Climate Change

PSR-LA recognizes that climate change is a public health crisis that must be addressed through regulatory approaches, energy conservation, and a rapid deployment of renewable energy technologies. Nuclear power is not a renewable energy and should not form part of our new green energy economy.

Through this work we are advocating for policies that support the creation of a new green economy-an economy that is based on cradle to cradle production and the use of renewable technologies. PSR-LA is using its position as a public health advocate to frame climate change as a public health crisis-one that must be addressed through regulatory approaches and market-based policies that prompt private sector investment and innovation in the new clean energy economy.

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act

The coalition has been involved at the local and state level in education, organizing and advocacy efforts for California’s AB 32-Global Warming Solutions Act. PSR-LA is also a current member of California’s Global Warming Environmental Justice Advisory Committee.

Coalitions

Our partners in the climate change debate include the Los Angeles Apollo Alliance on which PSR-LA serves as a steering committee member, The Los Angeles Environmental Justice Network, The California Environmental Rights Alliance and numerous other environmental justice advocates.

We see the need and the real opportunity to build a strong broad based movement calling for the wide spread deployment of renewable energy. More importantly, because of our fundamental commitment to social justice, PSR-LA also sees the importance of requiring climate change solutions to address issues of a just transition for workers and creation of new economic opportunities in low-income communities and communities of color.

Because of its relationship with the Apollo Alliance, PSR-LA has been integral in the Alliance’s ordinance passed in April 2009 to create a City of Los Angeles program that will “green” all of the city’s 1,000 municipal buildings, prioritizing buildings in low-income neighborhoods, and create jobs for low-income and disadvantaged workers. The policy is a first of its kind because it puts into practice at a city-level the underpinnings of a truly green economy – an economy that promotes renewable energy and energy efficiency, non-toxic materials and sustainable and healthier jobs. In addition, it has established Los Angeles as one of the first cities to create a municipal green retrofitting program that addresses poverty and economic justice.

During the summer of 2008, over 100 Los Angeles Apollo Alliance members, including PSR-LA, visited City Hall to encourage the City Council to pass the Green Retrofit and Workforce Development Program. This ordinance and landmark legislation to promote green jobs throughout the city has been successfully adopted by the City of Los Angeles.

PSR-LA was recently part of a statewide coalition of climate justice advocates who released a Declaration against the use of carbon trading schemes to address climate change. See the Declaration at EJ Matters.