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Environmental Politics

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Page Updated:
Sept. 18, 2025

• • 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.

• • California Just Aligned Its Carbon Market With Washington’s

  Here’s Why That Matters
  
  
  

  Sept. 18, 2025 - California’s lawmakers over the weekend extended the state’s carbon market for years — and rebranded it to mirror Washington’s landmark climate policy.

  The two West Coast states are pulling to the head of the national pack in their efforts to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions while the federal government boosts the coal, gas and oil industries.

• • G.O.P. Plan on Pesticides Faces Revolt From MAHA Moms

  The Provision In the Government Funding Bill Could Shield Pesticide Companies From Billions of Dollars In Lawsuits
  
  
  

  Sept. 15, 2025 -For years, the pesticide manufacturer Bayer has battled thousands of lawsuits claiming that its weed killer Roundup causes cancer in people who use it frequently.

  Now, the Republican-controlled Congress could deliver the company a crucial victory. A provision tucked into a government spending bill could shield Bayer and other pesticides makers from billions of dollars in payouts to plaintiffs.

• • Trump Moves to Scrap Biden Rule That Protected Public Lands

  The Proposal From the Bureau of Land Management Would Prioritize the Use of Public Lands For Oil and Gas Drilling, Coal Mining and Other Industrial Activities
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 10, 2025 - The Trump administration moved on Wednesday to repeal a Biden-era rule that sought to protect millions of acres of public lands from the twin threats of climate change and industrial development.

  The proposal from the Bureau of Land Management would prioritize the use of public lands for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, timber production and livestock grazing. The Biden administration, in contrast, had championed their use for conservation, recreation and renewable energy development.

• • House Bill Amending the Clean Water
  Act Could Mean Dirtier Water Nationwide

  And Especially in Iowa
  
  
  

  Sept. 9, 2025 - A bill drastically reducing the scope of the Clean Water Act passed through committee in the U.S. House and will likely reach the floor for debate later this month.

  The legislation would narrow the definition of bodies of water that qualify for protection under the Clean Water Act and would remove laws requiring permits before discharging pesticides or manure-contaminated stormwater from factory farms into waterways.

• • The Energy Sector Has Spent Hundreds
  of Millions on Lobbying This Year

  Watchdogs Say That’s
  Only Half The Story
  
  
  

  Sept. 8, 2025 - The energy and natural resource sector has spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying the federal government so far this year, according to data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets.

  That spending comes amid a wave of policy wins for fossil fuel interests—and significant setbacks for environmental and green energy groups.

  Nearly $240 million poured in during the first and second quarters of 2025, with about 2,200 lobbyists representing the sector—nearly half of whom are former government employees themselves. That spending puts the sector slightly ahead of last year’s pace, when its yearly total reached $435 million.

• • Oil Tycoons Bet Big on Trump

  It’s Paying Off
  
  {Energy Central}
  
  

  Sept. 7, 2025 -The Trump administration has opened millions of acres to drilling, approved LNG terminals, rolled back climate rules, and ended EV subsidies.

  CEOs from Chevron, EQT, Exxon, and Continental now have direct lines to Trump and his Cabinet. API’s Mike Sommers calls it “a complete turnaround” from the Biden years.

• • House Republicans Push New Coal Bills, But...

  Critics Say the Industry’s Decline Can’t Be Reversed
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 5, 2025 -Trump has made reviving the coal industry a political and policy priority in his second term, swimming against the current of a domestic—and international—market that’s increasingly turned away from the fuel source. A Wednesday hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, on two bills aiming to bolster the U.S. coal industry, showcased the debate around the use of federal lands, the nation’s energy future and the fate of the world’s oldest fossil fuel.

  During the hearing, Republican lawmakers lauded coal as indispensable to U.S. energy security and blasted federal oversight as a bureaucratic chokehold suffocating the mining industry. Democrats and environmental groups dismissed the bills as a symbolic and misguided attempt to rescue U.S. coal production, arguing that the policies would fail to revive jobs and succeed only in worsening emissions and undermining progress on climate policy.

• • Without Well-Funded Public Transit,
  Philadelphia’s Climate Future Looks Bleak

  SEPTA Riders Aren’t the Only Ones Hurt By Service Cuts, Which Could Jeopardize the Region’s Long-Term Ability to Meet Climate Goals
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 3, 2025 -Three days a week, Daniel Blazek takes the train from his Center City neighborhood to his job in supply chain management in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He’s relied on public transit to get to work for the past eight years.

  But next year, he may not be able to take the train anymore. The SEPTA line that he and many of his coworkers use regularly is slated for elimination in January, a casualty of massive system-wide cuts meant to offset a $213 million funding shortfall caused by an impasse in state budget negotiations.

• • How Tariffs Could Help Canada Wean Itself from Fossil Fuels

  Tariffs Imposed by the U.S. Could Give Its Trading Partners Space to Reduce Their Economies’ Dependence on Oil and Gas
  
  
  
  

  Aug. 29, 2025 -In a performance of nationalism, The Trump administration has threatened — and recently imposed — dramatic tariffs on the importation of goods to the United States from other nations. Trump has changed his mind dozens of times on the details of these tariffs. In the latest iteration, new modifications took effect on Aug. 7, with more coming this Friday Aug. 29.

  The chaos over tariffs highlights another reality: America’s trade partners remain tied to the country’s fossil fuel-based economy, meaning that decreased trade with the U.S. will reduce the trade of anything made of or transported by fossil fuels. An unintended side effect of the tariffs is to reveal that many U.S. trading partners have failed to fulfill their promises to curtail — and have often increased — their fossil fuel extraction and exportation to benefit from the American market.

• • Trump Blamed Rising Electricity Prices on Renewables

  Does the Data Back That Up?
  
  
  
  

  August 24, 2025 - • Electricity prices are up 27% in the last six years, but states leading in wind and solar—like Iowa and North Dakota—have seen bills hold steady or even fall.

  So what about outliers like California and Maine, where renewable usage is high and bills are, too? They owe their high prices to wildfire costs and gas price swings, not renewables, according to the latest data.

• • UK Falling Behind EU on Environmental
  Rules Amid Post-Brexit Rollback

  From Clean Air to Pesticides: How UK has Lagged Behind EU on the Environment
  
  
  
  

  August 19, 2025 -The UK is using Brexit to weaken crucial environmental protections and is falling behind the EU despite Labour’s manifesto pledge not to dilute standards, analysis has found.

  Experts have said ministers are choosing to use Brexit to “actively go backwards” in some cases, though there are also areas where the UK has improved nature laws such as by banning sand eel fishing.

• • Environmental Groups Face
  ‘Generational’ Setbacks Under Trump

  As Trump Dismantles the Country’s Efforts to Fight Climate Change, Environmental Groups are Back On Their Heels
  
  
  
  

  August 16, 2025 -In the Biden administration, the American environmental movement reached what many of its supporters considered an apex. Congress passed the largest ever federal law to combat climate change. Coal-burning power plants were shutting down. Hundreds of billions of dollars of federal investment in renewable energy, batteries and electric vehicles was beginning to flow.

  But in just months, President Trump has attacked much of that work.

• • Trump Cracks Down on Bird Deaths, But...

  But Only From Wind Turbines
  
  
  
  

  August 9, 2025 -Bald eagles must be protected to the fullest extent of the law from dangerous wind turbines, President Trump’s interior secretary declared this week.

  But four months ago, President Trump called for gutting the very law that applies, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, calling it a burden on oil and gas producers.

• • Civil Cases Against Major Polluters Plummet Under Trump

  In its First Six Months, the Trump Administration has filed 11 Civil Cases Against Polluters Compared with the Biden Administration’s 30
  
  
  
  

  August 8, 2025 -The Trump administration has filed far fewer civil cases accusing companies of violating environmental rules than its predecessors, an analysis of federal data shows.

  In the first full six months of Mr. Trump’s second term, the Justice Department filed 11 civil lawsuits against major polluters for breaking bedrock environmental laws, compared with 30 of these cases in President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s first full six months in office, according to the analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group.

• • A Meteorologist in Congress Fights for Climate Science

  Representative Eric Sorensen of Illinois Shares How His Meteorology Roots Drive His Fight to Protect Climate Science and Push Back Against Political Interference
  
  {SCI AM}
  
  

  August 8, 2025 -The Congressman Spent 22 Years Forecasting the Weather on Television Before Winning His Congressional Seat in 2022. He Now Finds Himself Defending Scientific Agencies From Unprecedented Attacks at a Time When Climate Change is pushing weather patterns into uncharted territory.

  Today we’re talking to Eric about how his scientific background shapes his approach to politics, what he’d change about the country’s approach to catastrophic weather events and why he thinks more scientists should consider running for office.

• • Stop Politicians’ Attack on National Forests

  In a Massive Giveaway to the Timber Industry, Members of Congress are Poised to Pass Legislation that Would Boost Logging in National Forests While Gutting Protections for 100 Imperiled Species
  
  
  
  

  August 6, 2025 -The so-called Fix Our Forests Act would lead to more calamitous clearcuts, more habitat-fragmenting roads, and worse water quality. Although it's touted as a wildfire-management measure, it would do nothing to prevent catastrophic wildfires or give people critical funding and resources to safeguard their homes from those fires. Instead it would weaken environmental laws, silence impacted communities, and hinder courts' ability to block harmful logging projects.

• • Energy Chief Suggests Trump Administration
  is Altering Previously Published Climate Reports

  Energy Sec. Chris Wright Said the Administration is Updating the National Climate Assessments That Have Been Previously Published
  
  {CNN Climate}
  
  

  August 7, 2025 -“We’re reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those reports,” Wright told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview on “The Source.”

  Wright dismissed the past reports, saying “they weren’t fair in broad-based assessments of climate change.”

• • New York Climate Activists Are a Key
  Part of Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral Campaign

  Env. Groups Believe He is Capable of Making Climate Change a Driving Force for Justice and Change in America’s Largest City
  
  
  
  

  July 31, 2025 - For 16 hours on primary election day in June, Michael Magazine, a Sunrise Movement climate activist, stood outside George Washington Carver Elementary School in Brooklyn, urging anyone he could to rank Zohran Mamdani as a choice for mayor in the Democratic primary. Between conversations with City Council District 41 voters, he checked his heat-index thermometer: The real-feel temperature had blown past 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

  Click now for the rest of the story.

• • Elon Musk is Turning US Liberals Off Not
  Just Tesla But Electric Vehicles in General

  Disgust at the CEO’s Rightwing Activism is Casting a Pall But Conservatives are No More Likely To Buy EVs
  
  
  
  

  July 30, 2025 -US liberals have become so disgusted with Tesla since Elon Musk’s rightward turn that they are now not only far less likely to purchase the car brand but also less willing to buy any type of electric car, new research has found.

  The popularity of Tesla among liberal-minded Americans has plummeted since Musk, Its chief executive and the world’s richest person, allied himself with Donald Trump and helped propel the president to election victory last year.

• • Candidate Trump Promised Oil Executives a Windfall

  Now, They’re Getting It
  
  
  
  

  July 30, 2025 -During the presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump gathered oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago estate and promised them a powerful return on their investment if they raised $1 billion to help him retake the White House.

  The industry never ponied up quite that much, but nevertheless, six months into Mr. Trump’s presidency, oil and gas companies are poised to reap multibillion-dollar windfalls from the administration’s actions so far.

• • Trump’s EPA Takes Aim at the
  Legal Backbone of U.S. Climate Policy

  A Proposal to Undo the “Endangerment Finding" Under the Clean Air Act
  
  {SCI AM}
  
  

  July 29, 2025 -On Tuesday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its proposal to undo its long-standing rationale and legal mandate to regulate greenhouse gases under the decades-old Clean Air Act—part of the Trump administration’s wide-ranging campaign to dismantle federal efforts to combat climate change.

  EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and other administration officials appeared at an Indianapolis truck dealership, where they announced a new draft rule to undo this “endangerment finding,” which the EPA issued in 2009, along with a proposal to reverse vehicle tailpipe emissions limits enacted under President Joe Biden’s term.

• • Clean Energy Brought Data Centers to Iowa

  The Big Beautiful Bill
  Could Change That
  
  
  
  

  July 28, 2025 - A line of gnarled elm trees separates Willow Creek Street in West Des Moines from a quintessentially Iowan corn field, deep green at the height of mid-summer.

  Across the road, a barbed wire fence borders a sprawling, 10-building Microsoft data center. More and more, this sight is also quintessentially Iowan.

  The grid of white warehouses is Microsoft’s Project Alluvion, one of six data centers the tech giant has built in the city of West Des Moines since 2009. Microsoft has invested between $5 billion and $6 billion in these data centers and, last year, announced plans to build a seventh in the region.

• • Trump’s AI Action Plan Waives Federal
  Environmental Rules in the Development of Data Centers

  The Administration’s Approach to AI Would Also Increase Reliance on Fossil Fuels to Power the Massive Server Farms
  
  
  
  

  July 24, 2025 -Some of the most exclusive seats at President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January were reserved for the leaders of Big Tech companies like Meta, Amazon and Google.

  While the mega-rich have long had an outsized role in U.S. national politics, many saw the inaugural display as a tell-tale sign of the influence the tech industry would have in Trump’s second term after Silicon Valley pledged newfound support to his administration.

• • Renewables Market: A Tale of Two Tax Credit Realities

  Emerging in the US Renewables Market
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  July 24, 2025 -Equinor just booked a massive $955M write-down on an offshore wind project, blaming policy and tariff uncertainty under the Trump administration. Already, tariffs on steel and other goods had increased project costs by $300M.

  Iberdrola S.A. struck a far more optimistic tone: The Spanish utility predicts Trump-era policy changes will have little impact on its 1,800 MW of onshore wind and solar projects already under construction across the US.

• • FEMA Moved Quickly to Help Texas

  These Other States Waited Months
  
  
  
  

  July 23, 2025 -Earlier this month, sitting next to President Trump at an event in the flood-ravaged Texas Hill Country, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was quick to praise the administration’s rapid response to the deadly disaster that killed more than 130 people in his state.

  And the robust response to the flooding in Texas contrasts sharply with delays faced by other states that have sustained deadly floods and other disasters this year, FEMA staff and state disaster officials say.

• • Republican Excitement for Wyoming Rare Earth
  Mining Contradicts the Party’s Disdain for Renewables

  Ramaco Resources’ Brook Mine Could Become the Second Rare Earth Extraction Operation in the U.S., But...
  
  
  
  

  July 23, 2025 -At the foot of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains sits a mine potentially full of minerals crucial for renewable energy, yet capable of drawing praise from some of the United States’ most ardent supporters of fossil fuels.

  On July 11, the U.S. secretary of energy Chris Wright, the former CEO of a hydraulic fracturing company, joined former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Wyoming’s congressional delegation and governor, Mark Gordon, at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Ramaco Resources’ Brook Mine, which could one day become just the second source of rare earth minerals in the U.S.

• • Courts Banned This Herbicide Twice

  The EPA Wants to Bring it Back
  
  
  
  

  July 23, 2025 -The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday its proposed decision to reregister dicamba, a herbicide widely used on soybean and cotton farms that has been banned twice by federal courts. The EPA originally approved dicamba’s use on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton in 2016.

  Environmental groups sued the EPA over dicamba in 2020 because of its potential drift away from the intended target, especially during warmer temperatures, and harm neighboring crops, nearby ecosystems and rural communities.

• • DOE Cancels $4.9B Conditional
  Loan Commitment for Grain Belt Express

  Invenergy, the Project’s Developer, Said Earlier This Month That the Proposed 800-Mile Line Was “the Target of Egregious Politically Motivated Lawfare”
  
  {UTILTY DIVE}
  
  

  July 23, 2025 -The U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday announced it has terminated its $4.9 billion conditional loan commitment for the 800-mile Grain Belt Express Phase 1 transmission project.

  “After a thorough review of the project’s financials, DOE found that the conditions necessary to issue the guarantee are unlikely to be met and it is not critical for the federal government to have a role in supporting this project,” the agency said in a statement.

• • Trump Denies Maryland’s Request
  For FEMA Aid After Devastating Floods

  The Administration Turned Down Gov. Wes Moore’s Request For $15.8 Million in Disaster Relief For Western Maryland’s Flooding in May
  
  
  
  

  July 23, 2025 -The White House on Wednesday denied Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s request for $15.8 million in disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to pay for repairs after heavy floods swept through Western Maryland in May.

  From May 12 to 14, extreme rainfall caused water to rise to a historic 12.4 feet in Georges Creek, which spilled over and forced evacuations in Allegany and Garrett counties. Schoolchildren were ferried to safety by boat...

• • A New Playbook for U.S. Energy and Industrial Power

  The US is Too Dependent on “Foreign Adversaries” For Critical Minerals, Energy Tech, and Supply Chains
  
  {energycentral}
  
  

  July 22, 2025 - Their proposed fix: A full-court press of federal investment, defense-led clean energy programs, and revived industrial policy.

  The twist: While the report echoes President Trump on domestic oil and LNG expansion, it also backs EVs, solar, and battery innovation—areas his administration is actively targeting. It even calls EV leadership a national security issue. Agree or disagree? Head to the comments here and tell us more.

• • Challenge: Raising Trillions to Fight Climate Change

  With or Without the U.S. Presidential Cooperation
  
  

  Nov. 12, 2024 - Getting big cash commitments would be hard enough without wars, a pandemic and inflation having drained the reserves of rich countries that are expected to help poorer ones cope with climate hazards.

  It just got even harder. The election of Trump as president of the U.S. all but guarantees that the world’s richest country will not chip in.

• • 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.