Last week, the Legislature passed the 2019-2020 budget, which once approved by the Governor in the coming weeks, will set up the first ever worker transition fund in the state geared towards supporting workers in high carbon industries transition to a green economy. We’re excited to see that the legislature’s budget aims to increase access…
Continue ReadingCategory: Climate Jobs
A Roadmap to an Equitable Low Carbon Future: Four Pillars for a Just Transition
Last year, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a groundbreaking report which found that countries must take drastic action within the next twelve years in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Specifically, we must transition to a low carbon economy and we must do this faster than we previously…
Continue ReadingSCOPE Joins the STAND LA Coalition in the Fight to End Oil Drilling in Los Angeles
Throughout its history, the fossil fuel industry has played a major role in the development of the City of Los Angeles. The massive oil fields and high production rates have branded L.A. as the largest urban oil field in the country. While the development of these fields didn’t pose a problem to the city’s 50,000…
Continue ReadingFrom The LA Uprising To The People’s Climate March: Building Power When You Are Under Threat
As a native of Mississippi, I often think of the famous words of Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Twenty-five years ago, a predominantly white jury acquitted the California Highway Patrol officers involved in the brutal beating of Rodney King─an act of police violence that was caught…
Continue ReadingA Grassroots-Led Vision for Equitable Climate Investments in South Los Angeles
In September 2016, SCOPE celebrated the passage of three key climate policy wins that extended California’s climate change goals, increased transparency at the agency overseeing air quality, and increased targeted climate investments for low-income communities, including the creation of the new Transformative Climate Communities Program (TCC). These wins demonstrate the power of environmental justice communities…
Continue ReadingPOWER UP: Path Ways to Careers in the Green Industry
For more than 23 years, SCOPE has worked with strategic partners to create the kind of jobs our communities need—jobs that pay a living wage, offer an opportunity to build towards a career, and uplift the quality of life in South LA. After years of significant wins and the development of successful job models—including IBEW…
Continue ReadingLooking Back on our Work in 2015
For SCOPE, 2015 was a year of victories benefiting working families in Los Angeles, including an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour and the passage of wage theft enforcement policies that protect the city’s most vulnerable workers. 2015 was also the first full year that eligible individuals could change their records under…
Continue ReadingSouth LA LADWP Rate Increase Townhall
On Tuesday November 3rd, SCOPE and the RePower LA Coalition hosted an important and much-needed conversation with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) on their proposed rate increases. With our community room filled to capacity with South Los Angeles community members, this was one of the largest community meetings the LADWP has hosted—and the first of…
Continue ReadingGiving Community Resilience Real-Life Meaning in South LA
What do you think of when you hear the word resiliency? I think of a rubber band being twisted and stretched in all directions. The resilient ones stay in tact, becoming a little looser, adapting to the movement. The not so resilient bands become brittle, breaking with the slightest addition of stress. I think of…
Continue ReadingRealizing the Promise of Solar for South Los Angeles
I recently wrote a piece for Capital and Main about how the Department of Water and Power’s residential rooftop solar initiative has left South L.A., along with Wilmington, Boyle Heights, Pacoima and other communities behind! Read on! Find out where LADWP’s solar incentives actually went and how SCOPE wants to see LADWP’s newest renewable energy…
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