Green Party Watch

The national party issued the following press release. It addresses the situation in Japan from the perspective of someone with family there. It’s by Wes Rolley, former co-chair of the Eco-Action Committee, and writer at California Greening

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Contact: Laura Wells 510.504.4254 lwells@cagreens.org
Derek Iversen 323.481.8984 diversen@cagreens.org
Cres Vellucci 916.996.9170 cvellucci@cagreens.org

Environmental watchdog, with family in Japan, says U.S. must ‘examine’ posture toward nuclear power; insists alternatives safer and more economically viable

SACRAMENTO – A Green Party environmental watchdog – whose wife’s entire family resides in Japan – said today that it is “inevitable that the United States must re-examine its own posture regarding not only the future of nuclear power, but also the management of the 104 nuclear power plants already operating” in the U.S.

“The Green Party, and especially the Green Party of California has always taken an anti-nuclear stance…based on a sober risk assessment and the knowledge that there are better alternatives which can meet our energy needs. (The) onetime cost advantage for nuclear is no longer true,” writes Wes Rolley, former co-chair of EcoAction Committee of Green Party of the U.S.
California Greening: Finding the energy to do it right

Noting that four of the 104 nuclear power plants in the US are located in California, including two reactors at Diablo Canyon constructed with full knowledge that they are close to three active faults including the San Andreas fault, Rolley said a 4th fault has been discovered under the ocean just off the Diablo Canyon site.

“There is risk,” said Rolley. “The lesson that I take from (Japan) is that we are not really good at quantifying risk. There is too much pressure to down play risk so as to not panic (the) public. If you listen to those who talk about Diablo Canyon site…they make the point that it was over designed to withstand the largest possible quake on the nearby faults. The same was said about (the nuclear plants in Japan.)

Rolley also said no one’s talking about the risk in putting “emphasis on large scale, single site capabilities. Yes, it may be economic when all is well, but the economic consequences are very bad when all is not well.

“The argument for a distributed system with multiple generation technologies: solar, wind, wave, co-generation, etc. makes the system much less prone to the effects of the loss of a single site. This would make the United State more secure. It would make the US economy more robust and better able to absorb shocks, whether from single site failure or from conflict fed spikes in the (oil) prices.”

Rolley concludes: “Follow the science for the entire process system. That is what the science of ecology tells us to do. Follow the economics that the science says is true. I don’t think that you will end up supporting nuclear or coal or any other fossil fuel.”

-30-

FOR MORE:

http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2011/03/finding-energy-to-do-it-right.html

The GPUS International Committee has released a statement on the situation in Japan. The full text is below the fold. read more »

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders from the US have joined Green elected officials and leaders from countries throughout Latin America and Europe in Cancun, Mexico, to participate in the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (http://www.cc2010.mx/en/index.php).

Greens are calling on the world’s leaders attending COP16 to “to reverse the failure of Copenhagen and create the conditions for a strong legally binding global climate agreement” on steps to avert catastrophic climate change in the next century, according to a statement issued by the Global Greens Coordination. The statement is appended below.

The Global Greens Coordination is a committee established to oversee Global Greens affairs, including issuing Global Greens statements and organizing Global Greens congresses.

“In the US, Greens are challenging the White House, Congress, and state and municipal governments to take action, by conversion to safe and clean energy, drastic reduction of fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, more public transportation and less car traffic, carbon taxes, creation of millions of living-wage green jobs in conservation and retrofitting of homes and buildings, protection for publicly-owned fresh water resources, and by leading the world in forums like COP16 in calling for expansion of the Kyoto Protocols,” said Sanda Everette, former co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, who is attending COP16.

“Unfortunately, the Obama Administration has caved in to the demands of polluting industries, with the President’s authorization of offshore drilling in US coastal waters even after the BP disaster, endorsement of the ‘clean coal’ myth, refusal to act against mountaintop removal mining, approval for new taxpayer-funded nuclear plants, promotion of emissions trading schemes, which give polluters a license to continue polluting, and other retreats. In this century of global warming, the Green Party has become an imperative in the US and abroad,” Ms. Everette added.

Along with Ms. Everette, other US Greens in Cancun for COP16 are current Green Party co-chair Mike Feinstein and Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party member Maggie Zhou. Green Party members are present as delegates from NGOs or have press credentials, since conference rules bar political parties from any official status.
read more »

The Huffington Post has an article highlighting good news this election amid the Republican “landslide”:

While the recent elections were seen as a setback for national environmental advocates, for the small city of Richmond in San Francisco’s East Bay, it marked a tidal shift in a seven-year battle to protect Point Molate, the last large undeveloped headland on the bay from a mega-casino. Here, at least, the election demonstrated that poor communities can assert their right to control their own shorelines and perhaps their own destinies — despite outside pressure.

On the winning side were local activists of Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate and the Richmond Progressive Alliance, which includes the Green Party Mayor of this low-income, predominantly African-American and Hispanic city of just over 100,000.

On the side that didn’t win was a Berkeley developer with plans for a billion dollar casino resort at the headlands, a small band of Pomo Indians hoping to break into urban gaming, and an even smaller band of environmentalists willing to cut a multi-million dollar deal with them just before Richmond was to vote on the casino.

Read the entire article at the Huffington Post.

New York Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins and US Senate candidate Cecile Lawrence were in Binghamton on 9/13 for the EPA’s public hearing on hydraulic fracture gas drilling, commonly known as fracking. The New York Greens have made a ban on hydrofracking, which many New Yorkers believe would put the state’s water at risk, a central campaign theme. The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin covered the event and interviewed Hawkins and Lawrence:

Lawrence, 63, a Jamaica-born activist who resides in Apalachin, is active in the movements for health care reform, organic agriculture, renewable energy and a ban on hydrofracturing. Among the issues she discussed: she’s in favor of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system, and wants healthier food fed to schoolchildren. read more »

From Cynthia McKinney, July 27, 2010 on the Bike4Peace ride across the US (http://b4p.bbnow.org)….

Bike 4 Peace is still in need of hosts for potlucks and warm showers, and also sag vehicles by state because I’m the one who’s sagging behind the rest of the bikers–yesterday, by one hour and a half!!!  We’re available for radio interviews–especially me–because I’m definitely a better talker!!!

Malik Rahim, who is riding up solo from New Orleans to meet up with us on September 22 in Washington, DC needs hosts on the route outlined below.  He is especially interested right now in Mississippi and Alabama hosts.  Malik can be contacted at 504-252-3743.

Here’s my update by day.  Very brief updates will come as telephone and internet allow: read more »

The Root recently interviewed Malik Rahim, renowned New Orleans activist and 2008 Louisiana Green Party candidate for Congress, about his plan to bike from Louisiana to Washington DC in order to build support for restoring the Gulf Coast after the devastating BP oil spill and preceding disasters like Hurricane Katrina:

Meet Malik Rahim: 62-year-old activist; member of the original Black Panther Party; founder of Common Ground Relief, one of the largest post-Katrina volunteer organizations in New Orleans; former Green Party candidate for U.S. Congress; and now a cyclist. Rahim is riding his bike from Louisiana to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness around the destruction of the Gulf Coast by the BP oil spill. The bike marathon is just the latest in Rahim’s decades-long legacy of activism in New Orleans, particularly around housing and prison reform. The organization Common Ground has attracted thousands of volunteers from around the country to come help restore housing in the Lower Ninth Ward, and also built the first health and legal clinics in the city after the floods. His work has attracted an unlikely ally in none other than Brad Pitt, for whom Rahim professes an unconditional “love.” The Root caught up with Rahim during one of his stops on the way to D.C. (He’s scheduled to arrive in D.C. on Sept. 22.)

The Root: So what issue would you most like to shed light on with this bike tour?

Malik Rahim: Wetland restoration. It’s all about the global crisis that we are in because right now we are at risk of losing life as we know it. I truly believe that so goes the Gulf Coast, then so goes America, and so goes America, then so goes life as we know it. So I’m here to raise awareness that we can’t leave this to future generations to pay for our arrogance. We have to make sure that our children and grandchildren are able to enjoy life on this planet in the same way that we are enjoying it. That’s why I’m biking. I know if I can do it at 62, then we can clean up this oil spill, and we can probably stop it. But we need not fall back into that drunken level of prosperity. We can no longer be 5 percent of the world’s population and consuming 25 percent of the world’s resources. We have to find alternatives to using fossil fuels. I’m not doing this to be against the petroleum industry because if there is anyone at fault, we are at fault.

Read the full interview at The Root.

Green Party Watch previously reported that New Jersey Green Party member and noted climate activist Ted Glick was facing potential prison time for unfurling a banner calling for green jobs on Capitol Hill. NJ.com reports that the judge has handed down a 30-day suspended sentence, 40 hours of community service, 1 year of probation and a $1,000 fine.

Ann Wilcox, Glick’s attorney, said the judge sympathized with Glick’s cause and was impressed with the hundreds of letters he received in support.

“The judge said it was disruptive,” Wilcox said, “but he didn’t think it was worth going to jail over.”

Glick, a long-time activist and former Senate candidate for the Green Party, said he is thrilled he avoided jail but feels his actions were warranted.

“I don’t regret the action in any way,” Glick said. “The action was needed. If anything, it’s a shame it took the Senate so long to finally focus on the issue of climate change.”

Read the full article at NJ.com.

Uncovered Politics reports on New York Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins:

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for governor of New York, called for a ban on drilling in the Marcellus Shale last week…

“Drill baby, drill, usually ends up spill baby, spill, as you can see now in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Hawkins during a recent campaign appearance in Endicott. “We’re for a ban on hydrofracking because there are better options for energy, and what this really does is privatize the cost and socialize the risk.” read more »

From the Green Party of the United States:

On Tuesday night, President Obama addressed the nation in regards to the disaster that continues to pour oil from a damaged BP deep water well into the Gulf of Mexico.  The Green Party urges all its supporters to continue to contribute, volunteer, and support Green Party candidates on the local, state, and federal level as they put pressure on the United States Congress and Obama administration to respond quickly and effectively to the continuing crisis.

Green Party leaders and candidates have been responded to this crisis since the initial explosion on April 20th that killed eleven workers and caused the massive oil leak that has yet to be stopped.

Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for Governor of Massachusetts, said on April 22nd:

“We are shocked that President Obama has reversed his campaign position and adopted the Republicans’ ”drill, baby, drill” agenda. The President intends to allow the fossil fuel industry to drill in wide ocean expanses that have been off-limits to drilling for two decades. There is no way to guarantee complete safety from spills.

If part of the east coast of the US suffered a spill comparable to the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, the result would be a catastrophe for public health and valuable natural habitats.”

On April 29th, the Green Party of Florida called on Florida Governor Charlie Crist and President Obama to declare a state of emergency and “take immediate action to mobilize all available resources to protect coastal communities and wildlife habitats”. read more »

New York Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins and US Senate candidates Colia Clark and Cecile Lawrence have released the following statement:

Green Party candidates for statewide office in NYC, including Gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins and Cecile Lawrence and Colia Clark for US Senate, joined today in the growing call for President Obama to seize British Petroleum’s assets and to initiate criminal prosecution of BP and its leaders. The assets seized should at least be in an amount commensurate with the damage caused by their criminal negligence, and the funds should be placed into a trust that could quickly and easily pay for damages and compensation now and into the future as more damages accrue.

The Greens also said that the nation’s largest environmental disaster underscores the need to ban the hydrofracking for natural gas deposits in order to protect the state’s water supplies and public health.

Hawkins, who participated in the Seize BP demonstration in Syracuse last Friday, June 11, said “It is imperative that the US government seize BP’s assets to insure they are used to pay for damages and clean-up from the oil blowout before BP’s executives and owners cash out and leave the taxpayers holding the bag. It is equally imperative that the trustees of the fund to administer the use of BP’s seized assets represent the people affected and include Gulf Coast representatives of the workers, unions, and small businesses of the fishing, shrimping, crabbing, tourism, and recreation industries, local elected officials, and independent scientists and environmentalists.” read more »

The Green Party of Pennsylvania calls for an end to drilling for natural gas and other fossil fuels

After a blowback spewed gas and toxic water in Clearfield, PA, plus serious
incidents including deaths of oil and gas employees in West Virginia and
Texas, nearly 2 months of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and years of
mountain top removal, the Green Party of Pennsylvania says “enough already.” read more »

Recent Green Party candidate for New York City mayor Reverend Billy has been working with a coalition of activists to pressure JP Morgan Chase to stop financing mountaintop removal mining. Rev. Billy declared victory yesterday in an email to supporters:

JP Morgan Chase Backs Down on Mountaintop Removal!

Chase bank officials agreed at their annual shareholder meeting to stop underwriting the strip-mining called “Mountaintop Removal (MTR).” Less than two years ago, the bank managed a $690 million bond offering with the top MTR mining company, Massey Energy.

Most environmental orgs, including Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Sierra Club, joined citizens’ coalitions, including “Alliance for Appalachia” as well as activists willing to block gates and tree-sit – our friends at “Climate Ground Zero.” RAN pressured the bank from within, buying shares and agitating at annual meetings, including the most recent meeting on May 18, 2010.

In New York, we at the Life After Shopping Church sculpted “mountains in lobbies” in branch banks throughout the city. This is the practice of leaving little peaks of damaged West Virginia mountain soil in front of ATMs with information sheets that describe the impact of MTR.

Our YouTube video of activist-customers closing their accounts while informing bank officers of the cancer, asthma and heart ailments among those who live in the valleys below MTR operations was a hit on the Net. read more »

Cynthia McKinney, the 2008 Green Party candidate for president, will lead “Bike For Peace 2010″, a bike ride across America that will take place from July to September. Details from the website:

We’re bicycling from San Francisco to Washington, DC between 24-July and 22-Sept, 2010, without motorized support. Cynthia McKinney, six term Member of Congress and 2008 Green Party nominee for President, is riding. The ride will demonstrate the bicycle as a transformational tool to solve the problems of Climate Change, Oil Wars, the Health Crisis, and the Economic Crunch. Along the way, riders will facilitate community discussions around the question “How can we support each other to live true to our best values?”

Our route, schedule, and discussion group are open to anybody with a free Google account. Please join us. If you would like to bicycle all or part of the route, plan a convergence ride, or host riders passing through your community, please e-mail bike4peace@googlegroups.com.