Make Polluters Pay! Finally!

(Sierra Club) “Make Polluters Pay for Climate Disasters!

From deadly heat waves to raging fires to devastating floods, fossil fuel pollution is fueling extreme weather that endangers lives, destabilizes ecosystems and communities, and costs billions of dollars per year. Families nationwide are left with higher insurance costs, rising food prices, and mounting health bills, all while Big Oil rakes in record profits and pays nothing for the damage they’ve caused.

It doesn’t have to be this way: The Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act in Congress, introduced by Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Judy Chu (D-CA) would require oil and gas companies to contribute just a fraction of their profits to a federal Climate Superfund. That funding would go directly to rebuilding communities, protecting frontline neighborhoods, and preparing for future disasters.”

Action Call: It’s time to put people over polluter profits. Tell Congress to act now!

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SB 540 – the bill we’ll never notice until it’s too late…and coal companies control CA’s energy future. (updated 9/02!)

Update! Read all about it here!

UPDATE! This is as urgent as it gets – we need to prevent the utility regionalization bill that would give away control of California energy to coal states and to Trump. Leaders in the Assembly may come up with a gut-and-amend bill at the last minute, but it would mirror SB 540 Pathways, which was unable to move through Assembly committees due to its unpopularity.

The two people who can stop this backroom dealmaking are Pro Tem McGuire and Senator Limon, Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, who will be the new Pro Tem next year.

Everyone can call both McGuire and Limon because they are the present and future leaders of the Senate. But if you’re a constituent of either, please mention that in your call. The next three days are crucial!

ACTION #1: Make sure legislators are awake and aware that WE ARE WATCHING THEM!

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America’s “Crown Jewels” aren’t locked in a tower (Part 2)

Part 2 – The party of Grifters, Oligarchs and Polluters would very much like to neuter the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which is the regulation enacted by Nixon in 1970 that keeps them from poisoning us without consequences. (Comment Period Ends: Mar 27, 8:59 pm PDT)

(Part 1 here)

Or setting our rivers on fire…

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America’s “Crown Jewels” aren’t locked in a tower (Part 1)

They are our national parks, national monuments, national forests and national wildlife refuges and the GOP is planning to loot them all for their donors.

UPDATE: As of 3/18/2025, our park rangers have NOT been offered their jobs back!

Part 1 – Support their existence and protection, and the rangers who take care of them.

(Part 2 here)

Watch the video from the fired employees of the Channel Islands National Park here!

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Tell Congress to support the Fossil Free Finance Act

It’s the weirdest thing…

On the one hand, banks profit by lending us money to buy homes. To build hospitals. To create communities.
On the other hand, banks profit by lending hundreds of billions to a fossil fuel industry that contributes to making those same homes uninsurable. That makes us sick or kills us. That destroys our communities.

You’d think that the banks would notice that one of their activities was actively destroying the other, but apparently government intervention is necessary to stop their endlessly expanding mobius loop of profit extraction.

Action #1 – Tell Congress to support the H.R.2443/S. 1138 – Fossil Free Finance Act

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Wed 5/15: Urgent! Now is the time to prepare our electrical grid for climate change. Go and comment at the CA Public Utilities Commission meetings tomorrow, Thurs, May 16th.

(This is a guest action from Jan Dietrick, Coordinating Team Member, 350 VC Climate Hub) FB event page

Action – Public Comment to the California Public Utilities Commission Thurs, May 16, at 9:30 am Oxnard City Council Chamber & at 7 pm at OPAC.

Atmospheric CO2 Just Exceeded 415 ppm For The First Time in Human History!

Ventura County residents have two rare opportunities to speak for 2-3 minutes in front of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) about the type of energy we want to use in our homes and how we want to increase the safety and resiliency of our power grid. The damage from the Thomas fire and the ever-increasing menace of climate change make it clear that new solutions are necessary. These appointed officials are not influenced by letters or phone calls, but speaking to them can be very impactful. They can be moved when we show up and demonstrate our interest in how they regulate our utilities.

The CPUC doesn’t normally come to Oxnard, but because we are a wildfire-prone area, they are holding a Public Participatory Hearing at 7-8 pm on Thursday, May 16 (tomorrow!) on how SoCal Edison will prevent future wildfires. While they are here, they are holding their regular 9:30 business meeting in the morning at the Oxnard City Council Chamber. Public comments are welcome at both meetings! Get there early to sign in to make comments and read this for more info.

CPUC Morning business meeting: May 16, 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM, Oxnard City Council Chambers, 305 W. Third St., Oxnard, CA 93030; also available via listen-only phone line at 1-800-857-1917, passcode 92105.
CPUC Evening presentation: May 16, 7 p.m.: Oxnard Performing Arts Center, Ventura Room, 800 Hobson Way, Oxnard, CA 93030

Here are some talking points… Choose what makes sense to you.

Continue reading “Wed 5/15: Urgent! Now is the time to prepare our electrical grid for climate change. Go and comment at the CA Public Utilities Commission meetings tomorrow, Thurs, May 16th.” →

Tues – 1/29: How has climate change affected you?

(Photo – Thomas Fire burns near Meiners Oaks in the Ojai Valley.)

This is our chance to let Congress know how climate change is affecting our lives.

(From Jim Hines, Los Padres Sierra Club)

Greetings Climate Activists:

Our good friend congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources will be holding a month long series of hearings on the climate change crisis.

And he wants to hear from YOU. How has climate change impacted YOU.

Please share your thoughts with Chair Grijalva here.

Chair Grijalva will be using your comments and testimony from the hearings to develop far reaching climate change legislation this year

Jim

This is a nation-wide appeal. Share are far as you can.

Wed 10/31: This is scarier than anything that will come to your door tonight. Last day to comment on this environmental travesty.

On Tuesday, we asked people to comment on a proposed rollback of CA’s Clean Car Standards (Due 10/26), reminding us that even during the distractions of this election season, the Trump administrations’ efforts to push all of our environmental protections through a regulatory shredding machine, continues without pause. We need to gather our wits, our computers and smartphones, and keep fighting on this moving battle line.

Action – Comment on Trumps’ proposal to replace the “Clean Power Plan” (CPP) with his criminally inferior “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) plan. – DEADLINE OCT. 31st. 11:59 EST

skull pollution Continue reading “Wed 10/31: This is scarier than anything that will come to your door tonight. Last day to comment on this environmental travesty.” →

Thurs 10/25: All Trump’s “Affordable” power plan will cost us are the lives of 1400 of our most vulnerable. Every year.

Action – Comment on Trumps’ proposal to replace the “Clean Power Plan” (CPP) with his criminally inferior “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) plan. – DEADLINE OCT. 31st. 11:59 EST

skull pollution Continue reading “Thurs 10/25: All Trump’s “Affordable” power plan will cost us are the lives of 1400 of our most vulnerable. Every year.” →

Fri 9/7: Get ready for the Climate March tomorrow. Dress like fire.

Facebook link. RSVP link. Host’s website link.

Please join RISE VENTURA at the beach near the parking garage and pier at 2:00. Here, we will spell out VOTE for a photo op before we march up to City Hall. The march will end behind City Hall in the parking lot, where we will spell out RISE and send up a drone to capture the image with the Botanical Gardens behind us.

Bring your signs and your spirit! Also, bring hats, sunscreen, and water. (Free refills will be available at the end of the march.)

We will have several extra signs as well as some sign-making materials for those who need them.

Participants are encouraged to wear yellow, orange, or red to the event.

PLEASE RSVP so that we know how many people are coming AND invite your friends and family! Hope to see you there! Remember, to change everything, it takes everyone!