Earth Week Goes Digital
Organizing around Earth Day was a top priority for our movement during the first months of 2020. Obviously, COVID-19 has dramatically impacted our plans, and we have to adapt! The NYC Earth Week Coalition, which we are a part of, is pulling together a 3 day digital strike. As a finale for Earth Week help us turn off Times Square for 24 hours on Friday as a visual moment of silence for the current pandemic and climate crisis. You can find more info here.
OUR DEMANDS
GREEN NEW DEAL
The Green New Deal (GND) is a governing lens for the creation of a renewable-energy economy that prioritizes a just transition for workers and frontline communities. It provides a framework for laws at federal, state, and local levels that will combat climate change and economic inequality. A Green New Deal protects ordinary people from the worst of climate breakdown, and builds a more equitable and prosperous nation in the process.
END ALL FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES
As explained by Oil Change International, a fossil fuel subsidy is “anything that rigs the game in favor of fossil fuels compared to other energy sources.” There are many different ways that the US government subsidizes fossil fuels, from tax breaks, to public spending, to the exclusion of externalities. Per an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, in 2015 alone, the United States spent $649B on direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies. It is unacceptable that our government provides subsidies to the very corporations that are destroying our planet. We demand an immediate end to all fossil fuel subsidies, and we demand that our government refuse to provide any bailouts to fossil fuel companies.
FUNDING FOR FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES
Low-income communities, communities of color, and Indigenous Peoples are hit first and worst by the climate crisis.. They are disproportionately burdened by our current energy system. From the unjust siting of polluting infrastructure to disproportionately facing the effects of climate events such as floods and heat waves, marginalized communities already suffer the most from the climate crisis. Climate policy must include specific, dedicated funding streams for frontline communities, as well as involve frontline leadership in all decision-making processes.
100% RENEWABLE ENERGY
This is an emergency: The math is clear. Climate pollution must drop worldwide by about 55% by 2030, and then continue to drop to zero by 2050 to hold global heating below 1.5 degrees celsius, the Paris Agreement’s threshold, where global catastrophe begins. Yet from 1990 - 2016, according to its official inventory, New York only cut climate pollution by about one half of 1 percent per year. Cuts have also been miniscule since the beginning of the Cuomo Administration in 2011. New York’s economy—$1.5 trillion in annual output—relies almost entirely on fossil fuels. That must be entirely switched to renewable energy ASAP. It’s a massive job.
The state’s new Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) requires a Climate Action Council that is controlled by Governor Cuomo to make a plan within 2 years, and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to implement it in 2024. Yet, the law’s first required cuts aren’t until 2030. The plan must include enforceable annual benchmarks immediately, rather than defer bold action. Renewable energy and energy efficiency must be deployed at a massive scale. Fossil fuel infrastructure must be rapidly retired. Gas-powered cars must disappear from roads, as all buildings, industry, and agriculture switch to high energy efficiency and renewable power.
TAX THE RICH
This is a call to tax those in the top 1% income bracket a 5% marginal income tax to accrue $10 billion per year to fund a Green New Deal. Right now, 1% of New Yorkers take in about 32% of the income. Meanwhile, about 2.7 million New Yorkers, predominantly Black and Brown folks, live in poverty; making less than $24,000/year for a family of 4. In New York, $10 billion would go a long way towards addressing the climate crisis and putting the brakes on social and economic inequality. The proposal for how the funds would be divvied up is as follows:
Transportation ~$4B/yr - fund reliable, affordable mass transit statewide; subsidize for zero emissions vehicles to replace gas guzzlers for low-income, car-dependent households
Housing ~$4B/yr - fund social and supportive public housing (including NYCHA, but billions more will be needed from fed); support energy efficiency upgrades in multi-family buildings (notably rent regulated); pay for renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades for all low-income homeowners
Power Grid ~$1.3B/yr- Build up renewable energy at a massive scale that will be built and owned by the public. Currently, rate payers are paying utility companies who use the money to feed their fossil fuel addiction. Funds must be allotted to not only ensure a rapid transformation of the grid but to also ensure low and moderate income residents are protected from rate hikes in that process.
Just Transition ~$.7B/yr- All this must be done with explicit requirements to maximize the creation of good, union jobs, especially hiring from communities that do and will most need the jobs, or otherwise compensation and training in the transition: Black and Brown communities and those currently dependent on fossil fuel industry jobs.
PUBLIC POWER
Investor-owned utilities make fortunes by pumping our money into fossil fuel infrastructure and reaping a state-guaranteed return on investment. Every year, investor-owned utilities like Con Edison threaten millions of New Yorkers with dangerous & disruptive service shutoffs while pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars in executive compensation and investor returns. In their pursuit of short-term profits, private utilities mistreat their workers, neglect necessary repairs, and poison our environment with climate-killing fracked gas facilities. State regulators at the Public Service Commission (PSC) accept the supremacy of the profit motive and consistently approve rate hikes and fossil fuel expansion that run counter to the public interest.
Investor-owned utilities will cling to fossil fuels in part because their investors make big, guaranteed profits from fossil fuels under federal and state policies. Through trade associations, lobbyists and campaign money, they protect their profits by stopping meaningful climate action. A democratically-accountable public utility would serve the public by prioritizing, not delaying, a just transition to renewable energy. Moreover, public utilities are better for consumers: they can deliver 14% lower cost residential service and greater reliability, and fixing blackouts faster.
A publicly-owned utility will make long-neglected repairs, invest in resiliency to prepare our grid for the future, and structure rates to protect working-class New Yorkers, creating good, union jobs. Responsible for the common good and not private gain, publicly owned utilities will have strong worker protections and a democratized decision-making structure that lifts up the low-income, working-class communities and communities of color that are hurt first and worst by catastrophic climate change.
NO NEW FOSSIL FUELS IN NY
Studies show that no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be built, if we are to avoid worldwide catastrophe. Yet, throughout New York, big new fracked gas power plants and pipelines are currently being constructed under permits the Cuomo Administration and state regulators already granted, and additional fossil fuel projects have been proposed and are seeking approval from regulatory agencies and permits that Governor Cuomo controls.
Governor Cuomo must stop all the new projects, including the Danskammer (Newburgh), Cricket Valley (Dover Plains east of Poughkeepsie) and Gowanus (Brooklyn) fracked gas power plants, Con Ed’s proposed large new Manhattan and Queens pipelines, Williams NESE (NJ to NYC), Northern Access (Western NY), and the National Grid Albany Loop (E37) fracked gas pipelines, and other storage and delivery projects.
MAKE POLLUTERS PAY
100 corporations are responsible for 71% of global climate emissions. Corporate polluters like Shell and Exxon created the climate crisis and poisoned frontline communities while simultaneously engaging in a decades long misinformation campaign aimed at blocking climate action. Our governments must sue and tax them to hold them financially responsible for the damage they have knowingly caused.
PASS THE RENEWABLE RIKERS ACT
The three bills included in this era-defining Act codify much-needed environmental and restorative justice measures, ensuring that another social atrocity will never again happen on this land. The bills also pave the way for closure of harmful peaker plants and transfer stations, whose activity can cause deadly asthma rates that are up to 3x what is seen elsewhere in the city. In addition, the wastewater treatment facility could operate on a net-zero basis, replacing up to 4 outdated facilities within miles of Rikers, and preventing billions of gallons of waste being dumped into our waters. It could eventually pay for itself—re-allocating some of the BILLIONS of dollars currently being spent to maintain our decrepit circa 1930s-1950s facilities.
Intro 1591: Requires New York City to assess whether a new wastewater treatment facility can be constructed on Rikers Island, as well as determine how many gallons of wastewater from surrounding areas can be diverted there.
Intro 1592: Transfers jurisdiction of Rikers Island from the Department of Correction to the Department of Environmental Protection for infrastructure such as renewable energy once the detention centers close. DEP would be able to develop an implementation plan in the interim.[NOTE this bill is currently being revised]
Intro 1593: Requires New York City to determine the feasibility of what renewable energy sources can be generated on Rikers Island, as well as what large scale batteries to store the power can be built there.
DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS AND DEFORESTATION
Wall Street is financing climate destruction. Banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and institutional investors collectively finance trillions of dollars into funding, insuring, and investing in fossil fuel and deforestation-linked companies. It is imperative that we #StopTheMoneyPipeline.
The culpable entities are many: banks like Wells Fargo and CitiGroup; asset managers like Vanguard and State Street; and insurers like Liberty Mutual. Most notably are the bank JP Morgan Chase and the asset manager, BlackRock. Since 2016, JP Morgan Chase has financed fossil fuels with $296 billion. BlackRock, with over $7 trillion under management, is the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels and deforestation.
On April 23rd, EarthWeekNYC will focus our actions on Wall Street—specifically JP Morgan Chase and BlackRock—urging them to pull their financing from fossil fuels and deforestation-linked companies. We will encourage individuals who bank with JP Morgan Chase to pull their money out of JPMC. Additionally we’ll be calling on BlackRock to use it’s voting power to push companies it partially owns towards climate transparency and action.