There’s Only One Kind Of “Just” Transition I Want To See

And It’s Not The One Which Rewards Dirty Energy Mercenaries With New Clean Energy Jobs

I took this tour 7 years ago with my old pal Nanette Barragan.

The kind of justice I believe in does not give “them that’s got” an uninterrupted pipeline to keep profiting from pollution. That ain’t justice. That’s granting the workers who pocketed great salaries and benefits, while filling our air and water with toxic waste, a free pass from taking any responsibility for their actions.

None of them are innocent bystanders. Oil, gas and coal workers have all known for more than a dozen years that their work was helping to destroy people’s health and well being. But they fiercely fought any and all attempts to transition to clean renewable. I know. I was there and watched them do it. Im still watching them do it.

So the justice I want to see is first, second and third for the victims in the sacrifice zones created by the oil, gas and coal companies. Make the victims a priority for a damn change.

I need to see the fence line and frontline communities repaired and rehabilitated using fossil fuel company money. Putting free solar on every roof, batteries in every building and electric vehicles to replace every gas powered vehicle would be a minimal start.

Somebody’s backyard

I want to see the residents of those communities put at the front of the line for guaranteed job training and employment in the clean energy industries. Those are the brothers and sisters of mine who should be paid top dollar and given the Cadillac benefits the dirty energy workers have long enjoyed.

If it’s justice you desire then like me, you want to see Health Recovery Centers built and staffed with oil, gas and coal company money to rightly address the people with asthma and other respiratory diseases, not to mention the wide range of cancers caused by living near petrochemical operations.

Those health bombs were dropped deliberately by the oil workers who cannot cop to a “I’m just a worker. I didn’t know” excuse. They knew and still know today.

So what justice has been earned and is now deserved by the dirty energy workforce? What responsibility should they bear for their professional actions?

That’s an easy one for your Greenius.

Let my old pals at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Steelworkers unions point the way. They have both long argued that as long as refineries and oil and related facilities are still operating that they are best operated by the top pros who know them intricately. That their union members are the best trained and most experienced to operate those facilities safely.

That’s the exact same reason I have for keeping all those workers on the job at their same facilities to decommission and dismantle them expertly and safely. And their current employers should pay for it all till it’s all done.

That’s years of guaranteed work in their same industry going to work at the very same place for the workers. No reason to relocate or start anew. Then these same pros have many more years of additional employment cleaning up the toxic messes they helped cause. Talk about real justice.

Every fossil fuel-related union has fought against a far less “just” offer and definition of Just Transition that put them first in the new clean energy economy. They belittled and rejected the Green New Deal. They’ve paid totally cynical lip service to the so called BlueGreen Alliance which is just a scam to keep environmentalists at bay and postpone any phaseout of the fossil fuels they profit from.

So take them at their word, know that they will NEVER ally with frontline communities or any semblance of environmental justice and put them to work taking down their death machines.

Just. Do. It.

CEO Mary Barra & General Motors Make Sure The Greenius Is Rewarded For His Many Years Of EV Advocacy

That’s me on January 16, 2017, with my brand new Chevy Bolt EV Premier edition in my garage at home. I paid $47,000 in cash for that car as a #YearOfJoe gift to myself after a decade of environmental work and achievement.

Last week, as part of the little known and unadvertised “Bolt Buyback” program GM quietly created in response to the recall of all their 2017- 2019 Bolts, Chevy paid $37,900 to buy this car back from us. They then sold us a brand new 2021 Bolt EV Premier for $28,500.

Yeah. They did. Let me tell you about it.

https://la.breakfree2016.org

Give Me A #BreakFreeLA & Then Give Me 100% Renewables RIGHT NOW

people

I’ve lived in my house in Torrance, California for 23 years now. Been in L.A. since I was 19 years old in 1976, back when then Governor Brown was telling us that we were “living in an era of diminished expectations.” He always was so ahead of the curve…

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Like I say, I live in Torrance, home of the exploding Exxon Mobil refinery where our Air Quality Management District just gave the refinery operators exemptions to exceed pollution limits while they restart the aging climate wrecker back up.  

I was at the meeting where they cut the deal and I had this to say about that:

Hot Tub Time Machine WayBack Wednesday – Reposted Word-for-Word from June 25 of 2008

cat on roof

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

There’s an old joke that most of us baby boomers first heard when we were kids. Here’s the version I remember hearing in New Jersey:

A man goes on vacation and his brother agrees to housesit for him — feeding the cat, picking up the newspapers and mail, watering the plants, etc. After the first week goes by the vacationing brother phones to check in.

“I’m sorry bro,” his brother at the house tells him almost immediately, “but your cat died.”

“What!? What do you mean my cat died?! How could you tell me like this? What kind of insensitive creep are you!? You need to prepare someone for a shock like that!” exclaims the vacationing brother.

“How was I supposed to prepare you?” asks the man.

350-chart_0“Well,” says the brother, “first you should have told me, the cat is on the roof. Then you should have said, but don’t worry, we’re calling the fire department. Then the next time I called in to check you should have said, the fire department was doing everything it could and not to worry.

Then the next time I called you could tell me that the cat had fallen, but not to worry — the vet was doing everything she could to resuscitate him. Then, finally, after all that, you could have told me, my cat had died. That’s how you break news like that.”

“You’re right, bro, I’m sorry. I should have been more sensitive first,” said the housesitting brother, who really did feel bad about it at this point.

His vacationing brother on the phone was quickly forgiving, “That’s okay. I understand. So anyway, how’s everything else? How’s mom doing?”

“Mom?” says the man, “Mom is on the roof….”

Guess what? Right now, here in 2008 the cat is on the roof for global warming.

Ready For Environmental Justice in the LA Harbor? So Are We! Join Us, August 19 in San Pedro

Wednesday, August 19 at 7pm South Bay 350 Climate Action Group comes to San Pedro for its first ever general membership meeting in the L.A. Harbor.  We’ve been working with the San Pedro and Wilmington communities as well as Carson, Torrance and many other cities.  Join us and find out about our active campaigns, and how you can get involved and take climate action.  

SB350 Aug 19 flyer-2

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This Is Why You Don’t Take Money From Oil Companies For Your Schools

When Chevron, or Phillips 66, or ExxonMobil or E&B oil companies give schools and nonprofits funding money they do it for one reason only.

To pay them to shut up.

You can fool yourself if you want to, but you can’t fool your kids, because in the end they will know their school, or that nonprofit pretending to be teaching kids about the environment, sold them out. Sold them out to the very oil companies who are destroying their chance of having a decent future.

And they will damn sure remember who went along for the ride to get that oil company money.