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The Green Climate Fund uses public sector contributions to help leverage private sector investment in developing country climate solutions.
Anne Kelly, senior program director of policy and BICEP, said:
We applaud the Senate Appropriations Committee's bipartisan action today to support a vital, ambitious contribution to the Green Climate Fund. The Ceres BICEP coalition and members of the Investor Network on Climate Risk have pushed lawmakers for strong U.S. participation in the Green Climate Fund as they recognize its role in allowing developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to cope with the impacts of climate change.
The Green Climate Fund is a critical vehicle for ensuring that we achieve the goals of the Ceres Clean Trillion campaign, which calls to invest $1 trillion dollars a year in clean energy. Consistent U.S. contributions to the Green Climate Fund are essential in order to allow it to reach scale in a timely manner.
We look forward to the final resolution between the House and Senate as the two chambers reconcile remaining differences on the Green Climate Fund contribution and ideally, demonstrate U.S. leadership before the rest of the developed world.
About Ceres
Ceres is a non-profit organization that is mobilizing many of the world's largest investors and companies to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and other global sustainability challenges. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of 120 institutional investors managing about $14 trillion assets focused on the business risks and opportunities of climate change. Ceres also engages with 100-plus companies, many of them Fortune 500 firms, committed to sustainable business practices and the urgency for strong climate and clean energy policies. For more information, visit www.ceres.org or follow on Twitter @CeresNews.]]>
A new Ceres report ranking 30 of the nation's largest electric utilities shows that the top performing utilities on renewable energy sales and energy efficiency savings are typically based in states and regions with more ambitious clean energy policies.
While most of the top scorers are on the coasts, Midwest utilities are catching up, thanks to some important state policy trends. For example, Xcel Energy saw a 15 percent jump in renewable energy sales from 2012 to 2014. Strong renewable portfolio standards in Minnesota and Colorado, where Xcel Energy has a significant presence, were key catalysts for the jump in green energy, which now accounts for 21 percent of its overall sales. Both states are pushing to get 30 percent or more of their energy from renewables. Federal tax credits and innovation in the industry are also helping increase utility clean energy deployment by driving down the prices of renewables. Now, wind, solar, and energy efficiency are some of the cheapest forms of energy throughout the Midwest.
Meanwhile, Michigan is benefiting from policies that reduce energy waste and encourage customers to save energy. Michigan's two major utilities – DTE Energy and CMS Energy – are both achieving over one percent in incremental energy savings each year due to the state's energy optimization standard, which requires utilities to reduce electricity sales by one percent each year. DTE Energy and CMS Energy ranked 6th and 11th in the report's energy efficiency scores, with DTE achieving 1.45 percent in energy savings in 2014 and CMS Energy 1.21 percent in 2014.
The standards are a proven winner for Michigan consumers. According to the Public Service Commission, ratepayers save more than $4 for every $1 of investment in energy efficiency. They also help the state avoid having to build costly new power plants and tap into one of the least cost energy resources—the energy we don't use or need to produce.
While Michigan is making strong progress on clean energy – DTE and CMS both exceeded the state's 10 percent renewable energy standard in 2015 – the legislature can take even bolder action when it considers comprehensive energy legislation later this year. When lawmakers reconvene, they should consider a proposal to achieve a combined renewable energy and energy efficiency goal of 35 percent by 2023 and—a move that will shield businesses and consumers from volatile fossil fuel prices and achieve bigger savings.
No doubt, clean energy is here to stay. Utilities shifting towards clean energy will be best positioned to cope with federal policies pushing the power sector to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. As states begin to implement the EPA's Clean Power Plan—aimed at reducing power sector carbon pollution by a third—states with existing clean energy policies will have an easier time complying with the new rules, since they already have clean energy included in their long range planning.
Utilities in Ohio will have a tougher time complying with the Clean Power Plan since state lawmakers passed a freeze on renewable energy and weakened its energy efficiency standard in 2014. Ceres analysis shows that Ohio's electric utilities were making significant clean energy progress from 2012 through 2014 in ramping up renewable energy and energy efficiency. That progress will be curtailed if the freeze is not lifted.
The clear conclusion of Ceres analysis is that clean energy policies are spurring utility clean energy investments and the states that have been ambitious are seeing the rewards—lower carbon pollution, thousands of new jobs, and reduced costs for consumers.
Alli Gold Roberts is a Manager on Ceres' Policy Program. Follow her on Twitter @alligroberts.]]>
The 2016 Benchmarking Utility Clean Energy analysis ranks the 30 largest electric utility holding companies and their 119 subsidiary companies, which collectively account for about 60 percent of U.S. retail electricity sales. The results show overall advances on renewable energy and energy efficiency in 2014, the latest year for which data is available, with some utilities producing 25 to 35 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other renewables.
Wide disparities in the utilities' clean energy performance remain, however, underscoring the need for swift implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. The plan reduces carbon emissions from electric power plants by 32 percent by 2030.
"Renewable energy and energy efficiency, key building blocks of the Clean Power Plan, are increasingly cost-effective options for electric utilities looking to lower their carbon emissions," said Dan Bakal, director of electric power programs at Ceres, a nonprofit sustainability advocacy organization. "Our analysis shows that the U.S. electric sector is in the midst of an unprecedented shift toward clean energy resources and that state policies are critical for continued progress in achieving national and international climate goals."
Utilities with the strongest results were typically in states with strong clean energy policies, such as Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts and California. The lowest-ranked utilities were mostly in southeast states, such as Alabama and Mississippi, which have weak state policies.
Top and Bottom Ranked U.S. Investor-Owned Electric Utilities on Clean Energy Deployment
Among the 30 holding companies, Sempra, PG&E, Edison International and Xcel ranked the highest for renewable energy sales, accounting for more than half of the total sales. Renewable resources made up more than 20 percent, and in Sempra's case, nearly 36 percent, of the companies' sales in 2014. FPL, American Electric Power, ConEdison and PPL Corp ranked at the bottom, with renewable energy sales accounting for less than two percent of their total retail electricity sales.
Sempra Energy's renewable energy sales grew by more than 55 percent between 2013 and 2014 alone and Pinnacle West's grew by nearly 50 percent, while Eversource and DTE Energy demonstrated growth of more than 25 percent.
"Xcel Energy's positive ranking results from more than a decade of working with our states on clean energy policies," said Frank Prager, vice president, Policy and Federal Affairs for Xcel Energy. "We continue to focus on our customers' growing desire for clean, renewable energy while demonstrating that we can successfully integrate these resources reliably and at a reasonable cost. It's an approach that is significantly reducing emissions and ensuring a more sustainable energy future for our communities."
"Californians care a lot about clean energy, and we want to be an active partner in making the transition to a low-carbon economy as quickly as possible," said Melissa Lavinson, chief sustainability officer and vice president of federal affairs for PG&E. "Our showing in the Ceres rankings reflects our commitment to addressing the urgent challenge of climate change, while also helping our customers to use less energy and save money."
Energy efficiency top performers among the holding companies include Eversource Energy, PG&E, Portland General Electric, National Grid and Pinnacle West. Each achieved annual savings of at least 1.5 percent of their total retail electric sales, while also helping their customers save on their energy bills. Dominion Resources, FPL, Entergy, and Southern Co and OGE Energy were among the weakest performers.
Continued investment in energy efficiency and zero-carbon energy is central to Exelon's effort to build the next generation energy grid and drive the transition to clean energy," said Chris Gould, Exelon's senior vice president, corporate strategy, and chief innovation and sustainability officer. "Exelon continuously works to identify new innovations and smart technologies to give customers greater access to clean energy and tools to help them use energy more efficiently."
Among the report's other key findings:
"Seeing the leaps the renewable energy leaders have made in just two years has been amazing," said Ron Pernick, Managing Director of Clean Edge, a clean-tech research and advisory firm, which co-authored the report with Ceres. "Governments, corporations, and individual customers continue to demand clean, efficient energy, and some utilities are answering that call."
The report is available for download at www.ceres.org/cleanenergyreport.
About Ceres
Ceres is a non-profit organization that is mobilizing many of the world's largest investors and companies to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and other global sustainability challenges. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of 120 institutional investors managing about $14 trillion assets focused on the business risks and opportunities of climate change. Ceres also engages with 100-plus companies, many of them Fortune 500 firms, committed to sustainable business practices and the urgency for strong climate and clean energy policies. For more information, visit www.ceres.org or follow on Twitter @CeresNews.
About Clean Edge
Clean Edge, Inc., founded in 2000, is the world's first research and advisory firm devoted to the clean-tech sector. The company benchmarks and tracks the clean-energy economy by delivering stock indexes, utility and consumer surveys, and regional (state and metro) leadership tracking. These services provide companies, investors, NGOs, and governments with timely research, trending analysis, and actionable insights. Managing director Ron Pernick and senior editor Clint Wilder are co-authors of the widely acclaimed business books The Clean Tech Revolution (HarperCollins, 2007) and Clean Tech Nation (HarperCollins, 2012). To keep abreast of the latest clean-energy trends, or for more information on the company, visit www.cleanedge.com and follow us on Twitter @CleanEdgeInc.]]>
The study, Economic Implications of the Current National Program vs. a Weakened National Program in 2022-2025 for Detroit Three Automakers and Tier One Suppliers, was announced just days before federal agencies are expected to release a new technical assessment report regarding a midterm review of light-duty fuel-efficiency and carbon emissions standards.
The analysts modeled five fuel price scenarios to project what would happen to automakers' profits and suppliers' orders if current fuel-efficiency targets requiring real-world fleet averages of 37 to 39 miles per gallon by 2025 were to stay in place, and what would happen if the government were to weaken the standards during the current statutory midterm review of the policy.
Click here to download a PDF factsheet with top findings.
"In all of our fuel price scenarios (from Very Low to High), the auto industry would be profitable if current standards stay in place," said Alan Baum, one of the brief's authors and principal of the automotive forecasting and research consultancy Baum & Associates. "What's more, according to our research, weakening the standards could hurt the bottom line for automakers and their suppliers because their vehicles may be less competitive than those offered by other automakers."
The Ceres analysis shows that at fuel prices of $2.60 per gallon or higher, consumers would value fuel savings as much or more than any additional costs that might be passed onto them in the form of higher vehicle prices (though consumers' valuation of fuel savings is less that the actual savings they would see).
When gas prices are higher, fuel efficiency is an even easier sell. Research shows that consumers will pay a premium for fuel efficiency when fuel prices are at or above $3 per gallon. So if gas prices reach that level, automakers can increase their profits by adding that premium to the price of their more fuel-efficient vehicles, according to the brief.
But even if gas prices tank, falling 25 percent below U.S. Energy Information Administration projections to an unlikely $1.80 per gallon, the analysts found that automakers and their suppliers would still make money under the current mileage and emissions standards.
"When gas is very cheap, people tend to buy bigger, more profitable trucks," said co-author and independent auto industry analyst Dan Luria. "With gas at $1.80 by 2025, the automakers would still be highly profitable thanks to that shift toward trucks."
Standards that encourage making more fuel-efficient cars also offer a hedge against gas-price spikes.
"U.S. automakers have been caught flat-footed before, when prices at the pump rose and they weren't ready with the kind of fuel-efficient vehicles buyers wanted,"
said Carol Lee Rawn, who directs Ceres' Transportation Program. "Strong fuel economy standards offer insurance against future gas price spikes."
The analysts found that if standards were weakened such that they effectively stall at 2021 levels, the industry could be vulnerable to another gas prices spike. In that event, the Detroit Three automakers could lose 300,000 vehicle sales, $1.08 billion in profits, and 1.9 points in U.S. market share to other companies offering more fuel-efficient options. And suppliers could lose up to $1.42 billion in sales of fuel-efficient technologies.
Keeping standards in place offers certainty for businesses and consumers, which makes it easier for automakers and suppliers to plan and invest. As of April, 2016, automakers employed 214,700 Americans, while their suppliers provided more than two and a half times more jobs.
About Ceres
Ceres is a nonprofit group mobilizing many of the world's largest companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and other sustainability challenges. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of over 120 institutional investors with collective assets totaling more than $14 trillion. Ceres also engages with 100-plus companies, many of them Fortune 500 firms, committed to sustainable business practices and the urgency for stronger climate and clean energy policies. For more information visit: www.ceres.org or follow on Twitter @CeresNews.]]>
But the watershed, which provides Los Angeles County with 70 percent of its open space and roughly 35 percent of its water, is in trouble – because of drought and the effect of the 3 million visitors drawn annually to the San Gabriel Mountains for fishing, hunting and other outdoor activities. The Forest Service does not have the resources to keep up with demand, and the once-bountiful region is vulnerable to trash, crowding, wildfires and heavy foot traffic, which can impede the watershed's ability to recharge.
Building on earlier efforts, the National Forest Foundation (NFF) launched the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument Fund in 2015 to expand critical restoration and stewardship projects for the region. Just last year, President Obama declared the region a national monument, permanently protecting the popular outdoor recreation destination.
Many companies have since thrown their support behind NFF's mission, including Coca-Cola. Like many local businesses, production facilities and millions of residents in greater Los Angeles, the company depends on the San Gabriel watershed.
It's no secret that Coca-Cola uses a lot of water to produce its beverages – including its popular water brand, Dasani. The water used to make the products is locally sourced, bottled and distributed by facilities in Downey and Los Angeles. Every 33 fl oz (1 liter) of beverage produced requires approximately 57 fl oz (1.7 liters) of water (in the U.S.). But faced with a changing world, the company has taken steps to reduce its water footprint, such as aiming to improve water efficiency in manufacturing operations by 25 percent by 2020 compared with a 2010 baseline, and by returning as much water to nature as it uses, by 2020.
The snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains look over Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. The mountains are a critical watershed for the L.A. area. (Nick Ut, AP)
Representing a next level in corporate water stewardship, Coca-Cola is partnering with government and the local community. It demonstrates how corporate America can help tackle challenging water issues.
Coca-Cola has invested $930,000 in restoring a portion of the San Gabriel watershed, establishing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Forest Service to invest in riparian restoration by working with the service's local office as well as youth conservation corps.
Coca-Cola's financial support, and volunteer teams, have helped remove Arundo donax, or giant cane, an invasive plant in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers that sucks up five times more water than native species. The success of these efforts translates to 129 million gallons (490 million liters) of "replenished water" – worth nearly 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Coca-Cola has also supported NFF and the Forest Service for mountain meadow restoration and stream channel improvements, the effects of which total more than 265 million gallons (1 billion liters) of water back to nature.
Such watershed restoration alleviates some of the pressure on the strained Colorado River, which provides drinking water for some 19 million of California's 39 million residents. California currently uses nearly one-third of the entire river's flow, but it may well face steep cuts to its supply in the near future. Lake Mead, the reservoir storing southern California's share of the Colorado, reached its lowest point since 1937 this year, and experts say there is a 64 percent chance the water level in Lake Mead will drop low enough to trigger a federal emergency provision by 2019.
Restoring more watersheds like San Gabriel can help California recharge local aquifers and maximize its water supplies to better ensure a more sustainable water future, with reduced needs for imports from afar.
Corporate investment in the San Gabriel watershed restoration project reflects the next level of water stewardship. It's not enough for companies to focus only on water conservation within their own four walls. Engaging at the watershed level and working collaboratively with other stakeholders is what will make a significant difference for generations to come.]]>
"Today's announcement by PG&E leads the way in demonstrating that when a nuclear power plant is retired, we don't have to assume that fossil fuel power plants will replace it. In taking this step, PG&E is once again exerting its clean energy leadership while ensuring that it will continue to provide the affordable and reliable power that its customers demand."
"PG&E's decision also sends an important message that even ambitious clean energy policies – such as California's requirement that 50 percent of its power come from renewable energy by 2030 – are necessary, but not sufficient if we are to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement's goal of limiting global average temperature increases to less than two-degrees Celsius. Business leaders have an important role to play in maximizing clean energy opportunities."]]>
Annual general meetings at the world's largest fossil fuel companies are usually a time for reflecting on strategies to increase revenues for the coming year, global energy outlooks, and governance. But last week's annual meetings at ExxonMobil and Chevron were different. They represented a watershed moment in combating the threats posed by climate change.
Resolutions were put before shareholders requesting that Exxon and Chevron stress test their capital spending and business strategies against low oil demand scenarios consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global temperature increases to below two degrees Celsius.
Investors in Chevron and Exxon backed these resolutions in record numbers: 41 percent and 38 percent, respectively. The Exxon result was especially impressive given the company's initial efforts to kill the resolution and then, when that failed, trying to convince shareholders to vote against it.
The votes send a powerful message that investors see climate change as a material financial risk that requires a rapid transition to a low-carbon future—a future that will invariably require far less use of fossil fuels. As one of Exxon's competitors, France's Total, said in its own analysis released one day before Exxon's meeting, "The 2°C scenario highlights the fact that a part of the world's fossil fuel resources cannot be developed. Total's growth strategy takes this into account."
Support for these common sense resolutions was not surprising. The proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis announced recommendations favoring the resolutions at Exxon and Chevron and, this month, Occidental Petroleum and AES Energy announced the highest-ever US votes among shareholders in support of climate risk resolutions. Despite this groundswell, however, Exxon unsuccessfully petitioned the SEC to block the resolutions and attempted to convince shareholders to ignore every scientific and economic argument being made by analysts, academics, and even its peers.
Take Statoil and ConocoPhillips, for example, which predict that under a two-degree scenario future oil demand will be in the range of 74-80 million barrels per day by mid-century. Exxon predicts consumption of 105 million barrels per day. Given that a mismatch between supply and demand of only a few million barrels per day caused the current price plunge, it's clear Exxon is planning for a very different oil price future than its competitors—an assumption that puts shareholders at risk.
Exxon executives have tried to paint the climate risk resolution as an initiative of activists or environmentalists, but that's a clear misrepresentation. The effort was led by many of the world's largest institutional investors, including the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), which owns more than US$1 billion worth of Exxon stock.
Investors are simply asking Exxon and Chevron to put prudent risk management measures in place that will position them for the low-carbon energy transition. Of particular concern is continued capital spending on high-cost, high-carbon projects with long timelines for development that likely won't go to market as global oil demand weakens.
So what exactly do investors want from these two companies? Let's take a look at changes that shareholders have helped achieve at ConocoPhillips and Total.
ConocoPhillips now incorporates four different low-carbon scenarios into their planning and—just a few months after releasing those scenarios to investors—they decided to completely abandon deepwater drilling. This is significant from a risk-management perspective since deepwater drilling has hugely expensive up-front capital costs and long lead times.
Last week Total released its own two-degree scenario trajectory, which resulted in a decision to end Arctic drilling. The company says it will no longer chase high-cost barrels of oil, but rather will focus on generating supply that meets demand for five to 10 years. The company, which is aiming to shift 20 percent of its portfolio to renewable energy, is also steering significant capital into a battery company and major ownership in a solar company.
Part of what made the resolutions at Exxon and Chevron so successful was the close transatlantic partnership between sustainability nonprofits such as Ceres and IIGCC, and shareholders in Europe and the US, who demonstrated a strong commitment to achieve the Paris climate accord's goals, and to forcing commensurate company action.
Investors have learned through their engagements with the European oil majors that change is possible, and that it takes a long-term, concerted effort to change business practices that have been engrained for decades. While nobody expects fossil fuel companies to become clean energy companies overnight, they do need to make prudent spending decisions that recognize the impacts of the accelerating clean energy transition.
Fossil fuel companies should not feel they are alone in being asked to confront these issues. Ceres is working across many sectors, encouraging companies to transition towards a low-carbon future, including electricity producers, automakers, even insurance companies.
We're at a unique moment where a wide range of groups are asking tough questions of the world's most powerful companies, about their business models and their impact on the world. At Ceres, we have been making the business case about climate risk for the past two decades and it is exciting to see capital markets starting to shift.
Last week's progress at the Exxon and Chevron annual meetings is a great first step, but more substantive responses from this country's two largest oil producers are clearly needed. Investors will continue pressuring them to take meaningful steps like their peers.
Statement from Ceres Oil and Gas Program Director Andrew Logan:
Today's strong votes at Exxon and Chevron send a powerful message that investors see climate change as a material financial risk, which underscores the ongoing momentum post-Paris and urgency to prepare for a low-carbon transition. Heading into the meeting, investors managing more than $10 trillion in assets voiced their support for these resolutions, placing substantial pressure on the boards of these companies to change direction as the world moves toward a low-carbon future.
Given the significant resources Exxon spent fighting this proposal, such a strong vote is a real rebuke to company management. Investors have sent a clear message that meaningful 2 degree stress testing is the new norm for risk reporting, and companies like Exxon and Chevron can no longer act as if nothing has changed.
Moving forward, investors expect Exxon and Chevron to come to the table and collaborate to prepare meaningful disclosures to assess the risks and opportunities presented by the energy transition.]]>
At a congressional briefing, top executives from Ben & Jerry's, Clif Bar, Kellogg Company, Mars Incorporated, PepsiCo, Stonyfield, and Unilever discussed how climate change is disrupting global food supplies and their own supply chains. They called on lawmakers to acknowledge the ways in which rising temperatures are impacting their businesses and to act swiftly to reach bipartisan solutions to tackle this threat.
"At Kellogg, we know people care about where food comes from, who grows and makes it, and that there is enough for everyone," said Diane Holdorf, Chief Sustainability Officer, Kellogg Company. "Climate change can impact both food security and our business by posing risks to the long-term health and viability of the ingredients we use in our foods."
The briefing was organized by the sustainability nonprofit group, Ceres, and led by climate action supporters, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. and Rep. Chris Gibson, R-N.Y. Last September, Gibson with 10 of his republican colleagues in the House introduced a promising resolution, urging lawmakers to act on climate change.
"I want to thank Ceres for its advocacy and for partnering with leaders in the private sector and government to reach bipartisan solutions on our changing climate," said Gibson. "I look forward to working together so that we can help alleviate our carbon footprint on the natural world and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Since 2009, Ceres' has been working with food and beverage companies and other consumer brands through its advocacy coalition, Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy, BICEP, to push lawmakers to pass climate and clean energy legislation.
"This is the kind of bipartisan leadership we need in Congress if we are going to fight the greatest threat to our global economy," said Anne Kelly, Senior Director of Policy and BICEP Program at Ceres. "But we need more policymakers to move quickly on meaningful solutions, and when they do, Ceres and these companies will be right behind them."
The food and beverage executives shared their best business practices for dealing with climate change and other sustainability threats. They also updated congressional leaders on their climate and clean energy commitments post-Paris.
Last fall, food and beverage executives pledged to do their part to improve sustainability in their businesses, while urging U.S. and world leaders to back climate action and the historic Paris Agreement. In April, more than 170 countries signed the agreement, which sets a goal of keeping global warming well under two-degrees Celsius.]]>
Last winter's rain and snow didn't come close to solving our water deficit, and we need to think outside the box.
Ultra-purified wastewater is a resource we should be tapping. It's cleaner than you might think. The City of San Diego conducted a water purification test of highly treated wastewater in 2012 and found the treated water to be even cleaner than imported water. In fact, I drank a glass of this highly purified water on a visit to the West Basin Municipal Water District not too long ago. It tasted like, well, water.
California has slowly but steadily increased its use of recycled water since it first passed the Water Recycling Act of 1991, which set a goal of recycling 1 million acre-feet (1.2 billion cubic meters) of water by 2010, with an interim goal of 700,000 acre-feet by 2000.
State agencies spent the next decade trying to achieve that goal, but fell short, according to Alf Brandt, the senior counsel to California assembly speaker Anthony Rendon, who recently spoke on a Ceres webcast about the generation-long history of recycled water in California.
By the 2005-06 legislative session, Brandt said, it had become clear that 1 million acre-feet by 2010 would not be achieved.
The "next generation" of recycled water targets came in 2009 with the adoption of the State Resources Control Board's recycled water policy, which set a goal to increase annual use of recycled water over 2002 levels by at least 1 million acre-feet by 2020 and at least 2 million by 2030. I worked on the policy during my tenure at nonprofit organization Heal the Bay and it was seen as a huge step in the right direction that opened the door to increasing the sue of recycled water from municipal wastewater sources.
But based on the last survey of water recycling conducted in 2009, we've only reached about 670,000 acre-feet, according to Karen Larsen, deputy director of the State Water Resources Control Board's Division of Water Quality, who also spoke on the webcast. A new survey is expected early next year.
It seems hard to imagine we'll meet the 2020 goal, given our incremental progress over the last few decades – although recent drought conditions and new funding opportunities may have prompted a heightened interest in recycled water use.
The legislature is making progress in overcoming some of the institutional obstacles to water recycling, even as the State Water Board tackles some of those obstacles by developing standards for potable water reuse for groundwater recharge, surface water augmentation and even direct potable reuse.
The current drought has spurred closer attention to recycled water as an available resource, and the public seems more willing to accept its use according to a recent poll.
In 2014, voters passed Proposition 1, which set aside $7.5 billion in funds for state water supply infrastructure projects, including $725 million devoted to water recycling. Recycled water currently makes up 7 percent of California's annual water demand, according to Larsen, but the state can increase that.
Businesses can also play a role in advancing water recycling. The biotechnology company Genentech far surpassed its 2009–14 water-efficiency goal – to reduce the water used per kilogram of product by 10 percent in five years – cutting water use by 87 percent in that time, according to Genentech's sustainability manager Katie Excoffier. The dramatic increase in efficiency was partly driven by a project to capture reverse-osmosis reject water and to use it in a cooling tower.
Now Genentech has its sights set on increasing recycled water use to help the company meet its 10-year goal of reducing, by 2020, total potable water use by 20 percent. Genentech currently uses recycled water in some of its cooling towers and is working on several fronts to expand the use of recycled water at its 60-building campus in south San Francisco. Purple pipes to carry recycled water are being installed as a part of all construction projects, including the new employee center set to open in the fall of 2016.
"We're making the business case for water recycling," Excoffier explained on the webcast. Taking into account intangibles like resiliency, business risk and employees' passion for water conservation, she said, water recycling becomes a more compelling sell for the company as a whole.
To encourage greater use of recycled water by businesses and municipalities alike, Sen. Robert Hertzberg introduced S.B. 163 into the state Senate. This would amend California's water code to define discharging treated wastewater into the ocean as water waste and to require treatment facilities to recycle at least 50 percent of water discharges by 2026 and 100 percent by 2036. The potential for savings is enormous.
In the State Assembly, member Mike Gatto has continued his efforts to speed adoption of recycled water with A.B. 1463, which would allow residential and commercial buildings to use wastewater that has been treated on site in irrigation, landscaping, flushing toilets and cleaning.
As we enter another year that will likely prolong our drought, we are encouraged to see these signs of progress, and encourage you to share your stories with us. Ceres' Connect the Drops campaign spotlights the role that businesses can play in water conservation, reuse and management. Tell us your story at ceres.org/connectthedrops.]]>
Authored by the nonprofit sustainability group Ceres in collaboration with investment consulting firm Mercer, the report analyzes fossil fuel holdings of the top 40 U.S. insurance groups, whose collective investments in coal, oil & gas and electric/gas utilities are worth $459 billion. The insurers' investment data reflects information from insurers' 2014 year-end statutory filings. Many of the insurance groups analyzed had significantly higher fossil fuel fixed-income investments than the benchmark Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.
"The global trend toward clean energy has significant implications for fossil fuel companies and their investors if action is not taken to manage climate risks," said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk. "Our hope is the report recommendations provide a roadmap for insurers and regulators to better manage these risks and seize opportunities that come from this energy transformation."
The report comes as fossil fuel holdings have shown to be increasingly risky. Sixty-nine North American oil & gas producers have filed for bankruptcy since the beginning of 2015. Also, a Ceres' analysis found that over 70 percent of the top oil and gas companies invested in by the 10 largest insurance groups and rated by Moody's or S&P have been subject to some sort of credit downgrade in 2015 and 2016. Even ExxonMobil lost its triple-A bond rating last month.
Key findings from, Assets or Liabilities? Fossil Fuel Investments of Leading U.S. Insurers, include:
Wide-ranging differences in oil/gas holdings are found among U.S. insurance groups. There are wide variations in concentrations of fossil fuel holdings among the 40 insurance groups Ceres analyzed. Insurance groups such as Ameriprise (12.4%), Lincoln National (11.8%) and Voya Financial (10.9%) had oil & gas bond holdings of well over 10 percent, more than double the median bond portfolio concentrations of the overall group (5.1%). Four groups had concentrations at 2 percent or less, the lowest being Progressive (0.2%)
The vast majority of the insurers' oil & gas investments —81 percent of $221 billion—were held in bonds issued by companies used to finance extraction and other capital expenditures, as well working capital. Recently, at least one of the largest oil & gas companies—ExxonMobil—has been selling bonds to cover the cost of shareholder dividends.
Big differences found in electric/gas utilities holdings, as well. The report also saw a wide range in electric/gas utilities bond holdings, with the highest concentrations held by John Hancock (16.8%), Pacific Life (16.0%) and Lincoln National (14.4%). Lowest were Progressive (.5%) and QBE (0%). However, this report does not take into account the fuel mix of these utilities.
Coal investments are small, while clean energy holdings should be larger. Coal is a minuscule part of insurers' overall holdings, accounting for only $1.8 billion, four times less than the $7.2 billion invested in renewable energy. Insurers' renewable energy investments, while growing do not yet reflect the scale of clean energy investment opportunities required to avoid dangerous climate change. A Mercer study cites huge opportunities in clean energy, with average expected annual returns expected to increase from over six percent to as high as 10 percent.
The risks are especially pronounced in wake of the 2015 Paris climate deal; it has been estimated that a third of oil reserves, half of natural gas reserves and over 80 percent of coal reserves from 2010 to 2050 will need to remain unused in order to meet COP21's goal of limiting global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius.
"Our analysis suggests that a carbon emissions trajectory consistent with a 2 degree pathway – which the entire world supported in the Paris Agreement –would reduce the revenues of the upstream fossil-fuel industry globally by a cumulative $33 trillion by 2040 (in constant 2014 U.S. dollars) relative to the current trajectory the world is on," said Mark Lewis, managing director of European Utilities Research at Barclays Investment Bank. "This number is simply too big for investors to ignore and should galvanize investor engagement with fossil fuel companies on the risk of stranded assets."
The report provides several recommendations for insurers and regulators to manage these risks, calling on insurance board of directors to make climate risk management an integral part of their investment decision-making. It is recommended that boards consider requiring the insurers' Investment Policy Statement (IPS) to explicitly include a climate risk management strategy, which should be reviewed on a regular basis.
"Using a bottom-up approach to determine the fossil fuel exposures of equity and bond portfolios is a key step insurance groups ought to consider taking to better understand the potential risk of their investments to climate change," said Deb Clarke, global head of research at Mercer. "Coupled with top-down climate change modelling approaches such as described in Mercer's Investing in a Time of Climate Change report would reveal even more about portfolio climate resilience."
Insurance regulators, who are responsible for the financial soundness of insurers, should require insurers to disclose their investments. It is recommended that regulators adopt a universally recognized source for insurers to provide this information-- for example, within their Supplemental Investment Risks Interrogatories.
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones called on all insurers operating in California to publicly disclose carbon-based investments annually in January of this year.
"As nations, states, and local governments across the world adopt more policies to restrict the burning of carbon in the face of climate change, there is a risk that investments in coal, oil and gas will become stranded assets of diminishing or no value. It is important for insurers to take action to identify and evaluate their potential investment exposure to climate change risks, both of which are necessary before implementing strategies to reduce climate risks," said Commissioner Jones, who spoke at today's news conference on the report. "That's why I've called on all insurers to identify and publicly disclose their carbon-based investments annually and encourage other state insurance commissioners to take the same action."
"U.S. insurance regulators have demonstrated leadership on the issue of climate change-related risks through new disclosure requirements and revised examination processes," added Cynthia McHale, the report's lead author and director of Ceres' insurance program. "To ensure financial stability in a time of growing carbon asset risk, regulators should now consider a number of new actions to make carbon asset risk management part of insurer financial supervision and market oversight."
To read a complete list of findings and recommendations, download the full report: http://www.ceres.org/resources/reports/assets-or-liabilities-fossil-fuel-investments-of-leading-u.s.-insurers/view
Ceres is a nonprofit organization mobilizing many of the world's largest companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and other sustainability challenges. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of more than 120 institutional investors with collective assets totaling more than $14 trillion. Ceres also engages with 100-plus companies, many of them Fortune 500 firms, committed to sustainable business practices and the urgency for stronger climate and clean energy policies. For more information, visit http://www.ceres.org or follow on Twitter @CeresNews]]>
Exxon Mobil Corporation
5959 Las Colinas Boulevard
Irving, Texas 75039-2298
May 16, 2016
Dear ExxonMobil Shareholders:
To address comments and questions raised by some shareholders regarding Item 12 - Report on Impacts of Climate Change Policies in ExxonMobil's Proxy Statement, we would like to emphasize the following:
1. ExxonMobil's Outlook for Energy, available at www.exxonmobil.com/energyoutlook, is not a "business as usual" forecast of global energy supply/demand. It includes impacts from anticipated government policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are consistent with the nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement, and in fact anticipates further government actions beyond those committed under the Paris Agreement. In other words, the Company's Outlook, which is reviewed and updated annually, does encompass the results of COP 21 in its planning basis. ExxonMobil's projected energy demand and sources of supply as detailed in the Outlook are generally consistent with other third-party forecasting organizations, such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) as well as published reports by industry peers.
|Ceres Response: Exxon's most recent Outlook for Energy does not include a scenario consistent with the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement established a commitment from all 195 nations to keep global average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees. This simple chart shows that Exxon's forecasted demand for oil is far in excess of the projections by other reputable sources for demand for oil under a 2 degree scenario.
2. ExxonMobil has already reported on the potential impact of a "low carbon scenario" (representative of a 2 degree Celsius scenario as requested by proponents) in its 2014 published white paper, entitled Energy and Carbon – Managing the Risks (http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/current-issues/climate-policy/climate-perspectives/engagement-to-address-climate-change). As that paper shows (Page 11), even in IEA's 450 scenario, which represents an energy pathway consistent with 2 degree Celsius, significant hydrocarbon investment will be necessary to meet demand requirements.
Ceres Response: Exxon made this claim when it asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow it to exclude Item 12 from the proxy statement. The Securities and Exchange Commission rejected this argument out of hand, explaining: "[I]t does not appear that ExxonMobil's public disclosures compare favorably with the guidelines of the proposal."
The mere fact that some level of oil and gas will be needed under a 2 degree scenario does not provide any indication of whether ExxonMobil's supply will be economically competitive. Given recent changes in market strategies by Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Russia, investors need to know how ExxonMobil's portfolio of resources and planned projects would compete against other market players in a lower demand scenario.The full text of the correspondence with the SEC, ExxonMobil, and the filers is available here.
3. Our investments are "stress tested" across a broad range of economic variables, not just a single scenario, to help ensure economic viability, resilience, and long-term value creation.
|Ceres Response: We are glad to see ExxonMobil acknowledge that "stress testing" such as that requested by the shareholder proposal is an important part of capital planning. Investors are simply asking that ExxonMobil provide them with a public report of such stress testing including decision-useful information about the impacts on ExxonMobil's portfolio so that investors can assess ExxonMobil's business strategy and capital planning. ExxonMobil's peers, including Shell, BP, Statoil, Total, ConocoPhillips, and BHP Billiton have all begun to provide some level of reporting on such stress testing to investors to assure them that they are preparing for the energy transition.
4. ExxonMobil actively participates in a coalition of oil and gas producers, the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA). IPIECA addresses the pathway to a low carbon emissions future in its Paris Puzzle publication (www.ipieca.org/paris-puzzle), publicly addressing the same topic as the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) but through a structured, long-established organization that has standing with the United Nations and whose members provide close to 60% of the world's energy.
|Ceres Response: ExxonMobil has not provided any indication that it is positively engaging with trade associations, governments, or the United Nations to support policies that limit global average temperature rise to less than 2 degrees. Rather, ExxonMobil publicly refused to join the OGCI's calls for carbon pricing and support for the 2 degree target ahead of the Paris Conference.
5. ExxonMobil maintains committed research in low carbon emission technologies including algae and carbon capture and sequestration. More information can be found at www.exxonmobil.com/technology.
|Ceres Response: While we are pleased to see ExxonMobil investing in low-carbon R&D, the company does not provide any details on how much of its spending is devoted to low-carbon initiatives, making it impossible for investors to assess their significance.
In summary, we believe that ExxonMobil's current processes sufficiently test the portfolio to ensure long-term shareholder value and resilience, and we remain confident in the commercial viability of our portfolio. For further discussion on this proposal and other important items, please review our proxy materials at www.exxonmobil.com/proxymaterials.
Ceres Response: ISS and Glass Lewis, the major proxy advisory firms, have both recommended that investors vote in favor of Item 12, and investors representing $10T in assets have also come out publicly in favor of the proposal.
ExxonMobil's current processes do not allow shareholders to engage with its board nor do those processes provide any details regarding the company's commercial viability under scenarios other than the one laid out in its annual energy outlook.
For more information please view the proxy memos prepared by the Church of England, the Vermont Pension Investment Committee and CalPERS.
Thank you for your continued support.
Proceeds from the USD $240 million Wastewater Revenue Bond will fund eligible projects in sustainable stormwater management and wastewater projects included in the SFPUC Sewer System Improvement Program (SSIP) Phase1. International research and analysis firm Sustainalytics has provided third-party verification that the SFPUC bond conforms with the Climate Bonds Standard.
"Climate Bonds Certification for this wastewater bond, a US and global first, is an important evolutionary step for green infrastructure financing, said Harlan Kelly Jr General Manager SFPUC. "Our City's sewer system was built to last a hundred years; it's only fitting that we use the latest, most innovative financing techniques to ensure our infrastructure can overcome future environmental challenges while meeting the needs of our community for the next 100 years."
"Having a prominent public authority like SFPUC issue the first bond certified against the Water Climate Bonds Standard is a tremendous vote of confidence. It's a public demonstration that the Standard provides verifiable, science-based criteria for evaluating water-related bonds that are relevant and applicable for the international bond market," said Sean Kidney, CEO, Climate Bonds Initiative." SFPUC is leading by example with this certified bond issuance; they open a path for other public authorities to issue certified climate bonds for water projects."
"San Francisco's leadership in issuing the first certified green water bond is a historic step in advancing this nascent but important market to finance sustainable water infrastructure," said Mindy Lubber, president of the nonprofit group Ceres, who collaborated with Climate Bonds Initiative and others to develop the standard. "Water infrastructure is vastly underfunded and it's especially so with sustainable water infrastructure, which is critical for helping us adapt to the extremes of climate change. Enacting this standard will be extremely helpful in catalyzing credible growth in this hugely important market."
A report issued by California Treasurer John Chiang in February estimated that California's infrastructure "funding gap" for water is about USD $24 billion.
"I am working to grow the green bond market in California and the United States. There is great demand for environmentally related securities. Unfortunately, the supply remains tight, limiting our ability to finance critical projects for combatting climate change. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission waste water green bonds, which have been certified as meeting the "Climate Bonds Standard," are a step toward meeting this market need," said California State Treasurer John Chiang.
Water bonds are a subset of "green bonds," a fast-growing financial instrument for earmarking private financing to fund environmental projects. The green bond market has grown rapidly since the first issuance less than ten years ago, reaching USD $41.8 billion globally in 2015.
"We see green bonds as a fantastic way to seek performance and impact for our clients in one package, and standards on certification and reporting are essential. The SFPUC's issuance of a certified green bond is a big step forward—we strongly believe that bonds like this will spur credible growth in this important market and boost investor confidence that green bonds are producing positive and meaningful environmental impact," said Amy Hauter, ESG Research Analyst at Brown Advisory.
The Water Climate Bonds Criteria were created to provide investors with verifiable, science-based metrics for evaluating bonds earmarked for financing sustainable water infrastructure projects. The Criteria will also help corporate, municipal and other bond issuers expand their green bond offerings into water-related projects. These criteria can be used to evaluate projects as diverse as energy or industrial water efficiency, reuse, catchment or watershed restoration and or large-scale water supply infrastructure development.
Notes for Journalists:
About Ceres: Ceres is a nonprofit organization mobilizing many of the world's largest companies and investors to take stronger action on climate change, water scarcity and other sustainability challenges. Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of over 120 institutional investors with collective assets totaling more than $14 trillion. Ceres also engages with 100-plus companies, many of them Fortune 500 firms, committed to sustainable business practices and the urgency for stronger climate and clan energy policies. For more information, visit www.ceres.org or follow on Twitter @CeresNews.
About Climate Bonds Initiative: The Climate Bonds Initiative is an investor-focused not-for-profit, promoting large-scale investment in the low-carbon economy. Information regarding certification of this SFPUC bond can be found here.
About SFPUC: The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is the third largest municipal utility agency in California providing retail drinking water and wastewater services to San Francisco, wholesale water to three Bay Area counties, and green hydroelectric and solar power to retail customers and municipal departments. More information.
The SFPUC's Wastewater Enterprise maintains a combined sewage and storm water collection, treatment and disposal system, which includes three treatment plants and 993 miles of combined sewers for homes, businesses, and street runoff. More information here.
About Climate Bonds Standard: Climate Bonds Standard is an overarching multi-sector standard that allows investors and intermediaries to have confidence in the environmental integrity of bonds labelled as green and or funding low carbon development. There are pre-issuance requirements, post-issuance requirements and a streamlined certification process to match the tempo of the mainstream debt capital markets.
About the Water Criteria: In partnership with Ceres, the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, CDP, and the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Climate Bonds Initiative has developed a new Water Climate Bonds Criteria with a focus on vulnerability assessment, climate mitigation and adaptation planning in the fixed income space.
Background to Climate Bonds Sector Criteria: The Climate Bonds Sector Criteria are developed by Technical Working Groups of academics and experts relevant to the sector.
Sector specific criteria are also fully functioning for solar, wind, low carbon buildings, geothermal and low carbon transport. Standards for bioenergy and agriculture & forestry are awaiting board approval having undergone public consultation.
This is surely the case as global businesses grapple with sustainability pressures like climate change, water risks and human rights challenges.
Just as the urgency and complexity of these threats are increasing, operating environments for businesses are also changing dramatically.
From the historic climate agreement forged by 195 countries in Paris to the international community's endorsement of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, governments worldwide are now unified on the urgency for realizing a low-carbon future and providing decent work and economic growth for all.
Today's world is markedly different from 2010, when we launched our Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability, with 20 specific expectations for sustainable corporations in the 21 st century.
That's why we — at our annual conference in Boston earlier this month — announced updated Ceres Roadmap expectations calling for accelerated action on key issues, including climate and clean energy, natural resource protections and fair, safe and equitable workplaces.
For example, we are now calling for companies to secure not just 30 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, but to shoot for as high as 100 percent by 2030, as 50-plus companies participating in the RE100 initiative have already done. We are also calling on companies to look beyond their direct operations, by including their vast supply chains, in protecting scarce water resources and human rights.
A snapshot of the Ceres Roadmap
Time and time again at our two-day conference, I was reminded of why these expectations are both urgently necessary and achievable. I heard countless examples of powerful business and industry-wide responses that are putting the world on a new, more hopeful path.
Disruption in the electric power and transportation sectors, for example, is breathtaking.
On the clean transportation front, electric vehicle sales are surging as battery prices drop, vehicle-driving ranges increase and sticker prices fall. Sales jumped by 60 percent last year, with the biggest growth being in China. Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently predicted that by 2040, plug-in vehicles would make up about 35 percent of cars on the road.
"Look at your business, look at your household and think about why an electric vehicle makes sense," Britta Gross, director of advanced vehicle commercialization policy at General Motors, told more than 550 attendees on the first day of the conference. "There's no good reason why there isn't a plug-in vehicle in every driveway in this country right now."
Our updated Ceres Roadmap expectations call on companies to prioritize electric vehicles in their logistics and fleets, and to provide employees with the infrastructure needed to charge their vehicles at work.
I also heard about food companies upping their ambitions on climate and water issues, including General Mills, which is devoting far more attention these days to reducing water and carbon footprints in its vast supply chains compared to five years ago.
"Focusing just on our (direct) operations wasn't enough," John Church, executive vice president of supply chain, at General Mills, told a packed crowd.
We also heard about technological disruptions that are knocking down some of our biggest roadblocks to a sustainable future. The once-sacred idea of car ownership, for example, is losing its luster as ride-sharing options such as Uber take hold in places like China.
"Our business has grown a ton," Uber China's expansion manager Candice Lo said, outlining benefits such as reduced pollution and traffic congestion and less parking pressure in the world's populous country.
But perhaps the most encouraging message that I heard was the critical need for companies to systematically integrate sustainability into their core business.
Harmit Singh, chief financial officer at Levi Strauss & Co., and Mehmood Kahn, chief scientific officer at PepsiCo, both underscored the importance of considering environmental and social issues for their businesses in the short and long-term. They also emphasized the critical role the C-suite, including corporate directors, must play to drive sustainability into strategies and day-to- day decision-making.
So how can your business hasten its journey toward a more sustainable future?
Well, there's a map for that.]]>
But state leaders are sending mixed messages that may slow our progress on building a sustainable water infrastructure and encouraging a culture of water conservation across the state.
In response to the fact that more than 95 percent of the state is in some form of drought, Gov. Jerry Brown this week took steps to make some of the emergency water-conservation measures permanent. His executive order [PDF] requires the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Board to develop new water use targets that will be part of a permanent framework, and to prohibit water-wasting practices including hosing clean sidewalks and driveways, using non-recirculated water in fountains and more.
But at the same time the State Water Resources Control Board issued a proposal to eliminate the mandatory water-conservation targets that have been imposed on every region since last year, allowing local water agencies to set their own conservation targetsuntil the permanent targets are in place.
While it's great that we have a governor who is taking action on the state's critical water crisis, and that some of these new rules are permanent, in the interim his State Water Board's proposed order could reinforce the sense that it's okay to let our hard-earned conservation successes backslide.
Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said as much to reporters this week, "This is not a time to start using water like it's 1999; we need to keep conserving all we can, whenever we can."
To be sure, these changes are in some ways logical: Water is a local issue, and a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't always make sense. Different water agencies have different mixes of water supply, some more resilient than others. Moreover, some areas of the state such as Northern California received more rain this winter than Southern California and other parts of the state, and thus should have the flexibility to manage local water supplies differently. Of note, the State Water Board addressed some of these site-specific conditions in the last update of the emergency regulations this past February.
But when water agencies like the East Bay Municipal Utility District so quickly begin "declaring the drought emergency over" andending fines for excessive water users, it raises a red flag for future water conservation. It's a big contradiction for the state to say that we are still in a drought, but Californians can still have lush, green lawns.
Although many Californians bristled at the mandatory water restrictions, the past year has shown that they worked: The state saved previously unimaginable amounts of water starting in June 2015, and those savings continued even through an occasionally wet winter. And suggesting that the problem is solved will mean we quickly lose those gains.
Already, public surveys find concern about the drought slipping dramatically between last fall and this spring.
Climate change is the new normal. Gov. Brown acknowledges this truth in his executive order. We need strong policies and regulations to help us maximize our local water supplies – we need to prepare for the droughts still to come.
At the California Water Policy Conference, held in April in Davis, Marcus acknowledged as much: "We have a lot to do collectively in front of us, and I don't mean just in water, I mean in everything, given climate change and what it's going to wreak while we're all still here," Marcus said. "It's not just an issue for future generations – everyone sitting in this room is seeing and will see the accelerating impacts of that and the disruption of it across every sector of the environment, public health and the economy."
I am as pleased as anyone that California finally received a wet winter, but it's not time to relax our efforts to save the water we have. Rather than require mandatory watering, as the East Bay community of Blackhawk has just done, now is the time to acknowledge that brown lawns – or no lawns – are a way of life, and start uncovering the many areas in which we can save water every day.]]>


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John R. Hummer
Position: Power Forward and Center ▪ Shoots: Right
Height: 6-9 ▪ Weight: 230 lbs.
Born: May 4, 1948 in Washington, District of Columbia
High School: Washington-Lee in Arlington, Virginia
College: Princeton University
Draft: Buffalo Braves, 1st round (15th pick, 15th overall), 1970 NBA Draft
NBA Debut: October 14, 1970
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Just because movie stars have become rich and famous, it does not mean that they want to spend their money on expensive salon treatments when they know home remedies that they can do more cheaply and in a green way.
Catherine Zeta Jones and Nicole Kidman are two examples as shown in the attached video. The Doctors Show "Who Heals it Best?" compares their hair care remedies to see which is better. It seems they are both right.
Catherine Zeta Jones coats her hair with honey and beer. She says, "I smell like the bottom of a beer barrel for days afterwards but it's very good for the hair." Hops used in making beer contain protein and beer has multiple B vitamins that coat and seal the hair and make it shine. The honey acts as a humectant, an ingredient which promotes moisture retention in hair shafts and also makes it shinier. The combination swells and thickens the hair follicles, a cheaper way to get an in-salon look at home fluffing the hair up. One of the hoppier beers like India Pale Ale would be best.
Nexxus sells Humectress that contains honey extract which this linked article says "(1) smoothes the hair cuticle boosting the hair's shine and softness; (2) as a humectant it nourishes and moisturizes the hair." The price ranges from $8.55 to $29.72 on the Internet and the reviews are varied.
Nicole Kidman treats her blond tresses with champagne. Her mantra is "more fizz equals less frizz." The video says the carbon dioxide in champagne acts as a clarifying agent. Instead of spending a lot of money on products to clarify and detoxify the hair, mix champagne mixed with a little warm water to get the same effect.
For those who do not stock champagne around the house, a tablespoon of baking soda added to two tablespoons of shampoo and washed into the hair then rinsed with cool water will remove build-up from hair. Baking soda is alkaline and raises the hair follicle shafts. It should be followed by an acidic rinse such as apple cider vinegar or lemon juice and water to close the shafts back down. This is cheaper than Nexxus Aloe Rid at $125.63 on Amazon.
For a deep conditioning treatment, melt a half cup of coconut oil under warm water and mix in a little flax seed or vitamin E oil. Rub it into the middle and ends of the hair, pile on head under a shower cap, wrap a towel around the head to keep in body heat and leave on as long as possible. Rinse well with very warm water.


text:
Train Station
From the Super Mario Wiki
(Redirected from Locomotionless)
Jump to: navigation, search
Retrieved from "http://www.mariowiki.com/index.php?title=Train_Station&oldid=1911420"
The Train Station is one of the places in Mario Party Advance that is located in the Town Area of Shroom City.
If the player decides to stop here, they meet Shy Guy, the train conductor. If the player accepts his quest, Locomotionless, he explains that the train has not run since yesterday because the station has run out of coal, and requests that the player obtain some for him. The player can find coal for him at the Vending Machines, also in the Town area. If the player returns to the Train Station with the coal, Shy Guy rewards him or her with the Gaddget Cake Maker.
Names in other languages[edit]


text:
Important notes
The following technical specifications must be met:
- NAVIGON for Windows Phone is available from Microsoft Marketplace.
- Compatible with all Windows Phone devices. NAVIGON Version 4.5 or later is compatible with Windows Phone 8 only.
- Depending on map configuration, you will need up to 2GB of free memory in order to install NAVIGON for Windows Phone on your device.
Further information:
- Languages available (GUI and audio): English (USA), English (UK), German, French (Canadian), Spanish (Mexican)
- Connecting to the Internet and downloading data can lead to additional costs. You can find out details about these costs by contacting your mobile network provider.
- NAVIGON Traffic Live is a fixed part of NAVIGON for Windows Phone. Traffic Live data is transmitted via the mobile network connection. If a data flat rate is used, no further costs are incurred. The data volume involved is minimal.
- Traffic Live available in : USA
- Reality Scanner
- NAVIGON MyRoutes
- Text-to-Speech
- Traffic Live


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Need Help? Got A Question? Email: Support [@] PluginBeast.com


text:
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text:
Marionette PKMN-Armonia Application by DreamingMysticWatch
Update 10/3/2014: After the occurrence of recent events and input from fellow members Marionette's age has been officially changed to 15 in time for her 16th Birthday. No backing out of this either like last time. It is time to admit that my little girl has grown up and deal with it.
Update 9/9/2014: Added the TMs/Tutor section as well as two moves Marionette has learned: Double Team and Rest
Update 9/2/2014: I couldn't do it. She'd be growing up too fast. And it's not like there aren't mature 13-year-olds out there; the girl has spent most of her life on her own, so it would make sense she would be a bit more mature than others her age. ;^; *sorry Bun if I ended up wasting your time*
Update 9/1/2014: Changed Marionette's age from 13 to 14. Being around kids her own age has shown me that she is actually more mature than I originally thought, so age change to help reflect that.
Update 7/28/2014: Updated application with items and a lovely pink pentacle, along with a slight adjustment to stats since she grew 19 levels since she was first submitted. I also added a Family and Held Items section in the extras.
Update 7/26/2014: Holy crap, Marionette gained 19 levels from the competing schools event. I need to slow down; I don't want my baby to grow up so fast. Dx
Also, Twitter. Marionette got a Twitter so that she can stay in touch with her friend Cameron. I'm filling it up with cute junk so come take a look at how clueless she is about it all if you want. xD
Name: Marionette Jacobs
15 16
Gender: Female
Pokémon: Litwick #607
Re-Birthday: October 27
Height: 1 foot, 0 inches/ 0.3 meters or 30 centimeters
Weight: 3.4 lbs./ 1.5 kilograms
Nature: Impish
Ability: Flash Fire
Hometown: Strange House, Unova
Twitter: @MarionetteHugs
Marionette is a sweet and adorable little girl that loves nothing more than having fun and being around people she loves. With a very high degree of curiosity, she also has the tendency of exploring everywhere and anywhere she can get into. Whether she is allowed to or not. This, as you can imagine, can get her into all sorts of trouble, but the little Litwick is more than willing to deal with the consequences of her actions.
Also, as sweet as she may be to most, always trying her hardest to be polite when she can, Marionette only reserves this behavior for those she likes. If she doesn't like someone she is not one for hiding it and may even try for a prank or two if they tick her off enough. They're always harmless little things though. She doesn't have it in her heart to harm anyone unless she has to, and she always has the habit of trying to avoid physical fighting as much as possible, preferring to running off and hiding if there is trouble.
Unless the one in trouble is a friend. Then she is as reckless as can be and often gets herself hurt putting others' safety above her own. She is also a very self-conscious individual, as her soul consuming fire makes her painfully aware of how others feel about her. Also, she can be a bit of a pushover since tininess doesn't do much in getting others to listen to you. And she's modest. Oh so very modest. It is the easiest thing in the world to make her pale little face blush.
Dear, Mr. Diary,
Hello, my name is Marionette and, well, I've never had a diary before, so I suppose I should start off by telling you a little about myself. I came from a very old mansion, a ghost Pokemon settlement, located on top of a mountain made out of dry winds and sand. The living always called it Strange House for some reason, and I remember it being a very nice place to live. It had a bunch of cobwebs all over and it was always lots of fun to roll around in all the dust on the floor and make pretty snow angels in it~
There were lots of other Litwicks to play with there too, but I ended up spending most of my time with a living person that everyone called the Candle-Maker. We called him that because he would never tell anyone his name, but every day for the longest time he would come to the house with lots and LOTS of candles to light our halls every day. He would even sometimes make his candles at the house too! I remember that me and the rest of the Litwicks would crowd around him as he worked and it was all very neat to watch. His soul essence tasted very yummy, and sat very well in my fire's belly, but it always tasted like he was very sad. The others say it was because he had lost someone very important, which was why he was always making those candles. He was waiting for that someone to be reborn in one of them. I never asked him if this was true or not, so I don't know that for certain, but what I did know was he would look at this stack of pictures he had all the time of a pretty lady and a little girl. I couldn't stand to taste him being so miserable, so I always tried my very best to make the Candle-Maker happy by doing little things for him here and there; like moving a chair or trying to help him with making his candles sometimes. I don't think he ever really cared about me, and I didn't always do a very good job of making him happy. Sometimes I just annoyed him or even made him angry, but if I was a good enough girl he would let me sit in his lap as he looked through his pictures. That was what I loved the most back then. Sitting there made me feel all nice and special~
Those pictures always made him smile…… I loved seeing him smile. I had liked him a whole bunch. A bunch of bunches even! Which was why I was very sad when he was gone. One day he just wasn't there anymore. I looked for him everywhere in the house three times over, but I couldn't find him. I even spent a long time waiting by the front door in case he decided to come in when I wasn't looking. I'm not sure how long I waited there… Probably a really long time. But then one day, when I was drawing hearts in the dust on some of the Candle-Maker's bags, I had thought of something. The Candle-Maker left his pictures at the house. He loved those pictures a lot, and for whatever reason he was probably not going to come back. At least not any time soon. He would have been very sad without them, since they were the only things that made him happy, so I scooped them all up and went to go look for him. I never left the house before then. No farther than the big, dead tree in the front. But I was four at the time, so that made me a big, brave girl that could do anything! Although I will admit that when I saw rain for the first time I cried because it was so scary… >^<;
It has been a long time since then. Since I first left Strange House. About eleven or so years I guess if Mr. Calendar is correct. I pretty much traveled constantly after that, never staying in one place for too long when I was going from city to city, town to town, region to region; like a week or two at most. I never knew where I was going, so I pretty much just let my curiosity guide me from place to place and I would sleep on a bench or in a box on the street when I got sleepy. I never stopped keeping an eye out for the taste of the Candle-Maker's soul, but after a time I grew tired of wandering, and… I will admit I was having doubts. Eventually I found a town called Pokette and I decided to stay in it. Constant exploring when I was traveling was fun and all, but Pokette was much, MUCH better~!
I hadn't lived there for very long, only six months till the town was closed down, but I loved every minute of it. I made so many friends and had such a fun time! I… I also learned some very important things from my time living there too, with an important one being that I finally admitted to myself that I would never find the Candle-Maker. Nor do I think he would care if I did... I won't get into the details about all the other life related things I learned, Mr. Diary, but mostly I started to think about stuff I never thought about before. One thing in particular was family. I never had a family and the idea of it became very important to me, so it makes sense that I would latch onto one of my best friends, Ile, as a kind of father figure. I would spend hours just day dreaming about me calling him "daddy", or him reading me bed time stories, or some other father-daughter kind of thing. I didn't want to tell him about that since I was afraid he might think it was weird, but when the town was closed down and everyone was moving away I forced myself to be very brave and told him. I even gave him a Daddy Day present and everything! I was so scared that it wouldn't turn out okay… but it was anything but and he ended up adopting me~!
Okay, I shall admit that there were some other things that influenced his decision on that, but I like to think that it was only because he loved me and thought I was cute and stuff and IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!! I even got a mommy out of it too. Yaaaaays~ >w<
So I packed up my things and left Pokette with my new family to go live somewhere else! It has been a while since all that stuff happened and it was eventually decided that I should go to school somewhere nice and shiny. The Armonia Institute is going to be far away from my new family, and I am pretty sad about leaving them when I had only just got them, but… Well, Mr. Diary, I uh… I never went to school before sooo… getting a formal education sounds like a good idea, I guess. All the schools I snuck into to explore looked like they were lots of fun, so that's something to look forward to. And who knows, maybe I'll even learn more of those important life lesson things from going there~
Well, that is about it, Mr. Diary. I'm going to draw LOTS of hearts on you and then go straight to bed; I will need to get plenty of sleep if I am going to help Ile write my application tomorrow. Or rather he is going to help me since I don't know anything about this kind of stuff. Anyway, good night and sleep tight~
Love, Marionette Jacobs (oh my gosh, I have a last name now. This is so awesome! XD )
P.S.: Mirjam just told me that she did not give me this diary so that I can read everything I wrote in it back to everyone. She says that I'm supposed to hide it somewhere and never tell anyone what's in it. Well I didn't know that! Now I just wish she would stop giggling and poking me in the tummy; it makes it very hard to write when she is tickling me. >///^////<;
Summary characteristic: Highly Curious
Exploring, singing, dancing, playing all sorts of games with friends, tea parties, metaling working including welding and soldering to make stuff, glass blowing, and learning how to read tarot and runes.
Level: 48
Main Moveset:
Fire SpinLv. 7: This fiery vortex is capable of entrapping foes for various amounts of time. Power is weak and accuracy faulty and unlike most fire-type moves, Fire Spin does not cause burn status.
Appearance and Use: A huge swirl of orange fire is summoned forth from Marionette's head's flame. It's VERY big compared to the small girl and is usually used to create large amounts of fire when needed.
TelekinesisTM 19/ 5th Gen.: The user makes the target float with its psychic power, making them easier to hit.
Appearance and Use: Head flame turns pink and bright, tiny pink embers appear to surround/cover the area affected by the move. It is Marionette's favorite and most used move, as it is used mostly to compensate for her small size when lifting things and helping her move around quickly when she needs to. Extended and/or inefficient use can cause headaches.
HexLv. 28: On its own, Hex does not do very much damage, but when the target is affected by a status condition this relentless attack does massive damage. More than any other ghost-type attack.
Appearance and Use: Head flame turns an ominous black, eyes narrow and becomes a piercing crimson, and dark energy is shot out from the hands that resembles black lightning. This move is Marionette's least favorite, as the dramatic shift in demeanor can be unsettling for those who are used to the usual cuteness, causing potential for others to fear her. Hex will also automatically ready itself if Marionette ever gets angry enough, making it useful for whenever she wants to be taken seriously in certain situations.
Will-O-WispLv. 16: Afflicts the targeted enemy with a Burn status condition.
Appearance and Use: Balls of fire of a light blue/light purple color are blown from the mouth. Being a fire of a ghostly nature it burns at a much lower temperature than a normal flame. It is normally used in conjunction with Hex or to just make pretty lights when Marionette needs them.
TM/Tutor Moves:
Double TeamStore bought: Multiple copies of the user are created to enhance evasiveness. Copies are either created through illusions or moving really fast.
Appearance and Use: It is a hoard of Marionettes. And they want to snuggle you. Give you all the hugs in the world as you are covered from head to toe with tiny, giggly ghosts. Marionette will use this either through hugs or just in need of making a quick get away in all the confusion. Most of the time she will use illusions to save energy, but will swap to the moving really fast option to make it feel like she is giving you lots of hugs.
RestTwitter Yoga Class: The user goes to sleep for an extended amount of time. When he/she wakes up they will be fully rejuvenated in strength and energy and all status aliments will disappear.
Appearance and Use: It's just as you would expect; the tiny girl takes a nap. However, how she takes the nap can go in either two ways: first and foremost she will want to cuddle up with something for the snooze, be it a fluff or a friend. If there is nothing like that present then Marionette will merely stand perfectly still in place with her hands placed over her heart as her head is tilted slightly down. Being a candle allows her to sleep without ever moving an inch, so sleeping while standing up is very much a possibility.
Level Up Moves:
Emberstart, Flame BurstLv. 20, InfernoLv. 38
Astonishstart, Confuse RayLv. 10, Night ShadeLv. 13, CurseLv. 43
Favorite berry flavor: Sweet
House: Selva
School Schedule:
Math I
Health and Sex Ed
*Note: Since Marionette has no biological family everyone here is from her adoptive family.*
Father: Ile Jacobs
~ Munchlax
~ Adopted Marionette a week after they moved out of Pokette together with his family.
~ Gave him an obsidian knife set she made for Father's day when she told him how she sees him as a dad.
~ Was one of her best friends before the adoption.
~ Belongs to Lazy-a-Ile
MotherLegally: Olivia Jacobs
~ Purugly
~ Recently married Ile Jacobs
~ Met Marionette the day she and her family moved out of Pokette together.
~ They barely know each other, but Marionette has hopes of earning the Purugly's love so that she may have a mommy too.
~ ((Relationship may update if new information about Olivia comes in))
~ Belongs to Tartly-Sweet
Aunt Sister: Mirjam Jacobs
~ Munchlax
~ Is referred to as a "sister" even though Mirjam would technically be Marionette's aunt.
~ Have been best friends ever since the day they met.
~ Loves to tickle Marionette for some reason.
~ Belongs to Lazy-a-Ile
Grandmother: Rose Jacobs
~ Snorlax
~ Marionette likes to call her "Grandmamma."
~ Kind, caring, and very motherly. Spending time with Marionette makes her want to have another child.
~ Very big woman; she's taller than her husband and has freaking huge-! Umm… Tracks of land. Yep, that's it.
~ Must never drink any kind of alcohol.
~ Mirjam is very much like her mother.
~ Belongs to Lazy-a-Ile
Grandfather: Jack Jacobs
~ Rhydon
~ Marionette likes to call him "Grandpapa."
~ Will beat the sh*t out of anyone who even looks at his wife funny, as well as any boy who touches Marionette.
~ His clothing style reflects a punk rocker look.
~ Likes to give Marionette rides on his tail, and Marionette loves to dangle from his drill horn as she hugs it affectionately.
~ Ile is very much like his father.
~ Belongs to Lazy-a-Ile
Uncle: Anssi Jacobs
~ Either a Munchlax or Snorlax
~ Very little is known about him, except that he's serious and is married.
~ Belongs to Lazy-a-Ile
Held Items
Pink Diamond Choker
~ RP Log with Dianamond ~
Davi smiled, seeing her so happy from the accomplishment made her happy as well. Davi helped put the gems Marionette found in her own new little exploring bag and nodded.
Davi: "I found a few more rubies here...but, I found this- and I want you to have it because I already have one."
She held up a fairly average sized raw diamond, not too tiny, and not too large.
Marionette: "Oooo…~" O. O
Taking the little stone from the Noivern, Marionette looked it over. It was a very lovely diamond, even if it wasn't cut yet; it just shined ever so pretty like in the flickering light of her flame.
Sitting down on the wall, the little Litwick studied the gem a bit more, trying to imagine just what the heck she was going to make with it.
Marionette: "Thank you so much! It's very pretty~" ^w^
~ When Marionette finally decided what to do with her diamond she took it to a jeweler to have it cut, only to find out that it was a beautiful magenta/pink inside.
~ The diamond's monetary value means nothing to the girl; only that it was a special gift from one of her friends in Pokette.
~ The pink diamond is attached to a black silk ribbon that Marionette ties double-knotted around her neck.
Tablet with Protective Case:
~ Ile gave this to Marionette before she left for Armonia so that she may always stay in touch with her new family via the video chat app.
~ Marionette makes sure to call at least once a week. Normally at night before she goes to bed.
~ Marionette only knows how to use the tablet for video chat and Twitter. Everything else she doesn't care about, but she will probably learn to use the rest of it in time.
~ The thing has a protective case and wow does it need it. With the thing being so big compared to Marionette there's a good chance of her dropping it, especially if she keeps walking with it as she does Twitter.
Fun Facts:
Marionette was originally my PKMN-Crossing character until the group shut down. The keen observer will know that I recycled parts of Marionette's application history from that group and edited it to fit this one since it displayed her personality so well. It also explains why I have a butt-load of fun-facts written here, so I'm sorry for the overload.
Marionette died in a fire, like all directly reincarnated Litwick are thought to have done. She doesn't remember anything about her past except that she was a little girl about six or seven.
That being said, growing up physically kind of sucks when you have such a young soul. Namely hormones. Oh Gods those silly things have been giving her so much grief. She is fine with the widening hips, she is fine with her boobs getting big and jiggly, but she is not fine with her getting flustered and anxious for no apparent reason! Especially over boys. It's something Marionette has accepted that she will have to learn how to deal with, but gaaaaaaaaaaahhh…. Leave the poor girl alone! (They won't~ XD )
This girl loves the hugs. If she likes you then prepare for glompage from the tiny ghostie. And snuggles. Lots of snuggles for her favorite people.
As a Litwick, Marionette naturally devours the spirit essence of living creatures and never needs to eat if her fire is sufficiently fueled.
Burning soul energy in her fire also grants a kind of sixth sense to the girl, allowing her to not only see the souls of others but to also sense where they are within a given radius and what their emotions are.
While this is neat and all, Marionette has unfortunately relied too much on this form of perception while searching for the Candle-Maker and has crippled her regular eyesight to an extent. Seeing the soul energy from someone clouds out that person's physical features, causing her to not notice a lot of details like colors, tails, ears, etc.
She's gotten better at this ever since Pokette, but all that swirling colorful energy does make it hard to notice a lot of things still. The only exception has always been the eyes, for the eyes are the windows into the soul and thus shine the brightest and the most beautiful out of all the soul energy she perceives.
Consuming too much of one emotion can make Marionette experience that emotion for herself. If there was a way to describe this it would be that Marionette finds emotions to be "contagious." Most of the time the little Litwick finds this to be very annoying, since such feelings are not hers.
Back in Pokette Marionette worked as a Blacksmith in order to make money. She even figured out how to make obsidian after studying some geology books~
Controlling fire is second nature to her. If it's hot enough you can bet Marionette can control it.
Like it was said in the personality section, Marionette can also be bit of a pushover. One example being that when she was traveling people would often pick her up and take her places without her prior consent. The little Litwick always had a hard time saying "no" or even bringing up enough resistance to enforce that "no," but since these were normally very nice tasting people Marionette didn't mind too much. Unless she gets angry enough. Then she won't stand for anything she doesn't like.
No, she has never let anyone whose soul tasted bad or scary do anything to her like carry her off. Her soul perception was actually what kept the naive little girl safe all those years on the streets.
One of her very favorite things to do is to sneak around a room without being seen.
She may not eat like a normal person, but Marionette always has room in her tummy for sweets. Especially chocolate~
Speaking of eating, if her fire is out Marionette will start craving regular food to supply the required nutrients. Food alone doesn't give her all of the energy and nutrition she needs to live, but it does the trick for a while.
If Marionette wanted to she can sleep standing or sitting up. This is a natural thing with Litwicks, as they hardly move at all when sleeping. However, it is always much more comfy to sleep like a person rather than sleeping like a candle, so a nice comfy bed she always goes to for napping.
Marionette loves playing dress up, but if someone catches her doing this she will always blush up a storm and try to hide. (She has a nurse and maid outfit. Don't tell ANYONE! )
To keep in touch with her new family, Ile gave Marionette a tablet so that way they can video chat whenever they want. Marionette makes sure to talk to them at least once a week.
Marionette absolutely SUCKS at using computers and machines. The only thing she knows how to use on that tablet is the video chat function. Magic makes much more sense to her and thus she prefers it and doing things the old fashioned way.
Marionette HATES the ocean and other large bodies of water, but mostly the ocean. Well… Just the water part actually. Everything else about the ocean is fine. However, this has nothing to do with her being a fire-type. It's actually because she's a ghost-type.
Since Marionette has a physical, wax body to look after she cannot phase through walls like most other ghost-types can. She CAN, however, phase through glass since it's more of a liquid than a solid (yeah, I don't get it either. But there is apparently science to back this up.) She still has a hard time phasing through it though and can sometimes get stuck if she doesn't concentrate hard enough. Don't expect her to try this very often because of it.
If Marionette's body gets damaged she can repair it with normal candle wax. Her body can fully regenerate and leave no scars behind, but using the candle wax will make everything heal much faster.
Marionette not only hates water, but is also afraid of going into deep levels of water. This is because at one point Marionette was trapped underwater for two weeks before finally being fished out.
Since Marionette does not need oxygen to sustain life, the little girl can stay underwater indefinitely if she needs to. That being said, what she does need oxygen for is for lighting her fire and for keeping her inner wax molten hot so that she may move. If she gets too cold or is deprived of oxygen for too long Marionette starts to lose mobility and eventually hardens completely. This is why she was stuck underwater that one time; she could not do anything to free herself.
Marionette interestingly enough does like swimming, but as you can imagine she is terrified to go alone. Being unable to drown sounds nice on paper, but the idea that she could end up being stuck underwater for all of eternity is very frightening to her.
The only water Marionette likes, and actually enjoys, is warm water. The hotter the better, so hot springs here she comes~
Rain is also tolerable since it makes such fun puddles to jump in.
Marionette can read and write in Theban Script, which is also known as the Witches' Alphabet. She picked it up, along with quite a few of her beliefs and world views from staying an amazingly long two months in a nature worshiping village in Kalos while she was traveling.
Ever since spending time in that village a pentacle could be seen on all of Marionette's outfits somewhere. She considers it her personal symbol.
Marionette will be writing ALL of her school notes in Theban Script. She just prefers it this way, so if you want to borrow notes be sure to ask for a translation as well.
The power and time duration of Marionette's Telekinesis is directly related to how she is feeling and what emotions she is feeding on. Bad emotions shorten it while good emotions extend it.
Marionette is also prone to spontaneously casting Telekinesis when she is really happy. Cheek kisses that are full of love, caring, and kindness can often trigger this. So far, this involuntary usage of Telekinesis has caused her and her friends to float off the side of a cliff and once she levitated an entire bus. It was a small school bus, but still… It was a damn bus.
The floating off a cliff thing happened because she devoured TOO MUCH happiness and love. Oh my God that made her as high as a kite. She would not stop snuggling Ile's head for the longest time after that. Who needs drugs when you can eat soul energy? xD
Marionette (c) Mine
Litwick (c) Nintendo
1 funny litwick
I mean, this takes all known cuteness and turns it up to 21... On a 1 - 10 scale. If I decide to join Armonia (and if an application is successful), I will make RPing with her as one of my top priorities.
I feel so glad I did an idle search for litwicks.
This is just so CUTE GAA SHE IS AWESOME
Marionette is just so huggable
Unless you don't like notes, then we'll figure something out. . w .
*looks at height* And so tiny, oh my god!!
Finally, someone smaller than Jo! //hit