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Act Now to Oppose AT&T Landline Phone Abandonment

Many in the San Lorenzo Valley and rural Santa Cruz County still depend on AT&T’s landline phones as the most dependable way to call for help in emergencies like winter storms or wildfires. When the power is out, as it often is in bad weather or natural disasters, a landline may be our only way of communicating. 
It can be a lifeline for the neighborhood, as we saw last winter when cell service frequently failed during powerful storm systems.However, AT&T has recently applied with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to abandon its status as Carrier of Last Resort (COLR). If approved by the CPUC, this would end AT&T’s obligation to provide COLR landline phone service to residents, allowing AT&T to drop support for its landline phone lines and affecting over 580,000 AT&T customers in California. For lower-income residents, the change would also likely mean the end of LifeLine program discounts, as alternative non-COLR carriers would not be required to provide them. The CPUC is expected to give a proposed decision in September and is currently accepting written public comment. In-person only public hearings will be held February 22 at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors (2 & 6 PM) and on March 14 at the Indio City Hall (2 & 6 PM) There will be two virtual meetings on March 19 for public comment by phone, one session at 2 PM and one at 6 PM.
What can you do? Write the CPUC to submit a comment in opposition, call into the March 19 virtual meetings, and contact our elected representatives, State Senator John Laird, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, and Representative Jimmy Panetta. 
Submit a written comment:Add your comment to the CPUC for proceeding with A2303003 before March 19 here. Click on Add Public Comment.When entering a Public Comment, use a Microsoft Windows browser like Microsoft Edge. Safari is not supported.
Attend a CPUC Virtual Meeting: March 19 at 2:00 & 6:00 PM, live webcast www.adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc
Phone: 1-800-857-1917
Passcode: 6032788#
Contact our elected officials:State Senator John Laird: Contact | Senator John Laird
Phone, Santa Cruz District Office: (831) 425-0401Assemblymember Gail Pellerin: Contact | Official Website – Assemblymember Gail Pellerin
Phone, Santa Cruz District Office: (831) 425-1503Representative Jimmy Panetta: Contact | Jimmy Panetta
Phone, Santa Cruz District Office: (831) 429-1976
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New Thought From Michael Mann

In a recent issue of APS News, the news organ of the American Physical Society, Michael Mann writes a guest editorial on our climate crisis. In it he has several gems to give us hope:

“ A better analogy[for the climate crisis} is that it is a dangerous highway we’re going down. We need to take the earliest exit ramp possible.”

“It is also important to recognize that the climate crisis isn’t a cliff that we go off at certain thresholds of planetary warming such as the oft discussed 1.5C(2.7F) warming level, although it is often framed that way.  Climate science isn’t a binary case of ‘success’ or ‘failure’.”

“Global temperatures stabilize once net carbon emissions drop to zero”.  This is due to the oceans absorbing carbon dioxide.

“…the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C(2.7F)is still alive but only if the hard work begins now.”

“It’s[climate change} neither the end of the world nor good for you” per Stephen Schneider

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Some Good News

Did you miss these two pieces of good news?

It didn’t get much attention in the media, but in a joint statement the US and China declared that in the future they would cooperate in the area of climate change. Both countries will make efforts to triple the capacity for renewable energy and would aim to significantly lower Co2 emissions  by 2030. This is a new development because China never before promised  concrete and specific goals in the reduction of emissions.

This joint declaration is significant for three reasons:

– In spite of all the conflicts between the two, both superpowers are so serious about the climate crisis that they are ready to cooperate in this area. It is clear that without cooperation between these two global powers nothing can be achieved by the rest of the world. Maybe this declaration is more significant than what can be expected from COP 28 in Dubai.

– The declaration shows that climate change deniers and those who aim to slow down the fight against it are missing the boat. The Biden administration has realized that China is leaving the rest of the world behind – and doing so fast. Even if Trump should manage to become president again and, as can be expected, should try to turn back the clock on the fight against climate change, he would be unsuccessful because of resistance from the US economy. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act will create facts on the ground that Republican politicians won’t be able to get around.

– The declaration reflects China’s growing self confidence in the arena of climate and energy. The reasons for this lead to the second piece of good news:

On the day before the joint declaration, “Carbon Brief” published an analysis that explains China’s confidence (https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-emissions-set-to-fall-in-2024-after-record-growth-in-clean-energy/). Carbon Brief states that, based on data from diverse sources, it is as good as guaranteed that China’s Co2 emissions will in 2024 in fact go down. Since 2007, China has been the largest emitter of Co2 in the world (since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the US remains by far ahead of all countries in the world in terms of CO2 emissions). It would be a sensation if China actually reached the tipping point of emissions already in 2024, since it had planned and announced to achieve this goal not until 2030! At the current state of affairs, every year counts!

Even though in 2023 China’s emissions had risen further from the previous years, a historic growth in renewable energy production has occurred in China, particularly in the area of solar power installations. In 2023 alone, China added 210 Gigawatt of capacity, “more than double of installed capacity in the US and more than four times as much as China had added in 2020.” Counting added capacity in solar, wind, hydro- and nuclear power, China added 423 gigawatt, equal to the power use of all of France. Furthermore, there has been a boom in investments in industrial capacity for the production of emission reducing technology, such as in solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries. According to Carbon Brief, there is a competition in China between the old, dirty energy sector and clean, renewable energy – and it looks like the former is, at this point, losing out to the latter.

All of this is good news for the planet, even though not for China’s European and US competitors. China will continue to export cheaper solar panels, EVs and batteries, thereby putting pressure on Western economies.

Based on an article in Carbon Brief 11/13/23