by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by WhatAre Progressive Values [courtesy of Blog for America]

We held the first meeting of the What Are Progressive Values? Study Group, preceding the El Cerrito Democratic Club meeting on November 27. This was a brainstorming session and the next meeting will be January 27, 2008. You can find out more information about the Study Group at the http://ProgressiveSpirit.com website.

You can see a 10 minute video clip of the meeting at http://youtube.com/group/ProgressiveValues
and the clip is entitled

"Progressive Values? Study Group First Meeting 11/27/07."
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mWf4wrUlCFg

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

It know it's not a thrilling story, but the plans the California Air Resource Board is putting together is one of the biggest environmental stories in the country. California has huge ambitious goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and the CARB is tasked with figuring out how we get there and issuing regulations to ensure it happens. SacBee:

The state Air Resources Board will launch into a yearlong planning effort today that it hopes will yield a workable plan for slashing California's annual greenhouse gas emissions by 100 million metric tons in just 12 years.

That goal – the equivalent of cutting the state's gasoline use almost 70 percent – represents most of the reductions mandated under Assembly Bill 32, passed last year. The specific regulations enacted to meet it likely will affect virtually every sector of the California economy, from how electricity is generated to how new communities are planned.

Many of the emissions reductions will be straightforward expansions of energy-efficiency programs that the state already has pursued for years. But others – like rules that could affect land use – will put the agency in unfamiliar regulatory territory.

read more »

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Warner Chabot
Vice President
Ocean Conservancy

Today and this week the San Francisco Bay oil spill has moved into the phase of oversight hearings by our political leaders.

Ocean Conservancy wants to offer the following lessons learned (to-date) from the spill; a set of key questions that should be answered (to further learn what worked and did not work. Finally we want to suggest some policies that should be considered, (to avoid a repeat of this disaster).

We believe that is premature to launch a detailed discussion of solutions, since we still don’t have all of the facts about what worked and did not work. However, since several political leaders have scheduled oversight hearings, we offer the following possible lessons, questions and suggested actions.

Preliminary Lessons Emerging from the 2007 SF Bay Oil Spill:

1. As the foggiest harbor in the U.S., with almost 4,000 major ship arrivals to S.F. Bay each year (and 10,000 ship moves), the odds for human, mechanical or electronic error in navigation make an occasional collision and resulting spill virtually inevitable.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Bernadette Del Chiaro of Environment Californiawith Assemblymember Jared Huffman, and Don Miller of Conergy, a local installer and manufacturer of solar water heating systems in April promoting AB 1470, the Solar Hot Water and Efficiency Act of 2007, which just became law

By Frank D. Russo

Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007, AB 1470 by Assemblymember Jared Huffman, which provides incentives to attain the goal of installing 200,000 solar water heating systems in the state by 2017.

This represents another giant step, in addition to AB 1, Million Solar Roofs bill passed last year, toward bringing about a mainstream solar power market in California. The bill would launch the nation’s largest solar water heating program, creating a $250 million fund to provide rebates to homeowners and businesses who invest in solar water heating technologies. Hopefully was we go, so will the nation.

“Harnessing the sun to meet our daily energy needs is a no-brainer, especially in California,"said Bernadette Del Chiaro, Clean Energy Advocate for Environment California and sponsor of the bill. “Solar water heating is another way we can make California the Saudi Arabia of the sun.”

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

On Thursday, California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres announced the launch of an exciting program called Fraud Busters to combat misinformation being spread by proponents of a misleading initiative effort ("The Presidential Election Reform Act") which would make California the only large state in the union to award its electoral votes by Congressional District, instead of by statewide popular vote. 
 
"We want activists around the state to help us stop the Republicans from stealing the White House and stealing California's electoral votes," said Torres. "We are asking our activists to be the California Democratic Party's frontline team and help us stop the Republicans from spreading their lies around the state."
 
In order to ensure that Republicans hold the White House next year, well-connected GOP operatives are attempting to put an initiative on California's June 2008 ballot that, if passed, would all but guarantee the Republican nominee could steal 22 electoral votes from California in the November 2008 presidential election.
 
The California Democratic Party has set up a website, www.cadem.org/fraudbusters with tools for Democratic activists across California to get the word out and gather signatures from others who will pledge to help us stop the Republicans' scam.
 

by Kenneth Quinnell [courtesy of Blog for America]

Inspired by GusWatch and The Putnam Report and my recent adventures at YearlyKos, we're now announcing the launch of a new network of WatchBlogs for the Republicans who are attempting to destroy Florida's future. GusWatch and The Putnam Report have agreed to be part of the network. We have created blogs for each of the other congressional Republicans from Florida, the cabinet, the Florida House and the Florida Senate. What we really need to make this work is volunteers. If you live in the district of one of these people, send me an e-mail at quinnelk@hotmail.com and I'll add you as a blogger to the relevant site. If you are outside a particular district, but are an interested party, you can also join up. Note that these sites are designed to watch the Republicans from a progressive viewpoint, so, if you aren't a progressive, then don't ask.