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Page Updated:
Nov. 28, 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.





Environmental (or Anti-Environmental)
Politics News Stories in the Past Several Months

(Latest Dates First)

  • • Huge Election Year Worldwide Sees
    Weakening Commitment to Act on Climate Crisis
    The Biggest Loser of the
    Elections has Been Climate

    TGL

    Nov. 23, 2024 -An unprecedented year of elections around the world has underscored a sobering trend – in many countries the commitment to act on the climate crisis has either stalled or is eroding, even as disasters and record temperatures continue to mount.

    Click now for the rest of the story.

  • • Trump Promised to Halve Energy Costs in 18 Months
    Experts Have Doubts

    NYT

    Nov. 23, 2024 -President-elect Donald J. Trump repeatedly promised voters that he would cut energy and electricity prices in half within 18 months of taking office.

    His transition team is just now working on a strategy to accomplish this, according to three people familiar with the discussions who asked for anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

  • • The Clean Energy Boom in Republican Districts
    Trump has Said He’ll Repeal President Biden’s Climate Law, But...

    NYT

    Nov. 21, 2024 -Randolph County, a rural square of green woods and farm fields in the middle of North Carolina, is the unlikely home of one of the biggest electric vehicle battery projects in the world.

    Over the past two years, Toyota has announced a series of expansions that could invest more than $12 billion in the area, where it owns a manufacturing plant.

  • •  Trump Picked Chris Wright As His Next Energy Secretary
    Oilfield Services Exec Denies Climate Crisis and Expected to Support Trump’s Plan to Maximize Oil & Gas Production

    TGL

    Nov. 16, 2024 - Donald Trump said on Saturday that Chris Wright, an oil and gas industry executive and a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, would be his pick to lead the US Department of Energy.

    Click now for more from the .

  • • U.S. Election Sends Alarming
    Message for Global Climate Efforts
    Trump Victory Sets Back the World’s Attempt to Rein in Dangerous Levels of Warming and Potentially Isolates the U.S. In The Global Energy Transition

    NYT

    Nov. 16, 2024 -For the second time in less than a decade, the United States is expected to retreat from one of the world’s most consequential challenges: limiting the deadly and costly wreckage of climate change.

    The election of Donald Trump is not only a setback to the world’s ability to rein in dangerous levels of warming. It also signals to other nations that the new leadership of the richest country in the world, which is also history’s largest emitter of planet-warming greenhouse gases, is dismissive of the economic opportunities of transitioning to cleaner technologies.

  • • Trump Chooses Lee Zeldin to Run E.P.A.
    He Plans to Gut Climate Rules

    NYT

    Nov. 13, 2024 - The President-elect announced on Monday that he would nominate former Representative Lee Zeldin, Republican of New York, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a position that is expected to be central to Mr. Trump’s plans to dismantle landmark climate regulations.

    Mr. Trump campaigned on pledges to “kill” and “cancel” E.P.A. rules and regulations to combat global warming by restricting fossil fuel pollution from vehicle tailpipes, power plant smokestacks and oil and gas wells.

  • • Trump Has Vowed to Kill US Offshore Wind Projects
    Will He Succeed?

    REW

    Nov. 13, 2024 - Opponents of offshore wind energy projects expect President-elect Donald Trump to kill an industry he has vowed to end on the first day he returns to the White House.

    But it might not be that easy.

    Many of the largest offshore wind companies put a brave face on the election results, pledging to work with Trump and Congress to build power projects and ignoring the incoming president’s oft-stated hostility to them.

    In campaign appearances, Trump railed against offshore wind and promised to sign an executive order to block such projects.

  • • Trump, Climate and the Logic of the Doomsday Bunker
    Survival of the Richest

    TGL

    Nov. 12, 2024 -Donald Trump’s election is a triumph for the politics of the doomsday bunker, which is bad news for the world’s environment.

    This is the idea that in an age of climate disruption, nature extinction and ever wider social inequality, the best chance of survival for those who can afford it is to construct a personal shelter, where they can keep the desperate masses at bay. It is survival of the richest.

  • • Survival of the Richest
    Trump, Climate and the Logic
    of the Doomsday Bunker

    TGL

    Nov. 12, 2024 - Donald Trump’s election is a triumph for the politics of the doomsday bunker, which is bad news for the world’s environment.

    This is the idea that in an age of climate disruption, nature extinction and ever wider social inequality, the best chance of survival for those who can afford it is to construct a personal shelter, where they can keep the desperate masses at bay. It is survival of the richest.

  • • Exxon Chief Cautions Trump:
    Don’t Withdraw From the
    Paris Climate Deal

    NYT

    Nov. 12, 2024 - Darren Woods, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, cautioned the President-elect withdrawing from the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions, saying Mr. Trump risked leaving a void at the negotiating table.

    Mr. Woods, speaking at an annual U.N. climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, described climate negotiations as opportunities for Mr. Trump to pursue common-sense policymaking.

  • • Climate Advocacy Groups Say They’re Ready for Trump 2.0
    Disheartened, Worried, Even Scared, Activists and Strategists are Better Prepared This Time Around and Bracing for a Long Fight

    ICN

    Nov. 10, 2024 -Donald Trump has promised to demolish the country’s domestic and international climate policies at a crucial moment, when climate scientists say the window is closing on the world’s ability to avoid the most dangerous impacts of global warming.

    But in the eight years since Trump’s shocking 2016 win, environmental groups have built more organized, collaborative coalitions and say they won’t be caught off guard by Trump’s second term in the White House.

  • • Musk Believes in Global Warming. Trump Doesn’t
    Will That Change?

    NYT

    Nov. 8, 2024 - Elon Musk has described himself as 'pro-environment' and 'super pro climate.' But he also threw himself wholeheartedly into electing as president someone who has dismissed global warming as a hoax.

    Now, as the President-elect prepares to enter the White House, one big question is how much sway — if any — Mr. Musk’s views on climate change and clean energy might have in the new administration.

  • • What Trump’s Victory Means for Climate Change
    President-elect Trump Promised to Delete Climate Policy, But...

    NYT

    Nov. 6, 2024 -The fight against climate change has taken a body blow with the election of Donald J. Trump, who calls global warming a “scam” and has promised to erase federal efforts to reduce the pollution that is heating the planet.

    Mr. Trump told a jubilant crowd Wednesday that the United States, which signed a global agreement last year to transition away from fossil fuels, will instead amp up oil production even beyond current record levels.

  • • Oil Interests Gave More Than $75 Million to Trump PACs
    New Analysis Reveals

    NYT

    Nov. 1, 2024 - Oil and gas interests have given an estimated $75 million to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee and affiliated committees, far more than has been previously known, according to a new analysis of federal campaign data.

    Click now to read all about it.

  • • The E.P.A. Faces an Uncertain Future
    It's Just Rebounding
    From the Trump Years

    NYT

    Oct. 29, 2024 - The Environmental Protection Agency has largely recovered from many of the staff exits and budget cuts that occurred during the Trump administration and, in some ways, has swiftly rebounded.

    It has banned toxic pesticides, strengthened chemical safety protections and imposed strong climate regulations. Enforcement of pollution laws, which had plummeted under the Trump years, is starting to climb back up.

  • • California Tries ‘Trump-Proofing’ Its Climate Policies
    California Is Devising Ways to
    Insulate its Environmental Regulation

    ICN

    Oct. 15, 2024 -California officials have been working for months on a plan to 'Trump proof' the state’s leading edge environmental and climate policies, in the event that former President Donald J. Trump follows through on his promise to gut them.

    Whether California succeeds could affect more than a dozen other states that follow its emissions rules, and could have global impact because the state’s market muscle compels auto makers and other companies to conform to California standards.

  • • Two Candidates With Vastly Different Views on the Climate
    The Florida Senate Race

    ICN

    Oct. 9, 2024 -Incumbent Rick Scott, a Republican, reportedly banned the words “climate change” from state agencies as governor. Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell favors climate-resilient infrastructure.

    Click now for the rest of the stor.

  • • Fact Checking the Pennsylvania
    Senate Candidates’ Debate Claims on Energy
    In Their First Debate, Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick Traded Accusations About Fracking and Clean Energy Policy

    ICN

    Oct. 4, 2024 -If there was a theme of the first debate between Pennsylvania’s candidates for U.S. Senate, it would be lying. The incumbent, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, and the challenger, Republican Dave McCormick, each accused the other of spreading misinformation about their records. Casey said McCormick has been lying about where he lives, and McCormick touted a website created by his campaign called “CaseyLies.com.”

    Click now for more.

  • • Ohio Reaps Benefits From a Climate Law
    JD Vance Repeatedly Attacks It

    NYT

    Oct. 1, 2024 -President Biden’s key climate law has long drawn the ire of former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.

    Mr. Trump has called for rescinding unspent funds included in the law, which contains tax credits and subsidies to incentivize companies to deploy more clean energy projects. Mr. Vance has also blasted the law as a “Green New Scam” and highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris’s ties to the legislation, noting at a campaign event in August that she had “cast the deciding vote for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act that sent a lot of our resources to China.”

  • • Around the World, Diplomats Gird
    for a Trump Assault on Climate Action
    Some Leaders Insist That the Global Clean Energy Transition Will Happen With or Without the United States

    NYT

    Sep. 30, 2024 -Climate negotiators from Europe, Latin America and some island nations are bracing for the potential return to the world stage of Donald J. Trump, who withdrew the United States from the fight against global warming during his first term.

    Nations will press forward without the United States if they must, according to climate negotiators who gathered in New York last week during the United Nations General Assembly.

  • • An Architect of Project 2025 Dismisses Global Warming
    Happened at a Climate Forward Event

    NYT

    Sep. 25, 2024 -Kevin D. Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, which published a policy blueprint for the next Republican administration known as Project 2025, on Wednesday dismissed the overwhelming scientific consensus that humans were warming the planet.

    Click now for more of the story.

  • • Trump Debate Comment About German Energy Policy
    Leaves Germans Perplexed

    ICN

    Sep. 19, 2024 -In his closing statement at last week’s presidential debate, Donald Trump made a blink-and-you-miss-it comment that earned a pointed response from the German government.

    Click now to read all about it.

  • • 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

    ICN

    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.

  • • Trump Gets Everything Wrong About the Climate Crisis
    The Results November Election Could Reverberate For a Million Years

    TGL

    Sep. 6, 2024 -Here is the biggest thing happening on our planet as we head into the autumn of 2024: the Earth is continuing to heat dramatically. Scientists have said that there’s a better than 90% chance that this year will top 2023 as the warmest ever recorded. And paleoclimatologists were pretty sure last year was the hottest in the last 125,000 years.

    What Trump Had to Say

  • • 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

    NYT

    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.

Back Arrow

 

What You Should Know

  • • Biden Could Lose Young Voters Over Willow Drilling
    They Would Like Him
    to Be More Consistent

    NYT

    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.

  • • Challenge: Raising Trillions to Fight Climate Change
    With or Without the U.S. Presidential Cooperation

    NYT

    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.

  • • 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.

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