The Climate Minute

We discuss how to provide "solar for all" and how to increase renewable energy in Massachusetts. Download Enhanced Podcast

How can we effectively combat climate change? How can we push back against what is happening at the federal level? The answer - GO LOCAL! We all know we need to get to 100% of our electricity coming from renewable energy. We also know we need to electrify everything - our cars, our heating, etc. How can we do that in the shortest amount of time, while making our communities better and creating jobs as we clean up our air and water? Local clean energy projects and policies are key to get us to 100% renewable energy. That's why MCAN, in conjunction with our Mass Power Forward colleagues, has put together the Local Clean Energy Toolkit. It's finally ready (more or less)! Based on experience from dozens of chapters and local volunteers like you, the materials included are intended to bring you all the way from "I'd like to do something locally that helps solve climate change" to "wow, we just won our first campaign!" Even better, each of these victories gets your community and our state closer to being completely clean. We built these materials so that you can build a team, make decisions about your next steps, and take action. If you want any of these in word so you can localize it for your community, email us.  Download Enhanced Podcast

Comrade Trump wants you to believe that a healthy planet is incompatible with having good jobs. That is just more stream-of-consciousness lying from our delusional twitter-er in chief, along with his retrograde EO’s on national monuments and automobile efficiency. We point out the growth in clean energy jobs, and how you can take action against the craziness even in your own town. Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

April 29, 2017 was the day of the People’s Climate Mobilization. It was a great day, with 150 to 200,000 people marching in DC and even more around the country. We had the good fortune to chat with people of all kinds, students from Salem State University, activists from California and Utah as well as concerned folks from all over. Listen in to just a few of the thousands of committed citizens in DC last Saturday. Download Enhanced Podcast

The People’s Climate Mobilization is almost here. We can’t wait. Check out the events in both Boston (on the Common) and in Washington DC (on the Mall.) Just remember- we are mobilizing for the long term. Working toward Environmental Justice and rejecting destructive legislation are the kinds of topics we support. And of course, we must vote in November 2018. Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

Recently, MCAN announced it’s legislative priorities for this session of the Massachusetts Legislature. We are pushing to increase our supply of renewable energy, provide access to solar for everyone and to make polluters pay with a price on carbon. You can join MCAN's Legislative Action Team and make a difference. Listen in as we discuss these topics, the Governor’s score card and the brewing fight between New York and FERC. Increasing Our Renewable Energy: We need more clean energy, and one great way to move the clean energy market forward is to have the utilities buy more of it. We support increasing the Renewable Portfolio Standard by 3% each year, driving demand for renewable power and growing our local clean energy industry. We also support a statewide solar target of 25% solar by 2030 and eliminating the solar net metering caps. We believe that municipal light plants should be included in the state’s clean energy goals. Providing Access to Solar for All: Everyone should be able to get their power from the sun, no matter their community and no matter their income level. This legislation ensures fair compensation to low-income solar and to community-shared solar (net metering) for low-moderate income customers, encourages projects that expand access to communities facing barriers, and directs the Department of Energy Resources to address barriers like income, housing type and language in their program design. Making Polluters pay through Carbon pricing: One of the best ways to discourage behavior we don’t want is to put a price on it, and studies have shown that pricing carbon would cut our carbon pollution by up to 10%. This legislation would establish a common-sense fee-and-rebate system of carbon pollution fees charged to fossil fuel importers. The revenues from those fees would go into a dedicated fund, from which each state resident would receive an equal rebate, and employers would get rebates based on their number of employees. Because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions, because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon. Thanks for listening. …Ted McIntyre Download Enhanced Podcast

The mission statement of the Science March says it “… champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence based policies in the public interest.” We discuss what dark motives could be driving those ‘political leaders and policy makers’ in their delusional jihad against the facts. Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

The People’s Climate Mobilization will happen on April 29th in DC and cities across the country. As this big day draws near, it is worthwhile tracing the history of public protests dedicated to climate issues. From the original ‘Step It Up’ in 2007 to the 2014 March in NYC, the people power of climate marches keeps growing. Listen in as we discuss. Download Enhanced Podcast

The US currently generates about 5% of its power by clean technology. What happens when our country gets to 70% clean energy? Imagine the year is 2045 and a week-long blizzard across the entire Midwest buries all the PV? Where does the solar power come from? Academics working to get us to 100% clean energy see a need for methods to ‘manage’ the intermittency of renewable energy. Do we need to ‘save’ nuclear power plants? Dave Roberts says we should not worry too much about these questions, but push hard for more renewable energy, right now. Listen in as we discuss this interesting aspect of the necessary and inevitable move to a decarbonized future. Download Enhanced Podcast

President Xi of China met with our own bumbling President to (not) discuss climate change. Nevertheless, China has been making some big statements on its own account when it comes to global leadership on our warming planet. While Comrade Trump dreams of jobs in coal and VHS rental chainstores, Xi is pushing for clean energy jobs. Sad…for America. Listen in. Download Enhanced Podcast

The ‘nuclear option’ has been used. What will the consequences be for climate policy? Only time we tell, but we take a look at some leading indicators. Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

The outrageousness of the misAdminstration’s Climate Executive Order calls for a creative response. Instead of fighting to salvage what was a stopgap plan in the first place, why not demand the kind of profound societal change that matches the scale of the climate problem? What would that look like? What will it take to achieve? Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

The mal-Administration our country, lead by our Russophile 45th President, has issued an Executive Order attempting to eliminate efforts to address climate change. The historical ramificaitons of these destructive moves are yet to be written, but they are real and damning. We discuss the content and consequences of the what we know now. Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

Through either malice or ignorance, the duly elected President of these proud United States continued his mindlessly destructive assault the environment. By approving the KXL pipeline, he has re-ignited a controversy that will simmer for years. His disappearing Secretary of State was shown to have used (and mysteriously deleted) his private email which used the romantic name “Wayne Tracker.” On the other hand, we see India declare the Ganges a person, and discuss whether “Lord of the Flies” or “Grapes of Wrath” capture the tenor of the times. Listen in. Download Enhanced Podcast

From President Cheetoh’s approval of the KCL pipeline to his plans attacking climate programs, there is plenty to discuss. Also, the Senate heads for a showdown over the Gorsuch nomination, but you can still get bus tickets to the DC rally on 4/29. Hang in there! Download Enhanced Podcast