Hi all,
It’s Town Meeting Day in Vermont.
Lena reported this week that in the last two months, 300 new people have registered in the ward in which they are running for city council.
Lena near the polling place on Pine Street! Photo by Maria Mercurio.
When we were texting last night, Lena wrote:
i am so, so proud of all the organizing we have done. no matter what, we did what we set out to do - rile people up and show them what’s possible
I am anticipating their victory. Of course, I will let you know what happens.
Nikki Haley won her first primary in DC with a commanding 63 percent. This is good news, not because she is an admirable candidate, nor because she has a hope of stopping Trump’s nomination. Even by the standards of Iowa caucuses, this was a tiny result, with just 2,000 Republic voters.
And still, as Haley correctly pointed out:
“Republicans closest to Washington’s dysfunction know that Donald Trump has brought nothing but chaos and division for the past 8 years.”
There is still plenty of time for that message to reach November voters. Today is Super Tuesday and it’s unlikely that we’ll see strong evidence that Republicans understand the dangers of another Trump presidency. Yet.
Many thanks to Jess Craven for this excerpt of Hunter Biden’s closed-door deposition in the House of Representatives. Here is Biden’s exchange with California Democrat, Eric Swalwell:
[S]ome institutional Republicans [will] try to “rebrand” the pro-life movement as moderate—rather than hell-bent on banning all abortions.
This “rebranding” will, in this campaign year, essentially amount to dodging and weaving.
Democrats are working to oust Senator Ted Cruz by running on reproductive rights in Texas, where Republicans are expected to pay a price for the state’s near total ban on abortion.
We know this is a potent issue for voters.
At the same time, it’s also true that more than three-quarters of Republicans are in favor of “requiring oil and gas companies to seal methane gas leaks from oil wells.”
The goal of MethaneSAT is to have a granular picture of where exactly methane comes from in oil and gas operations around the globe, in places like Texas, Russia and Nigeria.
When this satellite is fully operational in the coming months, it will provide data that will be free to the public.
This is a big deal, as it will expose corporate practices — like burning off methane — and eliminate the veil of secrecy that fossil fuel corporations depend on.
The chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) who led the MethaneSAT project, points out that the fossil fuel industry
“recognizes that their reputation, their markets are under threat. So, if you're going to compete in a world in which the demand is going down, you want to prove that you're a better actor."
And the energy transition is underway. Residents of Maine are leading the way in the adoption of heat pump technology.
In 2023 heat pumps outsold gas furnaces in the United States for the second year running, a climate win. Electrical heat pumps are the cheapest and most energy efficient ways to heat and cool homes, and they do not emit the carbon pollution that is overheating the planet.
Reality may yet prove more powerful than ideology. Heat pumps are keeping Mainers warm and even saving them money because of a combination of state rebates and federal incentives.
This week, the Lever reported that, in addition to the costs of energy production and transmission to power and heat our homes,
[utility] customers could also be footing the bill for company lobbying, settlements, and operational errors.
New York is one of the states seeking to prohibit charges
for contributions or gifts to political candidates, trade associations, public charities, and lobbyists, and for certain travel, entertainment and educational expenditures.
This is how we advance the efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
Tell your state legislators that utility ratepayers shouldn’t have to pay for fossil fuel propaganda. I made it so easy.
Because it’s Super Tuesday, I want to return to some good news about voting. The US Department of Education has created a voter registration toolkit. I got this news from Laura Brill and I urge you to read her post:
Taylor Swift posted a reminder to her zillions of fans today to make a plan to vote.
Notably, voter registration soars by the tens of thousands after each of her get-out-the-vote Instagram posts.
Olivia Rodrigo posted on TikTok before a recent concert to let her fans know that she has created
the Fund 4 Good to support reproductive health access across the country.
A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales of the Guts world tour will go towards the Fund 4 Good, working “to support all women, girls and people seeking reproductive health freedom.”
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who Olivia Rodrigo is. Fandom may determine the future of elections.
Social media is where many young voters live — about a third of adults under 30 regularly get news from TikTok, according to Pew Research. And turning out young voters who are otherwise not particularly politically engaged will be key to winning elections up and down the ballot in November.
I felt compelled to comment on this Op-Ed because it quotes sources that bemoan that young voters tend to have low turnout rates and are ambivalent about elections, while also pointing out high turnout rates for young voters in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
Negativity bias is real. We have an obligation to young people to champion their extraordinary rates of participation when they are registered: in all the presidential elections since 2004, more than 75 percent of registered voters 18-24 turned out, according to the Civics Center. In 2020, turnout from this group was 86 percent!
Registering young voters and engaging them on the issues that concern them is the way forward. If Taylor Swift is going to get young people registered and Olivia Rodrigo is going to keep them mad about the threats to their bodily autonomy, I’m with them. There’s work enough for all of us.
Here’s some good local news:
Tell the Mayor that you expect to see funds restored to public services.
Good governance is necessary AND it cannot solve all of our problems. I love the stories of people who find powerful ways through their chosen work to encourage people to come together.
Read about the architect, Riken Yamamoto, whose designs public and private buildings that emphasize community and connectivity.
There are many ways to organize and build community. What have you been up to?
with love,
L