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From the GNR Newsroom, its the Monday Good News Roundup [1]
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Date: 2023-04-17
Welcome back friends to the Monday Good News roundup, where your intrepid GNR Newsroom (Myself, Killer300 and Bhu) get you the stories to start your work week off right.
This was the first really warm weekend of the year, and I definitely enjoyed it, the first real sign of spring, I know its gonna get cold and crappy again next week, but I for one appreciated that little coming attraction of nice weather. Actually got to go out and walk, play a little Pokemon Go even. But enough about that, time for good news.
Corporations have become a major driver of clean energy growth in the U.S., responsible for buying tens of gigawatts of wind and solar power and targeting much more in the years to come. But to decarbonize the U.S. power grid at the scale needed to combat climate change, we’ll need a lot more corporate clean power deals to get done over the next decade, at even greater speed. Last month, Google and clean energy marketplace provider LevelTen Energy unveiled a new model for significantly simplifying and speeding up corporate purchases of clean energy. The streamlined structure they’ve developed could offer other companies and clean-energy developers a way to get these deals from inception to delivery within a few months, instead of the year or more it usually takes today, they say.
People in all sorts of different sectors are working to clean up the climate, but we have to keep pushing harder.
A record-setting supply agreement between solar hardware builder Qcells and project developer Summit Ridge Energy was announced last week, indicating that the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act are already driving the deployment of domestically sourced renewable energy infrastructure. The 1.2-gigawatt panel deal is the largest equipment purchase for community solar in U.S. history, the two companies said in a release. It will spur the construction of 2.5 million solar panels that will likely be deployed in hundreds of proposed projects across Illinois, Maine and Maryland. Summit Ridge Energy expects the first 200 megawatts to be installed before the end of this year. Most American households either can’t afford or are unable to install solar — that’s where community solar comes in. The programs enable these households to jointly own or subscribe to a solar project and realize savings on their electric bill. This can be particularly useful for lower-income households, which tend to spend a much higher portion of their paycheck on electric and gas bills than higher-income households do.
And remember, its thanks to the Biden administration this boom is happening.
Public opinion about unions has rarely been more favorable. Polls show that 71% of the public supports unions (the highest it’s been since 1965). The numbers are even higher among young people in their teens and twenties. Such a climate makes this an optimal time to abandon fortress unionism and begin a massive recruitment drive. The labor movement certainly has the resources and the talent. Today, the financial condition of American unions has never been better. The combined assets of US unions now total $35.8 billion, thanks to real estate holdings and shrewd investment strategies. Put in perspective, labor’s combined assets would rank it as the second largest foundation in the U.S., trailing only the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Labor’s sizable war chest could be used to help millions of workers organize in manufacturing, logistics, and services where they now work without the benefits of collective bargaining. While most unions don’t disclose their budgets for organizing, the data is very dispiriting for the few that do.
Unions have never been more popular, people are remembering what we can do when we work together, and we can seize this opportunity.
Getting rid of old batteries can be a hassle. But for recycling startup Ascend Elements, other people’s garbage is basically a gold mine, if not better. The Massachusetts-based company opened a recycling plant in Covington, Georgia in late March that it says is the largest electric-vehicle battery recycling facility in North America. It can process 30,000 metric tons of input each year, breaking down old batteries and prepping the most valuable materials inside to be processed and turned into new batteries. That capacity equates to breaking down the battery packs from 70,000 electric vehicles annually, said Ascend CEO Mike O’Kronley. For context, Redwood Materials, another battery recycling startup, told us its Nevada facility is already processing 40,000 metric tons of input annually, equivalent to around 100,000 battery packs.*
Its the best of everything: Its recycling, and its making new jobs. Everyone wins!
The swing state of Wisconsin has been a battleground for years with a polarized electorate that has had power swinging back and forth between the two parties with razor-thin margins. It was assumed that the high-stakes election this week for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would be similarly tight. The future of the outrageous gerrymander that makes Republicans massively over-represented in the state legislature was at issue but, most importantly, abortion rights were front and center. Abortion has been illegal in the state since last June when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and an archaic law banning abortion that had been on the books since 1849 was no longer moot. The hard right legislature and the conservative state Supreme Court wasn't going to fix that. The election turned on those two intersecting issues. Abortion rights and democracy were on the ballot with the first being denied as a result of the Republicans manipulating the map to un-democratically seize more power than the people voted for. The anti-abortion candidate (a Trumper, by the way) lost by 10 points, a miracle in that polarized electorate. With good organization by the state Democratic Party — which saw a huge uptick in 18-29-year-old voters, a big gender gap and even, surprisingly, inroads among white, non-college-educated voters — abortion rights and democracy advocacy carried the day.
I really can’t believe the GOP was caught off guard. I mean their entire agenda lately has literally been “Piss off the liberals.” Well congrats. You done pissed us off. Now what? The right is always trying to “trigger” us, but I don't think they quite understand WHAT they are triggering, and the consequences of those actions.
As the status of abortion pills in the U.S. remains in flux, a majority of Americans say they believe such medication should be legal, a Pew Research Center survey found. What they found: 53% of adults believe medical abortion — the use of a prescription pill or a series of pills to end a pregnancy — should be allowed in their states. Meanwhile, about 22% say it should be illegal, as another 24% say they aren’t sure, according to the survey. The big picture: Medication abortion accounts for more than half (53%) of abortions in the U.S., per the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
And another in the long ongoing saga of “The GOP really screwed up when they picked a fight over Abortion. AKA WE WILL NOT GO BACK.”
In late March, workers at Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum (PTM), one of the top ten ranked children’s museums in the country, voted to join the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 47 (AFSCME DC 47) Local 397. The landslide win (85% of workers voted to unionize) follows other recent union victories in Philadelphia— including at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA)— as well as at other museums and cultural institutions around the country. The win at the PTM marked the third museum union victory for AFSCME in the month of March. White-collar cultural workers have been organizing in droves over the last few years, mirroring the country’s growing support of unions, which currently sits at 68% — its highest point since 1965. While white-collar workers may not traditionally be seen as the face of unions, Shaun Richman, an author, academic and former union organizer, tells In These Times that these workers “feel like they were sold a bill of goods by going to college, racking up debt and then not getting rewarded with a fairly decent six figure job with decent benefits and basic respect.”
More and more vocations are joining the fight for unionization, and I don’t see it ending any time soon.
Maryland is poised to set policies that could quadruple the amount of offshore wind planned along the state’s Atlantic coastline. On Monday, Maryland’s General Assembly passed the Promoting Offshore Wind Energy Resources Act, or POWER ACT. The comprehensive legislation sets a nonbinding goal of 8.5 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2031, up from the 2 gigawatts of projects now in various stages of development. Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) has promised to sign the bill as part of the state’s broader effort to get 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035. The 8.5-gigawatt ambition would give Maryland the second largest offshore wind goal in the country, after New York — and help keep the Biden administration on track for its target of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030
More good environmental news.
few weeks ago, I read some news that made me excited: my hometown of Milwaukee is going to be charging more for parking! That might sound like a crazy statement but yes, you read it right: My heart is filled with gladness at the news that parking meters in downtown Milwaukee will now operate well into the evening and on the weekends when, previously, on-street parking in much of the central city had been free after 6 p.m. and on Saturdays. Here’s a common experience in my household: We drive downtown after work to grab a bite to eat and find a parking spot on the street. We glance at the signage and meters to see how much we need to pay for the privilege of parking and—what do you know?—we owe $0. The parking meters will be free for the rest of the night. Cue me simultaneously bemoaning the stupidity of this policy and also, of course, benefitting from it. In a city with a ton of tasty restaurants, performing arts, and sports venues, and a downtown that’s getting increasingly activated with businesses and residences, it has always seemed absurd to me that parking on the street was free every evening and weekend. This essentially amounts to a massive public subsidy (your tax dollars at work!) to allow people to stick their vehicles in the public right of way and a huge missed opportunity for Milwaukee.
Maybe not good news if you drive a car in Milwaukee, but if you want to see America break its addiction to automobiles its fantastic news.
Our friends at Navigator just dropped some great new research, “The Public’s Assessment of the House Republicans’ First 100 Days.” I encourage you to read the whole report (we will be using a lot of Navigator data here at Hopium), but want to focus this afternoon on a single chart, below. The bottom line - the Congressional Republicans are in big trouble with the public: Job approval 35-59, -48 (!!!!!!) with independent voters
Inflation 37-52, -27 with independent voters
Jobs/Economy - 17 with independent voters
So, anyone else feel good going into 2024?
This “no resumé, no references” approach reflects The Body Shop’s “open hiring” process, which Reasons to be Cheerful wrote about in March 2020 after the company first implemented it. Now, three years later, as open hiring begins to catch on more widely, The Body Shop has shared internal data with RTBC showing the success of the approach. Everyone benefits
Honestly I always felt like the whole resume process was a waste of time and paper. Glad to see it and interviews being phased out.
Ever since Donald Trump used his Twitter account and Mark Zuckerberg’s nihilist greed to put divisive cultural issues at the top of the agenda, conventional wisdom called the “Culture War” the GOP’s secret weapon. Stoking fear about immigrants, gay and trans people, and crime allows Republicans to fire up their base and peel off persuadable voters. Democrats, on the other hand, succeed when the focus is on jobs, wages, Social Security, and other “kitchen table” issues. The 2021 Republican victory in Blue Virginia was credited to the GOP’s ability to center the campaign on “Critical Race Theory.” In 2022, the incorrect predictions of a “Red Wave” focused on the rising salience of crime as a top-tier issue. On paper, this idea makes some sense. In politics, you want to direct the debate toward issues that unite your coalition and divide your opponent’s. Some “culture” issues like immigration and crime split the Democratic base. On the other side of the aisle, there is a chasm between the pro-corporation policies of Republican leaders and the populist leanings of their largely working-class base. Over the last many years, Democrats dedicated time and energy to defuse, avoid, and pivot away from these “devastating” Culture War attacks and refocus the electorate on economic issues. But what if that conventional wisdom is wrong — or at least outdated? The results from the midterm elections and last week’s Supreme Court race in Wisconsin show that the Republicans are losing the Culture War.
As mentioned above, the whole “trigger the libs” stratagem is not working out too well for the GOP, and its gonna continue to not work for them.
Anyway, before we conclude this weeks GNR, we have two more things on the docket, first is everyone’s favorite new segment, the GNR LIGHTNING ROUND. Where we fire off a bunch of good news stories without commentary, for your benefit as well as my own. So lets get to it.
fossil fuel emissions from electricity set to fall
Global heat pump sales continue double digit growth
Boom and bust coal 2023
German meat consumption in 2022 lowest on record
Victory over big Pharma leads to cheaper Tuberculosis drugs
Late stage RSV Vaccine trials show promise
Parking lots across the US are being turned into housing
Job market milestone: Shrinking employment gap for black workers
Recovery high schools help kids heal from addiction and build a future
That’s the lightning round for this week, but before we go one more thing. A new segment I like to call GNR Theater, where we bring you a video through the magic of youtube technology which is sure to bring the good news.
This may not be a regular thing, but surely expect more GNR theater in the future. But That is for another day. For now, have a good week and stay hopeful.
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