John Farrell works with the Institute for Local Self Reliance, a national research and advocacy organization fighting corporate control to develop the intersection between the economy and the environment. John Farrell is the director of their Energy Democracy Initiative, which, as the name suggests, is a movement to allow more public choice in energy source consumption. The cause hopes to take the decision of energy sources from larger utilities and corporations and give it to us as individuals, so we have more options in our energy resources and hence can choose a more sustainable, renewable energy source. Join me as we learn more from John what the Energy Democracy Initiative means for us and progression to sustainability.

Contact and connect with John: [email protected]  

ILSR: https://ilsr.org/about-the-institute-for-local-self-reliance/staff-and-board/john-farrell/ https://ilsr.org/energy/ 

Maggie Shober is the Director of Utility Reform at Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Maggie works to speed the clean energy transformation in the Southeast through analysis and advocacy. She has expertise in renewable energy, energy efficiency, coal retirements, energy market modeling, and transmission. In this episode, we unpack and identify the key concepts, goals, and logistics in moving toward a more renewable future. We will hear the definition of what “clean energy” is and a breakdown of common terminology used in the discussion. Maggie also gives us some great tips on what you as listeners can do from home. Part of Maggie’s work includes researching developments related to the transition to clean energy and then breaking it down to a format more digestible to the public in her blog posts. You can read her pieces at cleanenergy.org/blog/staff/maggie-shober and I hope you enjoy the episode!

Contact and connect with Maggie: [email protected] 

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy: cleanenergy.org 

Smoke and Mirrors report (why we are in opposition of bio fuels): https://www.bredl.org/search-results.htm?cx=010984996806542994840%3A5bo6_yjam9k&cof=FORID%3A11&q=smoke+and+mirrios&sa=Search

Hello all! It’s your host, Jenn Galler bringing you new season called The Road to Renewables. We will be learning the basics of renewable energy. As well as acknowledging the progress we have made and the steps we still have to take to achieve clean energy from our renewable resources. Before we get started, so we are all on the same page, I would like to identify our renewable resources. Firstly we have solar energy – from the sun, wind energy, hydroelectric- harnessed by hydro dams in lakes, ocean energy- harnessed by tidal patterns, geothermal energy- harnessed from the earth’s surface and biomass – energy produced by living organisms like plants. Renewable energy tends to be carbon neutral, meaning its consumption leads to no added output of carbon dioxide into our earth's atmosphere and thus has no detrimental effects to our earth, climate and ecosystems.

Non renewable resources on the other hand are our more traditional energies such as our fossil fuels - coal, crude oil and natural gas. These fossil fuels are finite, unsustainable and emit substantial amounts of carbon dioxide and contribute a huge amount to our climate crisis.

Within the season, we will further unpack what experts, activists, and people on the ground are doing on a local, state, and national level to move us further on a just road to renewable energy. I am super excited to unpack this topic with you all so let's get started!

Court Lewis is President of the Executive Committee of Unicoi Clear. The asphalt company, Summers-Taylor Materials Corp. has revised its application for an air quality permit to expand operations at the former Construction Asphalt Paving Services plant in Unicoi, TN.

The town of Unicoi joined in the request for a public hearing in June following a Unicoi Planning Commission meeting in which town residents addressed concerns including:

• An increase in emissions beyond those permitted by the state since the plant began operations in the 1990s.

• Increases in noise and truck traffic that could negatively impact property values.

• Detrimental impacts on the quality of life, health and property values of residents of more than 100 families who live near the plant.

• TDEC’s failure to publish a notice of Summers-Taylor initial application for a permit to expand operations in Unicoi in a newspaper likely to be read by Unicoi County residents and subsequent award of that permit.

• Summers-Taylor purchase of property adjoining the plant and town zoning ordinances that prohibit asphalt plants outside the two-acre CAPS site.

With Court we discuss Unicoi Clear and why they formed as a group, rezoning of the site, public health and environmental impacts of asphalt plants, proximity of the asphalt plant to residents, and how you can support their work.

Contact and connect with Court: [email protected]

More on Summer Taylor’s Asphalt plant: https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/news/summers-taylor-revises-application-for-unicoi-asphalt-plant-expansion-public-hearing-postponed/article_88fae136-d11f-11ea-b0b5-bf48a51a6e5e.html

Elizabeth O’Nan is Chair of Chapel Hill Organization for Clean Energy or CHOCE for short.

Despite past promises by UNC to cut coal by 2020, the administration reneged on that promise a few years later and they are still burning dirty coal. UNC Chapel Hill is the only institute of higher learning in North Carolina still operating a coal-burning plant.

Now, North Carolina’s Division of Air Quality or DAQ for short has just issued a draft of its Title 5 Air Permit for the UNC coal plant which would allow them to burn MORE coal and emit MORE air pollution.

Every major polluting facility in the country must have an air permit to operate. Permits are required by Title V of the Clean Air Act. The permit sets legal allowable limits for how much air pollution a facility can emit. Specifically, the permit regulates sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter/soot, and hazardous air pollutants emitted from the UNC coal plant.

Some of the major impacts of this draft permit is that it will significantly increase pollution and worsen the health impacts on the community.

DAQ has removed the heat input limit from the draft permit. Without a heat input limit, there is no way to enforce the limit on the amount of pollutants that can be released from the coal plant’s smokestack and allows the coal plant to pollute as much as it wants.

This permit will lead to increased asthma attacks, respiratory illness, heart attacks, and premature death for the surrounding communities.

With Elizabeth we discuss this Title 5 permit and what it could mean, health and environmental impacts, and tune in for the last bit to learn how you can take action to oppose this permit!

Contact and connect with Elizabeth: [email protected]

CHOCE FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CHOCE

Air Permit information: https://deq.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2021/03/31/release-public-hearing-draft-unc-title-v-permit-be-held-may-4

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/north-carolina-air-regulators-propose-to-eliminate-restrictions-on-harmful-coal-emissions-from-unc-chapel-hill-power-plant-2021-04-26/

https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2021/04/university-coal-plant-concerns-permit-lawsuit

Comments can be submitted by email to [email protected] with the subject line ["UNC.15B"] You may also leave a voicemail comment at (919) 707-8726. Comments will be accepted until May 6, 2021 at 5 p.m.

A public hearing will be held (by telephone) May 4th at 6pm Eastern Standard Time.

If you wish to speak at the public hearing, you must register by May 4 at 4 p.m. To register, please visit: https://bit.ly/3clFndZ or call (919) 618-0968.

Debra David* is President of Concerned Citizens of Richmond County. They formed to stop Enviva - a biomass wood pellet facility that is riddled with asthma-inducing health impacts. It threatens to destroy natural hardwood forests and is a terrible environmental injustice. Enviva is the world’s largest exporter of wood pellets,and they are threatening the livelihoods of communities, forests, and the climate by proposing to build their fourth wood pellet biomass facility in North Carolina, but the small-town community members of Richmond County rose up to say “No!”

And most recently they have been facing an International Tie Disposal  proposal or ITD for short. The N.C. Department of Air Quality held a virtual public hearing to solicit comments regarding a synthetic minor air quality permit submitted by International Tie Disposal, LLC.

ITD plans to build a biochar plant on property in the Marks Creek community north of Hamlet which was rezoned late last year by the Richmond County Board of Commissioners.

Residents there are already exposed to multiple polluting industries and the county ranks higher than 80% of other counties in proximity to facilities using extremely hazardous substances and millions are spent in medical care for asthma and other breathing problems.

With Debra we discuss background on Concerned Citizens of Richmond County, Enviva and the latest ITD proposal, actions they are taking, and how you can support their work.

Contact and connect with Debra: [email protected]

Enviva: https://cleanaircarolina.org/envivaplant/

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article231156248.html

ITD proposal: https://richmondobserver.com/national-news/item/11346-opposition-dominates-permit-public-hearing-for-proposed-itd-hamlet-plant.html

Hope Taylor is Executive Director Emerita at Clean Water for North Carolina. Their vision is to have clean, safe, accessible water for all North Carolinians, protected by empowered, educated communities and a publicly accountable government and economy.

Campaigns they work on surrounding clean water include: fracking and fracked gas pipelines, water justice, coal ash, and factory farms.

CWFNC’s Hope and BREDL were cohorts on Salisbury asphalt and Blue Ridge (formerly Champion) paper mill campaigns, among many others. As well as involved in the victorious decade-long fight against the Southeast Compact Commission and the eight-state low-level radioactive waste dump.

With Hope we discuss campaigns CWFNC and BREDL have worked on together, her journey to become Executive Director and what she is doing now in retirement, what clean water means to her, and how you can support their work.

Contact and connect with Hope: [email protected]

Clean Water for NC: https://cwfnc.org/

Nick Trombetta is an organizer with the Sunrise Movement in Chapel Hill, NC.

The Sunrise Movement is a youth movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. They’re building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.

With Nick we discuss the Sunrise Movement's mission, why it is important for youth to be involved in the climate movement, the Green New Deal, and actions they’re taking locally.

In the episode there are talks about politicians, but BREDL does not endorse any politician or political party.

Contact and connect with Nick: [email protected]

Sunrise Movement: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/?ms=SunriseMovement-WeAreTheClimateRevolution

How to get involved: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/take-action/?ms=HowtoTakeActionwithSunrise

Cathy Buckly who founded the Raleigh, NC chapter of the Climate Reality Project.

In 2006, former US Vice President Al Gore got the world talking about climate change with the Academy Award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth.

It was just the beginning of a climate revolution. Later that year, he founded what would become The Climate Reality Project to move the conversation forward and turn awareness into action all across the Earth.

The Climate Reality Project’s mission is to catalyze a global solution to the climate crisis by making urgent action a necessity across every sector of society.

They believe real change comes from the ground up. And that a small-but-committed critical mass of activists can not only transform society, but change the world.

They recruit, train, and mobilize people to become powerful activists, providing the skills, campaigns, and resources to push for aggressive climate action and high-level policies that accelerate a just transition to clean energy.

With Cathy we discuss the background with the climate reality project, some of the biggest factors in climate change today, actions they are doing on a state level, and a climate training you all can participate in.

Contact and connect with Cathy: [email protected]

Sign up for the training: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/training

Climate Reality Project Chapters: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/chapters

Maya van Rossum is Executive Director of Delaware River Keepers whose mission is to champion the rights of our communities to the Delaware River and tributary streams that are free-flowing, clean, healthy, and abundant with a diversity of life.

The Delaware is the longest undammed river east of the Mississippi, flowing freely for 330 miles as it travels from New York state, through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware to the Atlantic Ocean. The Delaware's 13,539 square mile watershed is only about four-tenths of one percent of the continental U.S. land area, but it supplies water to five percent of the nation's population --- over 15 million people. The lower end of the River and its Estuary host the world’s largest horseshoe crab population and an active commercial fishery, yet are marked by heavy industry and busy shipping traffic. The Delaware River Port Complex is the largest freshwater port in the world and is the largest for steel and paper in North America. The Port is the East Coast’s largest importer of cocoa beans and fruit and as much as seventy percent of the oil shipped to the Atlantic Coast moves through the Estuary. The Delaware River is a beautiful waterway that people from all around enjoy every day. From fishing to swimming, kayaking to paddleboarding - the Delaware River provides us with dozens of recreation opportunities.

The Delaware River Keepers also has an initiative called For The Generations which is a nationwide effort designed to help advance The Green Amendments which are constitutional rights to pure water, clean air and a healthy environment, understanding that only by advancing this call for protection throughout our four watershed states, across the nation and at the federal level will we be able to achieve the highest level of environmental protection we all need, deserve and are entitled to.

With Maya we discuss background on the Delaware River, species in it and the significance of the River, threats that are posed against it, what actions they’re taking, and her movement to pass Green Amendment laws in every state and then move to the federal level.

Contact and connect with Maya: [email protected]

Delaware River Keepers: https://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/

Green Amendment Book: https://delaware-riverkeeper-network-river-shop.myshopify.com/

For The Generations: A Movement to Pass the Green Amendment: https://forthegenerations.org/