Texas is the latest climate wake-up call & Please sign my petition – tell Congress to take bold action to fight the climate crisis 22&20FEB21

CALLS to action from the NRDC, Our Revolution, & Sen Bernie Sanders I VT to address the corporate greed and republican politics that allowed death and destruction to happen in Texas this last week and a petition to keep the pressure on the Biden-Harris administration to take bold action to address climate change so last week is not repeated....ted cruz backpfeifengesicht

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The winter storms that barreled through Texas and other states last week are another devastating wake-up call: The climate crisis is here, and we are not prepared. As snow fell and temperatures dropped below zero in Texas, more than 4 million people lost power, and nearly 15 million have lacked safe water. Families were burning whatever they could find to keep their children from freezing; heating rocks over fire pits to take inside for warmth; dying from carbon monoxide fumes after leaving cars running for heat; and risking contracting COVID-19 by gathering in makeshift shelters rather than freezing at home. Low-income communities, Black people, and Latinos in the state have suffered most, in yet another manifestation of the environmental injustice that inflicts the greatest harm on the most vulnerable people. Learn more about the devastating impacts communities are facing in Texas — and how you can help — on NRDC's Instagram. What's happening in Texas is part of a larger story about the mounting costs and widening dangers of climate change. Here's what you need to know: While it might seem counterintuitive, scientists see a strong link between the harsh winter temperatures and the warming of the planet. Higher temperatures are disrupting the jet stream, allowing arctic air to make its way farther and faster southward than normal, bringing icy temperatures that can make winter storms more devastating. Climate-busting fossil fuels were to blame for the vast majority of power outages in the state. About 80 percent of the power outages in Texas were caused by systems that rely on gas, coal, or uranium, which provide about three-fourths of the state's electricity. Read more. Texas gets about a quarter of its electricity from wind turbines. While some turbines froze last week, when properly equipped, wind turbines perform well in cold temperatures, as they do in Canada, Sweden, and for that matter, Iowa. The extreme cold and power outages froze and burst water pipes and shut down water treatment systems, leaving millions of people without safe drinking water. This latest tragic example reveals once again a disastrous lack of preparedness to deal with drinking water emergencies in the United States. The same thing has happened over and over in recent decades — in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, California, Ohio, and elsewhere — after hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other disasters, with low-income communities and communities of color hardest hit. Read more. The outages also caused a tremendous spike in health-harming, climate-warming air pollution. With no power, oil refineries along the Gulf Coast burned gas to prevent damage from taking place in their processing units, sending thousands of tons of dangerous pollution into the atmosphere. In Houston last week, energy facilities burned off over 703,000 pounds of pollutants like carbon monoxide, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide. This disaster underscores the need for the U.S. to invest even more in clean and reliable renewable energy and to prepare our energy and water infrastructure for the effects of climate change. We know we need to cut our use of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas in half by 2030, and stop adding more carbon pollution to the atmosphere altogether by 2050, to avert the worst of raging wildfires, floods, storms, and, yes, frigid blasts of arctic air, going forward. To prevent massive power failures and resulting devastation to vulnerable communities in the future, we must also invest in a smarter, more resilient electric grid in Texas and across the country that can withstand the extreme weather fueled by climate change. In addition, states' repeated failure to ensure access to safe drinking water during emergencies proves that our water infrastructure is not equipped to withstand the impacts of climate change, and current emergency response plans are inadequate. We need a massive, systemic overhaul. President Biden has committed to combating climate change, improving America's infrastructure, growing our clean energy economy, and ensuring clean and safe drinking water for all. Last week's storms demonstrate yet again the urgency of that work. We need systems that are built to survive severe weather — including hurricanes, flooding, and winter storms — and that have the flexibility to deliver additional power when demand spikes due to heat waves and arctic blasts. We have the technology to do it — now we need to put it into action. Read more about the devastation in Texas, what it means for our climate future, and how you can help, in my blog post on NRDC.org. Thank you for fighting alongside us for a just transition to clean energy and a safer, healthier, and better future. Sincerely,   Mitch Bernard President, NRDC

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 Big energy companies have been flooding Texas politicians with big money for years to get their way, and this week we got the tragic results of their corruption of our government and power grid.

Vulnerable Texans don't have access to water, old folks risk freezing to death, and rolling blackouts have turned into 4-day power failures, causing havoc. This is because oil and gas companies spent a lot of money to make sure that Texas energy is deregulated and not on the national grid.

That means that we can't borrow power from other states, and it means that the power giants don't have to spend money on making sure our power system is protected from cold winter weather.

Craig, the bottom line is this: the Texas GOP has spent YEARS taking oil money and neglecting our energy grid. Blood is now on their hands, and what's very clear is that we can't let these very dangerous people control our state.

Onward,

Jim Hightower
National Board Member

My name is Kristi, and I’m an Our Revolution organizer in Texas and have been a part of the Bernie Sanders movement from the start. In this email, I’m going to talk about how my fellow Texans are suffering because of Republican greed. I’m also going to talk about how we can beat them through organizing. Decades ago, corporations paid off politicians to support the deregulation of the Texas energy market and limit federal oversight of our energy grid. This week, like so many fellow Texans, I lost sewer and water service for days, our water pipes burst. I know many apartment complexes have been literal disaster zones. The hell we are experiencing from this storm disaster is shared by millions of Texans. Senator Ted Cruz, who gets millions of dollars from energy companies that profit from the deregulation that directly led to my misery, decided to escape Texas last night and flee to a luxury vacation resort in Mexico. To them, the suffering of millions of Texans this week is a game. Human beings froze to death, and Ted Cruz thought it was a good time for a cocktail on the beach. More than anything else, this week has strengthened my resolve as an Our Revolution Texas organizer. We can’t let these greedy sociopaths run our lives any longer. That’s why Our Revolution launched our Power To The People Campaign last night on Facebook Live to denounce the privatization and plunder of public services. We are demanding that Ted Cruz and other Texas officials resign, and we are going to fight for a Green New Deal and public energy for all, not just the privileged few. Craig - In Texas today, following an unprecedented winter storm, millions of people are without drinking water due to power failures at water treatment facilities. Millions were without electricity as a result of major disruptions to Texas's power grid and people were unable to heat their homes while temperatures were below freezing. And many experienced serious damage to their homes from frozen and burst water pipes. Let me be very clear: When we talk about the existential threat of climate change, this is what we are talking about. And unless we have the courage to take on the greed and lies of the fossil fuel industry, and transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, we will continue to experience the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. What the scientists are telling us very clearly is that if we, and countries around the world, do not act boldly within the next few years in transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy, the planet we will be leaving our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. It is past time for the United States to treat climate change like what it is: an emergency that is an existential threat to humanity that requires an urgent, massive response. The good news is that Congress will soon be taking up a second reconciliation package that will, among other things, address the climate crisis by creating millions of jobs to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy. The goal of this second reconciliation bill is to deal with the structural changes our country desperately needs and create a government that works for all of our people, not just the 1%. The bad news is that we will be going up against the fossil fuel industry, which is one of the most powerful political forces in the country with an army of lobbyists, PACs, and bought-and-sold legislators. But it is a fight that is worth having if we care about saving our planet for generations to come. The only way that we can be successful in the fight against climate change is if the American people stand up to the fossil fuel industry and make their voices heard. So I’m asking you today: Please sign my petition — tell Congress to take bold action to address the climate crisis and create millions of good-paying jobs in the process. We must act now before it is too late. Let's be clear. Failure to act decisively on climate change will mean more drought, more famine, more rising sea levels, more floods, more ocean acidification, more extreme weather disturbances, more disease, more strain on electrical grids, more blackouts, and more human suffering. Climate change is about our survival of the human race. But some people — including my colleagues in the Senate — will say, "Well, Bernie, how can we afford to act on climate change?" The question we should really be asking is how can we afford to do nothing while climate change causes more destruction and human suffering? The scientists have said very clearly that if we do not act boldly within the next few years to transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, the planet we leave our kids and future generations will be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. I wish I could say we could address our climate crisis with a few tweaks at the edges. But I cannot say that. Now more than ever, we need Congress to have the courage to act boldly to effectively address the existential threat of climate change. We can meet the challenges of this moment AND create millions of jobs in the process. These jobs will be good-paying jobs building the new electric cars and high-speed rail systems that we need, weatherizing millions of homes and buildings, rebuilding our nation's infrastructure, and generating sustainable energy. During this difficult time in American history, we must not turn to despair. Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our national priorities and imagine the kind of country that we want to become. That means ending the disgrace of the fossil fuel industry destroying the planet to make a profit. I cannot do it alone, which is why I am asking you to say you will join me in this effort: Add your name if you agree: Congress must act immediately to address the climate crisis, transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, and create millions of good-paying jobs. If we are going to save our planet for future generations, now is not the time to think small. Thank you for being a part of our fight to confront the climate crisis. In solidarity, Bernie Sanders ADD YOUR NAME