Colorado students are expected to gather at the State Capitol today, joining a global climate youth strike. Students will also march to a Chase bank location, to urge the company to divest fossil-fuel holdings they said are aiding Russia s war in Ukraine. Madeline Pierce, a sophomore at Cherry Creek High School and the event s organizer, said young people understand it is going to take more than recycling and biking to school to avert the most catastrophic impacts of a warming planet. .
California only got a "D" grade on this year s Environmental Scorecard, a report card put out each year since 1973 by the nonprofit California Environmental Voters. The low score mostly comes from inaction on the many climate bills that stalled in the state Senate, even though Democrats have a supermajority. Mary Creasman, CEO of California Environmental Voters, said many Democratic lawmakers talk a good game but then vote to delay climate action. .
After Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine, the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) withdrew $7.2 million from a Russian bank, and now, climate activists are calling on PERA to divest all of its Russian oil and gas holdings. Devon Reynolds, a PERA member and graduate student at the University of Colorado-Boulder, said the fund currently has more than $8 million dollars invested in at least five Russian oil and gas companies. "Moving assets out of Russian companies is being done because it s wrong to profit off of humanitarian horrors," Reynolds asserted. " .
Nevada stands to get $38 million over five years to build out electric-vehicle (EV) charging networks from the Biden administration s newly released EV funding plan, part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Department of Motor Vehicles said Nevada now has more than 17,000 registered electric vehicles. Marie Steele, vice president for electrification and energy services at NV Energy, said its customer surveys predict a big jump in the years to come. .