| The accolades for the Inflation Reduction Act and its substantial climate provisions have been coming from all directions. —Paul Krugman of the New York Times wrote, “ This is a very big deal. The act isn’t, by itself, enough to avert climate disaster. But it is a huge step in the right direction and sets the stage for more action in the years ahead.” —Adam Sobel of CNN said, “There has never – never – been climate legislation anywhere near this substantial passed in the United States. Not only do these emissions reductions truly matter on their own, but they show that it’s politically possible – that enough people care about the climate problem that it can be addressed by our political system. And they allow us to look other nations in the eye as we ask them to do their parts too.” —Humzah Yazdani of the World Economic Forum said, “The IRA is the most meaningful climate bill ever passed in the US. It has the potential to significantly curb the country’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) over the next few years.” But it will do so only if people are aware of the benefits and act to take advantage of the incentives. And that is where Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers enter the picture. Please join us at our March meeting on Tuesday, March 21 at 5:30 as we continue to explore the many provisions of this bill and make plans for telling our community about how they (and we) can save money and save the planet too. Our meeting will be hybrid, that is, it will take place in person and also via zoom. If you are unable to attend the meetings on Tuesday evenings, please let us know of your interest so that we can schedule a supplementary meeting at a more convenient time. Sylvia Neely Monthly Meeting Tuesday, March 21, 2023 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Centre County , Room 6 780 Waupelani Drive State College, PA 16801 Zoom: Write to us for the Zoom link CCL members in action Congratulations to Dick Jones, who wrote a great OpEd for the Centre Daily Times. CCL’s coordinator for state and local media, Charlotte Ward, selected it for special mention. It was one of only 8 OpEds or letters from throughout the country that she highlighted for the month of February. We are delighted that Dick’s dedicated and consistently good work was recognized in this way. Here is the link to his OpEd: “Climate watch: ‘Green’ projects growing fastest in ‘red’ states.” It appeared in the weekend edition of the CDT on Saturday, Feb. 11. Under the CDT’s new publishing schedule, the weekend paper appears on Saturday rather than Sunday. Our CCL chapter is now working cooperatively with a statewide letter-to-the-editor campaign. Some local people outside of our CCL chapter have devised a system whereby letters can be sent to several dozen daily and weekly newspapers around Pennsylvania. “Test” letters were offered by us for this effort and two have already “landed” in The Scranton Times-Tribune. This is a very promising development and will extend our media outreach. Four members of our chapter are participating: Dick Jones, George Otto, Diane Mills and Kathy Pollard. More participants are welcome. Contact Dick Jones at richard@rwjonesagency.com for more information. CCL will be tabling at the Banff Film Festival on March 24 and 25 (see details below). If you would like to help with this outreach effort, contact Diane Mills at tabling@statecollegeccl.org CCL’s presentation on Home Electrification and Efficiency Opportunities from the Inflation Reduction Act was presented live on March 2 at 8 pm. But you can watch the recording at your convenience. Here is the information. An excellent source on the movement for electrification and its benefits is the Rewiring America webpage. You can find information for homes, schools, businesses, and government. CCL Conservative Climate Leadership Conference and Lobby Day will be held in Washington, DC on March 28 and 29. The conference, designed especially for those who identify politically as right of center, includes speakers from government and industry and offers an opportunity to lobby key conservative members of Congress. To find out more, click here. CCL June Conference and Lobbying in DC CCL’s annual conference that brings together volunteers from throughout the US and the world will be held again this year in Washington, June 10-13. This stimulating gathering will once again offer in-person lobbying on Capitol Hill, an unforgettable experience that you will want to be a part of. Please consider attending. Our chapter has some funds to help defray the costs. Let us know if you are interested in attending. Schedule and registration page CCL partners with Trout Unlimited Trout Unlimited does extraordinary work in conservation and in preserving streams and rivers from the damaging effects of climate change. At the local level their members repair and maintain trout streams and advocate for local conservation. They also work closely with CCL in promoting legislative action on climate change. Last year, Carolyn Heckman of the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited invited Sylvia Neely to acquaint their members with the work that CCL is doing. You can access the video here. |
| Community News BANFF film festival is back! Here is Kelly Forest’s invitation to this event: Take in the stunning natural beauty and explore the globe in another collection of the world’s greatest mountain and adventure films from the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival. Join us on March 24 and 25 at 7 pm as the Sierra Club Moshannon Group brings the spirit of outdoor adventure and conservation to the State Theater in State College, PA. You can check out the details and purchase tickets via this link. You can also see short descriptions of the films being shown each evening. Come early and meet our local sponsors and non profit organizations focused on the environment and all things outdoors who will be available in the lobby and the attic. You can also register for great prizes offered by our sponsors. This event usually sells out so get your tickets early and be part of the journey in this year’s World Tour. We look forward to seeing you there! New Hydrogen Carbon Capture Plant in Clinton County Nikola Corporation is making plans to manufacture hydrogen fuel-cell electric trucks. Those trucks will need to be fuelled by hydrogen and for that supply they are developing associations with a network of hydrogen-producing plants, one of which will be in Clinton County. “KeyState is in the second phase of engineering Pennsylvania’s first carbon capture and storage project, to be built in Clinton County. The gas synthesis project will extract stranded gas from Marcellus Shale to manufacture hydrogen, ammonia and urea, and permanently store the resulting CO2 nearly a mile underground.” KeyState will be partnering with Penn State in this manufacturing initiative. You can read more about this $1 billion project in these articles: “Pennsylvania’s first-ever carbon capture project will have major local, statewide impacts” and “‘The hydrogen economy is here’: Nikola Corp to source hydrogen from KeyState for zero-emissions trucks.” NVEC Tree Offer Dorothy Blair describes this offer: For the third year in a row, the NVEC (Nittany Valley Environmental Coalition) Tree Planting Outreach is partnering with Pennsylvania’s 10-Million Tree initiative to offer you native trees and shrubs provided by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. These are one-year-old seedlings, typically 6” to 24” tall. NVEC has selected plants adapted to the Centre Region, where we’ll be delivering and/or helping plant this March and April. We offer well-known trees (oak, maple, pine, dogwood, redbud) and worthy lesser-known bushy species (native viburnum, hazelnut, fall-blooming witch hazel), and of course, the ever-popular highbush blueberry that delivers both berries and brilliant fall foliage. For more information and the remaining list of offerings, contact us at nvec2018@gmail.com We need to find homes for these trees before mid-May, so spread the word to your friends, neighbors, churches, clubs, and social media. Penn State Extension Offers Guidance on IRA Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit Guidance is the name of the webinar to be offered by Penn State Extension educators. They will provide information based on guidance from the IRS about what might qualify and the various stipulations the IRS has put forth. Thursday, Mar. 16 from noon to 1 pm via Zoom. To learn more and to register, click here. ICYMI – In Case You Missed It Keeling Curve Continues Measurements of carbon dioxide have been taken continuously since 1958 in Hawaii. This crucial data, which has produced the well- known Keeling curve, is still being gathered, despite the eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano. Read about it here. Wildfires in Chile One of the world’s extreme weather events did not receive much media attention in the US. You can read about the wildfires in Chile that were made worse by an intense heat wave. A sober look at the Biden climate and economic policies Robinson Meyer, who used to write articles on climate change for The Atlantic, provided a perceptive look at current climate policy for the New York Times on Feb. 12. “A Huge, Uncharted Experiment on the U.S. Economy Is About to Begin.” 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. |