Massachusetts: Show us leadership!

Come to the Global Warming Solutions Act Public Hearing on Tuesday, June 22, 6pm, in Mission Hill. Speak out in favor of a Massachusetts greenhouse gas reduction target of 25% by 2020. (Could, and probably should, be more ambitious but that’s the highest the legislature is willing to consider this year!)

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has held seven public hearings across Massachusetts on the Commonwealth’s proposed range for the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions limit as required by the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA). This is your final opportunity to speak out. Without public pressure, the goal could be set as low as 10%.

Background: In August 2008, Governor Deval Patrick signed into law the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), making Massachusetts one of the first states in the nation to move forward with a comprehensive regulatory program to address climate change. The GWSA requires the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, in consultation with other state agencies and the public, to set economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals for Massachusetts that will achieve reductions of between 10 percent and 25 percent below statewide 1990 GHG emission levels by 2020.

The state has already put in place programs that are expected to yield a reduction of 18% but a more prudent 25% target would produce more aggressive support for energy conservation services, clean energy job creation, and healthier communities.

Please make plans to attend and speak at this hearing.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010
6:00-8:00 pm
Tobin Community Center
1481 Tremont Street, Roxbury Crossing
(1 block from the Roxbury Crossing T-station on the Orange Line)

Written comments also will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. on July 15, 2010. Written testimony must be submitted by email or mail to: climate.strategies@state.ma.us or Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Waste Prevention, One Winter Street 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02108, Attn: Lee Dillard Adams.

New poll shows support for climate action

Here’s a link to a new poll that contradicts last year’s reports that people in the US were becoming more skeptical about climate change.

Show your support for climate action by coming to the BostonCAN table at the Green Roots Festival on June 20 at the Stony Brook station in Jamaica Plain. Bring your energy bills and get an instant analysis of where your home stands on the energy hog to energy sipper scale. And if you want to get involved in planning our upcoming events, send us an email at bostonclimateaction[at]gmail[dot]com.

(reposted from ClimateProgress.org)

Public support for action on global warming has grown since January
June 9, 2010

The Yale Project on Climate Change just released a poll that found growing support for measures to reduce global warming pollution. It interviewed 1,024 people from May 14 to June 1, and compared the results to a similar poll it conducted in January 2010. CAP’s Daniel J. Weiss and intern Ariel Powell have the story.

There was more support or more intense support in the June survey for the following actions.

* Global warming should be a very high or high “priority for the president and Congress.”
* Corporations and industries should take more steps to reduce global warming.
* Nearly two-thirds of respondents agreed that the “United States should reduce its greenhouse gas regardless of what other countries do.”
* The U.S. should make a large-scale or medium scale effort, even if it has large or moderate economic costs.
* There was an 8 percent increase in strongly or somewhat support “regulating CO2.”
* The poll found nearly a one-third increase in strong support for “providing tax rebates for people who purchase energy efficient vehicles or solar panels.”

By far the two most popular clean energy policies were “fund renewable energy research” and “provide tax rebates for efficient cars and solar panels.” However, “regulate CO2” had more support than “expand offshore oil drilling,” much more support than “build more nuclear power plants.”

These polls reiterate strong public support for comprehensive clean real energy reform that includes reductions in global warming pollution. There is additional urgency to this demand after the BP oil spill. It’s up to the U.S. Senate to respond to this public outcry for action. … read more at Climate Progress.

Action Alert: stop tar sands pipeline

While BP is failing miserably to clean up their mess in the Gulf of Mexico, they are also involved in another dirty oil pipeline proposal: the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry the dirtiest fuel on earth — tar sands oil — from Canada through the heart of our nation. This is the carbon that James Hansen says we must keep from the market. Read more details here

Then tell the State Dept to stop the pipeline to climate hell!

(Thanks to the Sierra Club for this action link.)