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Without empathy for Trump voters, movements can’t succeed

Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 11/16/2016 - 19:07

By George Lakey - Waging NonViolence, November 10, 2016

This was a highly emotional election, and we need time to feel our feelings and sort out what it means for us and for the country. Donald Trump is a con man; his game is to manipulate emotions and activists can be as vulnerable as anyone else. Knowing that, we can give ourselves some space to breathe rather than hype each other’s fear. We can also begin to ask, what does his victory mean for social activists on the left?

First, and most obviously, Bernie Sanders was not Trump’s opponent. Many Trump voters liked Sanders for the same reason they supported Trump: He was an outlier who was an alternative to the establishment that has for decades been implementing what billionaire Warren Buffett calls the economic elite’s “class war.”

We activists on the left, even with some disagreements with Sanders, could reasonably regard him as a standard-bearer for us, but that’s not the choice voters made this November. I voted for Hillary without believing for a minute that she was putting forth my politics — or that my politics even got attention in the general election.

What we learn from the vote against Hillary is that many people who are losing the class war don’t like losing, and took it out on a pillar of the establishment. In 2008 and 2012, many white working-class people in the North gave their support to Barack Obama because he was the most credible hope for change, running in each election against a pillar of the establishment. By wide margins they didn’t let the color of his skin prevent them from voting for the chance of a pause in the battering they’d been getting.

For people interested in learning how to make major change in the United States, the electoral arena is only a tiny peephole covered with gauze. Voter participation is low in the United States compared with, say, Scandinavia, and that was true this year, too. Because the election only involves part of the citizenry and is mostly about money, celebrity and manipulation, it tells us little and invites us to make up stories laced with our own fears.

Nevertheless, combing the electoral data can tell us something. Exit polls, for example, tell us that one in five voters who pulled the lever for Trump do not believe he is qualified to be president.

Why vote for someone so unqualified? One answer is because that voter feels certain they know what a second Clinton presidency would bring: unjust policies that further degrade the lives of the oppressed. Here’s the chance for activist empathy, crucial for our having any chance of success in the future: When people so desire change that they will vote for someone they believe unqualified, they are desperate. Activists are used to calling people who are rendered desperate by unjust polices “the oppressed.” If using that name helps us stop othering working-class Trump voters, let’s use that name.

The white working class reading of recent American history may be more accurate than that of many activists. Bill Clinton betrayed the Democratic Party’s traditional working-class base through the North American Free Trade Agreement, destruction of “welfare as we know it,” and subsidizing corporations’ moving industrial jobs overseas. Even when the presidency and both houses of Congress were in the hands of the Democrats, a union movement that worked night and day to get Democratic politicians elected could not get its priorities enacted.

Many in a social class that once believed the Democratic Party was its ally were bound to notice, sooner or later, that the party’s allegiance is elsewhere. I’ve often heard middle-class liberals complain about working-class people voting against their interests, but I’m not hearing them complain that tens of millions of middle-class people vote against their interests – something they do routinely, and did so again by voting for Trump. In fact, the middle class reportedly provided Trump’s most reliable funding during the primary season.

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Standing Rock and Beyond: Big Oil’s Corporate Dislocations and Extortions

Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 11/08/2016 - 10:35

By Wendell G Bradley - CounterPunch, November 4, 2016

If a corp (o’rat) wants to be criminally normal, here is how it must think/act:

Conceive of a project that is bigger than ever, yet still propagandizable as ‘in the public interest’.

Such capitalization, in the billions, makes it eligible for government-engineered (made-easy) credit access, and with regulatory approval already ‘play-booked’, for example, as with oil and gas.

Make the project as ‘venturesome’ (risky) as possible, thus bondable only in those high-yield categories the especially brave, free market entrepreneurs alone dare to inhabit, ostensibly creating benefits for everyone.

Big banks are anxious to use their tax-gifted, ever accumulating slush funds (already in the hundreds of billions) to financially ‘correct’ low interest environments.

Such projects are said to deserve their automatic (publicly guaranteed) insurance policies against any/all failures, given they are integral to ‘our’ economy, especially as general job creators.

‘Too big to fail’ projects are not subject to the free market, democratic process. They are not about ‘informed consumers making rational choices’. Foreign Trade Agreements, for example, are made in secret. Slick advertising of the effective kind, affordable only by big, corporate money, is highly successful in shaping public attitudes. The corporately touted basis for ‘free markets’ becomes undermined.

Indeed most risky, big project ideas (think internet) are developmentally funded by public money, at places like MIT. Upon corporate adoption, such tax-financed, highly promoted developments will yield insured, private profit, not free market trials under creative competition.

A particularly instructive ‘case in point’ is fracked oil and its delivery. At current and expected prices ($50/bbl), US oil is largely uneconomic to produce and pipeline to market. For example, the break-even price for both the Bakken (ND) and Niobrara (CO) oil fields has proven to be, on average, at least $75/ bbl (includes acquisition, leasing, capitalization, and transportation charges).

Of course some wells, a few percent in very localized ‘sweet spots’, can still yield profits. However, large scale projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), if based on total-formation output figures, will prove wholly unjustified–least of all for any public-benefit argument used to justify takings of private property, say by eminent domain proceedings.

For example, it simply does not make economic sense to justify DAPL’s $5 billion project cost on the basis of 400,000 bbl/day Bakken production if 90% of that oil, 360,000 bbls/day, is transported simply to recover some revenue from bad, initial investments at the wells.

The environmental degradations from the daily pipeline releases experienced across the US are huge. However, such costs do not figure into official economics. They are simply dismissed from accounting as ‘economic externalities’—another of the privileging violations of actual free market cost/benefit.

At current oil prices, the Bakken has few ‘economically recoverable’ reserves–the only ones that count in Securities Exchange calculations of legitimate investment. Accordingly, the future of legitimate oil development’s production/transport per the Bakken is highly speculative; too much so to establish any clear public benefit from DAPL. For example, if today’s proven oil reserves provided all US consumption, their depletion would fail energy independence in only 1.5 years.

Under a full accounting, DAPL’s justifications for forcible ‘takings/leasing’ finally evaporate altogether. For example, according to the International Energy Agency, two-thirds of all oil reserves must stay in the ground if economically devastating climate change limits are to be heeded. DAPL approval is therefore a form of climate denial, one directly counter to Obama’s professed doctrine requiring special review for all additions of climate-influencing infrastructure.

So, why take oil’s public risks, such as its economic and environmental dislocations from pipeline ruptures, when clean, renewable solar is currently available, more economically. For example, solar produces utility-level electricity at less expense than does oil production’s natural gas complement, according to our National Energy Lab (Berkeley). Renewables are even replacing oil in production of plastics and clothing.

Clearly, the oil industry is experiencing a market-based decline known as ‘creative destruction’ under solar penetration. It can no longer compete, even though hugely subsidized. Exxon, the world’s leading oil company, experienced stock price declines (17%) apparently due to profit declines (17%) since 2014, and had a credit rating reduction to its lowest value in 17 years.

The smart money is ‘going solar’; divestments and bankruptcies in oil are increasing (105 filings since 2015; expecting around 200 overall).

Oil is rapidly becoming the dinosaur of energy, yet it continues to enjoy developmental subsidies, world-wide, of about a million dollars per day. Oil is not a rational-market operation.

Indeed, oil’s bigger-than-ever project justifications, such as DAPL, can only be entertained within a captive regulatory framework whose blatant defiance of rational, democratic choice is increasingly being understood as a form of Class Warfare, one enabling an economic elite to extort wealth from a 70% disenfranchised public (Princeton study.)

Witness the deep, gritty awareness at Standing Rock, ND where indigenous people are the first to make all of the above crystal clear in their direct resistance to Big Oil as Water Protectors. What can be more fundamental to well-being than that?

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NoDAPL

Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

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The Sky’s Limit: Unpacking the Climate Math

Submitted by x344543 on Sun, 10/09/2016 - 11:36

By David Turnbull - Oil Change International, October 6, 2016

Four years ago, the concept of “unburnable carbon” hit the mainstream when Bill McKibben published “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” in Rolling Stone magazine, based off of work by the analysts at Carbon Tracker and before that Greenpeace. The research underlying that concept showed that the carbon embedded in proven fossil fuel reserves on the books of fossil fuel companies is many times greater than what climate scientists have determined the atmosphere can withstand in a safe climate scenario. This month, new analysis by Oil Change International updated that math, took it further, and is making waves.

In the new report, entitled “The Sky’s Limit: Why the Paris Climate Goals Require a Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Production,” we’ve identified a stark reality when it comes to fossil fuel development and the climate: Existing fossil fuel production, if allowed to run its course, would take us beyond the globally agreed goals of limiting warming to well below 2?C and aiming towards 1.5?C.

For the first time ever, this study utilized data from industry databases (e.g. Rystad Energy UCube) to catalog the fossil fuels that exist in current mines and wells — those sites where investments have been made and development is already underway — and compared it to carbon budgets associated with a two-in-three chance of staying below 2?C, or even chances of limiting warming to 1.5?C, backed by data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Our research found that the carbon budgets will be exhausted with current development, and in fact some currently-operating fossil fuel projects will need to be retired early in order to have appropriately high chances of staying below even the 2?C limit. Further, to meet a 1.5?C goal, the existing oil and gas wells currently in production have enough fuels in them to fill the budget, even if coal were phased out tomorrow.

This analysis is already sending shockwaves through the climate movement and being echoed by influential thought leaders around the globe. More than a dozen organizations, ranging from smaller groups like the Health of Mother Earth Foundation in Nigeria to larger groups such as 350.org and Christian Aid, joined in to release the report. Climate scientists and energy analysts have expressed agreement with the findings since the release, and countless organizations and prominent individuals have joined the choir to spread the word about the report.

As George Monbiot writes in The Guardian, the report presents three scenarios for moving forward:

First: a gradual, managed decline of existing production and its replacement with renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure, which offer great potential for employment. Second: allowing fossil fuel production to continue at current rates for a while longer, followed by a sudden and severe termination of the sector, with dire consequences for both jobs and economies. Third: continuing to produce fossil fuels as we do today, followed by climate breakdown.

The good news, as highlighted in our report, is that if the right investments of political will and financing are made, a just transition to renewable energy is definitely possible in the timeframe necessary. Renewable energy is expanding at ever-increasing rates, becoming cheaper by the day, and could be poised to follow the path to universality seen by recent technologies such as the personal computer and cell phone. The report lays out a number of studies that show renewable energy can absolutely fill in the energy gap as fossil fuels are phased out.

Many have already called the report “the math behind the Keep It In The Ground movement,” and, with any luck, just as unburnable carbon entered the public consciousness four years ago, the climate imperative of ending new fossil fuel development may do the same.

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Carbon Bubble News #122

Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 09/20/2016 - 18:37

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 20, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

Another coal domino falls as the Indian Government’s billion tonnes a year by 2020 target fades - By Bob Burton, End Coal, September 14, 2016
Seven charts show new renewables outpacing rising demand for first time - By Simon Evans, Carbon Brief, September 14, 2016
Creditors lose historic sums in oil bankruptcies, Moody’s says - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, September 12, 2016
China’s Continuing Renewable Energy Revolution – latest trends in electric power generation - By John A. Mathews, Asia-Pacific Journal, September 1, 2016

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renewable energy workers

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Carbon Bubble News #121

Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 09/13/2016 - 15:02

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 13, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

Peabody Energy’s Pathway Out Of Bankruptcy Leads … Backs To Bankruptcy, Says IEEFA - By Joshua S Hill , Clean Technica, September 8, 2016; [related]: As coal companies sink into bankruptcy, who will pay to clean up their old mines? - By David Roberts, Vox, September 2, 2016
Frustration among out-of-work attendees at annual Labour Day BBQ - By Roberta Bell, CBC, September 5, 2016
State of The Transition, August 2016: Tailwinds for clean energy and the Paris agreement, deepening doldrums for the incumbency - By Jeremy Leggett, Jeremy Leggett, September 4, 2016

Carbon Market Watch:

Panic buying sees coking coal price jump 20% in a week - By Frik Els, Mining.Com, September 11, 2016
South African mining output falls sharply - By Valentina Ruiz Leotaud, Mining.Com, September 11, 2016
One Hundred Years of Natural Gas? Not At These Prices - By Art Berman, The Petroleum Truth Report, September 8, 2016
Traders see low prices, more pain ahead for oil industry - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 8, 2016; [related]: Oil trims weekly gains as market discounts drop in inventories - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 9, 2016 | Oil climbs on report of inventory decline - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 8, 2016 | Oil, gasoline inventories plunge; crude prices rise - By Staff, FuelFix, September 8, 2016 | Oil advances as traders look to OPEC, Russia for signs of output freeze - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 7, 2016 | Market Currents: Production freeze hopes fizzle - By Matt Smith, FuelFix, September 6, 2016
Global Coal Plant Pipeline Slows, According To CoalSwarm - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, September 7, 2016

Other Carbon Bubble News:

Norway's Wealth Fund Dumps Duke Energy Over 'Risk of Severe Environmental Damage' - By Donna Lisenby, EcoWatch, September 8, 2016
The Energy-Water Nexus [25] - Jordan Macknick interviewed by Chris Nelder, The Energy Transition Show, September 7, 2016
Great Lakes Region Pivots From Fossil Fuels - By Codi Kozacek, Circle of Blue, September 6, 2016
Oil downturn ripples through city finances in New Mexico - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press, September 6, 2016
Waiting for rebound, producers still looks at west coast for coal export potential - By Heather Richards, Casper Star Tribune, September 4, 2016

Utility Death Spiral News:

NSW energy minister blames Basslink for SA price spikes - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 9, 2016; [related]: Gas plants fingered again for South Australian power price hikes - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 6, 2016
Solar developer protests community solar size in Colorado Xcel settlement - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, September 7, 2016
New proposals from Iowa utilities raise red flags for solar advocates - By Karen Uhlenhuth, Midwest Energy News, September 6, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

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Carbon Bubble News #120

Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 09/06/2016 - 22:54

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 7, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

The $8 Trillion Fight Over How to Rid America of Fossil Fuel - By Eric Roston, Bloomberg, August 30, 2016
Mass protests by China’s coal, iron and steel workers on the decline - By staff, China Labour Bulletin, August 18, 2016

Carbon Market Watch:

Oil ends slide on Putin freeze comments - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 2, 2016; [related]: OPEC output rises to record before talks with Russia on freeze - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 2, 2016 | Oil holds near lowest levels in three weeks - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 1, 2016 | Oil has worst day in almost a month; back below $45 - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 31, 2016 | Oil trades near $47 as gasoline inventories appear to have dipped - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 30, 2016 | Doubts linger over potential OPEC deal - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 29, 2016

Other Carbon Bubble News:

QUT becomes first Queensland University to its dump fossil fuel investments - By 350.org, REnew Economy, September 5, 2016
California nixes funding for coal export terminals - By Paige Blankenbuehler, High Country News, September 2, 2016
India shelves coal mining target on weak demand - By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, September 2, 2016
Petrobras sheds 11,704 workers in plan to save $1.2 billion - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 2, 2016
Baker Hughes cuts employee pay 5 percent through furloughs - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, September 1, 2016
Canada’s Enbridge drops Sandpiper crude oil pipeline - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, September 1, 2016
Caterpillar to close Belgium plant, lay off 2000 workers - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, September 1, 2016
Over 3000 UK churches on way to ditching fossil fuels - By Ed King, Climate Change News, September 1, 2016
Mass adoption of electric vehicles is “much sooner than most people realize” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 31, 2016
Canada’s mining industry faces workers shortage of up to 127,000 - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, August 30, 2016
U.S. universities using less coal for heat, power - By David Hunn, FuelFix, August 30, 2016
Solar power growing rapidly as prices tumble and tax credits are extended - By John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 27, 2016
The Gilded Rage: A Conversation With a Trump Supporter That Will Surprise You - By Alexander Zaitchik, Alternet, August 22, 2016
Old King Coal - By Dan Weissmann, WBEX 91.5 FM, June 22, 2016

Utility Death Spiral News:

Back to school? Schools that have installed solar panels threatened with an unfair tax bill - By staff, The Ecologist, September 5, 2016
A Battle Over Bringing Local Renewables To Rural Electric Co-ops - By Cally Carswell, Inside Energy, September 2, 2016
Facing stricter climate goals, California passes 4 bills to boost energy storage - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, September 2, 2016
The graph that shows the death of traditional energy utilities - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 2, 2016
In 11th hour deal, California public utility reaches net metering compromise - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, September 2, 2016
The Climate Change Authority’s gamble on political pragmatism - By Frank Jotzo, The Conversation, September 1, 2016
Nevada regulator blocks SolarCity from grandfathering proceedings - By Krysti Shallenberger, Utility Dive, September 1, 2016; [related]: SolarCity Barred From Intervening in Nevada Grandfathering Dockets - By Julia Pyper, GreenTechMedia, August 31, 2016
2 GW Of Colorado Wind Can Replace 6000 GWh Of Coal - By Aisha Abdelhamid, Clean Technica, September 1, 2016
Florida votes to strike property taxes on solar panels - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, August 31, 2016
Wind Power Curtailment in China Expected to Increase in Second Half of 2016 - By Liu Yuanyuan, Renewable Energy World, August 31, 2016
Australia’s natural-gas cartel is bleeding Australia - By Bruce Robertson, REnew Economy, August 30, 2016
New England’s Big Energy Switch - By Alisa Barba, Inside Energy, August 30, 2016
New Hampshire Sticks With Solar Net Metering, Which Voters Support - By Peter Allen, Clean Technica, August 30, 2016
No new solar! How network lobby imagines Australia’s clean energy transition - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 30, 2016
Solar groups pour money into Arizona utility regulatory election - By Peter Maloney, Utility Dive, August 30, 2016
AEP Ohio wants to double fixed charges, joining net metering debate - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, August 29, 2016
Distributed Generation Under Fire (Q2 2016) - By Karlee Weinmann, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, August 29, 2016
A Funny Thing Happening in the Race for Renewables - By Steve Hargreaves and Courtney St. John, Nexus Media, August 22, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

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renewable energy workers

natural gas

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The Sky’s Limit: Why the Paris Climate Goals Require a Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Production

Submitted by x332349 on Thu, 09/01/2016 - 15:38

By Greg Muttitt, et. al. - Oil Change International, et. al., September 2016

In December 2015, world governments agreed to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2°C, and to strive to limit it to 1.5°C. This report examines, for the first time, the implications of these climate boundaries for energy production and use. Our key findings are:

The potential carbon emissions from the oil, gas, and coal in the world’s currently operating fields and mines would take us beyond 2°C of warming
The reserves in currently operating oil and gas fields alone, even with no coal, would take the world beyond 1.5°C
With the necessary decline in production over the coming decades to meet climate goals, clean energy can be scaled up at a corresponding pace, expanding the total number of energy jobs.

One of the most powerful climate policy levers is also the simplest: stop digging for more fossil fuels. We therefore recommend:

No new fossil fuel extraction or transportation infrastructure should be built, and governments should grant no new permits for them
Some fields and mines –primarily in rich countries –should be closed before fully exploiting their resources, and financial support should be provided for non-carbon development in poorer countries
This does not mean stopping using all fossil fuels overnight. Governments and companies should conduct a managed decline of the fossil fuel industry and ensure a just transition for the workers and communities that depend on it.

In August 2015, just months before the Paris climate talks, President Anote Tong of the Pacific island nation of Kiribati called for an end to construction of new coal mines and coal mine expansions. This report expands his call to all fossil fuels.

Read the report (PDF).

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carbon bubble

decarbonization

Oil Change International

fossil fuel capitalism

Paris Climate Agreement

energy transition

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Carbon Bubble News #119

Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 08/30/2016 - 18:28

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 31, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

Whether Clinton or Trump wins the election, US coal’s future is dark - By Joe Goodwill, Mining.Com, August 26, 2016
U.S. Electricity Generation From Renewables Has Broken Records Every Month in 2016 - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, August 25, 2016
Cross currents hit Indian Government’s grand coal expansion plans - By Bob Burton, EndCoal, August 24, 2016
Coal Lobbying Groups Losing Members as Industry Tumbles - By Zahra Hirji, InsideClimate News, August 23, 2016; [related]: King Coal is dethroned in the US – and that’s good news for the environment - By Lucas Davis, The Conversation, August 21, 2016
Is the Oil Industry Dying? - By Richard Heinberg, Pacific Standard, August 10, 2016

Carbon Market Watch:

Oil above $48 on OPEC freeze hopes - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 26, 2016; [related]: Oil inventories rebound, crude prices fall - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, August 24, 2016 | Oil rebounds on speculation Iran might join output freeze - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 23, 2016 | Oil continues to slide on supply worries, OPEC doubts - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 23, 2016

Other Carbon Bubble News:

Friday roundup - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, August 26, 2016
Key Energy joins ranks of oil-related companies filing bankruptcy - By David Hunn, FuelFix, August 25, 2016
Really, Hoppy? ‘Blood money’? - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, August 25, 2016
Gov. Matt Mead tells state agencies to brace for more cuts - By Ben Neary, Associated Press, August 24, 2016
Putting politics ahead of helping the coalfields - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, August 24, 2016
Glencore posts worst half-yearly profit since listing in London - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, August 23, 2016
Keep it in the ground! Just how much exactly? - By Yossi Cadan, Fossil Free, August 23, 2016
Official rejects overdue Peabody tax payment that shorted Routt County more than $91,000 - By Kevin Simpson, Denver Post, August 19, 2016
Gov: Legislative session for budget likely next month - By Matthew Reichbach, The New Mexico Political Report, August 18, 2016; [related]: New Mexico governor to call special legislative session - By staff, Associated Press, August 18, 2016
How a US energy company tried to sell its failing ‘clean coal’ project to the world - By Zachary Davies Boren, Greenpeace Energydesk, August 11, 2016

Utility Death Spiral News:

ACCC says it’s OK for big utilities to exploit market power - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 25, 2016; [related]: Five years to zero emissions – Australia’s climate reality check - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 24, 2016 | Gas bubble looms as energy ministers baulk at zero emissions target - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 22, 2016
Colorado Settlement to Pay Solar Owners Higher Rates for Peak Power - By Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, August 24, 2016
Fixed charge battle looms in Texas as regulators tackle rate design reform - By Herman K. Trabish, Utility Dive, August 23, 2016
Solar Cost Hits World's New Low, Half the Price of Coal - By Climate Nexus, EcoWatch, August 22, 2016; [related]: BNEF: Chile auction set to deliver world's lowest cost solar farm - By staff, Business Green, August 22, 2016 | Solar Sold in Chile at Lowest Ever, Half Price of Coal - By Vanessa Dezem, Bloomberg, August 19, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

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Carbon Bubble News #118

Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 16:42

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 24, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

Is Big Oil Finally Getting the Message? - By Peter Smith, Sierra Club Canada, August 17, 2016
Trumpism: Made in the United States by Republican Hate and Democratic Hypocrisy - By Paul Street, Truthdig, August 16, 2016
China may be entering “post-coal growth.” But don’t get too excited - By David Roberts, Vox, August 15, 2016
Who owns the wind? We do, Wyoming says, and it's taxing those who use it - By William Yardley, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2016

Carbon Market Watch:

Oil rally continues; Brent rises to $50 - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 18, 2016; [related]: WTI settles up at $46.79 - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 17, 2016 | Oil trades near $46 as Nigerian oil chief sees OPEC cuts unlikely - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 16, 2016

Other Carbon Bubble News:

King Coal Is Losing Its Lobbying Edge - By Kate Sheppard, Huffington Post, August 17, 2016; [related]: Coal Lobbying Loses Steam As Climate Awareness Rises - By Sandy Dechert, Clean Technica, August 22, 2016 | Coal lobbyists are the loneliest lobbyists - By Melissa Cronin, Grist, August 16, 2016
Bankrupt coal companies get break on clean-up costs - By Scott Tong, Marketplace, August 18, 2016
New fuel efficiency standards whittle away at oil demand - By staff, FuelFix, August 17, 2016
Another reason to divest from oil companies: They rip off shareholders - By Ben Adler, Grist, August 16, 2016
U.S. coal regulator boosts campaign to fix 'outdated' cleanup rules - By Tracy Rucinski, Reuters, August 16, 2016; [related]: Feds Propose Stricter Regs For Coal Mine Cleanup - By Stephanie Joyce, Wyoming Public Radio, August 16, 2016
Why North Dakota Coal Is The Last Man Standing - By Amy Sisk, Inside Energy, August 15, 2016

Utility Death Spiral News:

Starting Over [24] - Jim Kennerly interviewed by Chris Nelder, The Energy Transition Show, August 24, 2016
Why Democratized Rooftop & Community Solar Is So Important - By Zachary Shahan, Clean Technica, August 21, 2016
Analysis Finds Wind Could Replace 6,000 Gigawatt-Hours of Coal in Colorado - By Ron Lehr, GreenTech Media, August 19, 2016
El Paso Electric drops solar demand charge proposal - By Danielle Ola, PV Tech, August 19, 2016
Arrium’s requiem and the events of July 7th - By Mike Sandiford, The Conversation, August 18, 2016; [related]: COAG energy council meeting a missed opportunity to grow renewables: Vic holding firm on gas pressure - By Leigh Ewbank, Yes2Renewables, August 19, 2016 | Community members push back against fossil fuel scare campaign: Call for COAG to stand up for renewables - By Leigh Ewbank, Yes2Renewables, August 19, 2016 | Dirty power games: Coalition steps on the gas - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 19, 2016 | Fiddling the books on renewables while the planet burns - By Christine Milne, REnew Economy, August 18, 2016 | How gas profited from S.A. market dominance, and blamed renewables - By Andrew Stock, REnew Economy, August 18, 2016 | Message to COAG: Stand up to fossil fuel bullies with 100% renewables plan - By Leigh Ewbank, Yes2Renewables, August 18, 2016 | Fossil fuel industry holding Australian economy to ransom - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 17, 2016 | Time to ditch the “dumb” grid and embrace a smart energy future - By Tom Quinn, REnew Economy, August 17, 2016
Sun burn: Solar tax credits scorch state budgets - By Peter Maloney, Utility Dive, August 17, 2016
An electric-power giant is poised to fail - By Steve Hanley, High Country News, August 16, 2016
Arizona regulator, attorney battle over alleged ties with solar industry - By Krysti Shallenberger, Utility Dive, August 16, 2016
Big Wins For Solar Power In Arizona & New Mexico - By Steve Hanley, Solar Love, August 13, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

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renewable energy workers

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Carbon Bubble News #117

Submitted by x344543 on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 19:20

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 17, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

Coal Companies Have Mined An Area The Size Of NYC, Now They Have To Clean It Up - By Stephanie Joyce, Wyoming Public Radio, August 13, 2016
Selling T-shirts, lies, anger to miners left without jobs, hope - By Gary Bentley, Lexington Herald-Leader, August 13, 2016
Coal isn’t the only fossil fuel in trouble, Rice researcher says - By David Hunn, FuelFix, August 12, 2016
The solar transition - By staff, The Next Wave, August 12, 2016; [related]: Climate science: revolution is here - By Paul Rogers, Open Democracy, August 11, 2016
Bob Murray: MSHA inspections ‘total harassment’ - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, August 11, 2016
Oil trades near 1-week low after U.S. stockpiles rise - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 11, 2016
[related]: Ending $4 billion U.S. oil subsidy would have minor impact, report says - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 8, 2016

Other Carbon Bubble News:

China doesn’t need any more coal plants - By Fu Sha and Zou Ji, Climate Change News, August 12, 2016
The view from Canada: ‘The industry is in a tough position’ - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 12, 2016; [related]: Canada’s oil industry not likely to rebound by end of decade: report - By Tania Kohut, Global News, August 4, 2016
Christy Clark holds fast to market fundamentalism as LNG dreams crumble - By Harjap Grewal, Rabble.Ca, August 11, 2016
Court upholds Obama's social cost of carbon accounting for federal regulations - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, August 11, 2016
How a US energy company tried to sell its failing ‘clean coal’ project to the world - By Zachary Davies Boren, Greenpeace, August 11, 2016
IEA says global oil demand growth could sink - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, August 11, 2016
Oregon Finds Switching From Coal to Renewable Energy Is a Bargain - By John R. Platt, Take Part, August 11, 2016
Chesapeake Energy leaving Barnett, birthplace of shale revolution - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, August 10, 2016
Peabody Energy Lenders Accept Miner’s Business Plan - By Dow Jones Newswires, Denver Post, August 10, 2016
Saudi Arabia reports record output on summer demand - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 10, 2016
Trump keeps pandering to the coal miners - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, August 10, 2016
Oil services firms face $110B in debt — and the bill is coming due - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, August 9, 2016
Kosmos Energy announces $108.3 million net loss for second quarter 2016 - By staff, Oil Voice, August 8, 2016
Tesla Motors vs. Fossil Fuels: An electrifying showdown - By Matt Pressman, EV Annex, August 7, 2016

Utility Death Spiral News:

Australian energy markets have echoes of Enron crisis in California - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 15, 2016; [related]: SA power prices inflated by generators gaming market, says report - By Sophie Vorrath, REnew Economy, August 11, 2016 | South Australia would face higher electricity bill without wind energy - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, August 9, 2016
Japan's big 'nuclear restart' overtaken by conservation and renewables - By Jim Green, The Ecologist, August 12, 2016
New Mexico settlement blocks solar fees proposed by Xcel Energy - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, August 12, 2016; [related]: Big Victory for Solar Energy in New Mexico - By Earthjustice, EcoWatch, August 11, 2016
Arizona regulators preserve net metering in UNS case - By Christian Roselund, PV Magazine, August 11, 2016; [related]: Big Win for Arizona Solar Customers - By Earthjustice, EcoWatch, August 12, 2016
California Has More Solar Power Than You Think—a Lot More - By Bentham Paulos, GreenTechMedia, August 11, 2016
Facts and Falsehoods in Energy Transition [23] - Dr Jonathan Koomey interviewed by Chris Nelder, The Energy Transition Show, August 10, 2016
In Corporate March to Clean Energy, Utilities Not Required - By Jan Ellen Spiegel, InsideClimate News, August 8, 2016
Is Solar Energy Really Too Expensive? - By Jill Richardson, Other Words, August 3, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

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