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From the GNR Newsroom its the Monday Good News Roundup [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-07-17
Its that time again my friends, time for the Monday Good News Roundup, that magical time of the week where the tried and true GNR Newsroom, consisting of myself, Killer300 and Bhu, come together to give you the good news stories to start your week off right. So lets get right into it.
In late June, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed a law prohibiting the state’s investor-owned utilities from charging customers for lobbying expenses and other efforts to sway political outcomes. The new law marks the third comprehensive effort by a state to prevent utilities from using funds from consumers’ monthly bills to bankroll political efforts, following a similar law passed in Colorado in May and a law that Maine Governor Janet Mills signed in June. Across the country, utilities spend money collected from their customers — known in industry parlance as “ratepayers” — to block climate action and pressure policymakers to let them hike up energy bills. Connecticut’s new law bans utilities from charging customers for trade association dues, donations to political advocacy nonprofits that seek to influence elections, public relations expenses, and fees for consultants and lawyers hired by utilities to argue for rate increases.
Good. We don’t pay these companies so they can spend that money to convince congress to let them do a crappier job, we pay them to keep our utilities working properly.
The Biden administration has approved what will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, a sprawling 98-turbine complex that is sure to boost a burgeoning energy sector widely seen as essential to reaching the nation’s climate goals. The new Ocean Wind 1 project, developed by the Danish energy company Ørsted, will be built about 15 miles off the coast of New Jersey and generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity — enough to power up to 500,000 homes. It is the third proposal of its kind approved by the Biden administration, following Vineyard Wind off the coast of Massachusetts and South Fork Wind east of Long Island, New York.
And Biden knocks it out of the park again. Yo Joe!
Batteries are already powering cars, trucks and buses, and backing up homes, businesses and the grid. So can they also replace the ubiquitous but dirty diesel generator? Staid corporations and plucky startups have been trying to answer that question for more than a decade, with relatively little success. But with battery costs falling, performance improving by leaps and bounds, and demand for carbon- and air-pollution-emissions-free mobile power sources growing, the moment for the battery-powered generator may have finally arrived. Paul Huelskamp, co-founder and CEO of mobile battery systems startup Moxion Power, certainly thinks so.
Once again I have to say it: I love living in the future.
The student loan pause offered a safety raft to millions of Americans who are drowning in debt. The Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decision to block student debt relief will devastate these borrowers, many of whom finally experienced what it was like to have money to set aside for the chance to purchase homes, start families and live without constantly worrying about debt. After having this taste of freedom, Americans are ready to organize to protect what the Biden administration promised them. Among the groups leading the charge — and continuing to push the Biden administration to exercise all options for bringing about the promised debt relief — is the Debt Collective. Founded in 2014 as the nation’s first union of debtors, the Debt Collective represents tens of thousands of people with student loan debt, as well as carceral debt, credit card debt and medical debt. Born out of Occupy Wall Street and Strike Debt, the group has abolished millions of dollars worth of debt over the last decade. Its members believe that mutual aid is crucial, but also seek to hold the government and those in power accountable, while urging them to act.
The things we got, however temporary, during the Pandemic were an eye opener for things we were missing, from Basic universal income to Student Debt relief, and we’re gonna fight to get them back.
Heat waves can delay flights and melt airplane tarmac, but Amazon won’t let them hinder Prime deliveries. Extreme heat and unsafe working conditions under the merchant giant have now spurred drivers to unionize. In Southern California, 84 delivery drivers joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and negotiated the first union contract among any Amazon workers in the country. And since June 24, these workers have been on an indefinite strike. Amazon’s requirement of drivers to make up to 400 stops per day, even when temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, can make operating one of those ubiquitous gray and blue vans a particularly hazardous occupation. Raj Singh, a driver, knows that only too well. “Sometimes it reaches 135 degrees in the rear of the truck and there’s no cooling system,” said Singh, who has worked the job for two and half years and through the height of the pandemic. “It feels like an oven when you step back there. You instantly start feeling woozy, and it’s gotten to the point where I’ve actually seen stars.”
A strike is underway in British Columbia, with seventy-four hundred workers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) representing thirty ports. The strike is against the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA). Combined, the workers have the potential to shut down over one-third of Canada’s export-led economy. In the union’s last agreement, from 2018–22, the general wage for the port workers rose 12.5 percent from $42.85 to $48.23 per hour. While the deal for portworkers may have been comparatively better than that of many other workers, the Bank of Canada’s calculator notes that inflation totaled 13.87 percent during that same period.
The Union Renaissance continues, and I am here for it.
And its that time again: Time for a GNR LIGHTNING ROUND!
What could go right? America aint so bad.
Massive phosphate deposit found in Norway
IEA says critical mineral supply could pull close to demand by 2030
South America’s largest floating solar farm launched from Columbia
Coal project financing outside of China hits 12 year low
Returning tortoises are recreating the Galapagos that Darwin saw
Native Giraffes returning to Angola
How Minnesota became the surprising success story of gun reform
Biden’s unheralded war on poverty
Renewables help tame Texas electricity costs as heat wave swamps state
UK now only major nation where inflation is still rising
Most unionized US rail workers now have sick leave
Whew! Quite the lightning round. My teeth are still chattering. Lets get back to normal news.
Many of these analyses make the same mistake commentators made last year in believing there was a single nationalized election that leaned right, a “red wave” as many called it. The national results from 2022 are particularly skewed rightward because of our poor performance in the 4 biggest states - CA, FL, NY, TX. The problem with this red wavy analysis is that there wasn’t a single nationalized election, there were two elections - a bluer election inside the battleground, a redder one outside. Rs did well outside the battleground states, but inside the battleground, Democrats overperformed their 2020 results, sometimes by a lot. Any analysis that doesn’t dive into this “two elections” construct obscures the most important thing that happened in the election - that in the states which determine the Presidential election, in what was supposed to be a bad year for Democrats, Democrats kicked ass and in some cases even over performed their 2020 numbers. In my Get to 55 memo below I dive into all this data a bit more, but a few topline reminders about what happened in 2022, and if interested review my post-election memo and my in-depth review of why the “red wave” never came:
Don’t let anyone tell you different. It was a bad election for the GOP, and spoiler warning, 2024 is gonna be even worse.
And now, a word from the head of SAG AFTRA, The star of stage and screen: Fran Drescher.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the oral contraceptive Opill for over-the-counter sales, making it the first hormonal contraceptive pill available in the U.S. without a prescription. The approval is a major win for medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which have been pushing for years for an over-the-counter (OTC) birth control pill. It also comes amid legal battles over women’s reproductive rights.
Again, I love living in the future, and also we aren’t going back.
The Biden administration announced Friday that 804,000 borrowers will have their student debt wiped away, totaling $39 billion worth of debt, in the coming weeks due to fixes that more accurately count qualified monthly payments under existing income-driven repayment plans. “For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a written statement. There are currently several different kinds of income-driven repayment plans for borrowers with federal student loans, which base payments on a borrower’s income and family size – regardless of their total outstanding debt. After reaching a set forgiveness threshold of 20 or 25 years, a borrower’s remaining balance is then wiped.
Biden is a clever guy, he never misses a trick. However the corrupt Supreme court tries to stop him, he will find a way around it.
And on that note, we must say adieu for this week. Have a good week all, and we will be back on Monday.
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