Climate Change Action
The Time is Now
It is great to see Wisconsin acting to combat climate change and increase protection of our shared environment based upon sound science, not who puts dirty energy money into campaign coffers.
Governor Tony Evers recently signed an executive order setting a goal for our state to transition to 100% carbon free electricity by 2050. He established an Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy to oversee the effort. These actions set a tone for state action on the issue of climate change and promoting the use of clean energy. They deserve full legislative support and funding to put science back into the policy making agencies that support the effort.
These actions are important because Wisconsin’s climate is changing just like the rest of the world, fossil fuel funded climate change deniers notwithstanding. We’ve seen increasing temperatures year after year. NOAA just announced that this past July was the hottest ever recorded worldwide. The Great Lakes are getting warmer and causing heavier rainfalls and increased flooding. Storms and wild fires streak across the land with increasing strength and damage.
Milwaukee’s Metropolitan Sewerage District was forced to allow five sewerage overflows into the Milwaukee River and Lake Michigan in just three months this year. The District is only allowed to have six during any given year. Wisconsin farmers had to delay planting this Spring due to heavier than normal rains. Our lakes are experiencing unprecedented algae blooms, leading to beach closures across the state.
Some see Evers’ deadline as too far into the future. A new wave of young climate activists is pushing for a 100% clean energy transition by 2030, twenty years sooner than Evers’ deadline. These young people see their futures imperiled by climate change and are demanding changes sooner so their planet remains habitable.
On another front, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul recently joined a coalition of 22 other states, seven local governments and several environmental groups that recently announced a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency over its new ACE, or “Dirty Power” rule.
The ACE rule replaced the Clean Power Plan which imposed the first nationwide limits on one of the largest sources of climate change pollution, existing fossil fuel burning power plants. The EPA’s new rule rolls back these limits, freeing plants to continue burning expensive and polluting coal. It also adds restrictions on state efforts to move to clean renewable and affordable generation of electricity.
In a press release, Attorney General Kaul noted that “climate change is not only real; it is a crisis. We’re only beginning to see its effects, including severe flooding and extreme temperatures. We can’t afford to wait for 20 years or a decade to take meaningful action. We need to step up now and to start responding to the climate crisis like our kids’ future depends on it – because it does.”
The new EPA ACE rule barely mentions climate change and ignores the science that proves we have a looming climate crisis. It disregards the requirements of the Clean Air Act requiring limits on air pollutants through best practices like cap and trade programs that have proven effective in reducing power plant emissions of climate changing pollutants. The new rule actually prohibits states from participating in cap and trade programs. Instead, the Trump EPA proposes utility equipment upgrades that will reduce emissions by only 0.7 percent by 2030 as opposed to having no rule at all. The EPAs own analysis of the new rule’s impact on polluting emissions shows it will cost more in economic damage and significantly increase power plant burdens on air quality.
It is clear that fossil fuel money drives the Trump climate change denial train and brought us this new effort to revitalize a dying industry. Wisconsin legislators would do well to jump off that train at the next station and support Wisconsin and national efforts to take climate change seriously. We need new laws promoting renewable energy generation and pollution reduction strategies. We need to remove the surcharge for registering hybrid electric vehicles. We need more energy efficient mass transit. We need more energy efficiency regulations that lower home heating and cooling costs.
We all live on this planet and cannot bury our heads in the coal ash any longer. We have no Planet B and need to take substantial steps to correct the errors from the last century of industrial progress by transitioning to renewable and sustainable energy systems that will help restore clean air and water which we all need for survival.
Wisconsin Wants Common Sense Gun Law Reform
Let the Legislature Debate New Laws
In the wake of yet more mass shootings this week that left far too many dead and injured, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers asked Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to meet and discuss how to address the growing problem of gun violence. There have been over 250 mass shootings this year alone where 4 or more died, with two occurring in Wisconsin.
After agreeing to meet, Vos immediately tweeted that he would not consider gun law reform and blamed the recent carnage on “mental illness.” Fitzgerald indicated that he would not consider any bills that infringed on the 2nd Amendment and Due Process. Their entrenched views will certainly preclude legislative consideration of universal background checks for all firearm purchases or of “red flag” laws that would permit a judge to order firearm confiscation from those found to be a serious threat to themselves or others.
These modest proposals are already finding renewed favor in states historically opposed to gun law reforms such as Ohio where the republican governor called for similar measures in light of the killing sprees in Dayton and El Paso.
Blaming “mental illness” for our gun violence problem is a distraction dreamed up by the NRA and pedaled by those afraid of losing NRA support. According to U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, 19 out of twenty murderers and 4 out of 5 mass shooters do not have mental illness diagnoses. All of the civilized countries in the world have citizens with mental illness, yet none come close to having as many gun homicides or mass shootings as we do, except those at war. Trump’s recent blaming of the mentally ill for the latest round of killings is all the more bizarre when we recall that one of his first presidential acts was to reverse the Obama era rule barring firearm sales to the mentally ill.
Hatred of others not like the shooter based on religion, race or country of origin is not a “mental illness.” Hatred and fear of others are among the hallmarks of the white supremacist nationalists all too often found with their fingers on the trigger of the assault-style weapons that kill our fellow citizens.
The current batch of white supremacist nationalist killers have often been self-described Trump supporters who appear to have been given permission to repel the “invaders” and wipe out the “infestations” their leader describes at his rallies and in his tweets. Trump’s refusal to consider basic gun reform measures further emboldens the haters to continue their killings. His recent condemnation of white supremacy and hatred ring hollow when followed by his tweets attacking his critics in racist and hate filled terms.
Other GOP notables trot out obsession with violent video games as a leading cause of our mass shooting carnage. Other countries, notably China and Japan, have far more video gamers that we do, yet far fewer mass shootings or murders by firearm. No other country where video gamers play violent games comes close to approaching our levels of gun violence.
What all of our mass shooters have in common is all too easy access to the assault style rifles with high capacity magazines and ammunition designed to inflict the greatest amount of damage to human bodies. Lack of access to these weapons of mass destruction is one of the hallmarks of those countries with almost no mass shootings.
The tide of public opinion on gun control has shifted. Over 80 percent of Wisconsin citizens in a recent Marquette University Law School poll supported universal background checks for all firearm purchases. This would eliminate the so-called “gun show” loophole in present law that exempts private firearm sales from current background check rules. Over half of those polled also supported a ban on assault-style rifles.
Twenty-two states now have “red flag” laws similar to those now proposed by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul. These laws provide due process protections for gun owners by requiring a hearing before a judge where evidence of current danger to self or others must be presented before firearms can be removed by law enforcement. Such measures will certainly pass constitutional muster under the 2nd Amendment.
While important first steps, these measures will not address the need to further restrict access to the weapons whose sole purpose is to kill human beings. Until we renew the assault weapons ban, the killings will continue unabated.
Speaker Vos and Majority Leader Fitzgerald would do well to take a step back from the NRA talking points and mythology and allow the legislature to freely debate how best protect all Wisconsin citizens from further gun violence. Let us urge them to act on reasonable gun reform before there is another Wisconsin mass shooting. We deserve no less.
