Tomorrow’s EQB meeting: Greenhouse Gas pilot project vote

 From the email announcement by the Environmental Quality Board:

EQB announcement

Environmental Quality Board Meeting September 15, 2021  We invite you to join the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) at their next meeting on September 15, 2021 from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EQB will convene its September Board meeting virtually through the Webex platform. Instructions for connecting to Webex are available here. Access link to September 15, 2021 Board Meeting September 2021, EQB Meeting Packet Accessibility: This material can be provided in different forms, like large print, braille, or on a recording. Please contact EQB staff by email at least one week prior to the event at to arrange an accommodation.

From the Board Packet:

Environmental Quality Board meeting agenda item 

4. Approval of resolution to implement a pilot program for integrating climate change information into the Environmental Review Program**
The Board will consider passage of a resolution directing EQB staff to implement a pilot program to evaluate revisions to the Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) form that include questions for
greenhouse gas quantification and assessment as well as adaptation and resiliency information.Presenter: Denise Wilson, Environmental Review Director, EQB (denise.wilson@state.mn.us)Materials enclosed:
• Project background (page 5)
• Resolution (page 6)
• Revised EAW form – draft (page 10)
• Revised EAW guidance – draft (page 23) 

Public comment on agenda item 4 
The Board welcomes public comment on the resolution. 
Procedure and guidelines for giving public comment: 
• If you wish to speak, please indicate in the WebEx chat that you would like to make public comment.
Commenters are taken on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Your remarks will be limited to two (2) minutes to ensure there is equal opportunity for the public to
comment. When necessary, due to the number of people who want to address the Board, the Chair
may limit commenters’ time for remarks.
• When the Chair calls on you to speak:

oIntroduce yourself before beginning your comment.

oPlease keep your remarks to those facts which are relevant and specific, as determined by the Chair, to the agenda item at hand.

oPlease be respectful of Board members, staff, and other meeting participants. Avoid questioning motives. Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

• Please note that the Chair will use their discretion for directing public comment to ensure the Board’s ability to effectively conduct business.
• You may also submit a written comment. Written comments will be reviewed after the meeting and included in the next Board meeting packet.

The latest perspective from our friends at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy:

Conversations we’ve had in the past week strongly suggest that the EQB is likely to approve a pilot project, rather than implement the changes broadscale right away. Although MCEA would still prefer immediate broadscale adoption, after gaining more information about the pilot, we think it is still a positive step.  The pilot proposal includes a revised climate analysis that is more robust than the last proposal and is consistent with the analysis MCEA has been pushing for all along. We have also been assured that the pilot is a step in implementation, not a delay tactic, and that environmental advocates will have the ability to be involved as the pilot proceeds. 

We still want to push the EQB not to delay, but we will also add some talking points about the pilot to ensure that if selected, it is completed quickly and is as robust and useful as possible. Ultimately, so long as a short-term pilot is adopted, we will still consider it a win. 

Remember, Minnesota is far from on track for meeting the goals of the 2007 climate legislation mandating reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now

Matthew Olzmann

Most likely, you think we hated the elephant,
the golden toad, the thylacine and all variations
of whale harpooned or hacked into extinction.

It must seem like we sought to leave you nothing
but benzene, mercury, the stomachs
of seagulls rippled with jet fuel and plastic. 

You probably doubt that we were capable of joy,
but I assure you we were.

We still had the night sky back then,
and like our ancestors, we admired
its illuminated doodles
of scorpion outlines and upside-down ladles.

Absolutely, there were some forests left!
Absolutely, we still had some lakes!

I’m saying, it wasn’t all lead paint and sulfur dioxide.
There were bees back then, and they pollinated
a euphoria of flowers so we might
contemplate the great mysteries and finally ask,
“Hey guys, what’s transcendence?”   

And then all the bees were dead. 

Which should it be: the filibuster or the Senate

I am hereby proposing that we eliminate, in a legal fashion, the United States Senate. In its place we establish a Unicameral legislature. The Minnesota Legislative Reference Library has issued guides on the subject. I haven’t even skimmed through them yet, but I assume the issues would be comparable at a national and state level.

We have now reached the point where the Supreme Court of the United States has little to no credibility with much of the citizenry because of political chicanery and bias. Congress has been in gridlock for too long, and we’re at a point where the  Senate refuses to change its rules the allow legislation to be passed by a majority. Meanwhile, we’ve had several presidents serve who have won less than the majority of the popular vote. NO DAMN WONDER WE’RE AT EACH OTHERS’ THROATS! We’re constantly being conned and screwed by our  “political leaders.”

U. S. Capitol building

As an alternative, the Senate could modify its rules and eliminate the filibuster. One Senator should not be enabled to bring progress to a halt. That makes US ruled by men, not laws, and causes our shining city on a hill to slide downhill and sink in the swamp. If regulatory agencies are subject to regulatory capture, too many of our legislative bodies have been subject to corporate/oligarchic capture. It’s time to muck out the barns the politicians have fouled, unless they undertake the cleanup themselves.

A Poem for the Cruel Majority

By Jerome Rothenberg

The cruel majority emerges!

Hail to the cruel majority!

They will punish the poor for being poor.

They will punish the dead for having died.

Nothing can make the dark turn into light

for the cruel majority.

Nothing can make them feel hunger or terror.

If the cruel majority would only cup their ears

the sea would wash over them.

The sea would help them forget their wayward children.

It would weave a lullaby for young & old.

(See the cruel majority with hands cupped to their ears,

one foot is in the water, one foot is on the clouds.)

One man of them is large enough to hold a cloud

between his thumb & middle finger,

to squeeze a drop of sweat from it before he sleeps.

He is a little god but not a poet.

(See how his body heaves.)

The cruel majority love crowds & picnics.

The cruel majority fill up their parks with little flags.

The cruel majority celebrate their birthday.

Hail to the cruel majority again!

The cruel majority weep for their unborn children,

they weep for the children that they will never bear.

The cruel majority are overwhelmed by sorrow.

(Then why are the cruel majority always laughing?

Is it because night has covered up the city's walls?

Because the poor lie hidden in the darkness?

The maimed no longer come to show their wounds?)

Today the cruel majority vote to enlarge the darkness.

They vote for shadows to take the place of ponds

Whatever they vote for they can bring to pass.

The mountains skip like lambs for the cruel majority.

Hail to the cruel majority!

Hail! hail! to the cruel majority!

The mountains skip like lambs, the hills like rams.

The cruel majority tear up the earth for the cruel majority.

Then the cruel majority line up to be buried.

Those who love death will love the cruel majority.

Those who know themselves will know the fear

the cruel majority feel when they look in the mirror.

The cruel majority order the poor to stay poor.

They order the sun to shine only on weekdays.

The god of the cruel majority is hanging from a tree.

Their god's voice is the tree screaming as it bends.

The tree's voice is as quick as lightning as it streaks across the sky.

(If the cruel majority go to sleep inside their shadows,

they will wake to find their beds filled up with glass.)

Hail to the god of the cruel majority!

Hail to the eyes in the head of their screaming god!

Hail to his face in the mirror!

Hail to their faces as they float around him!

Hail to their blood & to his!

Hail to the blood of the poor they need to feed them!

Hail to their world & their god!

Hail & farewell!

Hail & farewell!

Hail & farewell!

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.