Public Employee Press

Activists build on climate march

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Shifting to renewable energy in the U.S. would require breaking the oil companies' stranglehold on the economy and political system.

Environmental activists gathered at DC 37 on March 16 to consider their legislative and political agenda following the massive People's Climate March in New York City last fall.

"The issue of environmental justice is critical to our rank-and-file members, and we, as labor, must fight the good fight," said DC 37 Executive Board member Jon Forster, of Local 375, who chairs the union's Climate Change Committee, which helped organize the panel.

City Council member Donavan Richards, who chairs the council's Committee on Environmental Protection, gave the audience an overview of existing and proposed legislation to combat climate change.

Samara Swanton, the committee's legislative counsel, spoke about how the grassroots activists could influence the legislative process.

Last year, the city approved a law to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050.

Most of the reduction would be achieved by lowering carbon dioxide emissions in buildings.

Richards told the audience that climate change "has become one of the priorities of the City Council and the mayor, and that's because of you." He mentioned a number of bills under consideration at the City Council.

The proposals include updating the air code; phasing out school buses that give off a lot of smoke; promoting electric vehicles; cleaning catch basins more frequently; requiring city buildings to shut off lights at night; increasing the fines on drivers for engine idling; and penalizing companies that falsely describe the disposable wipes they sell as "flushable." (The Dept. of Environmental Protection spends $10 million a year cleaning out these wipes from the city's sewage treatment plants.)

Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, president of the New York State Nurses Association, presented a video that argued the United States could rely completely on renewable energy within 20 to 30 years. Unions would benefit because this transformation would lead to the creation of many jobs.

But the change would require breaking the stranglehold oil companies have over the U.S. economy and political system.

At the gathering, the United Nations ambassador from the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu - recently devastated by Cyclone Pam - appealed for support.

"We have got to agitate, educate and mobilize," said DC 37 Associate Director Jahmila Joseph, who welcomed the audience to union headquarters. "The work has just begun," Joseph said.