Region: National

Should We Be Upset If Candidates Don’t Provide Concrete Policy Plans?

Policy specifics give me something to write blog posts about.  But how much should they matter to voters?

After all, you don’t need specifics to know that Trump and Harris have very different views about climate and energy.  Should voters care about their failure to go into detail?

CONTINUE READING

Rightwing Authoritarianism vs the Environment

In the U.S. and elsewhere, rightwing authoritarians oppose climate action. That’s not a coincidence.

Project 2025 favors authoritarian presidential rule. It also wants to destroy environmental regulation, especially climate law. That’s not a coincidence.  The combination of authoritarianism, extreme conservative ideology, and anti-environmentalism is common globally, not just in U.S. politics. There’s no logical connection between a belief in authoritarian government, upholding traditional hierarchies, and views about protecting the …

CONTINUE READING

The Zombie Myth of Job-Killing Regulations

Some ideas never die, no matter how much evidence piles up against them.

With the Labor Day weekend coming up, let’s talk about jobs. Some myths are like zombies in two ways.  They refuse to lie down and die, not matter what you do. And if you aren’t careful, they can eat your brain.  An example is the idea that environmental regulation kills jobs. Tragically, this brain worm …

CONTINUE READING

The Tragedy of Indifference

This election will have huge consequences for climate change. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to matter that much at the polls.

The partisan divide is real: Democrats are three times more likely than Republicans to view climate change as a major threat. Even so, a quarter of Republicans agreed with Democrats on this.  The problem is that only 37% (almost all Democrats) view climate change as their top priority. 

CONTINUE READING

Trump’s Replacement for Project 2025: The “Other” MAGA Plan

It’s not Project 2025, but the “America First Agenda” is worse in some ways.

From the perspective of those who believe in environmental protection, the Trump team’s switch from one rightwing think tank to another doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement. They would both set environmental law back by decades.

CONTINUE READING

Clean Air and the Turbocharged Shadow Docket

Guest Contributors Sean Donahue & Megan Herzog write that coal advocates offer troubling new grounds for the Supreme Court to stay EPA’s carbon pollution standards.

The Supreme Court is currently considering eight emergency (or “shadow docket”) requests from coal advocates (coal-mining companies, coal-burning electricity generators, and allied State attorneys general led by West Virginia) to bar implementation of new EPA rules limiting carbon pollution from coal- and gas-burning power plants while legal challenges to the rules proceed—what is known as …

CONTINUE READING

Let’s Make Tomorrow “National Climate Awareness Day”

Here’s the case for setting aside a day to think about climate change, and why that day should be Aug. 23

Creating National Climate Awareness Day would send a message about the importance of climate change.  It would also provide an occasion to educate Americans about the issue. If it can also celebrate modern science, and the contributions of women to science, all the better.  And all it would take is a Presidential proclamation.

CONTINUE READING

New Report: Charging and Financing Electric Trucks

CLEE/UCLA Law report & webinar offers solutions to meet California’s zero-emission trucks goal

California has groundbreaking goals to require automakers to sell, and large fleets to purchase, zero-emission trucks and buses in increasing percentages, starting this year. But these goals will only be achievable if the state has sufficient charging infrastructure to fuel the vehicles, along with available financing to help truck owners purchase or lease them. To …

CONTINUE READING

The Ins and Outs of Kennedy’s Environmental Positions  

His campaign website is a mashup of very different perspectives, from “back to the earth” to tech bro.

Working through his website seemed to reveal a broad effort to combine distrust of government and big business), belief in free markets, and valuing nature and the land for their own sakes. Kennedy offers an unusual blend of Sixties “back to the land” environmentalism with Tech Bro libertarianism.

CONTINUE READING

In Their Own Words: Climate Policy and the Party Platforms

The GOP and Democratic Platforms take starkly different approaches.

The two major parties have very different views about energy policy and climate change. Here are their official views, in their own language. Compare and contrast!

CONTINUE READING

Join Our Mailing List

Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.

TRENDING