Chicago made history on Wednesday by becoming the largest U.S. city to commit to 100 percent renewable energy before the middle of the century.

It is, in the summation of Kyra Woods, Chicago organizer with the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Action Campaign, “a monumental achievement.”

Chicago Becomes the Largest City in the Country Committed to 100 Percent Clean Energy https://t.co/WhL0mTgJWe #readyfor100action pic.twitter.com/ylbsW1e9Df

— Sierra Club (@SierraClub) April 10, 2019

Chicago city council passes its commitment to 100% clean, renewable energy unanimously!! #ChicagoisReady as the largest city in the country to make the commitment to an equitable, 100% renewable transition #ReadyFor100Action pic.twitter.com/TE2H1d6SDu

— Illinois Sierra Club (@SierraClubIL) April 10, 2019

According to the Sierra Club, the city council unanimously passed a resolution that commits the city to 100 percent renewable energy in buildings by 2035 and electrification of the city’s bus fleet by 2040.

The nonbinding resolution, backed by the Ready For 100 Chicago Collective, points to the kind of extreme weather including catastrophic flooding the region is already experiencing. “Climate change,” it reads, “will bring unprecedented environmental changes including extreme heat, heavy precipitation, and flooding to our region.”

“Residents of communities experiencing disproportionate cumulative impacts of environmental exposures and population vulnerability, as well as other communities across Chicago, desire a just transition away from all fossil fuels that prioritizes environmental justice, public health, community self-determination, high-quality jobs, and ownership opportunities for local residents,” the resolution also states.

As Woods noted, the move adds the Midwest metropolis to a list of over 100 other cities including Atlanta, Ga., Berkeley, Calif., and Gainesville, Fla. that have adopted clean energy goals.

“The Chicago Collective who wrote this resolution—comprised of frontline environmental justice communities, green groups, and unions—proves that not only can Chicago build a climate-safe future for next generations, but that a truly just transition also creates good, family-sustaining jobs to lift up communities,” said Kassie Beyer, campaign director of Jobs to Move America Illinois.

“We look forward to working with the mayor’s office in making our vision for a just transition a reality,” she added.

Source: commondreams.org

Photo credit: hectorlo/flickr/cc

Teresa Ribera, energy minister of Spain, has announced that the country will have all energy furnished by renewable resources by 2050. The government supports a denuclearized country.

The government will soon be requested to approve plans to shut down the 5 plants and the investment in nuclear-waste management infrastructures for afterward. The entrance of new, advanced solar-powered technology has turned the nuclear power industry into a profitable government agency. It’s looking for options for nuclear plants that will last for years.

Energy minister Teresa Ribera reported Tuesday that the government will provide the National Integrated Plan of Energy and Climate, to be afterwards examined by the European Commission.

In 2017, the second source of power after renewable energy in Spain’s power came from nuclear energy, over a fifth of its energy production.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said last month, that Spain’s planned overhaul of its energy system, which made 40 percent of its mainland electricity from renewable energy sources in 2018, will cost an estimated 235 billion euros (US$266 billion) between 2021 and 2030.

Phasing out nuclear power accounts for a small fraction of Spain’s electrical output and was a key campaign promise of the Socialist leaders, who took office last year after their conservative predecessors were voted out of office in popular support.

Spanish power plants first began operating in 1983, and are run by three companies: Iberdrola, Italian-owned Endesa, Naturgy and Portugal’s EDP.

Spain will need over 100 billion euros of investment to reach its ambitious energy goals, Jose Ignacio Galan, the chief executive of Iberdrola, shared to the Financial Times.

Sources:
www.surinenglish.com
cnduk.org
kallanishenergy.com
antinuclear.net
www.yenisafak.com

by Jake Johnson

The judge’s ruling today shows that the president cannot just trample on the constitution to do the bidding of his cronies in the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our oceans, wildlife, and climate.”

Preserving over 120 million acres of federal waters from exploitation by fossil fuel giants, a federal judge ruled late Friday that President Donald Trump’s effort to open the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans to oil and gas drilling is illegal.

“President Trump’s lawlessness is catching up with him,” said Erik Grafe, the lead attorney for Earthjustice who helped argue the case against the Trump administration. “The judge’s ruling today shows that the president cannot just trample on the constitution to do the bidding of his cronies in the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our oceans, wildlife, and climate.”

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled (pdf) that Trump’s April 2017 executive order revoking the Obama administration’s ban on drilling in most of the Arctic was “unlawful.”

The Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision, which applies to 98 percent of the Arctic.

As Alaska Public Media reported: “Gleason’s decision was the second one she released Friday in favor of environmental groups. In a different lawsuit, she rejected a Trump administration effort to facilitate construction of a road through a national wildlife refuge on the Alaska Peninsula.”

Gleason’s decisions came just over a week after the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda also hit a roadblock in Wyoming, where a federal judge temporarily blocked fracking on 300,000 acres of public land.

“Experts in environmental law estimate that the Trump administration has now lost about 40 environmental cases in federal courts,”

– the New York Times reported.

Photo credit: Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis/U.S. Coast Guard

Originally published by Common Dreams