Iowa City Climate Advocates: November 2017 Meeting Minutes
Minutes prepared by Eric Johnson & Peter Rolnick
People present: Eric Johnson, Christine Lehman-Engledow, Miriam Kashia, Jamie McCoy, Terri Macey, Peter Rolnick, Chris Bergen, Chad Slater-Scott, John Macatee, Scott Carpenter, Charlotte Fairlie, Edward Agran, Barbara Eckstein
Introductions
Learned about the volunteering experiences of those in attendance. Miriam and Christine realized they had volunteered on the same climate walk but didn’t know each other at the time!
Scott Carpenter wants to give a talk about the basics of climate change–things most people don’t know. [That talk has been scheduled–see “Upcoming Events” below.] Scott clarified some confusion some of us had about the value, or not, of making improvements in agricultural practices (Peter is still confused, and looking forward to going to the presentation!).
Letter Writing
Peter brought pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes to encourage us to write letters to Grassley, Ernst, Loeback and Blum.
Endorsements
Jamie reported that he has a firm “yes” on an endorsement for Carbon Fee & Dividend from 3 of the city councilors, and is waiting on responses from the rest. The resolution will be on the agenda on the 5th or 19th of December; attendence by ICCA members at Council meetings prior to that would be very helpful in getting strong support for the resolution.
He was also able to get Brian Sempf at the Chamber of Commerce to change their endorsement from private to public. Jaimie is looking for someone to help with 10 minute presentation on Carbon Fee & Dividend to the Chamber of Commerce, and Peter volunteered to help with this.
He is excited to work with Eric on getting an endorsement from the County Supervisors. Eric got the ball rolling by contacting Rod Sullivan. He wants to write an endorsement that reflects county concerns–bridges, crops, etc.
Jamie is also working on getting endorsements from Iowa renewable energy companies.
Jamie suggested that we each consider becoming a “delegate” for an endorser, meaning: make a connection with a company or institution that we are already familier with and start a conversation about endorsing Carbon Fee & Dividend.
DC Lobbying
John attended our meeting despite on having arrived back in Iowa 2 hours prior! He described his experience meeting wtih the different legislators and the material they were trying to convey about the general attitude amongst Republicans on climate change.
Group Meeting of Local Environmental Groups (Summary from Martha Norbeck):
November 2nd meeting. Almost 100 community members participated. Opening comments were made by Mayor Throgmorton. Brenda Nations, Iowa City’s sustainability coordinator, described the climate action plan and some of the accomplishments and work leading up to it. The consultant described our task – 5 stations around the room had a list of possible climate strategies. The tables included: energy, transportation, waste, other… (can’t remember the others). The public was asked to indicate which strategies they supported with stickers as well as a sticker for strategies they felt they could personally contribute. Plant Rich Diet got the most stickers for people who thought they could contribute. The general feeling was that it went well and generated enthusiasm.
Jim Olsen added the strategy of a Carbon Tax. Becky Soglin, the Johnson County Sustainability coordinator, pointed this out. She asked me if I knew the work of ICCA and asked if someone from ICCA could pitch a carbon tax to the supervisors. Becky’s email is: bsoglin@co.johnson.ia.us. If you contact her, she can get an ICCA representative on the agenda. [Peter has since reached out to Becky via email.]
I met with the 100 Grannies Diet and Climate committee this morning. They are fired up and ready to go. Next Plant Rich Diet meeting will be the evening of 11/30. Location TBD. Subsequent meeting will coincide with Green Drinks, December 14 and January 11. The 11/14 and 1/11 meetings will be somewhere where there are adult beverages and vegetarian food. I’ll be sending out an email about the 11/30 meeting soon.
Upcoming Meetings with Congressional Offices (see “Upcoming Events” at the end of these minutes)
Eric announced 3 meetings we have with Loebsack, Ernst and Grassley and encourage people to just show up and be warm bodies. Two people signed on. [Since then Eric has gotten many more commitments from people.]
CCL National Call
We watched the informative call about how the military is continuing on their path to a renewable fuel future because it makes sense for them fiscially and operationally.
A couple of interesting points were:
Our gasoline prices are low because the military guards choke points around the world (our military efftectively subsizdizes our gasoline).
The military can spend from $400 to $1000 per gallon of fuel in deployed situations when you factor in all the troops that need to guard the supply line
Scott [and later Ed] asked for further info about the facts and ideas in this presentation, and Peter agreed to get that information to them.
BC Papers on Carbon Tax
Eric briefly brought up some whitepapers he had copies of by Canadian researchers, which examine how the BC carbon tax is working after being in place since 2008. They can be found here:
Click to access beck_2015_bctax.pdf
Click to access murray_rivers_2015_bc-carbon-tax-study.pdf
Click to access becketal_2016_bctax_ruralmyth.pdf
*****
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, November 28: Meeting with Dave Leshtz, District Director for Dave Loebsack
11 am, 125 South Dubuque St, Iowa City
If you are interested in attending, contact Eric (eric.d.johnson@gmail.com)
Thursday, November 30: First Meeting of Plant Rich Diet Initiative
6:30 -8:30 pm, location TBA
Group will decide on 2-4 campaigns to proceed with
Thursday, November 30: Meeting with Fred Schuster, Regional Director for Chuck Grassley
10 am, 111 7th Avenue SE, Suite 6800, Cedar Rapids
If you are interested in attending, contact Eric (eric.d.johnson@gmail.com)
Wednesday, December 6: Meeting with Sam Pritchard, Regional Director for Joni Ernst
10 am, 111 7th Ave SE, Suite 480, Cedar Rapids
If you are interested in attending, contact Eric (eric.d.johnson@gmail.com)
Saturday December 9: ICCA Monthly Meeting:
11:45 am-1:45 pm, North Liberty Public Library
NOTE UNUSUAL PLACE, AND SLiGHTY DIFERENT TIME
Thursday December 14: Climate Change – A Voter’s Guide
6:30 – 8:30, Coralville Public Library, Room A
Presentation by Scott Carpenter, ICCA member and research scientist at the University of Iowa in the Department of Geoscience.
Thursday December 14: Second Meeting of Plant Rich Diet Initiative
evening, exact time and location TBA
Meeting will be a strategy session for campaigns agreed upon at the previous meeting
********** 2018 ********
Thursday January 11: Third Meeting of the Plant Rich Diet Initiative
evening, exact time, location and topic TBA
Friday April 6: Iowa City Climate Advocates Annual Music and Food Fundraiser
5:30-7:30 pm, Beadology, 220 E Washington St, Iowa City
Featuring Pennies on the Rail and Sweet Cacophony
June 10-12: Annual International Conference & Lobby Day,
Washington DC, location TBA
Beck_2015_BCtaxMurray_Rivers_2015_BC Carbon Tax StudyBecketal_2016_BCTax_RuralMyth
IOWA CITY CLIMATE ADVOCATES 