• Sustainability

Houston Launches Resilience Plan To Prepare For Its New Normal

• bike lanes
• climate change
• Flooding
• public transportation
• resilience
• Rockefeller Foundation

The City of Houston has adopted a plan to prepare the city for what is expected to be more of the same for decades to come due to climate change — through a range of actions such as the planting of 4.6 million new trees and the removal of all homes from city floodways.

Why This Matters:  FEMA studies have shown that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure — $1 invested before a disaster saves on average more than $5 after — and sometimes much more.

• Sustainability

U.S. and North America Most Resilient to Climate Change

• climate change
• economy
• resilience

A new study by the Economist magazine’s Intelligence Unit (EIU) finds not surprisingly that rich countries such as those in Europe and North America are more resilient to climate change, with less impact on their economies than other regions.  The EIU used an index and found that the global economy will be 3% smaller in 2050 when analyzed against a new framework they developed, while the U.S. will be 1.1% smaller, according to CNN Business.

Why This Matters:  The extent of preparation for climate change impacts is an important economic health indicator for banks, governments, companies, and other institutions as they make investments in those regions — not to mention the citizens of those regions when they consider the effectiveness of their governing institutions.

• Climate Change

Home Builders Blocked Regulations That Would Have Made Houses More Climate Ready

• climate change
• National Association of Home Builders
• resilience

A New York Times investigation published last weekend found that the National Association of Home Builders was able to prevent changes to “model” building codes that would have made new houses in much of the country more energy-efficient or more resilient to floods, hurricanes, and other disasters.

Why This Matters:  The Homebuilders seem to believe that building climate resilience and energy efficiency into homes is extravagant and will price people out of new homes.  But these climate requirements generally pay for themselves over time in energy savings and lower insurance costs.

• Green New Deal

The Green New Deal Gets Some Infrastructure

• climate change
• Green New Deal
• Infrastructure
• resilience
• Senator Markey

Today the outline of the Green New Deal (GND) was filled in a bit more when Senator Ed Markey, the lead GND sponsor in the Senate, released an infrastructure white paper for a “green and climate-friendly infrastructure legislative package” because “[c]limate change has amplified existing threats to America’s infrastructure.”   

• Energy

CA May Go Dark On Windy Days

• battery
• blackout
• energy
• generators
• PG&E
• resilience
• Solar
• wildfire

Bloomberg News reported yesterday that California’s largest utility, PG&E, has a plan to cut off power on high-wind days during the onrushing wildfire season because it the main cause of wildfires last year was power lines that were knocked down by high winds and the sparks from the live wires. And most residents don’t know and/or are not ready for the debilitating impacts.  Governor Newsome is so concerned about the impacts of the blackouts that he has created a fund to help communities prepare.  

• Politics

Dems Insist on Dealing With Climate Change In Infrastructure Package

• clean energy
• clean water
• climate change
• Infrastructure
• public transportation
• resilience

The Democratic leaders of Congress are expected to meet with President Trump today to talk about infrastructure legislation and will make clear that no infrastructure spending bill will move through Congress without significant funding for climate change resilience, clean energy, and other “green” projects. 

• Politics

A Climate Action Alternative To the Green New Deal

• clean energy
• climate action
• climate change
• equity
• Green New Deal
• resilience

Democratic Congressman Paul Tonko of New York laid out his vision for a climate action plan that is an alternative to the Green New Deal — one that he hopes will appeal to a wider segment of the American public, including Republicans. Representative Tonko said in laying out his plan, “We agree that climate change is real. We agree humans are driving it. We agree that we need to build solutions that meet the scale and urgency of the crisis we face. The principles outlined [here] are meant to provide a framework that moves the lines of our agreement forward and helps us build a comprehensive national climate action plan together.”

• Climate Change

The Green New Deal: What’s In It?

• affordable healthcare
• affordable housing
• clean air
• clean energy
• clean water
• climate change
• GND
• Green New Deal
• greenhouse gas emissions
• income inequality
• Infrastructure
• pollution
• renewable energy
• resilience

There has been some confusion and even disinformation about what is IN and what is not in the Green New Deal bill, H.R. 109.  We will summarize it for you here.