Democrat Smoke Jumper Flips Montana Congressional Seat
Interview above was conducted pre-election.
Sam Vorstag, a 32 year old smoke jumper who references Montana’s catastrophic wild fires in his ads, flipped a Republican seat to join the House next year.
Tne New York Times reported that Forstag was the first Democratic House member elected in Montana in 30 years. While his ads prominently feature his work as a smoke jumper, and in one instance, mention “I’ve seen the Montana that we love burn around us..”, he did not emphasize climate change as a campaign issue.
Sam Forstag, a Democrat running for Congress in Montana, is in many ways a familiar kind of progressive: He is a union worker calling for taxing the rich and expanding Medicare for all Americans.
But there’s one topic he appears to avoid, in his platform and in public forums. When asked recently about the growing threat of wildfires and drought in the West, he discussed a terrible ski season and record-high temperatures but did not name the climate crisis directly.
Continue reading “Democrat Smoke Jumper Flips Montana Congressional Seat”Ex MAGA Senator tests New GOP Messaging: “You Should Suffer for the Higher Good”
And the higher good, is to start another war for oil to distract Americans from the Epstein files.
Got it. How’s that working?
Under Water: “Florida is About to Become a Hellhole”
Well, somebody finally “defunded the Police”. It wasn’t the lefties.
Miami Herald has some apocalyptic reporting on the results of a Florida ballot initiative, known as Amendment 3, from last week. The initiative would change the way property owners pay taxes, increasing the Homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The move is being called a “severe blow” to local governments.
The Herald quoted Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller as saying, “I advise people to move to another state because Florida is going to be a hellhole,….We’re going to be underwater.”
Underwater, because crucial flood control efforts rely on property taxes, which may now be cut radically. Watch and see if the “conservative” Florida voters start screaming for the rest of us to (literally) bail them out.
Local property taxes fund critical services for Floridians—from drinking water supply and water quality improvements to land conservation. Local emergency response and protection from flooding are also funded by property taxes. The loss of revenue to local governments and water management districts will have severe, negative impacts on Floridians’ quality of life.
Continue reading “Under Water: “Florida is About to Become a Hellhole””“I’ve Never Seen a Forecast Like This” – Extreme El Niño Update
Reading the data, and maybe a few tea leaves, with Daniel Swain of the University of California Los Angeles.
“The predictions specifically for California, for this winter in particular, is unlike anything these models have ever generated for California in any previous winter.”
“The coastal flood risk is already here, and its getting worse, and its going to be significantly more disruptive as we go into the King Tide period from late November into January.”
“It probably won’t materialize until at least December, and maybe in some regions not until January….January almost certainly wetter than average, and that’s when the balance is likely to tip over.”
UPDATE: “How is this possible?”
Bakersfield, California local weather reporter notes beyond remarkable ocean temperatures off of the west Coast, below. No mention of a warming planet.
Continue reading ““I’ve Never Seen a Forecast Like This” – Extreme El Niño Update”Democrats Can Act on Climate – Permitting Bill is Job One
The Associated Press reports that Democrats will make Clean Energy a part of their push to lower costs for voters.
Broad pushes specifically branded as climate initiatives might fall to a Presidential veto, but important work can be done with Republican support, and an important component will be to pass Permitting Reform, which has been making its way through Congress in recent months. A bipartisan bill could be passed yet in the lame duck session before new lawmakers hit town in January.
The bill is huge, and basically takes on some of the red tape and bureaucratic processes that have stalled projects dear to Democratic hearts, like grid transmission and offshore wind, but would also make permitting fossil fuel infrastructure, pipelines and Data Centers easier. That’s where the friction arises.
Climate champions like Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Senator Martin Heinrich have both come out in favor of the compromise – their view is that given something approximating a level playing field, renewables will win out.
Last week the Sierra Club came out against the bill in its current form, arguing there are some fatal overreaches in the way the bill weakens some environmental protections.
Continue reading “Democrats Can Act on Climate – Permitting Bill is Job One”Ag Expert: How Clean Energy Keeps Farms in the Family
Paul Gross, a former Michigan State University Agricultural Extension educator, and farmer in Isabella County, Michigan, told me how clean energy helps keep farmland in families.
The New York Times and many others have noted how economic pressures on farmers were an obvious contributor to last week’s Blue Wave election.
According to the Times, “While farmers welcomed the $12 billion farm bailout disbursed early this year, several groups said the funding was a Band-Aid that didn’t address deeper problems in the industry.”
That’s where clean energy can come in and make a big difference – farmers have known this for years, but they don’t always stand up and make their voices heard in the local meetings where siting decisions are often made.
Texas Guv is a Gusher of Good Ideas
In a week of deeply significant results, the flip of Texas to blue has got to be near the top in terms of long term impacts.
Texas is the energy engine of the United States, and has improbably become arguably the leader in renewable energy deployment, edging out California – not based on mandates, but by being as close to a free market as any electric grid in the world. In an environment where permitting is relatively easy and straightforward, entrepreneurial forces choose the best, quickest ways to generate power, and of course, renewables win out.
Even repeated attempts by the fossil-dominated Texas legislature to suppress renewables and boost gas have failed, as a coalition of urban greenies, rural landowners keen on property-rights, and chamber of commerce pragmatists has crushed those initiatives and kept clean energy on track.
How Elections Turn. An Anecdote.
“Christian and his class, they wrote a persuasive essay of their choosing. They mailed it off to a representative, a CEO, whoever the decision maker was to be influential in their persuasive essay points,” Emily said.
Christian says the topic he chose involved electric vehicles.
“We should have a $5,000 tax rebate. For electric cars, because they’re better than normal cars. They’re better for the environment. They pay less. And there’s no gas,” Christian said.
Christian says in April, he mailed the essay to Foxx in a Canterbury School envelope with 4th grade on the return address.
A few weeks later, the school received a letter from Representative Foxx via email.
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Letter excerpt here, complete letter below.
Blue Wave and Stock Crash may Have Tech Bros Rethinking
We have heard calls in recent weeks from AI Tech leaders calling for more government regulation of their industry.
One reading of the statements is that the Tech Bros know they are in an economic death spiral, and hope to draw the taxpayers into taking them over and thereby bailing them out.