Mr. Warren Buffett: End BNSF railroad’s dependence on hauling and burning fossil fuels. Partner with Gov. Inslee to electrify, increase track speeds, and run your trains on 100% renewable energy from Seattle to Chicago.
 |
|
|
|
|
Tag Archives: United States Supreme Court
Don’t let the EPA underestimate clean energy
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed rule to reduce global warming emissions from power plants is our best opportunity to address climate change—but it’s not strong enough. The agency is not sufficiently accounting for the rapid expansion of solar, wind, and other renewable energy. New UCS analysis is helping state decision makers and the EPA understand that this technology is expanding rapidly and is increasingly affordable across the country. Help us ensure carbon-free energy plays a critical role in reducing our country’s global warming emissions. —Karla
===========================================================================
Solar power as cheap as local electricity?
UCS’s recent analysis shows that solar power is as cheap as the grid power in 10 states and will be in more than half of states within 1-3 years! Our analysis is already helping to beat back misinformation and build support for solar projects across the country. UCS experts exposed the errors in a recent Economist piece and our staff have been busy using the report to help demonstrate the environmental and public health benefits of solar power to communities considering large solar projects. READ MORE
Angela Anderson: | Cartoon of the Month |  |
||
 Click to view larger image. Share:    |
|
 Infographic: rooftop solar in the U.S. |
EETV On Point: UCS President Ken Kimmell on clean energy’s role in reducing carbon emissions.
Everything you want to know about the EPA’s new power plant carbon standards.
Get your copy of Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster now.
|
Ask a Scientist |
|
 |
|
Laura Wisland, M.P.P.
Senior Energy Analyst,
Climate and Energy Program
Follow
Laura’s blog >> “It would be a lot easier to transition to renewable energy if we had better storage technology. Is there any energy storage technology on the horizon that is likely to succeed?”—H. Bryant, Dandridge, TN.
There are many types of storage technologies in use today—rechargeable batteries, compressed air stored in underground caverns, heat stored in water or molten salts—and most of these technologies can respond within seconds to meet electricity demands. But it’s also important to keep in mind that there are several viable strategies besides storage that can make the electric grid more flexible and enable it to handle more renewable energy. READ MORE
Share:
Do you have a question for UCS scientists? Submit your question today.
Share this:
Walmart’s Choice
Walmart’s Decision To Drop Insurance For Part-Time Workers Could In Fact Help Many (But Not All)
“In the long term, this isn’t really news.”
That’s what Washington & Lee law professor Tim Jost told ThinkProgress, upon hearing that Walmart is dropping insurance coverage for about 30,000 part-time employees. The nation’s largest private employer now joins some other big companies like Trader Joe’s, Home Depot, and Target who have made similar decisions recently. While some in the conservative media have tried to use the Affordable Care Act as a scapegoat, the decision is more likely business as usual — and in fact could be good news for many part-time Walmart employees.
Why business as usual? For one, before this decision Walmart was in the minority offering health insurance to part-time employees: Last year, 62 percent of large retail chains offered no health care benefits to their part-time workers at all. In addition, while Walmart acknowledges that an unexpected rise in healthcare costs prompted the move, company executives say that was in large part due to something called the “woodwork effect” — the national attention given to health care in the past year caused more of their employees to sign up for Walmart’s employer-provided insurance plans. That in turn increased the company’s health care costs more than expected.
Why could this be good news for Walmart employees? Unlike when part-time employees lost their health coverage before the ACA, these workers now have an alternative for affordable coverage: the insurance exchanges. Workers with affordable health coverage provided by employers are ineligible for financial assistance through the ACA. With that option now gone, these Walmart employees qualify for subsidies. Vox’s healthcare guru Sarah Kliff crunches the numbers on whether this is a better deal for Walmart’s part-time employees and finds that, typically, it is: a 36-year-old Walmart employee in Washington, D.C. who works 29 hours each week at Walmart’s average wage of $12.73 per hour would save $104 per month in health care premiums by signing up on the exchange.
At ThinkProgress, Tara Culp-Ressler reports that the retail giant is taking proactive steps in other ways to help their employees get covered:
Earlier this week, the company announced that 2,700 of its locations will be staffed with insurance agents to help customers enroll in new insurance plans, either through Medicare or through Obamacare’s private insurance marketplaces. Part-time workers who now need to enroll in Obamacare polices may have an even more personalized option: Walmart told the New York Times that a health coverage specialist will help guide them “through the process of finding alternative coverage.”
With that said, however, not all employees are going to be better off with Walmart’s decision. Employees who fall into the coverage gap — earning below the poverty line in the conservative states that have refused to expand Medicaid — will be out of luck. Walmart now has an obligation to help them by working to make sure those states’ lawmakers change their minds and make the moral and economic choice to expand health care to low-income workers.
BOTTOM LINE: For the most part, the news that Walmart is dropping health coverage for 30,000 part-time workers is nothing to worry about. It could actually save employees who now qualify for ACA insurance subsidies hundreds of dollars a year. But the newly uninsured Walmart employees who fall into the Medicaid coverage gap are not so lucky: Walmart no longer covers them, and now it needs to help them.
Like CAP Action on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
Share this:
If you’re not outraged...
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention – or so the saying goes.
Well, we’re paying attention – to the many harmful effects of the low-wage economy – and yes, we’re outraged.
So, on October 16th, we’re taking a stand – and we hope you’ll join us.
What: Low-Wage Rage: Workers Fight Back!
When: Thursday, October 16th at 12pm
Where: Midtown East, meeting location TBA
Why: It’s time to end the financial crisis that the Waltons and other one percenters have created for American families.
RSVP for details and updates: Click here.
Spread the word: Through Facebook.
With nearly half of all NYC residents living near poverty today, we’re at a breaking point. Many of us are burning up with low-wage rage, and it’s time to call out who is responsible: Walmart and the Walton family. If you’re fed up, it’s time to rise up!
Here’s why: Walmart’s worst practices have been adopted by NYC retailers, fast-food chains, and other low-wage employers. Walmart’s harm to NYC’s low-wage retail workers and fast-food workers can be seen and felt in growing poverty, erratic schedules, lack of stable hours and few opportunities for real career advancement among people of color, women, and immigrants.
Retail workers, fast food workers, and other low-wage workers are therefore coming together for a massive march on October 16. We’ll take our issues to employers on the Upper East Side that are perpetrating these Walmart practices, and we’ll culminate at Alice Walton’s new $25m condo, to demonstrate the urgent need to address the dramatic and deepening inequality that the Walmart economy is driving. It’s time to tell Walmart and the Walton family to stop holding America back.
Are you fed up? Then rise up!
Hope to see you then,
Bertha Lewis, on behalf of Walmart-Free NYC & The Black Institute
The Black Institute
http://www.theblackinstitute.org/
Share this:
Scott Brown ~~ Reminders
• Is against gay marriage but favors civil unions.
running against Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic Party <— Donate
In 2001, Brown called then state Senator Cheryl Jacques’ decision to have children with her female partner as “not normal” and referred to her parenting as “alleged family responsibilities.”
He later apologized
**********************************************************
In January 12, 2010
Contacts:
Andrea Miller, NARAL Pro-Choice Mass, 917-975-9325
Jesse Mermell, PPLM, 617-616-1689
Pam Nourse, MWPC, 617-451-9294
Christina Knowles, Mass NOW, 508-527-6007
Pam Nourse, MWPC, 617-451-9294
Christina Knowles, Mass NOW, 508-527-6007
Leading Women’s Advocates Denounce Brown’s Record on Choice
Organizations criticize Brown’s previously proposed legislation to deny emergency contraception to rape victims;
Decry his denial of the impact of his legislation in yesterday’s Kennedy Institute debate
Decry his denial of the impact of his legislation in yesterday’s Kennedy Institute debate
BOSTON – At a press conference today, Massachusetts’ leading advocacy organizations for women’s reproductive rights denounced Republican Scott Brown’s poor record on a woman’s right to choose. The organizations, including the Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus and the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women, criticized Brown’s long record of opposition to policies that promote choice and privacy rights. The organizations highlighted Martha Coakley’s strong support of a woman’s right to choose.
The organizations blasted Scott Brown’s previously proposed legislation that, if it had passed, would have allowed hospital emergency rooms to deny emergency contraception to victims of rape. This callous approach to reproductive rights led the anti-choice Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL) to endorse Scott Brown. MCFL wrote on its blog, “Our PAC has been supporting Scott Brown because he will be a pro-life vote in the Senate.”
The organizations also criticized Brown for denying the severe impact of his legislation on victims of rape in yesterday’s debate hosted by the Kennedy Institute. During the debate, Coakley repeatedly pressed Brown to acknowledge that his legislation would have allowed hospitals to deny emergency contraception to victims of rape, which he attempted to deny.
Brown was simply wrong.
“Scott Brown demonstrated in last night’s debate the lengths to which he will go to mislead the voters about his record,” said Andrea Miller, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. “He has repeatedly shown his willingness to compromise for political gain the health and well-being of some of the most vulnerable women in Massachusetts, including victims of sexual assault. Massachusetts needs a United States Senator who will be honest about his or her record and who will stand up every single day in defense of our rights, including a woman’s right to choose. Martha Coakley has been a true and steadfast champion for choice throughout her career.”
“Scott Brown is simply not telling the truth about his record — and, even worse, he’s not telling the truth about the impact his legislation would have on victims of sexual assault,” said Pam Nourse, Vice President of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus Board of Directors. “Scott Brown is endorsed by anti-choice groups like Massachusetts Citizens for Life because of his co-sponsorship of waiting periods for abortions, and his record of supporting legislation that would allow hospitals to turn away rape victims seeking emergency contraception. There is no way Scott Brown can honestly call himself a defender of a woman’s right to choose. Martha Coakley is the candidate in this race who will protect and defend a woman’s right to choose. The National Women’s Political Caucus is proud to support Martha Coakley to be our next United States Senator.”
“Scott Brown says that victims of rape should just get back in the car and drive to another hospital,” said Christina Knowles, State Director for the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women. “Legislation he filed would have denied rape victims access to emergency contraception at numerous hospitals across Massachusetts. His legislative record shows a deep lack of understanding of women’s health issues and an enormous lack of empathy for what victims of rape are going through. Throughout her career, Martha Coakley has been a staunch defender of fundamental democratic principles like equality and freedom of choice. We are confident that Martha will continue to defend these essential principles in Washington.”
“With many health care battles still to be fought and with a closely divided Supreme Court, who Massachusetts elects to the U.S. Senate on January 19 will have an impact that is felt nationally and felt for years to come,” said Dianne Luby of Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts. “It is baffling to hear Scott Brown paint himself as a supporter of women’s reproductive health. The amendment he filed in 2005 to the Emergency Contraception Bill would have forced rape survivors to travel from hospital to hospital seeking emergency contraception. That certainly doesn’t feel supportive.”
The four groups strongly criticized Brown’s record regarding critical health services for women:
• Brown was the lead sponsor of a legislative amendment in 2005 that would have allowed hospital emergency rooms to deny emergency contraception to victims of rape.
• Brown has co-sponsored the so-called Women’s Right to Know Bill, legislation that would impose a mandatory delay before a woman can obtain an abortion. This legislation is supported by Massachusetts Citizens for Life, an organization that has endorsed Brown for United States Senate.
• Brown recently filed legislation that, if enacted, would allow the removal of previously mandated insurance coverage for a wide array of health services, including critical health care for women. Among the women’s health services that his bill would allow to be removed as mandated coverage are mammograms, minimum maternity stays for new mothers, and screenings (pap smears) to detect, among other possible conditions, cervical cancer at an early, treatable stage.
• Brown opposes national health care reform that includes many benefits for women, such as ending denials by insurance companies to women who have had a Caesarean section or who suffered domestic abuse under the premise that they were “pre-existing conditions.”
Since 1972, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts has been a leading force advocating to protect privacy and promote reproductive health. Mobilizing its 20,000 members across the Commonwealth, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts uses the political process to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices.
********************************************************
In 2007, Brown visited King Philip High School to discuss the topic of gay-marriage legislation. Students had posted insulting comments about Brown and his family on Facebook. At the meeting, Brown read the profanity-laced comments aloud and identified some of the students who wrote them.
*******************************************************
In 2008, he voted in favor of Massachusetts joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a pact among northeastern states requiring power plants to reduce emissions or to buy carbon credits. He now says he would vote against the initiative as well as a federal cap-and-trade bill.
********************************************************
Marriage
I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. States should be free to make their own laws in this area, so long as they reflect the people’s will as expressed through them directly, or as expressed through their elected representatives.
********************************************************
Although initially supportive of the health care bill, Brown now objects because Massachusetts — where nearly all citizens now have health care coverage — would end up subsidizing other states’ health care costs. (Read “5 Truths About Health Care in America.”)
“Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, and I don’t plan on overturning it, but I’ve always felt that, you know, I’m against partial-birth abortions and believe in parental consent, a strong parental-notification law.”
— The Boston Globe, Nov. 20, 2009
********************************************************
Brown owns a four-bedroom, colonial-style home in Wrentham, Mass.; a six-room house in Rye, N.H.; three small condo units in Brighton, Mass.; and a time-share unit in Aruba.
*******************************************************
Abortion
While this decision should ultimately be made by the woman in consultation with her doctor, I believe we need to reduce the number of abortions in America. I believe government has the responsibility to regulate in this area and I support parental consent and notification requirements and I oppose partial birth abortion. I also believe there are people of good will on both sides of the issue and we ought to work together to support and promote adoption as an alternative to abortion…. Scott Brown is not pro-choice ppl
*****************************************************
Immigration
I recognize that our strength as a nation is built on the immigrant experience in America. I welcome legal immigration to this country. However, we are also a nation of laws and government should not adopt policies that encourage illegal immigration. Providing driver’s licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrant families will act as a magnet in drawing more people here in violation of the law and it will impose new costs on taxpayers. I oppose amnesty, and I believe we ought to strengthen our border enforcement and institute an employment verification system with penalties for companies that hire illegal immigrants.
Be a Seed for Change 
You must be logged in to post a comment.