A federal judge in Washington, D.C. struck down the Trump administration's proposed changes to the SNAP benefits program. Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images
By Julia Conley
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. late Sunday struck down the Trump administration's proposed changes to the SNAP benefits program, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of people from losing badly needed federal food assistance.
<p>U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-food-stamp-cuts/2020/10/18/7c124612-117a-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_story.html" target="_blank"> issued</a> a scathing ruling, denouncing President Donald Trump and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who she said have been "icily silent about how many [adults] would have been denied SNAP benefits had the changes sought ... been in effect while the pandemic rapidly spread across the country."</p><p>New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was among more than a dozen state attorneys general who joined the District of Columbia in suing the administration over the changes, called Howell's ruling "a major victory for common sense and basic human decency in our nation."</p>
<div id="e8d44" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="be49aabc36a5465eed30ca54f88f6b2d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1318171686232096772" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A judge has ruled in our favor and blocked the Trump administration’s unlawful changes to SNAP. This decision is… https://t.co/5zeTafxMLm</div> — NY AG James (@NY AG James)<a href="https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/statuses/1318171686232096772">1603111595.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The USDA proposed the changes months before the coronavirus pandemic began. They were initially set to go into effect in April, but Howell issued an injunction in March, as the president declared a state of emergency, ordering the administration to delay the changes. Perdue later appealed Howell's order, potentially allowing the new rules to go into effect despite a pandemic<a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf" target="_blank"> that has left millions unemployed.</a></p><p>Under existing SNAP benefits rules, states are able to waive work requirements for SNAP benefits for areas with unemployment rates as low as 2.5%. Perdue and Trump moved to tighten the criteria for waiving the requirements by raising the minimum rate to 6%.</p><p>The change could have left nearly 700,000 people without the benefit, the <em>Washington Post</em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-food-stamp-cuts/2020/10/18/7c124612-117a-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> reported </a>Sunday.</p><p>Tamar Haspel, a <em>Post</em> food policy columnist, tweeted that the proposal, and the administration's attempt to ensure it could go into effect during the public health and economic crisis, was in the running for Trump's "Vilest Policy Ever."</p>
<div id="f47ab" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="381daa45528adda7398d5628d047294f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1318175677724676096" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">There's a lot of competition for Vilest Policy Ever, but slashing food stamps during a pandemic that's causing mass… https://t.co/EYvb0C8Q3m</div> — Tamar Haspel (@Tamar Haspel)<a href="https://twitter.com/TamarHaspel/statuses/1318175677724676096">1603112546.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The pandemic, Howell said in her ruling, exposed how unworkable the administration's proposed changes were, with the number of Americans relying on SNAP benefits <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-food-stamp-cuts/2020/10/18/7c124612-117a-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_story.html" target="_blank">growing</a> by 17%, or six million enrollees, and unemployment rates quadrupling.</p><p>Perdue and Trump displayed an "utter failure to address the issue" of how millions would be affected by new work requirements during the crisis, Howell said, rendering their changes "arbitrary and capricious."</p><p>With the ruling handed down two weeks before Nov. 3, the last day Americans can vote in the presidential election, journalist Matt Taibbi wrote that it may serve as a reminder of the president's priorities.</p>
<div id="946d8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3cff2dc2643fc55ab21d2a73881c7de8"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1318168614541950976" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Trump: yes to Space Force, no to Food Stamps. Another equation that might be remembered in a few weeks. https://t.co/9IEDBaMy2o</div> — Matt Taibbi (@Matt Taibbi)<a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/statuses/1318168614541950976">1603110862.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"Trump: yes to Space Force, no to Food Stamps," Taibbi tweeted.</p>
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Demonstrators hold signs at an anti-tar sands march in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2015. Fibonacci Blue / CC BY 2.0
By Andrea Germanos
A group of Indigenous women and their allies on Monday urged the heads of major global financial institutions to stop propping up the tar sands industry and sever all ties with the sector's "climate-wrecking pipelines, as well as the massively destructive extraction projects that feed them."
<p>The demand to the CEOs comes in an <a href="https://d99d2e8d-06c9-433b-915d-f6e381b1acd4.usrfiles.com/ugd/d99d2e_d74cf8f06b194a8cb1c96b6c07ee7713.pdf" target="_blank">open letter</a> signed by more than 40 Indigenous leaders including Rebecca Adamson, Cherokee and founder of First Nations and First Peoples Worldwide; Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation and founder of the Giniw Collective; and Winona LaDuke, White Earth Nation and executive director of Honor the Earth.</p><p>Supporting the call is a diverse group of over 150 organizations such as Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative, Global Exchange, and Indigenous Environmental Network.</p><p>"It's time to move on. The most destructive and expensive oil in the world needs to stay in the ground," LaDuke said in a statement.</p><p>Beyond the tar sands sector's "grave threats to Indigenous rights, cultural survival, local waterways and environments, the global climate, and public health," the open letter says continued financing and insuring of tar sands projects just makes bad economic sense, noting that "no subsector has had a worse financial prognosis than tar sands oil."</p>
<p>"The current economic crisis has sent oil and gas prices, and particularly tar sands oil, plunging," the letter notes.</p><p>"Tar sands is one of the most carbon-intensive, expensive extraction processes in the industry, and these pipelines are likely to be stranded assets soon after they are built," the women wrote, referring to a scenario in which fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground.</p><p>The letter zeroes in on three specific pipelines as pivotal to future tar sands extraction — TC Energy's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/we-will-never-back-down-landowners-and-green-groups-file-new-lawsuit-against" target="_blank">Keystone XL pipeline</a>, Enbridge's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/03/activists-stage-blockade-block-work-line-3-court-tosses-out-proposed-pipelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Line 3 pipeline</a>, and the Canadian government-owned <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/05/we-will-continue-fight-protesters-vow-after-canadian-court-dismisses-indigenous" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trans Mountain pipeline</a> — each of which has faced sustained <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/02/solidarity-frontline-communities-day-action-demands-end-funding-tar-sands" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">opposition</a>. The economic impact of such opposition can't be denied, with the letter pointing to the "$25 billion in mining assets lost due to operations being tied up or shut down by community protests" in 2018.</p>
<p>What's more, the Indigenous leaders wrote, the "risk portfolio for extractive and land-based companies show[s] that 73% of company risk and delays are non-technical. Non-technical means community protests and boycotts that result in operational delays or shutdowns."</p><p>Should the CEOs fail to heed the demands laid out in the letter, further delays ought to be expected. "We will continue to resist the remaining proposed projects and hold the financial backers of these companies accountable," the letter states.</p><p>While the ecological harm of tar sands extraction and infrastructure has been repeatedly noted by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> critics, the letter points to new threats brought by the coronavirus crisis. The signatories point to the multiple work sites in Alberta that have seen outbreaks of COVID-19 as extremely bad news for Indigenous communities who "are uniquely vulnerable to the virus' spread due to historically underfunded healthcare programs and significant health disparities."</p>
<p>In addition, an influx of project workers and so-called "man camps" brings particularly acute harm to Indigenous women:</p><blockquote>Indigenous women in these rural areas are in peril. There is growing evidence that the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) is directly linked to fossil fuel production. Workers relocate to construction sites to build pipelines, creating temporary housing communities known as "man camps" near the pipeline route, which is oftentimes on or next to tribal nation lands. Studies, reports, and Congressional hearings have found that man camps lead to increased rates of sexual violence and sexual trafficking.</blockquote><p>"We need a just transition to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable</a>, sustainable energy, not expansion of fossil fuel extraction," the signatories declare. "We demand respect for our rights and sovereignty as Indigenous Peoples so that we can control our own lands, futures, and job opportunities."</p>
<p>The letter lays out a way forward for the financial institutions.</p><p>"Rather than exploit the tar sands sector for its last drops of profit in the face of climate crisis and disregard the health and safety of communities along pipeline routes, your company can accelerate a just transition for Indigenous nations, communities, and workers that depend on the industry for their livelihoods by publicly ruling out involvement in these tar sands projects and redirecting your insurance underwriting to communities and renewable, clean energy," the women wrote.</p><p>According to Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Sioux, organizer with Indigenous Environmental Network, the tar sands industry has been "nothing more than evil incarnate."</p><p>"We must put a stop to them," said Braun. "We must stand and say enough is enough. Join us in saving our future. Join us putting the proverbial nail in the coffin of these dying, unneeded industries."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/19/indigenous-women-financial-ceos-stop-abetting-climate-wrecking-tar-sands-sector-or" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trump Calls Fauci 'a Disaster,' Tries to Blame Science and Medical Experts for Failed Coronavirus Response
6h
Politics
Trump arrives as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci looks on during a Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 4, 2020. JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images
President Trump attacked the nation's top infectious disease specialist in a call with campaign staffers that several reporters were allowed to listen to on Monday. In the call, Trump said that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci was "a disaster." He added that despite the evidence that coronavirus cases are once again rising across the country, the public was tired of hearing so much news about the virus, especially from "these idiots" in the government and scientific community, as The Washington Post reported.
<p>Trump seemed irked by an interview that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, gave to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssiLlfGT9gg&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">60 Minutes</a> in which Fauci said he was not surprised that Trump contracted the coronavirus after attending a large event at the White House for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett where attendees were not masked.</p><p>In many interviews, Fauci has touted the efficacy of wearing masks and social distancing, while warning that a failure to follow those safety measures could lead to a very difficult fall and winter as coronavirus and influenza intersect. The evidence suggests Fauci is correct, as the U.S. saw more than 70,000 new cases on Friday, its highest total in months, while the virus is gaining strength in Europe once again, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/politics/trump-fauci-covid.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>In his broadside Monday, Trump dismissed those concerns about the virus, claiming that the public's interest has waned.</p>
<p>"People are tired of COVID," Trump said on the call, according to The New York Times. "I have the biggest rallies I've ever had. And we have COVID. People are saying: 'Whatever. Just leave us alone.' They're tired of it."</p><p>He tried to shift blame for the administration's response by saying, "People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots — these people, these people that have gotten it wrong," Trump said, as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fauci-says-he-s-not-surprised-trump-contracted-covid-19-n1243857" target="_blank">NBC News</a> reported. "Fauci's a nice guy. He's been here for 500 years. He called every one of them wrong. And he's like this wonderful guy, a wonderful sage telling us how to respond to the pandemic. Fauci is a disaster. If I listened to him, we'd have 500,000 deaths. If we listened to him, we'd have 700-800,000 deaths right now."</p>
<p>At the same time that Trump was issuing his attacks on the government's medical experts, Fauci was receiving the National Academy of Medicine's first-ever Presidential Citation for Exemplary Leadership in a virtual event, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/19/politics/donald-trump-anthony-fauci-coronavirus/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>"We have a lot of challenges ahead of us and I can't help thinking that we're really going through a time that's disturbingly anti-<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a> in certain segments of our society," Fauci said in his speech as he accepted the award, according to CNN.</p><p>Trump was not done with his attacks on Fauci. Later in the day, Trump took to Twitter to mock Fauci for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eD5xkn4WLA" target="_blank">errant ceremonial first pitch</a> for the Washington Nationals on opening day, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>"Tony should stop wearing the Washington Nationals' Mask for two reasons. Number one, it is not up to the high standards that he should be exposing," Trump wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1318252740431155200" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. "Number two, it keeps reminding me that Tony threw out perhaps the worst first pitch in the history of Baseball!"</p>
<p>Trump's attack on one of the nation's most revered doctors generated a swift backlash from both sides of the aisle.</p><p>The Biden campaign responded by saying, "Mr. President, you're right about one thing: The American people are tired. They're tired of your lies about this virus," as The New York Times reported.</p><p>Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, called Fauci one of the country's most distinguished public servants.</p><p>"If more Americans paid attention to his advice, we'd have fewer cases of COVID-19, & it would be safer to go back to school & back to work & out to eat," Alexander wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/SenAlexander/status/1318259834437906439" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<span></span></p>
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New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern Wins Historic Victory Following Science-Based Leadership on COVID and Climate
19 October
Politics
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declares victory during the Labor Party Election Night Function at Auckland Town Hall on Oct. 17, 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand. Hannah Peters / Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand Prime Minister who has emerged as a leader on the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, has won a second term in office.
<p>Ardern's Labour Party secured a historic victory in New Zealand's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-ardern-renewable-energy-2647595133.html" target="_self">general election Saturday</a>, earning 49 percent of the vote and an estimated 64 out of 120 parliamentary seats, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/jacinda-arderns-labour-party-set-for-victory-in-new-zealand-election" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. It is Labour's biggest victory in 50 years, and the first time any party has won a large enough majority to govern alone since 1996, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-54519628" target="_blank">BBC News</a>. Ardern's popularity has been attributed in part to her pro-<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/science" target="_self">science</a> approach to the coronavirus pandemic, according to The Guardian. She acted to close down borders and institute a national lockdown, and the country saw a total of 25 deaths and less than 2,000 cases.</p><p>"Science and clear communication around Covid-19 have won the day against Trumpery and fake news — people have clearly seen how the government looked after us," Labour supporter Christine told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/18/jacinda-ardern-eases-into-second-term-amid-relief-in-new-zealand-at-election-landslide" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> Sunday.</p>
<div id="1bb8d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="870071749bb41f9c7a734ba644150169"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1317477722789236740" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Historic results:
-New Zealand First loses all its representatives
-Worst National result since 2002 (26.85%)
-Firs… https://t.co/zX1tn3xis3</div> — Election Forecast 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 (@Election Forecast 🇦🇺 🇳🇿)<a href="https://twitter.com/ForecastOceania/statuses/1317477722789236740">1602946141.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The election has also been seen as a mandate for Labour's climate policy, according to <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/10/19/new-zealanders-vote-climate-ambition-jacinda-ardern-greens/" target="_blank">Climate Home News</a>. During Ardern's first term, Labour governed in coalition with the Greens and the populist New Zealand First party. The government <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-offshore-oil-gas-2559278982.html" target="_self">banned</a> future offshore <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> exploration and passed a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-zero-emissions-2641247378.html" target="_self">historic bill</a> pledging to get the country to zero emissions by 2050.</p><p>However, some of Ardern's climate ambitions during her first term were curtailed by her partnership with New Zealand First, which blocked ideas like a tax on imported <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self">fossil-fuel</a> cars and a subsidy for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles" target="_self">electric vehicles</a>.</p>
<p>This time around, New Zealand First has lost all of its seats in parliament while the Green Party has increased its share of the votes from six to eight percent. While Labour has secured enough votes to govern alone, Ardern has said she is open to forming a coalition government, according to The Guardian, and Green Party leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson said they hoped to be included in order to move the government in a more progressive direction.</p><p>Before the election, Labour had promised more environmental policies if it won, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-ardern-renewable-energy-2647595133.html" target="_self">including</a> achieving 100 percent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a> by 2030 instead of 2035. Labour's main opposition, the National Party, only secured 27 percent of the vote, down from 44 percent, according to Climate Home News. The party had run on reversing the oil and gas drilling ban as well as rolling back protections for freshwater ecosystems, <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/story/jacinda-arderns-nuclear-free-moment-heres-three-things-that-would-make-it-a-reality/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=election&utm_content=supporter-email" target="_blank">according to Greenpeace New Zealand</a>.</p>
<p>"The election result has delivered a strong mandate for the transformational climate action that the Prime Minister promised," Greenpeace New Zealand wrote.</p><p>Nearly 80 percent of New Zealanders are worried about the climate crisis and support a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, which has thrown New Zealand into its first recession in 11 years, according to BBC News.</p><p>Recovering from that recession will be a major challenge for Ardern's second term. In addition, she no longer has the excuse of New Zealand First holding her back from more ambitious climate policies.</p><p>"NZ First was often blamed for slow progress on environment policies, and sometimes this was true. With Winston Peters and his party gone, we expect to see immediate moves to tackle agricultural climate pollution, to invest in rail and cycleways, and to protect the oceans from overfishing," Greenpeace New Zealand director Russell Norman told Climate Home News.</p>
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The 1.4-gigawatt coal-fired Kingston Steam Plant, just outside Kingston, Tennessee on the shore of Watts Bar Lake on March 31, 2019. In 2008, a coal ash pond at the plant collapsed, leading to the largest industrial spill in modern U.S. history and subsequent industry regulations in 2015. Paul Harris / Getty Images
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a rule change on Friday that will allow some coal power plants to ignore a court order to clean up coal ash ponds, which leech toxic materials into soil and groundwater. The rule change will allow some coal ash ponds to stay open for years while others that have no barrier to protect surrounding areas are allowed to stay open indefinitely, according to the AP.
<p>The arsenic-laced sludge that fills coal ash ponds is likely to leak when just a plastic barrier protects it. It is far more likely to pollute nearby soil and water when the pits have a clay barrier, according to researchers, as <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/521409-epa-may-violate-courts-with-new-rule-extending-life-of-unlined-coal" target="_blank">The Hill</a> reported.</p><p>A 2018 order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had forced the EPA to close coal ash ponds that did not have plastic lining and were likely to leak toxic chemicals, making Friday's rule change seem like a blatant move to undermine the court's authority, according to environmental groups who promised to sue to stop the rule change, as The Hill reported.</p>
<p>Environmentalists argue that the rule change is a favor to the coal industry, for which EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler served as a lobbyist prior to joining the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration. The move allows the industry to dump its byproducts inexpensively and irresponsibly.</p><p>"The reason the utilities are arguing to keep the ponds is because they have put in these unlined pits out the back door of the power plant that act as a catchall for their toxic waste," said Lisa Evans, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice, as the AP reported. "They don't want to get rid of them because they are cheap."</p>
<p>Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project commissioned a study on coal ash ponds and found that 91 percent of them were leaking toxic chemicals beyond what was permitted by EPA regulations, as The Hill reported. Their study found that heavy metals from the waste was polluting nearby drinking wells and groundwater.</p><p>Coal ash is produced when coal is burned to produce power. It is full of arsenic, mercury, lead and several other hazardous heavy metals. In the U.S., coal plants create nearly 100 million tons annually of ash and other waste, according to the AP.</p><p>"When ponds without lining leak, it's often more aggressive, faster and harder to control," said Evans, as The Hill reported. "Utilities are asking for favors and exemptions and EPA is willing to give them and is willing to rush to provide these exemptions."</p>
<p>The 2018 court decision found that clay lined coal ash ponds, or unlined ponds, are simply dangerous, as the AP reported.</p><p>Evans noted that the Obama-era Resource Conservation and Recovery Act required power plants to close unlined coal-ash ponds by April 2019, but the EPA keeps extending the deadline, as the AP reported.</p><p>By rewriting the rule, coal plants are able to get around the mandates of the 2015 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by simply showing that their coal ash ponds pose no threat to human health.</p><p>"The Trump EPA is flouting the court's decision," said Evans, as the AP reported. "I've never seen anything like this before."</p>
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President Donald Trump prepares to sign an Executive Order to begin the roll-back of environmental regulations put in place by the Obama administration, on February 28, 2017 in the White House in Washington, D.C. Aude Guerrucci-Pool / Getty Images
By Brett Wilkins
With President Donald Trump's re-election very much in doubt, his administration is rushing to ram through regulatory rollbacks that could adversely affect millions of Americans, the environment, and the ability of Joe Biden—should he win—to pursue his agenda or even undo the damage done over the past four years.
<p>Reporting by the <em>New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/us/politics/regulatory-rush-federal-agencies-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">details</a> how the administration is cutting corners as it scrambles to enact as much of its agenda as possible before ceding power on January 20 if Trump loses the election. Required public comment periods and detailed analyses, according to the <em>Times</em>, are being eschewed in favor of streamlined approval processes that have left even staunch deregulation defenders sounding the alarm. </p>
<div id="04704" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="89d490c741c2b7d2f95200298145c69b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1317147432002703361" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">JUST POSTED: Facing the prospect that President Trump could lose his re-election bid, his cabinet is scrambling to… https://t.co/hy6L5aOtdv</div> — Eric Lipton (@Eric Lipton)<a href="https://twitter.com/EricLiptonNYT/statuses/1317147432002703361">1602867393.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"Two main hallmarks of a good regulation is sound analysis to support the alternatives chosen and extensive public comment to get broader opinion," Susan E. Dudley, director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and formerly head of regulation in the George W. Bush White House, told the <em>Times</em>. "It is a concern if you are bypassing both of those."</p><p>Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told the <em>Times</em> that the president has always "worked quickly... to grow the economy by removing the mountain of Obama-Biden job-killing regulations." </p><p>However, critics are warning that some of the proposed changes are being rushed through with insufficient regard to the harm they might cause. Some of the issues that are raising red flags include: </p><ul><li>Refusing to lower limits on dangerous particulate and ozone pollution, which cause <a href="https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1513/AnnalsATS.201812-914OC" target="_blank">thousands</a> of annual premature deaths.</li><li>Allowing so-called <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/bomb-train-derailment-sparked-resistance-columbia-river-gorge" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"bomb trains"</a> that transport highly combustible liquefied natural gas on freight trains.</li><li>Determining when workers can be classified as employees or independent contractors. </li><li>Exempting certain commercial drivers from mandatory hour limits and rest periods. </li><li>Placing limits on how science is used in the air pollution rule-making process.</li><li>Expanding regulation of immigrants by requiring citizenship applicants to submit biometric data, by forcing sponsors of immigrants to stay off welfare and prove their financial independence.</li></ul>
<p>In response to the reporting, critics of the administration like writer Matthew Kressel <a href="https://twitter.com/mattkressel/status/1317210213859155975" target="_blank">said</a> that it helps make clear that if the Republicans in the White House cannot win reelection, they'll "scorch the earth before they go."</p><p>And Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, tweeted: "I think people underestimate the amount of time and energy that is going to be needed just to climb out from under the mountain of shit this administration leaves behind."</p>
<div id="4f924" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="189304aaf1a15ae9bfdda6698bfb975b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1317167529362599938" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">I think people underestimate the amount of time and energy that is going to be needed just to climb out from under… https://t.co/FxEMRcMv1E</div> — Matthew Gertz (@Matthew Gertz)<a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/statuses/1317167529362599938">1602872185.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Many of the changes reflect the agendas of the powerful corporate and other business interests whose key players have donated generously to Trump, belying the president's oft-repeated claim that he is "draining the swamp." Other regulator rollbacks come despite <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/epas-scientific-advisers-warn-its-regulatory-rollbacks-clash-with-established-science/2019/12/31/a1994f5a-227b-11ea-a153-dce4b94e4249_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warnings</a> from career officials within federal agencies about the harm they could cause. </p>
<div id="2e10f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f42c16794ddc25dcf8bf54a443854416"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1212091176091869184" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">EPA’s scientific advisers warn its regulatory rollbacks clash with established science https://t.co/RBdUsNvNEy</div> — Carl Zimmer (@Carl Zimmer)<a href="https://twitter.com/carlzimmer/statuses/1212091176091869184">1577820030.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Alarmed by the administration's rushed rate of regulatory rollbacks, a group of over 15 Democratic senators earlier this month sent a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia warning of "profound economic implications" for some 143 million U.S. workers that would result from curtailing public comment periods for the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/2020-independent-contractor-nprm" target="_blank">proposed rule change</a> regarding independent contractors.</p><p>"Workers across the country deserve a chance to fully examine and properly respond to these potentially radical changes, and a 30-day comment period is not nearly enough," the letter states. </p>
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A man carries a plastic shopping plastic bag as he walks along Times Square in New York City on April 2, 2019. Eduardo MunozAlvarez / VIEWpress / Corbis via Getty Images
New York is finally bagging plastic bags.
The statewide ban on the highly polluting items actually went into effect March 1. But enforcement, which was supposed to start a month later, was delayed by the one-two punch of a lawsuit and the coronavirus pandemic, NY1 reported. Now, more than six months later, enforcement is set to begin Monday.
<p>"New York's bag ban has already improved New York's health by cutting down on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-pollution" target="_self">plastic pollution</a>," <a href="https://eany.org/" target="_blank">Environmental Advocates NY</a> deputy director Kate Kurera told <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/new-york-begins-enforcing-plastic-bag-ban-on-monday/2675687/" target="_blank">NBC4 New York</a>. "We look forward to the State beginning enforcement and stores complying with this important law."</p><p>The new law prohibits most stores from giving out thin <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastic</a> shopping bags. They can dispense paper bags, for which counties have the option of charging a five cent fee. Any business caught handing out the banned plastic bags will face a fine, according to NY1.</p>
<p>The law offers exceptions for takeout orders and bags used to wrap meat or prepared food, according to NBC4 New York. Families who use food stamps will also not have to pay the fee for paper bags.</p><p>Enforcement of the ban was held back in part by the coronavirus pandemic, as several stores actually banned shoppers from bringing their own reusable bags when the spread of COVID-19 was at its height in the state.</p><p>But the new law has also faced fierce opposition from plastic bag makers and convenience store owners, who brought a lawsuit challenging it.</p>
<p>These groups have argued that the ban will bankrupt them. American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance director Zachary Taylor told <a href="https://apnews.com/article/d16e172627519780ced6767937ee0954" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> that the law was "unworkable" and it would be harder for smaller stores to acquire paper bags during the pandemic.</p><p>However, a judge upheld most of the new regulation in August. The only part he struck down was a piece of the regulation allowing stores to provide customers reusable plastic bags if they were at least 10 millimeters thick, because he argued that exception was not part of the language of the original law as passed by the legislature. Some environmentalists had worried this part of the regulation would allow stores to get away with offering thicker bags.</p>
<p><br>"The Court's decision is a victory and a vindication of New York State's efforts to end the scourge of single-use plastic bags and a direct rebuke to the plastic bag manufacturers who tried to stop the law and DEC's regulations to implement it," Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos told <a href="https://abc7ny.com/plastic-bags-ny-ban-new-york-coronavirus-pandemic/7136479/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC7</a>. "As we have for many months, DEC is encouraging New Yorkers to make the switch to reusable bags whenever and wherever they shop and to use common-sense precautions to keep reusable bags clean."</p><p>Some bag makers and store owners are still trying to delay the ban in court, but not all retailers are against the new law.</p><p>"Supporting the no plastic bag ban is one way for us to support a positive change in our world," Bronx Bodega owner Badr Alsaidi told NY1. "Plastic in general is one huge cause of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a>. This is one way for us to step in with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/recycling" target="_self">recycling</a>."</p><p>New Yorkers currently use around 23 billion plastic bags a year, but only use each bag for an average of 12 minutes, according to DEC figures reported by ABC7. Around 85 percent of those bags end up in landfills, recycling machines, streets or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/rivers" target="_self">rivers</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a>.</p>
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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is seen in a video conversation in Stockholm, Sweden on April 22, 2020. Jessica Gow / TT News Agency / AFP / Getty Images
By Priyanka Jaisinghani
COVID-19, "stay-at-home" orders and enforced physical distancing has made us more dependent on digital when it comes to connection and communication at both a local and global level.
<p>In the early months of the pandemic, marginalized communities were disproportionately affected and the realities of a widening inequality gap were apparent. What was once thought to be an equalizer had become the opposite.</p><p>Where COVID-19 has removed the option for young people to take to the streets to voice their concerns about these surfacing inequalities, staying at home (and off the streets) hasn't translated to staying silent.</p><p>Recently, we've witnessed how young people are rallying around issues such as climate change, racial injustice and voting rights, using digital as their platform and driving civic engagement.</p>
Civic Engagement Redefined
<p>Long-lasting impact requires changes from the bottom up. Civic engagement means working to make a difference in our communities to promote quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.</p><p>We're seeing how, across multiple issues, young people are becoming active participants in driving dialogues with policy-makers, on a state and federal level. In addition, they are empowering the citizens of the communities in which they reside, taking an active role in shaping the future we hold.</p>1. Racial Justice
<p>Across the U.S., we saw the rise of the racial justice movement through Black Lives Matter. Hundreds of protestors came to the streets, from New York to Nevada, acknowledging, supporting and condemning the long-existing inequalities faced by the black community. We saw this movement propel beyond the streets, throughout social media, and to the polling stations.</p><p>Young activists were demanding not only awareness but also change. In this digital space, young people started sharing resources and information for others to educate themselves about the pressing need for racial justice. They were able to mobilize support to inform, educate and shape citizen action. They shared links to petitions, offered advice for safe protesting practices, created templates for emailing authorities, listed bail funds and black-owned restaurants and businesses in need of support. They used social media to support the various needs of this movement – and continue to do so.</p>2. Climate Change
<p>The youth-led climate change has become dominant online. Every Friday, young people lead a digital #ClimateStrike to raise awareness of important legislative initiatives and create tangible ways for individuals to get involved in the fight against climate change.</p><p>As a leading example, to commemorate this year's Earth Day, youth held a 72-hour, live-streamed "digital march" with protests, speeches, and more. This "digital march" was attended by more than 200,000 viewers. Young people are pivoting their strategies and applying them to a digital space. We know when the streets are safe again, they will continue their activism by marching to raise awareness both on the streets and digitally.</p>3. Voting Rights
<p>Voting is another pertinent issue coming to the fore. In <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/315761/lack-voting-information-hamper-youth-turnout.aspx" target="_blank">a Gallup poll</a>, four out of five (79%) young people say "the coronavirus pandemic has helped them realize how much political leaders' decisions impact their lives"; three in five say "they are part of a movement that will vote to express its views."</p><p>As a result of these changing attitudes, young people are having conversations with their families and finding ways to get politically active. They're donating funds to campaigns, volunteering their time to raise awareness around voting and creating social campaigns to try to influence other people to vote and register to vote.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxMTg0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMzg2OTcxNn0.AkqUpUNFBQm9qJhYK1ET2Nx_74OlOKaa0XdF-cRCuEY/img.jpg?width=980" id="0edf5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f6e1d0f9874383be19f0bba0625aa61e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/3-ways-covid-19-has-changed-youth-activism/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></p>How social media is used in the U.S. for political issues. Statista
<p>It's inspiring to see young people around the world deeply engaged in the digital space and continuing their activism. They have played a critical role in calling for change and transformation in society. From climate to health to politics, young people are the most affected. The only way to make progress is to build back better. They're building upon existing issues and movements, creating new alliances and driving conversations and action. This generation is also building upon the same values and ideas of those before them to change the status quo and find ways to enact change for a better future.</p>From Your Site Articles
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The 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah protects one of most significant cultural landscapes in the U.S. Bob Wick, BLM / Flickr / CC by 2.0
By James R. Skillen
Presidential elections are anxious times for federal land agencies and the people they serve. The Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service manage more than a quarter of the nation's land, which means that a new president can literally reshape the American landscape.
<p>Federal influence is particularly significant in the Western U.S. Across the 11 states from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast, the federal government owns <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pdf" target="_blank">more than 45% of all land</a>. In Alaska it owns over 60%.</p><p>Voters have a striking choice this year. President Donald Trump entered office committed to the "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/stephen-bannon-cpac-speech.html" target="_blank">deconstruction of the administrative state</a>." His administration raced to reduce environmental planning and regulations and expand private development in pursuit of "<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-unleashing-american-energy-dominance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">energy dominance</a>."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyNDIzMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDM2OTE4NX0.edZ411UlYP-lDeINNOv1tXGIU4oghV0A8pqIXCFSNnU/img.jpg?width=980" id="68601" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="33ba444b7b09dc7d9a504d3ac02ac018" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The U.S. government controls many types of protected land and subsurface minerals such as oil and gas, mainly in Western states. BLM/Wikipedia
<p>In contrast, Vice President Biden's campaign proposals for public lands remain fairly broad, but are largely consistent with the Obama administration's priorities. The most significant difference is Biden's pledge to <a href="https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a-clean-energy-revolution/#" target="_blank">end new fossil fuel leasing on public lands</a>.</p><p>How would each candidate fulfill these promises? As I explain in my new book, "<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/this-land-is-my-land-9780197500699?cc=us&lang=en&" target="_blank">This Land Is My Land: Rebellion in the West</a>," public lands are a microcosm of today's polarized American politics.</p><p>On the right, mainstream conservatives and industrial corporations want <a href="https://theconversation.com/interior-secretary-zinke-invokes-teddy-roosevelt-as-model-but-his-public-land-policies-dont-84546" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reduced regulation and increased resource development</a>, while a more militantly anti-federal element of the Republican Party demands an <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-points-to-more-dangerous-malheur-style-standoffs-68134" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">end to public land ownership</a> altogether. On the left, mainstream Democrats want carefully regulated land management with <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2363781/what-election-meant-public-lands" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increased margins of environmental protection</a>, but a vocal progressive wing is demanding that the federal government <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/beyond-green-new-deal-another-climate-cause-dividing-democrats-n996541" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">keep its fossil fuels in the ground</a>. These tensions raise questions about how far each candidate would go.</p>
<div id="b633c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6f5e4020e8a30cc88689ef4f8762e4f2"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1309336838549712896" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Trump administration is expected on Friday to finalize its plan to open about 9 million acres of Alaska’s Tonga… https://t.co/dxx4Yf2KeV</div> — The New York Times (@The New York Times)<a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/statuses/1309336838549712896">1601005203.0</a></blockquote></div>
Republicans: Less Regulation, More Development
<p>Since Ronald Reagan ran 40 years ago as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/04/even-sagebrush-rebel-ronald-reagan-couldnt-change-federal-land-use-in-the-west/" target="_blank">self-proclaimed</a> "<a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-look-back-at-the-first-sagebrush-rebellion" target="_blank">sagebrush rebel</a>" who supported turning control of public lands back to Western states, Republicans have coalesced around a set of <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/open-business" target="_blank">common public land priorities</a>. They include reducing federal regulation, limiting the scope of environmental reviews and increasing natural resource development.</p><p>This approach has drawn support from natural resource industries, resource-dependent communities and a growing body of <a href="https://mslegal.org/" target="_blank">public interest law firms</a>, <a href="https://www.perc.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">think tanks</a>, <a href="https://www.alec.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">advocacy groups</a>, <a href="https://www.charleskochfoundation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">foundations</a> and <a href="https://www.freedomworks.org/about/about-freedomworks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">political action committees</a>. Their core libertarian conviction is that reducing government leads to prosperity.</p><p>The Trump administration has championed these priorities through actions that include shrinking several national monuments to <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-plan-to-dismantle-national-monuments-comes-with-steep-cultural-and-ecological-costs-77075" target="_blank">expand oil leasing</a>; preparing to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/17/903239366/trump-administration-sets-plan-for-oil-drilling-in-arctic-refuge" target="_blank">open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil production</a>; and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/nepa-modernization/" target="_blank">narrowing environmental reviews of major federal actions</a>. The full impact of these actions is hard to assess, since many face challenges in court, where the administration has <a href="https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup" target="_blank">fared poorly</a>. But their theme is clear: Public lands are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/zinke-says-interior-should-be-a-partner-with-oil-companies" target="_blank">open for business</a>.</p><p>As part of this effort, the Trump administration <a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-bureau-of-land-management-headquarters-to-colorado-wont-be-good-for-public-lands-126990" target="_blank">moved the Bureau of Land Management's headquarters</a> from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado. The agency has <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062289841" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">struggled to staff the new building</a>, which it shares with several oil and gas companies.</p><p>A vocal element of the Republican Party challenges the federal government's authority to own and manage public lands at all. Some advocates have engaged in <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/malheur-occupation-oregon-ammon-bundy-public-lands-essay" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">armed confrontations</a> with federal authorities. Several Western states have <a href="http://vjel.vermontlaw.edu/files/2014/10/Lawton.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">enacted legislation</a> over the past decade demanding that the federal government transfer ownership of public lands and mineral rights to them.</p><p>President Trump has catered to this extreme wing while stopping short of meeting its explicit demands. He signaled support by appointing conservative activist William Perry Pendley as the Bureau of Land Management's functional acting director in July 2019 – a step that a federal court in Montana recently <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/518376-court-removes-pendley-from-role-as-public-lands-chief" target="_blank">ruled was illegal</a> because it bypassed a confirmation hearing. Pendley was known for <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/author/william-perry-pendley/" target="_blank">staunch opposition to public land ownership</a> and years of litigation over public land management.</p><p>The president also has pardoned controversial figures who are embraced by opponents of public land authority, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/arpaio-pardon-could-encourage-more-civil-rights-violations-82813" target="_blank">former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio</a> and two <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/07/10/627653866/president-trump-pardons-ranchers-dwight-and-steven-hammond-over-arson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oregon ranchers</a> convicted of arson on federal property.</p><p>Despite his administration's losses in court, I expect that if President Trump is reelected he will continue down this path of deregulation, resource development and deference to conservative Western interests, with occasional gestures of support to more radical conservatives.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5ee2c683633d2e865d4454f07471dc99"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F5DJhO31Kzg?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
Democrats: Scientific Management With Limited Development
<p>Recent Democratic presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, have <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2127-9.html" target="_blank">championed federal environmental laws</a> that guide public land management, such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Democratic administrations have emphasized scientific monitoring and regulatory oversight while still supporting energy development and other commercial resource uses of public lands.</p><p>Vice President Biden's long <a href="https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/joe-biden" target="_blank">environmental record</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/us/politics/joe-biden-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">campaign pledges</a> suggest that he will continue this approach. Biden has promised to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-biden-square-off-over-environmental-regulations-11594917709" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reverse the Trump administration's deregulatory efforts</a>, <a href="https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/heres-how-the-presidential-candidates-public-lands-plans-stack-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">restore national monument boundaries</a> and manage energy development on public lands in ways that <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060477457" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">promote wind and solar energy</a> and gradually <a href="https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a-clean-energy-revolution/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">phase out fossil fuel development</a>.</p><p>But a Biden administration would face tensions within the Democratic Party as well. Progressives are calling for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more dramatic action to slow climate change</a>, including <a href="https://soto.house.gov/media/press-releases/soto-ocasio-cortez-sanders-merkley-unveil-bill-ban-fracking-nationwide" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bans on hydraulic fracturing</a> for oil and gas production and on new oil, gas and coal leases on public lands. Biden has signaled <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strong support</a> for this agenda, but insists that hydraulic fracturing and fossil fuel development <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-biden-fracking/u-s-presidential-hopeful-biden-says-he-would-not-ban-fracking-idUSKBN25R2NI" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">will continue on existing leases</a>.</p><p>A Biden administration, then, would likely seek to <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/clean_energy_record.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">restore President Obama's public lands legacy</a> and push beyond it with tighter limits on fossil fuel production.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ffd5396eda23b233575b6b9b1926bb2"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cCoxP79QYxM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
Everybody Loves the Outdoors
<p>These sharply different visions can obscure the fact that there is substantial commitment to public lands, especially as places for hunting, fishing, camping and other recreational uses. This consensus was evident when Congress passed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Outdoors_Act" target="_blank">Great American Outdoors Act of 2020</a> in July with strong bipartisan support. With an eye on election polls, President Trump bragged that signing the bill made him the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-environmental-accomplishments-people-florida-jupiter-fl/" target="_blank">greatest environmental president since George Washington</a>.</p><p>As I see it, this bill was popular because it did not address controversial questions like regulation or energy development. Instead it provided billions of dollars for maintaining roads, trails, visitor centers and other public land infrastructure. It also guaranteed permanent funding for the <a href="https://www.lwcfcoalition.com/about-lwcf" target="_blank">Land and Water Conservation Fund</a>, which uses money from federal fossil fuel royalties to protect valuable lands and waters from development.</p><p>That pairing suggests that public land ownership and fossil fuel development will both be part of the next administration. But the election will determine how these resources will be managed, and who will have the most influence over this process.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Golf cart remains burned by the Glass Fire sit next to a vineyard at Calistoga Ranch in Napa Valley, California on September 30, 2020. Samuel Corum / AFP / Getty Images
The Trump administration rejected California's federal relief request to help recover from six recent wildfires, The Los Angeles Times reported.
<p>California Governor Gavin Newsom's office requested a presidential disaster declaration for federal relief funds to help with cleanup efforts, including the Creek Fire, the largest in the state's history, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/15/politics/trump-california-fire-disaster-assistance/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. The relief would have also assisted recovery efforts from the Bobcat Fire in Los Angeles County and the El Dorado Fire, which resulted from a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/california-wildfire-gender-reveal-partyty-2647518193.html" target="_self">gender-reveal party mishap</a>.</p><p>"The request for a Major Presidential Disaster Declaration for early September fires has been denied by the federal administration," Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services told CNN. </p><p>Ferguson told the The Los Angeles Times that he could not provide a reason for the denial.</p>
<p><br>Newsom wrote a letter to President Trump on September 28 asking for federal assistance, during which time the August Complex Fire continued to grow; it has since <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/california-gigafire-august-complex-2648125953.html" target="_self">burned more than one million acres</a>. </p><p>"The severity and magnitude of these fires continue to cause significant impacts to the State and to the affected local jurisdictions, such that the recovery efforts remain beyond the State's capabilities," <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-administration-rejects-californias-request-wildfire-disaster-assistance/story?id=73650086" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ABC News</a> reported Newsom wrote in September. "Many of the counties impacted by these wildfires are still recovering from previous devastating wildfires, storms, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."</p><p>The state plans to appeal the decision. In the meantime, "officials are looking for other avenues for federal assistance" to help wildfire victims, a spokesperson for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services told ABC News.</p>
<p>The state did not request a specific dollar amount, though Newsom did ballpark the figure around $346 million, ABC News reported. Ferguson, however, said the figure could easily pass that number.</p><p>"The true cost won't be known for months or years afterward," Ferguson told The Los Angeles Times. "What the state is looking for is the highest level of federal support, which requires the highest bars be cleared. But we feel our case for those requirements has been met."</p><p>In his letter, Newsom emphasized the state's dire need. "Federal assistance is critical to support physical and economic recovery of California and its communities," ABC News reported. "The longer it takes for California and its communities to recover, the more severe, devastating, and irreversible the economic impacts will be."</p>
<p>The rejected request is not entirely surprising. In a pattern of disdain toward Democratic states, Trump said in 2019 that he would deny federal assistance requests unless state officials "get their act together, which is unlikely," The Los Angeles Times reported. Trump has also blamed Newsom for the fires, ABC News reported, claiming that Newsom has done a terrible job managing forests — even though a majority of California forests are on federal land.</p><p>So far in 2020, more than 8,500 wildfires have burned over 4.1 million acres. The fires have also killed 31 people and damaged more than 9,200 structures, CNN reported.</p>
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Trending
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pauses as he speaks during The Des Moines Register Iowa Presidential Candidate Forum at Drake University on July 15, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
By Jo Harper
The Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden proposes net-zero CO2 emissions in the United States by 2050. It's an ambitious target, but 30 years is a long time in politics and there is a key tension between the party's moderate nominee with links to corporate funders, such as the asset manager BlackRock, and progressives whose votes he needs to win. This is nowhere better seen perhaps than on environmental issues, where campaigns to green corporate America have tended to fizzle out.
<p>Examples of good intentions abound. Nonprofit organization Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) this week, for example, launched a campaign with a $20 trillion-strong group of investors to encourage companies to commit to stronger action on climate change. In the campaign, 137 institutions asked<strong> </strong>1,800 companies to set science-based targets for reducing CO2 emissions. The group of 1,800 represent 25% of total global emissions and represent 40% of the MSCI ACWI Index, which is MSCI's global equity index.</p><p>"The importance of investor engagement to drive sustainable corporate action cannot be overstated," Emily Kreps, global director of Capital Markets at CDP, said in a press release.</p><p>But words and actions have often been out of sync in environmental policy in the U.S. This is well illustrated by the ambitious-sounding plans of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/blackrock-the-secret-world-power/a-18653761" target="_blank">the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/blackrock-makes-climate-change-central-to-investment-decisions/a-52001370" target="_blank">BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said earlier this year</a> that by the end of 2020 the financial corporation would stop its actively managed funds from investing in companies that get 25% or more of their revenue from coal operations. Furthermore, it would enhance transparency over how it votes in shareholder meetings of firms in its portfolio, create investment products that screen for fossil fuels, and ask companies how they plan to navigate the climate crisis.</p><p>BlackRock is close to Biden and some, though not that many, believe a partnership of the two could herald real change in the U.S.'s environmental strategy.</p>
<p>But, says Friends of the Earth, BlackRock conspicuously failed to include a promise to stop investing in companies that cause deforestation, while others worry that a voluntary solution by a passive investment vehicle is not the best way forward.</p><p>Friends of the Earth criticized BlackRock this week and other asset management firms in a report for not doing enough to curb global deforestation, which has increased by 40% since 2014 and is a major contributor to climate change. Supply chains for commodities like beef and soy are a key driver of those fires, the group said. Its report accused the "Big Three" asset managers, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, of enabling companies in their investment portfolios to avoid promises they made to prevent their supply chains from contributing to destruction of rainforests. </p><p>AmazonWatch, part of a coalition of green groups and campaigners called "BlackRock's Big Problem," wrote in a 2019 report that BlackRock was one of the biggest investors in the agribusiness firms responsible for deforestation in the Amazon, with over $2.5 billion worth of shares of such companies. The report found that BlackRock and Vanguard — the largest shareholders in 18 of the 28 carbon-intensive energy and utility companies analyzed — voted 99% of the time for the directors those companies proposed in 2019. And their votes helped kill 16 climate-related shareholder resolutions that year.</p>
At the Heart of Things
<p>"This [CDP campaign] doesn't appear to directly impact BlackRock as it's voluntary," Moira Birss, climate & finance director at Amazon Watch, told DW. "But BlackRock should certainly be asking for 1.5-degree transition plans of all the high emitting companies it invests in."</p><p>Birss also says that BlackRock is "again absent from this leading initiative" despite claims by its CEO that no company had done more for climate in 2020.</p><p>"Fink claims that BlackRock had 950 'engagements' with companies on climate this year but doesn't provide any transparency on what that means. That's not climate leadership. I would think that if BlackRock leadership could show the impact it is having on climate through these 'engagements,' it would. Instead Fink is making claims about climate action that he can't, or won't, back up," she adds.</p>Passive Funds Active
<p>BlackRock reported healthy third-quarter profits, the recovery in global financial markets helping it end the quarter with a record $7.81 trillion in assets under management. The New York-based company's net income rose 27% to $1.42 billion, while its shares are up 22% this year.</p><p>Supported by an index-fund collection called iShares, it is the world's largest asset manager, with $7.81 trillion of other people's money under its control, a third of it in Europe. This is roughly equal to the world's top 20 pension funds combined. The fund employs 13,900 people spread across 30 countries.</p><p>BlackRock's Aladdin risk-management system — a software tool that can track and analyze trading — is used by the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB). Today, $21.6 trillion sits on the platform from just a third of its 240 clients, according to public documents verified with the companies and first-hand accounts. That figure alone is equivalent to 10% of global stocks and bonds.</p><p>But BlackRock has expanded its power well beyond asset management, including also auditing of banks for regulatory authorities and advising governments on privatization.</p><p>"BlackRock is in effect a branch of government, a public utility," Harald Schumann, founder of Investigate-Europe in Berlin, told DW. "It could exert great influence for good but given that two-thirds of its business is index-linked, they have no real power to push for greening of the companies they are invested in," he says.</p><p>"Fink personally may well be committed, and it is after all more powerful than many states, a unique phenomenon. But it has an inherent conflict of interest, as an advisor, auditor and investor. The Chinese Wall exists, but how well it actually works is another issue," says Schumann, referring to the strict separation of the firm's services required under financial laws.</p>
Massive Political Influence
<p>Created in 1988, BlackRock has close ties to the Biden campaign, although the company's investments to influence Washington, mean that Fink has also advised the Trump administration on infrastructure privatization and the COVID-19 pandemic. Fink is reportedly hoping for a position in a Biden administration.</p><p>BlackRock has avoided being designated a Systemically Important Financial Institution (or SIFI) by the U.S. Treasury's Financial Stability and Oversight Council (FSOC), set up by Dodd-Frank financial regulations, which would require it to be regulated by the American central bank. </p><p>The company has spent the last decade lobbying lawmakers, US Treasury officials, and FSOC members with donations. In its Transparency Project report, BlackRock says that it has hired at least 84 former government officials, regulators, and central bankers worldwide since 2004. The world's largest asset manager has also been tapped by the Federal Reserve to oversee three government debt-buying programs designed to fend off economic catastrophe.</p>
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Global Climate Campaigners Want Public Banks to Fund Just Recovery and Green Transition
15 October
Business
Protesters representing various socio-economic groups rally against climate change on September 20, 2020 in New York City. John Lamparski / NurPhoto / Getty Images
By Kenny Stancil
Amid the Global Week of Action for Debt Cancellation and one month ahead of the Finance in Common Summit, climate justice advocates on Monday urged public banks around the world to treat government responses to the coronavirus crisis as opportunities to coordinate just recoveries from the ongoing public health and economic calamities and to simultaneously facilitate just transitions from dirty to clean energy, thereby beginning to "build the world we want."
<p>"The climate crisis requires us to stay under the limit of 1.5°C of global warming, and the only way we can do it is rapidly moving away from fossil fuel production and use," said Clémence Dubois, France team leader at 350.org. "We need public finance institutions to be the first movers of this transition."</p><p>350.org executive director May Boeve <a href="https://twitter.com/350/status/1315654245790748673" target="_blank">argued</a> that the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing surge in unemployment and material hardship revealed "just how broken our economic systems are," while also stressing that the current catastrophe holds lessons for how to go about "solving other pressing global challenges," particularly the intertwined problems of intensifying inequality and climate disasters.</p><p>Contrary to the demands of social and environmental justice advocates, government and financial responses to the pandemic and recession in many countries to date have continued to prop up the fossil fuel industry rather than prioritizing investments in renewable energy development.</p>
<p>As <em>Common Dreams</em> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/01/100-billion-lifeline-while-most-americans-are-being-left-behind-report-details" target="_blank">reported </a>earlier this month, the Trump administration and U.S. Federal Reserve have bailed out Big Oil during this crisis, and a May <a href="http://priceofoil.org/2020/05/27/g20-still-digging/" target="_blank">report</a> by Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth showed that since the Paris Agreement, G20 countries have provided at least $77 billion per year in financing for oil, gas, and coal projects through their public finance institutions.</p><p>According to 350.org, a handful of institutions, such as the European Investment Bank, Swedfund, and the French Development Agency, have already committed to diverting public money away from fossil fuels—a move that climate campaigners say is necessary but insufficient.</p><p>Ahead of the Finance in Common Summit being held in Paris from November 10-12, advocacy groups have described this first ever international gathering of public banks—where nearly 450 financial institutions controlling approximately $2 trillion in public money will convene—as an opportunity for all public financial institutions to commit to aligning their investment policies with carbon emissions reductions, biodiversity protection, and other sustainable development goals.</p>
<div id="65c39" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ac51e8b5bddbfd63c853f644d08e44dc"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1315656759781064706" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">As we launch the #WorldWeWant campaign on climate impacts, @UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres echoes our call f… https://t.co/5ytx9JD3hh</div> — Climate Action Network - International (CAN) (@Climate Action Network - International (CAN))<a href="https://twitter.com/CANIntl/statuses/1315656759781064706">1602511989.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Activists argued that public banks' ambitious commitments in support of an internationally just transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy can help harness resources in ways that disempower the oil, gas, and coal industries while creating a more egalitarian and sustainable world that benefits workers, communities, and the environment.</p><p>Dubois explained in a statement that "this leadership is increasingly important as governments prepare to deploy historic levels of public finance in response to Covid-19. Such a commitment needs to be concrete and tangible, and would help set a high bar for what climate leadership looks like for public finance institutions."</p><p>"Development banks have the power to enact policies and direct funds towards a just recovery," Dubois said. "Especially in the midst of a health and economic emergency, public money must be used to boost existing solutions that will create new jobs and support the people most impacted." </p>
<p>"Public financial institutions are accountable to the planet and the people," he added. "After all, it's our money, and what they are doing with it determines our lives and our future."</p><p>Climate justice advocates also pointed out that this week is the Global Week of Action for Debt Cancellation, an initiative promoted by many organizations and movements in various regions around the world to highlight the negative impacts of debt on countries throughout the Global South. </p><p>350.org and others argue that the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis have highlighted the long-term consequences of colonization and imperialism for the world's poorest inhabitants.</p>
<p>"When major financial institutions lend money to Global South governments to develop fossil fuel projects, they are not only destroying the climate, weakening democratic processes and laws, deepening poverty and inequality, and violating human rights," said Alex Lenferna, a climate justice campaigner at 350.org Africa, "but also tying up young and future generations in debt slavery."</p><p>According to Lenferna, "we cannot have climate justice and a just recovery without debt justice." </p><p>"Debt contracted to finance harmful fossil fuel projects that lead to climate chaos is completely illegitimate and should not be repaid," Lenferna added. "Public finance institutions should cancel these debts and not allow any new ones."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/12/after-all-its-our-money-global-climate-campaigners-call-public-banks-fund-just" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court Confirmation 'Would Be a Catastrophe for the Climate'
14 October
Insights + Opinion
Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies on the third day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on October 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. Erin Schaff / Pool / AFP/ Getty Images
By Andy Rowell
This week, President Trump's highly controversial pick for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, answers questions in front of the Senate Judiciary committee as part of her nomination hearings for the top legal job.
<p>Coney Barrett's nomination to the vacant seat on the Supreme court vacated by the death Ruth Bader Ginsburg has prompted concern from experts and activists working on a plethora of issues, from abortion, the Affordable Care Act, climate change, and wider environmental policy to which her appointment would spell disaster.</p><p>The hypocrisy cannot be understated. In 2016, the Republican Party and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow hearings on President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, as it was February of an election year. Now, with less than one month until the next presidential election, the GOP unabashedly intends to ram this nomination through.</p><p>The future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Roe v. Wade precedent, and even any court cases around the upcoming election are very much uncertain moving forward.</p><p>If she is confirmed, which appears likely, she will tip the Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority. Barrett's mentor was the arch conservative <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/21/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-antonin-scalia.html" target="_blank">Antonin Scalia</a>, who was similarly idolized by President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>"Barrett's conservative legal views and her closeness to her former boss and mentor, the conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia, have raised concerns that she will push the court further to the right in ways that could be difficult to reverse for years or even decades," noted the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/barrett-supreme-court-trump/2020/09/26/20863794-feac-11ea-830c-a160b331ca62_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Washington Post</em></a> last month.</p><p>If confirmed, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/us/politics/supreme-court-barrett.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Barrett,</a> who is 48 years old, would be the youngest Justice on the Supreme Court, who could shape a generation of American law.</p><p>Although her environmental <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/04/amy-coney-barretts-environmental-track-record-is-parse--but-concerning_partner/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">record is sparse,</a> there are deep alarm bells ringing.</p><p>An article in <em>Slate</em> magazine noted last month, that "Barrett and her conservative colleagues would also take a machete to the thicket of laws that protect the health and safety of millions of Americans," including limiting pollution, monitoring Wall Street, and protecting consumers from predatory practices.</p>
<p>Our colleagues at <a href="https://earthjustice.org/blog/2020-september/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-environment-science-politics" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a> have been fighting in the courts on behalf of our planet and its people for decades. They have expressed "deep concerned that the rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett could threaten our shared future."</p><p>Earthjustice also argues that "Judge Barrett <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2020/09/19/stories/1063714169" target="_blank">appears willing</a> to undermine our environmental laws" and that her "record demonstrates her willingness to interpret environmental laws like the Clean Water Act narrowly in favor of industry interests."</p><p>Finally, they say that "Amy Coney Barrett's record suggests that she may be willing to strip government agencies of the power to protect the environment and to further close the courthouse doors to those seeking justice."</p><p>And justice may be denied on what, to many, is the biggest issue of them all: climate change. Yesterday, Barrett was asked about her views on climate change and took the skeptical line that she could not comment because she was not a scientist.</p>
<div id="76884" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77420428135283f65982a5ecd6a823dc"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1316166400839487488" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Amy Coney Barrett just said she does "not have firm views" on climate change because she's "not a scientist." What… https://t.co/degGDy7eXI</div> — DJ Koessler (@DJ Koessler)<a href="https://twitter.com/DJKoessler/statuses/1316166400839487488">1602633497.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>This is a deeply worrying sign. Many climate fights in the U.S. right now, focused on trying to hold the government and companies accountable, could end up in the Supreme Court.</p><p><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/10/04/amy-coney-barretts-environmental-track-record-is-parse--but-concerning_partner/" target="_blank"><em>Salon</em></a> argues her appointment might "tip the scales of justice rightward, opening up a Pandora's box of climate hostility."</p><p>They are not the only ones concerned. "Barrett's confirmation would be a catastrophe for the climate," argues <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/amy-coney-barrett-ginsburg-scotus-future.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Slate</em> </a>magazine. "She may well overrule the landmark 5–4 2006 EPA emissions reporting <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-1120.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">decision</a>, long despised by conservatives, that compels the federal government to regulate carbon emissions."</p><p>And even "if Congress passes new legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the court's conservative supermajority may strike it down, much as the Republican-appointed justices <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-supreme-court-blocks-obama-s-clean-power-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blocked</a> the Clean Power Plan in 2016," argues Slate.</p>
<p>One of the landmark legal cases that could be affected is <em>Juliana v. U.S.,</em> the lawsuit brought by 21 youth plaintiffs against the U.S. government in 2015 for taking insufficient action on climate change. As an article in <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/what-amy-coney-barrett-would-mean-for-the-youth-climate-1845346697" target="_blank"><em>Earther</em></a>, "Barrett's approach to constitutional law doesn't necessarily look like a promising source of support for the youth plaintiffs."</p><p>Legal experts are worried too. Harvard law professor and former Obama administration official Jody Freeman told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/10/07/921322803/how-nomination-of-amy-coney-barrett-to-supreme-court-might-affect-u-s-climate-ac?t=1602603057213" target="_blank"><em>NPR Radio</em></a> that with the appointment of Barrett, "it's going to be a corporate court, good for business, good for corporations."</p><p>And that can only be bad for climate, and bad for all of us. <a href="https://earthjustice.org/blog/2020-september/amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-environment-science-politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EarthJustice</a> argues that "we need Justices who recognize the government's obligation to protect the environment and public lands for all people and who know the difference between science and politics." And by all accounts that person is not Amy Coney Barrett.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="http://priceofoil.org/2020/10/14/amy-coney-barretts-confirmation-to-the-supreme-court-would-be-a-catastrophe-for-the-climate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OilChange+(Oil+Change)" target="_blank">Oil Change International.</a></em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2648206122#/" target="_self"></a></p>
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