TBE Social Action Helps Get the SB-100 Clean Energy bill passed

On Monday, September 10^th Governor Jerry Brown signed SB100, the 100% Clean Energy Act, thanks to the efforts of many people throughout the state, including our very own Social Action Committee at Temple Beth El. The bill ensures that Californians will generate all our electricity from clean sources by the year 2045. How did Temple Beth El’s Social Action Committee contribute to this success? By being a part of something bigger than itself – by connecting with the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center of California (RAC-CA) and working with RAC-CA’s climate advocacy team. SB100 was initially introduced into the State Senate in January of 2017. After winding through several committees, it finally passed the State Assembly and Senate at the end of August this year. Throughout this process, the RAC-CA climate advocacy team was aiding to support this important legislation by reaching out to every reform synagogue in California to encourage their social action committees and congregants to contact their respective Assembly members throughout this process. Once the bill left the last committee and went to the state Assembly, the team alerted synagogues in districts with Assembly members on the fence.

That is where the work of Temple Beth El’s Social Action Committee came into play. Our local Assembly member, Patrick O’Donnell, was non-committal in his support of the bill. Our social action team called him encouraging him to support the bill – and he did – and it passed.

Sometimes a small action may seem insignificant. Sometimes a small action taken with lots of other people’s small actions can add up to something big. Thank you to the Temple Beth El Social Action Committee for contributing to something big and helping us to get across this finish line.

If you would like to join the statewide climate advocacy team of RAC-CA, let Laurel Perry know and she will connect you with her cousin, a member of Temple Solel in Encinitas, who is on the Citizens Climate Lobby, a non-profit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change.

For the full text of SB-100 see https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100

Resources

https://www.climate.gov/ “NOAA Climate.gov provides science and information for a climate-smart nation”

https://wattsupwiththat.com/ “News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts”

https://scienceofdoom.com/ “Evaluating and Explaining Climate Science”

https://scienceofdoom.com/roadmap/ Excellent series on the science of climate change