• Politics

Fighting Climate Change and Environmental Justice Score Big Increases in Biden Budget Proposal

• ARPA-C
• Civilian Climate Corps
• clean air
• clean water
• climate change
• Environmental Justice
• government spending
• NOAA
• Office of Management and Budget

The Biden administration released its “skinny” post-election year budget plan for government spending next year and it included large increases for battling climate change and reversing environmental injustice, particularly as compared to the Trump administration’s drastic proposed cuts in these areas. 

Why This Matters: These are big increases over the Trump administration’s proposals — for NOAA it would mean 50% more.  But Congress never enacted those truly skinny budgets — they actually modestly increased or held most environmental spending steady.

• Politics

One Cool Thing: Infrastructure, An American Classic

• green infrastructure
• Infrastructure
• President Biden
• Secretary Pete

As the Biden administration readies to enact an infrastructure plan, Congressional Republicans continue to lament that water pipes, EV chargers, and expanded railways “don’t count” as infrastructure. Yet, as Biden cabinet members have been saying: we need to expand our definition of infrastructure beyond roads and bridges to prepare our country for the future. As […]

• Politics

New Poll Finds Republicans and Democrats More Divided Than Ever on Climate Change

Leading up to Earth Day and President Biden’s first Climate Summit on April 22, Gallup is releasing a series of environmental polls, and the latest has found that the opinion gap on climate change between Democrats and Republicans is only growing wider. 

Why This Matters: We’ve reported often on climate misinformation in the media, and this situation is no exception.

• Politics

Women’s History Month Bonus: Interview with Elizabeth Mrema of the United Nations

As our last interview of Women’s History Month, we sat down with Elizabeth Mrema, who leads the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).  We asked her about the importance of women in stemming the current biodiversity crisis and ensuring better outcomes in the CBD’s negotiations.  Mrema said, “Having women at the negotiation […]

• Politics

Louisiana Special Election Puts Cancer Alley Front and Center

• Cancer Alley
• Congress
• Louisiana

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer After former Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond was appointed as an adviser to President Biden and the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, the special election to fill the seat he held for nearly a decade has put heavy emphasis on the issue of environmental justice.  Richmond […]

• Politics

The Public is Ready to Recycle as Congress Reintroduces Sweeping Plastics Reform

• #BreakFreeFromPlastic
• Ocean Plastic
• plastic
• pollution
• recycling
• World Wildlife Fund
• WWF

Last week, federal legislators reintroduced the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act, which would pass sweeping recycling and single-use plastic regulations.  Experts from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) say that this bill has come at the right time, publishing a national poll that found 86% of Americans believe the U.S. must transition from a throw-away economy to one that emphasizes reuse and recycling.

Why This Matters: The U.S. is the largest plastic polluter in the world but only recycles 8.7% of its plastics. Much of that plastic takes the form of consumer packaging like plastic bags, wrappers, straws, and more.