ECA Mass February 2023 Newsletter

February 2023 Newsletter

In this Issue

Save the Date!
Legislative Team Ponders Priorities
Virtual Statewide Climate Rally
Mass Youth Climate Coalition Lobby Week
3.21.23 Day of Action: Time to Cut Ties to Fossil Fuel Funders
Can We Talk About Soot? (EPA Proposed Rule Change)
A Library of Things to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
What We're Reading: At Home on an Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth, by Madeline Ostrander

Our guest will be Dan Bosley, Government Relations Executive for the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC), a nonprofit business member organization, which NECEC says is "the premier voice of businesses building a world-class clean energy hub in the Northeast." NECEC’s sister organization, NECEC Institute, is a nonprofit focused on industry research, innovation, policy development, and communications initiatives.

We'll ask Dan to tell us more about NECEC's work (specifically around climate solutions). Other questions for Dan: Who are some leading businesses involved? Wind, solar, fusion, battery development, etc.? What makes a good green business? How will the NECEC work with Gov. Healey and the Green Corridor? Is NECEC supporting specific Massachusetts legislative bills? Bring your questions to add to a lively discussion with Dan and our members.

Next, our Legislative Team will consider the difference between legislation and implementation, amidst the plethora of bills they are reviewing. And we'll introduce the Team's working groups (more details about these groups in future chapter meetings...). There's room for YOU in a working group!

FIRST THURSDAYS of each month: "What Can I Do?"

ECA Mass Education Team Series

Next on MARCH 2, 7-8 PM ET, Zoom

Registration is required. Please register here.

As the climate crisis worsens, many people are asking : What can I do? Where to begin? Try attending one -- or all! -- of our monthly "What can I do?" webinars. At our March 2 webinar, on Heat Pumps, we'll again have a guest presenter from the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, Loie Hayes (Energy Efficiency Coordinator), teaching us about practical, financial, and policy-related issues as we consider installing electric heat pumps in our homes.

Cold climate heat pumps can meet 100% of your heating needs, without fossil fuel back up. Unlike traditional heating systems that burn fuel to generate heat, a heat pump uses electricity to move heat into or out of a building. This transfer of heat, rather than combustion, means that cold-climate heat pumps are a highly efficient way to heat and cool your home. And, unlike burning gas or oil, heat pumps can keep you warm in winter and cool in summer without contributing to climate change.

Legislative Team Ponders Priorities

For Legislation and Implementation

Out of more than 6,000 bills submitted in the Commonwealth’s 2023-24 legislative session, the ECA Mass Legislative Team has identified 580 climate-related bills. (Any bill submitted in both the House and Senate gets counted as one by our math.) Coming after the passage of the Roadmap and Clean Energy and Offshore Wind laws in the last session, many of these bills address steps needed to meet our GHG emission targets, such as electrifying the MBTA commuter rail and regional transit systems, incentivizing clean heat alternatives, promoting net zero building standards, and increasing cleantech investments with a green bank.

Our next step is to review these bills and propose a short list for ECA Mass advocacy in this session. Each of our working groups (transportation, buildings, energy, green bank, natural solutions, and budget) will be recommending priority bills in their sector to the Legislative Team soon. We also will be looking at some plastics, recycling, environmental justice, adaptation, and carbon pricing bills. To help align our legislative priorities with those of our allies and to get their insights on climate policy issues, Legislative Team members are building relationships with leaders in Massachusetts climate organizations, from 350 Mass to the Acadia Center to the Zero Emission Vehicle Coalition.

The Legislative Team also will be focusing on the efforts of the Healey administration, municipalities and others to implement the measures required by legislation passed last session and by the 2025/2030 Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP). Each of our working groups will be dividing their attention between currently debated bills and the implementation challenge. This will require tracking rulemaking and budget allocation, providing testimony at hearings, and creating actions for ECA Mass members to engage key stakeholders. Since this is a big task, working with our allies will be particularly important. Tracking and advocating for implementation is new territory for the Legislative Team, and we will be exploring and developing strategies for this in the months to come.

If you have been thinking about stepping up your involvement in ECA Mass legislative or implementation action, NOW is a great time to explore the many options to get engaged. Whether you have a few hours per month or even more time, we need your help. Contact Roger Luckmann ([email protected]) to learn more about the opportunities.

Jeff Clark and Roger Luckmann

ECA Mass Legislative Team

Virtual Statewide Climate Rally

On January 11, more than 200 members of ECA Mass, allied climate organizations, legislators and activists gathered for a statewide rally to celebrate a new dawn for climate action. We were very excited to welcome Melissa Hoffer, the new Massachusetts Climate Chief, to the climate movement!

ECA Mass collaborated on the rally with the Sierra Club, Massachusetts Climate Action Network, 350 Mass, League of Women Voters, Climate Action Now Western MA, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental League of Massachusetts, Save Massachusetts Forests, and Ceres. Our rally opened with a stirring video of Buffy Sainte-Marie singing “Carry It On.” Then we and legislative guests, including Senators Barrett, Creem and Rausch, and Representatives Meschino and Owens, joined in calling for prompt action by Melissa Hoffer and the new Healey administration – to create a Green Bank, distribute the Federal IRA money equitably, and implement and fund the new Clean Energy and OffShore Wind law. “The climate crisis demands full speed ahead,” said Tina Grosowsky of ECA Mass; “no more slow-walking” our climate goals. Hoffer told us that she shares our urgency, and that we all need to work together. Closing the rally, a video of Patti Smith singing “Power to the People” inspired us all to roll up our sleeves and carry on!!

Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition Lobby Week

On Tuesday, February 7, I had the privilege of supporting the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition (MYCC) Lobby Week (a program of Our Climate). More than 80 high school and college students from all over the state, under the talented leadership of Eben Bein, met in Boston at the Old West Church for training, networking and peer-to-peer education. Then they marched to the Massachusetts State House for a rally, where the students gave inspiring speeches highlighting their thoughts and feelings about the climate crisis and the role the government plays in addressing it. (See a CBS Boston TV report on the rally, here.) Following the rally, students met with legislators for thoughtful, insightful conversation about MYCC legislative priorities, including bills such as the Zero Carbon Renovation Fund, the Polluter’s Pay bill and Climate Education.

It was an honor to support these young people as they gave up a day in school to learn about the democratic progress and speak up about climate equity. In speaking up for their communities, they are situating themselves at the forefront of the climate movement.

Tina Grosowsky

ECA Mass Leadership/Legislative Teams

3.21.23 DAY OF ACTION

Time to Cut Ties to Fossil Fuel Funders

For months now, Third Act, ECA, 350 MA, and other climate organizations have been urging their members and the public in general to use their financial power as depositors, borrowers, and credit card holders to pressure four major US banks – Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo – to stop funding the fossil fuel industry. The purpose of this Banking on our Future campaign is summarized well in this infographic. Remarkably, for those holding more than $62,000 in one of these banks, moving the money to a “clean” bank offsets a typical American’s carbon footprint for six months! To learn more about the campaign, you can also watch this Banking on our Future explainer video.

These efforts come to an exclamation point on the 3.21.23 Day of Action, which will involve events in the Boston metro area and around the country.

Third Act and supporting groups have asked these banks to meet with us to discuss their plans to end their financial support of the fossil fuel industry. Communications with the banks and their staff and leadership are ongoing. To increase the pressure on the big banks, Third Act, ECA, and other partners are asking people to sign the Banking on our Future Pledge, which asks people - customers and non-customers alike - to sign the petition: “If Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America are still funding the exploration, expansion, and development of climate-destroying fossil fuel projects in March 2023, I pledge to close my account and cut up my credit card. If I don’t bank at these institutions now, I pledge I won’t do so in the future.” If you have not yet signed the pledge, please do so now!

Third Act and its partners have many resources to help you get started on finding better banks, credit unions, and credit cards. You can start by watching this recording.

On the Day of Action, we hope that many of us will be ready to show up at one (or more!) of the bank branches and cut up a credit card from one of the dirty banks, as we will already have a new credit card from one of the better banks. Even if you do not yet have a new credit card, or are not banking with any of the four, you are welcome to join the Day of Action! You can symbolically cut up a cardboard credit card.

Actions are planned in Boston on Tuesday, March 21, Noon - 1:30 pm, in Downtown Crossing: 425 Washington St, Intersection with Winter St.; in Lexington; and at other suburban towns’ bank branches. Watch for more details in our March newsletter.

Can We Talk About Soot?

(EPA Proposed Rule Change)

With control of the House of Representatives shifting to the Republican Party in January, climate action from the Federal government, for the next two years at least, will come primarily from executive action. The most critical regulations that could affect climate change will be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has the ability to regulate pollutants such as fine particulate matter or soot. At the individual power plant level, EPA also has the ability to regulate carbon pollution, although this power may be subject to further legal challenges.

Soot is generated from power plants, internal combustion engines in cars and trucks, and industrial facilities. Soot is black carbon – produced by burning carbon-based fuels in limited oxygen conditions. (Think of the black smoke you see coming out of a truck’s tailpipe.) It causes lung and heart disease, and it disproportionately affects low-income communities. Scientists now understand the huge impact of these emissions on warming the global climate, primarily by absorbing more of the sun’s radiant energy. Reducing black carbon, for example by electrifying transportation and using new, more efficient industrial processes, will help both the air quality and the climate.

It is quite significant, therefore, that on January 27 the EPA announced a proposed change in rules that would tighten national air quality standards for fine particle pollution emitted from vehicles and industrial sources for the first time since 2012. (The standard is normally revisited every five years, but President Trump declined to do so during his term in office.) That started the clock on a 60-day comment period, with a series of public hearings scheduled for later this month.

The proposed rule would lower the allowable concentration of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns, or PM 2.5, to a range of 9 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) on average per year, from the current 12 µg/m3 in place since 2012. Public health and environmental groups will be pressing for tighter standards, since, as an Environmental Defense Fund study has shown, an annual average standard of 8 µg/m3 prevents more than four times as many premature deaths as a standard of 10 µg/m3. Advocates also hope to lower the 24-hour standard (vs. year-long average), which was left intact in the proposed rule.

In addition to improving upon the proposed standards, climate change and public health advocates will be submitting comments focused on implementation. As ECA National Policy Committee member Bob Yuhnke has observed, “No matter how protective a standard may be, if it’s not implemented where people are exposed to the pollution, it’s largely useless. ECA comments should highlight how current implementation policies fail to protect at-risk communities. One major problem is that compliance with standards is only required to be demonstrated where monitors measure violations. Monitors are not located where many high-risk communities are exposed to peak concentrations. Communities must be empowered to monitor for violations when states fail to locate monitors in areas where residents feel they are at risk.”

Stay tuned to this space and the ECA National newsletter for more guidance about submitting comments.

Seth Evans

ECA Mass Leadership/Action Planning/Education Teams

A Library of Things

To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Perhaps you’ve seen something new at your local library? Many libraries across the country – including 78 in Massachusetts – are creating “Libraries of Things,” where you can borrow useful objects, not just books. For example, library collections now often include kitchen appliances, tools, lawn and garden equipment, electronics, and other items not traditionally thought of as library materials.

But what does this have to do with climate? Items commonly available for loan, such as electric leaf blowers, and energy and air quality meters, can help reduce your carbon footprint. Even more exciting is that some libraries have added single-burner induction stovetops to their collections! This is an easy way to learn about induction cooking. Simply use your library card to check out the cooktop unit, along with an iron pan, and try them in your own kitchen. If you have a gas stove and are considering whether to purchase an induction stove, this is a low-risk way to test one out before investing in a full stove.

Libraries are all about making people’s lives better, and this certainly includes helping reduce emissions for a clean planet!!

Tina Grosowsky

What We're Reading

At Home on an Unruly Planet:

Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth

By Madeline Ostrander

(Henry Holt and Co., hardcover, 2022)

Climate change is a big, global crisis. It can be completely overwhelming, and it's tough to feel safe at home anywhere when the problem is everywhere. But at the same time, often the most inspiring – and some of the most effective – actions to address it are those driven by local activists: communities protecting what matters to them the most; personal conversations; small-scale policies, adaptations, and innovations that grow larger.

Madeline Ostrander’s At Home on an Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth tells these stories. Ostrander takes “home” as her theme – what it is, and how it's changing in the face of widespread and repeated disruption. She uses it to expertly weave threads connecting local, personal stories of leadership from across the US with the global climate crisis and its impacts.

The book is organized around four true stories of unnatural climate-driven disasters: Flood – a historic preservationist figuring out how to do her work in the face of sea level rise in Florida; Fire – a rural firefighter who becomes a community activist and expert on fire resilience in her area of the Pacific Northwest; Thaw – local leaders working to move an Alaskan village out of the way of climate-driven erosion and storms; and Explosion – an activist who grew up in the shadow of the huge Chevron refinery in Richmond, California, and takes leadership organizing in her community to mitigate its local effects.

Each account showcases local action to address global climate issues, and recounts how people often initially engage with climate indirectly, because they care about their home and community. The book covers the leadership these activists take, how they work with and engage others, the positive civic impacts they have, and the difficulties they face as they do so. Each story is carefully tied to how the global climate crisis particularly affects that community, and its intersections with the history and culture of each place.

I found this to be a very hopeful book even though its key players run into plenty of challenges in their work. In The Guardian last month, Rebecca Solnit wrote: “Every crisis is in part a storytelling crisis. This is as true of climate chaos as anything else. We are hemmed in by stories that prevent us from seeing, or believing in, or acting on the possibilities for change.” Ostrander’s stories are a perfect example of the opposite. Stories about growing local leadership, tied to both community and history, make the work seem accessible rather than overwhelming; real rather than falsely optimistic or based on heroism. They help us to “see, believe in, or act on the possibilities for change.” Highly recommended.

Tom Rawson

This Newsletter is Published for Members and Friends of the

Elders Climate Action - Massachusetts Chapter

ECA Massachusetts is a chapter of the national Elders Climate Action. We are a movement of elders committed to making our voices heard... to change our nation's policies while there is still time to avoid catastrophic changes in the Earth's climate. Visit the ECA Massachusetts website, event calendar, and Facebook page to learn more about our chapter's activities and climate news. JOIN ECA MASSACHUSETTS AND STAY CONNECTED! Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and for more active participation, sign up to receive Action Alerts and meeting announcements. Fill out our subscription form.