(13th in a series on Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan)
“There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization.” (Kurt Vonnegut)
Last time, last week when Gadfly posted on this topic, he said:
If journalists keep the heat on . . .
If the new Congress . . .
If the new presidential candidates . . .
Well, the beat certainly goes on. Check out the following from this week’s note file.
Those of you more attuned to the nuts and bolts of these happenings than Gadfly is are invited to comment.
Because Pennsylvania has an unequal burden, it makes great sense for Casey to strongly advocate for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, introduced Dec. 19 in the Senate. The House version was introduced several weeks ago, and both have bipartisan support and are expected to be reintroduced in 2019. . . . Start the New Year right, Sen. Casey, and sponsor the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. Bipartisan support can make our planet great again.
Pelosi gets standing ovation over climate change.
Announcing a new Congressional committee: “We must also face the existential crisis of our time . . . natural disasters of epic proportion.”
A marginal candidate for president, for sure, but will help raise the issue to national consciousness.
It’s official: When Democrats take control of the House of Representatives next month, they will form a special new committee to examine climate change. . . .[Pelosi] announced that the new committee will be named the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. It will be led by Kathy Castor, a seven-term representative from Tampa Bay.
On Monday, speaking at a town hall led by Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez framed her chosen climate policy—the Green New Deal—through the lens of gallant American exceptionalism. “This is going to be the New Deal, the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil-rights movement of our generation,” she said. The Green New Deal aspires to cut U.S. carbon emissions fast enough to reach the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious climate goal: preventing the world from warming no more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.
It’s Sunday, January 6, do you know where your local Climate Action Plan is?
If there’s one thing old guard political ‘leaders’ are good at, it’s making it sound like they’re doing something even if they’re not. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with support from several other newly-elected young women and climate leaders outside of Congress, proposed a strong, robust, meaningful Green New Deal. So Pelosi & company created a weak committee and apparently even are willing to include members who take money from fossil-fuel companies. This sounds like more like same-old political noise that’s about appearance—not at all like the all-out national commitment that we need (and AOC proposed).