From Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light (http://www.paipl.org):
State action opportunities:
- Write letters to the Editor (LTE) on the importance of fugitive methane limits, and the need for protections of the air, water, and stable climate on which we all depend. Send copies of your published letter to your elected officials and the Governor’s office (and to PA IPL!). Sample letters and general guidance here.
- Call your state Senator regarding SB175, just introduced by Senator Reschenthaler. This bill seeks to limit state control over methane-related pollution, making federal limits the maximum limits — which would limit us from adjust our limits as we learn more! Interestingly, Senator Reschenthaler has also been involved with proposed legislation in favor of commercial PACE legislation (bill number forthcoming), and a solar jobs bill (background).
- Write or call your state Senator or representative expressing concern that the PA PowerSwitch website no longer makes it easy to shop for 100% renewable electricity — the % renewable choice slider has vanished from their formerly-helpful site, and now results can include options that are only 5% renewable. The area that formerly had the slider shows in the third slide in our how-to from spring/summer 2016, though the slider itself was just below the image that shows.
Upcoming Events:
- Attend the Environmental Justice Advisory Board meeting on March 7, 2017. Meeting is scheduled for 8:30 AM in the Delaware Room, Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market St., Harrisburg 17101. The EJAB is charged with overseeing the implementation of the DEP’s Enhanced Public Participation Policy. It meets quarterly. The EJAB provides a forum for protecting the health of communities, especially communities wit the greatest concentration of environmental risks. All meetings are open to the public, and include a public comment period. If you wish to comment, please contact 717-783-2300 to let the office know in advance. If you plan to go, ask us for a pin for your shirt and a logo to tape to the back of your clipboard or folder to identify you as a PA IPL observer. Contact: Carl Jones, Office of Environmental Justice by email or at (484) 250-5818. Be sure to state specifically if you wish to share concerns from your own community.
- Mark your calendar and spread the word: the next Interfaith Moral Climate Advocacy training workshop is set for State College on April 1 (no joke!). Details forthcoming. Read what past participants had to say.
- Save the date: on April 29, 2017 PA IPL will join the faith contingent of the People’s Climate March in Washington, DC. More information forthcoming.
- PA IPL’s Sustained Advocacy Planning Group is working on
- celebrating our elected officials whenever they act as climate champions
- developing a rapid response network for urgent state action
- scheduling calls and drop-bys with state senators during the course of the year.
Contact us if you would like to support (or lead or co-lead) any of those efforts.
Federal Update Summary
Many people who care deeply about climate change have been feeling terrified as they watch one statement, order, or nominee after another undermine what we know to be urgent work with a moral calling. We took some time on this call to remind ourselves and each other that we know how to do this work. We have been doing this work, and we will continue to do so, along with the prayer and the personal and community actions that nurture our hope, grow our courage, and connect us with one another.
The Clean Power Plan required states to make their own plans, and there is no reason anyone has to stop. The EPA exists because of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act — longstanding laws that were signed and re-signed by Republican Presidents with strong bipartisan support. The lawsuit that required the EPA to regulate greenhouse gasses, confirming that they are, in fact, a threat to the health and welfare of Americans was decided in the Roberts Supreme Court. The foundation is firm. The work is familiar. The attacks are causing people to stand up and step into this work with new commitment.
Green Climate Fund: some good news President Obama locked in a second payment of $500 million to the Green Climate Fund, matching our previous payment, and bringing us to a total of $1 billion of the $3 billion we pledged to help developing nations adapt to the effects of climate change and mitigate emissions. Press release from faith groups.
Cabinet Appointments: Scott Pruitt, the nominee for the Administrator of the EPA, has spent a great deal of time and energy in his previous positions trying to block the EPA from doing its work. Background. PA IPL Board President Rabbi Daniel Swartz’ OpEd in the Scranton Times-Tribune.
Congressional Review Act: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Joe Manchin have said they will introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to block the EPA’s pollution standards for new power plants. CRAs are anticipated against the Bureau of Land Management’s anti-waste methane standards.
Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline update. President Trump signed executive orders to allow construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines. Read more about the executive order. Read statements from Standing Rock participants, from Philadelphia IPL, and link to the PA IPL Board Resolution calling for No New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure at this September 2016 blog post. Current news. Divesting.
Gag orders and freezes: Administration officials restricted social media and press contact at agencies including the EPA the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Heath and Human services. In addition, grants and program funding was frozen for review, including existing grants in some cases. Employees at the National Park Service and others have responded by creating alternate accounts and tweeting climate change facts, among other items.
State Update Summary
PA IPL participated in climate action organization conversations at a national level in December in which it was clear that, while of course we will still work on defending existing policies at the national level, state and municipal action will be vital to our forward movement.
New bicameral Climate Caucus: good news. A group of state Senators and state Representatives has just formed a bi-cameral Climate Caucus in Harrisburg. News release. As we learn more, and this legislator-created group defines their scope and purpose, we will share more. In the meantime if your legislator(s) are on the list, they’re recognizing the need for climate action — thank them!
SB175 was just introduced by Senator Reschenthaler. This bill seeks to limit state control over methane-related pollution by making federal limits the maximum limits — if this were to become law, we would be prevented from tightening limits in Pennsylvania in the future, even if evidence of more harm to people and places emerged! Interestingly, Senator Rechenthaler has also been involved with proposed legislation in favor of commercial PACE legislation (bill number forthcoming), and a solar jobs bill (background).
We anticipate that energy efficiency measures codified in Act 129 will continue to be a concern in 2017. A bill (SB 805) passed the state Senate last year that would have allowed large commercial and industrial entities to opt out of participating in the successful program. The House did not have time to take it up. Energy efficiency is good stewardship, but there is also evidence that better energy efficiency strains the grid less, and may reduce electricity costs for households. Senator Tomlinson of hte Consumer Protection Committee is expected to hold hearings on Act 129 this year. Fact sheets on Act 129 and the potential impacts of legislation allowing exemptions.
Good news! Proposed “Solar Jobs” bill doesn’t yet have a number, but is anticipated Closing Pennsylvania’s solar borders would force us to meet our (very low) Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) solar “carve out” with solar generated *in* Pennsylvania, making sure the emissions reductions and increased jobs occur in-state. Most of our border states already do this. This 2015 article is digestible and makes the case clearly.
The budget process isn’t directly a climate concern, but we expect cuts to the already-stretched budgets of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), which could impact monitoring and enforcement around emissions, energy, and the forests and soils that currently act as carbon sinks. Read more. We anticipate that the Legislature will be very focused on budget issues through February.
Closing Meditation
We close each Policy Update call with a meditation or a prayer. January’s meditation is a story and a blessing. The story came to Cricket Hunter without attribution about 30 years ago, but she’d love to have a source for it. The blessing is from Brother David Steindl-Rast.
“Tell me the weight of a snowflake” a coalmouse asked a wild dove.
“Nothing more than nothing” was the answer.
“In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story” the coalmouse said. “I sat on a fir branch, close to the trunk when it began to snow; not heavily, not in a raging blizzard, no, just like in a dream, without any violence. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on ht twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,471,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch —nothing more than nothing— as you say— the branch broke off.” Having said that, the coalmouse fled away.
The dove, since Noah’s tie an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself “Perhaps there is only one person’s prayer lacking for peace to come to the world.”
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May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of witner, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.
May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, ad guided in its flow.
May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar at earth’s fiery core.
May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation.
—Brother David Steindl-Rast
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