It is hard to have the imagination for what the world will look like when my four-year-old son is my age (39). That will be the year 2051 – one year after scientists tell us we must lower our emissions by 80 percent. Multiple outcomes are possible. The world may have collectively embarked upon a … Read more
by Jane Bender, The Climate Center Jane Bender is president of The Climate Center. Powering the Bottom Line (nbbj.news/powering) is a recurring column from that Santa Rosa-based organization. In 1978, Jennifer Bice took over her parents’ small goat dairy. Today, her award-winning goat milk yogurt, kefir and artisan cheese are sold nationwide, and she has expanded … Read more
The article below, published in the Los Angeles Times, demonstrates the need for a shift in our current energy system to better align the needs of California residents and businesses with the goals of energy providers. Currently, the main objective of private California utilities is to maximize shareholder profits. In the Community Choice Energy model, … Read more
In 2010 I invited Hans-Josef Fell, at the time a German Parliamentarian, to visit Sonoma County to talk about the policies he successfully advocated for, which helped lead Germany in the transition to renewable energy. I caught up with him again in 2012 at the annual InterSolar conference in San Francisco shortly after he had … Read more
William K. Reilly, a Republican and one-time head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was recently interviewed by Christian Schwägerl of Yale e360. Reilly is dismayed that a climate change skeptic has been named to lead his former agency, but he insists environmental progress can be made. Reilly, who was head of the EPA under … Read more
by Andy Ferguson, North Bay Clean Energy Forum How can communities quickly transition from using fossil fuels like natural gas and gasoline to using renewables like solar? A community group called the North Bay Clean Energy Forum has released a new white paper describing specific strategies to rapidly make this switch. The group envisions that … Read more
What can we glean from Tuesday’s debacle? House Republicans attempted to gut an independent ethics committee. They were met with such public outcry – plus a negative tweet from Trump – that they abandoned their plans. Let’s hope that this episode foreshadows the ability of a vocal public to impact what happens in Washington DC. Imagine … Read more
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to choose ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson to be secretary of State, according to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. This is very disturbing when we think about what it means for climate protection, as well as Trump’s personal interests. Exxon has numerous partnerships with Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil company, and has lost more than … Read more
In an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday, Donald trump provided some hope to climate protection advocates: “On climate change, Mr. Trump refused to repeat his promise to abandon the international climate accord reached last year in Paris, saying, “I’m looking at it very closely.” Despite the recent appointment to his transition team … Read more
