Lawmakers propose new bill to address a rapidly worsening issue impacting millions of Americans: 'We cannot afford to ignore this crisis'
Introduced by Citizen Action of Wisconsin — a nonprofit dedicated to economic, racial, and environmental justice — the bill would hold the state of Wisconsin accountable in establishing a strategy backed by conservation and sustainable policies to address climate concerns.
As reported by The Daily Cardinal, Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, said: "Climate science is clear: to prevent the worst effects of climate change, we need to cut emissions in half by 2030. What the Legislature lacks is a plan to achieve that goal, and this bill ensures we develop one."
Rep. Supreme Moore Omokunde, a lead sponsor of the bill, quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., emphasizing the necessary haste of action with the "fierce urgency of now."
"We are stewards of future generations, and we must take bold steps now to ensure a sustainable and livable planet," Rep. Moore Omokunde added. "We cannot continue burning fossil fuels without a viable plan for alternatives that benefit both urban and rural Wisconsinites."
Wisconsin Sen. Chris Larson, also a bill sponsor, stressed the need for leadership on a state level, stating: "The federal administration has abandoned its responsibility to tackle climate change. Wisconsin must step up. The effects of climate change are already visible, from extreme storms to declining air quality. We cannot afford to ignore this crisis."
While the national average percentage of electricity from renewable sources was about 21% in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Wisconsin was far behind at only 9% of in-state electricity generation.
Sen. Larson further explained that shifting away from dirty energy and prioritizing clean energy not only reduces pollution but also creates jobs and saves residents money in the long run.
While the future of the Climate Accountability Act remains uncertain, sponsors and supporters are hopeful.
"Climate change is not a partisan issue; it's a reality," Rep. Moore Omokunde stated.
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With previous federal climate policies in limbo under the current administration — such as methane fees and clean energy projects funded by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act — it is up to the states to take action to protect current and future constituents. It is crucial to public health and economic success and can also serve as an example for national consideration.
With 2024 being the hottest year ever recorded, as confirmed by NASA after record-breaking temperatures in previous years, there is no denying that the world is getting warmer. Having a plan on a national, state, and individual level is important in offsetting what could be catastrophic consequences.
Consider reducing plastic in the home and opting for natural cleaning products. Walking and biking instead of driving whenever possible is another great way to reduce your carbon footprint and help cool things down on our planet.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
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San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Even at the grocery store, Texas troopers don't let Democrats out of sight after walkout
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier refused to come to the Texas state Capitol for two weeks. Now she won't leave, and fellow Democrats are joining her protest. Collier was among dozens of Democrats who left the state for the Democratic havens of California, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York to delay the Republican-controlled Legislature's approval of redrawn congressional districts sought by President Donald Trump. When they returned Monday, Republicans insisted that Democrats have around-the-clock police escorts to ensure they wouldn't leave again and scuttle Wednesday's planned House vote on a new political map. But Collier wouldn't sign what Democrats called the 'permission slip' needed to leave the House chamber, a half-page form allowing Department of Public Safety troopers to follow them. She spent Monday night and Tuesday on the House floor, where she set up a livestream while her Democratic colleagues outside had plainclothes officers following them to their offices and homes. Dallas-area Rep. Linda Garcia said she drove three hours home from Austin with an officer following her. When she went grocery shopping, he went down every aisle with her, pretending to shop, she said. As she spoke to The Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were parked outside her home. 'It's a weird feeling,' she said. 'The only way to explain the entire process is: It's like I'm in a movie.' The trooper assignments, ordered by Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows, was another escalation of a redistricting battle that has widened across the country. Trump is pushing GOP state officials to tilt the map for the 2026 midterms more in his favor to preserve the GOP's slim House majority, and Democrats nationally have rallied around efforts to retaliate. Other Democrats join the protest House Minority Leader Gene Wu, from Houston, and state Rep. Vincel Perez, of El Paso, stayed overnight with Collier, who represents a minority-majority district in Fort Worth. On Tuesday, more Democrats returned to the Capitol to tear up the slips they had signed and stay on the House floor, which has a lounge and restrooms for members. Dallas-area Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, called their protest a 'slumber party for democracy' and said Democrats were holding strategy sessions on the floor. 'We are not criminals,' Houston Rep. Penny Morales Shaw said. Collier said having officers shadow her was an attack on her dignity and an attempt to control her movements. Republican leader says Collier 'is well within her rights' Burrows brushed off Collier's protest, saying he was focused on important issues, such as providing property tax relief and responding to last month's deadly floods. His statement Tuesday morning did not mention redistricting and his office did not immediately respond to other Democrats joining Collier. 'Rep. Collier's choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,' Burrows said. Under those rules, until Wednesday's scheduled vote, the chamber's doors are locked, and no member can leave 'without the written permission of the speaker.' To do business Wednesday, 100 of 150 House members must be present. The GOP wants 5 more seats in Texas The GOP plan is designed to send five additional Republicans from Texas to the U.S. House. Texas Democrats returned to Austin after Democrats in California launched an effort to redraw their state's districts to take five seats from Republicans. Democrats also said they were returning because they expect to challenge the new maps in court. Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust Wu and several other Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent. How officers shadowed Democratic lawmakers Democrats reported different levels of monitoring. Houston Rep. Armando Walle said he wasn't sure where his police escort was, but there was still a heightened police presence in the Capitol, so he felt he was being monitored closely. Some Democrats said the officers watching them were friendly. But Austin Rep. Sheryl Cole said in a social media post that when she went on her morning walk Tuesday, the officer following her lost her on the trail, got angry and threatened to arrest her. Garcia said her 9-year-old son was with her as she drove home, and each time she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see the officer close behind. He came inside a grocery store where she shopped with her son. 'I would imagine that this is the way it feels when you're potentially shoplifting and someone is assessing whether you're going to steal," she said. ___ Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas, and Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Politico
5 hours ago
- Politico
Redistricting kills tax hikes talk
Presented by BACK-BURNERED: Gov. Gavin Newsom's gerrymandering play has effectively ended any possibility, however slim, that lawmakers would seriously consider a push by progressives to raise taxes before the Legislature adjourns next month. It was always a longshot. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire had been more tepid on taxes since wrapping the budget in June. But Newsom's sudden redistricting effort has become all-encompassing at the Capitol, effectively sidelining anything else. 'I think the conversation about raising revenues, it's not something we're going to solve this week or this month,' said Assemblymember Nick Schultz, a Burbank Democrat and Progressive Caucus member. 'It's going to continue.' While extensive cuts in President Donald Trump's megabill likely won't be felt until after the midterm elections, rollbacks of Medi-Cal and other safety net programs that Newsom and lawmakers made in response to a $12 billion budget shortfall are slated to begin in 2026. Progressives had been hoping to push some kind of new tax scheme through the Legislature this year to stave off the reductions, in particular cutbacks to health insurance for undocumented immigrants. A group of more than two dozen mostly progressive lawmakers met regularly to explore options, including a proposal from labor groups like SEIU and members of the Latino Caucus to penalize big businesses that had large shares of employees who depended on Medi-Cal and other public benefits. Assemblymember Damon Connolly was pushing another idea for a tax on business profits stashed in overseas accounts, called a 'water's edge' exemption. His office estimated it could bring in around $3 billion per year. Even before redistricting sucked the air out of the Capitol, winning support for a new tax was going to be an uphill battle, as Newsom has consistently resisted proposals for new taxes. And Democrats in the state's two chambers were decidedly split on the idea. When party leaders in the Assembly polled their caucus on pursuing new revenue streams now, later or not at all, a third of the 60 members said they wanted to move on revenue-raising options, 16 said they were open to it down the road and 15 rejected the idea. Nine members abstained from responding to the survey. Also in favor of a new tax was Los Angeles state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, who said in an interview that constituents in her communities want state leaders to provide a safety net to counter the Trump administration's cuts to health care, education and other government-funded services. 'Overwhelmingly, what I hear from my constituents when I engage with them is that this is what they want to see,' Pérez said of revenue-raising. 'That we take care of the little guy, and we take care of working people who have been struggling to get by.' But for now, lawmakers have other things on their minds, said Jim Mangia, director of St. John's Health Center, a network of health care clinics in and around Los Angeles that primarily serve the poor and immigrant communities. 'The redistricting conversation has changed a lot in Sacramento. The Legislature is no longer focused on revenue,' Mangia said. 'We are meeting with many legislators … and having some good conversations and more to come, but it has totally changed the focus of the Legislature right now.' The idea of a new tax isn't totally sunk. Lawmakers have been preparing for the possibility of a special session in the fall to deal with the ongoing fallout of federal budget cuts. Generating a new revenue stream could be part of that agenda. 'It's something where I think we owe it to California to keep all options on the table and to entertain any and all possibilities,' Schultz said. Dawn Addis, chair of the Assembly's health budget subcommittee, said that while the cuts to health care remain an urgent problem, lawmakers need more time to work out all possible solutions. 'We want to do something thoughtful that doesn't have a lot of unintended consequences,' Addis said. 'The timing is a little bit tough to discern at the moment. Part of that is because obviously we're dealing with redistricting and the egregious attacks from the Trump administration … We just have no way not to prioritize that. It's got to take front and center.' IT'S TUESDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to lholden@ WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY REDISTRICTING RUMBLE: Republicans' anger over their near-powerlessness in the face of Democrats' redistricting gambit boiled over today in the Assembly Elections Committee. GOP Assemblymember David Tangipa got into a snipefest with Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman, who was presenting a bill from the legislative package needed to put the gerrymandered map on the November ballot. When Tangipa said lawmakers didn't have enough time to consider the legislation, Berman snapped back that he was surprised it took so long to read a five-page bill. The Democrat also accused the Republican of making veiled threats to his witness when Tangipa suggested they would become 'really good friends' over the course of his questioning. After Tangipa's queries dragged on, chair Gail Pellerin attempted to cut him off at the behest of other Democrats on the committee. Assemblymember Catherine Stefani sternly told Tangipa not to interrupt her during her comments. 'You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes,' she said, alluding to Texas Republicans' redistricting efforts. 'And that's what you are doing.' Pellerin eventually cut all the committee members' microphones, leaving Tangipa yelling at his colleagues, à la former GOP Assemblymember Bill Essayli during the final hours of session last year. Democrats ultimately approved the bill over his protests. IN OTHER NEWS DEFENSE DOLLARS: California Sen. Adam Schiff has launched a legal defense fund amid the Justice Department probe into his finances, our Hailey Fuchs and Gregory Svirnovskiy report. Schiff, who led the first impeachment effort in the House against Trump and aided the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, has become a frequent target of the president in his second term. Earlier this summer, Trump alleged in a post on Truth Social that the California Democrat 'engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud' — an allegation Schiff vehemently denies. 'It's clear that Donald Trump and his MAGA allies will continue weaponizing the justice process to attack Senator Schiff for holding this corrupt administration accountable,' Marisol Samayoa, a spokesperson for Schiff, said in a statement. 'This fund will ensure he can fight back against these baseless smears while continuing to do his job.' BITING BACK: California Republicans petitioned the state Supreme Court to block legislative Democrats from voting on their redrawn congressional map this week, raising process issues in a bid to stop redistricting from reaching the ballot in November, our Blake Jones reports for POLITICO Pro subscribers. GOP state legislators announced the filing today. In it, they argue legislative language to carry out Democrats' gerrymander must be in print for 30 days before it can be voted upon — or else three quarters of lawmakers must approve suspending a state constitutional rule laying out that timeline. The bills at hand have technically been in print for months, but were gutted Monday and amended to include the redistricting play. The Legislature frequently guts and amends bills in Sacramento and votes on them within a month without drawing legal challenges, but an attorney for the Republicans argued that does not justify the practice. 'If the Legislature has been flagrantly violating this provision of the Constitution in the past, so what? It should stop,' Dhillon Law Group partner Mike Columbo said at a news conference at the California Republican Party headquarters in Sacramento today. CAP-AND-TRADE UNVEILED: The Assembly is proposing modest reforms to the state's signature cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, according to draft legislative language circulating today, our Camille von Kaenel scooped for Pro subscribers. Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, who is leading the Assembly's negotiations on the program, is proposing significant amendments to her placeholder bill, AB 1207, that would direct the California Air Resources Board to extend the cap-and-trade program from 2030 through 2045, make changes to offsets and allowances and make several multi-year appropriations of its revenues for wildfire, water, air and energy programs. Her office confirmed the language this morning. In addition to serving as the backstop regulation that ensures the state meets its emissions reduction obligations, the cap-and-trade program is also a major revenue generator. But proceeds in the state's quarterly auctions have fallen as traders reckon with the program's impending expiration in 2030 and uncertainty over whether regulators will adjust the market's rules. WHAT WE'RE READING TODAY — California State University is spending nearly $17 million to make OpenAI's ChatGPT available to all students and faculty even as it faces a $2.3 billion budget gap. (LAist) — Hundreds of professors at UCLA, including a large swath of Jewish faculty, signed a letter condemning Trump's $1 billion settlement demand over alleged antisemitism on campus and the freezing of million in research grant funding. (The Los Angeles Times) — California now has the largest and fastest growing early education program in the country as at least 200,000 kids are set to attend transitional kindergarten this fall. (CalMatters) AROUND THE STATE — A growing number of working- and middle-class families in the North County are enduring long commutes to work or school as they leave in search of affordability. (Voice of San Diego) — Silicon Valley tech giants Cisco and Oracle are slashing hundreds of jobs across the Bay Area. (San Francisco Chronicle) — The Alameda Health System is preparing for a backup plan after Trump's budget bill in July called for a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid that would likely disproportionately affect the hospital's revenue stream. (East Bay Times) — compiled by Juliann Ventura
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Democratic governors face a school-choice reckoning: Kids or unions?
Republicans in Congress achieved a historic breakthrough last month — and Democratic governors should jump at the chance to take advantage of it. It's the first-ever nationwide school choice program, included as part of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The program aims to give every child in America a shot at a better future by funding private- and parochial-school scholarships through a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit. Advertisement But each state's governor has to choose to join it — and nowhere is the need more urgent than in New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul has a golden opportunity to make good on her own words. In 2022, in her gubernatorial debate with GOP nominee Lee Zeldin, Hochul said she supported lifting New York's charter school cap. But in the years since, she's let the leftist state Legislature handcuff charter expansion, leaving too many poor kids stuck in a one-size-fits-all government school monopoly that's failing them spectacularly. Advertisement Empire State families are demanding more choices to escape from failing district schools. Tens of thousands of kids are on charter-school waitlists in New York City — and 78% of New York parents support Education Savings Accounts like the school choice initiative passed by Congress. New York spent about $37,000 per student in 2023 — 66% higher than the state's average private-school tuition — yet only 13% of NYC's black 8th graders are proficient in math. Statewide, inflation-adjusted per-student spending has skyrocketed 209% since 1970. Have outcomes gotten 209% better? Advertisement Of course not: Test scores have stagnated or declined, proving that throwing more money at the problem without competition is a fool's errand. But now Hochul can't blame the Democrat-controlled state Legislature as an excuse to keep poor kids from accessing better schools, whether charter, private or religious. The new federal school-choice program puts the decision squarely in her hands, and in the hands of her fellow governors. Advertisement Other states' Democratic leaders are showing signs of cracking under the pressure of common sense. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's team has said he's considering opting in to the federal program. Even more encouraging is North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, who vetoed a bill passed by the state's GOP-controlled legislature demanding he sign on to the program — calling the bill 'unnecessary,' since he 'intend[s] to opt North Carolina in.' Stein's veto message explicitly stated that 'school choice is good for students and parents,' and pledged to allow North Carolina's public-school students access to the funding. Stein's stance could encourage other Democratic governors to jump on the bandwagon. Speaking of which, California's Gov. Gavin Newsom should opt in, too. He sent his own kids to private school, and attended one himself in his early years. It's hypocritical to oppose school choice for other families while enjoying it for your own. Advertisement What makes the new federal program so compelling — even for Democratic governors beholden to teachers' unions — is a built-in incentive that's impossible to ignore. If states don't opt in, their constituents — whether they know it or not — will be subsidizing scholarships for families in the red states that are already rushing to sign on. All American families and taxpaying individuals can donate to K-12 scholarship-granting organizations and receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit in exchange, even if their state doesn't join up. Advertisement All the governors can decide is whether kids in their state can access those scholarships. Opting out means shooting your state in the foot: Your taxpayers' donations will flow to other states' kids, leaving your own students behind. The ongoing crisis in our schools amplifies the urgency. Last week a new FBI report revealed 1.3 million crimes committed at schools from 2020 to 2024, including about 540,000 physical assaults. Advertisement The statistics prove what parents already know: Too many kids are getting beaten, bullied and traumatized in environments that should be safe havens for learning. Democratic governors can no longer do the bidding of teachers' unions by locking children in failing schools infested with violence. The unions' iron grip has protected mediocrity and danger for too long. School choice breaks that stranglehold, giving parents the power to vote with their feet and demand better. Trump's bill puts children first and champions freedom, opportunity and accountability in education. Advertisement It's time for Hochul and her peers to free our kids from the public school monopoly by helping families find better education opportunities. If she doesn't, she risks cementing a legacy of statewide failure and decline. Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Culture Project and a visiting fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.
