three big oil groups. At first they asked to be named defendants in the “Our Children’s Trust” lawsuit, but now that they might have to answer questions before God and the internet they’ve developed cold feet. Listen in.

In a shameful, unconscionable, historically damaging decision the Trump administration will pull the US out of the Paris Accord. Listen in as we process this unfortunate news and try to figure out how to react.

Work on the Paris Accords continues with meetings in Bonn this week. Even though Governor Baker supports the US remaining, the question will be decided by our Tweeter-in-Chief. Will his demons or better angels prevail? Perhaps more importantly, will our leadership here in Massachusetts embrace a carbon price? The answer depends on you.

Comrade Trump wants you to believe that a healthy planet is incompatible with having good jobs.  That is just more stream-of-consciousness lying from our delusional twitter-er in chief, along with his retrograde EO’s on national monuments and automobile efficiency. We point out the growth in clean energy jobs, and how you can take action against the craziness even in your own town. Listen in! 

https://soundcloud.com/massclimateaction/its-both-jobs-and-the-planet-mr-president-the-climate-minute-podcast

April 29, 2017 was the day of the People’s Climate Mobilization. It was a great day, with 150 to 200,000 people marching in DC and even more around the country. We had the good fortune to chat with people of all kinds, students from Salem State University, activists from California and Utah as well as concerned folks from all over. Listen in to just a few of the thousands of committed citizens in DC last Saturday.

The People’s Climate Mobilization is almost here. We can’t wait. Check out the events in both Boston (on the Common) and in Washington DC (on the Mall.) Just remember- we are mobilizing for the long term.  Working toward Environmental Justice and rejecting destructive legislation are the kinds of topics we  support. And of course, we must vote in November 2018. Listen in!

Recently, MCAN announced it’s legislative priorities for this session of the Massachusetts Legislature. We are pushing to increase our supply of renewable energy, provide access to solar for everyone and to make polluters pay with a price on carbon. You can join MCAN's Legislative Action Team and make a difference. Listen in as we discuss these topics, the Governor’s score card and the brewing fight between New York and FERC.

Increasing Our Renewable Energy:​

We need more clean energy, and one great way to move the clean energy market forward is to have the utilities buy more of it. We support increasing the Renewable Portfolio Standard by 3% each year, driving demand for renewable power and growing our local clean energy industry. We also support a statewide solar target of 25% solar by 2030 and eliminating the solar net metering caps. We believe that municipal light plants should be included in the state’s clean energy goals.

Providing Access to Solar for All:

Everyone should be able to get their power from the sun, no matter their community and no matter their income level. This legislation ensures fair compensation to low-income solar and to community-shared solar (net metering) for low-moderate income customers, encourages projects that expand access to communities facing barriers, and directs the Department of Energy Resources to address barriers like income, housing type and language in their program design.

Making Polluters pay through Carbon pricing:

One of the best ways to discourage behavior we don’t want is to put a price on it, and studies have shown that pricing carbon would cut our carbon pollution by up to 10%. This legislation would establish a common-sense fee-and-rebate system of carbon pollution fees charged to fossil fuel importers. The revenues from those fees would go into a dedicated fund, from which each state resident would receive an equal rebate, and employers would get rebates based on their number of employees. 

The mission statement of the Science March says it “… champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence based policies in the public interest.” We discuss what dark motives could be driving those ‘political leaders and policy makers’ in their delusional jihad against the facts. Listen in!

The People’s Climate Mobilization will happen on April 29^th in DC and cities across the country. As this big day draws near, it is worthwhile tracing the history of  public protests dedicated to climate issues. From the original ‘Step It Up’ in 2007 to the 2014 March in NYC, the people power of climate marches keeps growing. Listen in as we discuss.