| | | | |  | | By Arianna Skibell | Presented by Chevron | | 
Craig Cleve marches with members of the Chicago Teachers Union as they picket outside City Hall on July 2, 2015. | Christian K. Lee/AP | Teachers in Chicago are using their powerful union to fight for climate action in city schools. The Chicago Teachers Union opened public contract negotiations with the city today, demanding electric school buses, cuts to buildings’ planet-warming pollution and clean energy job training programs for students, among other provisions, writes Adam Aton. The move marks the latest in a growing trend of unions fighting for workplace improvements that go beyond the traditional scope of wages and benefits. And the worsening state of the climate — from summer heat waves to flooding in Florida to the wildfire smoke that blanketed Chicago last year — have pushed some unions to embrace the cause as a workplace issue. Last year, Los Angeles teachers went on strike before winning a contract that among other things required more climate education in schools’ curriculum. In 2020, janitors in Minneapolis fought for a contract that included calling for lowering their companies’ energy and water consumption. Chicago teachers’ demands are ambitious. They include a 2035 goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions districtwide. The contract proposal calls for solar panels, heat pumps and composting programs at 50 schools and a moratorium on new gas heaters. It seeks a “carbon neutral schools” pilot program at five schools — with a goal of cutting energy costs 30 percent by the end of the next school year. The union also wants the removal of lead pipes from all buildings and the establishment of heating and cooling centers that would be available to the community during extreme weather. While the demands could cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars, the 20,000-member union may be well positioned to secure at least some of them. The city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, is a former teacher and union organizer whom CTU helped elect. That’s led some conservatives to say the teachers union is overreaching. “With a beholden former employee sitting across the bargaining table, CTU appears to be going for broke,” the conservative-leaning Illinois Policy Institute said of the union’s climate and other demands. “That is, Chicagoans will be broke if the mayor hands CTU everything it wants.” But CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said that if nothing else, the demands will hold the city accountable to its own climate commitments. The Chicago School District pledged to cut emissions 45 percent by 2030 and go carbon-neutral by 2050.
| | | Thank goodness it's Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net.
| | | | A message from Chevron: Energy demand is projected to reach record highs and continue to rise in the future. Chevron is responding to that growing need while innovating to help do so responsibly. All to help us provide energy that’s affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner. | | | | | | Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Catherine Morehouse breaks down why it matters that the nation's top energy regulatory panel is now fully staffed.
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Former President Donald Trump criticized government mandates toward the purchase of electric vehicles, echoing an often-repeated line on the campaign trail. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo | Trump’s Hill blitz leaves a lot unanswered
Former President Donald Trump's return to Capitol Hill on Thursday offered some plans to expand fossil fuel production and unravel Biden administration policies to boost electric vehicles, write Emma Dumain and Kelsey Brugger. But the presumptive GOP nominee's remarks were light on policy details, and he did not directly address his interest in repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats' signature climate law, write Josh Siegel and Kelsey Tamborrino. Can UK's green party dominate the left?
Ahead of the U.K.'s general election in three weeks, the Green Party is trying to appeal to left-leaning voters disaffected with the Labour Party, writes Abby Wallace. Leaders published their election manifesto this week, which is brimming with social-democratic policies, including taxing the wealthy, ditching university fees, re-nationalizing utility companies, and defending the National Health Service against “creeping privatization.”
| | | | Big stethoscope, tiny mouse: U.K. conservationists are releasing this rodent back into the wild in an effort to save the native species from extinction. Sands of time: Luxury homes on these beaches are losing value fast, as the effects of climate change hit hard.
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An illustration of floating offshore wind turbines. | Josh Bauer/National Renewable Energy Laboratory | A California floating wind project is launching a survey of the seafloor this month, in a first step toward bringing the nascent industry to the northern Pacific Ocean. The Mountain Valley pipeline is operational, reaching a milestone that looked uncertain before Congress stepped in last year to ensure the natural gas project would be completed. It might spell doom for climate policies if Trump is elected in November. But there's a mountain of cash that he can't touch — totaling $27 billion. Alaska Native leaders met with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in Washington on Thursday after she had rejected or ignored at least eight previous requests, they said. That's it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
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