VICTORY! LOCKHEED MARTIN PULLS OUT OF BURLINGTON CLIMATE-CHANGE COLLABORATION

Victory_lockheed

Breaking news at the Burlington Free Press. This statement was sent to Free Press reporter Joel Banner Baird, who has been on the story since the beginning. According to Baird, Mayor Kiss has also released a statement, which will be posted soon.

Lockheed-Martin has announced an end to its controversial climate change partnership with Burlington.
Rob Fuller, a spokesman from the Bethesda, Md. corporation announced the developments late Thursday afternoon in an emailed statement to the Burlington Free Press:
"Over the last several months, Lockheed Martin and the City of Burlington have had exploratory discussions on several mutually beneficial green technology programs, projects and practices that could be applied in Burlington," he wrote.
"While several projects showed promise initially and we have learned a tremendous amount from each other, we were unable to develop a mutually beneficial implementation plan. Therefore Lockheed Martin has decided to conclude the current collaboration and continue to independently develop new green technology and sustainability programs to address our nation’s energy challenges." 
The story continues with more quotes:

In early August, Kiss said the city remained on course with discussions with Lockheed.

At noon today, he issued a written statement:

"I appreciate Lockheed Martin’s interest and willingness to work with the City of Burlington on the serious challenges of energy conservation and global climate change. While we did not develop any cooperative projects, our discussions were constructive and positive. The City will continue to look for partners to work with, whether non-profit, for-profit, public or private, to achieve our climate action goals. We all need to be part of the solution as we face significant environmental and weather challenges because of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions."

Since January, Kiss -- a Progressive and former anti-war activist -- has been under heavy public criticism for apparently overlooking Lockheed’s huge commitment to weapons sales. The Kiss agreement also drew fire for its potential to circumvent municipal checks and balances; and the possibility that the administration would overlook local expertise in carbon-reduction.

City Council was divided on the issue. On Aug. 7 it approved by an 8-6 vote a non-binding resolution to subject large-scale climate partnerships to "community standards" criteria — including a rejection of arms manufacturers.

Kiss termed the resolution "regressive" and "over-restrictive." He found common cause with three Republican and three Democratic councilors. Two Progressive councilors co-sponsored the resolution.

 Burlington artist and key "No Lockheed" organizer Liza Cowan said today that the council's vote sent an important -- if diluted -- message to Lockheed.

Fundamental to Lockheed's pullout was unremitting, grassroots pressure, she said.

"It showed that individual voices, together, can make a difference," Cowan added. "I think we scared them off." 

 

Lockheed Martin one of five major companies responsible for 57% of July layoffs.

Lockheed_job_losses_screen_cap

Thirdage.com - screen shot

Don't be fooled by the idea that Lockheed Martin will bring jobs:

Lockheed Martin was one of five major companies that were responsible for 57 percent of July’s layoffs, according to a new report from payroll processor ADP.
The four other main offenders in addition to the aeronautics company were Merck, Borders, Cisco Systems, and Boston Scientific.
It appears that, instead of being hit by the general economic downturn, most of the companies stumbled due to issues with their internal operations, The Los Angeles Times reports.
For instance, Borders struggled to compete against online powerhouses such as Amazon.com.
John A. Challenger, chief executive of the consulting firm, noted, “A casual observer certainly might conclude that the wheels just fell off the recovery wagon.”
Smaller businesses, on the other hand, appear to be performing well when it comes to job growth.
Companies with fewer than 50 employees added 58,000 jobs nationwide last month, while businesses with 50 to 500 workers hired 47,000 people, the study reveals.
Only 9,000 new positions were at large firms with more than 500 staffers. Small businesses have been amping up hiring for nearly two years, according to ADP.
From Thirdage.com

 

 

Nuclear Missiles, Cluster Bombs, Koch Brother-Like Legal Activism and Climate Solutions!? Greenwashing Lockheed Martin

Truthout_leavitt_screenshot

screen shot from truthout.org website

From Truthout.org 
by Jonathan Leavitt
Would a progressive Burlington, Vermont, mayor partner with the Koch brothers? Obviously not. Their well-heeled right-wing legal activism has been condemned by liberal icons including Burlington's ownBernie Sanders and anything they did in liberal Burlington would carry a heavy taint.
Would the same mayor partner with a corporation which, like the Koch brothers, defeats progressive change on a state and federal level? Say that the corporation's work-a-day existence (instead of building Dixie Cups like the Koch brothers), is selling nuclear missiles and cluster bombs, propping up dictators and doing detainee interrogation at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Say that the corporation, like the Koch brothers, was instrumental in the notorious Citizens United ruling and two controversial Supreme Court decisions in recent weeks. Say one of the court cases was the dismissal of a sex-discrimination lawsuit, brought on behalf of 1.5 million women who have worked at Wal-Mart, which likely will drastically complicate the ability of disempowered victims to stand together in class action suits. The other suit aims at stopping six states from limiting emissions ofgreenhouse gases under federal common law. One of those six states being prevented from regulating climate change was the mayor's home state, Vermont. Would Burlington's progressive Mayor Bob Kiss partner the City of Burlington with such a corporation? Apparently so. But if Mayor Kiss expected the people of the so-called "People's Republic of Burlington" to be subservient handmaidens, quietly ushering in a new cynical era of corporate greenwashing for Lockheed Martin, he was quite mistaken.
The Big Showdown: The People of Burlington v. Lockheed
After a grassroots-powered victory inside a February City Council meeting and again in City Council Committee earlier this month, Burlington activists hoped to turn out a diluvial flood of concerned citizens to speak out in Burlington City Council's public comment August 8. It was billed as The Big Showdown: The People of Burlington v. Lockheed. After seven and a half months of door to door organizing, media outreach and gathering petition signatures, No Lockheed community organizer Anna Guyton sounded optimistic going into this test of strength for her coalition. "We're hoping many people will come on August 8th." Guyton made connections between the global struggle to keep money for climate solutions in the public and not the corporate sphere and how local climate change activists are "committed as ever to keeping power in the hands of Burlington citizens."
Over a hundred people filled the stately Contois auditorium and spilled into the balconies before the showdown even started. The City Council was poised to decide whether Burlington would approve a precedent-setting community standards resolution, calling for the city to not partner on climate change with a corporation which, "Earn the majority of its profit from the production and/or marketing of weapons or warfare technology, including but not limited to nuclear/chemical weapons, land minds, or cluster bombs, as determined by the corporation's most recent annual report."
We need your help to sustain groundbreaking, independent journalism. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution to Truthout!
In a City Council Committee meeting August 4, Mayor Kiss, lashed out at the non-binding resolution, saying it was "politically motivated" and "not helpful," and described his partnership with Lockheed as beating "swords into plowshares." Kiss, a former conscientious objector, "dismisses much of the opposition to the Lockheed partnership as 'theater' designed to simplify and polarize discussion. 'It's a theater I'm familiar with, because I was in it in the '60's."
The mayor's point about the community standards being politically motivated is complicated, an inconvenient fact. The resolution's two sponsors, City Councilors Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and Vince Brennan, are the only two members of Mayor Kiss' progressive party on the City Council. Councilor Mulvaney-Stanak explained the need for community standards in a December statement:
"When any municipality considers partnering with a corporation there needs to be some sort of conversation around a set of standards and principals that reflect the community. With Burlington those standard would need to include language to reflect issues long enshrined in the fabric of the City's life: human rights issues, equality issues, peace and war issues. Any agreement or discussion needs to be guided by these community standards, be it on a project level or a policy level. Sometimes the money involved in a potential deal or partnership is not enough to compromise these principals. This deal, frankly, considering Lockheed's long track record would violate any reasonable community standards for the City of Burlington."
"Sustainability Is Another Word for Justice"
Burlington, Vermont, is a liberal college town of 42,000 overflowing with Community Supported Agriculture farm shares, bike lanes and grassroots responses to climate change: from NRG Systems, a leader in the wind industry since 1982, to Seventh Generation, the nation's leader in "household and personal care products" that "protect the environment"; from award-winning energy efficiency work for low-income households at Efficiency Vermont to AgRefresh's environmental accounting, from the University of Vermont's environmental think tank, the Gund Institute to advocacy groups like Burlington Walk/Bike Councilfighting for bike lanes throughout the city; from the silver communal Subarus of Carshare Vermont, to global leader on climate 350.org; from Permaculture Burlington to the Localvore movement. Even Burlington's Department of Public Works is involved, installing rainwater gardens which serve as traffic calming measures and capture storm runoff in Burlington's Old North End. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Burlington is a rarefied city: local organic farmers play soul music as they make the rounds giving out free produce in low-income neighborhoods from their solar-powered veggie delivery van and then come to the City Council and deliver testimony about not greenwashing a company like Lockheed. At the Sustainability Academy, an environmentally themed magnet school, deep inside the city's impoverished Old North End, heat comes via geothermal wells and first through fifth graders enter the building under the words "Sustainability is another word for Justice."
Yet, despite seven and a half months of protest, No Lockheed community organizers have found no justice. Mayor Bob Kiss is still pushing forward with a climate change partnership with Lockheed, despite its intimate relationship with defeating climate change regulation. In an open letter, community organizers called on Lockheed to "quit the US Chamber of Commerce" to "prove [their] commitment to addressing climate change to the citizens of Burlington so someone other than Mayor Kiss might be a little more supportive of this proposed partnership." The Burlington controversy has garnered national media attention from the likes ofThe New York Times. Despite his constituents, Mayor Kiss has plowed ahead, using staff time to move forward with Lockheed, seemingly in violation of City Councilor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak's February 7 City Council resolution. The resolution called for "one public meeting at City Hall before the City agrees to proceed with a proposal involving Lockheed Martin," "establish[ing] community standards," and CEDO [the city's Community Economic Development Office] "report[ing] to the City Council CD&NR Committee on any proposal developed by the City or Lockheed Martin for possible collaboration." In a tense June 6 City Council Committee meeting, Councilor Mulvaney-Stanak (who's a member of Mayor Kiss' progressive party) delivered a stinging rebuke:
"Given the attention on this issue I'd hoped things would be a little more public, or at least the Council would be informed about discussions that were still happening with Lockheed in any sort of public way.... I think given the interest the public has shown on this it would have been nice if the Mayor had - and nice is not even the appropriate word - it would have been I think more appropriate for the Mayor to mention it in the public comments or have something that go out, so people have a chance to weigh in. Knowing that this process [drafting community standards] is still going on."
To the proposal's critics, the contradictions are many: Mayor Kiss, who believes climate change is so urgent that he needs to partner Burlington with one of the worst corporate polluters on the planet, hasn't convened his Mayoral Task Force loaded with local climate change talent since November 14, 2007. The 350.org's Vermont Steering Committee member Keith Brunner compares the local struggle against Lockheed to a larger, global fight to keep money for climate change solutions in the public sphere. "One might ask: 'How could one of the largest weapons manufacturers on the planet be invited to join our community discussion on climate change mitigation and adaptation?' The answer partly lies in the framing of the story. Through the pretext of a crisis of epic proportions, Mayor Kiss has decided to go forward by working with anyone and everyone - regardless of their role in actually creating the crisis. Instead of questioning its ties to a corporate-led world-economy which is busily dismantling the ecological infrastructure of the planet, the City of Burlington has seized upon the narrative of climate chaos as merely an excess of CO2 in the atmosphere and brought in as a consultant one of the largest and most powerful of those corporations. It shouldn't be especially surprising that this 'problem-solution' framing of the problem leads to techno-fixes which only require capital investment to solve - and hence, the search for the deepest pockets begins."
In this context, if Burlington's mayor moves forward with Lockheed, his critics claim it will not only provide a fig leaf for $44 billion a year in war profiteering and legal efforts to stop climate change legislation, but also a "Shock Doctrine" like privatization of climate solutions. Brunner, who participated in UN 2010 climate conferences in Cancun, says, "Just as global civil society and the dissenting nations call for a global climate fund that is housed within the relatively transparent, accountable and (in theory) democratically governed UNFCCC, concerned members of the Burlington community are demanding a democratically-governed climate action and energy descent plan, which is free of corporate influence or involvement and tailored towards meeting the needs of the poorest in our community. Market-based 'solutions' -read: corporate profit opportunities - that leverage the atmosphere of crisis surrounding climate change have no place in this town. A participatory and locally-controlled process sited firmly in the public realm - now this is real progress."
Corporate Power Versus Vermont's Right to Regulate Climate Change
Beyond their $44 billion a year in cluster bombs, trident nuclear missiles and Abu Ghraib detainee interrogation; beyond their 57 instances of contractor misconduct, toxic spills and racial discrimination; what makes Lockheed a truly curious partner for liberal Burlington is their Koch brother-like right-wing legal activism. On June 20, the US Supreme Court in American Electric Power Co, et al v. Connecticut, et al decided not to let six states - including Vermont- regulate the emissions of electric power companies, which the ruling defines several times as "the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the nation." These corporations' "collective annual emissions of 650 million tons constitute 25 percent of emissions from the domestic electric power sector, 10 percent of emissions from all domestic human activities and 2.5 percent of all anthropogenic emissions worldwide." As one environmental group stated about the case, "Despite having reasonable ways to reduce their emissions and ample knowledge of their effects on the environment, these five entities have emitted such staggering amounts of carbon dioxide as to set them apart from the vast majority of other emitters." Inside the Supreme Court decision, the dire consequences of not taking action are outlined: "Consequent dangers of greenhouse gas emissions, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] determined, included increases in heat-related deaths; coastal inundation and erosion caused by melting icecaps and rising sea levels; more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods and other 'extreme weather events' that cause death and destroy infrastructure; drought due to reductions in mountain snowpack and shifting precipitation patterns; destruction of ecosystems supporting animals and plants; and potentially 'significant disruptions' of food production."
A legal brief filed by eight leading environmental law professors claims these mega-polluters are currently unregulated: "No Federal statute or regulation now limits greenhouse gas emissions from the Petitioners' ["the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the nation"] and TVA's existing facilities." According to the environmental law professors, the Supreme Court's rationale for dismissing the case was grounded in the idea that someday in the future the EPA might take some action, which might apply to current power plants, but likely won't:
"Petitioners' [the five power companies'] and TVA's Title V [Clean Air Act] permits likewise impose no obligation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Petitioners and TVA also identify a potential future EPA action with respect to greenhouse gases from large stationary facilities like Petitioners' and TVA's, but again, that still-unrealized action imposes no present limits on Petitioners' and TVA's greenhouse gas emissions. The agency has indicated that more than a year from now, in May 2012, it may issue a final rule under Section 111 of the CA If issued, that rule might limit greenhouse gas emissions from new and modified power plants and it might also require - by a date in the still more distant future - that States impose similar limits on existing power plants. Again, however, no current Section 111 regulation imposes greenhouse gas emissions limits on Petitioners, TVA, or anyone else and TVA's brief emphasizes that EPA has reserved the right not to impose any such limits at the end of the rulemaking. ('A commitment to complete a [Section 111] rulemaking will not mean that EPA has prejudged the question of what, if any, [greenhouse gas emissions standard] will be appropriate; EPA could ultimately exercise its judgment to find the imposition of such standards inappropriate.' Moreover, some members of the current Congress disapprove of the proposed settlement; they have made legislative proposals that, if enacted, would bar EPA from using funds to complete a Section 111 rulemaking or, more broadly, from regulating greenhouse gases."
It words like these that add layers of cynicism to the Supreme Court ruling, as well as layers of indignation to Burlington Mayor Kiss' actions.
This Sweeping Victory for Corporate Polluters Is Brought to You by ...
Representing corporate mega-polluters, the US Chamber of Commerce's activist law firm called the National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) filed a legal brief asking for the case's dismissal. Though the chamber refuses to disclose the identity of those members which fund it (and the NCLC), the powerful ties between the Lockheed and the chamber are numerous: Lockheed's vice president of Washington operations sits on the chamber's board. Additionally, according to a 2009 press release from the chamber, "The Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber's National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) elected James B. Comey as Chairman of the Board today. Mr. Comey is currently Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Lockheed Martin Corporation and has been a member of NCLC's Board of Directors since 2005."
Maryanne Lavan was named by the National Law Journal as one of "Washington D.C.'s 20 Most Influential In-House Attorneys." According to corporate counsel, Lavan "cruised like a Hellfire missile up the corporate chain of command," so perhaps it's no surprise the NCLC chose her to help the chamber defeat climate legislation, racial, age and gender discrimination lawsuits. The chamber's NCLC proudly touts itself as "the voice of business in the courts on issues of national concern to the business community," and having "become more aggressive in challenging anti-business measures in court, setting a new record for cases entered in each of the last six years." Inside a December 2010 New York Times exposé, "Carter G. Phillips, who often represents the chamber and has argued more Supreme Court cases than any active lawyer in private practice, reflected on its influence. 'I know from personal experience that the chamber's support carries significant weight with the justices,' he wrote. 'Except for the solicitor general representing the United States, no single entity has more influence on what cases the Supreme Court decides and how it decides them than the National Chamber Litigation Center.'"
According to the liberal watchdog group the Center for Constitutional Accountability, the NCLC "prevails in 68 percent of the cases heard by the Roberts court, compared to a 56 percent success rate over the last 11 years of the Rehnquist Court." In practice, this means that the NCLC frequently goes to bat for its favorite war profiteer, filing legal briefs, providing legal council and eventual victory in employment discrimination cases, sex and age discrimination cases, whistleblower retaliation cases, discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and much more.
To No Lockheed community organizer Anna Guyton, Burlington partnering with a corporation which engages in such legal activism is, "a grave hypocrisy." Guyton says Lockheed "is well-known for their 'revolving-door' with the Pentagon, Department of Defense and other major corporations. Although it is riddled with conflicts of interest, Lockheed's 'legal activism' extends widely and deeply into our representative democracy. The only way to combat this corruption in our system is to decentralize power and put it back into the hands of small, local business owners, local governments and the citizens themselves."
Activism Causes Corporations to Say "the US Chamber Doesn't Speak for Me"
The chambers' and thereby its members' legal activism have been drawing increasing scrutiny from a coalition of businesses and climate change activists, judicial watchdog groups, corporate watch dog groups, and more. According to a January New York Times exposé, the NCLC, the chamber's activist legal arm, has helped reshape corporate power in the judicial system for its largest members like Lockheed Martin:
The Roberts court, which has completed five terms, ruled for business interests 61 percent of the time, compared with 46 percent in the last five years of the court led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in 2005 and 42 percent by all courts since 1953.... The chamber now files briefs in most major business cases. The side it supported in the last term won 13 of 16 cases. Six of those were decided with a majority vote of five justices and five of those decisions favored the chamber's side. One of the them was Citizens United, in which the chamber successfully urged the court to guarantee what it called "free corporate speech" by lifting restrictions on campaign spending.
Investigative journalism and grassroots organizing which calls out the chamber's chilling effect on climate legislation has caused a succession of corporate defections. Enter "Apple iPhone" and "worker suicide" into Google and the portrait painted isn't exactly one of a socially responsible company. Yet, Apple quit the US Chamber of Commerce  over its successful lobbying which helped defeat Congress' 2009 federal climate change legislation (Waxman-Markey). Catherine Novelli, vice president of worldwide government affairs at Apple, said in a statement, "We strongly object to the chamber's recent comments opposing the E.P.A.'s effort to limit greenhouse gases.... We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis." Similarly,Nike's brutal labor practices are so well known, that its "swoosh" logo is almost synonymous with sweatshops. Yet, Nike pulled no punches in the statement it issues as it quit the chamber's board over it's efforts to block climate change legislation, stating, "We fundamentally disagree with the US Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change and their recent action to challenge the EPA is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action." Even Excelon, a massive $18.6 billion a year energy utility corporation which owns and operates 17 nuclear reactors, including Three Mile Island, announced they are "so committed to climate legislation" that "Exelon will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to the organization's opposition to climate legislation."
Vermont-based climate change author and founder of climate change nonprofit 350.org Bill McKibben says of how this legal activism of the chamber affects the proposed partnership betweenBurlington and Lockheed, "The fear that [Lockheed] could be just greenwashing is real - for instance, these guys belong to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has opposed every single good idea on energy and climate for decades; to me, that's a sign they're willing to make money on climate, but still work in Washington to prevent meaningful progress." So, perhaps it's no surprise McKibben helped promote No Lockheed's challenge asking the war profiteer to quit the chamber. Needless to say, Lockheed hasn't responded.
Speaking Inconvenient Truth to Power
Many of the 100-plus Burlingtonians who packed City Hall spoke out during the public comment section of the big showdown challenged claims by Mayor Kiss's administration. Just as with February, the March, April, May, June and August City Council Committee meetings, not a single person spoke against community standards. Local business owner and art director of the No Lockheed campaign counters Liza Cowan drew laughs, using a bit of humor to make her point, "The mayor has said that this partnership will provide a way for an arms manufacturer to beat their swords into plowshares. There is no indication that Lockheed has any intention of beating their enormously profitable, lethal and polluting weapons into plowshares or even into snowplows. There is neither evidence nor indication that they have ceased manufacturing any weapons, or begun conversion to a peace economy."
Vermont State Rep. and author Suzi Wiziwaty, a Democrat representing 8,000 South End Burlingtonians, set the tone early. Wiziwaty, through horned-rimmed glasses and patient, intellectual speech patterns, said "recognize" when "they've made a mistake," and to "listen to your people."
"I'm speaking in favor of the resolution on community standards. Speaking as an elected official I know what it is like to make decisions under pressure, on behalf of constituents. Citizens elect us to represent them and we do the best we can with the information that we have at the time. Sometimes we get information later and realize we made a mistake. And sometimes we're lucky enough to be able to undo that mistake. Now speaking as a citizen myself, as well as an elected representative, I know that watching government in action can occasionally leave me feeling helpless and disempowered. It can feel like once a process has been started and a path entered upon there is nothing we can do. This is why this resolution is so important. The fact that Burlington residents have worked together to find a constructive way to say, 'Stop! Wrong direction! Mistake!' Is both heartening and inspiring. The resolution offers City Councilors and the Mayor a terrific opportunity to reconsider the proposed alliance with Lockheed Martin. And perhaps even more importantly, to involve citizen who obviously care a lot about our city, in thinking about and creating the kind of city we want to have in the future. This resolution is about more than Lockheed Martin, it is about honoring citizen participation in setting public policy and I urge you to support it."
The 350.org's social media coordinator Joe Solomon spends much of his time driving web traffic to cause people to take action on the climate crisis, but it was verbal rhetorical flourishes he used to try and drive the politicians to action, saying, "But we have a small thing we can do tonight - a timid non-binding resolution we can pass on that journey that calls for much more courage and boldness. We have a moment this evening to set up standards so as to start to heed this call from the frontlines. No to Lockheed, No to Big Coal and Oil and no to war-profiteers. Yes to integrity, yes to justice, yes to our future."
Speaking from her "background of global economic systems, international business and sustainable business practices," Anna Guyton outlined the need to set a precedent to keep climate solution in the public and not the private sphere by passing the resolution:
"Why is it that some corporations manage to get away with fraud, misconduct, toxic pollution, child labor and human trafficking? Why is it that time after time, crime after crime, these corporations continue to do damage to people and places? The answer lies in concentrated power without checks and balances. Sure, these corporations are prosecuted, fined and made to pay for clean-up efforts (sometimes) - but does this serve as a check? No - again and again we see them commit more crimes. Does it prevent contractors f

For Immediate Release: Burlington Citizens Feel "Shocked and Disappointed"That Mayor Kiss is moving forward with Lockheed Despite His City Council

For immediate Release
Burlington Citizens Feel "Shocked and Disappointed" That Mayor Kiss is moving forward with Lockheed 
Despite His City Council and Citizens

BURLINGTON, VT - Monday night, over one hundred Burlingtonians packed City Hall as the Burlington City Council passed a strictly advisory resolution regarding corporate partnerships for climate change efforts. The sponsors of the resolution included every member of Mayor Kiss' Progressive Party on City Council. State Representative Suzi Wizowaty, who represents 8,000 Burlingtonians, spoke Monday night calling the resolution "both heartening and inspiring." Representative Wizowaty continued saying, "the resolution offers City Councilors and the Mayor a terrific opportunity to reconsider the proposed alliance with Lockheed Martin. And perhaps even more importantly, to involve citizens who obviously care a lot about our city, in thinking about and creating the kind of city we want to have in the future. This resolution is about more than Lockheed Martin, it is about honoring citizen participation in setting public policy and I urge you to support it."
Representative Wizowaty, nuns, racial justice leaders, farmers, lawyers, journalists, and many dozens more Burlingtonians spoke unanimously Monday asking for the passage of standards reflecting long-enshrined Burlington values. After the designated hour of public comment was up, City Council showed what responsive policy making is - approving the resolution. Over one hundred Burlingtonians holding signs supporting community standards applauded our local democratic process working.

On August 14th at the Vermont Progressive Party's State Committee meeting the following resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote:

"The Vermont Progressive State Committee commentds the majority of the Burlington City Council that voted for the resolution on 'Standards fo Climate Change Partnerships; that was adopted by an 8-6 vote on Auguest 8, 2011. The Progressive Party State Committee encourages Progressive Mayor Bob Kiss to hold a town meeting before making a decision as to whether to veto the resolution."
  
It is very concerning anytime a policy maker acts in isolation, ignoring his government and his people. This is just the situation Bob Kiss finds himself in though, as he told the press Tuesday that “discussions are ongoing” with Lockheed despite City Council's passage of "heartening and inspiring" community standards. Mayor Kiss is even alluding to vetoing the resolution in the media. This is deeply distressing to the many Burlingtonians who, since February, have partnered with City Councilors, CEDO officials and City Attorneys to craft thoughtful public policy to address the Lockheed controversy. "I am shocked and disappointed," said Burlington resident and local organizer Anna Guyton. "Local organizers have employed every reasonable measure to encourage transparency in this highly-controversial proposed partnership, despite months of being ignored or indirectly insulted through the media. After a clear grassroots victory, it is appalling that the mayor would consider vetoing this non-binding resolution."

On a cold stormy night in February, over one hundred Burlingtonians came to City Hall to ask for the passage of a resolution that called for increased transparency, public comment, and the creation of community standards. City Council passed it 10-4. Between February and Monday Night, City Councilor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak said a large number of community members had attended every single City Council Community Development and Neighborhood Revitalization (CD&NR) meeting to suggest standards and help craft the resolution. Another packed house concluded this seven-month legislative process, culminating in a vote to adopt this advisory standards. Community Organizer Jonathan Leavitt said, "Seeing the Mayor not honor citizen participation in setting public policy is very concerning and, if allowed to continue, will call into question the responsiveness of Burlington's democratic institutions. We're calling on Mayor Kiss not to impede democracy, to respect the wishes of his constituents and his City Council, and to allow City Council's resolution regarding corporate sponsorships to become law."


City_council_meeting_burlingto

 

Burlington Citizens arriving at City Council Meeting. Photo: Liza Cowan

 

Greenwashing Right Wing Legal Activism: Lockheed Martin and Burlington Vermont

by Jonathan Leavitt


Would a Progressive Burlington, Vermont Mayor partner with the Koch brothers? Obviously not. Their well-heeled right wing legal activism has been condemned by liberal icons including Burlington's own Bernie Sanders, and anything they did in liberal Burlington would carry a heavy taint. Would the same Mayor partner with a corporation, which like the Koch brothers, defeats progressive change on a state and Federal level? Say that the corporation's work-a-day existence (instead of building Dixie Cups like the Koch brothers), is selling nuclear missiles and cluster bombs, propping up dictators, and doing detainee interrogation at Abu Ghrahib and Guantanamo. Say that the corporation, like the Koch brothers, was instrumental in the notorious Citizens United ruling, and two controversial Supreme Court decisions in recent weeks. Say one of the court cases was the dismissal of a sex-discrimination lawsuit, brought on behalf of 1.5 million women who have worked at Wal-Mart, which likely will drastically complicate the ability of disempowered victims to stand together in class action suits. The other suit, stopping six states from limiting emissions of greenhouse gases under federal common law. One of those six states being prevented from regulating climate change was the Mayor's home state, Vermont. Would Burlington's Progressive Mayor Bob Kiss, partner the City of Burlington with such a corporation? Apparently so. 

Corporate Power Versus A Nation's Right to Regulate Climate Change 

On June 20th, the US Supreme Court in American Electric Power Co, et al v. Connecticut, et al decided not to let 6 states -including Vermont- regulate the emissions of electric power companies, which the ruling defines several times as "the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the nation." These corporations' "collective annual emissions of 650 million tons constitute 25 percent of emissions from the domestic electric power sector, 10 percent of emissions from all domestic human activities, and 2.5 percent of all anthropogenic emissions worldwide." As one environmental group stated about the case, "Despite having reasonable ways to reduce their emissions and ample knowledge of their effects on the environment, these five entities have emitted such staggering amounts of carbon dioxide as to set them apart from the vast majority of other emitters." Inside the Supreme Court decision, the dire consequences of not taking action are outlined: "Consequent dangers of greenhouse gas emissions, EPA determined, included increases in heat-related deaths; coastal inundation and erosion caused by melting icecaps and rising sea levels; more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods, and other “extreme weather events” that cause death and destroy infrastructure; drought due to reductions in mountain snowpack and shifting precipitation patterns; destruction of ecosystems supporting animals and plants; and potentially 'significant disruptions' of food production." 

A legal brief filed by eight leading environmental law professors claims these mega-polluters are currently unregulated: "No Federal statute or regulation now limits greenhouse gas emissions from the Petitioners’ ["the largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the nation"] and TVA’s existing facilities." According to the the environmental law professors, the Supreme Court's rationale for dismissing the case was grounded in the idea that someday in the future the EPA might take some action, which might apply to current power plants, but likely won't: 
"Petitioners’ [the five power companies'] and TVA’s Title V [Clean Air Act] permits likewise impose no obligation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Petitioners and TVA also identify a potential future EPA action with respect to greenhouse gases from large stationary facilities like Petitioners’ and TVA’s, but again, that still-unrealized action imposes no present limits on Petitioners’ and TVA’s greenhouse gas emissions. The agency has indicated that more than a year from now, in May 2012, it may issue a final rule under Section 111 of the CA If issued, that rule might limit greenhouse gas emissions from new and modified power plants, and it might also require--by a date in the still more distant future--that States impose similar limits on existing power plants. Again, however, no current Section 111 regulation imposes greenhouse gas emissions limits on Petitioners, TVA, or anyone else, and TVA’s brief emphasizes that EPA has reserved the right not to impose any such limits at the end of the rulemaking. TVA Br. at 51 n.25 ("A commitment to complete a [Section 111] rulemaking will not mean that EPA has prejudged the question of what, if any, [greenhouse gas emissions standard] will be appropriate; EPA could ultimately exercise its judgment to find the imposition of such standards inappropriate" (emphasis added). Moreover, some members of the current Congress disapprove of the proposed settlement; they have made legislative proposals that, if enacted, would bar EPA from using funds to complete a Section 111 rulemaking or, more broadly, from regulating greenhouse gases."
It words like these that add layers of cynicism to the Supreme Court ruling. 

This Sweeping Victory for Corporate Polluters is Brought to You By... 

Representing corporate mega-polluters, the US Chamber of Commerce's activist law firm called the National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) filed a legal brief asking for the case's dismissal. Though the Chamber refuses to disclose the identity of those members which fund it (and the NCLC), the powerful ties between the Lockheed and the Chamber are numerous: Lockheed's Vice President of Washington Operations sits on the Chamber's board. Additionally, according to a 2009 press release from the Chamber "The Board of Directors of the U.S. Chamber's National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) elected James B. Comey as Chairman of the Board today. Mr. Comey is currently Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Lockheed Martin Corporation and has been a member of NCLC's Board of Directors since 2005." Maryanne Lavan was named by the National Law Journal as one of "Washington D.C.'s 20 Most Influential In-House Attorneys." According to Corporate Counsel Lavan "cruised like a Hellfire missile up the corporate chain of command," so perhaps it's no surprise the the NCLC chose her to help the Chamber defeat climate legislation, racial, racial, age and gender discrimination lawsuits.The Chamber's NCLC proudly touts itself as The NCLC describes itself as “the voice of business in the courts on issues of national concern to the business community,” and having "become more aggressive in challenging anti-business measures in court, setting a new record for cases entered in each of the last six years." Inside a December 2010 New York Times expose, "Carter G. Phillips, who often represents the chamber and has argued more Supreme Court cases than any active lawyer in private practice, reflected on its influence. 'I know from personal experience that the chamber’s support carries significant weight with the justices,' he wrote. 'Except for the solicitor general representing the United States, no single entity has more influence on what cases the Supreme Court decides and how it decides them than the National Chamber Litigation Center.'”  

According to the liberal watchdog group the Center for Constitutional Accountability, the NCLC "prevails in 68 percent of the cases heard by the Roberts court, compared to a 56 percent success rate over the last 11 years of the Rehnquist Court." In practice this means that the National Chamber Litigation Center frequently goes to bat for its favorite war profiteer, filing legal briefs, providing legal council, and eventual victory in employment discrimination cases, sex and age discrimination cases, whistleblower retaliation cases, discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act and much more.
To No Lockheed community organizer Anna Guyton, Burlington partnering with a corporation which engages in such legal activism is, "a grave hypocrisy." Guyton says Lockheed "is well-known for their 'revolving-door' with the Pentagon, Department of Defense, and other major corporations. Although it is riddled with conflicts of interest, Lockheed's 'legal activism' extends widely and deeply into our representative democracy. The only way to combat this corruption in our system is to decentralize power and put it back into the hands of small, local business owners, local governments, and the citizens themselves. The more we place our confidence and our dollars in the hands of major corporations, the more power they will wield over our elected officials." 
Activism Causes Corporations to Say "the US Chamber Doesn't Speak for Me" 

The Chambers', and thereby its members', legal activism has been drawing increasing scrutiny from  a coalition of businesses and climate change activists, judicial watchdog groups, corporate watch dog groups, and more. According to a January New York Times expose, the NCLC, the Chamber's activist legal arm, has helped reshape corporate power in the judicial system for its largest members like Lockheed Martin:
The Roberts court, which has completed five terms, ruled for business interests 61 percent of the time, compared with 46 percent in the last five years of the court led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in 2005, and 42 percent by all courts since 1953. [...] The chamber now files briefs in most major business cases. The side it supported in the last term won 13 of 16 cases. Six of those were decided with a majority vote of five justices, and five of those decisions favored the chamber’s side. One of the them was Citizens United, in which the chamber successfully urged the court to guarantee what it called “free corporate speech” by lifting restrictions on campaign spending. 

Investigative journalism and grassroots organizing which calls out the Chamber's chilling effect on climate legislation has caused a succession of corporate defections. Enter "Apple iPhone" and "worker suicide" into Google, and the portrait painted isn't exactly one of a socially responsible company. Yet Apple quit the US Chamber over its successful lobbying which helped defeat Congress' 2009 Federal climate change legislation (Waxman-Markey). Catherine Novelli, vice president of worldwide government affairs at Apple said in a statement, "We strongly object to the chamber's recent comments opposing the E.P.A.'s effort to limit greenhouse gases. ... We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis." Similarly Nike's brutal labor practices are so well known, that its Swoosh logo is almost synonymous with sweatshops. Yet Nike pulled no punches in the statement it issues as it quit the Chamber's Board over it's efforts to block climate change legislation, stating, "We fundamentally disagree with the US Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change and their recent action to challenge the EPA is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action." Even Excelon, a massive $18.6 billion a year energy utility corporation which owns and operates 17 nuclear reactors, including Three Mile Island, announced they are "so committed to climate legislation" that "Exelon will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to the organization’s opposition to climate legislation." 

Vermont based climate change author and founder of climate change non-profit 350.org, Bill McKibben, says of how this legal activism of the Chamber's effects the proposed partnership between Burlington and Lockheed, "The fear that [Lockheed] could be just greenwashing is real -- for instance, these guys belong to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has opposed every single good idea on energy and climate for decades; to me, that's a sign they're willing to make money on climate, but still work in Washington to prevent meaningful progress."

"Sustainability Is Another Word for Justice" 

Burlington, Vermont is a liberal college town of 42,000 overflowing with CSA farm shares, bike lanes, and grassroots responses to climate change. From award-winning Efficiency Vermont to AgRefresh, from the University of Vermont's Gund Institute to Burlington Walk/Bike Council, from Carshare Vermont to 350.org, from Permaculture Burlington to the Localvore movement. Even Burlington's Department of Public Works is involved, installing rainwater gardens which serve as traffic calming measures and capture storm runoff in Burlington's Old North End. Local organic farmers play soul music as they make the rounds giving out free produce in low income neighborhoods from their solar powered veggie delivery van. At the Sustainability Academy, an elementary school on North Street, children enter the building under the words "Sustainability is another word for Justice." 

Yet despite seven and a half months of protest, No Lockheed community organizers have found no justice. Mayor Bob Kiss is still pushing forward with a climate change partnership with Lockheed, despite its intimate relationship with defeating climate change regulation. In an open letter, community organizers called on Lockheed to "quit the US Chamber of Commerce" to "prove [their] commitment to addressing climate change to the citizens of Burlington so someone other than Mayor Kiss might be a little more supportive of this proposed partnership." The Burlington controversy has garnered national media attention from the likes of The New York Times. Despite his constituents, Mayor Kiss has plowed ahead, using staff time to move forward with Lockheed, seemingly in violation of City Councilor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak's February 7th City Council resolution. The resolution called for "one public meeting at City Hall before the City agrees to proceed with a proposal involving Lockheed Martin," "establish[ing] community standards," and CEDO [the city's Community Economic Development Office] "report[ing] to the City Council CD&NR Committee on any proposal developed by the City or Lockheed Martin for possible collaboration." In a tense June 6th City Council committee meeting, Councilor Mulvaney-Stanak (who's a member of Mayor Kiss' Progressive Party) delivered a stinging rebuke: "Given the attention on this issue' I'd hoped things would be a little more public, or at least the Council would be informed about discussions that were still happening with Lockheed in any sort of public way. [...] I think given the interest the public has shown on this it would have been nice if the Mayor had --and nice is not even the appropriate word-- it would have been I think more appropriate for the Mayor to mention it in the public comments or have something that go out, so people have a chance to weigh in. Knowing that this process [drafting community standards] is still going on."  

To Lockheed's critics, if Burlington's Mayor moves forward with Lockheed, it will not only provide a fig leaf for $44 billion a year in war profiteering, legal efforts to stop climate change legislation and more. 350.org's Vermont Steering Committee member Keith Brunner, compares the local struggle against Lockheed to a larger, global fight to keep money for climate change solutions in the public sphere. "One might ask: 'How could one of the largest weapons manufacturers on the planet be invited to join our community discussion on climate change mitigation and adaptation?' The answer partly lies in the framing of the story. Through the pretext of a crisis of epic proportions, Mayor Kiss has decided to go forward by working with anyone and everyone- regardless of their role in actually creating the crisis. Instead of questioning its ties to a corporate-led world-economy which is busily dismantling the ecological infrastructure of the planet, the City of Burlington has seized upon the narrative of climate chaos as merely an excess of CO2 in the atmosphere, and hired as a consultant one of the largest and most powerful of those corporations. It shouldn't be especially surprising that this “problem-solution” framing of the problem leads to techno-fixes which only require capital investment to solve- and hence, the search for the deepest pockets begins."
To Brunner, who participated in UN 2010 climate conferences in Cancun, Burlington's local struggle against Lockheed is representative of a larger fight to keep money for climate change solutions in the public sphere. "So what do we want? Just as global civil society and the dissenting nations call for a global climate fund that is housed within the relatively transparent, accountable, and (in theory) democratically governed UNFCCC, concerned members of the Burlington community are demanding a democratically-governed climate action and energy descent plan, which is free of corporate influence or involvement, and tailored towards meeting the needs of the poorest in our community. Market-based “solutions” (read: corporate profit opportunities) that leverage the atmosphere of crisis surrounding climate change have no place in this town, no matter how many “tons of CO2e” they purport to reduce. A participatory and locally-controlled process sited firmly in the public realm- now this is real progress."

The Big Showdown: The People of Burlington v. Lockheed 

After grassroots-powered victories with the February resolution and in City Council committee earlier this month, Burlington activists are attempting to bring a record number of citizens to flood Burlington City Council's public comment August 8th. The City Council is poised to decide whether to Burlington will approve a precedent-setting community standards resolution, calling for the City to not partner on climate change with a corporation which, "Earn the majority of its profit from the production and/or marketing of weapons or warfare technology, including but not limited to nuclear/chemical weapons, land minds, or cluster bombs, as determined by the corporation’s most recent annual report." 

Anna Guyton says, "On August 8th, the full Burlington City Council will come together to review and vote on a resolution for community standards for municipal partnerships with corporations around climate change. Citizens have been working closely with city councilors for the past 6 months to carefully draft a set of standards -many of which are already in ordinance for other types of contracts-, which passed unanimously out of committee last month. A binding resolution or ordinance could stop the Lockheed deal in its tracks; but the mayor has already shown little concern for non-binding resolutions, after he failed to honor one passed 10-4 on February 7th, so there is concern that a non-binding resolution will not be enough."

Mayor Kiss "dismisses much of the opposition to the Lockheed partnership as 'theater' designed to simplify and polarize discussion. 'It’s a theater I’m familiar with, because I was in it in the ’60's." In a City Council committee meeting Thursday, Mayor Kiss, lashed out at the resolution, saying it was "politically motivated" and "not helpful," and describes his partnership with Lockheed as "swords into plowshares." Local business owner and art director of the No Lockheed campaign counters Liza Cowan counters, "There is no indication that Lockheed Martin has any intention of beating their enormously profitable and polluting swords (aka cluster bombs, fighter jets, and nuclear weapons) into plowshares." Anna Guyton says "The biggest human sources of the climate problem are war and unsustainable business practices - the two areas that Lockheed Martin has exploited for decades in return for astronomical profits. We have no basis for faith that the corporation will cease these operations as it tries to get its fingers into other markets (like climate solutions) that they view as potentially profitable. It's a hypocrisy that the climate movement cannot afford."

Interestingly, the resolution's sponsor, City Councilor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, is a member of Mayor Kiss' Progressive party. She explained the need for community standards in a December statement: 
"When any municipality considers partnering with a corporation there needs to be some sort of conversation around a set of standards and principals that reflect the community. With Burlington those standard would need to include language to reflect issues long enshrined in the fabric of the City's life: human rights issues, equality issues, peace and war issues. Any agreement or discussion needs to be guided by these community standards, be it on a project level or a policy level. Sometimes the money involved in a potential deal or partnership is not enough to compromise these principals. This deal, frankly, considering Lockheed's long track record would violate any reasonable community standards for the City of Burlington." 
Community organizer Anna Guyton says that just like the global struggle to keep money for climate solutions in the public and not corporate sphere, climate change activists are "committed as ever to keeping power in the hands of Burlington citizens." She's optimistic about the CIty Council showdown: "We're hoping many people will come on August 8th to give a short public comment of encouragement and witness the proceedings. We're also helping citizens get in touch with their city councilors to talk about why they feel certain standards are important for the city. These guidelines will give responsible, local businesses the opportunity to partner with the city for future projects, rather than limiting contracts to a major corporation that has shown no signs of legitimate concern for our city, the climate, long-term sustainability, or responsible business practices."

Tiny Vermont's history is a steady march of bold precedents for the remainder of the United States: the first state to outlaw slavery; the first state to institute civil unions (which prefigured several states' marriage equality bills); the first state legislature which voted to shutter its nuclear reactor and the first state to grant single payer health care. Whichever the direction Burlington chooses inside City Council Monday, again a precedent will be set, this time for public-private partnerships on climate change, be it a vote for corporate greenwashing or a vote for sustainable climate solutions which are just.

This article also appears at Znet, Zcom here

Victory: City Council Burlington Vermont passes resolution for Community Standards for Partnering with Corporations

Last night the Burlington Vermont City Council voted 8-6 in favor of a resolution for Community Standards For Partnerships with Corporations for Climate Change Initiatives.

This was a resolution many months and activist-hours in the making. While it is a far from perfect resolution - it became more and more watered down as it passed through committee and the City's attorney - nevertheless it is a historic victory for ethical standards in cities.  

The meeting was packed with 100+ citizens all calling for an end to the deal with Lockheed Martin, and for a yes vote on the Standards resolution. A stirring night for democracy in action.
Here are a few of the speeches:

Anna Guyton, No Lockheed

Hello, my name is Anna Guyton and I live in Ward 5. I come to you tonight from a background of global economic systems, international business and sustainable business practices, and I would like to explore very briefly the concept of corruption. I’m sure you all know what it is, as I’m sure you’ve witnessed it or experienced it before; but why does it happen?  

Looking at this resolution, why is it that some corporations manage to get away with fraud, misconduct, toxic pollution, child labor and human trafficking? Why is it that time after time, crime after crime, these corporations continue to do damage to people and places?  

The answer lies in concentrated power without checks and balances. Sure, these corporations are prosecuted, fined, and made to pay for clean-up efforts (sometimes) – but does this serve as a check? No - again and again we see them commit more crimes. Does it prevent contractors from getting more contracts? No – the corruption is so deep and so broad, that their power is completely unbalanced.  

These are the types of corporations that we don’t want to see Burlington tied to in partnership. With no checks and no balances, how can we have faith that they won’t commit the same crimes, violations, and misconduct against us? We simply can’t take that risk with an issue as important as climate change.  

Instead, what is needed for a city and a world without corruption is a de-concentration of that power, a decentralization of that power. The only way to do that is to build our own power, and empower those who have a proven track record of sustainable business practices, like many of our Vermont companies and organizations do. And you must acknowledge the voice of the people – all these people here tonight (and many more who couldn’t make it) care about community standards. Honor our voice, honor Burlington’s democratic values, and please pass this resolution as a first step toward ensuring good business partners for the city of Burlington. Thank you.  

Liza Cowan, No Lockheed

The mayor has an opinion. He says the climate crisis is so big everyone is welcome at the table to help us solve it. This is not an informed, or even a logical opinion. There is no evidence to back it up. It is not a strategy or a plan. It is an opinion, stated as fact.

Because the mayor has more power than the ordinary citizen, this ill-formed opinion became a promise to Lockheed Martin, whose interests lie not in solving climate issues but in creating them, and whose money- lots of it- is spent defeating federal and state climate legislation. 

The mayor has said that this partnership will provide a way for an arms manufacturer to beat their swords into plowshares. There is no indication that Lockheed has any intention of beating their enormously profitable, lethal and polluting weapons into plowshares or even into snowplows. There is neither evidence nor indication that they have ceased manufacturing any weapons, or begun conversion to a peace economy.

Nor is there any indication that they have the expertise or the intention to remedy the vast amounts of pollution that they and others like them have created and continue to create.

There has been no public discussion of what Lockheed Martin, or any other corporation, would want in exchange for the “resources and expertise” they mayor claims they have to offer. But the nature of a gift – whether it be money, time, goods, or expertise - is that it always implies some sort of reciprocity. Payback is not only implied, it is obligated.

The unexamined question is: What will our partners want in return? How will Burlington deal with the debt, and the obligation that would inevitably be created by such a partnership? What recourse do we have when such payback is set in motion?

Can we salvage our hard won name and reputation when Corporations use our image to greenwash their own? Can we deny corporations a place to park their weapons, deploy their pollution- spewing equipment, test their surveillance gear? What other obligations we will incur we do not know, but rest assured that they will be expected, whatever the partner. What ethical and environmental costs are we, as a city, willing to pay?

It is time for us to be very careful.

Without community standards, the beautiful and respected city of Burlington will be vulnerable to partnering with corporations, like Lockheed, but not limited to them, that will not only tarnish our good name, but to whom we will owe a debt of obligation – moral, financial, political – that we most likely are not going to want to pay.  

Please vote YES!

 

Small_sign-_war_profiteers_are
Small_signpartner_with_corpora
Small_sign-_what_does_lockheed_want

 

Joe Soloman,350.Vermont:

 I'm going to read a few sentences from a speech that I wish was written by Mayor Kiss,

“Big Oil and King Coal are dying industries. 

  Their dominance of the world economy is coming to an end. 

  The fossil fuel companies know that, sooner or later, the world’s politicians will wake up. 

  And when they do, they will stop fossil fuel firms dumping waste into the atmosphere as if, in Al Gore’s words, it were an open sewer. 

  They cannot change. 

  Coal companies will always mine coal, and oil companies will always drill for oil. 

  Our challenge is to ensure that the fossil fuel lobby doesn’t bring our planetary ecosystem down with it.” 


They weren't written by our Mayor – but rather by a true leader on the frontline of the climate crisis: Mohammed Nasheed, the President of the Maldives – an island nation spread out across atolls in the Indian ocean. They face rising seas from which there are no retreat.

And they understand that with their own survival on the line—that the best way to help their community isn't to ask big polluters for help–but to ask all of us for help to stop those big polluters.

To stop these oil giants, coal dictators, and other carbon-polluting war profiteers in their tracks. Not to paint them green. Not to do business with them. But to end their days on Planet Earth, before they end ours.

This isn't much of an exaggeration when you look up what's happening with the famine in East Africa, with the floods that drowned so many Mississippi River communities this Spring (as well as portions of Vermont), and the recent wildfires that led the entire state of Texas to be declared a natural disaster.

And the new normal heat waves that don't just break records (9,000 daily heat records were broken or tied across the country just last month) but now come with fresh body counts.

We have much work to do to pull this off – much more than we've yet to see.

But we have a small thing we can do tonight – a timid non-binding resolution we can pass on that journey that calls for much more courage and boldness.

We have a moment this evening to set up standards so as to start to heed this call from the frontlines.

No to Lockheed, No to Big Coal and Oil, and no to war-profiteers. Yes to integrity, yes to justice, yes to our future.

 

our latest e-newsletter. Showdown at City Hall, August 8th.


Here's the link to our latest e-newsletter

and here's a screen shot of a part of it:

No_lockheed_newsletter_screen_

If you live in Burlington, please be a hero for climate justice and show up at the City Council meeting to lend your support for community standards for partnering with corporations. 

August 8th

Contois Auditorium, City Hall

Burlington Vermont

7 pm to register to speak for 2 minutes

7:30 meeting begins