FEATURED COVERAGE
Story By Ramona du Houx, September 14, 2021
On September 14th over 137 lawmakers, some who are also veterans, attended an Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) White House Summit on the climate crisis supporting urgent climate solutions and a Presidential Climate Emergency Declaration. Such a declaration would be the most immediate way forward.
“With extreme flooding and hurricanes becoming the norm, more North Carolinians are put at unnecessary risk. We have to mitigate the climate crisis with the President’s Build Back Better Act,” said Natalie Murdock, North Carolina State Senator, EOPA Leadership Council. “Communities that have been systematically neglected need the transformative change the BBBA could bring. This is the hopeful promise of a more inclusive America, one where one’s zip code doesn’t predetermine your future.”
PRESS CONFERENCE
On October 13th Elected Officials to Protect America hosted a zoom press conference where press could ask questions to a distinguished panel of five lawmakers from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut about the potential of having the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) for their state and the region. All participants enthusiastically agreed that by transforming transportation systems with TCI funding, by using clean energy instead of dirty fossil fuels, everyone’s health will improve.
Story By Jon Hurdle, July 14, 2021
On July 1, the Board of Public Utilities awarded its second offshore wind solicitation for two new wind farms off Ocean and Cape May Counties that will generate a total of 2,650 megawatts. Coupled with an already permitted wind farm that will generate 1,100 megawatts off Atlantic City, a forest of giant turbines will produce enough electricity to power 1.6 million homes by about 2028.
In July 2021, NJ Spotlight News
Story By Dan Bacher, July 1, 2021
Water access in the Golden State is under threat of becoming more limited for everyday use like drinking, sanitation, and agricultural needs. Fields will have to be fallowed, freshwater ecosystems are facing catastrophe, and communities are bracing for water shortages. The current drought has outpaced the state’s devastating 2012-16 drought which left some residents having to rely on water trucks to bring in water in Kern County.
July 1, 2021, Red Green and Blue
Story By Ramona du Houx, February 25, 2021
A recent study from Harvard University, in collaboration with universities in England, found that world-wide one in five premature deaths can be attributed to fossil fuel air pollution. According to this new research, over 350,000 people in the United States died in 2018 from fossil fuel air pollution prematurely – numbers three times higher than previously suggested by other studies.
February 2021 Protect Earth Newsmagazine
Boiling Point: Gavin Newsom just promised ‘giant leaps forward’ on climate. Will he follow through?
Story By Sammy Roth, Sept. 9, 2020
A group called Elected Officials to Protect California — which has garnered support from more than 300 local politicians — was even more critical, accusing Newsom last week of “shadow dancing” on climate change. The group wants the governor to require 2,500-foot buffer zones around all oil and gas wells, and to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy.
In September 2020 Los Angeles Times .
Story By Urban Mayors Press, Summer 2020
“Low-income communities, communities of color, and people with disabilities have long suffered from air pollution caused by vehicle emissions. It’s time for bold leadership. We need mayors and local elected officials to advocate for transportation options that work for the health and needs of every community.”
In July 2020 Urban Mayors Press.
“Protesters on both coasts have an idea: calling on Newsom to halt fracking and new drilling, a demand that former Gov. Jerry Brown fended off throughout his environmentally groundbreaking tenure. The dream for environmentalists and scores of elected officials is that Newsom flexes his executive muscle to cut back fossil fuel production — if not an outright extraction ban, then perhaps more stringent requirements that wells be a certain distance from homes and schools (as would have been required by a bill whose death this year was a triumph for both the energy industry and labor).”
PRESS RELEASES:
Elected officials and veterans speak out in favor of the Build Back Better Act to protect national security and our climate
“The Build Back Better Act puts billions into transforming our systems to use clean energy. A robust tax incentive program to spur growth in clean power and clean transportation will put us on the road to a clean energy economy,” said Jamescita Peshlakai, Arizona State Senator.
President Joseph Biden echoed his words touring the flood devastation brought by Hurricane Ida in the northeast and fire areas fueled by a 21-year historic drought in western states. Flooding and “fluke” storms have destroyed midwest and southern farms and heat waves, the most lethal type of weather phenomenon in the United States, are more frequent. A 2017 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists said 170 coastal communities will face chronic flooding at least 26 times a year in the next two decades, twice as many at-risk locations as today. Read More
