Torrey Trust, owner of Surf eCo, wanted to do more to protect the oceans and the environment so she opened up her own surf school that teaches kids young and old about the environment while helping them catch a few waves. Located in Encinitas, CA, known for surfing and now banning …

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By Kate Sheppard

There’s a growing push in Washington for a green economic-stimulus package, and enviros have reason to hope President-elect Barack Obama will lead the charge.

“Finding the new driver of our economy is going to be critical. There’s no better driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy,” Obama told Time’s Joe Klein in an interview two weeks ago. “That’s going to be my No. 1 priority when I get into office, assuming obviously that we have done enough to just stabilize the immediate economic situation.”

Obama adviser Dan Kammen said this week that the Obama team may conduct a nationwide “listening tour” on energy and environmental issues in the next couple of months, in an effort to build support for its legislative plans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), at a press conference on Wednesday, talked up the need for a stimulus package that includes green elements, ideally before Obama even takes office. “Central to the job-creation issue is the strong piece for rebuilding the infrastructure of America, again, in a way that reduces our dependence on foreign oil and that creates good green jobs in America. That is the first order of business that we will have, if it appears to have an opportunity, then we will have a lame-duck session to take it up.”

At a post-election press conference on Wednesday, leaders of major environmental groups also stressed the importance of an economic-stimulus package that includes green measures like home-weatherization funding, efficiency incentives, and aid for the auto industry make more efficient vehicles. That could be low-hanging fruit for creating new jobs and curbing energy use and emissions, they said.

“It’s about connecting the dots between energy, the environment, and the economy, and President Obama made that clear,” said Sierra Club Political Director Cathy Duvall. “It will help our economy recover, and it will also help our environment recover.”

“If there’s going to be a new economic stimulus package, clean energy should be cornerstone,” said Anna Aurilio of Environment America. “We think solving the economic crisis is going to be predicated on how well we launch the clean-energy economy.”

“The biggest solution is a new energy future,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “We’re pleased to be able to work with a new president who gets it on these issues.”

At an Environmental Law Institute event on Wednesday, policy wonks and a senior adviser to Republican Sen. Dick Lugar (Ind.) voiced similar sentiments.

The event’s moderator, Brookings Institution fellow David Sandalow (who was also an energy and environmental adviser to Obama’s campaign), noted that Obama will take leadership at “a period of historic opportunity and historic constraints.” The panelists agreed that the key to passing new energy and environmental legislation will be using it to spur economic growth — through building efficiency, mass transit, and infrastructure development.

“He has to sell it as an economic opportunity, and has to show sustained presidential leadership,” said Mark Helmke, who advises Lugar on these issues. “What he does on this issue from the bully pulpit will make light years of difference … It depends on how much President Obama uses his vaunted position to put heat on this topic.”

Green economic stimulus seems likely to be the earliest environmental progress we could see in the next year — if Obama and the new Congress can push it through.

“[Obama] understands the gravity of the problems we face, and we expect him to act,” said Sierra Club’s Duvall. “We expect to work with him on investing in clean energy and new jobs.”

Continue reading " Let’s get this green economy rolling "

By Tom Philpott

California’s Proposition 2 — deftly profiled by Carol Ness — passed in a landslide on Tuesday.

The new law is simple and hardly earth-shaking; it requires that "calves raised for veal, egg-laying hens, and pregnant pigs be confined only in ways that allow these animals to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely."

In other words, you can still cage farm animals, but you have to give them minimal room to move around. And it doesn’t go into effect until 2015.

Yet industrial-farming interests are squawking like hens about to lay a huge egg. That the industry finds such a commonsense requirement intolerable reveals just how dependent it is on imposing cramped conditions. The backlash against Prop. 2 also betrays a (very encouraging) fear that California’s code will go nationwide.

The American Farm Bureau — the "Voice of [Industrial] Agriculture" — "expressed disappointment" about the passage of the measure, fretting that it would spell the end of the state’s egg and pork industries.

The National Pork Producers went so far as to "decry" the measure, complaining bitterly that "animal-rights groups were successful in vilifying honest, hardworking farmers and ranchers who treat their animals humanely and provide them a safe, healthy environment in which to grow.” Ha!

Continue reading " Californication of U.S. farm-animal code? "

By Jon Rynn

Proposition 1A passed 53 percent to 47 percent in California on Tuesday. The network will eventually extend from Sacramento through San Francisco and L.A., to San Diego.

The bonds authorized by the proposition provide for about $10 billion or one-third of the cost for the whole system. In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, said:

Voting for bond measures like high-speed rail was an opportunity for voters to say, “Well, there is something we can do.” It pointed out just how desperately Californians feel we need to make investments in the future. For it to pass at this time even by a narrow margin I think says a lot, because it was a big price tag.

Now maybe Obama will consider funding high-speed rail for the Midwest, which has been creeping along for years now. High-speed rail should be a crucial part of a plan for energy independence.

Continue reading " High-speed rail wins in California "

By David Roberts

Bloomberg has a piece up about possible Obama EPA picks. The reporter seems to think that Kathleen McGinty is the front-runner. But Barbara Boxer is thinking what I’m thinking:

"Mary Nichols would be a great choice,” Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said in an interview today. "If I was asked by the Obama administration, I’d say she’d be at the top of my list.”

Word.

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By Kate Sheppard

In her post-election press conference yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) affirmed her desire that a new economic stimulus plan — which could be taken up in a lame-duck session of Congress later this month — include green measures:

The economy, of course, is the top item on the agenda as we go forward, and we’ll all be planning what happens in January when we meet with the new President-elect. But even before then, we have a stimulus package on the table that I hope the Republicans in the Senate will allow to be taken up in a lame duck session, and the communication with the White House about such a stimulus package to grow our economy by creating jobs and to do it in a newer, greener way; to recognize the unemployment situation in our country by extending unemployment insurance; to understand that people are hungry in America, to provide additional emergency food assistance; and to give help to the states for their health needs for seniors and for children and other needs that they have.

Central to the job creation issue is the strong piece for rebuilding the infrastructure of America, again, in a way that reduces our dependence on foreign oil and that creates good green jobs in America. That is the first order of business that we will have, if it appears to have an opportunity, then we will have a lame duck session to take it up, but again, those conversations are still taking place with the White House.

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By Kate Sheppard

More from Politico on Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) challenging John Dingell for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Apparently, some on the Hill are accusing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of “plotting to overthrow” Dingell:

But there’s a history of bad blood between Dingell and Pelosi — she stripped him of authority over global warming issues last year — and some of Dingell’s allies suspect that Pelosi and her closest confidant in the House, Rep. George Miller of California, are behind Waxman’s insurgency.

One former Democratic lawmaker suggested this might be “Murtha redux” — a reference to suspicions that Pelosi engineered Rep. John P. Murtha’s unsuccessful run against Rep. Steny H. Hoyer for majority leader in 2006.

If Pelosi stays out of the fight, Waxman will face an uphill battle. If she weighs in heavily on his behalf, the odds might move in Waxman’s favor. “Nancy gets what Nancy wants,” one Democratic lawmaker said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “If she wants Waxman, she will get Waxman.”

Pelosi has told other Democrats that she was not aware that Waxman was going to challenge Dingell until after Waxman called Dingell on Wednesday morning to tell him. “She did not know this was coming,” insisted a senior House Democratic aide. “She had no idea and only found out when everyone else did.”

This power play reveals the rift within the Democratic Party on energy and environmental issues, most notably, climate change. Waxman, who currently chairs the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is the second-ranking Democrat on Energy and Commerce, has advocated for much tougher climate change policies than Dingell. The “Safe Climate Act” he proposed in 2006 included emissions cuts of 80 percent below 1990 levels by mid-century, and he also cosponsored a bill to ban new coal-fired power plants earlier this year. He also joined with Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) to author a statement of principles for climate legislation, which 152 representatives have signed.

Dingell’s name is nearly always followed by the phrase “the powerful chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,” reflecting the broad range of issues his committee covers - energy, environment, health care, and consumer protections, to name a few. He is the longest-serving current member of the House, and as of Feb. 1, 2009, he’ll be the longest-serving representative in history.

Dingell played a key role in the passage of the Clean Air and the Endangered Species acts. Over the years he has approached energy issues in an industry-friendly manner. Representing Michigan has made him a particularly strong ally of the auto industry, and he has resisted fuel economy increases and boosted nuclear. Last month he issued a draft of a climate bill that, though tougher than enviros were expecting from his committee, looked likely to be more lenient than other proposals floating around the Hill.

Last year, when Pelosi took over as Speaker, she sought to create a special committee to deal with climate change and energy independence — and made it clear that she didn’t think Dingell was the appropriate person to lead it. Dingell chaffed at that suggestion and hasn’t had many nice things to say about the committee that was created to work on those issues since then. It’s not surprising, then, that the issue has resurfaced again this year — though many on the Hill were surprised by Waxman’s power grab less than 24 hours after the election.

“Tearing a leadership apart is something the Republicans should be doing after their big loss. It shouldn’t be the first order of business for the Democrats after a historic election,” said Dingell’s spokeswoman, Jodi Seth.

Waxman issued a statement late Wednesday, but did not explicitly mention Dingell: “We will need the very best leadership in Congress and our committees to succeed. That is why after long thought I have decided to seek the chairmanship of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Enacting comprehensive energy, climate, and health care reform will not be easy. But my record shows that I have the skill and ability to build consensus and deliver legislation that improves the lives of all Americans.”

Continue reading " Does the bell toll for Dingell? "

During these 8 long years of George W. Bush’s presidency, we’ve had little trust in the Environmental Protection Agency to do their job. Since Bush has aggressively pushed his business-first agenda and put undue influence on the EPA in their decision-making process, the agency has become little more than a front, allowing Bush and Co. […]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Who Will Obama Choose for Important Environmental Cabinet Posts?”, url: “http://earthfirst.com/who-will-obama-choose-for-important-environmental-cabinet-posts/” });

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There was much at stake in Tuesday’s election, and environmentalists were keeping a close eye on certain senate and house races as well as an important ballot measure in California. As they say, you win some and you lose some, and although not every candidate endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters was victorious, quite […]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Greenies Win Some, Lose Some in Historic Election”, url: “http://earthfirst.com/greenies-win-some-lose-some-in-historic-election/” });

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The 2008 election was an historic one – no doubt about that. Regardless of your political leanings, things are gonna change. For Southern California, one of these things may just be traffic.

Two measures passed on Tuesday will lay the groundwork for improved transportation, reducing our reliance on cars. The first was State measure 1A, a bond to pay for a high-speed train from Los Angeles to Sacramento and then on to San Francisco. Is it expensive? Of course it is. Estimated costs are $19.4 billion, though it will likely be considerably more than that. But having ridden Japan’s bullet trains, I can say that once it’s finished it will be a much better mode of transport than driving or flying to SFO - with drastically reduced carbon emissions to boot!

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