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 Dear CCL members, Are you finding it difficult to keep up with all the climate-related news? Despite subscribing to several email newsletters, attending webinars online, and reading daily newspapers and climate books, I find that I miss out on many things. Another problem I have encountered is that a simple headline in the news might leave me with questions that are not easily answered from traditional news sources. To partially address these concerns, we are starting a new section of our monthly newsletter to be called “ICYMI.” ICYMI is social media shorthand for “In Case You Missed It.” Our new section will be devoted to further exploration of topics or to presenting insights gained from sources that may not be readily accessible. It will also include reviews of books and podcasts. If you have topics that you would like us to explore or if you have news that we might have missed, please let us know so that we can include them here. Of course, a very good way to keep up to date is by attending our monthly meeting and listening to the CCL national call every month. At our May meeting we will continue learning about local environmental organizations with Deb Nardone of Clearwater Conservancy as our special guest. We will also explore why many businesses support carbon pricing and how that can inform our work. I hope you can join us. All are welcome, whether you want to just listen and learn or whether you want to get more involved. Thank you for supporting Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Sylvia Neely Monthly Meeting Tuesday, May 17, 2022 5:30pm – 7pm This will be a hybrid meeting. You can join either by Zoom or in person at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in downtown State College. In Person Room 325 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church 208 West Foster Avenue, State College, PA For directions and parking information, click here. Masks will be required Via Zoom Write to PaStateCollege@citizensclimatelobby.org for more information CCL members in action Tabling at Earth Fest and at Banff CCL members attended the Banff Film Festival on April 8 and 9. Special thanks to Diane Mills, Helen Kenion, and Grace Oram for organizing and tabling at this very popular event. We had a beautiful day for tabling at the Earth Fest on Sunday, April 24 from 1 to 5 at Millbrook Marsh in State College. The sky was blue and temperatures in the 80s. Thank you to all those who set up the tent, prepared the materials, and came out to urge people to call Congress: Diane Mills, Lisa Richardson, Kathy Pollard, Linda Westrick, Helen Kenion, and Viki Sapkota.  April OpEd and letter Dick Jones wrote an OpEd in honor of Earth Day that appeared in the Centre Daily Times on Sunday, April 17. It explored some hopeful signs that this Earth Day might prove to be the beginning of a serious movement to act on climate. Climate Watch: May This Be the Year that Earth Day Stops Being a “Next Year” Thing Kathy Pollard’s letter that was published in the CDT on April 11 echoed the current CCL initiative to stand with Ukraine. Her letter was entitled “Saving the World While Saving Ukraine.” OLLI courses on climate and sustainability OLLI will be offering a series of courses on climate change and sustainability during their special “Maymester” during the month of May. Sylvia Neely will be one of the instructors with a course entitled “Climate Policy: Fallacies, Obstacles, and Opportunities.” The courses are open to both members and non-members of OLLI. To learn more about the courses being offered and to register, click here. PA Climate Convergence Climate activists from throughout Pennsylvania will be converging on Harrisburg for three days of activities on June 11-13. Here is the website. The Harrisburg chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby will be tabling at this event on Saturday and would welcome any CCL volunteers from around the state to join them. If you are interested in doing so, contact Rachel Mark of the Harrisburg chapter at rachelmark1207@gmail.com The Sierra Club is sponsoring a bus from State College for the rally and march taking place on Sunday afternoon. Round-trip tickets cost $45. The bus will leave from the Giant parking lot on North Atherton at 7:30 am on Sunday. For more information and to reserve a seat, go to this MeetUp page or write to Ellen Foreman at esforeman@yahoo.com CCL National News Annual Conference in person CCL will once again hold its national conference in person in Washington, DC on June 11-13. If you have not had a chance to attend this conference, this is a great opportunity to meet people, to learn, and to be inspired. Registration is now open. Please think seriously about attending. We have some funds for scholarships, so let us know if you are interested and would like to apply. Write to PaStateCollege@citizensclimatelobby.org There is a special low rate for students, and CCL national offers scholarships to encourage diversity. Take Action It is crucial that we keep the pressure on Congress and the White House to let them know that we want them to take action on climate. Here is a handy link to a CCL site that makes it easy for you to communicate with our elected officials. You can also sign up for our Monthly Calling Campaign. You will be assigned a specific day every month on which to call Congress. The idea here is to create a steady drumbeat of messages asking Congress to act on climate. This action is both easy and impactful. Unexpected Messengers What do the American Petroleum Institute, the Electric Power Supply Association, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and the Business Roundtable have in common? They have all recently called for a price on carbon. This unexpected chorus of conservative and business voices can be especially powerful in Congress, as Danny Richter, CCL’s Vice President of Governmental Affairs, tells us in this short video. The story about the American Petroleum Institute was leaked to the Wall Street Journal. Here are the Business Roundtable position paper, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s views on the Build Back Better Bill, and the Electric Power Supply Association’s statement on the importance of market solutions for encouraging clean power. CCL National Call Every month, CCL hosts a call for all members throughout the United States and the world which features an invited speaker and news of CCL activities. On May 14 at 1 pm, the speakers will be from an organization called American Forests. Jad Daley, President and CEO, and Joel Pannell, Vice President of Urban Forestry, will discuss the importance of urban forests and also their work in restoring forest health in North America. For more information, including how to listen to the call, click here. Community News Poetry Contest St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in State College is sponsoring a poetry contest with caring for creation and the climate crisis as the theme. The deadline for submissions is May 22. The winners will be invited to read their submissions at a special poetry reading during Arts Fest in July, and there are prizes. Click here to learn more.  Penn State seminars Penn State’s Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education will be hosting a lecture by a Sociology professor from Drexel University, Amanda McMillan Lequieu, on the subject of “Measuring and Addressing Social Vulnerability to Climate Change.” It will take place on May 6 at 2:30 in 217 Business Building or Online. The Penn State Center for Energy Law and Policy and the Law School are hosting a panel discussion on “Scaling Up Equitable Distributed Energy” on Tuesday, May 10 from 1 to 3 pm. Registration is required. Click here for more information. ICYMI – In Case You Missed It PA joins RGGI Many of us responded to the call for public comments issued by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in support of Pennsylvania joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The legislature passed a measure denying Gov. Wolf’s plan to join RGGI under the authority of the state’s Air Pollution Control Act. He vetoed that bill and the legislature was unable to override the veto. On April 5, as the DEP was preparing to publish the official regulations, the Commonwealth Court issued a stay forbidding them to proceed. The stay has now expired, due to a lack of activity. And so on April 23, the regulations were published, and PA is now officially a part of RGGI. However, as expected, the legal challenges have not stopped. Coal interests have sued, arguing that the fees in RGGI constitute an unlawful tax. Stay tuned for more developments, but we can be thankful that Pennsylvania has now joined with the ten other states to cooperate in reducing emissions from electricity generation plants powered by fossil fuels. Did California actually hit 97% renewables in April? Yes and No. I have recently subscribed to Canary Media, which is associated with RMI (the former Rocky Mountain Institute). They are “dedicated to chronicling the transition to a decarbonized economy and society.” Their newsletter offers thoughtful analysis of the news. This week, they looked closely at the news that on April 3, California got 97% of its energy during a three-hour period from wind and solar. This is a hopeful development that shows that the grid can remain reliable while absorbing a large amount of renewable energy. But what exactly does that statistic mean? Where did the energy come from and how did the grid manage it? Can they easily ramp that up to longer periods so that they can produce all their electricity from renewables? As you might expect, there are many challenges, and this article explores some of the issues that still remain to be solved. “Did California actually hit 97% renewables in April? Yes and No” was written by Mike O’Boyle. Renewables vs. Nuclear The US Energy Information Administration reported that for the first time in 2021, more electricity was generated by renewables than by nuclear power. Their statistics include only utility-scale solar and not panels on individual rooftops, which would make the number even greater. Essential for scaling renewable energy The Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to provide nearly $3 billion to a pair of programs designed to spur domestic production of advanced batteries for electric vehicles and storage. The funds are part of more than $7 billion Congress earmarked for improving the domestic battery supply chain in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. |
| If you have ideas, comments, or just want to talk about climate, please feel free to contact Sylvia Neely (PaStateCollege@citizensclimatelobby.org) or Lisa Richardson (twitter@statecollegeccl.org). We would love to hear from you. |