California North Coast CCL Newsletter | | |
Winter is coming...
California Declares Emergency in Prep for Monster El Niño
This is Not Cool
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We are about to experience the confluence of a natural event layered on top of human-induced global warming. Experts say what's coming will be super-charged by sea surface temperatures driven to their highest levels ever recorded due to earth's energy imbalance, in which over 90% of the excess energy is absorbed by the oceans. That imbalance, of course, is caused by our ongoing, increasing burning of fossil fuels.
It's not a "hoax." Emissions reductions are more urgently needed than ever, but we're heading in the opposite direction. The global energy economy must be harnessed to pull civilization away from the coming abyss, and that demands that the power of money be focused on survival. See the Economists' Statement below.
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California North Coast CCL
invites you to their monthly meeting,
Saturday, October 10 at 9 AM PT here.
We'll discuss what's going on with the climate and what we ought to be doing about it; how you can participate in upcoming midterm elections, and this month's actions. We'll have ample time for open discussion.
CCL has endorsed the newly introduced Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA), a major permitting reform package that can help America build clean energy faster, reduce emissions, and lower electricity costs. Learn what’s in the legislation, why CCL is supporting it, and how we can help build momentum in Congress.
Your Voice Mattered
Thanks to your incredible advocacy, Governor Newsom signed three Climate Future California-supported bills into law this week:
- AB 2313 (Home Energy Choice): Gives Californians the freedom and funds to install electric appliances with money that would otherwise have been used to replace old gas lines.
- SB 868 (Plug and Play Solar): Removes regulatory barriers for "balcony solar" systems, giving renters and homeowners an easy way to generate clean energy and cut power bills.
- SB 222 (Heat Pump Access): Streamlines home heat pump permitting to ensure faster, cheaper installations.
Thank you for all your work meeting with legislators, writing your representatives, and building support for these critical climate policies.
Then, at 10 AM PT, join National's monthly meeting here.
| | Our guest speaker for October is Sara Peach, Editor-in-chief of the esteemed Yale Climate Connections. Sara is an environmental journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Scientific American, Environmental Health News, Grist, and Chemical & Engineering News. For her reporting on environmental issues, she has earned awards from the National Press Photographers Association, Pictures of the Year International, and the Society of Environmental Journalists. She joined the editorial team at Yale Climate Connections in 2016. Learn more about Sara, and the Yale Climate Connections newsletter. | |
Trump Doubles Down on Climate Denial With Plan to Repeal Power Plant Rules
Inside Climate News
14 September, 2026
"On the heels of the hottest summer on record and a United Nations report warning that global temperatures are likely to push climate risks to “increasingly dangerous heights,” the Trump administration overturned most of a Biden-era rule limiting climate pollution from power plants, the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a final plan that guts the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which the agency said exceeds its authority under the Clean Air Act by requiring control technologies “that are not adequately demonstrated.” The agency also proposed revoking “all remaining GHG emissions requirements for power plants,” arguing their emissions “have no material impact on climate change.”
“The Trump administration is now kicking the legs out from under the entire legal framework for regulating climate pollution by arguing that climate pollution does not harm human health or welfare,” said Zealan Hoover, a former senior advisor to the EPA during the Biden administration."
"Experts on the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long attempts to deny the reality or consequences of climate change see the same tactics in the Trump administration’s latest actions. President Donald Trump called climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” last year during a speech at the United Nations."
Read the entire report here.
Wait! Not so fast:
States Sue Over Trump’s Repeal of Climate Rules for Power Plants
NYT
2 October, 2026
A coalition of 21 states and four cities sued the Trump administration on Thursday over its move to erase all limits on planet-warming emissions from power plants.
President Trump has pushed to dismantle federal policies that tackle climate change. As part of that effort, the E.P.A. announced last month that it was rescinding the power-plant rules. The agency also argued that greenhouse gases from power plants did not endanger human health or the environment, and therefore, that the E.P.A. lacked the legal authority to regulate these emissions under the Clean Air Act.
“This administration’s insistence on giving the nation’s biggest polluters a free pass will set our country back decades in the fight against climate change,” said Letitia James, the attorney general of New York. “Dismantling these protections is a betrayal of American families.”
Read the piece here.
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Misrepresentation of Human Climate Fingerprint in DOE Report
Dr. Benjamin Santer, et al
29 August, 2026
A year ago, in late July, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy released a report authored by 5 hand-picked climate "skeptics" intended to discredit the long established fact that greenhouse gases were warming the planet. That now-debunked report was intended to justify the Environmental Protection Agency's reversal of the "Endangerment Finding," the 2009 Supreme Court decision underlying the government's efforts to reduce emissions.
The report cited, among others, Dr. Santer's modeling of the temperature structure of the atmosphere. Specifically, as predicted decades ago, GHG accumulation has warmed the lower atmosphere -- the troposphere -- and caused cooling of the upper atmosphere -- the stratosphere.
The DOE report challenged these findings, so Dr. Santer, understandably perturbed at the misrepresentation of his own work by the very agency that funded it, decided to investigate.
What he found is telling:
The DOE authors confused the upper troposphere with the lower stratosphere, thus drawing the wrong conclusions. And despite the DOE knowing of the error, the report still resides on their website as an official U.S. government publication.
Here is Dr. Santer's refutation, published by the American Geophysical Union, the largest organization of earth scientists in the world. Get a little wonky and read it like a detective story, especially section 4: Implications.
Summary:
"Warming of the troposphere and cooling of the stratosphere is an iconic fingerprint of human effects on climate. Three decades of peer-reviewed research have documented the identification of this fingerprint in observed atmospheric temperature data.
A July 2025 report of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) claims that this human fingerprint does not exist. The DOE claim is verifiably false, and arises from an unpublished comparison of modeled and observed tropical temperature trends that relied on incorrect observations. Use of correct observations supports identification of a human fingerprint on tropical atmospheric temperature trends.
This misrepresentation of scientific understanding is one example of how the DOE report violates U.S. government guidelines for use of “gold standard” science in formulating public policy."
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Inside the anti-climate campaign against researchers
PoliticoPro
25 September, 2026
"Conservative organizations are filing open records requests by the dozens at public universities, demanding emails, research drafts, correspondence with law firms and other documents from academics studying climate change.
Targets and their allies say it’s all an effort to undermine the role climate research is playing in litigation against U.S. fossil fuel companies.
It’s the latest strategy in a decades-long campaign by right-leaning groups to discredit scholars whose work could persuade judges and juries in the high-stakes climate cases. Now it’s gathering steam amid a growing push by the Trump administration to block dozens of lawsuits levied at energy companies by communities that were affected by extreme weather."
This is a long, sad, detailed story of organized harassment and intimidation of climate scientists. They need our support in order to just do their jobs.
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NYT, 20 August, 2026
"The Trump administration has taken a series of extraordinary steps to attack California’s position as a national leader in environmental protection, enlisting at least a half-dozen federal agencies to undermine the state’s efforts to pivot away from fossil fuels.
The stakes are high. Because of its market muscle as the world’s fourth largest economy, California’s environmental regulations have influenced the manufacturers of automobiles and other consumer goods. And its green policies have spread to some other states in what’s known as the “California effect.”
But President Trump has marshaled the full power of the federal government to clamp down on the state’s climate initiatives. He has been vocal in his contempt for Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat and possible 2028 presidential contender.”
Full article here.
Find out how California is pushing back.
California files formal response to federal coastal review, urges public to make their voices heard
From the California Natural Resources Agency
| | Here's what the economic experts have to say about how best to shift the global economy away from fossil fuel dependence. But as our own esteemed member of Congress has taught us, they are not the politicians who must make it happen. There's a big difference. | | |
WSJ, 17 January, 2019
"Global climate change is a serious problem calling for immediate national action. Guided by sound economic principles, we are united in the following policy recommendations.
I. A carbon tax offers the most cost-effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed that is necessary. By correcting a well-known market failure, a carbon tax will send a powerful price signal that harnesses the invisible hand of the marketplace to steer economic actors towards a low-carbon future.
II. A carbon tax should increase every year until emissions reductions goals are met and be revenue neutral to avoid debates over the size of government. A consistently rising carbon price will encourage technological innovation and large-scale infrastructure development. It will also accelerate the diffusion of carbon-efficient goods and services.
III. A sufficiently robust and gradually rising carbon tax will replace the need for various carbon regulations that are less efficient. Substituting a price signal for cumbersome regulations will promote economic growth and provide the regulatory certainty companies need for long- term investment in clean-energy alternatives.
IV. To prevent carbon leakage and to protect U.S. competitiveness, a border carbon adjustment system should be established. This system would enhance the competitiveness of American firms that are more energy-efficient than their global competitors. It would also create an incentive for other nations to adopt similar carbon pricing.
V. To maximize the fairness and political viability of a rising carbon tax, all the revenue should be returned directly to U.S. citizens through equal lump-sum rebates. The majority of American families, including the most vulnerable, will benefit financially by receiving more in “carbon dividends” than they pay in increased energy prices." [Emphasis added]
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Now that you've read what the experts recommend, here again is Marin CCL's Jonathan Marshall's latest publication, Making Carbon Pricing Work: How lessons learned from setbacks in the United States, Australia, France, Washington, and Canada can make carbon pricing more viable.
And here are the slides to Jonathan's recent superb presentation to the Carbon Pricing Action Team, Why Carbon Pricing is More than Ever the Best Climate Policy.
Those wishing to get more involved in this critical debate can join the growing Carbon Pricing Action Team on Community. Next call is Weds, October 21 @ 10 AM PT here.
You can watch the second monthly session in the carbon pricing series, October 1 here.
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FYI: Upcoming non-CCL events
Now on YouTube: Rep. Jared Huffman's interview with Peter Coyote at the launch of his new book, No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism.
October 28, Wednesday, at 5pm PT/ 8pm ET - Jennifer McCoy, PhD on “Mitigating Pernicious Polarization”.
Prof. McCoy is Professor Emerita of Political Science at Georgia State University and a Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A leading expert on democratic erosion and political polarization, she co-developed the influential concept of “pernicious polarization,” directed The Carter Center’s Americas Program, leading election-monitoring, democratic-strengthening, dialogue, and international mediation efforts. A 2024 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, she continues to research practical approaches to depolarization, democratic resilience, and strengthening civic capacity.
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Wednesday, October 21, 4:30-6:30 PT
Town Hall with Rep. Jared Huffman
Embassy Suites, San Rafael
(101 McInnis Parkway, next to the Marin Civic Center)
To capture and rebuild the momentum for meaningful climate action, the Climate Action Campaign and local partners are hosting a No Denying Climate Change Tour, a series of 10 town halls with Members of Congress to push back on Trump’s dangerous agenda, uplift local solutions, and inspire grassroots activists to keep fighting for the future we deserve.
California North Coast has partnered with 10 other local organizations in support of this event. Please come with your questions for Rep. Huffman. Refreshments start at 4:30, program at 5.
Use the QR code below to register for this free event.
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Off the charts!
Better to actually need your wetsuit when swimming in the ocean.
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You're invited, but...
This is how one behaves inside The Capitol:
Make an appointment. Business attire recommended. Bring nothing that even looks like a weapon.
Long live democracy.
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Earth
Prepared by Peter G. Joseph, M.D.
Peter.Joseph@cclvolunteer.org
Apologies for cross postings.
If you know someone who would like to be added to this distribution list, please suggest they join Marin or Sonoma CCL, or if not in this area, contact me.
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