Rep Steve Owens

DEEP DIALOGUE

MONDAY, JANUARY 22

4 - 5:30 PM, on Zoom

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83538742353?pwd=YUU5QU16VVlDMExOMmlPSWVwTG9xUT09

Preserving Forever-Wild Lands

We will be joined by Jon Leibowitz, Executive Director of the Northeast Wilderness Trust, a land trust that focuses on permanent protection of forest and wild lands in the northeast region. Jon will discuss the critical role that forever-wild forests, wetlands, and intact ecosystems play in addressing the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, with an emphasis on long-term climate benefits of rewilding permanently protected lands. Jon will show examples of completed land protection projects in the region and discuss the opportunities for additional creation of wilderness areas in accordance with the recently released Wildlands in New England report. The presentation will explain how everyone can get involved in this regional effort to protect the wild Earth, while also protecting the climate.

Glen Ayers

Join Elders Climate Action members from around the nation to learn more about the COP 28 outcomes at the National Call & Action Party on Tuesday, January 23, 7 PM - 8 PM.

As the UN-sponsored COP 28 was taking place at the end of November and beginning of December, many of us were concerned about whether the meeting would take decisive aim at the continued use of fossil fuels. Well, a lot happened at COP 28, but was it just smoke and mirrors? We witnessed a historic global agreement to move away from fossil fuels, the creation of a Loss and Damage Fund, the first health day at COP, and the commitment from dozens of oil companies to tackle methane leaks.

We’ll hear from a few of our allies, including two of our Breathe Again Collaborative partners, about their first-hand experiences in Dubai. Our guests will discuss the wins and the losses, including the failure of more ambitious plans to phase out fossil fuels. And we’ll look to what we can do moving forward to ensure the promises of global leaders are kept. 

Speakers:

• Rev. Susannah Tuttle, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light
• Myra L Jackson, Founder, Global Freshwaters Summit, an initiative of the Global Being Foundation
• Joseph Roberston, Citizens Climate International 

Registration is required: register here. For more information, see here.

Seth Evans

A Full Plate

Our state Legislature is back up and running toward their July 31 finish line. They have a lot on their plate to deal with in just 210 days, including a budget to pass and legislation related to economic development, environmental bonds, the housing and shelter crises, gun reforms, healthcare costs, and the MBTA - along with climate proposals on permitting reform, building performance standards, the future of gas, electrifying public transit, preserving state forests and other environmental issues. 

The shortfall in tax receipts will likely limit investments in building decarbonization and other climate-related projects. The priorities of senate and house leadership will likely play a major role in determining which of these items gets on the agenda with enough time to wend their way through the maze of committees, backroom dealing, and votes before the final bell sounds in July.

Our Priorities: Climate Omnibus + Natural Lands Bills

Your Legislative Team is doing its best to gather intel from our allies in the legislature and in all the organizations and coalitions we engage with to chart a course for our advocacy over the next few months. Two major priorities will be influencing the climate omnibus bill expected out of the House Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy (TUE) in late January and natural lands legislation in the Environment and Natural Resources Committee (ENR). 

We will focus both on moving whole bills and advocating for key elements of several bills that can get wrapped into packages like the omnibus climate bill. The economic development and environmental bond bills coming out soon may provide other opportunities to fund projects that address our priorities. We will take into account what we have learned from hearings, our allies, the press, and legislative and administration contacts to determine how, when, and onto whom to direct pressure to have the most impact. 

Permitting Reform, Too

Our working groups are identifying priorities, mostly selected from bills on our session priority list, but also including at least one new issue, permitting reform, which has recently become a focus. We will likely follow the leads of some of our allies on transportation issues (ZEV coalition), decommissioning the gas distribution system (Gas Leaks Allies), and Mass Save reform (Mass Save coalition). 

Energy, Energy, Energy

Another important ally we pay attention to, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, is prioritizing electrification of transportation, streamlining energy project siting and permitting, and increasing procurement of wind energy. We plan to request State House meetings with TUE and ENR leadership and influential members soon, and are considering reaching out broadly to more senators and representatives as well. 

The Legislative Process

In theory, committees are supposed to report out all bills by mid-February, but it is not uncommon for them to seek extensions. Most bills will wind up in the House or Senate Ways and Means committee. At that point, having had the opportunity to read the actual language in the bills approved by committees, we will be able to advocate for additions and revisions to the language and for movement of the bills to floor votes. Conference committees will reconcile differences in House and Senate versions. Along the way we will be planning on using the amendment process where possible to insert small items left out of legislation we support.

We Need Your Help!

We will be looking to mobilize our membership to engage in a range of advocacy efforts from lobby days at the State House to emailing and phoning at strategic moments. If you're interested in helping with efforts to engage our membership in the advocacy process by calling some of them or reaching out in other ways, let us know. Contact Legislative Team co-chairs Tina Grosowsky, tgrosowsky@gmail.com or Roger Luckmann, roger.luckmann@umassmed.edu. 

Roger Luckmann

We’re excited to announce that our first meeting of the Climate Resilient Schools (CRS) Organizing Network will be on February 8, 2024 at 4 PM. 

The Organizing Network is where local, district-level teams come together to learn and share their experiences working towards the adoption of climate resolutions in their school districts.

Our meeting on 2/8 will focus on building and engaging your team. Whether you already have a district team established, or you’re simply interested in connecting and learning more, join us and make a New Year’s resolution to pass a climate resolution! Here are a few ways to get started:

1. Commit to joining us for the February 8th Organizing Network meeting, and register to let us know you can make it.
2. Recruit 3 people from your community to bring to the meeting with you (and be sure they register, too).
3. Fill out our intake survey, if you haven’t already, and share it with 5 people in your local area who you think might be interested in getting involved with CRS.

Here’s to passing local climate resolutions across the state in 2024! Looking for inspiration? Read about how San Diego students worked to pass a climate resolution in their school district.

For more information, contact Emma Scudder at Mass Audobon, escudder@massaudubon.org.

Tina Grosowsky

Ever see an article in the paper that makes you want to scream? Point out the obvious? Correct a misconception? Writing a letter to the editor about the importance of acting on climate change is both easy and satisfying. ECA members and others recently had a slew of climate letters published in the Boston Globe. Check them out here.

Tina Grosowsky

If you thought the Biden Administration’s approval of the Willow Pipeline project in Alaska in 2023 was a bad idea, then brace yourself for a potentially larger “Carbon Bomb” to explode: a massive buildout of liquid natural gas (LNG) export terminals beginning now, primarily in the Gulf Coast region. Either that, or prepare yourself to participate in civil disobedience outside of the Department of Energy’s Headquarters in Washington DC on February 6 - 8, 2024.

LNG is having its moment, with US production reaching record highs in December, making us the largest gas exporter in the world. Now the LNG industry is proposing to add 30 new or expanded facilities to the nine that already exist. Together these would add the equivalent carbon load of 681 coal plants or 548 million gasoline powered cars each year, according to a Sierra Club analysis. In addition to locking in greenhouse gas pollution for dozens more years, these export facilities further pollute frontline communities and contribute to higher fuel prices here in the US. Just one project, the CP2 facility in Louisiana, will generate 20x the emissions of the Willow Project! Does it really matter that the gas won’t be burned here in the US, but rather, abroad?

We’re calling on the Department of Energy to pause all new export approvals until they do a proper analysis of LNG’s impact on our climate, communities, and US consumers. The US climate legacy is at stake.

In the meantime, Third Act, The Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and other major climate groups, are asking regulators at the Department of Eneregy (DOE) to pump the brakes and reevaluate its permitting process for LNG export facilities. If Secretary Granholm does not agree to do so, non-violent civil disobedience action will be taken. Please sign up with this form and indicate if you are coming, which days you are looking to participate, and if you are willing to risk arrest.

Stay tuned to ECA-MA Action Alerts to learn more about whether DOE hits the pause button, and, if not how to participate in the planned action. 

Seth Evans

Join the MA Environmental Justice Legislative Table to discuss the elephant in the room - how do we build the renewable distributed electric grid we need fast, while not repeating the mistakes of the past? Learn more about our vision for infrastructure, energy democracy, and centering frontline communities in the process - as well as the current policy proposal from the EJ Table to greenlight good projects fast and nip bad projects in the bud. 

Saturday, January 20th, 2024 2 PM - 3:30 PM

In person at First Parish Concord - 20 Lexington Rd, Concord, MA

AND online. Link to Facebook Event.

RSVP here. 

Tina Grosowsky