Rebel with a cause: Jerry Brown and the climate

It may be a stretch to continue calling Jerry Brown a rebel after all these years, but today he did revisit James Dean’s old haunt, the Griffith Observatory—and he shook up the fossil fuel establishment. Brown signed into law a landmark piece of climate legislation, Senate Bill 350, and California is now a bit further along the path…

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What do we do now, now that we are happy?

Hey, we are happy! Senate Bill 185 has passed the California Senate and the California Assembly. This unprecedented campaign by Fossil Free California and our many allies has leaped over one obstacle after another, and now we are within a whisker or two of total success. When SB 185 becomes law, the two biggest state pension funds in…

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Assembly passes SB 185!

The California Assembly has passed SB 185, the coal divestment bill, by a vote of 43–27! (Update: When the late votes came in, it was even better, at 47–30.) One more step remains before the bill is enacted: Governor Jerry Brown’s signature. Let him know that when he signs this bill into law, California will become the first…

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Oil, lies, and video ads

The petroleum industry is running scared. They know that their product is to the 21st Century what buggy whips were to the 20th. So as the California Assembly prepares to vote this week on SB 350, SB 185, and ten other climate bills, Big Oil is deploying some pretty oily tactics. First, the oil companies create and hide…

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This is the week: a climate watershed

As the evidence mounts that fossil fuels are a bad investment, this week represents a significant watershed moment for California climate policy. Last Thursday, the Assembly Appropriations Committee approved a package of twelve climate bills, which were already passed by the Senate. This week, the bills go to the full Assembly for approval. If passed by the Assembly…

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CalPERS, CalSTRS lose $5 billion on fossil fuels

Over the last fiscal year, CalPERS and CalSTRS held on to their investments in coal, oil, and gas. They now know that was a big mistake. Clinging to the myth of Old Energy’s profitability and the chimera of shareholder engagement, the two big California state pension funds squandered over $5 billion in pension assets. 350.org today released…

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Hiroshima in slow motion

Seventy years after Hiroshima was obliterated by the bomb nicknamed Little Boy, human civilization is still threatened by the specter of nuclear war. But we are now faced with a more insidious danger, with equally grave consequences: climate change. A global catastrophe that unfolds over decades is no less dangerous than a one-day exchange of megaton missiles.…

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Legislators urged to support SB 185

The California Assembly will vote on SB 185 in mid-August, and constituents of Assembly Members around the state are meeting with them to urge a yes vote. On July 28, Assemblywoman Patty López, representing District 39 in Southern California, met with several of her constituents and pledged support for SB 185, which requires CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest…

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Coal divestment advances

JUNE 24: Today the California coal divestment bill, SB 185, cleared another hurdle. The Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security voted to send the bill to the Assembly Appropriations Committee by a vote of 5 to 1. With this success, much remains to be done. You can help by signing this petition and contacting your…

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