For a Path Forward on Climate, Let’s Learn From the Original New Deal
16 December 2020
Insights + Opinion
USDA Photo by Preston Keres
By J. Mijin Cha and Manuel Pastor
You may not know it, but Democrats and Republicans share a growing concern about the climate and environment. With extreme weather events becoming more common, many young Republicans now question their allegiance to a party that denies the reality of climate change. After the destructive environmental policies of the Trump administration, there are high hopes among many Americans that progress will be possible under a new administration — even if Biden's reluctant to abandon fracking or adopt all the language of a "Green New Deal."
<p>But to envision a path forward on environmental policy, we should remember some key lessons from the original New Deal, the 1930s-era policies that pulled the United States out of the Great Depression through a combination of relief programs, public-works projects, financial reforms and progressive regulation.</p><p>The first key lesson: The New Deal was implemented in DC, but many of its policies emerged from earlier state experiments. A second point: The space for progressive presidential action was opened up by labor and grassroots organizing that <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/go-out-and-make-me-do-it_b_281631" target="_blank">didn't just rely on elected leaders</a> but shifted the political calculus of what was possible.</p>
<p>We should also be careful not to repeat past mistakes. For the New Deal had a major Achilles' heel: In an attempt to secure support from Southern Democrats, many of its programs left Black Americans and other people of color behind (such as by excluding domestic and agricultural workers from Social Security).</p><p>For a new national environmental policy to be successful, we need to lift up state experimentation, provide political pressure and political cover for doing what's right, and be sure to center, not derail, racial equity.</p><p>Our scholarship has been <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/pere/roadmap-equitable-low-carbon-future/" target="_blank">looking at just these issues</a> for the past few years, examining how some states are trying to transition off fossil fuel in a way that protects workers and communities and addresses environmental injustice. Known as "just transition," this notion focuses not only on the technical and policy aspects of power generation but also on the nitty-gritty of power-building to organize for change.</p>
<p>There's good news to report from states and localities. For example, in keeping with its ambitious approach to greenhouse gas reduction over the past decade and a half, California recently declared that the state would phase out the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, creating impetus for a market in electric and other zero-emission vehicles. Meanwhile, in New York, more than 200 groups have come together as NY Renews and won the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t3ay4o445DGwPPhBtVNFk1FHfF9LJKWs/view" target="_blank">most ambitious climate protection bill</a> in the nation. Passed in 2019, it will dramatically limit emissions, invest in vulnerable communities, and chart a path to 100% carbon-free electricity.</p><p>Part of what's making such policy change possible is power-building among those whose voices have traditionally been sidelined. As a NY Renews coalition member told us, "Power is built when you stand shoulder-to-shoulder and when you stand up for someone else, not just yourself." So the group built a broad coalition, ranging from labor unions to environmental justice organizations to faith-based organizations, that aimed not just to reduce emissions but to support vulnerable communities.</p>
<p>A similar success story can be found in Arvin, California, a small town in the southern San Joaquin Valley, where local advocates have shown how to dig in against Big Oil. After launching a multifaceted campaign to keep new oil and gas drilling 300 feet from residential or commercial properties, Arvin quickly became a battleground pitting over-polluted residents against the behemoth fossil fuel industry. Despite the pressure, advocates launched a full-scale electoral push that brought in a new, progressive mayor and a wave of young Latina city council members who passed the first setback ordinance in California.</p><p>These are examples of state and local innovation — inspired by grassroots activism and multiracial and multisector coalitions — that should now make their way to the federal level, much as the New Deal picked up ideas such as unemployment insurance, minimum wages and labor protections from <a href="http://bostonreview.net/politics/thomas-kochan-what-would-frances-perkins-do" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">experiments in New York, Wisconsin and Massachusetts</a>.</p>
<p>The combination of state experimentation, local power-building and attention to racial justice is all the more urgent now because we also need to make our way to a post-climate, post-COVID world. Both our environmental and public health challenges have some common themes and present an opportunity for a new narrative: In each arena we need to prioritize those with the highest risks, act to shield those we may never know, and learn to replace "me" — the spirit of self-interest — with "we," the impulses of solidarity with people and the planet.</p><p>On the policy side, we can clearly learn from state efforts to address climate change. But just as important will be learning from state and local organizing. The secret sauce is not in the technology: moving away from an oil- and coal-fueled power grid to a people-driven power structure will require the science of coalition-building.</p><p>Power must be built to hold a new administration accountable, push it further toward bold climate policy and economic and racial justice, and create the political space for a massive federal investment in public health and clean energy. The future of America and the planet depend on it.</p>
<p><em>J. Mijin Cha is an assistant professor of urban and environmental policy at Occidental College.</em></p><p><em>Manuel Pastor </em><em>is a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and the director of USC's Equity Research Institute.</em></p><p><em>The opinions expressed above are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The Revelator, the Center for Biological Diversity or their employees.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/climate-new-deal/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Greenpeace Releases Sweeping Policy Plans To Fight Inequality, Racial Injustice, COVID-19 and Climate Crisis
`
18 November 2020
Politics
A Greenpeace activist protests in Warsaw, Poland on April 22, 2020. "Going back to normal is not an option," a new report from Greenpeace USA insists. Rafal Wojczal / Greenpeace Polska
By Andrea Germanos
The "just, green, and peaceful future we deserve is possible and together we can build the power to manifest it."
So declares Greenpeace USA's new "Just Recovery Agenda." Released Tuesday and packed with more than 100 sweeping policy recommendations for President-elect Joe Biden and members of the next U.S. Congress to embrace, the visionary document plots out a path for erecting new systems that no longer put corporate greed above the public and planet's well-being.
<p>"Going back to normal is not an option," the report bluntly states, because what "we knew as 'normal' was a crisis." The coronavirus crisis has thrown that truism into relief, says Greenpeace, but the worsening climate and ecological crises and deep inequality have long made the case for a bold transformation of the dominant economic system.</p><p>With post-pandemic policies now being charting out —and a new presidential administration just months away — Greenpeace says it's crystal clear now is the time for pivotal change.</p><p>"The policy choices we make in this disruptive moment will shape the path forward for millions of people—the Covid-19 crisis and clarion call for racial justice in 2020 must mark a turning point for federal policy-making," the report urges.</p>
<p>Greenpeace USA campaigns director James Mumm put the new report in the context of former Biden's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/16/no-you-didnt-trends-after-trumps-latest-election-result-lie" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">victory</a> over President Donald Trump.</p><p>"We the people have chosen Joe Biden, who will arrive in the White House with a forceful mandate to lead our recovery from Covid-19, address the climate crisis, advance racial justice, and build an economy that puts people first," Mumm said in a statement.</p><p>"Over the past four years, we have cared for one another," he continued. "Now, we must come together to ensure that Joe Biden and the new Congress care for us, and to see that everyone — no matter their race or where they come from— has what they need to thrive."</p>
<p>The report expands on what that means by pointing to "dignified work, healthcare, education, housing, clean air and water, healthy food, and more." In this new work, says Greenpeace, the world must "shift from an economy that is extractive and exploitative to one that regenerates and repairs."</p><p>Centering all the prescriptions — which range from boosting voting rights to expanding renewable energy — are values of equity, community justice, freedom, compassion, and creativity.</p><p>Actions demanded of federal lawmakers include establishing a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour; strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act; enacting and enforcing new antitrust standards to curb corporate power; "passing bold and just recovery legislation in line with the THRIVE Agenda to lay the groundwork for a Green New Deal and world beyond fossil fuels"; enacting the pro-democracy the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/04/no-brainer-anyone-who-actually-cares-about-american-democracy-house-democrats-hr-1" target="_blank">For The People Act</a> of 2019; banning permits for new or expansions of existing factory farms; "enacting The BREATHE Act to police brutality and racial injustice by investing in Black communities and re-imagining community safety"; and enacting a ban on deep sea mining.</p>
<p>"As we look to recover from the interlocking crises we face as a nation," said Mumm, "it's time to use the tools and power of the federal government to solve problems rather than exacerbate them."</p><p>"This moment calls us to be bold and advance solutions at the scale science and justice demand," he continued. "It calls us to be holistic and navigate out of multiple crises at once. And it calls us to be visionary in our pursuit to people — not corporations or wealthy elites — at the heart of governance and public life."</p><p>Make no mistake — the "us" Mumm refers to really means all of us.</p><p>"Telling our story will not be the job of a single, appointed messenger, be it a politician, celebrity, CEO, or activist," says the report. "That responsibility lies with everyone who believes in the vision of a better world."</p><p>"Together we will build a movement broad, inclusive, and powerful enough to deliver the future our communities need and deserve," it states. "Together we will rewrite the rules of society."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/17/greenpeace-releases-far-reaching-just-recovery-agenda-tackle-interlocking-crises" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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More and more homeowners in Raleigh, NC, have embraced renewable energy like solar power. This popular option allows residents to fuel their homes cleanly and effectively, minimizing their home's environmental footprint while lowering their monthly utility bills. What are the best solar companies in Raleigh, NC? We'll show you the top options, plus provide important information on solar panel systems, federal tax credits, and more.
<p>If you're looking to adopt solar energy in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of the first steps in the process is to find the best renewable energy company. Thankfully, there are a number of excellent solar power providers throughout the area. They can provide the expertise and reliable technology you need to upgrade your home and truly take advantage of solar energy systems.</p><h2>Our picks for the best solar energy companies in Raleigh</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.8msolar.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">8M Solar</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncsolarnow.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NC Solar Now</a></li><li><a href="https://www.gosunpro.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sunpro Solar</a></li><li><a href="https://blueravensolar.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blue Raven Solar</a></li><li><a href="https://renuenergysolutions.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Renu Energy Solutions</a></li><li><a href="https://www.emeraldenergync.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emerald Energy</a></li><li><a href="https://covenantsolar.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Covenant Solar Tech</a></li><li><a href="https://yessolarsolutions.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yes Solar Solutions</a></li><li><a href="https://sundollarenergy.com/about-us/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sun Dollar Energy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.duke-energy.com/home/products/renewable-energy/nc-shared-solar" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Duke Energy</a></li></ul><h2>How we chose the best solar companies in Raleigh</h2><p>In order to create a list of the best solar power installers in Raleigh, North Carolina, we compared each company on a number of important categories. Our picks for Raleigh's best solar energy companies are based on the following:</p><ul class="ee-ul"> <li><strong>Coverage area. </strong>Some companies offer wider, more consistent coverage areas than others. We sought to include companies that make solar power readily available to both Raleigh and nearby areas like Durham and Cary.</li><li><strong>Services.</strong> We also ranked Raleigh's local solar providers on how many total services they offer. For instance, how much help do they offer in terms of consultation, solar system design, and installation? </li><li><strong>Installation process. </strong>We also evaluated local solar energy providers on the basis of whether they can install your new solar panels. Do they send an installation team to your home, or do you have to contract with a separate installation company?</li><li><strong>Pricing and financing. </strong>As you look for the best solar company in Raleigh, you'll definitely need to think about your budget. We've tried to evaluate companies on the basis of affordability and flexible financing options.</li><li><strong>Panel efficiency. </strong>Solar panels can vary quite a bit in terms of how much sunlight they absorb, and how efficiently they convert that solar energy to a usable AC stream. We've selected local companies that offer exemplary technology with the highest <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-performance-and-efficiency" target="_blank">solar panel energy efficiency</a>.</li><li><strong>Rebates.</strong> Along with flexible financing options, some solar installers make it easy for you to claim clean energy rebates, another useful way to offset your total energy cost.</li><li><strong>Warranty.</strong> When investing in a significant piece of technology, such as a solar panel system, it makes sense to seek some consumer protections. A good warranty can offer ample peace of mind.</li><li><strong>Professional affiliation. </strong>We looked for companies endorsed or certified by leading professional organizations. These include the <a href="https://www.seia.org/about" target="_blank">Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)</a>, the <a href="https://www.nabcep.org/about-us/" target="_blank">North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP)</a>, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and more. This is one of the easiest ways to evaluate a solar company's reputation.</li></ul><p>With these factors in mind, we're now ready to take a look at a few of the most highly recommended solar power and renewable energy companies in Raleigh, North Carolina.</p><h2>The best solar energy companies in Raleigh, NC</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMDY2My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NTU4Njk2MH0.4uZ3uc3dKy_eV6VkhXe01FTYZygEbPN2vPY52fIj148/img.jpg?width=980" id="6ae05" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c6d86615b9c32f2ec78431ce0441e6c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="721">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Blend Images - Done Mason / Getty Images</small></p><h3><a href="https://www.8msolar.com/" target="_blank">8M Solar</a><br></h3><p>Based in Wake Forest, 8M Solar is one of the best-rated clean energy companies in North Carolina. Their services are NABCEP-certified, they are SolarEdge and Tesla certified installers, and they are endorsed by Duke Energy. The owners are directly involved in all aspects of solar panel system design to provide hands-on expertise, and their panels come with generous 25-year warranties.</p><p><strong>Why buy: </strong>Simply put, 8M Solar is one of the best companies to choose if you're looking for a straightforward way to go green and decrease monthly utility costs. The company claims that their rates are, on average, 10 percent lower than their competitors. Formidable expertise, best-in-class technology, robust warranties, and affordable pricing make 8M Solar a top choice.</p><h3><a href="https://www.ncsolarnow.com/" target="_blank">NC Solar Now</a></h3><p>Since 2010, NC Solar Now has been a dependable clean energy partner to homeowners throughout the state. Their company is built around a vision for sustainability and ensuring that all families have access to affordable energy. The company is a member of the NC Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA), the NC Clean Technology Center (NCCTC), is endorsed by Duke Energy, and was chosen as one of the top 20 solar contractors in the US by <a href="https://www.generalcontractors.org/the-best-commercial-solar-contractors-in-the-us/" target="_blank">General Contractor Magazine.</a></p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> NC Solar Now is a great all-around option for anyone looking to embrace the promise of clean solar power. They are locally owned and operated, they offer flexible pricing for both residential and commercial properties, and they can help you take advantage of all available solar incentives and rebates.</p><h3><a href="https://www.gosunpro.com/" target="_blank">Sunpro Solar</a></h3><p>Sunpro is a nationally known and NABCEP-certified company. They offer cost-effective pricing and leading rooftop solar technology that allows you to save big bucks on your home utility bills. SunPro takes a lot of pride in having first-class customer service and their team is also available to help you claim clean energy tax incentives.</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> Sunpro is one of the most-trusted solar energy installers in the country, and even ranked #5 on Solar Power World's 2020 list of the Top Residential Solar Installers in the U.S. They handle everything from design to installation, and offer 25-year guarantees on labor and equipment.</p><h3><a href="https://blueravensolar.com/" target="_blank">Blue Raven Solar</a></h3><p>Blue Raven Solar is one of the fastest-growing solar companies in the country, operating in a number of states throughout the Southeast and beyond. They're passionate about helping homeowners save money on their electricity bills, and that's allowed them to become a clean energy provider of choice in the Raleigh-Durham area, as well as Asheville, Charlotte, and Greensboro.</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> Blue Raven Solar offers a truly comprehensive solar energy service, including surveying, solar panel system design, installation, and more. The company also offers highly competitive pricing and excellent financing options (including $0 down), and has received rave reviews from their customers as one of the most trusted solar energy companies around.</p><h3><a href="https://renuenergysolutions.com/" target="_blank">Renu Energy Solutions</a></h3><p>Based in Charlotte, Renu Energy Solutions provides dependable solar energy services to homeowners throughout the state. Since 2010, this locally-owned and operated company has been one of the Charlotte area's trusted names in solar energy. They offer free solar assessments, along with plenty of assistance finding flexible financing solutions.</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> This is another great example of a local business with world-class solar expertise. Choose them for friendly service, competitive pricing, and high-quality tech. Plus, Renu offers manufacturer's warranties of up to 25 years (depending on the specific solar panels you choose).</p><h3><a href="https://www.emeraldenergync.com/" target="_blank">Emerald Energy</a></h3><p>Emerald Energy is a Raleigh-based contracting company best known for offering design, consulting and installation for solar energy solutions. They offer zero money down and no interest financing on systems, and can help you take advantage of the many solar rebates and incentives that are offered in North Carolina.</p><p><strong>Why buy: </strong>For a fully-licensed local contractor with real clean energy bona fides, Emerald Energy is one of the best companies you'll find. Their in-house system design and installation services can help you enjoy cleaner electricity, energy independence, and lowered utility bills.</p><h3><a href="https://covenantsolar.com/" target="_blank">Covenant Solar Tech</a></h3><p>Covenant Solar Tech is locally owned and operated in Raleigh, North Carolina. They deliver a full spectrum of services, including consultation, design, installation, financing, and beyond. For those exploring solar energy options, they offer free solar estimates, and boast some truly outstanding customer reviews.</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> Covenant Solar Tech offers expert installation with friendly, personable customer service. They are one of the best local Raleigh companies in the solar energy game. Their solar energy expertise and experience was also recently enhanced by the company's purchase of Sun Dollar Energy.</p><h3><a href="https://yessolarsolutions.com/" target="_blank">Yes Solar Solutions</a></h3><p>Yes Solar Solutions is a terrific clean energy company located in Cary, NC. Their installers proudly service residents of Raleigh and the surrounding area. The company has been around since 2009, and in that time they've helped more than 1,000 homeowners go solar. They are a certified installer for Tesla solar equipment, offer free assessments and various financing options.</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> Yes Solar Solutions is NABCEP accredited and has a long history, an impressive track record, and plenty of ways to help you cut energy costs. Reviews of the company attest to their excellent customer service in helping people go solar.</p><h3><a href="https://sundollarenergy.com/about-us/" target="_blank">Sun Dollar Energy powered by Covenant Solar Tech</a></h3><p>Sun Dollar Energy started a family-owned solar power contractor serving homeowners throughout North Carolina. The small solar company with local roots offered a personalized experience for customers. In January 2021, the company was purchased by Covenant Solar Tech, but will still provide the same reliable service under the Sun Dollar Energy name.</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> Sun Dollar Energy powered by Covenant Solar Tech is your best bet for a truly homegrown, local solar energy provider. They offer years of experience and their licensed, NABCEP-certified installers helped them become a leading provider in the area, with positive customer reviews for their easy installation process.</p><h3><a href="https://www.duke-energy.com/Our-Company/Environment/Renewable-Energy/Solar-Energy" target="_blank">Duke Energy</a></h3><p>Duke Energy might not be the first name you think of for this list, but they provide a wide range of solar energy solutions across the Raleigh area. Not only does Duke Energy provide solar rebates worth up to $6,000, they also offer services like <a href="https://www.duke-energy.com/home/products/renewable-energy/generate-your-own" target="_blank">net metering</a> that can help offset your electric bill with the energy from your solar energy system.</p><p><strong>Why buy:</strong> Duke Energy has made some admirable commitments to renewable energy in recent years. With programs like NC <a href="https://www.duke-energy.com/home/products/renewable-energy/nc-shared-solar" target="_blank">Shared Solar</a>, the company allows you to support solar energy generation and development each month even if you can't install solar panels on your own home, making solar energy more accessible.</p><h2>What types of solar energy are available in Raleigh, NC?</h2><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTcwMDY3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjEyOTA1MX0.hZ7m-mEyAd_MBxOlVzFtHSuyPbttXtbGtvW1D6wGgh4/img.jpg?width=980" id="f92ca" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="659abb8e87ff463fb88bbe715ccafe0d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="713">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Buena Vista Images / Getty Images</small></p><p>As you consider your options for solar energy in the Raleigh area, it's important to note that different companies provide varied kinds of access to the sun's energy.<br></p><p>For instance, most of the companies on our list are truly solar installers, which means they can help you upgrade your home with solar panels and batteries, allowing you to directly absorb the sun's rays, convert it to electricity, and use that electricity to power your home.</p><p>But a few companies, like Duke Energy, do something a little different: They essentially allow you to choose a plan where you get solar power straight from Duke's solar energy facilities as part of your home's energy, but also use regular electrical power when necessary.</p><p>Make sure you understand these different models as you seek the right solar power provider for your home.</p><h2>How does solar panel installation work?</h2><p>It is also helpful to know more about the process of having solar panels installed on your home.</p><p>Usually, the process begins with an energy audit. A certified installer will arrive at your home, assess your energy needs, and also evaluate how much sun exposure you get. They will then recommend the number of panels that need to be installed on your roof, as well as the ideal locations for those panels.</p><p>Once installed, these solar panels draw energy from the sun and store it in a battery. This solar power is then converted to AC power, using a component known as an inverter, which can then power all your home appliances and devices.</p><p>If you have any specific questions about the installation process, it's usually best to go straight to your installer. Note that while the initial investment in equipment can be steep, that's usually it in terms of overall solar expense: the sun's energy is free, and you won't need to invest in any further fuel sources.</p><h2>Choose the best rooftop solar company in Raleigh</h2><p>There are countless reasons for Raleigh homeowners to embrace clean energy: it's a great way to minimize your environmental impact; it can lower your household energy expenses; and you can take advantage of the many rebates and tax advantages offered in the state.</p><p>As you consider different players within the solar industry, choose wisely, starting with some of the recommendations we've offered here. These are renewable energy companies that have solid reputations and proven track records of solar energy service.</p><p><em><strong>Josh Hurst </strong></em><em>is a journalist, critic, and essayist. He lives in Knoxville, TN, with his wife and three sons. His writing on natural health, nutrition, and supplements has appeared in Health, Shape, and Remedy Review.</em></p>
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Green New Deal Champion Chloe Maxmin Unseats Powerful GOP Incumbent in Rural Maine
07 November 2020
Politics
John Lamparski / Getty Images
By Julia Conley
The results of the U.S. Senate race this week in Maine — won by four-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins after Democrats poured $50 million into challenger Sara Gideon's campaign — may have given the impression that a Trumpian right-wing agenda has an iron grip on the state's more conservative rural voters, but the victory of Democratic state Rep. Chloe Maxmin, a progressive champion who ran on the promise of a Green New Deal and offering a "politics as public service" in a strong GOP district, tells a much different story.
<p>Two years after winning a seat in the state House of Representatives, representing conservative, rural District 88, Maxmin secured a win in her challenge to state Senate Republican Leader Dana Dow. As in her first campaign for elected office, Maxmin won over voters in state Senate District 13 — where residents <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-maine-senate.html" target="_blank">chose Collins </a>over Gideon — by engaging deeply with her community and <a href="https://chloe.mainecandidate.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">offering a platform</a> focused on climate action, investing in universal broadband access, and treating healthcare as a human right. </p>
<p>Maxmin's campaign was focused on providing help to people in a part of Maine where many feel disillusioned by politics and neglected by leaders in the state legislature and Washington, D.C. — but her energy was spent less on convincing voters to back a progressive agenda and more on giving them a platform to talk about their own experiences.</p><p>"When I talk to folks, I mostly listen, I don't show up and talk about myself," Maxmin told Common Dreams on Thursday. "I really try and listen and make sure that the voices that I hear are reflected in our campaign ... The work that we do on our side is to really think about campaigns differently, because we see them as one of the primary ways that we can start building a new type of politics. So we didn't use any party consultants. We designed all of our mailers, palm cards, postcards ourselves. We're all about authentic conversation and just had dozens and dozens of volunteers writing postcards or having conversations with voters and using the same style of just listening, and not going around saying, 'You should vote for Chloe because of this,' but trying to understand where people are at."</p><p>"My sense is that people really saw that we were doing it differently and that I could be in office differently, too," she added.</p><p>When the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year, the Maxmin campaign further stepped up its commitment to engaging directly with voters, enlisting 200 volunteers to check on voters' wellbeing.</p><p>"Maxmin called upon her volunteers to reach out to every senior in her district and her network of campaign volunteers provided food, assistance with prescription drugs and identified transpiration needs," Marie Follayttar, director of the progressive grassroots group Mainers for Accountable Leadership, told Common Dreams. "Chloe is both a community organizer and an elected official. Not only is Chloe willing to listen to the people where they are — at their dinner table or at their door — she is demonstrably responsive to their needs and leverages the organizing structure of her campaign to assist her in accomplishing mutual aid work."</p><p>Other Democratic campaigns in the state, Follayttar noted, "could have done this as well. We transform lives by being present in them and building community to support one another. We move into legislative action by turning the concerns heard at the door into legislation."</p><p><span></span>Maxmin, who introduced <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/19/were-not-polarized-everywhere-maine-democracy-and-green-energy-win-big" target="_blank">the state's Green New Deal</a> in 2019, with the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/16/great-example-local-organizing-maine-afl-cio-signs-greennewdeal" target="_blank">notable backing </a>of the state AFL-CIO, and co-founded the fossil fuel divestment campaign Divest Harvard while in college, won applause from national climate action campaigners at 350.org and Friends of the Earth.</p>
<div id="0d2d5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b4c2cdc6328f9c94bb65f389a2037ca9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1324037287127252993" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hats off to new Maine State Senator Chloe Maxmin, a true climate champ who managed to beat the incumbent Senate Minority Leader.</div> — Bill McKibben (@Bill McKibben)<a href="https://twitter.com/billmckibben/statuses/1324037287127252993">1604510063.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="9ee73" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="af2a00b60ef3fad71bd5cb93c84f1cdc"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1324084291199029248" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Congrats to progressive champion (and Friends of the Earth board member) Chloe Maxmin! https://t.co/qKVceZQAfu</div> — Friends of the Earth (Action) (@Friends of the Earth (Action))<a href="https://twitter.com/foe_us/statuses/1324084291199029248">1604521269.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"Just seeing the amazing news that Chloe Maxmin — who was a young leader of Divest Harvard — has won a seat in the Maine State Senate!" exclaimed Thelma Young-Lutunatabua, an organizer with 350.org, on Wednesday. "Youth of the climate movement gaining political office!"</p><p>Maxmin's tactic of engaging authentically with voters in reminiscent of "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/15/groundbreaking-study-shows-deep-listening-over-100-times-more-effective-winning" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deep canvassing</a>," a method of campaigning used by the national grassroots network People's Action and found to be 102 times more effective at winning over undecided voters than a typical brief interaction during a door-knocking or phone-banking campaign.</p><p>"Deep canvassing differs from traditional campaign tactics because it relies on soul," People's Action Director George Goehl told Common Dreams<em>.</em> "In a deep canvass conversation, you break down your walls and the canvasser and voter really connect with one another. This is the kind of organizing that changes hearts and minds."</p><p>Maxmin told Common Dreams that her campaign led her to "thousands" of similar interactions.</p><p>"I had thousands of conversations with people," she said. "And it's so interesting when you have that kind of breadth to your exposure of humanity, just the themes that you hear. And it was really, really consistent—rarely hearing direct issues, mostly hearing about how people are so frustrated with everyone and everything on both sides and just hating the negative campaigning."</p><p>Mike Tipping of Maine People's Alliance, an affiliate of People's Action, credited Maxmin's ability to connect with voters across party lines, stressing that Maxmin ran a campaign she defined as "bipartisan" rather than "progressive" because issues that matter to voters in her rural district are important to people of all political beliefs. </p><p>"These are universal progressive values," Tipping told Common Dreams<em>.</em> "Too often we talk about these things in a partisan lens, but overwhelmingly people believe we need to tax the wealthy, that we need to raise the minimum wage, that we need sick days, paid family leave, healthcare access that's real, that everyone can see a doctor when they need to. Those are not limited to a party. And when you build a multi-race, multi-class coalition like Chloe did ... That's how you win in those places."</p><p>In "Rural Runner," a short film by Forest Woodward about Maxmin and her campaign manager, Canyon Woodward, Maxmin is seen knocking on doors in rural Maine, talking to voters about how their lives could be impacted by a Green New Deal for the state and other progressive legislation. </p><p>"Every year we keep electing the same kind of folks," she says in the film. "They tell us the same things, they act the same way, we elect them, they get into the state House, and they break the same promises and we're left with the same disillusionment that we had before."</p>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/473942482" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4e637980c1062805b99e6bfec753d3f6"></iframe><p>In 2018, Maxmin began her campaign in House District 88 as an underdog, 16 points behind her opponent, but credited her tireless face-to-face campaigning with securing victory.</p><p>"What Chloe and I have done is pretty simple," said Woodward in "Rural Runner," which was filmed as the team was beginning Maxmin's campaign for the state Senate race. "We put one foot in front of the other, we listen, we show up every day rain or shine, we do our best. We never really know what we're capable of unless we try."</p><p>After becoming the first Democrat ever to win House District 88 at the age of 26, Maxmin introduced her state's own Green New Deal, <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/maine-passes-state-level-green-new-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">centering</a> the legislation on a just transition for workers in the fossil fuel sector and investing in solar installations for newly-built schools. </p><p>In the State House, she has also sponsored legislation to provide access to rural public transportation, an issue she campaigned on this year and <a href="https://chloe.mainecandidate.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called</a> "the great equalizer in rural communities." Maine Senate District 13 has been <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Maine_State_Senate_District_13" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">represented</a> by Republicans for most of the last decade. </p><p>While the national Democratic Party often express wariness about engaging with voters in traditionally conservative areas about issues erroneously deemed "left wing," such as far-reaching action to solve the climate emergency, Maxmin's winning campaigns suggest Democrats can find more success with rural voters by being unapologetic proponents of policies aimed at helping working people.</p><p>"She is no shrinking violet and didn't try and moderate herself or be anyone other than who she is, and I think voters responded to that," Tipping said.</p><p>During the campaigns Maxmin and Woodward have run together, they <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/02/what-rural-maine-house-race-can-teach-left" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a> in an article for The Nation in 2018, "We dig into the local, cultivating relationships and utilizing the resourcefulness of our rural communities to build a rooted movement... We see that rural America is alive and beautiful, eager to be heard and remembered."</p><p>"Many have welcomed us into their homes and honored us with stories of family members who are registering to vote just for our campaign, who are voting Democrat for the first time, who have never voted in a midterm but now are because our movement gives them hope," they continued.</p><p>"We view our campaign as a movement, built on shared values and authentic conversations," Maxmin and Woodward wrote. "We build real political power, with lasting muscle for the long fight, with an inside-outside movement that elects authentic representatives to fight for everyone and continues to organize beyond the election to maintain pressure on our politicians."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/06/i-mostly-listen-offering-blueprint-democrats-green-new-deal-champion-chloe-maxmin" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em></p>
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is seen speaking at SXSW in 2019. nrkbeta / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
By Jon Queally
Even as Vice President Mike Pence was busy "polluting the atmosphere with lies" about the climate crisis during Wednesday night's vice presidential debate, Democratic nominee Sen. Kamala Harris came under considerable criticism of her own after repeatedly highlighting Joe Biden's commitment to "not ban fracking" and an overall lackluster defense of the Green New Deal—the signature framework put forth by progressives and the scientific community to combat the threat of a rapidly warming world.
<p>"Fracking is bad, actually," <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1314018453192409102" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after Harris repeatedly proclaimed, in response to Pence's charge that Democrats want to "abolish fossil fuels," that a Biden administration would not ban hydraulic fracturing.</p><p>Watch:</p>
<div id="c6c03" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4df2df029885ac2e1787b12e595872b5"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314020385113944065" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Sen. Kamala Harris: "Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact." #VPDebate https://t.co/xVlwfapwUO</div> — The Hill (@The Hill)<a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/statuses/1314020385113944065">1602121847.0</a></blockquote></div><p>While Pence attacked Harris' support for the Green New Deal, which she co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate, backers of the proposal—a plan that would combat the existential planetary emergency by making major investments in renewable energy infrastructure projects that would create millions of jobs—pointed out that ending destructive fossil fuel extraction, including fracking, is a policy to embrace not run away from.</p>
<div id="41ed8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b487ad0d2f2e66ca9343d06d593e203b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314036806233583616" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">So what IS the Green New Deal, anyway? https://t.co/hqjMSpgxDg</div> — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)<a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/statuses/1314036806233583616">1602125762.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Outside observers also offered advice to the Biden campaign to step up its game if the Trump-Pence ticket is going to make attacking the Green New Deal part of its re-election strategy.</p>
<div id="bb369" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="67e28dde200063168ff78e7d2e198723"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314018966302584832" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">THE GREEN NEW DEAL IS A JOBS PROGRAM. IT WOULD CREATE 20 MILLION JOBS. IT IS A GOOD THING. #Debates2020</div> — 💀🎃Briahna Joy Co-pay 🕸👻 (@💀🎃Briahna Joy Co-pay 🕸👻)<a href="https://twitter.com/briebriejoy/statuses/1314018966302584832">1602121509.0</a></blockquote></div><p>And as Ocasio-Cortez subsequently tweeted, the Green New Deal remains not only popular, but essential:</p>
<div id="74e28" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c17c18328bf659cbff10a638f3f67ad8"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314019700549001218" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Green New Deal is and has been lied about nonstop, and yet is STILL popular. It’s a massive job-creation and i… https://t.co/8ICC1ukQZA</div> — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)<a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/statuses/1314019700549001218">1602121684.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"Kamala is doing well," said Jamie Henn, co-founder of 350.org and director of Fossil Free Media, "but she'd be on even stronger ground if Biden had *endorsed* the Green New Deal. Far better to play offense than having to do this in-between approach."</p>
<div id="0f851" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9d8adad02bbbeeada523afd1783c4a9d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314019134427062272" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Majority of Pennsylvanians oppose fracking. Biden-Harris are pandering to a minority of voters here https://t.co/EmlNtRAmgv</div> — Mike Elk (@Mike Elk)<a href="https://twitter.com/MikeElk/statuses/1314019134427062272">1602121549.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="a99fa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="eed4ac10228c61c8cecc2907603f1a46"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314019183437455360" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Fracking sucks. It poisons people. It generates earthquakes. It destroys the land. #BanFracking #VPDebate2020</div> — Peter Daou (@Peter Daou)<a href="https://twitter.com/peterdaou/statuses/1314019183437455360">1602121561.0</a></blockquote></div><p><a href="https://twitter.com/_waleedshahid/status/1314024215566311424" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">According</a> to Waleed Shahid of the Justice Democrats, "I feel like Kamala Harris over-corrected way too much after being being attacked as the 'liberal Senator of California' on her climate crisis responses."</p>
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Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden addresses a crowd at a town hall event at Clinton College on August 29, 2019 in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Sean Rayford / Getty Images
By Jeff Berardelli
At the first presidential debate on Tuesday night, former Vice President Joe Biden said point-blank that he does not support the Green New Deal — a progressive plan which not only aims to aggressively tackle climate change but also encompasses many other issues like social justice, jobs, housing and health care.
<p>In response, President Trump pounced on what appeared to be an opportunity to underscore that point to Biden's base, saying, "That's a big statement… you just lost the radical left."</p><p>But this was not actually a new position for Biden. Instead, he explained, "I support the Biden plan that I put forward" — a $2 trillion proposal that is more narrow and less aggressive than the far-reaching Green New Deal.</p><p>Their exchange reveals the needle that Biden is threading in his campaign, between trying to win the confidence of climate crusaders on the left while not alienating more moderate voters in the middle.</p><p>Although it is true that Biden's climate plan does not fully match the Green New Deal, there are many similarities. That's because over the last few months the Biden campaign made a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/how-joe-bidens-surprisingly-ambitious-climate-plan-came-together/2020/07/31/b73e78d0-cd11-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html" target="_blank">deliberate effort</a> to consult with more progressive factions of the party through the <a href="https://joebiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/UNITY-TASK-FORCE-RECOMMENDATIONS.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force</a>, a committee which included climate and environmental justice activists like the Sunrise Movement — a group instrumental in the design of the Green New Deal. Biden has committed to some, but not all, of the task force's recommendations.</p><p>"Joe Biden's climate plan isn't everything, but it isn't nothing at all," Varshini Prakash, the founder of Sunrise Movement, told CBS News in an interview for the recent CBSN special "<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/video/a-climate-in-crisis-explores-wildfires-hurricanes-and-the-science-behind-them/" target="_blank">Climate in Crisis</a>." She said if he is able to make good on those promises, it would represent a "seismic shift in climate policy at the federal level."</p><p>As a result of the task force's work, Biden's climate plan was boosted from $1.7 trillion over 10 years to a much more substantial <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-unveils-2-trillion-climate-plan/" target="_blank">$2 trillion over four years</a>, with a faster timeline to achieve a carbon-free electricity sector and a greater focus on <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/environmental-justice-movement-climate-change-racism-peggy-shepard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental justice</a>.</p><p>"I think that Biden has done a good job of responding to pressure from the climate movement," said Professor Leah Stokes, an energy and environmental politics expert at the University of California at Santa Barbara, who is very active in the climate policy arena and plugged into the progressive wing of the climate community. "The Unity Task Force was set up explicitly to accomplish this goal — and it was extremely successful."</p><p>The careful wording on Biden's campaign website is revealing. It says "Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face" — an acknowledgment but not an embrace.</p>
Goals and Costs
<p>First, it is worth mentioning that comparing Biden's plan to the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres109/BILLS-116hres109ih.pdf" target="_blank">Green New Deal</a> is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, because the Green New Deal is a broad resolution, not a specific plan. The goals of the Green New Deal are many, but the details on how exactly to achieve those goals are few. Thus, putting a price tag on the Green New Deal has been elusive; some experts estimate it would likely be <a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/how-much-will-the-green-new-deal-cost/" target="_blank">tens of trillions</a> of dollars over 10 years.</p><p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-unveils-2-trillion-climate-plan/" target="_blank">Biden's climate plan</a> would lay out $2 trillion over 4 years towards clean energy and infrastructure, which he says will create "millions" of jobs and move the U.S. closer to a carbon-free future. (For comparison, the cost, while expensive, it is still short of the one-year, $2.2 trillion price tag for U.S. coronavirus stimulus measures to date.)</p><p>Biden's plan is also much more narrowly focused than the Green New Deal, which <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-about-to-get-real/" target="_blank">envisions broader reforms</a> across the U.S. economy. For instance, the Green New Deal includes a goal of "providing all people of the United States with high-quality health care" — an issue that is not addressed in Biden's climate plan. </p><p>However, like the Green New Deal, Biden's plan is aggressive in addressing <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/climate-change" target="_blank">climate change</a> while also attempting to tackle other related issues such as environmental justice, sustainable housing, supporting a "just transition" for workers whose jobs are affected, and the building of major infrastructure projects such as high speed rail, which is mentioned in both proposals. </p>Green Jobs and Infrastructure
<p><strong> </strong>At their core, both the Green New Deal and Biden's climate plan are about jobs as well as the environment. They both place an emphasis on supporting labor unions' right to organize and bargain for fair wages for their members. The Green New Deal sets a goal of providing a guaranteed job with a family-sustaining wage and benefits to every American — but Biden does not go that far.</p><p>Biden's jobs plan is big, but not as comprehensive as the Green New Deal's. He pledges to create millions of new jobs by retooling the auto industry for low-emission vehicles, building infrastructure for a green future, upgrading millions of buildings to be more energy efficient, constructing 1.5 million new sustainable housing units, and cleaning up pollution from oil and gas wells and coal mining sites. </p><p>"When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, he thinks 'hoax.' I think 'jobs'," Biden has <a href="https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1305666390670675969" target="_blank">said</a>. He aims to provide additional jobs out of the pandemic by boosting this green energy economy.</p><p>Climate change is also expected to continually increase major stresses on America's already aging infrastructure. To address this, both plans call for major investments to, as the Green New Deal puts it, "meet the challenges of the 21st century." Biden's plan calls for making "smart infrastructure investments to rebuild the nation and to ensure that our buildings, water, transportation, and energy infrastructure can withstand the impacts of climate change."</p><p>However, on housing, Biden's proposal to build 1.5 million new sustainable housing units is far short of the lofty ambitions of the Green New Deal, which calls for "providing all people of the United States with affordable, safe, and adequate housing." </p>Carbon Emissions and Fracking
<p>On emissions reductions, Biden's plan calls for a carbon pollution-free U.S. power sector by 2035, with net-zero emissions throughout the economy by 2050. The Green New Deal's timeline is more aggressive, calling for a 10-year national mobilization to generate "100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources."</p><p>Both the Green New Deal and Biden's plan call for overhauling the American transportation industry to reduce pollution and greenhouse gases by creating more public transit and pushing the country toward more hybrid and electric cars. Biden's plan puts forth proposals like giving Americans rebates to trade in gas-guzzling vehicles for more efficient American cars, incentivizing auto companies to offer more zero-emission vehicles, and investing in 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, among other ideas.</p><p>One area where Biden's position has differed more significantly from environmental activists — and many of his rivals in the Democratic presidential primaries — has been on fracking.</p><p>Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a drilling method for extracting natural gas from shale formations underground by injecting liquid at high pressure. Since 2005, the use of fracking in the U.S. has <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/011915/what-are-effects-fracking-environment.asp" target="_blank">grown exponentially</a>. Some energy experts <a href="https://www.energyindepth.org/report-the-united-states-will-be-the-worlds-top-lng-exporter-in-the-next-five-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">forecast</a> the U.S. will be the world's top exporter of natural gas within the next few years.</p><p>While the Green New Deal does not explicitly mention anything about fracking, its timeline to cut emissions from the power sector is so rapid that eliminating fracking is implied in the proposal. Banning fracking has certainly been a priority among climate activists.</p><p>However, fracking is a substantial source of jobs and revenue in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, where some 32,000 workers are employed in the fracking and natural gas industry. <span style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-unveils-2-trillion-climate-plan/" target="_blank">Biden told voters</a></span> there in July that fracking "is not on the chopping block," though his campaign says he supports no new fracking on federal land.</p><p>"It is not surprising that Biden said he doesn't support a Green New Deal. He has a climate plan that's in line with science — but he has never vocally supported a GND," says Emily Atkin, a popular climate journalist who writes and hosts <a href="https://heated.world/" target="_blank">HEATED</a>, a newsletter and podcast followed closely by many progressive climate crusaders. "This is completely in line with who he said he was. Also, he's trying to win Pennsylvania." (According to the latest <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-pennsylvania-campaign-swing-watch-live-stream-today-09-22-2020/" target="_blank">CBS News Battleground Tracker poll</a>, Biden currently leads President Trump in the state by 5 points.)</p><p>Though he's <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09042020/joe-biden-bernie-sanders-climate-change" target="_blank">faced some criticism</a> over fracking from the left, it has been <a href="https://westernwire.net/environmental-groups-silent-as-biden-touts-support-for-fracking/" target="_blank">far more muted</a> than one might expect, perhaps because green activists realize how much worse their chances will be if Mr. Trump is reelected. So far, according to a tally by Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, the Trump administration has taken steps to roll back <a href="https://climate.law.columbia.edu/climate-deregulation-tracker" target="_blank">162 climate related regulations</a>. </p>
<h3>Environmental Justice</h3><p>A hallmark of the Green New Deal is its emphasis on environmental justice, to help remedy inequities which leave minority, low-income and Indigenous communities disproportionately affected by pollution and the impacts of climate change. </p><p>Biden's plan directs 40% of its spending to historically disadvantaged communities, and calls for the establishment of an Environmental and Climate Justice Division at the Justice Department to prosecute anti-pollution cases.</p><h3>The Bottom Line</h3><p>The bottom line is that while many of the concepts in the Green New Deal are also addressed in Biden's climate plan, generally speaking the Biden plan is more narrowly focused and less expensive.</p><p>Professor Stokes says it seems to be a bargain most progressives can live with in this election. </p><p>"We have a choice right now between our current president, a climate denier, and our former vice president, someone committed to climate action at the scale of the crisis," she told CBS News. "Biden has the most aggressive climate change plan of any presidential candidate in U.S. history."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/" target="_blank">CBS News</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A protestor in NYC holds up a sign that reads, "November Is Coming" on June 14, 2020 in reference to voting in the 2020 presidential election. Ira L. Black / Corbis / Getty Images
By Mark Hertsgaard
What follows are not candidate endorsements. Rather, this nonpartisan guide aims to inform voters' choices, help journalists decide what races to follow, and explore what the 2020 elections could portend for climate action in the United States in 2021 and beyond.
Will the White House Turn Green?
<p>Whether the White House changes hands is the most important climate question of the 2020 elections. President Donald Trump rejects climate science, is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, and has accelerated fossil fuel development. His climate policy seems to be, as he tweeted in January when rejecting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposal to protect New York City from storm surges, "Get your mops and buckets ready."</p><p>Joe Biden, who started the 2020 campaign with a climate position so weak that activists gave it an "F," called Trump a "climate arsonist" during California's recent wildfires. Biden backs a $2 trillion plan to create millions of jobs while slashing emissions—a Green New Deal in all but name. Equally striking, his running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, has endorsed phasing out fossil fuel production—a politically explosive scientific imperative.</p><p>The race will be decided in a handful of battleground states, five of which already face grave climate dangers: Florida (hurricanes and sea-level rise), North Carolina (ditto), Texas (storms and drought), Michigan (floods), and Arizona (heat waves and drought). <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/" target="_blank">Public concern is rising</a> in these states, but will that concern translate into votes?</p>Will Democrats Flip the Senate, and by Enough to Pass a Green New Deal?
<p>With Democrats all but certain to maintain their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate will determine whether a potential Biden administration can actually deliver climate progress. Democrats need to pick up three seats to flip the Senate if Biden wins, four if he doesn't. But since aggressive climate policy is shunned by some Democrats, notably Joe Manchin of coal-dependent West Virginia, Democrats probably need to gain five or six Senate seats to pass a Green New Deal.</p><p>Environmentalists, including the League of Conservation Voters, are targeting six Republicans who polls suggest are vulnerable.</p><ul><li>Steve Daines of Montana, who denies climate science</li><li>Martha McSally of Arizona</li><li>Thom Tillis of North Carolina</li><li>Susan Collins of Maine</li><li>Joni Ernst of Iowa (bankrolled by Charles Koch)</li><li>John James of Michigan (also a Koch beneficiary)</li></ul><p>Republican Senators are even at risk in conservative Kansas and Alaska. In both states, the Democratic candidates are physicians—not a bad credential amid a pandemic—who support climate action. In Kansas, Barbara Bollier faces an incumbent funded by Charles Koch. In Alaska, Al Gross urges a transition away from oil, though his openness to limited drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve dims his appeal to green groups. He faces incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan, who receives an 8 percent lifetime voting record from the League of Conservation Voters.</p><p>In the House, environmentalists are working to elect these candidates, in one case over an establishment Democrat:</p><ul><li>Beth Doglio of Washington state</li><li>Georgette Gómez of California</li><li>Marie Newman of Illinois</li><li>Cameron Webb of Virginia</li><li>Mike Siegel and Wendy Davis of Texas</li></ul><p>We rightfully focus on federal climate policy, but climate action must also be made at the state and local level—and there are plenty of races and initiatives to pay attention to.</p>
Will Local and State Races Advance Climate Progress?
<h4>THE CLIMATE HAWKS</h4><p>Under Democratic and Republican leadership alike, Washington has long been a graveyard for strong climate action. But governors can boost or block renewable energy; the Vermont and New Hampshire races are worth watching. Attorneys general can sue fossil fuel companies for lying about climate change; climate hawks are running for the top law enforcement seats in Montana and North Carolina. State legislatures can accelerate or delay climate progress, as the new Democratic majorities in Virginia have shown. Here, races to watch include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Colorado.</p><h4>THE CLIMATE POLICY MAKERS</h4><p>Perhaps the most powerful, and most overlooked, climate policy makers are public utility commissions. They control whether pipelines and other energy infrastructure gets built; they regulate whether electric utilities expand solar and energy efficiency or stick with the carbon-heavy status quo. Regulatory capture and outright corruption are not uncommon.</p><p>A prime example is Arizona, where a former two-term commissioner known as the godfather of solar in the state is seeking a comeback. Bill Mundell argues that since Arizona law permits utilities to contribute to commissioners' electoral campaigns, the companies can buy their own regulators. Which may explain why super-sunny Arizona has so little installed solar capacity.</p><p>In South Dakota, Remi Bald Eagle, a Native American U.S. Army veteran, seeks a seat on the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, which rules on the Standing Rock oil pipeline. And in what <em>HuffPost</em> called "the most important environmental race in the country," Democrat Chrysta Castaneda, who favors phasing out oil production, is running for the Texas Railroad Commission, which despite its name decides what oil, gas, and electric companies in America's leading petro-state can build.</p>Will the Influencers Usher in a Green New Era?
<h4>THE UNCOUNTED</h4><p>The story that goes largely under-reported in every U.S. election is how few Americans vote. In 2016, some 90 million, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">roughly four out of every 10 eligible voters</a>, did not cast a ballot. Attorney Nathaniel Stinnett claims that 10 million of these nonvoters nevertheless identify as environmentalists: They support green policies, even donate to activist groups; they just don't vote. Stinnett's <a href="https://www.environmentalvoter.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Environmental Voter Project</a> works to awaken this sleeping giant.</p><h4>THE SUNRISE MOVEMENT</h4><p>Meanwhile, the young climate activists of the <a href="http://www.sunrisemovement.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sunrise Movement</a> are already winning elections with an unabashedly Green New Deal message. More than any other group, Sunrise pushed the Green New Deal into the national political conversation, helping Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey draft the eponymous congressional resolution. In 2020, Sunrise has helped Green New Deal champions defeat centrists in Democratic primaries, with Markey dealing Representative Joe Kennedy Jr. the first defeat a Kennedy has ever suffered in a Massachusetts election. But can Sunrise also be successful against Republicans in the general elections this fall?</p><h4>THE STARPOWER</h4><p>And an intriguing wild card: celebrity firepower, grassroots activism, and big-bucks marketing have converged behind a campaign to get Latina mothers to vote climate in 2020. Latinos have long been the U.S. demographic most concerned about climate change. Now, <a href="https://votelikeamadre.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vote Like A Madre</a> aims to get 5 million Latina mothers in Florida, Texas, and Arizona to the polls. Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayak, and Lin-Manuel Miranda are urging mothers to make a "pinky promise" to vote for their kids' climate future in November. Turning out even a quarter of those 5 million voters, though no easy task, could swing the results in three states Trump must win to remain president, which brings us back to the first category, "Will the White House Turn Green?"</p>From Your Site Articles
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Green New Deal Champion Ed Markey Defeats Joe Kennedy III in Win for Climate
02 September 2020
Politics
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) speaks at a primary election night event at Malden Public Library on September 1, 2020 in Malden, Massachusetts. Allison Dinner / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
Bolstered by an energized climate movement, small-dollar donors, and support from prominent progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Green New Deal champion Sen. Ed Markey on Tuesday fended off a Democratic primary challenge from Rep. Joe Kennedy III, whose name recognition and late endorsement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were ultimately insufficient to topple the popular Massachusetts incumbent.
<p>Declaring victory Tuesday night with a 10-point lead over Kennedy, Markey, 74, shouted out the young voters and activists who fueled his campaign with on-the-ground organizing and social media efforts, including the production of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/14/exact-right-message-ed-markeys-must-watch-2020-campaign-ad-praised-highlighting" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">viral ads</a> that built enthusiasm for the incumbent senator and laid the groundwork for his <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ed-markey-wins-2020-massachusetts-senate-primary_n_5f4eb790c5b69eb5c035a517" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">comeback win</a>.</p><p>"This campaign has always been about the young people of this country," Markey said in a speech to supporters in his hometown of Malden. "You are our future. And thank you for believing in me, because I believe in you."</p><p>Touting his support for the Green New Deal, the signature issue of the senator's reelection bid, Markey declared that "there will be no peace, no justice, and no prosperity unless we stop the march to climate destruction."</p><p>"This is a matter of life and death. The very future of our civilization depends upon it," Markey continued. "There is no time for simply 'doing what we can.' There is no time for compromise on the existential threat to our time. We must pass a Green New Deal... The time to be timid is past. The age of incrementalism is over. Now is our moment to think big, to build big, to be big. This is what this election is all about."</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e15ddd035eb4431312d8802edb3a01b7"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FJGCPs2LefY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>The Sunrise Movement—the first national organization to endorse the senator's reelection campaign—celebrated Markey's victory as a testament to the growing power of youth-led climate activism in Massachusetts and across the United States. The group said its volunteers made 250,000 calls on Markey's behalf, on top of directing and producing a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/14/exact-right-message-ed-markeys-must-watch-2020-campaign-ad-praised-highlighting" target="_blank">striking Green New Deal ad</a> that racked up four million views.</p><p>"From the outset, we worked with the campaign to put climate change at the center of this race," Evan Weber, political director for the Sunrise Movement, said in a statement. "As we gained momentum, the establishment clearly felt threatened and sent Nancy Pelosi to throw in a last-minute endorsement to boost funds for Kennedy's big money campaign."</p><p>"Despite this establishment opposition," added Weber, "we won a clear victory tonight—and with that, no one should underestimate the power of the climate movement to elect and defend our champions in Congress."</p>
<div id="0f55a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d0bd98efe5ee810a7bb55355313bd889"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1300979425991888896" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Before tonight, a Kennedy had never lost an election in Massachusetts. But even a 100 year dynasty can not overcome… https://t.co/eKdoYm55sx</div> — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@Sunrise Movement 🌅)<a href="https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/statuses/1300979425991888896">1599012640.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In a <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1300983895631048704" target="_blank">tweet</a> late Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez—who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/02/07/major-party-backing-ocasio-cortez-and-markey-unveil-green-new-deal-outlining-wwii" target="_blank">joined</a> Markey in co-authoring the Green New Deal resolution introduced in Congress last year—hailed the senator's win as a "victory for the progressive movement, for 21st century policy, and for the Green New Deal."</p><p>"Thank you to every single voter, supporter, organizer, grassroots donor, and everyday person who helped make this happen," said the New York Democrat, who <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/20/nancy-pelosi-endorsing-joe-kennedy-over-ed-markey-critics-charge-reveals-ridiculous" target="_blank">slammed</a> Pelosi's decision to back Kennedy against Markey as hypocritical, given her <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/democratic-leaders-stand-firm-on-incumbent-favor-rule-rebuff-liberal-cries-of-blacklist/2019/04/02/117a7714-54bd-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">approval</a> of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) policy of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/22/progressives-refuse-back-down-dccc-moves-kneecap-primary-challengers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">kneecapping</a> progressives who challenge incumbents.</p><p>"On a personal note, when I first got to Congress the reception I got in many spaces was very chilly," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a separate <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1300986944680329217" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tweet</a>. "Ed Markey wasn't afraid. He offered his expertise and partnership. He wasn't scared of big policy and didn't use kid gloves. It's great to watch him overcome the odds and win tonight."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/02/age-incrementalism-over-declares-green-new-deal-champion-ed-markey-after-defeating?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden at the Democratic National Convention at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware on Aug. 19, 2020. OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP via Getty Images
The Democratic party made the curious move of removing a ban on fossil fuel subsidies from its platform earlier this week as its convention kicked off. The move, which also backtracked from a clean energy commitment, raised the ire of environmental activists. However, presidential nominee Joe Biden, who will steer the party's agenda if elected, has recommitted to a ban on fossil fuel subsidies, as The Verge reported.
<p>What happened was this: earlier this week <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-national-committee-climate_n_5f3c2907c5b6d8a9173f0268" target="_blank">HUFFPOST</a> revealed that the amendment to the party's platform that was approved, "Democrats support eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuels, and will fight to defend and extend tax incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy," was not included the <a href="https://www.demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-07-31-Democratic-Party-Platform-For-Distribution.pdf" target="_blank">platform document</a> that Democrats released on Monday.</p><p>That stoked the ire of activists who had been buoyed by the aggressive climate plan that Biden agreed to. Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA, called the removal of the amendment, "immoral, criminal, inexcusable," as <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/19/immoral-criminal-inexcusable-climate-groups-furious-dnc-drops-support-ending-fossil" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a> reported.</p><p>"We are nearing global tipping points on climate, fires and extreme weather are killing people and devastating the economy, and the DNC can't even accept an end to public subsidies for making it worse?" Leonard <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnieMLeonard/status/1295898217662386177" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are nearing global tipping points on climate,<br>fires & extreme weather are killing people and devastating the economy and <a href="https://twitter.com/DNC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DNC</a> can’t even accept an end to public subsidies for making it worse? This is immoral, criminal, inexcusable. <a href="https://t.co/7UXxS6JneG">https://t.co/7UXxS6JneG</a></p>— Annie Leonard (@AnnieMLeonard) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnieMLeonard/status/1295898217662386177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>"This platform is a step backwards, and we deserve better," Charlie Jiang, a campaigner at Greenpeace, said in a statement, as HUFFPOST reported.</p><p>And yet, the <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">public document</a> of Biden-Harris campaign's climate agenda says it will end subsidies for fossil fuels. The Verge reached out to the campaign to get some clarity on the discrepancy between the campaign and the party's platform.</p><p>"Vice President Biden's commitment to ending fossil fuel subsidies remains as steadfast as it was when he outlined this position in the bold climate plan he laid out last year," Stef Feldman, policy director for the Biden campaign said in a statement to The Verge. "He will demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies and lead the world by example, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies in the United States during the first year of his presidency."</p>
<p>The amount of money that the fossil fuel industry receives from the U.S. government is staggering, though the estimates vary widely, as Vox reported. The <a href="https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costs" target="_blank">Environmental and Energy Study Institute</a> estimates the number is around $20 billion a year, but the <a href="https://www.imf.org/~/media/Files/Publications/WP/2019/WPIEA2019089.ashx" target="_blank">International Monetary Fund</a> puts the number around $649 billion.</p><p>The decision to remove the language about subsidies from the party platform is still confounding as the party tries to bring more activists into its fold. Greta Thunberg tweeted her dismay at the decision, simply saying, "So, not even the very minimum…"</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">”The Democratic National Committee this week quietly dropped language calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks from its party platform”<br><br>So, not even the very very minimum...<a href="https://t.co/2h7A1bDmj9">https://t.co/2h7A1bDmj9</a></p>— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1296083687130320896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Despite frustrating activists, the party's platform does call for an aggressive transition to renewable energy and to eliminating carbon emissions from power plants in 15 years. It also seeks net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all new buildings in 10 years with the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/us/politics/democratic-party-platform.html?searchResultPosition=2" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>However, it makes no mention of the Green New Deal, which is a strong rallying cry for the party's progressive wing.</p>
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The Environmental Legacy of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s Newly-Announced Running Mate
12 August 2020
Politics
California Senator Kamala Harris endorses Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at a campaign rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit, Michigan on March 9, 2020. JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP via Getty Images
Former Vice President Joe Biden made a historic announcement Tuesday when he named California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate in the 2020 presidential election.
<p>Harris is now the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to run for national office for a major political party in the U.S., the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) pointed out. She also has a strong legacy of championing environmental justice throughout her career.</p><p>"Congratulations to Senator Kamala Harris, a true environmental champion!" LCV Action Fund Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld said in a <a href="https://www.lcv.org/article/lcv-action-fund-statement-joes-bidens-vp-pick-senator-kamala-harris/" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<div id="dd1a3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="68af3c0112c4b985dfd2678d05cb02d9"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1293294015278985217" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">@JoeBiden @KamalaHarris Her stellar 91% lifetime score on LCV's Environmental Scorecard speaks for itself:… https://t.co/ZClO9w8soC</div> — LCV – League of Conservation Voters (@LCV – League of Conservation Voters)<a href="https://twitter.com/LCVoters/statuses/1293294015278985217">1597180296.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Harris has a lifetime LCV environmental voting score of 91 percent, better than Biden's 83 percent, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11082020/kamala-harris-joe-biden-election-2020-climate-change" target="_blank">InsideClimate News noted</a>. Her selection won praise from several mainstream environmental groups, including the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/08/sierra-club-statement-biden-harris-2020" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>, <a href="https://foeaction.org/news/friends-of-the-earth-action-applauds-the-historic-selection-of-kamala-harris-as-the-democratic-nominee-for-vice-president/" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth Action</a> and <a href="https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/kamala-harris-for-vice-president/?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=AFciven" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund</a>.</p><p>Harris is a co-sponsor of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/green-new-deal" target="_self">Green New Deal</a> resolution, according to <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/what-the-kamala-harris-vp-pick-means-for-bidens-energy-and-climate-platform" target="_blank">Greentech Media</a>, and promised to end the filibuster during her own presidential campaign so that the major climate legislation would have a chance at passing. Her unique contribution to the green movement, however, is her lifetime focus on environmental justice in particular. This is a key issue for the Biden campaign as a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/2020-election-climate-change-abortion-2638025748.html" target="_self">growing awareness</a> of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> corresponds with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-activist-racial-justice-2646152490.html" target="_self">nationwide protests over racial injustice</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/black--hispanic-americans-coronavirus-2645677258.html" target="_self">health disparities</a> made starker by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic.</p>
<h3>Environmental Justice</h3><p>When Harris served as San Francisco district attorney, she created the office's first environmental justice unit in 2005, InsideClimate News reported.</p><p>"Crimes against the environment are crimes against communities, people who are often poor and disenfranchised," Harris said at the time, as <a href="https://grist.org/politics/kamala-harris-is-bidens-vp-pick-what-does-that-mean-for-the-climate/" target="_blank">Grist reported</a>.</p><p>She has continued championing the issue as a Senator. This summer, she introduced the Environmental Justice for All Act with Senators Tammy Duckworth and Cory Booker to ensure the federal government considers low income communities and communities of color when issuing permits, Greentech Media reported.</p><p>She also teamed up with New York Representative and Green New Deal champion <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/alexandria-ocasio-cortez" target="_self">Alexandria Ocasio Cortez</a> to introduce the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/harris-aoc-climate-legislation-2639501313.html" target="_self">Climate Equity Act</a>, which would create a new Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability within the Office of Management and Budget to make sure that all environmental legislation and regulations are assessed based on their impact on frontline communities.</p><p>The duo first proposed the act last summer and formally introduced it last week.</p>
<div id="c4f11" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="67da6c1aa88b185f74fa063adbac316a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1292181834571354115" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This week, @RepAOC and I introduced the Climate Equity Act, legislation to ensure that we center the fight against… https://t.co/bpQi8aELxk</div> — Kamala Harris (@Kamala Harris)<a href="https://twitter.com/SenKamalaHarris/statuses/1292181834571354115">1596915131.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"COVID-19 has laid bare the realities of systemic racial, health, economic, and environmental injustices that persist in our country," Harris said in a statement about the new legislation reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510920-harris-aoc-push-climate-equity-bill-with-green-new-deal-roots" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "The environment we live in cannot be disentangled from the rest of our lives, and it is more important than ever that we work toward a more just and equitable future."</p>
<h3>Climate Liability</h3><p>During her presidential campaign and her time as California attorney general, Harris also emphasized holding <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> companies accountable for their pollution, InsideClimate News pointed out.</p><p>As attorney general, she opposed a Chevron refinery expansion in Richmond, a majority Black and Hispanic community. She also sued Southern California Gas Co. over a methane blowout near Los Angeles.</p><p>Finally, she joined AGs United for Clean Power, a group of 17 attorneys general who said they would hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change. However, Harris never actually sued ExxonMobil, despite mistakenly claiming she had during a debate last year. She did repeatedly emphasize the need to hold fossil fuel companies responsible on the campaign trail and promised to have the Department of Justice launch an investigation.</p><p>"They are causing harm and death in communities. And there has been no accountability," she said at a CNN Town Hall on climate change.</p>
<h3>Weaknesses</h3><p>But Harris' prosecutorial record has another side. She has faced criticism from Black and progressive voters for her role as top prosecutor in a state that incarcerates African Americans at a rate five times higher than their share of the population. This has dampened her image somewhat with younger climate activists.</p><p>"I think Kamala Harris is a big win for women of color and environmental justice, however she definitely has some work to do in order to show our generation that she's become more progressive since her prosecutor days," 15-year-old climate activist and <a href="https://earthuprising.org/" target="_blank">Earth Uprising</a> founder Alexandria Villaseñor told InsideClimate News.</p><p>On the environmental front, Harris' weaknesses include the fact that she was one of the last Democratic candidates to unveil a climate plan, and, when she did, it did not include a ban on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/fracking/" target="_self">fracking</a>, Grist pointed out. She has also accepted donations from fossil fuel companies in the past, though she pledged not to do so this election.</p><p>Weighing Harris' legacy, <a href="https://www.sunrisemovement.org/" target="_blank">Sunrise Movement</a> co-founder Varshini Prakash said the Senator was willing to grow in response to criticism.</p><p>"Throughout the course of her campaign for President, Senator Kamala Harris showed her responsiveness to activist and movement pressure to make climate a top priority, and demonstrated her willingness to be held accountable," Prakash said in a statement reported by Greentech Media. "I'm also deeply aware of Senator Harris' record as a prosecutor and the ways in which a number of her decisions harmed communities of color, which our movement has spoken about in the past and will continue to."</p>
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New Analysis Shows How Electrifying the U.S. Economy Could Create 25 Million Green Jobs by 2035
30 July 2020
Business
A new report from Mobilizing for a Zero Carbon America demonstrates how 25 million green jobs could be created over the next 15 years. U.S. Department of Energy / Flickr
By Jessica Corbett
A report released Wednesday by a new nonprofit—in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the resulting economic disaster, and calls for a green recovery from those intertwined crises that prioritizes aggressive climate policies—lays out how rapidly decarbonizing and electrifying the U.S. economy could create up to 25 million good-paying jobs throughout the country over the next 15 years.
<p><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e540e7fb9d1816038da0314/t/5f209173294b6f5ee41ea278/1595969952405/Jobs_White_Paper_Compressed_Release.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Mobilizing for a Zero Carbon America</em> </a>envisions a dramatic transformation of the nation's power, transportation, building, and industrial sectors by 2035 to meet the global heating goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The first project of the newly launched <a href="https://www.rewiringamerica.org/" target="_blank">Rewiring America</a> is "based on an extensive industrial and engineering analysis of what such a decarbonization would entail."</p><p>The report details a two-stage "maximum feasible transition" (MFT) that would involve a World War II-style production ramp-up for three to five years, followed by "an intensive deployment of decarbonized infrastructure and technology up to 2035," which would include both supply-side generation technologies and demand-side technologies like electric vehicles.</p><p>In addition to creating millions of green jobs in the wake of a public health crisis that has left tens of millions of Americans <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/29/yale-study-600-unemployment-lifeline-championed-democrats-destroys-favorite-gop" target="_blank">unemployed</a> and helping the country contribute to the goals of the Paris accord—which President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/04/delivering-catastrophic-message-moment-great-urgency-trump-formally-begins-ditching" target="_blank">started</a> withdrawing from last November—the report says that the MFT approach would save households nationwide up to thousands of dollars in annual energy costs.</p><p>"While government investment will be critical to the transition, private capital also has a large role to play," a summary <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e540e7fb9d1816038da0314/t/5f205587b6d39a471674c41d/1595954567576/RewiringAmerica_Jobs+Report+Summary_Rag.pdf" target="_blank">document</a> from the group says. "The study estimates the government's share of overall costs to be about $300 billion per year for 10 years for an approximate total of $3 trillion, mostly in the form of loans and/or loan guarantees to spur lending, akin to similar loan systems that the government has created in the past."</p>
<div id="f81ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2fad6ba1ecf38ccb6549191cdb16426"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1288520002916823041" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A MacArthur Genius, business leader, and MIT physicist have a plan: get 25 million Americans back to work in good-p… https://t.co/tCvc2rmvd3</div> — Otherlab (@Otherlab)<a href="https://twitter.com/otherlab/statuses/1288520002916823041">1596042082.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"We can power our homes by the sun, charge our cars from clean energy while we sleep, and rethink city streets as we know them. In the process, we can create 25 million jobs in America. The only thing standing in the way is a leadership vacuum," lead author Saul Griffith, an engineer and inventor who was awarded the MacArthur "Genius Grant" in 2007, said in a statement.</p><p>Griffith, founder and chief scientist of the independent research and development lab Otherlab, joined with Alex Laskey, president and founder of the software company Opower, to launch Rewiring America, which focuses on decarbonization in the U.S. The report, co-authored by Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Sam Calisch, is part of a forthcoming book by Griffith.</p><p>"I think the best way to describe what needs to happen politically is we need a president and some level of bipartisanship that will enable FDR levels of urgency in action," Griffith <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90533448/how-to-create-25-million-jobs-by-decarbonizing-the-economy?partner=rss&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss" target="_blank">told</a><em> Fast Company</em>. "And you could use either FDR's response to the Great Depression or to World War II as your measure of that, but I think it's actually more analogous to the World War II effort in terms of the speed of industrialization to win that war."</p>
<p>A<em>s Fast Company</em> reported:</p><blockquote>The report attempts to make the idea of a Green New Deal more concrete. "I think all of the various Green New Deals and aspirational climate plans are narratively in the right direction, but we need to give them some ground truths and build some reality to them about what needs to happen from the ground up," he says. "Those aspirations are great, but this is actually what you now need to do to get there. I think this is one of the first analyses that really builds out that model from the ground up of what has to happen in order to keep this on target for two degrees."<br></blockquote><blockquote>The changes would also mean lower energy costs for consumers, and the report calculates that the average American household would save between $1,000 and $2,000 a year. Everyday life wouldn't necessarily change significantly. "We now have technologies that are transformative, meaning you can now roughly have the same size and shape car, but electric," Griffith says. "You can have the same size and shape house, but it will be run with electric heat pumps instead of the natural gas furnace. And if we have the sort of that spirit of can-do that America had mid-20th century, there's every reason to believe that our lives improve when we do this, and we can have and live something like the American dream. It'll just be electrified, not fossil-fueled."<br></blockquote><p>Leaders of the Sunrise Movement—a youth climate organization that advocates for the Green New Deal—endorsed the findings of Rewiring America's report, as did Sen. Brian Shatz (D-Hawaii), former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner, Niskanen Center director of climate policy Joseph Majku, and Mike Fishman, past secretary-treasurer of Service Employees International Union and current president of Clean Jobs New York.</p>
<p>"The Rewiring America team asked the question: 'What would happen if we actually tried to transition all of the infrastructure in American society over the next 15 years to stay within the 1.5ºC safe upper limit of global warming?'" said Evan Weber, co-founder and political director of the Sunrise Movement. "The answer they found is that would save consumers and society money, and it would create lots and lots and lots of jobs—around 25 million of them."</p><p>The report comes a couple weeks after presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">unveiled</a> a $2 trillion green energy plan that progressive climate advocates, including Sunrise, welcomed as a "a major step forward." Biden's job-creating plan calls for a power sector free of carbon pollution by 2035.</p><p>Sunrise executive director Varshini Prakash <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/07/09/lets-keep-organizing-inside-look-biden-sanders-task-force-climate" target="_blank">served on</a> a unity task force launched by Biden and his former primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who won Sunrise's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/09/grasping-scope-climate-crisis-and-fully-embracing-green-new-deal-youth-led-sunrise" target="_blank">endorsement</a>. She welcomed Biden's recent proposal while also promising that her group will work to ensure he actually delivers on it if he wins.</p>
<p>Prakash also welcomed the analysis Wednesday, noting that "for so long we've been sold the lie that we have to choose between good jobs and a safe environment, that our generation has to choose between a livable planet and a thriving, equitable economy."</p><p>"The Rewiring America Plan puts that lie to rest once and for all," she said. "This report is a critical contribution that shows that urgently achieving an all-society clean energy future by 2035 is not only necessary and achievable, but will make the world that young people inherit more prosperous."</p><p>"We can achieve a just transition to a better world out of the wreckage of this economic crisis, with good union jobs for all, including low-income communities and communities of color," she added. "The only thing standing in the way is political will."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/29/new-analysis-details-how-electrifying-us-economy-2035-could-create-25-million-green?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank"> Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a "Build Back Better" Clean Energy event on July 14, 2020 at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Joe Biden / Facebook
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden announced a $2 trillion plan Tuesday to boost American investment in clean energy and infrastructure.
<p>His plan would spend the money over the next four years to boost the transportation, electricity and building sectors' clean energy profiles. It is also part of a plan to create new economic opportunities, improve the nation's aging infrastructure, and to combat the climate crisis, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/biden-climate-plan.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Biden's sweeping proposals would put an end to all greenhouse gas emissions spewed by U.S. power plants by 2035, arguing that large-scale dramatic moves are necessary to tackle the impending threat of the climate crisis and to revive the economy after the coronavirus pandemic, as <a href="https://apnews.com/7cdf40d9bd40c75861fc0053212d034a" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported. It would also ban fracking on public lands.</p>
<p>Speaking near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden also sought to reframe the discussion around the climate crisis, moving it away from a moral imperative and toward an economic one, dismissing <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a>'s and the Republicans' arguments that investments in green energy would cost jobs. Biden looked to play up how many jobs clean energy creates.</p><p>"When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax,'" Biden told reporters, <a href="https://apnews.com/7cdf40d9bd40c75861fc0053212d034a" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported. "When I think about climate change, what I think of is jobs."</p><p>Biden's <a href="https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/" target="_blank">climate initiative</a> calls to chart the U.S. on "an irreversible path" to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition to achieving a carbon-free power grid by 2035, Biden's plan calls for upgrades to 4 million buildings and to weatherize 2 million homes over four years to increase energy efficiency, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890814007/biden-outlines-2-trillion-climate-plan" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported. Homeowners would be given cash rebates to upgrade home appliances and install more efficient windows. Car owners would receive rebates to swap their old, less efficient cars for newer ones that release fewer pollutants, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-set-to-offer-newly-ambitious-climate-goals/2020/07/14/39ced8b8-c578-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The proposal, Biden's campaign said, would aim to shift major cities towards increased use of public transportation and "create millions of good, union jobs rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure," according to NPR.</p><p>"We're not just going to tinker around the edges," Biden said his speech. "We're going to make historic investments and seize the opportunity and meet this moment in history."</p><p>Environmentalists and liberals quickly praised the climate initiative as a step forward in the climate effort. Predictably, Republicans quickly denounced it as an unwieldy plan that would raise energy costs, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>The new goals align Biden more closely with three primary opponents: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Washington Governor Jay Inslee. They follow the recommendations of a unity task force of Sanders and Biden supporters that was co-chaired by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who co-sponsored the Green New Deal, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/14/joe-biden-climate-jobs-plan" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>"This is not a status quo plan," said Inslee, as The New York Times reported. "It is comprehensive. This is not some sort of, 'Let me just throw a bone to those who care about climate change.'"</p><p>Inslee called the proposal "visionary."</p><p>Gina McCarthy, the former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator who is now president of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, told The Guardian that the plan was "by a long shot – the most ambitious we have ever seen from any president in our nation's history."</p>
<p>In the proposal, Biden also linked environmental advocacy with racial justice, noting that pollution and other toxins disproportionately affect communities of color. His plan calls for establishing an office of environmental and climate justice within the Justice Department and developing a broad set of tools to address how "environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color," according to The New York Times.</p><p>Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said, as The Guardian reported, that Biden's plan responds to many of the group's previous criticisms by "dramatically increasing the scale and urgency of investments, filling in details on how he'd achieve environmental justice and create good union jobs, and promising immediate action — on day 1, in his first 100 days, in his first term, in the next decade — not just some far off goals."</p>
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U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveils the Green New Deal resolution in front of the U.S. Capitol on February 7, 2019 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty Images
For all its posturing on climate change, the Democratic Party has long been weak on the actual policies we need to save us from extinction. President Barack Obama promised his presidency would mark "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow," and then embraced natural gas, a major driver of global temperature rise, as a "bridge fuel." Climate legislation passed in the House in 2009 would have allowed industries to buy credits to pollute, a practice known to concentrate toxic air in black and brown neighborhoods while doing little to cut emissions.
<p>Even this year, with interest in the issue at an all-time high, the candidates the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_Senatorial_Campaign_Committee" title="Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee" target="_blank">Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee</a> endorsed — like Amy McGrath, who eked out a victory in Kentucky's Senate primary, and former-Governor John Hickenlooper, who handily won Colorado's — have evinced skepticism about the Green New Deal, a resolution pending in Congress to put trillions of dollars into a transition to renewable energy plus job-training for a new clean economy.</p><p>On June 4, however, when the Democratic National Committee's Environment and Climate Crisis Council released a rigorous set of proposals for the party's 2020 platform, it offered climate voters some hope. The 14-page document's solutions for the warming planet included investment in communities that suffer every day with the consequences of industrial waste, shoring up public health services and making sure everyone has enough to eat. It also advises changing the structure of the society that allows police to kill unarmed black people with relative impunity.</p><p>"There's just no way to address the climate crisis without taking on systemic racism," says Michelle Deatrick, chair of the council. "They're intertwined and integrally related."</p><p>But proposals are not a platform; they don't represent any official statement of purpose from the DNC on climate or anything else. The climate council, founded in August 2019 after party members failed to persuade Chairman Tom Perez to hold a climate debate, is but one of three groups involved in crafting the party's final climate policies. Another, the eight-member Biden-Sanders Climate Task Force, will offer recommendations from the likes of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and environmental justice leader Catherine Coleman Flowers. Then it's yet another committee that will draw up the actual climate platform with former Vice President Joe Biden, the party's presumptive nominee.</p>
<p>On its face, that process looks reasonable: A task force and a council inclined to progressive ideals will push the ultimate deciders to take bigger steps toward a zero-carbon future. The problem, Deatrick says, is that once the platform has been agreed upon by that final, 15-member committee, it rarely changes when it goes before the full committee for approval.</p><p>"It's mostly a formal vote," she says. The state and local officials in the DNC, despite the crucial knowledge they bring from their jurisdictions, "historically have had no impact on the final product." But this year, with its great convergence of catastrophes that have defined the spring and summer of 2020, <em>has</em> to be different. "We need to have an inclusive and transparent process around the creation of the platform," Deatrick says. "This is a great opportunity for Democrats to show that we are the party of listening and deep considerations of ideas."</p><p>Among those ideas is that none of the problems we're facing can be disentangled from the others. "The nature of environmental problems is bound up in the history of race in America," says Adrien Salazar, senior campaign strategist for climate equity with the social-justice think tank Dēmos. "The only way that [polluting] industries have been viable at all is because there are communities where they can pollute, places that have ended up being the sacrifice zones for the rest of America."</p><p>Racial inequality, he says, "undergirds the very fabric of American society."</p>
<p>"You can't have climate change without sacrifice zones,"<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/racism-killing-planet" title=" wrote" target="_blank"> wrote</a> Hop Hopkins, director of strategic partnerships for the Sierra Club, in a recent essay. "And you can't have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can't have disposable people without racism."</p><p>Robert Bullard, the author and researcher often called "the father of the environmental justice movement," has found that toxic hot spots across the U.S., from Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" to the refinery rows of Texas, <a href="https://drrobertbullard.com/african-americans-on-the-frontline-fighting-for-environmental-justice/" title="align closely" target="_blank">align closely</a> with Jim Crow housing segregation and other discriminatory zoning practices. "America is segregated," he says, "and so is pollution."</p><p>The injustice bleeds into public health and disease transmission: The COVID-19 virus<a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.11.20061713v1" title=" travels" target="_blank"> travels</a>, scientists hypothesize, on the sooty particles that blight communities on the front lines of industrial pollution. Those same places emit the greenhouse gases warming the atmosphere. In other words, it's not just pre-existing conditions causing the disease to hit harder in black communities. It's literally the air people breathe.</p><p>There are people tasked with air-quality regulation who argue that the common air contaminants that make people sick – the ground-level ozone that irritates lung tissue, the particulate matter that triggers cancer – belong to a different category than the greenhouse gases that trap the earth's heat. Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, remembers hearing as much during the 24 years he spent at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "I've had these conversations with some of the best scientists in the world," he says. "And what I know is that it is impossible, <em>impossible, </em>to hit the numbers that we need to hit to win on climate change if you're not focused on environmental justice."</p>
<p>Fossil-fuel infrastructure, for instance, blights "lower-wealth communities," Santiago Ali says. "So if you focus on that, you're going to begin to minimize the impacts of oil and gas." Pipelines cut through indigenous land in the Midwest and end up on Louisiana's Gulf Coast. "If you stop those pipelines, you stop the climate-killing export of oil."</p><p>Cars and trucks drive global warming, too, and their proliferation is made possible by "policies of running highways through certain communities, moving wealth into certain communities and dropping off pollution in lower-wealth communities along the way." Writer Peter Simek has <a href="https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2016/03/the-racist-legacy-of-americas-innercity-highways/" title="noted" target="_blank">noted</a> that you can find the locations of Dallas' Freedmen's Towns — communities established by emancipated slaves during and after the Civil War — by following the highways engineers built on top of them. "Some of the most powerful planners in America were forthright about their intention to use their power as transportation engineers to rewire a society built on racial and economic segregation," he wrote.</p><p>If you stop dehumanizing people in order to pollute, you stop degrading the environment, Santiago Ali says. If you don't, we literally won't survive. "There's no way of pulling climate out and saying, 'We're going to win on this but not focus on any of these other issues," he says. "That's just bad arithmetic."</p>
<p>Whether the platform committee does better math depends on how well it responds to outside pressure: The group is diverse, but not necessarily progressive. (Journalist Emily Atkin in her newsletter<a href="https://heated.world/p/dnc-snubs-progressive-climate-activists" title=" Heated" target="_blank"> Heated</a> has broken the group down in a useful<a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PloB-PNkeg8j2s0UFFnFFPfcoxTMalI8S6pm8PhrVJ0/edit?usp=sharing" title=" spreadsheet" target="_blank"> spreadsheet</a>.) Fear surrounds this election — fear that pushing too hard on climate and racial injustice both will alienate white voters of the Rust Belt; fear that people will equate an expensive clean energy transition with the loss of jobs in oil and gas. Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mineworkers Union, told<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-climate-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-democratic-party-irked-by-councils-insurgent-climate-plan-sources-idUSKBN23M1DO" title=" Reuters" target="_blank"> Reuters</a> that the circulation of the climate council's policy recommendations "has already cost Democrats potential votes in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan."<span></span></p><p>Deatrick, who in addition to her environmental work is a longtime union supporter from Michigan, isn't worried. "We have to walk the talk," she says. "We have to make sure that we commit to policies that support those workers, replace pensions, provide health care." What she's learned on three months of listening tours around the country is that people are less afraid of economic transitions than they are of the chaos a changing climate will bring.</p><p>"We have a real opportunity to reinvigorate the part of the electorate – which is the vast majority of Democrats and Independents as well – who rate the climate crisis among their top priorities," Deatrick says, along with health care and racial inequality. She wants to make sure that when the draft of the climate platform is drawn up, those people are heard. The DNC "has not laid out what that listening process will be," she says. "And we don't have much time left."</p>
<p class=""><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://capitalandmain.com/" target="_blank">Capital & Main</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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