On Monday night, I joined State College Borough Council to give an update on the Centre County Solar Working Group’s power purchase agreement. I gave a spicier update to the State College Area School District later that night. For most people, the Borough presentation was a boring affair about final document signatures, a PJM queue … More Hallelujah! The solar PPA moves on!
From PennEnvironment: On Monday, January 27, ten governmental entities in Centre County have officially entered into a 15-year contract to supply their operations with renewable energy from a nearby solar project. It is believed that this cooperative solar purchase agreement is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania. “The ten members of the Centre County … More Ten Centre County governmental entities have signed on to a historic solar agreement
Sustainability Magazine has an interesting piece on Paul Simpson, Partner at ERM, who started the Carbon Disclosure Project. He, like me, is an advocate for robust climate transition planning. There was only so long that most investors could place the climate crisis at arm’s length (citizens, too!). But since climate change commands the elements with … More Planning for the crisis during the crisis
Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for 2025 and Inauguration Day for Donald Trump for the second time. I accept these facts, their juxtaposition and paradox. All I know is that I am in control of myself, that I am called to something greater than myself, and that the climate action and ecological citizenship … More As Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Over the last few days, I’ve been texting with a former student, Joe Thompson, from the Local Climate Action Program who lives in Orange, CA. The Palisades fire has been raging around him, so he’s been assisting his community by taking food the local shelter for it to go to Los Angeles. With the Santa … More A student faces the fires. We’re lucky he understands what drives them & is ready to do something about it.
The day before my first birthday–July 7, 1977–a climate memo was prepared for Pres. Jimmy Carter. It was titled “Release of Fossil CO2 and the Possibility of a Catastrophic Climate Change.” It recognized the pending impact from warming caused by the amplification of the greenhouse effect from exponential fossil fuel combustion. Carter saw it. I … More 7.7.77: A prescient note on climate change to Jimmy Carter
State and local governments will persist in climate action. That’s the conclusion of a recent piece in Grist. We have virtual certainty the incoming Trump administration will withdraw from the Paris Agreement, leading to widespread worry about other nations’ commitments to reduce emissions and achieve the 1.5° or 2° C temperature goals. But there are lots of … More State and local governments will persist in climate action because it works.
If we want to decarbonize our communities, one of our best pathways is to decarbonize the electricity generation sector. But who gets to plug in and in what order? That’s why we have grid operators who regulate which sources of power–solar farms, wind farms, natural gas power plants, nuclear power plants, battery facilities, hydropower plants–get … More Do natural gas & nuclear get to jump the line?
Let me start by saying this: hypocrisy is a killer. If we don’t keep our promises to ourselves, we can’t keep promises to the Creation. Where climate action is concerned, we need to do right, do it well, and do it consistently. If we are consistent as individuals and work well together, we can effect … More Climate change is…about each of us.
“A second Trump term is game over for the climate – really!” That’s what Michael Mann told The Guardian. “If we are going to avert ever more catastrophic climate change impacts, we need to limit warming below a degree and a half Celsius, a little less than three degrees Fahrenheit. Another four years of what … More We have to get s*** done for the climate regardless of who is in the White House.
Peter Walks for Democracy 