A Big Move Away from Natural Gas for Santa Rosa: Another Solution to Move Away from Fossil Fuels5/14/2018  By Hoai-An Truong For those of us who support Indigenous peoples in their crusade against fossil fuel industries, moving away from natural gas is a positive step to transition away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. After the Sonoma County fires, for those of us who are climate activists, a mandate of “all-electric ready” construction for all new buildings in Santa Rosa is needed to prepare us for the transition to clean energy. The City of Santa Rosa and its residents will be working on the post-fire rebuild for years to come. Members of the Sonoma County Climate Activist Network (a network of over 25 local climate action organizations including our group, Sonoma Solidarity with Standing Rock) are working on a green, sustainable, fire resilient rebuild. So our current campaign is to mandate “all-electric ready” construction for all new buildings in Santa Rosa. This promotes clean energy usage over gas, which is a fossil fuel. Also we are extremely fortunate in this county to be able to get our energy from community solar: Sonoma Clean Power. Our electricity bills will decrease over time as solar and battery technology improves, and production costs go down. Natural gas comes with high environmental costs: extraction via fracking devastates the environment and local communities. Fracking is a huge contributor to climate change. Methane (CH4) is the main component of natural gas (around 85%) and methane is a major greenhouse gas (GHG). Over a time scale of 20 years, methane has a global warming potential over 100 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas. In the last few years the scientific community has come to realize that the production of natural gas results in massive amounts of “fugitive emissions,” or unintended leakage of natural gas into the atmosphere. And it is an increasingly expensive process. Those costs - HIGH environmental costs as well as financial - are passed on to us: the consumers. For those of us who love to cook and even those who don't, we prefer cooking on a gas stove. Most of us have had terrible experiences cooking with electric stoves. Parting with a gas stove might appear to be the hardest part of the transition. However electric stovetop technology has evolved tremendously. An induction stovetop burner can now be as responsive or even more responsive than a gas burner. Induction stovetops heat faster, and are very fast to turn down the temperature, like a gas burner. An induction stovetop can be more easily, evenly and precisely controlled than a gas burner which is prone to hot spots and uneven heating. They have a smaller carbon footprint. An induction stovetop is also dramatically safer particularly if you have toddlers or young children, and even if you have elderly parents who might be succumbing to a failing memory or even Alzheimer's. (See the first two videos below.) Note that the cost of natural gas will go up over time due to expensive extraction costs, but the cost of renewable energy will keep going down. Going all-electric ensures your costs will go down with time. It is a great choice financially -- especially for those approaching or in retirement, when many of us will be living on fixed incomes. Please support the mandate for all-electric construction for all future construction in Santa Rosa. It's best for the climate and our future. Here are the BEST videos I've found so far on the advantages of an induction cooktop vs a gas cooktop - and both are surprisingly fun to watch. The first video also shows you don't have to buy a whole new cooktop. You can buy a portable induction burner for around $70. Are induction cooktops better than gas? by Dean Sharp - The House Whisperer  I am also including a video comparing convection ovens vs. conventional ovens because convection ovens bake faster and are more energy efficient. Note: this video is from 2015. The price of convection ovens, particularly countertop versions, have dropped considerably. You can even buy a combination countertop microwave and convection oven to save space. Microwave ovens are great at heating but not at browning or baking. A convection oven allows the food to bake faster and to brown. A convection oven browns more evenly than a conventional oven, eliminating or reducing the need for basting. Faster, less work - and save energy. Here's a good article by Bob's Red Mill. "We definitely recommend using a conventional oven for any recipes that require rising, as you do not want to cook the outside before the inside is finished leavening. The convection can also dry out the inside of these recipes, such as bread, cake, soufflé, flan, etc., so you want to steer clear of that setting if you want your final product to be nice and moist." Fortunately, you can look for a convection oven that has the ability to turn off the fan, so it behaves like a conventional oven. Bob's Red Mill: Convection Oven vs. Regular Oven Something else to consider: when a natural disaster strikes, such as another fire or if the Big One hits (the next big earthquake), electricity is restored more quickly than gas (which could take up to 2-3 weeks to repair).
Scientists say we have until 2020 to make a huge shift to reduce and reverse climate change. Vote with your wallet, make your voice heard at city council meetings, email city council. Choose a sustainable future. For all of us!
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 "Last year, after the military-style assaults on the camps at Standing Rock, Human Rights Watch expanded its agenda to include a program focused on the environment as a human right.
"Sustaining this awakening is the next great task. "We need climate justice in everything we do." Click to read article. Action alert: No drilling for oil off the California coast - Deadline for comments March 9th3/3/2018  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jennyb Date: Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 2:36 PM Subject: [Sonoma-NoDAPL] Action alert: Stop drilling for oil off the California coast - deadline for comments March 9th To: Sonoma-NoDAPL <sonoma-nodapl@googlegroups.com> Stop drilling for oil off the California coast! The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is proposing to sell leases to oil companies for drilling off the entire west coast and east coast of the USA and all around Alaska. Comments due by March 9th. Very many thanks to Ann Hancock of the Center for Climate Protection for sending out the Action Alert below which provides a framework for comments. On February 8th, the Sierra Club Sonoma Group organized a bus to Sacramento to the rally and the BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) meeting where people could submit comments. The following talking points were provided so you can also use these as a basis for comments:
-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject:Action alert: Stop drilling for oil off the California coast ❗ Date:Tue, 27 Feb 2018 17:01:37 +0000 From:Ann Hancock <ann@climateprotection.org> February 22, 2018 The federal government invites comments re drilling for oil off the California coast. Let’s let them know that Californians are opposed. Comments are due by March 9th. Click on the "Take Action" button below, then click on the "Comment now!" button on the top right side of the page. Here's some sample text you can copy and paste into the comments section. Why is the federal government planning on drilling for more oil off the coast of California? The amount of carbon already contained in the world’s proven coal and oil and gas reserves is five times the amount required to increase the global temperature by 2 degrees Celsius. The vast majority of the world’s scientific community and the 195 nations which signed the Paris Climate Accord agree that it is imperative to avoid an increase of average global surface temperature of more than two degrees. So if our current fossil fuel reserves exceed what we can safely consume, why would we want to drill for more oil and risk seriously damaging our vital coastal eco-system and California's tourism and fishing industries? TAKE ACTION Please also consider sharing this action alert on social media or via email by clicking on the buttons below. Share Tweet Forward Thank you for all you do to make a difference! Ann Hancock, Executive Director Center for Climate Protection Copyright © 2018 Center for Climate Protection, All rights reserved. You have submitted your contact information to the Center for Climate Protection to be included in our email list. Our mailing address is: Center for Climate Protection P.O. Box 3785 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 Add us to your address book  Please send in a comment ASAP within the next two weeks!
The Minnesota Department of Commerce just completed revisions on the Final Environmental Impact Statement -- but it's missing a key cultural resources survey, despite the fact that five Indigenous Nations have repeatedly asked for it to be included. Send your comment now urging the Commission to include the impacts to Indigenous communities and sacred sites, and reject the Line 3 pipeline. Thanks! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mysti Babineau & 350.org <350@350.org> Date: Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 1:42 PM Subject: Support Indigenous rights & #StopLine3 Friends, Right now, there are 3 major tar sands pipelines on the table that, if built, would send our climate past a tipping point. Keystone XL in the Midwest, Kinder Morgan in Western Canada, and Line 3 near my home in the Great Lakes would all bring tar sands from Alberta, Canada to market -- threatening Indigenous rights and burning more fossil fuels our climate can’t bear. The last opportunity to weigh in on the Line 3 pipeline just opened -- can you submit a comment to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission urging them to reject the project? The Commissioners need to know that the world is watching this decision. The more people who submit a comment, the more pressure we can generate. Comments will only be accepted for the next two weeks -- so we need to act now. The Minnesota Department of Commerce just completed revisions on the Final Environmental Impact Statement -- but it's missing a key cultural resources survey, despite the fact that five Indigenous Nations have repeatedly asked for it to be included. Send your comment now urging the Commission to include the impacts to Indigenous communities and sacred sites, and reject the Line 3 pipeline. Even without the results of this survey, the PUC has plenty of reasons to reject this pipeline. It's a catastrophe for Indigenous rights, clean water, and the climate, and it should not be built. This fight is bigger than just Line 3 -- it’s about stopping the fossil fuel industry and its dirty projects that harm our communities and our climate. We need a just and equitable transition to 100% renewables, and we need it now. This is the last opportunity for the public to weigh in on Line 3, prior to the PUC’s decision on the permits this June. Please add your voice and say 'no' to this dangerous pipeline. With thanks, Mysti Babineau 350.org is building a global climate movement. Become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and growing.  [Updated 1/16/18]
Hi folks, This Thursday morning, Jan. 18th, may be the most important day ALL YEAR to ask Santa Rosa city council to start a public bank. Their annual Goal Setting meeting is coming right up: the city council's two-day session Thursday-Friday, 1/18 to 1/19 to decide what top 5 priorities they will be focusing their energies on in the upcoming year. As you probably know, Native American leadership continues to urge divestment from fossil fuels. However for cities to divest, there is NO alternative to Wall Street banks. Local banks and credit unions are far too small: they can only insure accounts up to $250,000. The ONLY option for cities to divest from Wall Street banks is a public bank, a bank run by the government that serves the public interest. The divestment team at Sonoma Solidarity with Standing Rock works closely with Public Bank Santa Rosa to urge the City of Santa Rosa to start a public bank. Now this proposal takes on a new urgency - as the city attempts to fund the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed in the fires. A public bank offers HUGE local financial gains:
In addition to trying to scrape together the money for rebuilding city infrastructure and the cost of clean-up after the fires, Santa Rosa faces huge problems and huge financial needs such as how to handle the issues of the homeless, which have grown worse since the fires. A public bank offers the biggest pot of money that the city can possibly go after. Show up and please wear green on Thursday morning to urge city council and the city manager to fund a feasibility study right away, so we can reap these considerable benefits as soon as possible. This is crucial to institutional divestment and to the rebuild of Santa Rosa. Our presence can make a difference! At the city council meeting on 1/9, there were around 20 speakers and 11 of those expressed their support for public banking during the public comments. As a result, we got into the Press Democrat! Note: If you plan to speak, note your time limit may be only 3 or only 2 minutes, so please plan accordingly. City Council - Executive Team Sessions 10:00 AM to 5 PM The public comments section is right after the mayor's welcome at 10am, this Thursday 1/18. Hyatt Vineyard Creek - Chalk Hill Room 170 Railroad Street Santa Rosa Ways you can support this proposal:
"Put your money where your solidarity is." -- Mazaska Talks Thank you! Sonoma Solidarity with Standing Rock Click for more info on public banking. #publicbanksantarosa #publicbanking #divestment #defundDAPL #MazaskaTalks  [updated 1/16/2018]
The state is about to do excessive logging as part of post-fire "emergency tree removal". The state is about to clear 300 FEET of trees around any permitted building! This is far in excess of what science recommends: the research shows 100 FEET of clearing is sufficient. PLEASE email or fax the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) to stop this excessive and unnecessary clear-cutting throughout Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino. Haven't Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino been through enough?? *** Deadline extended to at least Monday 1/22 *** They finally say the comment period is now open but ONLY for the next five days. If they mean business days, then I suppose it means by Monday, Jan. 22. But I'm just guessing. So it would be good to get your comments in as soon as possible. Thanks! E-mail: staff@oal.ca.gov and Eric.Hedge@bof.ca.gov (Cal Fire) Mail: OAL Reference Attorney 300 Capitol Mall, Suite 1250 Sacramento, California 95814 Fax: (916) 323-6826 RE: Public comment on the “Emergency Rulemaking to Facilitate Post-Fire Recovery Efforts within Counties of Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino” Dear OAL Staff Members: We are concerned about the level of clear-cutting (“harvesting”) being proposed by the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, dated January 5 2018. Removals proposed in the Emergency Tree Removal Documents are well beyond the level required for public safety, and would result in the removal of stored carbon, trees that could have survived, and valuable wildlife habitat, including habitat that supports wildlife protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We urge you to reduce the area to be cleared around permitted structures from 300 feet to 100 feet of defensible space, as 100 feet is the current standard recommended by CalFire and many fire scientists who have studied the subject in depth. We understand that your stated intent is to protect the post-fire environment. However, the proposed removal footprint appears to be more economical that ecologically relevant to a system that is currently in the process of regenerating after the fires. Therefore, the proposed actions do not represent good intent. There are several fundamental issues related to the proposed removal of “all dead or dying trees” within 300 feet of any permitted structure, and there is inherent lack of balance between safety measures and environmental damage resulting from the proposed post-fire salvage logging. Proposed removal of “all dead or dying trees” could also include dead or dying trees being “chipped or piled and burned within forty-five (45) days from the start of Timber Operations.” Our major concerns include (a) the excessive removal of trees around each structure, (b) the preliminary evaluations that are likely to underestimate the number of live and recovering trees, (c) massive amounts of carbon lost due to burning (e.g., for biomass) and other harvesting products, (d) the elimination of great swaths of wildlife habitat due to excessive removal of snags as well as trees that could be still alive, and (e) the elimination of natural regeneration and carbon sequestration processes that are already vigorous, and (f) massive erosion impacts resulting from mechanical operations. Your document includes an appreciation of the wildlife habitat created by stating the intended plan to “retain an average for the Harvest Area of not less than one (1) Decadent and Deformed Tree of Value to Wildlife, Snag, or Dying Tree per acre that is greater than sixteen (16) inches DBH and twenty (20) feet tall.” Many wildlife species, including species protected by the ESA, use the “snags” and one per acre is insufficient to provide adequate wildlife habitat that has been created by the October 2017 fires. In a recent document, Dr. Richard Hutto stated that it is “abundantly clear that salvage logging has uniformly negative ecological consequences for the very species that are most restricted in their distribution to burned forest conditions (Hutto 1995, 2006, Hutto and Gallo 2006, Hutto 2008, Lindenmayer et al. 2008, DellaSala et al. 2014, DellaSala et al. 2015, Hutto et al. 2015, Lindenmayer et al. 2017, Thorn et al. 2017).” Please note: there is a nine-fold difference (almost an order of magnitude difference) between tree removal operations conducted within with 100 feet around a permitted structure (approximately 31,400 square feet) to retain acceptable defensible space, and the proposed removal of 300 feet around a permitted structure (approximately 282,600 square feet). Our concern is that these operations are going to result in a massive loss of stored carbon and complex wildlife habitat created after the fires – habitat that is currently being documented by scientists. As summarized in your documents, 185,000 acres burned around approximately 9,200 homes, and damaged approximately 790 additional structures in Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino Counties. You also state the removal of dead and dying tree can “reduce the risk of fire to timberlands” and also “increase forest vigor and vitality of surviving stands of trees…” These notions have recently been disproved in the scientific literature by many empirical studies (e.g. 12-year study by Sarah Hart and others, 2015), and the Governor’s Scientific Advisor was informed about the results of those empirical studies. In summary, we have well-founded concerns about the level of clear-cutting (“harvesting”) being proposed in your Emergency Tree Removal Documents, which is well beyond the level required for public safety, and will result in the removal of valuable stored carbon that also serves as excellent wildlife habitat, and natural carbon sequestration processes that are currently in progress. In addition, clear-cutting operations are very likely to result in the removal of trees that could have survived the fires. Please consider clearing within the acceptable 100 feet to maintain defensible space. Best regards, Maya Khosla Jenny Blaker Neil Hancock Christy Sherr, John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute Denise Boggs, Exec. Director, Conservation Congress Heating Up: California Spotted Owls and Wildfire Can large wildfire benefit spotted owls and other imperiled wildlife? An emerging science brings all manner of surprises, and a few tough questions. https://boomcalifornia.com/2017/10/20/heating-up-california-spotted-owls-and-wildfire/  Hi folks,
We had a great night at the city council meeting. During the public comments section, 11 of around 20 speakers spoke in favor of public banking! Next week, on Thursday 1/18 and Friday 1/19, city council will be deciding priorities for the upcoming year (time & location TBD). Public banking is the biggest possible pot of money that the city council can possibly go after: for the rebuild, for the homeless, for clean-up after the fires, etc. Please endorse our proposal, and come to the city council meetings on the 18th & 19th. We cannot afford to put this off another year. One of our members spoke about how starting a public bank will help fund the rebuild of the City of Santa Rosa: I am a climate activist working with the divestment team at Sonoma Solidarity with Standing Rock. We have joined with Public Bank Santa Rosa to urge the City of Santa Rosa to start a public bank as it is the ONLY way for the city to divest from Wall Street banks. Now this proposal takes on a new urgency - as the city attempts to fund the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed in the fires. A public bank offers huge financial gains: It will help cut the cost of rebuilding Santa Rosa infrastructure after the fires IN HALF. This can be achieved by financing through the city's own bank, eliminating interest paid on bonds and returning the earned interest to the city's own operating budgets. It will save millions in banking fees to Wall Street banks. It can offer lower interest loans to homeowners wishing to rebuild after the fires. It will help keep money in our city and county. It's the only way the City of Santa Rosa and other cities and institutions can truly divest from Wall Street banks which invest in fossil fuels. Profits can be used to finance clean energy projects and green, sustainable, more resilient rebuilding. The public bank can profit from providing much needed financial services to the cannabis industry, and the profits can be applied to budgetary needs. If our county's cannabis dollars go to another public bank in the area, this financial opportunity may diminish at a time when we need it most. We must strike while the iron is hot. We urge city council and the city manager to fund a feasibility study right away, so we can reap these considerable benefits as soon as possible, so desperately needed by fire survivors. This is crucial to institutional divestment and to the rebuild of Santa Rosa. To everyone in the audience, please endorse our proposal at www.publicbanksantarosa.org/endorse.html. Thank you! ________ P.S. Just how does public banking support Standing Rock? What is the connection? As you may know, Native American leaders continue to call for divestment. However even if cities such as Seattle and San Francisco divest from fossil fuels, there is no bank big enough to handle their accounts. Unfortunately local banks and credit unions are only able to insure accounts up to $250,000. After the City of Albuquerque declared they were divesting from Wells Fargo, they received requests for proposals from 5 banks. Only Wells Fargo was able to fill all of the city's requirements, and the city has to return to Wells Fargo for now. A public bank (a bank run by the government that serves the public interest) is the only option for cities which choose to divest their money from fossil fuel investments. This is why we at Sonoma Solidarity with Standing Rock have joined forces with the Public Bank Santa Rosa work group, and why Lakota People's Law Project actively promotes public banking. Note that in addition to the above local benefits, a public bank does not compete with local banks: it is a wholesale bank which can partner with local banks to offer lower interest loans. Click here for more information about public banking. See also the Mazaska Talks ("Money Talks") web site and Facebook page.  Hi folks,
Happy New Year! As you are probably aware, even though the camps at Standing Rock are gone, Native American leadership continues to urge divestment from fossil fuels. Our divestment team at Sonoma Solidarity with Standing Rock has joined with Public Bank Santa Rosa to urge the City of Santa Rosa to start a public bank as it is the ONLY way for the city to divest from Wall Street banks. Now this proposal takes on a new urgency - as the city attempts to fund the rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed in the fires. A public bank offers many financial gains:
We urge all community organizations to endorse our proposal. Also, please attend this Tuesday if you can. This is crucial to institutional divestment and to the rebuild of Santa Rosa. The link to the endorsement form is below. Thank you! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shelly <info@shellybrowning.com> Date: Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 7:36 PM Subject: [Climate Activists-SC] Urgent: Endorsements Needed for Proposed Resolution to Create a Public Bank of Santa Rosa Dear Friends of Public Banking, A very warm and Happy New Year’s greeting to you all. The Friends of Public Banking working group has been diligently working away and we have created a Proposed Resolution to Create a Public Bank of Santa Rosa. We ask for your immediate support in endorsing this Proposal. We are asking that the city fund a feasibility study for a Public Bank of Santa Rosa. You may read the Proposal in full and endorse it on our website at the following link: http://www.publicbanksantarosa.org/endorse.html If link does not work, try: http://publicbanksantarosa.weebly.com/endorse.html You may further show your support by signing our online petition, which also asks the city to support our recommendation to fund a feasibility study for a Public Bank of Santa Rosa. http://www.publicbanksantarosa.org/petition.html or: http://publicbanksantarosa.weebly.com/petition.html These requests are urgent due to the fact that the Santa Rosa City Council will be conducting their annual Public Hearing for 2018/2019 Budget Priorities at their regularly scheduled city council meeting this Tuesday, January 9th at 5:00pm at City Hall on 100 Santa Rosa Ave. We would like to present a long list of supporters of both individuals and organizations for the Proposal at this meeting. It would be excellent if you could attend this meeting in solidarity to show resounding support in the request to fund the feasibility study this year. The more people who attend and speak to this request, the more likely it is that the council will approve the feasibility study. If you can attend, wear green and speak to the items in the Proposal that resonate most strongly with you. You can find the full city council meeting agenda at the following link for the January 9th meeting item #16.1 https://santa-rosa.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx May 2018 be the year that the City of Santa Rosa takes strong and direct action to establish a Bank of Santa Rosa. To our collective best always, Shelly Browning Friends of Public Banking Santa Rosa "The tallest oak in the forest was once just a little nut that held its ground." ~ Unknown  What does it mean to be a good ally of Native Americans? This is a question we sometimes ask ourselves. From theconversation.com web site: "Climate justice – the idea that it is ethically wrong for some groups of people to suffer the detrimental effects of climate change more than others – is among the most significant moral issues today, referenced specifically in the landmark Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "...Indigenous peoples are among the populations who will suffer more, on average, than other communities from changing environmental conditions. Some are suffering right now. "So as the protests and legal battles over the construction of the pipeline continue, we need to realize that protection of sacred sites and worries over contaminated water supplies are simultaneously concerns about climate justice and its relation to U.S. colonialism. Nonindigenous environmentalists are only allies if they work broadly toward decolonization, instead of aligning with indigenous peoples only when a particular issue, such as opposition to one pipeline, seems to match their interests." Click to read the whole article.  5 Native American tribes are gearing up for a legal battle with Trump on national monuments12/6/2017  Grist Magazine: 5 Native American tribes are gearing up for a legal battle with Trump on national monuments. “More than 150 years ago, the federal government removed our ancestors from Bears Ears at gunpoint and sent them on the Long Walk,” Navajo Nation Council Delegate Davis Filfred said in statement. “But we came back.” The five tribes have said they will bring a legal case against the administration — the outcome could redefine the president’s powers to use the Antiquities Act. “We know how to fight and we will fight to defend Bears Ears,” Filfred said. To support the five tribes, click here. Click here to read the article.  The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, formed in 2015  |
It's Not Over for Standing Rock.
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