Great article by Maryann. Bill Price is mentioned as well. cheers. pau
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Heather Moyer <heather.moyer(a)sierraclub.org>
Date: Fri, Oct 31, 2014 at 9:54 AM
Subject: [Coal Volunteers List] Mary Anne Hitt's latest: Mountaintop
removal coal mining continues to poison Appalachia
To: #Coal <coal-list(a)sierraclub.org>, #Coal-Volunteers <
coal-volunteers-list(a)sierraclub.org>, #Media <media-list(a)sierraclub.org>
Hi folks-
Mary Anne's column this week focuses on all the news out about
mountaintop-removal coal mining in the past few weeks. Please share it far
and wide!
It's only up on EcoWatch this week:
http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/31/mountaintop-removal-poisons-appalachia/
*Possible tweets:*
Mountaintop-removal #coal mining continues to poison Appalachia:
http://sc.org/13oWe9r (by @maryannehitt) #StopMTR
Falsified water tests, linked to lung cancer, & destroying ecosystems -
mountaintop removal #coal mining must stop: http://sc.org/13oWe9r
Thanks!
---
Heather Moyer
Senior Content Producer
202-675-6276
Sierra Club
50 F Street, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
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Paul Wilson
Sierra Club
504 Jefferson Ave
Charles Town, WV 25414-1130
Phone: 304-725-4360
Cell: 304-279-1361
"There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha
"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle
You may find this information useful as you study up on Energy Efficiency
programs, especially as we discuss legislation for January. Ohio's EERS
was put on hold earlier this year by the Ohio Legislature, at the behest of
lobbying by FirstEnergy, so Ohio's ranking slipped to "middle of the
pack". But wouldn't it be great if WV's EE ranking could get up that high!
JBK
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)fuse.net>
Date: Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 5:53 PM
Subject: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] Fwd: Efficiency Benefits - Getting it right!
To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)lists.sierraclub.org
The following message is one I sent to a list which is dedicated to Ohio
utility issues. The attached Excel sheet contains the cover memo, and all
the data which is used to generate the statements below.
I thought it would be good to share with the people on these lists because
some of you may be very interested to know what efficiency does, and some
of you may be interested in how I produce the statistics.
Some of you may be interested in how well efficiency pays for renewables.
Ohio ranked 18th for utility efficiency programs in the ACEEE's last
ranking, but we have slid backwards since then, and are probably slightly
below the middle of the pack for the entire five years covered here.
We need a lot more attention to efficiency, and especially to bringing all
states up to the level of the best five or six states. Recognize that the
best states for efficiency are also the most healthy economies, and the
larger states in terms of electricity consumption.
- Ned
Ned Ford
513-600-4200
Hi Folks,
It is now seven months before we will have 2014 EE program costs and first
year energy savings in the official filings by the utilities. I hope we can
avoid the use of incorrect cost and savings data which occurred last year,
by getting this out in time for everyone to consider, discuss and agree on
what we need to use.
If anyone on this list is inclined to think that another account might be
more accurate, please bring it to my attention (offlist, preferably) so we
can discuss the different methodologies and reach an agreement on what is
what.
The numbers which I use are those which the utilities actually filed.
Other estimates have not used these numbers. If they had, they would have
reached the same values that I did. We have two objectives here, both
served by the same information: first, to reconcile the actual cost of
efficiency with numbers which the PUCO has provided to the legislature (and
can be counted on to reiterate in the future) ($1 billion to $1.1 billion
in total costs through 2013), and second, to provide evidence of the
tremendous value which SB 221 provides to Ohio, and which FirstEnergy
customers are going to lose as a result of SB 310.
The attached spreadsheet provides details of Ohio’s efficiency spending and
saved energy from 2009 through 2013.
Total spending through the end of 2013 has been $667 million.
An additional $300 million or so has been recovered by the four Ohio
Electric Distribution Companies (AEP, DP&L, Duke and FirstEnergy) to
compensate for Distribution lost revenues and Shared Savings. This is a
reasonable amount, but the PUCO has not accounted for this recovery in any
public forum, so the precise amount is not known yet.
The PUCO does not require lifetime savings calculations, although all the
utilities do them, and some of them report these savings. The PUCO does
require first year savings to be reported, and we have made a conservative
but reasonable projection of the savings to reach the conclusions as
follows:
Retail rate savings realize by the end of 2013 were $1.4 billion
Lifetime retail savings to be realized by the installed hardware will be
$3.9 billion
This does not consider the increased savings which will result from
increased rates due to other reasons.
(Although it was stated during hearings that "energy" prices in Ohio have
gone down due to fracking, electricity prices have risen (see Background
and Discussion tab on the attached spreadsheet).
Efficiency savings to date are large enough to cover the entire cost of the
efficiency programs to date, plus the shared savings, plus the lost
revenues and in addition, cover the cost of Ohio’s renewables standard,
which was reported by the PUCO as:
2011 $44.7 million (1%)*
2012 $52.4 million (1.5%)*
The PUCO has not reported the cost of the renewable standard in other
years, but given the rapidly falling price of renewable energy credits, the
2014 cost is likely to be only $2 million more than 2012, even though the
standard has increased to 2.5% (a 66% increase over 2012).
Efficiency savings already realized will continue to save more money than
combined program costs, lost revenues, shared savings and renewables,
unless efficiency programs are cut.
In addition to the direct savings from efficiency, there are real savings
due to avoided new power plants and transmission and distribution systems.
A conservative estimate of these savings as of year-end 2013 is over $1
billion. This represents more than 500 MW’s of avoided new generation
technology and the transmission and distribution equipment that is also
avoided.
* The calculation of renewable program costs given above is done from PUCO
reports. The calculations are not on this spreadsheet.
Contact me at
Ned Ford
513-600-4200
or Ned.Ford(a)fuse.net
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Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
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Solar Power on the Rise: The Technologies and Policies behind a Booming
Energy Sector (2014)
August 2014
Solar power – clean, reliable, and increasingly affordable – is
experiencing remarkable growth across the U.S.
DOWNLOAD
Full report
<http://ucs-prod.beaconfire.us/sites/default/files/attach/2014/08/Solar-Powe…>
Solar power generates electricity with no global warming pollution, no fuel
costs, and no risks of fuel price spikes, and has the potential to help
move the country toward cleaner, reliable, and affordable sources of
electricity.
Small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, typically on rooftops, account
for the majority of solar installations, while large-scale PV systems and
concentrating solar power (CSP) systems constitute the majority of solar's
overall electricity-generating capacity.
All three are undergoing rapid growth. Given the abundance of sunshine
across the country, solar power has the potential to supply a significant
amount of electricity that is both environmentally and economically
attractive.
Solar power is increasingly affordable
Photo: Wayne National Forest
- Prices for rooftop PV systems have declined markedly in recent years,
dropping 29 percent from 2010 to 2013.
[image: Falling price of solar PV chart]
<http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/images/2014/09/energy-graphic-cha…>
CHART: The Falling Price of Solar PV by U.S. Sector
<http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/images/2014/09/energy-graphic-cha…>
- Their increasing cost-effectiveness is largely a result of reductions
in technology prices, innovative financing, and growing networks of solar
installers and financial partners.
- Tax credits, rebates, and other support in leading states can cut the
total costs of a rooftop system to under $10,000, though many solar
customers are paying little or nothing up front by utilizing solar leases
or power purchase agreements, which provide electricity from the system
over a long period at attractive fixed rates.
- Costs for large-scale PV projects have dropped more than household
systems, to an average 60 percent lower than those for residential solar on
a per-watt basis.
- CSP systems have not experienced the same cost reductions, but offer
the important advantage of being able to store the sun's energy as heat,
and to use it to make electricity when the sun is no longer shining.
Solar power is viable throughout the United States
--
Paul Wilson
Sierra Club
504 Jefferson Ave
Charles Town, WV 25414-1130
Phone: 304-725-4360
Cell: 304-279-1361
"There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha
"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle
?
________________________________
From: wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com <wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com> on behalf of 'Gary Zuckett' garyz(a)wvcag.org [wvec-board] <wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 9:04 AM
To: wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com
Cc: Emmett Pepper; Julie Archer; Karan Ireland; Norm Steenstra
Subject: [wvec board & supporters] FW: WVNS story: Utilities Look to Add Charges for Home Solar
This was mentioned at the Conference. It now in play in Virginia - we'll have to watch out for it here too....
From: Public News Service [mailto:newsservice@newsservicemail.org]
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2014 3:08 AM
To: GaryZuckett
Subject: WVNS story: Utilities Look to Add Charges for Home Solar
Utilities Look to Add Charges for Home Solar<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2014-10-20/energy-policy/utilities-look-to…
%20-charges-for-home-solar/a42370-1>
[Share this page]<http://www.sharethis.com/share?url=%5bhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.publicnewsservice.or…>[http://www.publicnewsservice.org/images/newbody/printicon_s.jpg]<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/print.php?key=42370-1>
October 20, 2014 - Dan Heyman, Public News Service (WV)
Play Audio in Browser Window<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/mp3.php?f=rss-42370-1.mp3>
[PHOTO: Rooftop solar has become a significant enough issue for utility companies to seek new fees from homeowners who install it. Photo by Alfred Twu.]<http://www.newsservice.org/getimage.php?p=c2dpZD00MjM3MCZzaWQ9MQ==>
PHOTO: Rooftop solar has become a significant enough issue for utility companies to seek new fees from homeowners who install it. Photo by Alfred Twu.
CHARLESTON, [http://www.publicnewsservice.org/articlepx.gif?key=42370-1] W.Va. - Utilities in several states are turning to new charges to make up for revenue they're losing to homes with solar power.
The price of solar panels has fallen dramatically, and more people are installing them. In response, industry groups are urging states to let power companies add charges or credit homeowners less for the excess electricity they generate.
Gabe Elsner, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, said home solar had been considered too small to worry about - but no longer.
"The pro blem for the utility company is that they make money by generating power and selling it to customers," he said. "So when you decide to create your own power, suddenly they just lost a customer."
Elsner said the push for the new fees started with the industry trade group Edison Electric Institute and was promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council. EEI declined to comment, but a report called "Disruptive Challenges"<http://www.eei.org/ourissues/finance/documents/disruptivechallenges.pdf> that was done for the group talked about the issue. It said that if too many homeowners generate their own power, utilities could be stuck for the cost of maintaining the grid. However, Elsner said studies, including a recent one in Utah, have shown that home solar systems are good for the grid.
"They ease congestion on transmission lines," he said, "They create clean power locally, so it's more effic ient, instead of building more, big power plants."
Elsner said a power company in Arizona is willing to pay homeowners for the right to put utility-owned solar panels on their roofs, while at the same time wanting to charge folks who do it for themselves. He said the industry is coming to recognize that distributed power generation has great potential.
"The fact that our grid is so centralized actually leaves us vulnerable," he said, "Solar power creates a more distributed electricity system that's more secure and more resilient."
Appalachian Power has asked the state of Virginia for permission to add a fee to the bills of homeowners in that state with the capacity to generate from 10 to 20 kilowatts. The company points out that almost all homes with solar panels or other generating systems would fall below 10 kilowatts. The company has customers in West Virginia, although it has not requested the fee here.
The EEI report is online at eei.org<http://www.eei.org/ourissues/finance/documents/disruptivechallenges.pdf>.
__._,_.___
________________________________
Posted by: "Gary Zuckett" <garyz(a)wvcag.org>
________________________________
Reply via web post<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wvec-board/conversations/messages/4584;…> * Reply to sender <mailto:garyz@wvcag.org?subject=Re%3A%20FW%3A%20WVNS%20story%3A%20Utilities%20Look%20to%20Add%20Charges%20for%20Home%20Solar> * Reply to group <mailto:wvec-board@yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20FW%3A%20WVNS%20story%3A%20Utilities%20Look%20to%20Add%20Charges%20for%20Home%20Solar> * Start a New Topic<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wvec-board/conversations/newtopic;_ylc=…> * Messages in this topic<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wvec-board/conversations/topics/4584;_y…> (1)
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.
__,_._,___
This is something we need to know about and be public about.
JBK
________________________________
From: Bill Price <bill.price(a)sierraclub.org>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2014 8:53 AM
To: James Kotcon; Liz Wiles; Mark Kresowik; David Muhly; Gary Nelson; Adam Beitman
Subject: Water samples faked
Is it any wonder people don't trust what's in the water!
http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20141009/GZ01/141009217/1419
Bill Price, Organizing Representative
Sierra Club
Environmental Justice Program
Beyond Coal to Clean Energy Campaign
Phone: 304-389-8822 (Cell)
Email: bill.price(a)sierraclub.org<mailto:bill.price@sierraclub.org>
"If there's no struggle, there's no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet renounce controversy are people who want crops without plowing the ground..." Frederick Douglass 1817-1895
This may be relevant to our own PSC efforts?
JBK
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Brooks <brookse32(a)earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 3:29 AM
Subject: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] Excellent Article On CA Regulator Shows Utterly
Incestuous Relationship Between Utility Industry, Regulator, & Governor
Brown
To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)lists.sierraclub.org
Excellent Article On California PUC President Peevey Shows Utterly
Incestuous Relationship Between PG&E, Peevey, & Governor Brown's
Administration (two of the most powerful members of which are former PG&E
executives).
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2014/oct/08/citylights1-peevey-yuck
Could Brown reappoint unpopular Peevey? By Don Bauder
<http://www.sandiegoreader.com/staff/don-bauder/>, Oct. 8, 2014
<http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2014/Oct/08>
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_Edmund_G_Brown_J…>
Jerry Brown
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_MichaelPeevey_lg…>
Michael Peevey
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_car_t670.jpg?b3f…>
Image by Chris Woo
Peevey is suspected of backing SDG&E in their attempt to make San Diego
ratepayers pick up the tab.
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_Pipe-from-Sanbru…>
Pacific Gas & Electric’s penalties for the 2010 San Bruno pipeline
explosion were less than suggested.
Shortly after his almost certain reelection in November, Governor Jerry
Brown must decide whether to reappoint Michael Peevey as president of the
California Public Utilities Commission. Peevey’s term runs out at the end
of the year.
In mid-August, Brown voiced strong support for Peevey in an interview with
editors of the *San Jose Mercury News*. A month earlier, that newspaper had
editorialized, “If Gov. Jerry Brown persists in backing his outrageously
unethical appointee [Peevey], he might as well change the name to the Pro
Utility Commission.” Around the same time, the *San Francisco Chronicle*
called for Brown to oust Peevey. The *Modesto Bee*, citing Peevey’s
“overseas junkets” paid for by utilities, said it was time for Peevey to go
because he “regards utility company executives as peers and partners.”
The Southern California press has also been hard on the commission’s
president.
Peevey is suspected of pulling strings in such matters as San Diego Gas &
Electric’s attempt to make ratepayers pick up the tab for uninsured
expenses of the 2007 fires, caused by the utility. Recently, emails between
commission and Pacific Gas & Electric officials have shown that the company
said it didn’t want administrative law judges who would recommend tough
penalties for the company’s role in the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion.
The commission complied, and the recommended penalties were much less than
the staff had suggested. Indignant Bay Area politicians want the attorney
general to investigate the commission for its pro-utility behavior.
The governor and Peevey (both in their mid-70s) are old friends, dating
back to the years in which Peevey was active with organized labor and the
Democratic Party. After getting two degrees in economics at the University
of California/Berkeley, he worked for the federal government in labor
economics and then became chief economist for the American Federation of
Labor/Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). In 1984, he joined
Southern California Edison. He was a senior vice president and chief
lobbyist for the company in Sacramento. Edison’s chief executive, Howard
Allen, himself a former lobbyist, had a fondness for executives with
political connections.
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_John_Bryson_t670…>
John Bryson
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_carl-wood_t670.j…>
Carl Wood
Peevey shortly became an executive vice president. Another executive vice
president was John Bryson, who also had political connections. He was a
former president of the California Public Utilities Commission, a graduate
of Stanford with a law degree from Yale, and smooth and oily — like
politicians. “Howard Allen played the two against each other,” says Carl
Wood, a former commissioner, now director of regulatory affairs for the
Utility Workers Union of America.
“Peevey is not Bryson’s kind of guy, or the other way around. Bryson is Ivy
League–looking and educated, suave, friendly, sophisticated. Peevey is
crude but intelligent,” says a former commission executive. Says a former
Edison executive, “They were oil and water.”
As executive vice president, Peevey in the late 1980s was put in charge of
Edison’s attempted hostile takeover of San Diego Gas & Electric. To many in
San Diego, Peevey did not appear so intelligent in his speeches and radio
and TV appearances. Edison lost big. San Diegans were surprised when, in
1990, Peevey was named president of Southern California Edison. He also
served as president of the parent, Edison International.
But — and it’s a big but — Peevey was *not* chief executive officer. That
job went to his foe, Bryson. Peevey lasted less than three years. In 1993,
barely in his mid-50s, he “retired” from Edison and walked out with a
bundle of stock and possibly severance pay, too; my sources disagree on the
latter point. There is agreement on one point, as described by a former
Edison executive: “He didn’t want to work for Bryson,” and Bryson didn’t
want Peevey around, either.
Peevey, not permitted to compete with Edison for two years, went with a
public relations/lobbying firm, then began taking equity interests in
smaller energy firms. After he raked in a $10 million capital gain from
selling one firm, he and his wife Carol Liu, now a state senator, lined up
a kinky tax shelter. He was told he would pay almost no taxes using the
scheme but would pay $3.5 million if he played it straight. The government
went after the tax shelter — and Peevey and his wife took the accounting
firm to court for giving them bad advice.
Peevey championed competition in the energy business. Unabashedly, he
favored deregulation, although he said it had to be tweaked in California.
He told others that he had made a bundle of money trading energy contracts.
Oh, yes. He also had stock in Enron, the corporate hoax that fleeced
California in the 2000–2001 energy crisis before collapsing. Peevey dumped
his Enron stock.
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_Loretta-Lynch_t6…>
Loretta Lynch
Despite these black marks against him, in March of 2002, Peevey was named a
commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission. Consumer groups
howled that a former Edison president and deregulation yahoo would be named
to the commission. At the time, Loretta Lynch was president of the
commission and was tough on the utilities and a champion of re-regulation.
Carl Wood, then a commissioner, was her steady ally in demanding
responsibility of the utilities. “We were unpopular with big business,
which had a venomous hatred for Lynch,” recalls Wood. “To mollify the
corporations,” then-governor Gray Davis named Peevey as president of the
commission at the end of 2002, even though he had been there only about
eight months. Pro-consumer groups howled again.
Peevey’s supporters pointed to his longtime association with labor unions.
Insiders knew better. “The only time Peevey is pro-labor is…when he is
using labor to maximize revenue for the utilities,” says a former
commission official. “He is a corporate liberal. He is not responsive to
consumer interests,” says Wood.
Brown and Peevey are buddies “because Peevey does what Brown tells him to
do,” says Lynch. “Peevey has always been close to PG&E and [Southern
California Edison]. So has Brown.”
<http://media.sdreader.com/img/photos/2014/10/07/citylights_nancy-mcfadden_t…>
Nancy McFadden
Indeed, Brown’s executive secretary is Nancy McFadden, who joined the
governor after serving as senior vice president to the chief executive
officer of Pacific Gas & Electric. In essence, she is Brown’s chief of
staff without the title.
In 2011, Brown hired Dana Williamson, Pacific Gas & Electric’s director of
public affairs, as senior advisor for cabinet and external affairs. Two
years later, she was named cabinet secretary — the person to whom other
agency secretaries report. It’s often considered the second-most-powerful
post in the gubernatorial administration.
When Lynch was deposed, Peevey threw a party, to which he invited utility
executives. Lynch wasn’t invited.
Asked what another Peevey term as head of the California Public Utilities
Commission would be like, Lynch had one word:
“Yuck.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To
unsubscribe from the CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS list, send any message to:
CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out
our Listserv Lists support site for more information:
http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms
& Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp
The monthly polling memo has some interesting insights on energy efficiency
and climate change. The Ohio data (attached) suggest that 3 out of 4 would
reject AEP's proposed rate hike, and more than 2 of 3 would prefer
investments in EE and renewables, instead of bailing out dirty coal plants.
It may be useful to use that "bailout" language in some of our political
work.
JBK
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Caitlin Pixley <caitlin.pixley(a)sierraclub.org>
Date: Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 3:01 PM
Subject: State Polling Memo for August & September
To: CONS-FRED(a)lists.sierraclub.org
--------------------------- cc:Mail Users-----------------------------
** Remember to DELETE the 'Sender: ...' lines above before REPLYing **
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi All -
Find attached the polling memo for both August and September from Grace
McRae.
The memo includes new polling from the following states: CA, CO, ID, MT,
NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, TN, UT, VA, WY
Best,
Caitlin
--
Caitlin Pixley
Conservation Associate
Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter
353 Hamilton Street
Albany, NY 12210
(518)426-9144
caitlin.pixley(a)sierraclub.org
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SierraClubAtlanticChapter
*Be a part of the climate solution!* Join the Sierra Club TODAY
<http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=9sMC9c6kiZ0&offerid=343370.100…>
.
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support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp
Colleagues
First, thank you Paul and Regan for your kind words. I'm better, but not 100% yet.
I believe part of my condition is caused by the air quality of the area. As and engineer who is dealt with air quality issues for 50 years, including air sampling for pollution conditions around manufacturing operations all the way through to design and clean rooms, I am very familiar with the process and the technical details of air-quality.
But I do not have the instruments or the support staff to evaluate air-quality here as I used to have and my career days in California and Ontario.
I do know however that I have often driven near the railway tracks that charge through Charleston and seen, in the proper sunlight conditions, the fine particulate dust blowing off the railcars as they passed through town. I've inquired, but that's never been analyzed, never been measured and is an unknown.
But one doesn't need sophisticated instruments to see that that dust is being dispersed all on the communities through which these trains, sometimes it very high speeds, traverse.
That brings me to a point I want to make. Air-quality is definitely a local issue. The EPA can establish national standards, and the local agencies can then implement a plan to measure against those standards. But in my opinion the evaluation of very close proximity conditions in West Virginia are never taken into account unless the public rises up and demands them.
That also applies to climate change. There is yet another article in the Charleston Gazette today describing how carbon dioxide levels in the upper atmosphere Have already passed 350 ppm last year and are approaching the 400 ppm. Scientists consider the 400 parts, if achieved on a consistent basis to be very seriously detrimental to life as we know it all over the planet including in West Virginia.
Addressing the issue and pressing for action requires a strong voice here in West Virginia. And I personally believe the economic opportunities that exist for addressing climate change are out there and need to be described to our policy makers repeatedly.
While CCL is working diligently at the national level to seek logical and incremental steps towards controlling climate change, given the political barriers, we must be doing more at the state level in my opinion.
That is why I have proposed to WVEC, CAG, OVEC, and others that we come together and join forces to mount a single voice to address climate change in West Virginia.
It is an issue that is complex and crosses all of the constituencies of the entire environmental movement in West Virginia. To be successful, the legislatures got to know that there is a large constituency, a coming together of all of the organizations, to force them to pay attention to not just the dangers of doing nothing, but of the economic opportunities that are out there for addressing climate change.
if we can come together somewhere in sometime in October, and begin to develop a comprehensive plan, then we will be ready to present our thoughts to the legislature in January.
But I must look to each of the leadership of the various organizations to talk to one another and decide where they would like to do this.
However, I need to hear from the leadership of each of the organizations. Is there interest in coming together in the manner I am suggesting? Or is there an alternative concepts?
I'd like to hear from the leadership to know if this is making sense, and if so let's plan a specific time and meet, probably here in Charleston, To begin thinking about how to plan and implement a new voice of reason for addressing climate change here in West Virginia.
I can offer a venue for such a meeting that is easy and convenient to reach. I must ask for permission from Temple Israel for such a meeting, but I believe Rabbi would approve such a gathering as long as it's not on the Sabbath.
Please, let me hear from you
Allan
Sent from my iPhone
> On Sep 9, 2014, at 11:14 AM, Regan E Quinn <reganequinn(a)frontier.com> wrote:
>
> bravo
>> On Sep 9, 2014, at 7:38 AM, Paul Epstein wrote:
>>
>> Good work both of you! Hope you're feeling much better, Allan.
>>
>>
>> www.awarewv.org
>> Paul Epstein
>> 304.343.5074
>> www.paulepstein.net
>>
>>> On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 7:29 AM, Jim Probst <probstfurnituremakers(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>> It's been a good couple of days for Charleston CCL with Alan's excellent op-ed on Sunday and I got one published in today's paper.
>>> http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140909/ARTICLE/140909344/1134
>>>
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