Subject: California Ups the Climate Leadership Ante, Again and other news from Dan Lashof, NextGen Climate America
From: Daniel Lashof <[email-masked]>
To: Lauren Terrazas <[email-masked]>
Cc: Daniel Lashof <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2015 20:04:19 +0000

I was very proud to be a (somewhat newly minted) Californian this week as Governor Jerry Brown signed an Executive Order setting North America's most ambitious target for reducing heat-trapping pollution. California is already on track to outperform its current target for 2020 as well as its 33 percent renewable electricity portfolio standard, and there is every reason to believe that it can achieve the new 40 percent reduction by 2030 target. Of course, California can't solve climate change by itself, but there is a long history demonstrating that when California leads, the United States, and the World, follows, as I recount in my post:

http://nextgenamerica.org/climate-change/california-ups-the-climate-ante/

California's ambitious climate policies, particularly its low carbon fuels standard, will be a significant deterrent to using fuel made from dirty tar sands oil within the state. But more needs to be done to prevent the West Coast tar sands invasion that the oil industry has planned, with its sights set on international markets. By rail or by ship, tar sands oil threatens local communities as well as our climate, as Colin Murphy explains:

http://nextgenamerica.org/climate-change/how-the-west-coast-can-avoid-a-tar-sands-train-wreck/

While California is charting a course to an advanced energy economy and communities are organizing to say no to tar sands oil, some utility executives are stuck in the past. Nick Akins, the CEO of American Electric Power, can't seem to let go of the idea that burning coal without carbon pollution limits is the backbone of the American dream, despite the thousands of people killed by pollution from coal plants each year. He told the New York Times last week that "there will be blackouts" if the Clean Power Plan is adopted as proposed.  Given that there is no analytical support for that claim, Dave Weiskopf asks: Is AEP making a threat?

http://nextgenamerica.org/epa-rule/is-aep-threatening-blackouts-unless-it-gets-its-way-on-the-clean-power-plan/

---------
Note:  You have received this message because you are on my personal distribution list. Please let me know if you have any comments. Please contact Lauren Terrazas <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>> if you would like to be removed from my distribution list.
-DL

--
Daniel A. Lashof, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer
NextGen Climate America, Inc.
https://nextgenamerica.org/
111 Sutter St.
San Francisco, CA 94104
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
415-802-2428
415-850-6304 (mobile)

Please note: My assistant has access to my inbox and calendar.