Purpose

We are the Yolo County Chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby, working together with other CCL chapters and climate advocates throughout the U.S. and world to pass economically practical legislation for solving climate disruption.

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Our preferred legislative solution for reducing carbon burden.

Yolo and Santa Rosa CCL meet with State Sen. Cabaldon's Office

Yolo and Santa Rosa CCL members had an excellent Zoom meeting on March 13 with Nicole Cuellar, aide to State Senator Cabaldon. We discussed potential state level actions including:

The direct return of more cap and trade money to families through more prominent rebates on electric bills. This would also help lower the net cost of electricity to further encourage electrification of homes to replace the burning of natural gas.
The passage of Senate Bill SB643 to encourage more carbon sequestration projects in the state.

Note: State level actions by CCL members and other associates are now officially under the Climate Future California organization title.

CCL Fall Virtual Conference and More

The CCL Fall Virtual Conference was held December 6 and 7. Speakers included Rachel Kerestes (our new Executive Director), Ben Pendergrass (VP of Government Affairs) and other staff and prominent guest speakers. See the presentation of Opportunities for a Carbon Price in the Next Congress, which highlights using Border Forward, Carbon Intensity Based Pricing. This is compatible with border carbon adjustment legislation introduced by both parties and fits well with tariff policies, which will be a focus of Congress in the next session.Government

World Passes 1.5 Degree Threshold (Axios)

More worldwide climate action is needed as soon as possible.

Hottest Day Ever

Sunday, July 21 was the hottest day ever recorded, according to preliminary data from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which has tracked such global weather patterns since 1940.

"What is remarkable is how different the temperature of the last 13 months is with respect to the previous records," said Buontempo. Every month since June 2023 has now ranked as the planet's hottest since records began, compared with the corresponding month in previous years.

Famed Investor Jeremy Grantham on Current Climate Issues

"Climate damage a short while ago was a ‘he says, she says,’ thing. Who to believe? Now only idiots and ideologues are non-believers. Last year was not just the warmest year since humans evolved. It was the warmest year by the biggest increment ever. 6 If you include the most recent data and take the 12 months ended this January 31st, the world has breached the dreaded 1.5°C above pre-industrial level. 7 And anyone who thought 1.0°C or 1.5°C seemed like such little numbers has been disabused by the avalanche of damaging climate incidents of over $1 billion each (see Exhibit 2). Globally last year GDP was reduced by over 1%, which at 2.9% total growth 8 is a lot, with poorer countries suffering a disproportionate share of that damage. 9 Unprecedented ‘atmospheric rivers’ are dropping a month’s normal rain in a day on our son’s family in California as I write this in early February. 10 Yesterday well over 100 people died in unprecedented forest fires in Chile. 11 The day before…etc. Everyone is suddenly beginning to talk about insurance premiums rising from climate damage as a serious cost pressure. (And in an increasing number of cases, insurance is simply unavailable.)" See original article here.

CCL Conservative conference & lobbying

Rob Beggs of Yolo CCL attended the annual CCL Conservative Conference in Washington D.C., hearing excellent speakers and lobbying 6 Congressional offices along with other attendees. Especially interesting was an extended conversation with Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), who received an award from CCL for his work on the recently passed Growing Climate Solutions Act and other legislation.

Big Wires Act Evaluated by MIT

The Big Wires Act, introduced by Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA-50), is key to building out the electrical grid and providing interconnections between regions. CCL is strongly supporting the act. MIT has evaluated the impact of the legislation here. Their conclusions included:

The BIG WIRES Act would significantly increase the interregional transmission capacity across the U.S., especially between the regions with high renewable potential and high demand.
The BIG WIRES Act would reduce the electricity system cost by $330 million annually in the no CO2 reduction scenario and by $2.46 billion annually in the 95% CO2 reduction scenario, compared to the status quo.
The BIG WIRES Act would enable higher penetration of renewable energy sources, resulting in lower CO2 emissions. The CO2 emissions would decrease by 73 Mmt annually in the no CO2 reduction scenario and reduce the costs of meeting a 95% reduction in CO2 by $2.46 billion annually, relative to the status quo.
The BIG WIRES Act would enhance the grid resiliency to extreme weather events, such as heat waves, cold snaps, and hurricanes, by providing more flexibility and diversity in the generation mix and reducing the reliance on natural gas. For the case of a storm of similar magnitude to the Winter Storm Elliot of 2022, the BIG WIRES Act leads to a 58% reduction in power outages, on average.

In Joint Meeting with CCL Yolo and CCL Santa Rosa, Congressman Mike Thompson Agrees to Cosponsor Key Climate Legislation

CCL Santa Rosa and CCL Yolo held a video conference meeting with our Congressman Mike Thompson on 11/7. The Congressman gave us updates on the situation for climate legislation and excellent feedback on actions we could do to help. He also agreed to cosponsor three bills that CCL is seeking to advance in Congress - The Big Wires Act, the Increased TSP Act, and the RISEE Act.

The Big Wires Act would increase electrical interconnection between regions of the country, hastening deployment of renewable energy generation, making it more widely available in the power mix, and improving overall electrical grid reliability.

The Increased TSP Act would increase the number of technical service providers available to farmers and ranchers for carbon sequestration projects implementation and credits.

The RISEE Act would devote a portion of offshore wind energy leases to improving coastal infrastructure resilience.

A huge thanks to Congressman Thompson for stepping forward on these key bills.

Use the new click-to-call action tool to contact members of Congress such as our own Rep. Mike Thompson. See this 2 minute video for usage instructions.

Yolo county climate action

Check out the latest on Yolo County's Climate Action Plan and take their survey.

James Hansen Sounds the Alarm Bells

(Aug. 2023) James Hansen, sometimes known as the father of climate change analysis, expounds on the current science and observations (link):

"Global temperature in June and July (Fig. 1) shot far above the prior records for those months for the 140 years of good instrumental data. Early indications are that warming exceeds expectation based on only the long-term trend due to increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) plus the emerging El Nino. Three additional mechanisms will have a near-term effect, with a result that the 12-month mean global temperature likely will pierce the 1.5°C warming level before this time next year. Uncertainties in present analyses draw attention to the inadequacy of and the precarious state of crucial global observations."

Climate restoration presentation

(April 2023) We had a total of 76 people (including 10 via Zoom) attend the Climate Restoration Presentation in Davis. There was plenty of good information, good Q&A, and networking. Thanks to all who attended and to Peter Fiekowsky for his presentation. For a transcript of the event, click here.

For more information on the potential and the research needs for ocean biotic climate restoration, see this link at the National Academy of Sciences. Here is their summary:

"Among the biotic approaches, research on ocean iron fertilization and seaweed cultivation offer the greatest opportunities for evaluating the viability of possible biotic ocean CDR approaches; research on the potential CDR and sequestration permanence for ecosystem recovery would also be beneficial in the context of ongoing marine conservation efforts. "

SUPPORT THE REELECTION OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS COMMITTED TO CLIMATE ACTION

See the new Bipartisan Climate Action Fund here:

Bipartisan Climate Action

A Clear Discussion of Carbon Dividends by Fareed Zakaria

What we do

Yolo CCL has been spreading the good news about a nonpartisan approach to global warming that can do the heavy lifting, be effective internationally, and actually improve the economy. We lobby members of Congress and provide public outreach. We table at numerous community events, present to local groups, and hold meetings with Congressman Thompson and other members of Congress and their aides on advancing climate legislation. We work with other climate advocacy groups on moving solutions forward at all levels.