Under California's groundbreaking law addressing climate change, AB32, carbon credits will be auctioned off for the first time on Wednesday. Members of the state's faith community played an important role in pushing the legislation through and plan to celebrate. The law says if utilities and industries do not reduce their emissions, they must buy permits to continue polluting, and those funds will be used to help alleviate the worst effects of global warming.

The Rev. Sally Bingham is founder of California Interfaith Power and Light, which brings communities of faith together on climate change issues.

"AB32 is particularly important to the faith community because we believe that we are the stewards of creation. We see climate change and too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as very detrimental to God's creation, in that it is affecting all aspects of life."

Bingham, who is an Episcopal priest, notes that those who suffer the most from air pollution and climate change are the poor, who contributed the least to the problem.

"Now that we have the opportunity to auction off some of the credits - this is in the cap-and-trade aspect of the bill - we will see some funds being accumulated that can go back to those low-income communities."

She says the auction can improve the lives of those affected in very concrete ways, such as developing renewable energy or installing technology to clean up fossil-fuel pollution.

Rabbi Joel Simonds says his congregation, University Synagogue in Brentwood, also worked on the bill. He says the faith community's support of AB32 was an important contribution.

"We really show the broader community that there are laws and that there are bills and there are regulations that the faith community supports because we know that these laws and bills and regulations will help protect the earth that God gave us and the earth that truly is a gift for us."

The auction of pollution credits aims to reduce carbon emissions 15 percent by 2020.






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A new report analyzes the economic effects of a changing climate on Idaho. It's the first to look at state-specific circumstances.

Katherine Himes is director of the University of Idaho's James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research, which compiled the research. Himes said the goal was to create a nonpartisan, evidence-based resource for industries and policymakers.

"The big key here is those changes - temperature, precipitation and snowpack," said Himes, "because that then influences what happens to agriculture, energy, forests, human health, infrastructure, rangelands, recreation and tourism."

On the current climate-warming trajectory, increasing temperature, changing patterns of precipitation across the state and lower snowpack are expected in the coming decades for Idaho.

An advisory board for the report included businesses, nonprofits and government officials, including Native American tribal leaders.

Kelly Olson is a retired administrator for the Idaho Barley Commission. She said the report allows sectors of the economy such as agriculture to prepare for the future.

"It's a call to arms, I think," said Olson, "as a state to look at that changing water situation and what we can do about that, which we just can't turn on a spigot and change the flow of water overnight."

Himes said it's important that this resource is accessible. She said there's technical information but it also includes one-page summaries with high-level looks at the data.

"There are ways to visualize the information, a lot of tools and resources on the website as well," said Himes. "We wanted it to be as interactive as possible so that policymakers could use it, decision makers could use it, and so forth."

New Mexico climate activists commemorate today's Martin Luther King Jr. Day by walking to the State Capitol in Santa Fe from four directions, calling on lawmakers to take bold action to combat climate change.

The Capitol, known as the Roundhouse, was designed to represent the sun's rays, as well as the four directions, four seasons and four phases of life.

Robb Hirsch founded the Climate Change Leadership Institute nearly 20 years ago and is now its executive director. He said it's appropriate for people to rally on MLK Day.

"It's really perfect on Martin Luther King Day to have the community rise up in a nonviolent, peaceful manner," said Hirsch, "but rise up strongly, to demand action on this critical, vital issue for our lives."

Hirsch said the walkers will convene outside the Roundhouse at noon.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - Santa Fe branch, the Green Amendment for the Generations group, 350 New Mexico, the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter and many others will participate.

New Mexico has long relied on oil and gas to fuel its economy, but Hirsch said the event is less about demanding specific policies during this year's short legislative session than ongoing, unequivocal action.

"There's a lot of equivocating going on," said Hirsch, "because a lot of the elected officials, unfortunately, are taking campaign dollars from the very industries that we need to be regulating."

Hirsch said he believes climate change is a civil rights issue of our time - because while it affects everyone, those most likely to be affected are people of color and of lower income.

"Martin Luther King Day is so vital for this," said Hirsch, "because the Civil Rights Movement - the brave citizens who participated in that - showed us a course of action to get things done when people thought there no way to get the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed."

The New Mexico Legislature holds short, 30-day sessions in even-numbered years, typically focused on the next year's state budget.

Washington state lawmakers meet in Olympia starting next week for the 2022 legislative session. Groups working on the issue of climate change see it as another chance for the state to take action.

Kelly Hall, Washington director of Climate Solutions, said the Legislature has made progress in recent years - including committing the state to 100% clean energy by 2045. But with the impacts of a warming climate mounting, Hall said the state should do more to address it. She said she thinks a top priority this session should be making sure that buildings run on clean energy.

"A lot of buildings at this point do combust fossil fuels indoors," she said, "and not only does that have a significant impact on the climate, but it also has a significant impact on indoor air quality."

Hall said the state should come up with a targeted electrification plan to incentivize utility customers to invest in electric appliances. Gov. Jay Inslee has also named decarbonizing the building sector as one of his priorities for the session, since buildings are the fastest-growing source of carbon emissions in the state.

Leah Missik, Climate Solutions' Washington transportation policy manager, said public transportation is another area in need of attention. She noted that climate-friendly forms of getting around have other benefits as well.

"For a very long time, we have underfunded public transit," she said, "and also have not spent enough in Washington state to ensure that folks who are not driving or cannot drive can get around safely, either by walking or even a bicycle, or something else."

Hall said the need for action is urgent - and the state needs to be smart about it.

"Not investing right, right now, will have impacts for years to come," she said, "and just make those events worse and worse."

The Washington Legislature is scheduled to convene on Monday and adjourn on March 10.