Thread by @sdague

At the Poughkeepsie train station, headed to Washington DC to lobby with @citizensclimate with 1500 others all converging today. Beautiful day for a train ride to our Capitol. #CCL2019 #grassrootsclimate

My chariot for leg one of the trip, framed by the iconic @WOTHSHP.

Imagine if we put a #PriceOnPollution and made trains our default mode for distance travel. What a cool world that would be. #ccl2019

One of the first things you see along the Hudson River is the Danskamer Energy plant. Because there is no #PriceOnPollution they are currently trying to expand operation of the plant.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danskamme…

Building 50 investments in new fossil fuel infrastructure makes no sense if we want a livable future. A #PriceOnPollution would make it clear there were no returns to be made on investments like this. #ccl2019

Next up @WestPoint_USMA. The military has called climate change a threat multiplier, making their job securing our nation that much more difficult.

Why don't we help them out and put a #PriceOnPollution #ccl2019.

How high are those tracks above sea level? In this section of the Hudson it's on about 2 - 3 ft. We'll see that at the latest by end of century, but it's possible we'll see it by 2050. Whenever it happens, we loose this huge piece of Rail infrastructure on the Hudson.

Superstorm Sandy caused a 4 foot surge here, put these tracks underwater, and closed the rails for days. It also delayed barges and caused gasoline shortages through out the region for weeks.

Saving our infrastructure starts with a #PriceOnPollution. #CCL2019 .

The pallisades in full view. Did you know this is a scar of the second worst mass extinction on the planet, probably caused by volcanoes 🌋 releasing incredible amounts of CO2? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E…

So much history and climate here on the Hudson. #CCL2019

We are on a trajectory to send our atmosphere into these prehistoric ranges. This will not be a planet we know.

Let's put a #PriceOnPollution and bring these under control. #CCL2019

That should be 50 year investments. My kingdom for a Twitter edit button

Arrived at Penn Station, waiting for my next leg. It will be my first time on the Acela.

The train leaving before me heads up past where I grew up in central Vermont.

Vermont has a heartbreaking relationship with #climatechange. My parents live in the section that was battered by Hurricane Irene.

They lost power, their substation was washed away down the white river!

And they lost all the roads in. 11 towns became island towns. No way in or out for 4 days.

The electric company had to send a guy on a dirt bike over the mountain to figure out what was going on.

They then rebuilt one dirt mountain road enough to truck in a portable emergency substation to light up power. It took over a year to put most of the roads back.

Most is operative. There is a road in my home town they abandoned. There wasn't enough to fix it.

Which made future infrastructure difficult. When they put up a cell tower years later they needed to go up that old road.

They used horses to pull the fiber through that area to connect the tower.

It still floods in incredible ways up there. Every few years during our visits there we need to avoid the main roads in the valley because some part is under water.

Another #ClimateChange since my child hood, Vermont now has deer ticks and Lyme disease. As a kid I would bushwhack through the woods everywhere, no concern for ticks. They didn't exist in those regions.

That is no more. #CCL2019

The imagery of from Huricane Irene still boggles the mind. And a lot of it was never captured at the height of the storm because you couldn't get to those places - mansfieldheliflight.com/flood/

One last Vermont #climatestory, as we pull out of Penn Station headed to #ccl2019

One of the biggest bits of local politics in Vermont when I was in college was Act 60 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_60_(V…

One of the bigger contributors to property taxes in much of Vermont (and thus school funding) is Ski Areas. 14 towns have Ski Areas, and as such had a tax levy that was something like 1/10 of the other towns.

It was successfully argued in court that this was preventing equal access to education. A whole new funding formula was developed, that became Act 60. eric.ed.gov/?id=ED425505

It shows how much of the economics of the state is driven by winter sports, and why groups like @ProtectWinters endorsed a #PriceOnPollution in HR763.

If we don't act quickly and boldly here, we'll loose that whole industry in the North East. #ccl2019.

Also, fun fact from working at a deli in a ski town in high school. One of the biggest drivers of business is whether is snows in NYC and Conn, not in Vermont. That's what inspires folks to make the trip north.

We're finally up to speed on the Acela, I'd say it's a totally lovely train, and I'd love it if more of our rail infrastructure looked like it.