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Environmental Politics

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More on
the Govermental Page

• • 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.



• • Trump's Enviroinmental
  Rules Rollbacks

  Total Rollbacks = 100

  July 15, 2020, from the New York Times Climate Forward -After three years in office, the Trump administration has dismantled most of the major climate and environmental policies the president promised to undo.

  Calling the rules unnecessary and burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other businesses, his administration has weakened Obama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks, and rolled back many more rules governing clean air, water and toxic chemicals. Several major reversals have been finalized in recent months as the country has struggled to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

  Click now for the complete list

• • 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.

• • 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.

  Click now for the full article.

• • 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.

  Click now for the complete plan.

• • 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.

  Click now for more details.

• • 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.

  Click now to learn more.

• • 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.

• • The 2020 Candidates on Climate Quiz

  Where the Candidates
  Stand on Climate- Answers
  Might Surprise You.

  GreenPeace,   - Take the quiz to learn what you know or don’t know about the Presidential hopefuls wih regard to Climate Change.

  Interested? Click now for to proceed.

• • 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.

• • President 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.

• • 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.

  Click now for more from the Huffington Post.

• • 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.

  Click now for the story
  from the Washington Post.

• • 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

  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.

  Click now to read the M.I.T. Technology Review story.

• • 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.

• • Bi-Parisan Climate Solutions Caucus

  Republicans Who
  Care About climate change:
  'They are done with the denial'

  Apr. 27, 2017 - The failure of American politics to deal with, or even coherently discuss, climate change was perhaps best illustrated when James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, took to the floor of the US Senate in February 2015 with a Ziploc bag and a mischievous grin.

• • Make Your Voice Heard in Washington

  5 Ways to Make Your Voice
  Heard, and 2 That
  Are Not Worth Your Time

  Jan. 30, 2017- As a new era in American politics begins, citizens across the political spectrum may find themselves engaging in some collective hand-wringing. No matter your political leanings, times are changing, and many people are clamoring to make their voices heard.

• • Mr. Trump - Are You Listening?

  Trade Group Outlines
  Benefits of Geothermal in
  Paper for Trump Administration

  Jan. 23, 2017 - In the paper, “Geothermal is Good for America,” GEA said that there are 104 operating geothermal plants in the U.S. with a capacity of 3.7 GW, and there are more than 80 new projects in development.

  ”Geothermal delivers a triple bottom line to our energy system: It is an abundant domestic energy source, it brings economic benefits in the form of taxes and long-term, high-paying jobs, and it has one of the lowest Levelized Costs of Energy of all power sources in the United States,” the paper said.

• • Trump Moves to Weaken Migratory Bird Protections

  The Latest Example of the Trump's
  Environmental Lack of Respect

  (REUTERS), Nov. 27, 2020 -The Trump administration took a step on Friday toward rolling back protections for migratory birds and reducing penalties for companies that inadvertently kill them, the latest effort to finalize regulatory rollbacks before President Donald Trump leaves office in January.

  The Fish and Wildlife Service published its final environmental impact statement for regulations governing the killing of migratory birds. This bolstered the administration’s proposal to reinterpret the 1918 migratory bird statute by limiting the definition of an illegal “taking” under the law to deliberate actions, so shielding from penalty energy companies, developers and others who inadvertently kill birds.

  The policy that had been in effect since the early 1970s defined an illegal “taking” under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act as any action that caused the death of a protected species, whether deliberate or accidental.

  
  Click now for more.
• • What Does John Kerry's Appointment Mean For the Environment?

  Biden Chose a Seasoned Diplomat
  to Spearhead His Climate Policy

  (Deutsche Welle), Nov. 25, 2020 -The nomination of John Kerry, who signed the Paris Climate Accord on behalf of the US in 2016, underscores president-elect Joe Biden's commitment to make the climate a top priority of his presidency.

  Following his appointment John Kerry tweeted: "America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is."

  "It'll be an honor to work with our allies and partners, alongside rising young leaders in the climate movement, to tackle the climate crisis with the seriousness and urgency it deserves."

  
  Click now to read on.
• • G.M. Drops Its Support for Trump Climate Rollbacks

  California Will Again
  Have the Power to Set
  Fuel Economy Standards.

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Nov. 23, 2020 -General Motors turned its back Monday on the Trump administration’s legal fight to nullify California’s strict fuel economy rules, signaling that it was ready to work with President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to reduce climate-warming emissions from cars and trucks.

  The decision by Mary Barra, the General Motors chief executive, to withdraw her company’s support for Trump administration efforts to strip California of its ability to set its own fuel efficiency standards was a striking reversal. It was also a signal that corporate America is moving on from President Trump.

  
  Click now to read all about it.
• • John Kerry: a ‘Climate Envoy’ With Stature

  Kerry to Be Named to a
  Cabinet-Level Climate Post

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Nov. 23, 2020 -When John Kerry served as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, he helped steer the negotiation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, locking down commitments from nearly 200 nations — including his own — to begin to reverse the dangerous warming of the planet.

  Now his diplomatic task may be even tougher.

  On Monday, President-elect Biden Jr. said he would name Mr. Kerry his special presidential envoy for climate, creating a new cabinet-level position.

  
  Click now to read all about it.
• • Senior Biden Advisor With Oil & Gas Ties Gets Key Role

  Climate Activists Warn of the Danger

  (The Guardian), Nov. 22, 2020 - As Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond takes a senior role in the incoming Biden administration, climate advocates and leaders in the fight against toxic air pollution in his district have warned of his history of poor engagement with vulnerable communities and his ties to the oil and gas industry.

  But they also have urged him to leverage his new position to help direct attention to their plight.

  Richmond, who has represented a south Louisiana district for 10 years and played a key early role in Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, was named as a senior adviser to the president-elect and will become director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. He is meant to help advance the administration’s legislative agenda on climate change, as well as its response to the coronavirus pandemic and push for economic stimulus.

  
  Click now for whole the story.
• • The Trump Plan to Sell Arctic Oil Leases

  It Face Challenges

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Nov. 17, 2020 -Even if in its waning days the Trump administration succeeds in selling oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, the leases may never be issued, legal and other experts said Tuesday.

  The leases would face strong and likely insurmountable headwinds from two directions: the incoming Biden administration and the courts, they said.

  Under new leadership, several federal agencies could reject the leases, which even if purchased at an auction a few days before Inauguration Day would be subject to review, a process that usually takes several months.

  
  Click now to learn more.
• • Trump Removes Scientist in Charge of Assessing Climate Change

  The Job is Expected to Go
  to a Climate-Change Skeptic

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Nov. 9, 2020 -The White House has removed the scientist responsible for the National Climate Assessment, the federal government’s premier contribution to climate knowledge and the foundation for regulations to combat global warming, in what critics interpreted as the latest sign that the Trump administration intends to use its remaining months in office to continue impeding climate science and policy.

  Michael Kuperberg, executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the climate assessment, was told Friday that he would no longer lead that organization, people with knowledge of the situation said.

  
  Click now for more.
• • Environmental Wins and Losses of the 2020 Election

  The planet Needed a Big Win,
  From Top to Bottom

  (The Revelator), Nov. 0, 2020 -the day before the United States officially left the Paris Climate Agreement — didn’t deliver an immediate rebuke to President Trump or relief for environmentalists.

  That would have to wait.

  “The election hasn’t produced the outcome that the planet badly needed,” Bill McKibben of 350.org summed up in The New Yorker the following day.

  But as the votes continued to be counted in battleground states, the mood shifted from despair to hope, and finally, on Nov. 7, to celebration when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were pronounced victors.

  
  Click now for the complete story.
• • How the Biden Plan and Green New Deal Differ

  And How That Is More
  Likely to Accelerate America’s
  Clean Energy Transition

  (ZME Science), Nov. 9, 2020 -The results are in. Americans have spoken. Starting in 2021, we will begin to see the effect of that decision on our economy. The question is, will the new President’s proposed changes to our energy infrastructure be as effective for moving America and the world to a carbon-free energy future as the Green New Deal would have been. Can it really work quickly enough to mitigate climate change and turn around our economy?

  The Biden Plan and the Green New Deal share the same goal to reduce the negative effects of carbon-based pollution while growing our economy. On Biden’s campaign website it states, “Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face”. However, the timeline and the strategies and tactics the new President outlines for achieving that goal differ in many ways.

  
  Click now learn the differences.
• • Climate Damage: Trump’s Most Profound Legacy

  Can the Trump Damages Be Reversed?

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Nov. 9, 2020 -President-elect Biden will use the next four years to try to restore the environmental policies that his predecessor has methodically blown up, but the damage done by the greenhouse gas pollution unleashed by President Trump’s rollbacks may prove to be one of the most profound legacies of his single term.

  Most of Mr. Trump’s environmental policies, which erased or loosened nearly 100 rules and regulations on pollution in the air, water and atmosphere, can be reversed, though not immediately. Pollutants like industrial soot and chemicals can have lasting health effects, especially in minority communities where they are often concentrated. But air quality and water clarity can be restored once emissions are put back under control.

  
  Click now to read all about it.
• • How the Biden Plans to Tackle Climate Change

  His Plan Is Described as the Most
  Ambitious of Any Mainstream
  US Presidential Candidate Yet

  (BBC NEWS), Nov. 9, 2020 -Much will be made about Joe Biden's pledge to re-join the Paris Climate Agreement, the international pact designed to avoid dangerous warming of the Earth.

  President Trump pulled out of the deal after the Obama administration had signed up in 2016, and during the drawn-out election count, Mr Biden confirmed that reversing the decision would be one of his first acts as president.

  But key to his credibility on the international stage will be his domestic policies on cutting carbon emissions.

  
  Click now for more of the story.

• • The Climate Voters Are Coming

  Arizona Provides a Glimpse
  of the Climate Action Majority

  (REUTERS)), Nov. 9, 2020 -Things were red hot in Phoenix, Arizona last Thursday. At the vote tabulation center of the Maricopa County Elections Department near downtown, a media circus unfolded as right-wing protesters, a couple of them armed, complained about a non-existent vote-count suppression scandal called Sharpiegate (yes, this is a thing).

  By three in the afternoon, the temperature was a withering 99 degrees—the hottest November day in the Valley of the Sun since 1895. It was the punctuation to a week of heat that was, even by Arizona’s scorching standards, unseasonably uncomfortable.

  Election Day had a high temperature of 93—12 degrees above average—and in the final hours of ballot casting the sunset had blazed against the Estrella Mountains on the west side of the desert metropolis.

  
  Click now for more.

• • Rolling Back Trump's Rollbacks

  Biden Seen Reversing Climate Deregulation

  (REUTERS)), Nov. 8, 2020 -Joe Biden could erase much of President Donald Trump’s four-year legacy of energy and climate deregulation with the stroke of his pen, according to regulatory experts, but replacing it with something new and durable may prove trickier.

  Trump’s rollbacks are on shaky ground because most were done not through Congressional lawmaking but via presidential executive orders that can be easily torn up by a new administration. That means signature measures ranging from the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement to the easing of vehicle emissions targets could vanish fast.

  
  Click now for the story.

• • The U.S. Has Now Left the Paris Climate Pact

  The American Exit Officially Took
  Effect On November 4th

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Nov. 4, 2020 -At the stroke of midnight Wednesday, when the United States became the only country to formally quit the Paris Agreement, the global accord designed to avert catastrophic climate change, it fulfilled a campaign promise that Donald J. Trump made four years ago.

  But a lot has happened in those four years.

  The costs of climate disasters have grown. Banks and investors have begun to turn away from fossil fuels as the price of renewable energy drops precipitously. Not least, key United States allies have rushed to stake out their own climate action targets. Britain, the European Union, Japan and South Korea have all said they would aim to neutralize their own emissions of planet-warming gases by 2050. And, in a shrewd move to outshine whoever is the next occupant of the White House, China, too, announced its own net-zero ambitions.

  Click now to read all about it.

• • Battleground States Voters on Climate Change

  What Do They Think About It?

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Nov. 1, 2020 - Climate change has emerged as a major issue for voters this year, both nationally and in crucial battleground states like Arizona and Florida, new polls from The New York Times and Siena College suggest.

  Nationwide, 58 percent of Americans said they were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about their communities being harmed by climate change, according to a survey conducted in mid-October, with 39% saying they were “not too concerned” or “not at all concerned.”

  But that poll also found a stark partisan split: 90% of voters who favored Biden, expressed concern about climate change, while just 23% of voters who backed Trump did so.

  Click now for the story, with graphs.

• • Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science

  NOAA Had Kept Up With
  Science - But What Now?

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Oct. 27, 2020 -The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the nation’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency.

  The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that underpins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indication of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election.

  An early sign of the shift came last month, when Erik Noble, a former White House policy adviser who had just been appointed NOAA’s chief of staff, removed Craig McLean, the agency’s acting chief scientist.

  
  Click now for the depressing news.
• • Coal Baron and Trump Influencer Dies at 80

  He Fought Government Regulations
  and Wielded Considerable Political
  Influence as a Trump Ally

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Oct. 27, 2020 -Robert E. Murray, the son of a coal miner who became one of the nation’s most powerful coal barons, along the way fighting worker-safety and environmental regulations and lending major support to President Trump, died on Sunday at his home in St. Clairsville, Ohio. He was 80.

  His lawyer and close friend Michael J. Shaheen said the cause was complications of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a stiffening of lung tissues that required Mr. Murray to breathe with the help of a portable oxygen tank. He had lived with the condition for years.

  The company he founded, Murray Energy, became the nation’s largest privately owned coal producer, employing about 8,000 people in six states and in Colombia at its peak before declaring bankruptcy last year and re-emerging under a new name.

  
  Click now to read all about it.
• • Biden Pledges to ‘Transition’ From Oil to Renewables

  Statement Was Made at the
  End of the Final Debate

  (NY Times Climate Forward), Oct. 23, 2020 -Joseph R. Biden’s pledge Thursday night to “transition away from the oil industry” to address global warming put the topic of climate change on center stage for the final stretch of a campaign year in which the issue has played a larger role than ever.

  Mr. Biden’s statement in the closing moments of Thursday’s debate gave President Trump what his campaign saw as an enormous opportunity to blunt his opponent’s appeal to working-class voters. Mr. Biden’s campaign tried to downplay it, saying he was merely stating that he would phase out longstanding tax subsidies for the oil industry.

  But transitioning away from fossil fuels is the inevitable end game of Mr. Biden’s promise to end net carbon pollution by 2050. That policy has energized some young voters and helped unite the Democrats’ left and moderate wings, but has always carried risks for Mr. Bide

  
  Click now for more.
• • 75 Trump Dirty Environmental Deeds

  They Helped Make the Planet
  Dirtier and Warmer

  (The Guardian), Oct. 20, 2020 -"I want crystal clean water and air."

  That's what Donald Trump said in the first chaotic presidential debate with Joe Biden. But there is scant evidence of that desire in the actions of his administration, which has spent nearly four years systematically dismantling core environmental protections, some of which stretch back decades.

  Experts agree that the climate crisis's most destructive manifestations, on display in a particularly difficult year for the US, barely scratch the surface of the catastrophes to come. Yet the president appears unmoved by the enormous wildfires, devastating hurricanes, widespread water problems and persistent air pollution that disproportionately blights black and Latino communities. His administration has scrapped climate regulations, rolled back clean water rules and loosened pollution standards. Protections for public land and threatened species have been shrunk while new oil pipelines and coal mining have been encouraged.

  
  Click now the the gory details.
• • Former Republican Congressman Tells it Like it Is

  Bob Inglis Calls Rupert Murdoch
  On Climate Denialism

  (The Guardian), Oct. 14, 2020 -A former Republican congressman has blamed Rupert Murdoch’s media outlets for fueling “climate rejectionism” among conservatives, suggesting they could be part of the reason why the United States is failing to lead the world to tackle global heating.

  Bob Inglis, a former South Carolina congressman who has renounced his previous climate denialism and now leads a group seeking to rally conservatives to act, questioned the role of News Corp and Fox Corporation during an event hosted by the Australia Institute.

  Inglis told the progressive think-tank that Australia and the US shared a form of “climate rejectionism that comes in conservative clothing”.

  
  Click now for the story.

• • Fracking and the Election

  Is Joe For or Against It?
  That Depends Whether or
  Not He Wants the PA Vote

  Lisa Friedman,(NY Times Climate Forward), Oct. 14, 2020 - Early this year my colleague Shane Goldmacher and I met a group of Western Pennsylvania trade union leaders at an Italian restaurant outside of Pittsburgh to talk about fracking. They were all longtime Democrats, but they told us they were worried the party would choose a candidate who would attack the natural gas industry that provides livelihood for them and for thousands of people in Pennsylvania.

  I caught up with the group again last week by phone and found most are now rallying behind Biden

  President Trump has repeatedly and falsely accused the former vice president of planning to ban fracking. Many of the union leaders and members I spoke with said they take Mr. Biden at his word that he will protect fracking — and by extension the natural gas industry — even as he pursues a $2 trillion climate change plan.

  
  Click now for more.
• • Will Judges Block Trump’s Biggest Climate Rollback?

  Trump Fights to Allow
  Power Plants to Keep On Polluting

  Lisa Friedman,(NY Times Climate Forward), Oct. 8, 2020 -A three-judge panel appeared divided Thursday on President Trump’s effort to repeal his predecessor’s regulations on planet-warming emissions from the power sector and replace them with far weaker controls.

  The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia panel, with two judges named by President Barack Obama and one by President Trump, could well agree to block the Trump administration’s plan, but the issue is almost sure to reach the Supreme Court if Mr. Trump is re-elected.

  
  Click now to read it all.

• • Presidential Climate Policy Report Card

  Weighing The Administrations
  of Obama, Trump, & Biden

  (CleanTechnica), Oct. 4, 2020 -As we approach the momentous US federal election of 2020, American voters must weigh long-range concerns against short-term issues, and domestic matters against foreign policy. Concerns for Americans today and tomorrow, and concerns for other global citizens in the coming years, are being weighed in households and over coffee around the country, and indeed the world. Climate change remains the most important issue of the 21st century, even as COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter take precedence in this tumultuous year.

  
  Click now for the scoop.
• • Allowing Seismic Blasts in Atlantic Search For Oil?

  Idea Seems Dead on Arrival
  Sorry, Donald Trump

  (ZME Science), Oct. 1, 2020 -The Trump administration’s plan to drill off the Atlantic Coast for the first time in more than half a century is on the brink of collapse because of a court development Thursday that blocked the first steps to offshore oil and gas exploration, as well as the president’s recent actions that undermine his own proposal.

  Opponents of the drilling declared victory on Thursday after the government acknowledged that permits to allow seismic blasting in the ocean — the first step toward locating oil deposits for drilling — will expire next month and not be renewed.

  Nine state attorneys general and several conservation groups filed a federal lawsuit early last year to block seismic blasting, arguing it could harm endangered whales and other marine animals. The court battle dragged out so slowly that, in the meantime, time ran out on the permits.

  
  Click now for more.
• • Trump Gives Polluting Mining Projects a Pass

  Executive Order Seeks to Both Expand
  and Fast-Track Polluting Mining Projects

  (CleanTechnica), -Oct. 1, 2020 The order impacts the mining of 35 minerals that the U.S. Department of the Interior identified as “critical,” including those identified as having vulnerable or global supply chains. But the extraction of these minerals — many of which are common, such as aluminum, and used to make things like weapons and electronics — often requires destructive and chemically laden processing techniques that leave behind massive amounts of toxic waste byproduct.

  
  Click now for the story and some graphs.
• • Trump Moves To Expand Development In Alaska's Tongass National Forest

  He's Also Set to Remove Long
  -Standing Protections Against
  Logging And Development There

  (npr News), -Sept. 29, The Trump administration has cleared the way to open the country's largest national forest to more development and logging.

  In a revised environmental impact study made public on Friday, the Department of Agriculture recommends granting a "full exemption" for the Tongass National Forest, which covers some 25,000 square miles in southeastern Alaska.

  The forest is currently protected by the Roadless Rule, a 2001 policy passed in the waning days of the Clinton administration, which has long prohibited development on 9.37 million acres of roadless areas, comprising about 55% of the Tongass.

  
  Click now to read more.
• • What Amy Coney Barrett Could Mean For Climate Law

  It Could Push the High Court to
  Open Up Landmark Legal
  Precedents About Climate Change.

  (POLITICO), -Sept. 23, Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, a Circuit Court judge with strong support from conservatives, could spell trouble for landmark judicial holdings about climate change, Pro's Alex Guillén reports.

  Barrett is considered an "originalist" in the mold of late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she clerked in the late 1990s. She has long advocated for the Supreme Court to show more flexibility in overturning past precedents. That could apply to the high court's 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that said the Clean Air Act gave EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, Alex reports.

  At least two justices still on the court have signaled interest in revisiting the climate ruling — Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — and other members of the court's conservative wing may also be sympathetic to arguments to reconsider the decision.

  
  Click now for more.
• • US Elections: What Environmental Scientists Expect From a President

  Which Science-Based Considerations are
  Most Important For the Environment?

  (ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 24, 2020, While voting will always carry a great degree of subjectivity, objective measures are also important. Here are the measures environmental scientists hope to see from the future US president.

  The US presidential election is probably the most followed political event. It’s so consequential that it affects not only the US, but the entire world. Naturally, researchers both inside the US and out are closely following the event.

  Understandably, the first thing climate scientists want is for the US president to take climate change seriously.

  Click now for more.
• • Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks & Global Warming

  How They Contribute to Climate Change

  (ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 17, 2020, President Trump has made dismantling federal climate policies a centerpiece of his administration. A new analysis from the Rhodium Group finds those rollbacks add up to a lot more planet-warming emissions.

  A handful of major climate rules reversed or weakened under Mr. Trump could have a significant effect on future emissions.

  Together, these rollbacks are expected to result in an additional 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2035.

  Click now to read all about it.
• • Conservative Media, Wildfires, Climate Change

  They All Agree It's a Hoax

  (NY Times Climate Forward), -Sept. 15, 2020, Rush Limbaugh told millions of his radio listeners to set aside any suggestion that climate change was the culprit for the frightening spate of wildfires ravaging California and the Pacific Northwest.

  “Man-made global warming is not a scientific certainty; it cannot be proven, nor has it ever been,” Mr. Limbaugh declared on his Friday show, disregarding the mountains of empirical evidence to the contrary. He then pivoted to a popular right-wing talking point: that policies meant to curtail climate change are, in fact, an assault on freedom.

  “Environmentalist wackos” — Mr. Limbaugh’s phrase — “want man to be responsible for it because they want to control your behavior,” the conservative host said on the show. He added that they “want to convince you that your lifestyle choices are the reason why all these fires are firing up out on the Left Coast.”

  Click now to read all about it.
• • A Climate Skeptic Will Now Run NOAA

  The Latest In Climate-
  Killing Trump Appointees

  (ZME SCIENCE), -Sept. 15, 2020, The Trump administration has hired David Legates, an academic who doesn’t believe that human activity is causing climate change, to work at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — the agency that produces much of the climate research funded by the government.

  NOAA had struggled to escape the political influence from the government, although it succeeded in carrying out its weather forecasting and climate research without much intervention. This contrasted with the EPA and other science agencies in which the government has sidelined climathe scientists. But now, things might change.

  Click now for more.

• • Trump Green Washes His Abysmal Record

  Calls Himself ‘the
  No. 1 Environmental President

  (NY Times Climate Forward)-Sept. 8, 2020 President Trump, who has vowed to exit the Paris Agreement on climate change, loosened restrictions on toxic air pollution, rolled back clean water protections and removed climate change from a list of national security threats, stood in front of supporters in Jupiter, Fla., on Tuesday and declared himself “a great environmentalist.”

  Mr. Trump was speaking at an official presidential event, where he endorsed a 10-year moratorium on oil and gas drilling off the state’s coastline as well as the Georgia and South Carolina coasts — a feat of political jujitsu, since his administration is the one that proposed lifting the moratorium.

  Click now to read all about it.

• • Trump's Assault on Alaska’s Tongass Old-growth Forest

  Two Massive Clearcutting Proposals
  Threaten Wildlife, Climate, Economy

  (Center for Biological Diversity), -Sept. 4, 2020, JUNEAU, Alaska— The Trump administration announced plans today for a massive timber sale that would destroy more than 5,100 acres of critical old-growth habitat in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska.

  “Shame on the Trump administration's Forest Service for having the gall to continue to burden and overwhelm Southeast Alaskans with yet another needless and money-losing timber sale when we are in the midst of a pandemic and a controversial Alaska Roadless Rulemaking process,” said Dan Cannon, Tongass Forest program manager for Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

  “As Alaskans await Secretary Perdue's decision on the Roadless Rule, they will yet again have to advocate for the protection of critical old-growth habitat in their backyards. We don't know how many times we need to say it: Timber only contributes 1% to Southeast Alaska's economy, while the fishing and tourism industries contribute 26%. Stop making Southeast Alaskans' lives more difficult by threatening our true economic drivers.”

  Click now to read more.

• • The Prominent Republicans Supporting Biden

  The Coalition is Led by
  Former Governor Christine Todd Whitman

  (RepublicansForBiden.net)-Sept. 3, 2020 Today, nearly one hundred current and former Republican and Independent elected officials, government officials, and political operatives from across the country have come together to form Republicans and Independents for Biden, a new coalition whose sole mission is to defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden the next President of the United States.

  “More than 180,000 Americans are dead from a pandemic that, with consistent leadership, could have been contained. Instead, it has been left to spin out of control by a President who ignored it, refused to lead, and endangered American lives,” said Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey and National Chairwoman of the Steering Committee for Republicans and Independents for Biden. “In this moment of great national crisis, we need to elect a leader matched to the moment, someone who can restore competence to the oval office and unify the country. Joe Biden is that leader.”

  In the midst of a global pandemic, with tens of millions unemployed, we deserve a president who sees the best in us, who can bring us together, and who will fight for the well-being of every American. Instead, Donald Trump delivers a daily dose of bigotry, anger, division and fear.

  Click now for the story.

• • Rep. John Curtis Speaks Up For Climate Action

  Says GOP Must Stop Calling
  Climate Change a Hoax

  (Salt Lake Tribune), -Aug. 24, 2020, Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, says that action needed to address climate change is blocked by extremism on the political left and by denial on the right. But he believes both sides could be drawn together by asking a simple question.

  “Do you want to see the Earth better than you found it? I believe you do,” he said in a webcast speech Monday to the conservative Sutherland Institute.

  Click now to read more.

E.P.A. Relaxes Rules Coal Plants Toxic Waste
• • Climate Is Taking On a Growing Role for Voters

  The Number of Voters Deeply
  Engaged on the Issue Rises Sharply

  NY Times Climate Forward, Aug. 24, 2020 -he number of Americans who feel passionately about climate change is rising sharply, and the issue appears likely to play a more important role in this year’s election than ever before, a new survey shows.

  What’s more, despite the turmoil caused by overlapping national and global crises, support for action to curb climate change has not diminished. Backing for government to do more to deal with global warming, at 68 percent in May of 2018, was at the same level in 2020, according to the survey, issued Monday.

  Click now to read all about it.

• • Would We Like Another Beirut-like Explosion in the U.S.?

  Trump’s Rollback of Chemical
  Disaster Rule Threatens Communities

  SIERRA, Aug. 16, 2020 -The massive ammonium nitrate explosion that devastated Beirut earlier this month has brought renewed attention to the danger of improperly stored chemicals.

  In fact, it was another ammonium nitrate explosion—the deadly 2013 blast at the West Fertilizer Company plant in West, Texas, which killed 15 people—that prompted the Obama-era EPA to issue a series of tough new regulations collectively known as the Chemical Disaster Rule.

  Those regulations never went into effect because the Trump administration first delayed, then rescinded them, claiming they were too costly and, ironically enough, would make chemical plants vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

• • Trump Administration's Assault on the Arctic Refuge

  Plan Finalized to Open
  the Refuge to Drilling

  NY Times Climate Forward, Aug. 17, 2020 -The Trump administration on Monday finalized its plan to open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development, a move that overturns six decades of protections for the largest remaining stretch of wilderness in the United States.

  The decision sets the stage for what is expected to be a fierce legal battle over the fate of the refuge’s vast, remote coastal plain, which is believed to sit atop billions of barrels of oil but is also home to polar bears and migrating herds of caribou.

  The Interior Department said on Monday that it had completed its required reviews and would begin preparations to auction off drilling leases. “I do believe there could be a lease sale by the end of the year,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said.

• • Trump Doesn't Want Americans to Save Water

  Latest Trump Rollback Targets
  Water-Saving Shower-heads

  (EcoWatch), Aug. 13, 2020 -TThe Trump administration continued its war on appliance efficiency Wednesday with a proposal to increase the water that can flow from shower-heads.

  The latest Department of Energy (DOE) plan follows its rollbacks on lightbulb and dishwasher standards, as well as President Donald Trump's repeated complaints about water-saving appliances. But consumer advocates say the changes are unnecessary, and would harm both the environment and American pocketbooks.

  Click now for the whole story.

• • Trump's EPA Rolls Back Methane Regulations

  The Move Could Be
  Catastrophic For the Climate

  inside climate news, Aug. 13, 2020 -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a long-anticipated rollback of methane emission regulations for the oil and gas industry on Thursday, marking the latest in a long series of attacks on federal climate policy by the Trump administration.

  The move, which was opposed by several leading oil and gas companies, could result in a catastrophic increase in the release of a climate "super-pollutant," at a time when global methane emissions from human activity are already rising yet, to limit future warming, they must be quickly reduced.

  Click now to read about another
  reason not to re-elect Trump.

• • The Sierra Club Endorses Joe Biden

  Donald Trump’s Time is Up

  SIERRA Magazine, Aug. 11, 2020 -This may be the most consequential election of our lives, and not just because of Donald Trump. Our country will be facing crises on multiple fronts. We’ll be struggling to recover from the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; this is especially true for the Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities that have lost so many loved ones to the virus. We’ll be in the midst of a climate emergency that disproportionately harms those same communities. We’ll still have a crisis of police brutality: If trends continue, police will be killing three people every day, most of them Black, Indigenous, or other people of color. And we’ll still have devastating racial gaps in everything from household wealth to maternal health.

  Biden understands that solving the climate crisis represents an opportunity to rebuild our economy in a way that works for everyone. Yes, he’ll rejoin the Paris Agreement and reinstate environmental protections overturned by Trump. But he also plans to leverage trillions in federal investments to rebuild our middle class and create family-sustaining jobs in clean energy and infrastructure.

  Click now to learn what can be done.

• • Landmark Pesticide Reform Introduced in the Senate