Extra! Extra! 1/21 🪓🪓🪓
Hi, all, and happy Sunday!
First of all, in case you didn’t see my latest update, the Environmental Voter Project / Climate Action Now event on January 30th is no longer “sold out!” So if you want to find out how environmental voters are going to save democracy this year—and how you can help—you can register here.
With that good news out of the way let’s move on to all of the rest! Because a whole lot of great things happened this week, and if we’re not going to celebrate them, who is?
As always I’ve placed an 🪓 next to every win that came about because of the hard work of people like you—or because of lawmakers we helped elect. Every one of those items is a reminder: When we organize, we win.
Never forget it!
Read This 📖
This piece by Rabbi Sharon Brous is, well, exquisite.
Celebrate This! 🎉
The Biden Administration announced a plan to fine oil and gas companies for excess methane emissions. This would be the first federal price on greenhouse gas pollution. 🪓
A federal judge blocked JetBlue Airways’ proposed merger with Spirit Airlines, handing the Biden administration a significant victory in its effort to preserve competition in a key industry that critics say has grown too concentrated. 🪓
The Biden Administration awarded $51.4 million to Puerto Rico to build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure. 🪓
President Biden announced that he had proposed a rule that would end excessive overdraft fees. Yay! The proposal would cut the average overdraft fee by more than half, saving the typical American family that pays these fees $150 a year. 🪓
The city council of Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, unanimously approved an ordinance permitting 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections; this makes Newark the most populous community in the nation to pass such a reform. 🪓
Democrat Tom Keen won a hotly contested special election in central Florida, flipping a Republican-held seat in the state House. 🪓🪓
Scientists have developed a simple test that can identify 18 early-stage cancers that experts say could represent a medical “gamechanger.”
The final phase of a massive solar-powered canopy is underway in the parking lot at Disneyland Paris. It'll provide 36 gigawatt-hours per year and lots of shade for visitors.
Gasoline is cheap right now — but charging an EV is still (way) cheaper.
Utilities in New York state have submitted plans for 13 pilot projects meant to replace fossil-gas pipelines with infrastructure that can power clean, carbon-free heat pumps.
By 2030, women could control much of the $30 trillion in assets held by baby boomers.
Cape Verde, a sub-Saharan African nation, has been declared malaria-free for the first time in 50 years.
Democrats in Maine's legislature renewed their effort to elect the president according to the national popular vote when they held a hearing on a bill that would have the state join a multistate alliance to implement just such a change. 🪓
Some of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's biggest critics are hitting the airwaves with TV ads assailing her time in office. (Here’s their first ad. Awesome.) 🪓
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand lower court rulings that allowed a transgender boy in Indiana to use the restroom that matches his gender identity, a win for the student.
A new wind farm in Gratiot County, MI went online last week. Heartland Farms Wind, made up of 72 wind turbines, will power approximately 80,000 households. 🪓
The Department of Energy announced the successful production of heat pump prototypes that could save American households more than $500 a year on utility bills. 🪓
LG Energy announced plans to build 10 grid-scale battery storage facilities across the U.S., which will help avoid the equivalent of 16 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year. 🪓
Qcells announced they will provide Microsoft with 12 gigawatts of American-made solar panels through 2032. 🪓
Toyota’s EV sales saw a 10 times increase in 2023. 1 🪓
Democrats in Maine are hoping to add the right to an abortion to the state's constitution. 🪓
The Biden campaign’s newest hires include AOC’s amazing spokesperson and the former lead research producer for “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” Sweet! 🪓
Savannah, GA is getting lots more trees—and addressing tree inequity and providing green job training opportunities—thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. 🪓
BMW has passed the tipping point for combustion engine vehicle sales and now generates most sales growth from electric cars.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Appeals Court affirmed a lower court's order to temporarily block a Texas law that would require vendors selling books to school libraries to rate their books on sexual explicitness. HUGE!
Maryland is hailing a ‘remarkable’ year for young oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. 🪓
In the 24 hours after Trump won Iowa, Biden’s team raised more than $1.6 million from grassroots donors. Even better, they raised more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, and have a historic $117 million in cash on hand--the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle. 🪓
Also, the Biden-Harris campaign is laying the groundwork to put abortion rights at the center of their message. (Look at their first ad! WOW! )🪓
A new Polish state policy that aims to replace 50% of the country’s coal and wood household furnaces/boilers with electric heat pumps could save 21,247 lives a year.
The number of smokers worldwide dropped from 1.36 billion in 2000 to 1.25 billion in 2022, despite the world population rising by a third in that time. As a result millions of lives will be saved each year.
Ukraine’s agricultural exports via its Black Sea grain corridor have nearly returned to pre-war levels, a remarkable bounceback resulting from Kyiv’s successful attacks on Russia’s naval forces.
According to new polling, three in five Americans now support Congress passing a law to guarantee the right to an abortion. An even greater share oppose a nationwide ban on abortion.
The rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell by nearly 50% in 2023 compared to the previous year, space agency data suggests. 🪓
Poland’s new climate minister has said she will “get saws out of Polish forests” by limiting logging in 10 of the country’s most treasured woodlands. 🪓
Virginia Senate Democrats blocked a Republican effort to drastically shorten the state's early voting period. Virginians will continue to have 45 days to vote early. Elections matter! 🪓🪓
U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in December, boosted by an increase in motor vehicle and online purchases, keeping the economy on solid ground heading into the new year. 🪓
Republican voters’ enthusiasm for Trump is down. Iowa proved it.
Thousands of North Carolina residents will soon be connected to high-speed internet thanks to an $82 million dollar investment included in the American Rescue Plan’s (ARP) Capital Projects Fund. 🪓
For the first time, women make up the majority of law firm associates in the U.S.
Puerto Rico has begun using batteries connected to residents’ rooftop solar panels to provide backup power for its grid, helping prevent blackouts and offering an alternative to fossil fuel-burning peaker plants.
Cities are embracing “deconstruction” to keep building materials out of landfills. 🪓
Texas had another bout of extremely cold weather, but this time their grid didn’t fail! (Ahem. Thanks, solar.)
Five towns in southern Maine will deploy AmeriCorps members as “energy navigators” to help residents identify energy-efficiency retrofits and apply for tax credits, rebates, and other incentives. 🪓
The Pentagon is getting rooftop solar panels. The building, one of the world’s largest, is also installing heat pumps; the Defense Department expects the measures to save it $1.36 million a year on energy costs. 🪓
The world’s largest oil tanker company plans to add 120 low-emissions vessels to its fleet. Once built, Euronav’s 60 small compressed-hydrogen-powered ships and 60 ammonia-powered larger ships could be the world’s largest green fleet.2
The stock market broke through to new heights, hitting a new record. The record followed a “staggering rally” in the final months of 2023. Bad economy what, now? 🪓
The Biden administration canceled $4.9 billion more in student debt for 74,000 borrowers. 🪓
U.S. consumer sentiment improved dramatically in January, hitting the highest level in 2-1/2 years. 🪓
Congress passed a short-term spending bill! Biden signed it! Shutdown averted—at least temporarily—again! 🪓
Washington, D.C., bar investigators have filed disciplinary charges against three lawyers who aided Sidney Powell’s campaign to mount discredited legal challenges to the 2020 election results.
The US grid battery fleet is about to double — again. 🪓
The Biden Harris administration proposed a new federal rule which will speed up health insurance company decisions on whether to authorize or deny medical care or treatments for millions of patients. Doctors “are cheering.” 🪓
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an effort by Twitter to appeal a ruling that allowed special counsel Jack Smith to access records from former President Donald Trump's Twitter account as part of his federal election interference probe.
The U.S. Supreme Court said it wouldn’t review Quinn v. Washington, the lawsuit challenging Washington’s capital gains tax. In its first year, the tax brought in almost $900 million in revenue—it’s being put towards education and school construction. 🪓
Trump was ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in legal fees to the New York Times and three investigative reporters after he sued them unsuccessfully over a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2018 story about his family’s wealth and tax practices.
The first all-women St. Paul City Council was sworn into office, and a number of them were Run For Something candidates! (This was actually supposed to be in last week’s but I ran out of space.) 🪓
DeSantis is out. Buh bye.
Spelman College, the women’s school in Atlanta, announced that it had received a $100 million donation—the largest-ever single gift to a historically Black college.
In Massachusetts, the Pembroke School Committee unanimously voted down a proposed measure that would ban the display of certain political and social symbols—like Pride flags and LGBTQIA+ attire—in the classroom. Woot! 🪓
On Wednesday, the U.S. Forest Service withdrew a federal permit for a key section of the Uinta Basin Railway project, a proposed 88-mile rail route that would carry crude oil from Utah’s Uinta Basin through the fragile Colorado River watershed to refineries along the Gulf Coast.3 🪓
Spirit AeroSystems — Boeing’s supplier that built the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 that had a panel blow out mid-flight earlier this month — is stepping up its inspections.
FEMA announced that it will fundamentally overhaul the way it delivers aid to survivors, launching new programs to provide quick cash payments to those in need and eliminating much of the bureaucracy that hampers aid access. 🪓
Protestors showed up in force to the Moms For Liberty event held this week in NYC. They shouted “Worst moms ever!” as the attendees walked in. (I ❤️ NY.) 🪓
This and the four items above came from Climate Power.
This and the one above from Semafor Net Zero
Thanks for putting these together! Very encouraging. 💙💙💙
WOW 🤩