CLIMATE ACTION ALERTS
A regional resource for Cape & Islands climate activists
 February 16, 2020 | v. 4
New public opinion research shows climate change rising as a policy priority in Massachusetts
MassINC Polling Group issues report on climate change

A majority of Massachusetts residents want to see the state take action to address climate change, and almost half think their own municipality should take the lead with local efforts, according to new poll results.

The MassINC Polling Group's survey, detailed at a recent event, found 56 percent of respondents think Massachusetts should act ahead of other states, with 22 percent saying Massachusetts should act alongside other states. Four percent want the state to wait for others to act, while 12 percent said state policymakers should take no action and 6 percent were unsure. Forty-seven percent wanted their city or town to act ahead of others, and 29 percent said their municipality should act at the same time as other cities and towns. Read more here.

Sources: Worcester Business Journal, State House News Service, MassINC Polling Group
New alerts drive local climate activism
Lower Cape TV's Teresa Martin talks "Climate Action Alerts" with Collaborative president Rich Delaney

The Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative rolls out its new "Action Alert" as part of a mission to turn talk about coast and and climate into concrete steps for changing our carbon footprints - and the future of both our region and the planet. Watch here .
MORE ON THE POLLS

Getting to net zero in Massachusetts
Mass. Energy Secretary Theoharides reacts to new MPG polling on climate. View report recap here.

Poll reports available here:

LEGISLATIVE NEWS & ACTIONS

Support the Transportation and Climate Initiative
Submit a public comment to Governor Baker

The Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) is a regional collaboration of 10 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia that seeks to improve transportation, develop the clean energy economy and reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector.

TCI is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and raise much- needed revenue to modernize our transportation system on a regional scale by capping transportation emissions and placing a fee on fuel imports. Leaders of TCI states are currently soliciting feedback on the program and will decide this spring if they will participate.

Take Action Submit a public comment on the draft framework to reduce climate pollution from transportion. Use this guide to help write your comment.

Source: ELM (Environmental League of Massachusetts)
Major automakers are siding with Trump's attack on clean car and clean air standards
Tell General Motors, Toyota, Fiat-Chrysler, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan and Subaru they're turning their backs on consumers

These automakers just formally filed in court to support the Trump administration's illegal and dangerous attack on state authority, clean air, and climate progress — ignoring science-based consensus on the urgent need to reduce global warming emissions. Not all automakers have taken this harmful step, however. BMW, Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen have committed to more protective clean car standards.

Take Action Tell these automakers you'll speak with your pocketbooks. Sign the petition urging Toyota, GM and Fiat-Chrysler to reverse direction and commit to cleaner cars.

Source: Union of Concerned Scientists

EVENTS & EDUCATION

Communicating the Climate Crisis
A multimedia project with practical tools to help advance the conversation around climate action

The way we talk about climate change, either as advocates, scientists, or regular citizens, affects the way people understand and think about both the problem and the solutions alike.  If you missed the webinar on best practices for communicating the climate emergency to varied stakeholders, watch the video here.

Source: Climate X Change
State   Senate   Candidates’ Climate Solutions Forum
Hear the candidates' climate proposals for the region

Wednesday, February 19
7:00–8:30pm (doors open at 6:30)
Wildlands Trust
675 Long Pond Road, Plymouth

What can be done about rising sea levels and climate change? Will carbon pricing succeed in Massachusetts? Can legislators facilitate offshore wind farm developments? Ask these questions, and others, at a forum for candidates for the Plymouth/Barnstable state senate seat recently vacated by Viriato (Vinny) deMacedo, which represents Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, Pembroke, Kingston and Plymouth. The nonpartisan event is co-sponsored by Wildlands Trust, South Shore & Cape Citizens’ Climate Lobby, 350MASS Action Cape Cod, Association to Preserve Cape Cod, Clean Water Action, Environmental League of Massachusetts, and the Sierra Club.

Source: Citizens' Climate Lobby
Sustainability Film & Discussion Series kick-off
The film "Tapped" explores the perils of bottled water

Saturday, February 22
10AM
Federated Church of Orleans
162 Main St., Orleans

The Federated Church of Orleans' Care for Creation Team kicks off the first event in its 2020 Sustainability Film and Discussion Series. The film "Tapped" examines the role of the bottled water industry and its effects on our health, climate change, pollution and our reliance on oil. Coffee, nibbles and discussion offered! The Federated Church is a member of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative's Faith Communities Environmental Network (FCEN).
Local Environmental Action 2020 conference

Saturday, March 7
Northeastern University
Curry Student Center
360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115

Note to members of the Climate Collaborative's Faith Community Environmental Network: if you register as an FCEN member, you may receive the discounted $35 (instead of $45) rate. If you offer to volunteer, admission is free.

Source: Local Environmental Action

DID YOU KNOW?

DYK? What impact airline offsets actually have? By 2050, flight emissions may account for more than 1/4 of the entire carbon budget allotted to limit global temperature increases above 1.5 degrees Celcius. Read more here.

DYK? Harvard faculty voted overwhelmingly to support divestment. Harvard University’s faculty voted overwhelmingly in favor of a motion advising the school to dump all its fossil fuel holdings. Read more here .

DYK? Why c hopping down trees for solar panels isn't a "clear-cut" choice for this Stoughton church. Read more here.
DYK? Temperature in Antarctica soared to near 70 degrees, appearing to topple continental record set days earlier. If certified, the reading would be the hottest temperature recorded on the frigid continent. Read more here.  

DYK?   Climate anxiety is real. Climate or eco-anxiety is described by the American Psychological Association as “a chronic fear of environmental doom” and “a fairly recent psychological disorder." Read more here.

DYK? You can test your knowledge of the climate crisis with these jaw-dropping facts. Take the quiz here.  

CLIMATE ACTION SPOTLIGHT
Climate Collaborative's Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC) moves the region to sustainability and $$$ savings
What you might not know is electrifying!

If you're not yet plugged in, meet the Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative, Inc. ( CVEC ), a lesser-known public entity that packs a big wallop for the pocketbooks — and sustainability — of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard communities.

An integral member of the Climate Collaborative team, this non-profit energy services provider was established to enable Cape and Martha's Vineyard towns to collaborate in developing and owning clean, renewable energy and creating a more sustainable region. Formed in 2007 with just three members, CVEC currently claims 32 governmental members including Cape Light Compact, 21 Cape and Vineyard towns, Barnstable and Dukes Counties, and numerous housing authorities and fire, school and water districts.

As CVEC's program executive director Liz Argo explains, "CVEC's ability to supply clean, renewable electricity at competitive prices has benefited our governmental participants by providing annual savings of over $3M annually and reducing greenhouse gas emissions commensurately."

With CVEC's Photovoltaic/Storage Initiative Round 4 due for completion in 2020, CVEC will have facilitated the installation of 53 renewable energy projects, and realized more than $13M in governmental savings. Argo continues, "We encourage all governmental entities to continue ground-breaking achievements in cooperative carbon reduction and energy efficiency by engaging in CVEC’s future photovoltaic and storage development as well as our programs to effect transition to electric vehicles."

The Climate Collaborative salutes CVEC's work to mitigate the climate crisis and reach carbon neutrality on Cape Cod and the Islands. Visit CVEC's website for more information.
CVEC cont'd

By  Doug Fraser , Cape Cod Times
Posted Jan 10, 2020 at 6:37 PM, Updated Jan 11, 2020 at 6:25 AM

Solar projects continue to pay off for towns and developers

HARWICH — Towns on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard received more than $3.4 million in credits and cash in the last fiscal year as municipal solar power installations produce both power and profits.

It’s a trend that is expected to continue well into the future, as the renewable energy industry gains a firmer foothold in the state economy every year. “This has taken care of our entire municipal energy budget ... It certainly has paid off,” said Shareen Davis, chairwoman of the Chatham Board of Selectmen.

The Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative brokered the region’s first solar projects in 2010, putting photovoltaic panels on the roofs of schools and other municipal buildings in a handful of towns. Two more rounds of projects followed in 2014 and 2015, with 11 and 12 megawatts of power, respectively. These were mostly large projects — such as solar farms on capped landfills — that returned more than $13.7 million in money in energy credits to towns since 2010.

According to cooperative data, Chatham, for instance, received $208,398 in fiscal 2019 by generating nearly 2.7 million kilowatt-hours of electricity at its landfill’s photovoltaic array. The town has generated nearly $555,000 in solar power revenue in the past three fiscal years. Barnstable, the largest Cape municipal solar power generator, received nearly $802,000 in fiscal 2019 by producing 11.3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.... And it costs towns nothing. Read more here.

 WAIT...THERE'S MORE!
Vineyard Wind Announces New Delay In Offshore Wind Project
By Colin A. Young, State House News Service, February 11, 2020

Vineyard Wind no longer expects its 800-megawatt project to become operational by 2022, the company said Tuesday after federal officials announced a new — and longer-than-anticipated — timeline for their review of the project and offshore wind sector generally.

“We have received updated information from the Department of Interior that indicates the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Vineyard Wind I project will be published later than what was previously anticipated. Read more here .
Martha's Vineyard Running Entirely on Renewable Energy?
Town Meeting Voters May Get to Decide
By Eve Zuckoff, WCAI, Feb. 5, 2020

On a cold Tuesday afternoon last month, nearly 60 people filed into the West Tisbury Library on Martha’s Vineyard. “You came just for the biscotti, right?” joked the featured speaker, Marc Rosenbaum, an environmental building consultant. Rosenbaum is delivering talks across the island as part of an ambitious effort called "100 Percent Renewable Martha's Vineyard." He calls his talk: “Beyond Fossil Fuel Homes.” Read more and listen here.
How are we doing? We'd love your feedback on this newsletter.
Got a great local climate story? Let us know. Send us your thoughts or suggestions by replying to this email.
And send this action alert to your friends, and ask them to subscribe here . Thanks!
The Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative is a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to reach carbon neutrality — or net zero — on Cape Cod and the Islands of Massachusetts by enhancing communication, collaboration, and activism among organizations, programs, and individuals committed to mitigating the climate crisis.

 All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.

CAPE COD CLIMATE CHANGE COLLABORATIVE