Tag Archives: Natural Gas Ban
America’s All-Electric Future, Climate Gentrification & Berkeley’s Natural Gas Ban — Your Call 10am PT & State Of The Bay 6pm PT

You get a double shot of me on KALW today. This morning at 10am PT, I’ll guest host Your Call’s One Planet Series, when we’ll discuss what it will take to electrify the US economy with clean energy. How feasible will this be, and what will it cost? Joining us will be:

  • David Reichmuth, senior engineer in the Clean Transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
  • Ari Matusiak, chief executive of Rewiring America, a leading electrification nonprofit working to electrify our homes, businesses and communities.

Later in the program, we’ll have a conversation with award wining filmmaker Katja Esson about her new documentary RAZING LIBERTY SQUARE, about a public housing project in Miami for Black residents during a time of legal segregation (preview above). The city is ground-zero for sea-level-rise, and when residents learned about a $300 million revitalization project in 2015, they knew that their neighborhood is desirable because it is located on the highest-and-driest ground in the city. Some of them prepared to fight a new form of racial injustice called Climate Gentrification, which Esson followed for the film.

Then at 6pm PT on State of the Bay, I’ll talk with Kate Harris, Berkeley city councilmember and author of the 2019 ordinance banning natural gas in new construction. A panel of judges on the US court of appeals has just reversed that ban. What does this mean for our environment and what will lawmakers do next?

Then we’ll cover how the pandemic has decimated transit ridership, causing California’s transit agencies to face major funding shortfalls just as federal Covid relief funds are due to expire. We’ll talk with Laura Tolkoff, Transportation Policy Director for SPUR, and Rebecca Saltzman, Bay Area Rapid Transit director for district 3, about what agencies are doing to avoid falling off this fiscal cliff.

Finally, we’ll continue our series ” Have you met?”…. we’ll meet teacher and comedian, Chris Corrigan as he reflects on the ever changing Bay Area.

Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT for Your Call and then again at 6pm PT for State of the Bay. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!