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Environmental Politics

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Page Updated:
Sept.16, 2024

• • House Select Committee
  on the Climate Crisis

  Climate Change: The Science
  is In -We Know the Cause

  The U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis is charged with delivering ambitious climate policy recommendations to Congress, in order to achieve substantial and permanent reductions in pollution and other activities that contribute to the climate crisis.

  The select committee was authorized by House Resolution 6 on January 9, 2019, and will publish a set of public policy recommendations for congressional climate action by March 31, 2020.

  Its members include experts in environmental justice, coastal flooding, clean energy development and other issues that are vital for addressing the climate crisis.

  Click now for their website.

• • Memorable Presidential
  Environmental Quotes

  Six Memorable Presidential
  Environmental Quotes

  Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama had something to say

  Some didn't always follow up on those quotes.

  Click now to read the article
  From the Earth Matters News.
• • Political Scorecard

  How Did Congress Do in 2022

  Mar. 6, 2023, (League pf Conservation Voters) -The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) provides maps showing how both the Senate and House voted on environmental issues (LCV)

  It's not quite time to celebrate.

• • Clean Energy Divides the Nevada Senate Race

  U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen Faces Off Against GOP Sam Brown, With Solar Energy Development a Key Issue
  
  

  Sep. 11, 2024 -In November’s election, Nevadans will vote between two U.S. Senate candidates with vastly different climate and energy positions—particularly regarding solar energy, an issue that has even divided climate and environmental advocates in the state.

• • U.S. Election Looms Over Climate Talks With China

  Experts Believe the Outcome of the Race For The White House Could Determine How Ambitious China’s Climate Efforts Will Be
  
  

  Sep. 5, 2024 -As John Podesta, President Biden’s climate envoy, wraps up three days of talks in Beijing, China’s willingness to fight global warming could depend on the outcome of this fall’s presidential election in the United States, energy experts said.

  If Harris wins, the U.S. is likely to keep pushing nations, including China, to set ambitious targets for cutting the greenhouse gases that are dangerously heating the planet.

• • Maryland’s Quest for Clean Energy Future

  Maryland’s Upcoming U.S. Senate Race Will Be Critical in Deciding Its Climate Future
  
  

  Aug. 29, 2024 -Maryland’s climate challenges—among them worsening heatwaves, intense storms and flooding, sea level rise and coastal erosion—are adding new risks to residents’ health, property and lives. The way out of these worrying trends, advocates and experts say, is to keep the state on a clean energy and emissions-free track.

  Maryland’s upcoming U.S. Senate race will be critical in deciding its climate future.

• • Climate at the Debate:

  Trump Ignored the Question
  and Harris Hedged
  
  

  Aug. 28, 2024 -At the tail end of the hottest summer in recorded history, as wildfires tear through California and a hurricane heads toward Louisiana, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump failed to say how they would fight climate change during their debate Tuesday night.

• • Kamala Harris’ Favorability Is Sky
  High Among Young Voters in Battleground States

  There Are 245,000 So-Called Low Propensity Environment Voters in Pennsylvania Who Could Decide The Election in the Crucial Swing State If They Turn Out
  
  

  Aug. 25, 2024 -A recent poll of 2,600 climate concerned young voters in five battleground states conducted by the Environmental Voter Project and Beacon Research found they favored Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

  Click now for the details.

• • Climate Gets More Attention as the DNC Wraps Up

  Climate Change Had a Bigger Spotlight on the Democratic National Convention’s Final Night
  
  

  Aug. 23 2024 -Climate change finally got its moment on the last night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago yesterday. After a few days without much talk of emissions, several marquee speakers, including U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, dedicated large portions of their speeches to the pressing threat global warming poses to humanity.

• • RFK Jr. Endorses Trump,
  Suspending His Independent Bid for President

  He Said He Will Remove His Name From the Ballot In Battleground States, So as Not to Be a Spoiler
  
  

  Aug. 23, 2024 - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threw his support behind former President Donald J. Trump on Friday after suspending his troubled independent campaign for president, saying he was withdrawing his name from the ballot in battleground states and that Mr. Trump had “asked to enlist me” in his second administration.

• • In Wisconsin Senate Race, Voters Will Pick Between Two Candidates

  With Widely Differing Climate Views
  
  

  Aug. 23, 2024 - While Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin has warned that climate change threatens “our very way of life,” GOP challenger Eric Hovde compared clean energy tax credits to “corporate welfare.”

• • Climate Groups Begin $55 Million Ad Campaign for Kamala Harris

  The Campaign Will Include Ads in at Least Six Swing States: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
  
  

  Aug. 10, 2024 - Several organizations focused on combating climate change joined forces on Monday for a $55 million advertising campaign in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, embracing what they describe as the economic upside of the Democratic Party’s environmental efforts.

• • Tim Walz Has Championed Climate as Governor

  Kamala Harris’s V.P. Pick, Known For His Folksy Persona and Rural Midwestern Roots, Has Elevated the Issue of Climate Change in His State
  
  

  Aug. 6, 2024 -Over the course of his two terms in office, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota has quietly emerged as one of the nation’s most forceful advocates for tackling climate change.

  Governor Walz, who has been tapped by Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate, most recently made national headlines for labeling the Republican ticket “weird.”

• • New Bipartisan Energy Reform
  Legislation Passes Senate Committee

  What’s in it?, and What’s Next?
  
  

  July 31, 2024 -Today the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 by a 15-4 vote, just a little more than a week after the legislation was introduced.

  “We did this for a year and a half in the most bipartisan way it can possibly be done, and we did it in the most toxic atmosphere,” U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV) told reporters after the vote.

• • Sunrise Movement Protests J.D. Vance Over Billionaire Influence

  It Calls on Kamala Harris
  to Take Climate Action
  
  

  July 29, 2024 -Activists from the youth-led Sunrise Movement descended on Sen. J.D. Vance’s Washington office on Monday, occupying the hallway and chanting “Vance is a liar, our planet is on fire,” while holding signs that read “Billionaires Own Vance.”

  The group wants to bring public attention to the Republican vice presidential candidate’s wealthy donors and close financial ties to the oil and gas industry, and argues that Vance’s inconsistent policy positions are evidence that he answers to money, not voters.

• • Kamala Harris’s Environmental and Climate Record

  In Her Own Words
  
  

  July 27, 2024 -(From a Living on Earth Podcast Episode)With a lot of excitement, Vice President Kamala Harris has garnered a majority of delegates for the Democratic nomination for president to oppose Republican Donald Trump. With President Biden’s decision not to run again, this race just got way more interesting. There’s a lot one could say, but let’s consider the environment and climate change.

  Click for the rest of the story.

• • Harris’s Potential Running Mates Stances on Climate

  Possible Contenders Include Three Governors Who Welcome Clean Energy and a Senator Concerned By Extreme Heat and Drought
  
  

  July 24, 2024 -Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has a long history as a climate-minded politician.

  As California’s attorney general, she prosecuted polluters, and as a U.S. senator she cosponsored the Green New Deal, a resolution that called on the nation to pivot away from fossil fuels but that never passed the Congress. During her time as vice president, she helped broker the largest climate deal in U.S. history, the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

• • What Trump 2.0 Could Mean for the Environment

  Don't Even Ask
  
  

  July 16, 2024 -As president, Trump’s sweeping attempts to roll back federal environmental regulations were often stymied — by the courts, by a lack of experience, even by internal resistance from government employees.

  But if he retakes the White House in November, Mr. Trump would be in a far better position to dismantle environmental and climate rules, aided by more sympathetic judges and conservative allies who are already mapping out ways to bend federal agencies to the president’s will.

• • Trump’s Environmental Impact Endures

  At Home and Around the World
  
  

  July 16, 2024 -Former President Donald Trump dismantled the pillars of U.S. climate policy when he exited the Paris climate accord and rolled back more than 100 regulations to protect air, water, endangered species and human health.

  But it’s clear, as he officially assumes his role as the Republican nominee and standard bearer this week, that he altered American environmental protection in even deeper and more longer-lasting ways.

• • The Fossil Fuel Debate in W. Virginia

  An ‘All of the Above’ Democrat Faces Long Odds Against a Republican Fossil Fuel Booster
  
  

  July 7, 2024 -Based on their records and rhetoric, one candidate seeking to be the next governor of West Virginia supports a broad-based energy policy, from coal to renewables. And the other is laser-focused on fossil fuels.

  West Virginia electricity generation is still as much as 90% coal-powered even as coal mining here and in other states has waned amid competition with cheaper natural gas, solar and wind—and concerns about the climate crisis.

• • Can the Labour Party Bring
  Back Britain’s Green Groove?
  

  The New Government Has Pledged to Fast-Track a Green Energy Transition, but Faces Big Challenges
  
  

  July 5, 2024 -Britain, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, erstwhile coal-burning imperial behemoth, wants to be a “clean energy superpower.”

  At least that’s the promise of the next prime minister, Keir Starmer. His Labour Party won the parliamentary elections on Thursday, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule.

• • Trump is Making Climate the Latest Culture War

  Republicans in Congress are Now Following His Lead
  
  

  July 3, 2024 -When Donald Trump embarked upon a lengthy complaint at a recent rally about how long it takes to wash his “beautiful luxuriant hair” due to his shower’s low water pressure, he highlighted the expanding assault he and Republicans are launching against even the most obscure environmental policies – a push that’s starting to influence voters.

  In his bid to return to the White House, Trump has branded Joe Biden’s attempt to advance electric cars in the US “lunacy”, claiming such vehicles do not work in the cold and that their supporters should “rot in hell”.

• • The First Presidential Debate
  Hardly Mentioned Environmental Issues
  

  Despite Stark Differences Between the Candidate’s Records
  
  

  June 29, 2024 -On June 27th President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump met on the debate stage in CNN’s studios in Atlanta. Trump had a pretty slick demeanor but much of what he said was pretty far from the truth. And Democrats have been agonizing over Biden’s poor performance, whether it be due to a lack of energy, his speech impediment or a cold as his campaign says.

  Click now to read the rest of the story.

• • Biden's Clean Energy Boom
  

  His 2022 Climate Law Has Sparked a Rapid Clean Energy Boom But Its Political Impact is a Lot Less Clear
  
  

  May 23, 2024 -It’s been nearly two years since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law.

  With a mix of tax incentives, federal subsidies and policy tweaks, the I.R.A. was designed to turbocharge America’s clean energy economy and put the country on the trajectory to a lower emissions future.

• • Biden and Oil Companies Like this Climate Tech

  But Not Many Americans
  
  

  May 11, 2024 -The remote stretch of public grazing land in southeastern Montana has hardly changed since homesteading days, but underneath this wind-swept expanse lies a hidden asset in high demand: thousands of acres of porous rock where oil company executives say greenhouse gas could be piped in from afar and stored forever.

  ExxonMobil and the Biden administration see in the grassy 100,000 acres a launchpad for one of the world’s most audacious climate experiments, a plan to take emissions spewing from power plants and factories and trap them underground where they cannot contribute to global warming. But...

• • Polarization May Phase Out of American
  Politics As Younger Generations Shift into Power
  

  Polarization May Phase Out of American Environment politics as Younger Generations Grab Power
  
  

  May 9, 2024 -Increase in political polarization in America over the past 50 years has been driven in part by how different generations think about politics. But the rise of younger generations to political power may actually erase the deep social divisions associated with polarization.<./p>

  That’s one of the strong possibilities for the future suggested by the diverse array of findings of our research, including editing a collection of the most current work on how different generations of Americans participate in public life.

• • Biden Could Lose Young Voters Over Willow Drilling

  They Would Like Him
  to Be More Consistent
  
  

  April 17, 2023 -In the past three weeks, the Biden administration has proposed regulations to speed the transition to electric vehicles, committed $1 billion to help poor countries fight climate change and prepared what could be the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

  And yet, many young voters alarmed by climate change remain angry with Mr. Biden’s decision last month to approve Willow, an $8 billion oil drilling project on pristine federal land in Alaska. As the president prepares to announce his bid for re-election, it’s not at all clear that those voters who helped him win in 2020 because of his commitment to climate action will turn out again.

• • Climate Hawks 2020 Endorsements

  What It Takes to Be Endorsed

  (CLIMATEHAWKS), -What we consider in issuing endorsements: First and foremost, a candidate’s public statements regarding climate change. Do you mention specific climate change action in your stump speech? Did you show up at a People’s Climate March? Do you have a thoughtful statement on your website? We also look at viability, although we will back longshots when we find a compelling reason to do so.

  We do not endorse mediocre Democrats, no matter how vehemently a Republican opponent may deny climate science. We only endorse when we are convinced that the candidate will commit to strong climate action in Congress.

  We like primaries. And in 2018 we won 6 out of 8 primaries in which we endorsed — a better track record than any of the larger groups whose endorsement records were compiled by FiveThirtyEight.

  Climate Hawks Vote does not accept contributions from fossil-fuel corporations, executives, or lobbyists. We are a federal Super PAC, which means that we are an independent expenditure committee and can’t endorse in state/local races. We do network with others on the lookout for climate hawks who can think globally and lead locally.

• • Conservatives and Liberals Want
  a Green Energy Future - But..

  They Want it For Different Reasons

  May 5, 2020,(The Conversation)-Political divisions are a growing fixture in the United States today, whether the topic is marriage across party lines, responding to climate change or concern about coronavirus exposure. Especially in a presidential election year, the vast divide between conservatives and liberals often feels nearly impossible to bridge.

  Our research examines what people know about the energy sources in use today in the United States, and what types of energy they would like to see the nation using in 2050. Energy connects to many important issues, including climate change, jobs and economic growth, equity and social justice, and international relations. It would be easy to assume that America’s energy future is a highly polarized topic, especially when the Trump administration is clashing with many states led by Democrats over energy policies.

  Click now to learn what the 'BUT' means.

• • Trump's Early Environmental Rollbacks

  23 Environmental Rules Rolled
  Back in Trump’s First 100 Days

  May 2, 2017 (NY Times Climate Forward) - President Trump, with help from his administration and Republicans in Congress, has reversed course on nearly two dozen environmental rules, regulations and other Obama-era policies during his first 100 days in office.

  Citing federal overreach and burdensome regulations, Mr. Trump has prioritized domestic fossil fuel interests and undone measures aimed at protecting the environment and limiting global warming.

• • The Climate President Action Plan

  10 Climate Actions
  the Next President
  Can Take Without Congress

  Dec. 23, 2019 (ClimatePresident.org)-The United States faces an indisputable climate emergency. The solution to the crisis is also inarguable: We must transform our extractive economy to a regenerative and inclusive one.

  The actions called for in this Presidential action plan can be implemented by the President acting alone without any Congressional action. These ten actions form the necessary foundation for the country's true transformation to a safer, healthier, and more equitable world for everyone.

• • Why Not a Green Marshall Plan?

  Elizabeth Warren Has
  Added a Green Marshall
  Plan to Her List of Proposals

  June 4, 2019  ( Mother Jones)- Elizabeth Warren has ascended in recent Democratic presidential polls atop a growing stack of audacious proposals to wipe out student debt, break up giant companies like Amazon and Facebook , and slap new taxes on the ultra-rich.

  Yet the senator from Massachusetts is taking a different approach to the climate crisis, weaving a patchwork that will likely amount to Warren’s answer to the Green New Deal.

• • Who Are the Climate Mayors?

  We Are Climate Mayors

  Climate Mayors, founfed in 2014, is a bi-partisan, peer-to-peer network of U.S. mayors working together to demonstrate leadership on Climate Chane through meaningful actions in their communities, and to express and build political will for effective federal and global policy action.

  The Climate Mayors coalition has emerged as a key voice anddemonstration of the ongoing commitment of U.S. cities to accelerate climate progress.

• • Congress Should Be
  Supporting Clean Energy Incentives

  Tell Congress to Support
  Clean Energy Incentives

  July, 2019  (Environment Florida)) -

  By going big on renewable energy, we can stop polluting our communities and planet with dirty energy sources and make real strides in tackling the climate crisis. Tell your representatives to expand their support for clean energy incentives.

  
  Click now to sign on.
• • Jay Inslee’s Campaign Pledge: No Fossil Fuel Money

  Jay Inslee’s Pledge to
  Reject Fossil Fuel Money

  Mar. 1, 2019 (Huffington Post)) -Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a pledge Tuesday promising to reject donations from the fossil fuel industry ahead of a likely run for the White House that he’s vowed to uniquely center on climate change.

  In an interview with HuffPost, Inslee, 67, said he added his name to the list of more than 1,300 politicians across the United States who took the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.

  Almost every Democratic candidate running in 2020 has signed the pledge.

  Click now to read more.

• • The Green New Deal Explained

  What Is the Green New Deal?
  A Climate Proposal, Explained

  NY Times Climate Forward, Feb. 21, 2019  - The Green New Deal is a congressional resolution that lays out a grand plan for tackling climate change.

  Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, the proposal calls on the federal government to wean the United States from fossil fuels and curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. It also aims to guarantee new high-paying jobs in clean energy industries.

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• • Burn It or Eat It (Trump’s Choices)

  Food Vs. Fuel: What Trump's Ethanol
  Policy Means For the Food System

  Oct. 25, 2018 (Forbes) -The Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with President Trump’s directive to lift a federal ban on high ethanol blended gas during the summer months, though not quickly enough for Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who Reuters reports is urging the EPA to lift the ban on a much quicker timeline. Lifting the ban is a policy shift that’s being celebrated by large-scale corn growers and decried by biofuel opponents. But the policy has implications for the food system too, as many food system reformers say the last thing U.S. farmers should be growing is more corn.

  Corn is a complicated crop. It’s highly efficient, nutrient-packed and yet, on the other hand, the U.S. probably grows too much of it. Corn has earned its fair share of criticism — it’s starchy, grown industrially and ubiquitous in ultra-processed food — but this leading cereal crop has also more than earned its place as an agricultural success story.

  Click now to stay on top of the situation.

• • How the Border Wall Affect Wildlife Near the Border

  ‘This Is Not Like a Fence in a Backyard’
  — Trump’s Border Wall vs. Wildlife

  The Revelator Podcasts, Apr. 11, 2019 - As was discussed recently on the Sciencentric podcast, the wall’s true impact becomes more evident when you envision all of the things that accompany it: Roads, vehicles, lights, and acres upon acres of cleared habitat. That’s bad news for jaguars, bears, birds, bees and hundreds, if not thousands, of other species.

  Check out the video interview, where host Eric R. Olson and John Platt also discuss The Revelator, my work on “Extinction Countdown,” and what technologies might work instead of a wall.

  
  Click now to watch the interview.
• • Trump Wants to Tell the Polar Bears Where to Get Off

  Help Protect the Arctic Refuge
  Before It’s Too Late!

  NRDC -The Trump administration is closer than ever to tearing open the heart of Alaska’s pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for dangerous oil and gas drilling — and if they succeed, it will have devastating, irreversible consequences for our waters, wildlife, climate, and the region’s Gwich’in people.

  NRDC is fighting back in and out of the courtroom in an unprecedented battle to protect the Arctic Refuge and its fragile Arctic coastline.

• • Trump is Not the 1st to Assault Env. Protection

  History of US Presidential Assaults
  on Environmental Health Protection

  Apr. 26, 2018 American Public Health Association - The Trump administration has undertaken an assault on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency critical to environmental health. This assault has precedents in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

  The early Reagan administration (1981–1983) launched an overt attack on the EPA, combining deregulation with budget and staff cuts, whereas the George W. Bush administration (2001–2008) adopted a subtler approach, undermining science-based policy.

  Wait, there’s more…

• • Some Republicans Support Carbon Fee/Dividend

  Exceeding Paris

  Contain Forewords by: Ted Halstead, George P. Schultz, Lawrence Summers, Rob Walton, Christine Todd Whitman and Janet Yellen.

  The Baker-Shultz plan would achieve approximately 32% in greenhouse gas reductions by 2025, thereby exceeding our Paris commitment by a wide margin

  The Baker-Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan is not only the most environmentally ambitious plan, but also the most politically-viable. Why? Because it addresses the legitimate concerns of all key stakeholders in the climate debate and enables each to realize an important victory.

  Click to read the PDF from the
  Climate Leadership Council.

• • Attention Humanists: You Have a Role to Play

  Ask What You Can Do for Your Climate(1)

  Apr. 18, 2017 -While the federal government is becoming a follower rather than a leader on climate change, humanists can fight on the state, local, and personal levels

  IF THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL, then climate change is personal, too. As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump campaigned against the Paris Agreement negotiated in December 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. With President Trump signing an executive order to roll back federal efforts to reduce global warming, humanists must do more at the state and local levels to fight climate change. If you’re up for it, there are many things you can do to help.

  
  Click now if you’re ready to learn more.
• • We Can Take Active Role in the Climate Crisis

  Ask What You Can Do for Your Climate<2>

  Join a Climate Reality Chapter,and be part of a sustainable future. You’ve heard about “the future.” It’s not that far away, and your children and grandchildren will be living in it, long after you’re gone.

  Chapters give you the opportunity to draw on Climate Reality’s support and expertise, while creating and executing plans for climate action that make the most sense for your community.

  Already, Climate Reality chapters have become a vital force for progress, helping expand clean energy alternatives, tackling the legacy of fossil fuels in low-income communities, and pushing for carbon pricing policies, to name just a few of the many campaigns underway across the US.

  
  Click now if you’re ready to take action too.
• • Science Under Attack:

  Sidelining Researchers and Their Work

  Dec. 28, 2019 (NY Times Climate Forward -In just three years, the Trump administration has diminished the role of science in federal policymaking while halting or disrupting research projects nationwide, marking a transformation of the federal government whose effects, experts say, could reverberate for years.

  Political appointees have shut down government studies, reduced the influence of scientists over regulatory decisions and in some cases pressured researchers not to speak publicly. The administration has particularly challenged scientific findings related to the environment and public health opposed by industries such as oil drilling and coal mining. It has also impeded research around human-caused climate change, which President Trump has dismissed despite a global scientific consensus.

• • Politicians Voting Against
  Climate Change Get More Corporate Cash

  Voters Seem to Care About Climate
  Change, But Do Big Corporations?

  Oct. 23, 2020, (Bloomberg Green)-As Americans vote in an election that will redefine national climate priorities, the biggest U.S. companies—even those with ambitious green agendas—are throwing their support behind lawmakers who routinely stall climate legislation.

  Bloomberg Green examined political donations by businesses in the S&P 100 and large U.S.-based corporate contributors to climate change identified by the Climate Action 100+, which seeks to help them lower their emissions.

• • Dems to Fossil Fuel Contributions: No Thanks

  DNC Votes to Ban Fossil
  Fuel Company Donations

  June 12, 2018 -The move is a step toward purging oil, gas and coal industry influence on the Democratic Party’s climate policies.

  The Democratic National Committee voted over the weekend to ban donations from fossil fuel companies, HuffPost has learned.

  The resolution — proposed by Christine Pelosi, a party activist and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter — bars the organization from accepting contributions from corporate political action committees tied to the oil, gas and coal industries. The executive committee voted unanimously to approve the motion.

• • Clean Energy Research Not a Priority

  White House Seeks 72% Cut to
  Clean Energy Research,Underscoring
  Its Preference for Fossil Fuels

  Feb. 1, 2018 -The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.

  Many of the sharp cuts would probably be restored by Congress, but President Trump’s budget, due out in February, will mark a starting point for negotiations and offer a statement of intent and policy priorities.

• • Donald Trump: Making the Oceans Not-So-Great Again

  Donald Trump Aims to
  Weaken Ocean Protections

  Mar. 16, 2020 (CleanTechnica) -We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the British Petroleum (BP) disaster, which killed 11 men, injured 17 others, and spilled more than 130 million gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster polluted more than 1,300 miles of coastline, devastated marine life, and cost the Gulf Coast billions in lost revenue.

  The Trump Administration’s aggressive deregulatory agenda threatens to undo many of the safeguards for ocean and coastal ecosystems, including those that regulate the offshore oil industry. We cannot have a repeat of the BP disaster and we need common sense protections for the ocean now more than ever.

• • Strip Mining on Protected
  Tennessee Cumberland Plateau

  Trump May Approve
  Strip Mining on Tennessee’s
  Protected Cumberland Plateau

  Feb. 13, 2020 (inside climate news) -LAFOLLETTE, Tennessee—Even as the nation's demand for coal tumbles, the Trump administration is considering a permit that would allow strip mining on protected ridgelines in Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau over the objection of environmental groups and the state's Republican attorney general.

  The wild, scenic terrain is within 75,000 acres designated, at the state's behest, as unsuitable for surface coal mining in 2016 by the Obama administration's Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation, the agency responsible for regulating coal mining in the state.

• • Good Riddance to Climate Denier From NSC

  Climate Denialist to Depart
  White House National Security Council

  Sep. 11, 2019 (New York Times)- William Happer, the White House architect of a stalled plan to attack the established science of climate change, is leaving the Trump administration on Friday, according to three people familiar with his plans.

  Dr. Happer, a physicist who gained notoriety by claiming that the greenhouse gases contributing to warming the planet are beneficial to humanity, and for likening attacks on fossil fuels to “the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler” in a 2014 interview, served on the National Security Council as President Trump’s deputy assistant for emerging technologies.

• • No Lessons Learned From Deepwater Horizon

  Trump Plan Would Open Nearly All
  the Gulf of Mexico to Oil Drilling

  Jan. 4, 2018 - The Trump administration on Thursday (Jan. 4) announced plans for the largest expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. history, putting up for lease federal waters in the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans and millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico, including protected areas in the eastern Gulf.

  Click now for article from azCentral.

• • Clean Energy and Electric Cars Hit By GOP

  Tax Overhaul Hammers
  Clean Energy and Electric Cars

  (M.I.T. Technology Review) Dec. 8, 2017 - Legislators from both chambers are now hashing out their differences in the reconciliation committee in hopes of delivering a final bill to the White House before the end of the year. Clean-energy lobbyists are scrambling to push back on provisions they and others fear could stunt development or deployment of technologies needed to lower the nation’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

• • DOW's Campaign Contributions
  Stopped the Banning of Chlorpyrifos

  How Dow Chemical Influenced
  the EPA to Ignore the
  Scientific Evidence on Chlorpyrifos

  (Union of Concerned Scientists) -On March 29, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that his agency would decline to ban chlorpyrifos, despite years of scientific study and deliberation indicating that the pesticide poses a clear risk to children, farmworkers, and users of rural drinking water.

  This was a 180-degree turn from the science-based conclusion reached just a few months before by the EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which found that chlorpyrifos has harmful effects on children’s brain development. Both EPA scientists and the American Academy of Pediatrics have urged the EPA to ban the insecticide.

  Click now to read on.

• • The Top Ten Toxic Threats

  The E.P.A.’s Top 10 Toxic
  Threats, and Industry’s Pushback

  Oct. 21, 2017 - The E.P.A.has published a list of 10 toxic threats it will evaluate first under a law passed last year intended to crack down on hazardous chemicals.

  They are among 90 chemicals identified by the agency that may harm children, damage nerve tissue, cause cancer, contaminate the environment, accumulate in the bloodstream or show up in consumer products. As the review begins, industry and other interest groups are urging the E.P.A. to limit any restrictions.

  Click for the list that should
  not be on your top ten.

• • Climate Change Collapsing Australia’s Ecosystems

  Ecosystems Across Australia Are Undergo Climate Change

  The Converstion

  Research, recently published in Nature Climate Change, describes a series of sudden and catastrophic ecosystem shifts that have occurred recently across Australia.

• • CC Advisory Committee Dropped

  Administration Disbands Climate
  Change Advisory Committee

  Aug 20, 2017 - The Trumpv administration of has decided to disband a federal advisory panel on climate change - in a further sign of the White House's view on environmental policy.

  The panel is part of the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping officials and policy makers integrate the US Government's climate change analysis into their long-term planning.

• • Climate Skeptic Heads Top Science Post

  New USDA Research Head
  Thinks Climate Science Is 'Junk'

  July 20, 2017 - President Trump has nominated a well-known climate change doubter to the top science job at the Department of Agriculture.

  The nomination, which had been expected, was announced in a statement by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Sam Clovis, an early campaign adviser to Trump, will serve as undersecretary for research, education and economics.

• • Is the State of the Great Lakes a State Problem?

  Trump Says 'Yes' -
  Congress Says 'No'

  July 14, 2017 - Together, the five lakes hold nearly one-fifth of the earth’s surface freshwater. They’re home to 3500 species of plants and animals, including 170 species of fish. Not to mention the drinking water for about 35 million people, in eight states plus Canada. They have been a major highway for transportation, trade and migration. And more than 1.5 million jobs are directly connected to the lakes.

  But the Trump administration views the health of the Great Lakes as a local issue. Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow and budget director Mick Mulvaney squared off at a budget hearing a couple months ago on the topic. You can watch the exchange here:

• • Shades of White House Climate Denial

  5 Shades of Climate Denial,
  All on Display in the White House

  June 9.2017 - - From ‘it’s not real’ to ‘it’s not urgent,’ take a tour through the many shades of climate change denial wielded by Donald Trump's administration.

• • LCV Scorecard (Keeping Track of Congress)

  How Congress
  Voted on Environmental Issues

  The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) keeps track of how our elected officials are (or not) protecting us.

  Click now to catch up.