Category Archives: Climate science

Climate action, Climate Change, Climate crisis, Climate science

CA lawmakers consider charging oil companies for climate-related damage

California is considering a bill to study the cost to taxpayers of climate-related disasters. Similar measures have already passed in New York and Vermont. (Strikernia/Adobe Stock)

Public News Service, by Suzanne Potter, April 21, 2025

The “Make Polluters Pay Superfund” bill goes before the California Assembly Natural Resources Committee Monday.

The bill would direct the California Environmental Protection Agency to study how much climate change has cost the state between 1990 and 2024, and assess a one-time fee on oil and gas companies emitting more than 1 billion metric tons of emissions.

Maya Golden-Krasner, deputy director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity in Los Angeles, explained the goal of the bill.

“These are companies that make billions of dollars in profits per day,” Golden-Krasner pointed out. “This bill would take some of the burden off of taxpayers, and put it onto the people who caused the crisis.”

Right now, taxpayers end up footing much of the bill to clean up after natural disasters like mega-fires and floods, made worse by climate change. The money would go into a fund for climate-related programs, including projects to promote energy efficiency, make infrastructure more resilient, create urban green spaces and restore wetlands. The Western States Petroleum Association is among opponents of the bill, saying it will raise fuel costs for consumers and businesses.

The State Building and Construction Trades Council also opposes the bill, saying it will cost jobs.

Asm. Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, a sponsor of the bill, argued the climate projects will create jobs and a one-time fee should not affect gas prices.

“These companies lied to the public for decades,” Addis contended. “They knew that the pollution they were causing was creating climate damage, was leading to global warming. They hid that information, and it’s time for them to be part of the solution.”

The bill has already passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee in March and goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

Climate action, Climate Change, Climate crisis, Climate science

Benicia’s future at stake – Small towns as canaries in the coal mine for climate change

Roger Straw, Benicia CA

[BenIndy contributor Roger Straw: As I watched this fascinating interview, I thought of my own little bit of paradise, my home, my small-town Benicia, California. Could it happen here, really? Entire towns have been destroyed by wildfire, and over 3 million US residents have migrated in recent years due to the risks and realities of extreme flooding. How many times have I had the conversation with friends and family about where we would move, if we had to leave Benicia, leave California? How many of us have already left for safer locations? Short of leaving here, is my home fire resistant? Is our city safe? How much would it cost for Benicia and PGE and you and me to avoid the fate of Lahaina, Hawaii, how much to bury all of our electrical lines below ground and clear defensible space around every home and business? How much to adequately prepare for sea level rise and storm-wrecked shores? Near the end of this interview, federal grants are mentioned. Are our city leaders planning carefully and reaching out for these grants?]

Before It’s Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America

Destroyed Communities & Climate Migrants: Climate Change Upends Small Towns

Amanpour and Company on Youtube, April 16, 2024

Hurricanes, storms, and wildfires are persuading Americans to abandon their homes as nature lashes out against human-made climate change. Over three million Americans have already moved due to risk of flooding, and climate experts say some 13 million coastal residents will be displaced by the end of this century. CBS News correspondent and author Jonathan Vigliotti has reported from the front lines of climate change. He explains to Hari Sreenivasan how American towns might become more resilient and why it’s crucial to listen to the science.

Originally aired on PBS on April 16, 2024

Johnathan Vigliotti, Before It’s Gone, Stories from the Front Lines of Change in Small-Town America

Available for order at Bookshop Benicia,  https://bookshopbenicia.indielite.org/book/9781668008171

Climate action, Climate activists, Climate Change, Climate science, Just transition

Join Tomorrow at 7pm: ‘Tools for the Faithful in the ‘Just-Green’ Transition’ Zoom Presentation

[Note from BenIndy: There are many lenses through which we can consider and address our climate crisis; faith is an important one. The Heritage Presbyterian Church’s “Make the World a Better Place” program is hosting a Zoom presentation on Wednesday, March 20, at 7pm, to share tools faith communities can use in these discussions. That said, it’s clear these tools can serve not just the faithful, but also “people of conscience.” To get the Zoom link, you will have to RSVP by emailing betterworldbenicia@gmail.com.]

Make the World a Better Place presents

Climate Crisis: Tools for Faith Communities and People of Faith and Conscience in the “Just Green-Transition”

March 20, 2024, 7 pm on ZOOM

To RSVP and to get the Zoom link please email: betterworldbenicia@ gmail.com

Featuring: Gregory Stevens, Northern California Director, California Interfaith Power and Light (www.interfaithpower.org)

 

The climate has changed. Our planet is heating up. We need a new system. A system based on deep democracy, radical egalitarianism, participatory budgeting, and social justice. Faith communities across the country already embody these ways of being; so how do we make them global?

Now is the time to take action and this event will provide the tools and framework needed to make a “just green-transition” a concrete reality. A “just green transition” refers to the shift towards a more environmentally sustainable economy and society while ensuring that the process is fair and equitable for all stakeholders, especially those who may be disproportionately affected by the transition. This concept recognizes that transitioning to a green economy, which prioritizes renewable energy, resource efficiency, and sustainability, can have social and economic implications.

About Gregory Stevens: Gregory serves as the Northern California Director. As a former Baptist preacher, long time labor organizer, and interfaith community activist they bring a creative mix of skills to our team as we seek to strengthen multi-religious responses to climate change. Gregory grew up in Tampa/St. Petersburg Florida, where their love for crawling critters, furry felines, and old oak trees solidified into political and social activism for planetary healing. They have a BA in Religion and Gender Studies from the University of South Florida, a MDiv from Claremont School of Theology, and a MA in Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. In their free time they enjoy overstuffed used bookstores, the smell and feel of giant Redwood Trees, watching documentaries about ancient cultures, and all things Unitarian Universalist.

California Interfaith Power & Light
685 14th Street, Oakland CA 94612
(510) 867-2031 | info@interfaithpower.org

To RSVP and to get the Zoom link please email: betterworldbenicia@ gmail.com

 

More about Make the World a Better Place

Monthly educational programs on Zoom focused on social justice topics that can make a better, more peaceful and just world. The good folks at Heritage Presbyterian Church in Benicia plan and present these programs for thoughtful and caring people. Viewpoints expressed in these presentations do not necessarily reflect any position or policy of Heritage Presbyterian Church and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Heritage Presbyterian Church/ The Presbytery of the Redwoods 1400 E. 2nd St., Benicia
(707) 745-6650 | betterworldbenicia@gmail.com
Pat Plant, Better World Organizer

“The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life. – Rabindranath Tagore

2020 elections, Benicia elections, Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, Benicia Mayor Steve Young, Christina Strawbridge, Climate science, Kari Birdseye, Lionel Largaespada, Valero Benicia Refinery, Valero PAC

KQED: Candidate Targeted by Valero Wins Benicia Mayoral Race

[Significant quote: “The fact that Young withstood the Valero PAC’s campaign is hugely significant, according to Matto Mildenberger, an assistant professor of political science at UC Santa Barbara, who focuses on oil politics.  ‘It means that Benicia voters are willing to take their climate future into their own hands and are going to resist efforts by oil companies to control local politics.'”] [See also KQED’s Oct 28 report on Valero PAC spending.]

Benicia Election Update with candidate quotes

KQED Election Updates, By Ted Goldberg, November 4, 2020

Benicia Councilman Steve Young, a candidate attacked by a political action committee funded mainly by the Valero Energy company, will be the city’s new mayor.

The Working Families for a Strong Benicia PAC raised more than $250,000 to defeat Young and support Councilwoman Christina Strawbridge. The committee said Young would put blue collar jobs, like those at Valero’s Benicia refinery, at risk.

But city’s voters were not swayed.

With Young leading the race with close to 52% of the vote, Strawbridge, who garnered about 31%, conceded the election Wednesday morning.

“I believe the voters reacted strongly against the negative ads and mailers that the Valero-funded PAC tried to use against me,” Young said.

“Hopefully, Valero will learn the obvious lesson from this result: Interference in Benicia elections will be rejected in the future as well,” Young said.


Strawbridge called Young’s election a “decisive victory.”

“Congratulations to him,” Strawbridge said, adding that the two lawmakers exchanged text messages Wednesday morning. “Even though it was a tough election, we have and will work together for Benicia.”

Since 2019, Valero has donated $240,000 to the political action committee targeting Young. The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 549 donated some $50,000 as well.

The same PAC spent thousands to help Strawbridge and Lionel Largaespada win seats on the Benicia City Council, and to defeat Kari Birdseye, a former chair of the city’s Planning Commission that denied Valero’s crude-by-rail expansion project.

Young will take over from Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, a critic of Valero who has served in Benicia city government for two decades.

Patterson had become increasingly outspoken about efforts to place more regulations on the Valero plant, scene of the two worst refinery accidents in the Bay Area in the last three years.

The fact that Young withstood the Valero PAC’s campaign is hugely significant, according to Matto Mildenberger, an assistant professor of political science at UC Santa Barbara, who focuses on oil politics.

“It means that Benicia voters are willing to take their climate future into their own hands and are going to resist efforts by oil companies to control local politics,” Mildenberger said.