Cap and Invest
At its simplest, “cap and invest” is a set of policies that sets a limit, or cap, on overall emissions in the state and requires businesses to get allowances equal to their approved amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Done right, a cap and invest system could be a key tool in securing climate justice in New York: money for frontline communities, paid for by polluters. Done wrong, a cap and invest system would only widen the gap between the haves and have-nots in our state: it could mean increased environmental harm for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and working New Yorkers.
Clean Energy/Renewable Energy
Clean energy are shaped by the respective values of participating organizations. Some shared definitions include clean energy as involving solar, wind, tidal, and small geothermal, carbon-free transportation and energy efficiency. We understand renewable energy to be forms of energy derived from natural sources that are naturally regenerative or are practically inexhaustible.
Climate Change
Climate change means a change in global or regional climate patterns apparent from the mid-to-late 20th century onward largely due to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide by the use of fossil fuels and other emission-generating sources; leading to an increase of harsh and unbearable impacts to the living environment. NY Renews tends to avoid the use of the term “climate change,” as it does not convey the urgency and threat of the shifts to our atmosphere and life on earth. We use the terms “climate crisis,” “climate emergency,” and “extreme weather.”
Climate Crisis, Climate Emergency, and/or Extreme Weather
Used to show a greater sense of emergency and urgency about climate change that we are experiencing right now. Referring to the state we are in as the atmosphere continues to overheat because of heat-trapping greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels, causing disruption in weather patterns and causing extreme events such as extreme weather events such as hurricanes, blizzards, droughts, and more, attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
Climate crisis and climate emergency both convey the actual situation on this planet. As the atmosphere continues to overheat because of heat-trapping greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by burning of fossil fuels, weather patterns are increasingly disrupted.
Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package
The Climate, Jobs, and Justice Package is a legislative roadmap for how to achieve a just transition. The package is broken down into three key demands: (1) Fully fund and implement New York’s Climate Act. (2) Build renewable energy for all and create good, union jobs. (3) Make polluters and the ultra-rich pay what they owe. The first demand involves the creation of the Climate and Community Protection Fund, which will provide funding for New York’s landmark new climate legislation. The second demand encompasses a series of legislation that will ensure a swift transition to renewable energy built by good, reliable, union jobs that are placed at the forefront of the transition. Lastly, the third demand revolves around three pieces of legislation that will ensure that large polluting corporations are forced to pay what they owe and direct that money toward funding climate justice legislation.
Climate Resilience
Simply put, it is the ability to survive and recover from the effects of the climate crisis. Climate resilience means the capacity of an individual, community, institution, and infrastructure to dynamically and effectively respond to shifting climate impacts while continuing to function at an acceptable level.
Co-Pollutants
These are hazardous air pollutants produced by greenhouse gas emission sources that have some of the most harmful health impacts on environmental justice communities. Some of the most detrimental co-pollutants include Nitrogen Oxides, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Sulfur Dioxides and Particulate Matter (10, 2.5, 1.0) as they directly negatively impact air quality in the communities where they are produced.
Disadvantaged Community
As defined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), these are communities burdened by negative public health effects, environmental pollution, and climate change impacts, as well as communities that possess certain socioeconomic criteria or comprise high concentrations of low- and moderate-income households. In New York State, the Climate Justice Working group has established specific criteria required to be defined as a disadvantaged community (DAC).
Disadvantaged Worker
A disadvantaged worker means an individual who, prior to commencing work, is living in a low-income neighborhood and faces at least one of the following barriers to employment: (1) being homeless; (2) being a custodial single parent; (3) receiving public assistance; (4) having a prior arrest or conviction; (5) suffering from chronic unemployment; (6) having been emancipated from the foster care system; (7) being a veteran of the U.S. military; or (8) being disabled.
Energy Burden
An energy burden can be defined broadly as the burden placed on household incomes by the cost of energy. Specifically, it looks at the the ratio of energy expenditures to household income. Low-income households pay roughly the same amount as higher- income households for energy and while they use less energy pay a greater proportion of their income for energy so they have a higher energy burden.
Environmental Justice
Environmental justice is the international movement of low-income communities and communities of color standing in solidarity against hazardous environmental and infrastructure burdens of environmental amenities and equity confronting their communities. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.” Also, see also the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice: http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html
Equitable Approach
An “equitable approach” means one rooted in procedural and substantive equity, assessed by those directly impacted by the decisions and processes under discussion. It means following the process laid out in the Jemez principles, and those shared principles we all agreed to at the outset, in NY Renews’ case, our principles of unity and platform. It means directly addressing race, class, gender, homophobia/transphobia, anti-immigrant bias, anti-Blackness, and other structural power dynamics. See the Jemez principles for democratic organizing: https://www.ejnet.org/ej/jemez.pdf
False Solutions
False solutions are industry-supported techno “fixes” that promise to reduce emissions, despite their questionable legality under NY’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Meanwhile, research shows they often do the opposite, and often don’t reduce the pollution burden on environmental justice communities. NY Renews focuses on five false solutions: waste-to-energy, “renewable natural gas,” biofuels, biomass, and hydrogen. Some of these fake fixes, such as biofuels, have been recently promoted by groups in the Clean Fuels New York coalition. Others, such as renewable natural gas, have been raised by fossil fuel industry representatives before New York State’s Climate Action Council.
Frontline Communities
Frontline communities are the low-income communities, communities of color, and Indigenous communities that are most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, and the industrial extraction and exploitation of our natural resources. Frontline communities face challenges to long-term resiliency due to the disproportionate burdens of climate impacts as well as existing environmental, economic, and social disparities and injustices.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG)
These are gasses that have the ability to trap heat. The most common GHGs impacting the greenhouse effect are Carbon Dioxide and Methanewhich are a result of the burning of fossil-fuels.
Guardrails
Climate guardrails or planetary guardrails refer to setting boundaries for overall emissions according to measurable climate thresholds that will result in irreversible damage and resulting feedback loops. These guardrails are guidelines for the process of climate mitigation to ensure that we do not cross irreversible thresholds of warming.
Impact Study Area
An impact study area means the geographic area of at least a one-half mile radius around the location of a proposed major electric generating facility in which the population is likely to be affected by at least one potentially significant adverse environmental impact resulting from the construction and/or operation of the facility that is different in type, scope, or magnitude compared to the population located in the broader geographic area surrounding the facility.
Just Transition
A just transition refers to the sociopolitical and economic transformation that encompasses the shift to renewable energy. A just transition prioritizes the process and goals of a move away from fossil fuels, emphasizing grassroots democratic decision-making. A just transition requires addressing intersectional systems of oppression and uplifts communities and people who have been subject to environmental racism and injustice. A just transition also involves a return of resource control (including land, water, and food systems) to the people, specifically Indigenous communities whose land has been stolen and exploited through energy extraction for centuries. A just transition also supports workers transitioning from employment in fossil fuel industries to renewable energy via job retraining, direct support, and more.
Local Worker
A local worker means any person living in the area directly impacted by the creation of a project, or within the community in which it is located.
Low-income Community
A low-income community means a census block group, or contiguous area with multiple census block groups, where 23.59 percent or more of the population have an annual income that is less than the poverty threshold; except that the percentage population and income threshold may be revised to reflect updated demographic data.
“Minority” Community
A minority community means a census block group, or contiguous area with multiple census block groups, where the minority population is equal to or greater than 51.1 percent in an urban area or 33.8 percent in a rural area; except that the specific percentages may be revised to reflect updated demographic data.
Pollution Pricing/Making Polluters Pay
Pollution pricing refers to the potential methods of making corporations pay for the pollution that they have emitted into the environment and atmosphere. We can make polluters pay through programs like cap and invest, which create caps on carbon emissions and forces corporations to pay heavy fines for excess emissions, as well as Pollution Pricing Reform, which shifts market pricing according to measurable environmental harm (eg. taxing gas according to exhaust emissions). Polluters can also be forced to pay through systemic changes such as the nationalization of resource extraction industries, as well as punitive measures such as lawsuits and criminal filings over existing environmental pollution and environmental racism.
Worker Organizations
A worker organization means an organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its members’ interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions. This includes labor unions, worker centers and other worker organizations created to advance the interests of workers.
Acronyms, agencies, and programs referenced:
• The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
• The New York Public Service Commission (PSC)
• The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
• The New York State Division of Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR)
• The New York Power Authority (NYPA )
• The New York State Department of Labor (DOL)
• The Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)
• The Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative (RGGI)
• The Energy Efficiency Portfolio (EEPS)