• Politics

Wheeler’s Second Term Vision For EPA — More of the Same

• Administrator Andrew Wheeler
• Environmental Protection Agency
• EPA
• Richard Nixon Library

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Andrew Wheeler appeared at the Nixon Presidential Library in California last week and outlined his vision for a second Trump term — with promises to continue efforts to undermine agency science and climate change regulation.

Why This Matters:  Wheeler claimed that he would focus on environmental justice and “revitalizing minority communities” while also explaining that “strict enforcement of national air pollution rules had hampered struggling regions such as the industrial Midwest.”

• Politics

Labor in the 2020 Election

• Joe Biden
• Labor Day
• labor rights
• unions

Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s climate change plan aims to achieve a 100% clean energy economy and reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050 through major investments in building out national clean energy infrastructure. The plan is very much a jobs plan and Biden emphasizes that an American under his leadership will “fulfill [its] obligation to […]

• Politics

What Does EPA Stand For?

• Coal Ash Rule
• Environmental Protection Agency
• rollback
• rules

Cartoon by Alex Bowman for Our Daily Planet As we wrote earlier this week, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule that had forced coal plants to treat wastewater with more modern, effective methods in order to curb toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury from contaminating lakes, rivers, and streams near their facilities.  […]

• Politics

Markey Win on Strength of Green and Young Voters Elevates Climate in Fall Campaign

• @Students4Markey
• #GreenNewDeal
• climate change
• climate crisis

The post-primary analysis of the Markey-Kennedy Massachusetts Senate race is in, and many pundits are chalking up the Markey late surge to the power of student volunteers and climate change as a key issue in the race. 

Why This Matters:  Environmental voters turned out in droves in the MA primary — and they were driven there by huge grassroots organizing efforts.

• Politics

Extinction Rebellion Stages New Round of Protests Across the U.K.

• #COVID19
• #ExtinctionRebellion
• Boris Johnson
• climate crisis
• London
• parliament

The U.K. Parliament returned to work this week after their summer recess, and the leaders were met with thousands of Extinction Rebellion (XR) protesters who are leading acts of civil disobedience throughout London, which they plan to continue for another 10-14 days.

Why This Matters:  The COVID pandemic is much more under control in the United Kingdom than it is here, but government officials are not taking any chances — they have strict orders about social distancing and limiting the protests to off-road areas near Parliament Square

• Politics

“The Best” is Yet to Come: Denial, Privatization, Inaction

• climate change
• Hurricane Laura
• NOAA
• NWS
• Trump

by Monica Medina and Miro Korenha, co-founders and publishers, Our Daily Planet   While it’s now become a part of meme infamy, Kimberly Guilfoyle’s 2020 Republican National Convention speech made the argument that in America, through a second term of the Trump presidency, “the best is yet to come.” As the GOP’s convention followed that […]