California Business Push For Lower Emissions

Connell Whittaker Group
LLC is pleased to be a signator to this effort.
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California Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
Urge Air Board to Adopt Strong Emissions Trading Program
Sacramento, CA - December 15, 2010 - More than 125 small/mainstream businesses, cleantech companies and business associations - representing tens of thousands of employees around the state - issued a letter today urging the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to adopt a proposed emissions trading program (also known as cap and trade) that will reduce carbon, grow the economy, and create jobs, with the goal of creating a better future for all Californians. The ARB Board will hold a hearing on the program tomorrow in Sacramento.
"We encourage ARB to adopt the proposed market system that levels the playing field between dirty and clean energy, provides business owners with new opportunities to grow their businesses, and spurs the transition to a low carbon economy," the letter states. "Reducing carbon and increasing efficiency improves the bottom line for our state and for our businesses, giving us a competitive advantage and protecting us from volatile fossil fuel spikes and economic price shocks."
The business leaders who signed the letter support adoption of the market-based emissions trading program as a mechanism to stimulate innovation and efficiency, and to help position the state as a global leader on advancing clean energy technologies. The letter was signed by businesses from all geographic regions of the state including: owners of print shops, restaurants, construction firms, and landscape companies; CEOs of and investors in solar and renewable companies; leaders of chambers of commerce and business associations; and more.
Business leaders, investors and, most recently, the electorate have shown strong support for the adoption of effective standards by ARB to implement the state's landmark clean energy law (AB 32) to create jobs, improve air quality, grow clean energy resources, and save consumers and businesses money. And new polling from last week http://www.next10.org/next10/pdf/trading/Statewide_Poll_Results.pdf reinforces the fact that voters strongly support moving forward to implement the next phase of AB 32.
The full text of the letter is available at: http://www.ca-greenbusinessalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Business-Support-Ltr_Emissions-Trading-Prog.-Dec-10.pdf.
EDITORS: Business leaders will be available at the hearing tomorrow for comment. Please call the media contact to arrange interview.
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- Kathleen Connell, M.A.

Holiday Musings: What IS the citizen to do about climate in 2011

Yup, everyone needs a break, and some festivities this month. But what will you and your family and friends give back to the Earth in 2011? What climate action will be on your resolutions list? Here is some thinking to get you started on figuring out what is the most effective climate action you can include in your life, even as you support DADT repeal and our other equal rights issues. Happy Holidays!

Source: Climate Progress
"The topic for this weekend’s open thread comes from Climate Hawk Auden Schendler, Vice President of Sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company. He wrote on Grist:


Today I got a call from a rock concert producer. “We care about climate. We want to get the audience to act. What is the call to action?” This is a deceptively simply question, but it’s also THE question of our age. Meanwhile, I’ve been asked “what should I do?” by audience members, by seatmates on the plane, but nonprofit heads, by pro athletes.

And the answer has been blown–and continues to be blown–by the best of the climate crusaders. Gore blew it after Inconvenient Truth when the film listed a bunch of personal actions (he did include writing your senator) that won’t add up to much in the absence of policy action. Most nonprofit action lists blow it: drive your Prius, change the bulbs. Even those who don’t blow it, and know that this is about getting policy in place, and now after the election it’s about grassroots mobilizing and reaching policymakers with a message that supporting climate action is OK, even those groups blow it because “write your senator” really isn’t cutting it either. Maybe too few people are writing effectively, leaning too heavily on boilerplate sign-ons. Maybe they’re overwhelmed by the fossil fuel industry’s money. But it’s not cutting it.

So I’m asking you: when you give your talk, or host your concert, or talk to friends, or go home to your family: what is the call to action? I’ve had a stock answer that I’ve used, but I’m not sure it’s good enough. My answer is that you need to become a civic actor with the biggest club you can find. How? Get a bottle of bourbon, sit down, and think deeply, preferably with a friend, about what your biggest lever is. Obviously, if you’re Obama, that’s easy. You need to mobilize the nation on this issue. (He’s not doing it.) If you’re a senator or a policy maker, it’s easy too. Advance legislation. But what if you’re an average citizen? I believe even the most average of the average citizen has a big lever they aren’t aware of. Even if you’re a grandmother stuck at home, you can HAND WRITE a letter to a senator or a corporate leader. That’s easy. But most people have even bigger opportunities: a chance to join a town council, for example, or a planning and zoning board. From there, you could change building codes, or put in place a carbon tax locally. (Both have happened in many towns throughout the US.) In my area, you can run for the board of the electric utility, and drive them towards greener power. But people don’t do either of the last two options, typically, because they are so godawful boring and hugely time consuming. But that is just the point: solving climate is going to hurt. It’s going to be painful. And it won’t be sexy. Being on the planning and zoning board of Nowhereville is going to be living hell. Dumb people are going to hold forth for half an hour at a time. Other people are going to repeat what the person before them said for ten minutes at a time. You’ll be there for hours every session, with green brain fluid running out of your ears. It won’t be nearly as much fun as going dancing. But you’ll move the ball forward in ways you never imagined possible, you’ll be a real footsoldier in the most important war ever fought, and you’ll drop that crippling feeling of powerlessness you carry around with you like a stone.

Ok, that’s my best effort. But what is yours? What’s the call to action on climate, for the average person? How should the rock concert organize itself to best activate the audience? Do they all target James Inhofe with text messages, and make it so well known that they’re targeting that climate trog that it gets national press? Do they get Jim Hansen or Bobby Kennedy to speak? What do they do? What do we ask of the average citizen? During the civil rights movement, what was the call to action?"


- Kathleen Connell, M.A.