Fetterman is leading Dr. Oz in the swing state, despite a debilitating stroke that has made it difficult for him to campaign in person. Many centrist Democrats would probably agree with his decision to avoid climate, which some in the consultant class view as a niche, polarizing “culture war” issue. Fetterman has excelled at focusing […]
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Meanwhile, local governments such as in Miami Beach have taken matters into their own hands, aggressively pushing sustainability efforts including raising streets, building water pumping infrastructure, and erecting new seawalls, while others like Broward County used the occasion of 2020 to launch broader efforts at mitigation and sustainability awareness which include an aggressive effort to convert […]
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The costs of new fossil fuel installations are not hypothetical. New oil pipelines, a recent study from Global Energy Monitor found, are “dramatically at odds with plans to limit global warming to 1.5C or 2C.” The United States is the world leader in building those, with 1,758 miles under development. More than twice the amount of […]
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The Mountain Valley Pipeline has accumulated more than 350 water quality violations and other environmental infractions since construction began in 2018. The permitting reform bill would go to remarkable lengths to protect the project from local and national scrutiny, mandating that any future legal challenges to either the pipeline or any of the bill’s provisions be […]
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The bill also creates a rolling list of national priority projects eligible for an expedited federal review, five of which—in the first seven years after the bill is passed—need to be fossil fuels or biofuels at any given time. And it limits the amount of time available under the National Environmental Policy Act for fighting […]
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There have been numerous proposals, though, to fund loss and damage internationally without relying on congressional approval here. “People [outside the U.S.] understand the U.S. political system just as well as you guys do because our fate is tied up with it half the time,” Yamin said. This week, U.N chief António Guterres expressed support for […]
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Unlike companies or U.S. states that have trouble servicing their debts, Puerto Rico can’t formally declare bankruptcy. So the Fiscal Oversight and Management Board—known as “La Junta”—was imposed by Congress and the Obama administration in 2016 to oversee the debt restructuring process and the island’s finances, executing effective veto power over plans made by its […]
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These transactions and their afterlives can be difficult to track for a number of reasons. Since they’re not publicly traded, the private equity firms and smaller drillers that tend to buy up assets that Shell and other large companies offload aren’t obligated to provide much transparency to the public or regulators about what they do […]
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No one I asked, however—not Murphey, not the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, not Lincoln Premium Poultry—said they were aware of a second problem that Lanc had observed: manure being loaded onto trucks at one of the Gallus-owned barns near his house, within the control area, another act that should have required permits. (Lanc had notified […]
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The world’s institutions—both brands and NGOs alike— welcomed the Higg MSI with open arms and little to no research. After partnering with the global NGO World Resources Institute, Higg Co., the for-profit selling the index, raised $50 million in funding in April this year, and its index full of dubious data became the accounting metric […]
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Testing can tell you who is getting sick and, perhaps as importantly, who is not getting sick, so we know exactly where to send resources. During the early days of an outbreak, if testing capacity is limited, only those with the strongest suspicion of illness usually get tests. In this case, monkeypox testing was almost […]
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The draft text of permitting reform expands the scope of categorical exclusions that are regularly applied to oil and gas projects—including BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig—in a way that could include more clean energy projects, and level the playing field. Many advocates are leery of categorical exclusions writ large. A more careful analysis also isn’t necessarily […]
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The right is, of course, wrong to fantasize that the climate crisis is ushering in a totalitarian state in which Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez takes away your hamburgers. But the rhetorical assault on pleasure, without an optimistic vision of what we gain by addressing the climate crisis, plays into the hands of people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. […]
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Among them is Pakistan, where at least 1,400 people have been killed in flooding that has displaced at least 35 million people. In the midst of a physical and political crisis sparked by rising food and fuel prices, Pakistan has also been attempting to secure additional funds from the International Monetary Fund to stay afloat, […]
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Since Kern County is also a major agricultural producer, though, it can be difficult to isolate what exactly is causing residents’ health problems. “It’s very hard to say that the oil and gas pump in my backyard is causing the fatigue, dizziness, nosebleeds, and headaches,” Aguirre said. “It could be the pesticides in the field […]
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Indigenous communities across California haven’t just been discouraged from practicing intentional fire use—they’ve been criminalized for it. “Ten, 15 years ago, we would’ve went to jail for that,” explained Mendes. “You can’t have fires. And we still kind of struggle with that, where we have agencies that want to come onto reservation lands and suppress […]
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In advance of a “Stop the Steal Rally” in Jackson last November, Republican State Representative Steve Hopkins dubbed the city “Mordor on the Pearl”—Mordor being the city where evil goblin hybrids and their power-hungry dictator live in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books, and the Pearl being the river that runs through Jackson. (Hopkins […]
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Luckily, and perhaps surprisingly, however, wildlife conservation policy enjoys bipartisan support. As Vox recently reported, Congress is about to pass the biggest wildlife protection bill in 50 years (unrelated to the climate policy contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, which clearly will also affect wildlife). The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, or RAWA, has passed the […]
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For Democrats, there could be political benefits to bringing coops into the energy transition, as well. Coops serve 92 percent of “persistent-poverty” counties in 47 states, including many in places that now lean heavily Republican. But more isolated places haven’t always tilted right, Hatlestad points out. Agrarian and rural populists in places like West Virginia, […]
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The sewer board, supported by the Missoula City-County Public Health Department, decided in 2016 that the town was in need of a new and expensive sewer system. But not everyone in town was thrilled with the plan. The extra cost to locals in taxes would be about $150 a month; in a town where the […]
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Unsurprisingly, then, the attorneys general’s rhetoric about the proposed rule has been noticeably hyperbolic, suggesting a rule merely requiring companies to disclose information to the SEC, as they do regularly, is nothing less than all-out war on American identity. “The woke left is going full throttle in their mission to change every facet of American life,” […]
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“What’s really the issue is what sort of regulations other provisions in the [Clean Air Act] authorize. That was the issue in West Virginia v. EPA and I don’t see anything in the IRA that effects that,” explains Jonathan Adler, director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve […]
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As Roosevelt Institute’s Todd Tucker has noted, the IRA grafts the kinds of provisions usually found in procurement deals onto its broad suite of tax incentives. That is, requirements that would usually be in place only when certain firms sell goods and services to the government will now be inscribed into the tax code. Off […]
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This past April, Timber Unity hosted a gubernatorial debate for 11 Republican primary candidates, at which candidate Brandon Merritt encouraged the crowd to chant, “Let’s go, Brandon,” and questions focused on the declining timber industry. During the primary season, the group endorsed 16 County Commission candidates. Sanchez, the PAC co-director, did not yet know as […]
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These conversations can be scary. In my experience it’s a lot harder to ask someone I personally know to confront their role in the climate crisis than it is to attend a protest in relative anonymity. But people in our lives deserve to be treated as moral agents. They deserve to be encouraged to reject […]
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Some of these encounters have ended in tragedy on the bison’s end. Park rangers at Yellowstone bend over backwards to urge people to not approach any animals for any reason. In one particularly foolish incident in 2016, however, two tourists came across a newborn bison calf, concluded that it “looked cold,” put it in their […]
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“Energy companies are allowed to make record profits while regular working people are paying for these profits,” Lewis said. “We’re being told to sacrifice our holidays and our savings while companies like Centrica and Shell can make record profits.” Don’t Pay UK isn’t calling for nationalization, but groups like Common Wealth and the non-profit We […]
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Fourth, we need to bring all the stigmatization efforts described above to bear against the Wall Street financiers behind our fossil fuel opponents. Coalitions like Stop the Money Pipeline have been advancing this work for years; it’s time they got the resources necessary to launch campaigns targeting every bank, pension fund, state treasurer, and insurer […]
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This isn’t surprising, given conservative resistance to pretty much any policy response to crime that focuses on compassionate prevention rather than punitive reaction. And Republicans have a particular antipathy to policies mitigating or addressing climate change. The Senate Democrats just passed a historic climate package and not one Republican senator voted for it, despite their […]
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“We are in a situation of geopolitical tensions, pandemic and climate change creating an environment where economic activity isn’t as stable and smooth as it once was,” says Weber, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who consulted on the bill. In Europe, gas shortages this winter, exacerbated by a potential shut-off of Russian gas, […]
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Building on Twarog’s work, the influential biochemist Dilworth Wayne Woolley suggested that serotonin might play an important role in mental illness. In 1974, researchers developed the first serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI, intended to treat depression. It was called fluoxetine, better known by the brand name Prozac. Today, millions of Americans are on antidepressants—not just […]
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