Inflation Reduction Act

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. 

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Did Democrats Follow Through?

 The 2020 Democratic Platform made some big promises. Four years later, where do things stand?

Many of the climate promises in the 2020 Democratic platform were kept, and large down-payments were made toward fulfilling others. The glass is definitely more than half full.

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The Best Reason for Optimism About Climate Action

As the saying goes, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Renewable energy costs have plunged to an extent few people realize. If cellphone prices had dropped as fast since 2010 as the cost of solar power, you could buy a new iPhone for about thirty bucks today.

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35 Major Climate Initiatives Under Biden

By any measure, it has been an eventful four years for climate policy, with billions in spending and many major regulations finalized. Here’s a timeline of the Top 30 actions.

In light of President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race yesterday, we thought it was appropriate to update this piece about the climate legacy of the Biden-Harris Administration. In his four years in office, Donald Trump rolled back essentially every existing federal policy to limit climate change. The picture under the Biden Administration has …

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Here We Go Again! (Maybe)

The possibility of a second Trump presidency looms ahead. Time for some contingency planning!

As the Project 2025 report shows, people on the other side are doing their own contingency planning, and so should climate advocates. We can expect many of the same actions, beginning with massive regulatory rollbacks (over a hundred rollbacks last time around). 

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The Ten Most Important U.S. Environmental Laws

An image of the U.S. Capitol Building in the evening.

Some of the choices may surprise you.

What are America’s most important environmental laws? Some are familiar, such as the federal air and water pollution laws, and the Endangered Species Act. But there are other people rarely hear about — even in environmental law courses — but have done a lot to protect the environment.

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Will Biden and Trump Debate Climate Change?

Here are 22 climate-related questions that moderators could ask Biden and Trump in the presidential debates, as well as the one question they should avoid.

President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump are tentatively set to square off on a stage in Atlanta on June 27 in the first of two presidential debates and there are plenty of climate-related questions that CNN moderators should consider—especially since parts of the country may be sweltering under a heat wave, Georgia’s neighbors …

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Can the IRA Trump-Proof Itself?

Building A Political Firewall Against IRA Repeal

Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, is squarely in Donald Trump’s sights.  There is certainly a risk that a GOP sweep in November would result in repeal, as I’ve written before.  Yet there are increasing signs that the IRA has created a powerful political constituency deep in Republican domains.  This will make repealing …

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Here’s the Most Important Climate Bill of 2024

The Farm Bill proposal being pushed by House Republicans cuts climate programs and boosts factory farms. Congress should listen to the hundreds of chefs who are calling for climate fixes.

Normally, you don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen. It spoils the broth, as the saying goes. But when it comes to debating, amending, and rewriting the U.S. Farm Bill, lawmakers in Congress need all the help they can get. Congress should listen to the hundreds of chefs and food industry pros who are …

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Why the New Climate Reg for Coal is a Perfectly Normal EPA Rule

EPA’s approach isn’t a novel innovation. It’s just EPA applying its usual approach.

The problem isn’t that EPA’s new climate regulation for power plants will crush the coal-fired generation industry. It’s that much of the industry is so economically weak it can’t survive any kind of regulation.

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