Incentivize farmers to develop ecologically regenerative farming systems – BS

Posted on April 11, 2020 by mekorganic

Incentivize farmers to develop ecologically regenerative farming systems that sharply reduce emissions; sequester carbon; and heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands.

  1. Help farms of all sizes transition to ecologically regenerative agricultural practices that rebuild rural communities, protect the climate, and strengthen the environment with an investment of $410 billion. This assistance will focus on both sequestering carbon and increasing resiliency in the face of extreme weather events. Funds will be used to offset the costs of enterprise-level changes and barriers to transition, including design, technical assistance, purchasing equipment, installing infrastructure, site remediation, contract termination, and repaying farm-debt.              a)We will set aside $41 billion to help large concentrated animal feeding operations that have a large environmental impacts transition to ecologically regenerative practices.               b) We will set aside $41 billion for socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers who have been historically underserved by USDA programs.
  2. Pay farmers to keep carbon in the soil. We will pay farmers $160 billion for the soil health improvements they make and for the carbon they sequester, which both mitigates climate change and helps farmers adapt to it.Research and development.
  3. We will invest $1.48 billion in research to develop new, region-appropriate farming techniques and seeds. In order to respond to climate change and heal the environment, we will need to invest in non-chemical intensive practices and seed varieties that are tailored to each region’s climate and soil.
  4. Fund farmland conservation. We will spend $24.85 billion to bolster existing programs like the Conservation Stewardship program, the Agricultural Conservation Easement program, and the Regional Conservation Partnership program that help farmers make conservation improvements on their farm. These programs have made demonstrated gains in environmental quality.
  5. Transition to organic farming. We will spend $500 million to help farmers that are enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) transition their land to new organic farmers. As CRP contracts end, we will help connect these farmers with new organic farmers who want to continue rigorous conservation practices on a working landscape.
  6. Renewable energy on the farm. Farmers should be able to grow and harvest renewable energy, in addition to their crops. We will invest $1.4 billion in the Rural Energy for America Program for clean energy options to both diversify income streams, save money, and eliminate fossil fuel dependence on farms.
  7. Enforce the Clear Air and Water Acts on large factory farms and ensure all farmers have access to the tools and resources they need to address pollution. According to the EPA Inspector General, the EPA has spent more than 10 years and $15 million failing to develop a reliable method for measuring whether factory farms are complying with the Clean Air act and other regulations of dangerous air pollution.
  8. Industrial animal feeding operations, and the millions of pounds of untreated waste they create, are a major source of air pollution and driver of climate change. We will end this weak oversight of factory farms and ensure every farmer has the resources to address all forms of pollution.
  9. Ensure all rural residents, including farmers, and farmworkers have the right to protect their families and properties from chemical and biological pollution, including pesticide and herbicide drift. Farm practices should not infringe on the ability of other farmers and neighbors to carry out the normal activities of farming and rural lifestyles. We will give rural residents legal recourse to sue farmers who pollute their property.

Source: Sanders

Empowering Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems – BS

Posted in Agriculture, animals, Bernie Sanders, Clean Air Act, Climate Change, Climate Justice Resiliency Fund, Conservation, Ecology, farmers, Organic | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Empowering Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems – BS

Posted on April 11, 2020 by mekorganic

Our current food system accounts for 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Not only can we drastically reduce on-farm emissions, farmers have the potential to actually sequester 10 percent of all human-caused emissions in the soil. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing are the industries most vulnerable to climate change. We need to incentivize farming systems that help farmers both mitigate climate change and build resilience to its impacts.
Agriculture has a huge potential to sequester carbon. We need to employ farms of all sizes and production models to transition to ecologically regenerative practices to combat climate change. According to research at the Rodale Institute, agriculture could sequester 37 gigatons of carbon annually worldwide. Sadly, just 10 percent of farmers receive 75 percent of agricultural subsidies in the U.S., and those subsidies don’t prioritize carbon sequestration or soil health. We need to start by supporting all farmers not just a wealthy few and incentivizing conservation not over-production.
As president, Bernie will:

  1. Incentivize farmers to develop ecologically regenerative farming systems that sharply reduce emissions; sequester carbon; and heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands.
  2. Invest in family farms and rural communities — not corporate ownership.
  3. Re-establish and strengthen the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.
  4. Invest in historically underserved communities to grow the number of farmers of color.
  5. Connect consumers with local farms and healthy foods.

Source: Bernie Sanders

Incentivize farmers to develop ecologically regenerative farming systems – BS

Invest in family farms and rural communities — not corporate ownership – BS

Re-establish and strengthen the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration – BS

Empowering Farmers, Foresters & Ranchers to Address Climate Change and Protect Ecosystems – BS

Connect consumers with local farms and healthy foods – BS

The Green New Deal – Bernie Sanders

 

Posted in Bernie Sanders, Climate Change, Ecological systems, farmers, forest, Green New Deal, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Economic Justice

Posted on April 8, 2020 by mekorganic

Articles related to economic justice

Waging NonViolence

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Democracy

Posted on April 8, 2020 by mekorganic

Articles related to Democracy

Waging Non-Violence

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A Just Transition for Frontline Communities – BS

Posted on April 7, 2020 by mekorganic

There is no doubt that the poor and marginalized suffer from the impacts of pollution and climate disruption — particularly communities of color. They are at the frontlines of the climate emergency. For example, of the 73 waste-burning incinerators across the United States, an astounding 79 percent are located within three miles of low-income and minority neighborhoods, which are exposed to mercury, lead, and soot. The Green New Deal is not only a serious climate plan, but an opportunity to uproot historical injustices and inequities to advance social, racial, and economic justice, including redressing the exclusion of black, brown, Native American, and other vulnerable communities from the programs that made up the original New Deal.
As president, Bernie will:

  1. Ensure an inclusive, comprehensive process from start to finish. Workers and communities on the frontline of fossil fuel extraction, transportation and use and those most vulnerable to climate impacts must be involved from the creation and implementation of regulations and protocols to the distribution of funds and carrying out the work of the Green New Deal.
  2. Follow Environmental Justice principles. It is an unfortunate reality that institutional racism also impacts environmental health, and thus the public health and safety of millions of low-income families, people of color, and tribal communities. African American and Latinx communities deal with 56 percent and 63 percent more air pollution, respectively, than they create. Tribal lands are only 4 percent of the United States land base, yet a quarter of our nation’s 1,322 Superfund hazardous waste sites, as well as the vast majority of our abandoned uranium mines, are in Indian country. Additionally, federal leasing of public lands for fossil fuels extraction significantly impacts numerous indigenous communities that share more than 3,000 miles of contiguous border with National Forest lands.

 

The Green New Deal must serve to address modern and historical inequities and environmental racism. We will follow Environmental Justice principles and:

  1. Ensure the full and equal enforcement of all environmental, civil rights, and public health laws and aggressive prosecution of violators. Hazardous waste sites, chemical and industrial plants, aging lead pipes, and decaying infrastructure that endanger the health of all citizens will be fully regulated to ensure the health and safety of all. The EPA’s Office of Civil Rights will step up its investigations into alleged environmental justice violations, including corporate polluters as well as the elected officials who enable them.Ensure that Green New Deal jobs and job training resources are made available to low-income and disadvantaged communities equitably, and ensure equal access to clean energy, electrification, efficiency, and transportation funding, grants, and other incentives. We will promote cleaner manufacturing and materials recycling, safe conditions for farm workers, and a clean energy economy, while providing safe, healthy job sites and other economic benefits to people of color.
  2. Focus job training and local hiring to reflect the racial and gender diversity of the community receiving federal investments. Federal procurement will prioritize minority- and women-owned businesses, cooperatives and employee-owned firms, and community-owned and municipal enterprises. Programs such as the Historically Underutilized Business Zones will be expanded under the Green New Deal to promote job growth in economically distressed communities.
  3. Update permitting rules that allow polluters to target poor communities for polluting infrastructure. Cumulative environmental impacts will be measured and we will require polluters to remediate them. Precaution for the health and safety of our children and planet should be valued above profit.
  4. Ensure that all agencies abide by Executive Order 12898, which according to the EPA requires agencies to “identify and address the disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their actions on minority and low-income populations, to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law.”
  5. Extend civil rights protections to ensure full access to the courts for poor and minority communities to seek legal protections by overturning the Sandoval Supreme Court decision that set an unreasonable burden of proof of racism for claims of environmental racism, including disparate and cumulative exposure to environmental health risks.
  6. Follow the Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. The goals and outcomes of the Green New Deal should continue to be developed under the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing with strong and consistent consultation with the communities most affected by the currently unequal enforcement of environmental laws.
  7. Ensure that funding from the Green New Deal for parks and public lands are distributed equitably in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Superfund hazardous waste sites should be fully remediated, instead of simply covered up to make urban parks.
  8. Fully survey and track pollution in vulnerable communities. The EPA EnviroScreen will be enhanced to provide comprehensive information about cumulative environmental impacts. States will be required to report progress made on environmental justice every five years. Traditionally under-represented communities will receive significant public education, technical assistance, and outreach as part of agency rulemakings and public commenting processes to elicit participation.
  9. Promote urban sustainability initiatives to improve the environmental and social conditions of low-income neighborhoods and communities of color without rendering those neighborhoods inaccessible for future residents of limited economic means.
  10. Ensure the creation and implementation of the Green New Deal is accessible to people with disabilities and non-English speakers. All publications will be in multiple languages, including Braille, and meetings will have language interpreters, including sign language, as appropriate.
  11. Create equitable hiring standards. We will ensure that all the funding that stems from the Green New Deal plan follows standards and guidelines to ensure the jobs created by investing in infrastructure are jobs are available first to displaced workers, veterans, formerly incarcerated people, people with disabilities, and people from vulnerable communities.
  12. Impacted communities, including Tribes, will receive dedicated grant funding. Funding that flows from this plan will prioritize, to the greatest extent possible, communities on the frontlines of fossil fuel extraction, transportation and use and those most vulnerable to climate impacts. Funding will be prioritized for low-income communities, communities of color, people with varied abilities, Tribes, rural communities, and community-based organizations and community development funds. Each agency involved in carrying out the Green New Deal will be required to coordinate in an interagency process to ensure local communities are involved in carrying out this plan.
  13. The first two years of this plan will be spent very aggressively laying down a social safety net to ensure that no one is left behind. Because this plan is so comprehensive in ensuring we solve the climate crisis, we must prioritize establishing a social safety net in the first years of the implementation of this plan:

Energy assistance. While we do not expect energy prices to spike because the federal government is going to weatherize homes, electrify heating, and keep electricity prices stable, we still want to ensure that families are protected during the transition. We will expand the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by $25 billion to help low-income families pay their heating and cooling bills. Additionally, the program will be expanded to provide 10 percent of program costs for maintenance of new efficient heating and cooling systems and technical assistance for the installation and use of new furnaces, heat pumps, boilers, and other upgrades for the duration of the 10-year transition.

Ensure a hunger-free transition. Because the cost of energy and food are so intertwined, we will provide $215.8 billion for free, universal school meals, including breakfast, lunch and snacks. We will expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $311 billion to increase the benefits from the “thrifty” plan which provides inadequate benefits to the more generous “low-cost” food plan, include those with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line, remove punitive work requirements, remove barriers for college students to access SNAP, and ensure people are not denied benefits due to past interaction with the criminal justice system. We will also expand the SNAP program and benefits to the people of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa so they are on par with the benefits in the continental United States.

14. Ensure Tribes and Native American people benefit from this plan.

The federal government will abide by treaties and respect tribal sovereignty while upholding the trust responsibility in every step of this plan.

Tribes will be eligible for all funding available through this plan. Tribes will be able to request technical assistance from agencies carrying out the Green New Deal to equip them with the resources needed to co-manage resources and review federal government actions through the consultation and consent process.

We will abide by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and ensure the free, prior and informed consent by Indigenous Peoples.

15. Invest in Environmental Justice centered community economic development.

We will repair, dismantle, and convert fossil fuel infrastructure on our federal public lands. We must not only clean up existing blighted sites, but as we transition away from fossil fuels, we must ensure no infrastructure is abandoned in a way that would create health or safety dangers for the surrounding community. We will spend $100 billion on fossil fuel well and mine cleanup.

We will clean up Brownfield and Superfund sites. We will clean up and repair thousands of contaminated sites. We will invest $238 billion to clean up Superfund sites and $150 billion to clean up and revitalize Brownfields, and other areas and communities that have been polluted by the fossil fuel, chemical and mining industries.

Source: Sanders

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Economic Development – BS

Posted on April 7, 2020 by mekorganic

As president, Bernie will:
Provide targeted regional economic development. Communities especially in need of assistance during our transition to a clean energy economy will be eligible for an additional funding for economic development investments through regional commissions and authorities. Our federal regional commissions make targeted economic development investments in rural America. These commissions have funded projects that enhance workforce competitiveness, build and repair infrastructure, and increase community capacity like broadband projects, clean drinking water, organic farming, and energy efficiency.
An additional $5.9 billion in funding will be distributed as follows:

  1. $2.53 billion for the Appalachian Regional Commission
  2. $506.4 million for the Delta Regional Authority
  3. $304 million for the Denali Commission
  4. $405 million for the Northern Border Regional Commission
  5. $94 million for the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission
  6. $2.02 billion for Economic Development Assistance Programs
  7. Infrastructure investments for impacted communities. We will provide $130 billion for counties impacted by climate change with funding for water, broadband, and electric grid infrastructure investments.

Source: Sanders

The Green New Deal – Bernie Sanders

 

Posted in Bernie Sanders, Climate Change, community, economic development, Uncategorized, workers | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Workers – BS

Posted on April 7, 2020 by mekorganic

Bernie has fought for workers his entire career. He understands that coal miners and oil-rig operators are not the problem. Fossil fuel workers have powered the country for more than a century, working in dangerous and precarious jobs to provide for their families. They have given their lives on unsafe, under-regulated worksites, and they have seen their pensions get cut, their health care get stripped away, and their jobs disappear while fossil fuel executives rake in billions.
For too long, this country has neglected workers displaced by government policy. NAFTA and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, which Bernie opposed, eliminated millions of jobs and left entire communities devastated. Bernie will put workers first. Full employment, economic opportunities and high-wage jobs in underserved areas will be supplemented by income, health care, education and pension protections. When we are in the White House, compensation and assistance for displaced workers will come first; the balance sheets of fossil fuel corporations and billionaire investors will come last.
As president, Bernie will:
Ensure a just transition for energy workers. When we are in the White House, we will create millions of union, family-wage jobs through the Green New Deal in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, and renewable power plants. We will spend $1.3 trillion to ensure that workers in the fossil fuel and other carbon intensive industries receive strong benefits, a living wage, training, and job placement. We will protect the right of all workers to form a union without threats or intimidation from management. The benefits include:

  1. Up to five years of a wage guarantee, job placement assistance, relocation assistance, health care, and a pension based on their previous salary.
  2. If workers would like to receive training for a different career path, they will receive either a four-year college education or vocational job training with living expenses provided. They will also be eligible for health care through Medicare for All.
  3. We will fully fund tenant-based Housing Choice Vouchers to ensure housing assistance to provide safe and affordable housing.
  4. If a worker is ready to retire, they may opt for pension support and access to health care through Medicare for All.
  5. Currently, the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund and multi-employer miners pensions are paid for by coal companies. We will protect miners’ pensions and provide $15 billion for the Black Lung Disability Fund to ensure it remains solvent as we transition away from coal.

Require strong labor standards. All funding that flows from this plan should have the best labor standards attached. That means that all projects completed with funding from the Green New Deal will have fair family-sustaining wages, local hiring preferences, project labor and community agreements, including buying clean, American construction materials and paying workers a living wage to the greatest extent possible. We will improve worker and fenceline community safety standards at manufacturing and industrial plants. Additionally, we will ensure that workers remain safe on the job by providing $100 million in funding for the Department of Labor Susan Harwood training for high-risk industrial workers.
Provide employers with tax credits to incentivize hiring transitioning employees. In order to ensure that workers who are displaced by this plan are able to find meaningful employment, we will provide the Work Opportunity Tax Credit to employers who hire them.
Invest in workers and de-industrialized communities’ economic development. Counties with more than 35 qualifying workers will be eligible for targeted economic development funding to ensure job creation in the same communities that will feel the impact of the transition most. Economic development funding will be distributed through an interagency effort spearheaded by the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. Funds will be allocated through the Appalachian Regional Commission, Economic Development Assistance Programs and the Abandoned Mine Lands fund. Other eligible projects include drinking and waste water infrastructure, broadband, and electric grid infrastructure investments. These targeted investments are intended to supplement, not supplant infrastructure and economic development funding throughout the rest of this plan.
Protecting the right of all workers to form a union without threat or intimidation from management. Currently, the clean energy economy jobs are not yet as densely unionized as fossil fuel and building trades jobs. We plan to change that. Jobs created through this plan will, to the extent feasible, be good-wage, union jobs. In order to do that, we must protect the right of all workers to form a union and collectively bargain by passing Bernie’s Workplace Democracy Plan. We will work with the trade union movement to establish a sectoral collective bargaining system that will work to set wages, benefits, and hours across entire industries, not just employer-by-employer. Unions not only ensure that workers receive fair pay and benefits, they fight to ensure that workers, first-responders, and fence-line communities are safe and healthy.

Source: Sanders

The Green New Deal – Bernie Sanders

The Green New Deal – Green Party

Posted in Bernie Sanders, Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, de-industrialize, economy, Energy, first-responders, Fossil Fuels, Green New Deal, NAFTA, tax, union, workers | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rebuild Our Economy and Ensure Justice for Frontline Communities and a Just Transition for Workers – BS

Posted on April 7, 2020 by mekorganic

As we rapidly move toward renewable energy and energy efficiency, we must ensure that the workers employed in the fossil fuel industry see that their standards of living are not only protected, but improved. A just transition for workers means guaranteeing the incomes, training, and pensions of affected workers, as well as major targeted investments in fossil-fuel-dependent communities. The clean energy economy, which will create three times more jobs and a full-employment economy, must also build strong unions, high wages, and benefits. Finally, the Green New Deal will redress historical injustices, by tackling poverty, inequality, and the disproportionate impacts of environmental damage on poor neighborhoods, communities of color, First Nations, and rural America.

Source: Sanders

The Green New Deal – Bernie Sanders

The Green New Deal – Green Party

Posted in Bernie Sanders, community, economical justice, economy, Green New Deal, Uncategorized, workers | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

End the Greed of the Fossil Fuel Industry and Hold them Accountable – BS

Posted on April 7, 2020 by mekorganic

For decades, fossil fuel corporations knowingly destroyed our planet for short-term profits. The fossil fuel industry has known since as early as the 1970s that their products were contributing to climate change and that climate change is real, dangerous, and preventable. Yet, they kept going. Instead of working to find solutions to the coming crisis, the fossil fuel industry poured billions into funding climate denialism, hiring lobbyists to fight even the slightest government regulation and oversight, and contributing to politicians who would put the interests of fossil fuel executives over the safety and security of the planet. Fossil fuel corporations have fought to escape liability for the pollution and destruction caused by their greed. They have evaded taxes, desecrated tribal lands, exploited workers and poisoned communities. Bernie believes this is criminal activity, and, when he is President, he will hold the fossil fuel industry accountable.
Transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy cannot be done without standing up to fossil fuel corporations. Bernie will make fossil fuel corporations pay for the irreparable damage they have done to our communities and our planet, and he will ensure that all fossil fuel workers affected by the transition are entitled to new jobs, health care, pensions, and wage support. He will not allow fossil fuel executives to reap massive profits while endangering the future of humanity. He will not leave it to the market to determine the fate of the planet. The science is clear on what is necessary. As president, Bernie will take immediate action to end the fossil fuel industry’s greed once and for all.
As president, Bernie will:
Make the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution by:

  1. Massively raising taxes on corporate polluters’ and investors’ fossil fuel income and wealth.
  2. Raising penalties on pollution from fossil fuel energy generation. The EPA has historically under-enforced the existing penalties for polluting under the Clean Air Act. As president, Bernie will raise and aggressively enforce those penalties.
  3. Requiring remaining fossil fuel infrastructure owners to buy federal fossil fuel risk bonds to pay for disaster impacts at the local level. Federal risk bonds can then be paid to counties and municipalities when there are fossil fuel spills, explosions, or accidents.

Prosecute and sue the fossil fuel industry for the damage it has caused. When it was revealed in 2015 that the fossil fuel industry knew their actions were contributing to climate change decades ago, Bernie sent a letter to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to open a federal investigation to find out whether the industry violated the law. President Bernie Sanders will ensure that his Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission investigate these companies and bring suits — both criminal and civil — for any wrongdoing, just as the federal government did with the tobacco industry in the 1980s. These corporations and their executives should not get away with hiding the truth from the American people. They should also pay damages for the destruction they have knowingly caused.

  1. We will also support state and regional action to determine the projected harm to communities and pave the way for actions that remunerate devastated communities requiring care and repair and the dollars to do it.

Create a National Climate Risk Report. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will jointly develop an economy-wide survey of climate risks. To create this report, the SEC will require corporations to audit and report their climate risks. The EPA will use the information to target the worst climate risks through economy-wide regulations to limit carbon pollution emissions under the Clean Air Act to achieve our carbon pollution reduction goals.
Implement sanctions for corporations that violate our domestic climate goals. Polluters should not be allowed to run around our climate laws. Bernie will require the EPA and the Treasury Department to monitor investments and actions made around the globe to ensure our national carbon pollution emissions reduction goals are met. Bernie will impose sanctions on corporations and entities that threaten national and global emissions reduction goals.
End fossil fuel subsidies. The federal government hands out almost $15 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry every year. The American people will no longer be on the hook for this wasteful and dangerous spending when we are in the White House.
Keep fossil fuels on public lands in the ground. Scientists have been clear that in order to solve the climate crisis, we must leave fossil fuels in the ground. We will immediately end all new and existing fossil fuel extraction on federal public lands.
Ban offshore drilling. If we are serious about moving beyond oil toward energy independence, lowering the cost of energy, combating climate change, and cutting carbon pollution emissions, then we must ban offshore drilling. If there is a lesson to be learned from the 2010 BP oil spill disaster, it is that Congress must not open new areas to offshore oil drilling and ban drilling in the Arctic Circle and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
End all new federal fossil fuel infrastructure permits. We will ensure fossil fuels stay in the ground by stopping the permitting and building of new fossil fuel extraction, transportation, and refining infrastructure. Additionally, Bernie will repeal Trump’s Executive Orders (Orders 13867 and 13868) which fast-tracked construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, and revoke all federal permits for those projects. He will also deny all Section 401 permits for fossil fuel infrastructure.
Require fossil fuel corporations repair leaking infrastructure, including natural gas and oil pipelines and drilling sites. Methane from fracked natural gas is 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in our atmosphere. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) can be more than a thousand times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane leaked by the oil and gas industry each year is roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon pollution emitted each year by the US coal industry. The Trump administration repealed important regulations that were based on Colorado’s regulation of leaking fracked natural gas pipeline and wellhead leaks. Those regulations must be reestablished and strengthened to ensure there are no more oil and fracked natural gas leaks.
Clean up old and abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure. There are thousands of abandoned fossil fuel sites all over the country. As we move forward with this plan, there will likely be thousands more. We will put people to work in those communities cleaning up plants, pipelines, well heads, and refineries with good-paying, union jobs while ensuring the highest workplace safety standards, and repurposing these facilities for community needs.
Ban fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining. Fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining are two particularly harmful methods used to extract fossil fuels. They make surrounding communities less healthy and less safe. They must be immediately banned.
Ban imports and exports of fossil fuels. Congress’ decision in 2015 to lift the ban on exporting fossil fuels was a mistake. We must no longer export any fossil fuels. Our coal and natural gas are contributing to increased emissions abroad. We will also end the importation of fossil fuels to end incentives for extraction around the world. We can meet our energy needs and ensure energy security and independence without these imports.
Divest federal pensions from fossil fuels. Federal employees’ pensions are currently invested in fossil fuels. That puts their pensions at risk. The federal government must protect and grow those pension funds by instead investing in the clean energy economy.
Pressure financial institutions, universities, insurance corporations, and large institutional investors still invested in or insuring fossil fuels to transition those investments to clean energy bonds through executive action. When we are in the White House, we will establish new financial rules through the SEC and other regulatory agencies to pressure hedge funds, the insurance industry, and other large investors currently invested in fossil fuels to divest or pay for clean energy investments through clean energy bonds. We have seen a movement of activists force divestment from fossil fuel corporations, and we will support these movements in the White House.
Place a fee on imported Carbon Pollution-Intensive Goods. We will make sure that goods sold into the U.S. are not able to undercut domestic manufacturing by placing a fee on the carbon intensity of those products, under the World Trade Organization General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Article 20. This will not only prevent U.S. manufacturers from being incentivized to leave the United States, it will also provide extra revenue to boost clean domestic manufacturing.
Accurately estimate the climate impacts or benefits of all legislation proposed in Congress. In order to ensure our lawmakers keep us on the right path, we will require the Congressional Budget Office to coordinate with the EPA to provide a “climate score” for legislation, similar to the budget score legislation currently receives.
Focus the federal government’s resources on transitioning to a 100 percent clean energy economy. In order to make the carbon pollution reductions required by the IPCC report, we must eliminate all new fossil fuel production in the United States immediately. This will require reorganizing the Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Energy Information Administration, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare for the clean energy economy and climate impacts to eliminate or transition resources and offices historically used to facilitate fossil fuel extraction, transportation, refining, and use. Instead, these agencies will lead a centralized taskforce to phase out fossil fuels by expediting research, development, deployment, and technical support for polluting industries to ensure a smooth transition for the workers and communities who have historically relied on fossil fuel production. This taskforce will be responsible not only for phasing out fossil fuel production on public lands and waters, but will support the end of fossil fuel production on private property as well.

Source: Sanders

The Green New Deal – Bernie Sanders

Green New Deal

Posted in Bernie Sanders, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Clean Air Act, Climate Change, Dakota Access pipelines, Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Fossil Fuels, Green New Deal, Keystone XL, mountaintop removal coal mining, National Climate Risk, offshore drilling, polution, Securities and Exchange Commission, subsidies, Uncategorized, World Trade Organization (WTO), WTO | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Conserving Our Public Lands – BS

Posted on April 7, 2020 by mekorganic

Our public lands are a national treasure. They belong to all of us. Instead of selling them off to the highest bidder and allowing them to be destroyed by billionaire fossil fuel industry executives, are going to expand our green infrastructure and conserve our public lands. Our public lands serve an important role in not only preventing climate change but also in mitigating the catastrophic effects of climate change like floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather that have been increasing in frequency. Bernie is committed to providing a total of $1.34 trillion to ensure that all Americans have access to urban, suburban and rural recreational green space that are vital to our national heritage and our country’s tradition of recreation and conservation.
As president, Bernie will:
Achieve aggressive emissions reductions in the forest sector. Conserving and sustainably maintaining our forests not only helps improve air and water quality and provide recreation opportunities for American families, it is also a huge opportunity for carbon pollution sequestration. In order to fully understand the opportunities, the Forest Service must work with the U.S. Geologic Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a survey of emissions and natural carbon sequestration from the forestry and agricultural sectors.
Invest in green infrastructure and public lands conservation by reinstating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). One of the most successful New Deal programs and the most rapid peacetime mobilization in American history, the CCC put millions of men to work building and maintaining trails and conserving America’s wilderness. By the time the program ended at the start of World War II, it had planted more than 3.5 billion trees, and even today stands responsible for more than half the reforestation done in our nation’s history.
We will invest $171 billion in reauthorizing and expanding the CCC to provide good-paying jobs building green infrastructure, planting billions of trees and other native species, preventing flood and soil erosion, rebuilding wetlands and coral, cleaning up plastic pollution, constructing and maintaining accessible paths, trails, and fire breaks; rehabilitating and removing abandoned structures, and eradicating invasive species and flora disease; and other natural methods of carbon pollution sequestration. We must take these natural solutions seriously as an important part of our strategy to solve the climate crisis.
Fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). For 50 years, the LWCF has helped stimulate our nation’s $1.7 trillion a year outdoor recreation, natural resource protection, and historic preservation industry by conserving millions of acres in our national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and wild and scenic river corridors via over 41,000 state and local projects. In 2019, the LWCF was permanently authorized. However, it has been chronically underfunded. We will spend $900 million to permanently fund the LWCF to safeguard natural areas, water resources, and our cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities to all Americans.
End our National Park maintenance backlog. Our National Parks are one of our greatest national treasures. National Parks and park rangers help educate the public about the need to protect wild spaces, sequester carbon by protecting wilderness, and conserve historical, cultural and natural resources. Our National Parks have fallen into serious and dangerous disrepair. We will perform more than $25 billion of repairs and maintenance on roads, buildings, utility systems, and other structures and facilities across the National Park System. This will help ensure that park visitors have a safe and enjoyable experience connecting with nature for years to come.

Sources: Sanders

The Green New Deal – Bernie Sanders

Green New Deal

Posted in Civilian Conservation Corp, Climate Change, Conservation, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), forest, Green New Deal, infrastucture, Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), National Park, public land, recreation, U.S. Geologic Survey, Uncategorized, wilderness, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment