Miscellaneous
This episode was originally published for patrons on 4.22.2021. We were joined by Aaron Ziemer of Sunrise Sacramento to discuss the confluence of labor and climate justice. Last spring a bill to end fracking--a practice Governor Gavin Newsom claimed he was against as recently as September 2020, before going silent in the early days of the recall effort--died in the state Senate's Natural Resources and Water Committee, with key Democrats refusing to cast their votes. One of those senators was Bob Hertzberg, who screamed at Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela last session when she rose in support of a bill to create buffer zones around wells (a provision also included on this fracking bill). Why do these Democrats hate fighting climate change? We know Newsom was responding to the recall effort. But others are fearful of stepping on the toes of building trades labor groups, which formed an unholy alliance with Big Oil in recent years. Then there's the money. The state Democratic Chair Rusty Hicks took $330,000 from fossil fuel interests after pledging that he would not do that very thing. When a young party delegate pressed him on this move, saying he wanted a world that he could live in when he was 80, Hicks derisively responded, "I bet you'll enjoy the lights on in your apartment and the gas in your car along the way." Meanwhile, the entire state is a tinder box, with ongoing drought, unprecedentedly low water levels in our dams, and a promise of increasingly dangerous wildfires in our near future (update: the fires have arrived). Thanks for listening, defund the police and, as always: Twitter: @youknowkempa, @ShanNDSTevens, @Flojaune, @guillotine4you Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/voicesrivercity Sacramentans can hear us on 103.1 KUTZ Tuesdays at 5 pm and again Wednesdays at 8 am. Also, if you require a transcript of our episodes, please reach out to info@voicesrivercity.com and we'll make it happen. And thank you to Be Brave Bold Robot for the tunes.