Tag: California

G&R: The Myth of California’s Climate Exceptionalism

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cross-posted from the Green and Red Podcast

California prides itself on being more progressive than most on solving the issue of the climate crisis. Whether it’s phasing out the internal combustion engine or promises to take on the state’s many oil extraction sites. There is a notion of “climate exceptionalism” in California’s liberal ruling elite.    But the California state government is captured by oil interests like many others. The pro-industry legislation and political action just comes in different forms.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/3KOH6YN

Flying solo, Scott talks with Gary Graham Hughes (@vozsilvestre) from Biofuelwatch (@biofuelwatch) to discuss the idea of California’s “climate exceptionalism.” They discuss the false solutions to the climate crisis being promoted by industry.  Gary gives us a background on false solutions like carbon capture and storage, “net zero” and market schemes like cap and trade. They also talk about the revolving door of public sector employees, lobbyists for industry and the Big Green non-profit industrial complex. And how corporate media lifts up the ruling classes’ ambitions for climate capitalism and false solutions.

Bio//  Gary Graham Hughes (@VozSilvestre) is the California Policy Monitor at Biofuelwatch and the co-Host/co-Producer of Terra Verde on KPFA in Berkeley, CA.  He also has Masters in Environmental Science from the University of Montana and splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Humboldt County.

Bay Area: PG&E, We Need #PowertoLive! On December 16th!

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cross-posted from Diablo Rising Tide

We shouldn’t have to choose between deadly blackouts or deadly fires. We shouldn’t be at the mercy of PG&E’s negligence while vulnerable communities who need #PowerToLive and the public continue to pay the price.

Join us on December 16th at noon at the PG&E corporate headquarters on 77 Beale St in San Francisco to #ReclaimOurPower and let’s start a wave of action that continues through the winter. There will be speakers, programming, and more! Accessible and kid-friendly.

PG&E, we demand you:

1. GIVE BACK ALL SHAREHOLDER PROFITS UNTIL PG&E CAN SAFELY PROVIDE POWER. STOP PROFITING OFF PEOPLE’S LIVES.

PG&E has paid out billions in shareholder dividends to predatory investors, while people are dying due to PG&E’s negligence. PG&E has failed to upgrade infrastructure for the stresses we face amidst climate change. Their equipment failures start fires that burn down cities, displace whole communities, and poison the air we breathe across entire regions. PG&E dodges accountability by continuing to seek executive bonuses amidst bankruptcy, shutting down power instead of repairing their equipment, and spending thousands on an exclusive retreat the day before the largest shutoffs.

2. INVEST IN VULNERABLE PEOPLE’S BASIC POWER NEEDS. STOP PUTTING PEOPLE AT RISK.

Disabled people have died in the shut offs — even one loss is too many. Ten more years of blackouts are unacceptable because blackouts kill disabled people and harm Black and Brown, working class and poor communities. #NoBodyIsDisposable! PG&E must invest in: solar-powered batteries to power the equipment of every medical baseline customer during power outages; HEPA air filters for chronically ill people, elders, and children in areas impacted by fire smoke; groceries for people who live paycheck to paycheck; alternative lodging for people whose homes depend on power to survive; compensation for small businesses who experienced losses during the shutoffs; and, payouts to victims of PG&E-caused fires.

3. TURN PG&E OVER TO THE PEOPLE.

PG&E has a well documented history of criminal negligence of its infrastructure, which has caused fires, death, and destruction. Now, PG&E has claimed that it will take ten years to fix California’s grid — that means 10 more years of rolling black outs with the public footing the bill. This is unacceptable and will consistently put so many lives at risk. We won’t let PG&E continue with their negligence. A public takeover of the grid will allow for the needs of the public, rather than shareholders, to be the priority. By switching to a publicly owned grid, California can create a more democratized, decentralized, and sustainable power grid for all.

RSVP To Join the Action Here

San Francisco: Climate Shenanigans Target California Democratic Convention

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photo courtesy of Diablo Rising Tide.

via Diablo Rising Tide

This weekend, as California’s Democrats, the next generation’s “real climate leader” Gov. Gavin Newsom and a dozen or so presidential candidates gathered in San Francisco, guerrilla climate advertisers with Diablo Rising Tide pasted, projected and otherwise displayed messages to the liberal masses about fossil fuels and climate change.

One of California’s biggest secrets is that the oil lobby has captured the  state government and dominates the public and political discourse around fossil fuels and climate change.

California writer Dan Bacher recently outlined a must-read of the power, influence and methods that the oil lobby uses around the state:

photo courtesy of Diablo Rising Tide.

“The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is not a household name in California, but it should be. It’s the trade association for the oil industry and the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying organization in the state. If  you want to know the industries, organizations and people that control California, WSPA and Big Oil are right at the top of the list.

WSPA represents a who’s who of oil and pipeline companies, including AERA, BP, California Resources Corporation, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, Plains All American Pipeline Company, Valero and many others. The companies that WSPA represents account for the bulk of petroleum exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, according to the WSPA website, www.wspa.org.

WSPA and Big Oil wield their power and influence over public discourse in 6 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: (5) working in collaboration with media; and (6) contributing to non profit organizations.”

photo courtesy of Diablo Rising Tide.

In San Francisco this weekend, WSPA remained behind the scenes, but disruptions, bird-dogs and protest were peppered through the weekend targeting Newsom and presidential candidates.

  • At one point 11 year Charlie asked Newsom why California wasn’t adopting a Green New Deal. Newsom, doing his best impression of Dianne Feinstein, told Charlie that “California is doing enough on climate.” Clearly, in a state where hundreds of oil drilling permits were issued in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, a million acres of federal land are being opened to fracking and an entire city burned to the ground during wildfires, the state of California and its governor is not doing enough.
  • A group of Porter Ranch residents found Governor Newsom to ask him when the infamous Aliso Canyon methane storage facility was going to be closed. He re-committed to closing the facility, but forgot to include what his timeline. Maybe he should have just done it the first time and he’d not have to re-commit.
  • Climate youth also converged outside and inside the convention calling for stronger climate action.
  • And then the “conservative voice” of the Democratic presidential candidates, former Colorado Gov. John “Frackenlooper” Hickenlooper was booed during most of his speech after attacking climate action, healthcare for all and socialism. We should have disrupted that shithead.

More shenanigans await as we aim to continue fucking with Big Oil and its lacky politicians.

Online Stunt Draws Attention to PG&E Bankruptcy and $2.5 million Severance Pay for Former President Geisha Williams

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January 23, 2019

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Online Stunt Draws Attention to PG&E Bankruptcy and $2.5 million Severance Pay for Former President Geisha Williams

MEDIA CONTACT: Climate Justice Crew, press@pgecalifornia.com. **Rising Tide does not take responsibility for the stunt.**

San Francisco, CA: Today, the Climate Justice Crew released a fake PG&E website and press release claiming that the former President and Chief Operating Officer, Geisha Williams, donated her complete severance of $2.5 million dollars as her last act in PG&E leadership. The stunt that has since gone viral intended to draw attention to PG&E and Mrs. William’s culpability of the Camp Fire that killed at least 86 people, destroyed more than 18,000 structures, and led to more than $30 billion in potential wildfire liabilities — California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire on record.

Overwhelming evidence shows that PG&E is solely responsible for starting the recent “Camp Fire” — including PG&E’s own statements. State investigators have also determined PG&E is responsible for at least 16 other fires last fall, 12 of which were deadly, and 11 of which clearly violated laws requiring proper maintenance and safety standards. Yet, the California Public Utilities Commission will soon begin to implement a provision that allows PG&E to pass wildfire costs onto the affected populations instead of the investor-owned San Francisco-based utility — whose net income in 2017 was $1.66 billion and whose former President and Chief Operating Officer, Geisha Williams, recently received $2.5 million in severance despite being in charge during the lethal wildfires of 2017 and 2018.

“We call for PG&E to take complete financial and ethical responsibility for all fires caused by its negligence. The stunt today was meant to draw attention to the spectacular miscarriage of justice that has transpired since the lethal Camp Fire — including the lack of transparency with regards to compensation for victims’ of this tragedy, the way in which PG&E has tried to dodge their debts by proposing a consumer bailout and filing for Chapter 11, and Mrs. Williams’ astronomical severance package,” said the Climate Justice Crew.

The PG&E bankruptcy should serve as a wake-up call for corporations like this to think how about their actions affect masses of people and have contributed towards the climate crisis — a crisis in which we only have 12 years to mitigate.

Climate Justice Crew stands with all residents impacted by the fires and refuses to allow the California Public Utilities Commission President Michael J. Picker and other politicians to bail out PG&E instead of dismantling it. We also recognize PG&E’s role in contributing to the increase in climate catastrophes, like the two-week-long smoke-filled skies over Northern California, by investing in massive fossil fuel infrastructure across California.

“There are alternatives to the monopoly utilities, like the Community Choice Energy project, where the public is in control of the electrical system. We need to democratize energy by putting in the hands of the people, not the corporations driven by profit. If we had decentralized energy — local clean energy — we wouldn’t need the transmission lines that caused the fires in the first place. We’re in a state of emergency where air pollution and climate disasters are more frequently disrupting, displacing, poisoning, and even killing people across the country. We need California to take these issues seriously before it’s too late and that means investing in community-led renewable energy systems that are local and regional — not CEOs and shareholders who make millions and millions in profit no matter what. Left unchallenged, this pattern of institutional and regulatory neglect ensures environmental degradation and climate change hit marginalized groups first and worst,” said the Climate Justice Crew.

Public #NoPGEbailout online petition and statement can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-pge-bailout

Photos and video available here from previous #NoPGEbailout protests: bit.ly/nopgebailoutphotos

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