President Joe Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s victory marks a new day in the fight for bold, just and equitable climate policy in the United States. It means that the US will now have a leadership that believes in science, knows that climate change is real, and is committed to supporting united and multilateral action.
Biden has assembled a climate team with stunning speed, creating new positions of power within the White House to focus on climate (John Kerry with an eye on the international impacts and Gina McCarthy on domestic goals). He moved instantly on executive orders to both create new regulations and rollback the rollbacks of the previous administration. He moved on day one to reinstate America’s role in the Paris Climate Agreement, which was accomplished on February 19, 2021. He has asked his cabinet to look upon every action through the lens of climate. You might be interesting in following some of his executive actions at The Washington Post’s page tracking his environmental progress.
The democrats now control the White House and Congress, although in the Senate it will take Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie vote, complicating Biden’s legislative agenda. The president will, nonetheless, will have a wide array of tools — from expanding renewables on federal lands to pushing the financial industry on climate change — that could put the U.S. on a trajectory to decarbonizing its electricity sector by 2035. His goal to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles was given a huge boost in early February by GM’s announcement that it would shift to 100% electric vehicles by 2035.
For more on what he has already accomplished and what he plans to accomplish, go to Biden’s Climate Plan and to the LAWS AND LITIGATION section where you will find extensive information on what is happening within the federal government, from the Executive branch to the Legislative and Judicial branches.
By Timothy Cama Photo: Michael Santiago, Getty Images
Progressive climate change advocates are increasingly coalescing around a midterm election strategy aimed at making Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition to President Joe Biden’s environmental agenda irrelevant. In the days since the West Virginia Democrat shut…
By Somini Sengupta Photo: Stefani Reynolds , The New York Times
As millions of people on three continents baked in heat waves supercharged by climate change this week, one American politician, an ardent champion of the fossil fuel industry, doused any hopes of immediate climate action…
By Joe Lo Photo: Liesbeth Powers , Greenpeace
In one, lobbyists and lawyers from big green NGOs played down the significance of the ruling, stressing that president Joe Biden and his EPA still have powers they can use. “It’s not as bad as…
By Coral Davenport Photo: Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
A Supreme Court environmental case being decided this month is the product of a coordinated, multiyear strategy by Republican attorneys general and conservative allies.
By Joel Stronberg
In recent days Republicans in the US House of Representatives released the first of what will be a six-part policy platform on energy, climate, and conservation. The strategy was the work of the Energy, Climate,…
By Lisa Friedman Photo: Tim Gruber , The New York Times
The Biden administration on Thursday will move to restore authority to states and tribes to veto gas pipelines, coal terminals and other energy projects if they would pollute local rivers and streams, reversing a Trump-era…
By Aaron Blake Photo: Jabin Botsford , The Washington Post
The latest entry in the saga comes via a new book from the New York Times’s Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin. The two report that Manchin had dinner with some Senate Republicans in early 2021…
By Andreas Karelas Photo: Greg Nash
Last year, “Political Climate,” podcast co-host Brandon Hurlbut asked, “Do you think there’s an opportunity now to pick off some of those Republican senators like Lisa Murkowski, like Rob Portman, like Susan Collins or Mitt…
By Dana Nuccitelli
In the just-released third installment of its Sixth Assessment Report (the first two volumes covered climate change causes and impacts), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) summarizes the latest scientific research on efforts to…
By Bill McKibben
Just as the Oscars were getting underway last night, the New York Times published a truly remarkable exposé that helps us understand the end of our planet’s climate system in helpful detail. Receipt-laden, it shows…
By Philip Bump Photo: Megan Varner, Getty Images
There was an unappreciated irony to the placard that graced the lectern from which former president Donald Trump spoke over the weekend. “Save America,” it said, reflecting Trump’s preferred descriptor for the threat the country…
By Maxine Joselow Photo: Jabin Botsford
President Biden and European leaders are expected to announce a major initiative to direct shipments of liquefied natural gas to Europe, our colleagues scooped last night. More on that below. But first:
06/04/21
Drawing on a nationally representative survey (n = 1,037; including 922 registered voters), this report describes how Democratic, Independent, and Republican registered voters view climate and energy policies.
02/14/20
FCNL believes that carbon pricing is one of many essential tools that Congress should use to address climate change and shift towards a clean energy economy. While we have not endorsed any particular bill at…
01/29/19
The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) is an independent scientific analysis produced by three research organisations tracking climate action since 2009. We track progress towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and…
01/22/19
The Columbia Law School Tracker identifies steps taken by the Trump administration and Congress to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures. The tracker is linked to a database of climate…
01/19/19
Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change. By building upon shared values rather than partisan divides, and empowering our supporters to work in keeping…
01/19/19
The Carbon Tax Center stands at the front lines of the struggle for a sustainable climate and a habitable Earth. Our mission: to generate support to enact a transparent and equitable U.S. carbon pollution tax…
By David Gelles Photo: Matthew Odom 03/14/22
It is billed as the largest economic development project in the history of Georgia, an electric vehicle factory that could grow to be five times as large as the Pentagon and produce as many as…
By Philip Bump Photo: Dan Koeck for The Washington Post 03/03/22
en. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) appeared on Fox Business on Wednesday to discuss his policy priorities in the wake of President Biden’s State of the Union address. As might have been predicted — given Biden’s…
By Ella Nilsen 02/17/22
In 2019, the city council in Berkeley, California, held a stunning vote: it would ban natural gas hookups in all new building construction to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the city's impact on the climate…
By Kat Kerlin 02/16/22
Politics and society largely dictate climate policy ambitions and therefore the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions, yet climate change models and projections rarely include political and social drivers. A study from the University of California,…
Photo: Delaware Department of Transportation (2017) 02/01/22
This past year may go on record as one of the most active and costly years for extreme weather events. As of Oct. 8, there have been 18 such events, each with losses exceeding $1…
By Maxine Joselow Photo: Matt Rourke/AP 01/31/22
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Today we're wondering what an Infrastructure Bill burger tastes like and if there's a veggie version. But first:
By Mark Hertsgaard Photo: Getty Images 01/07/22
A year ago today, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were fleeing for their lives as a violent mob swarmed the halls of the U.S. Capitol. With their personal safety at risk, the two most powerful…
By Jonathan Weisman and Lisa Friedman Photo: Chet Strange for The New York Times 12/20/21
Senator Joe Manchin III noted climate policy when he said he would vote against the Build Back Better Act. In his life and career, West Virginia coal has loomed large.
By Ben Terris Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post 12/14/21
Waiting around for Manchin has become something of a pastime in the nation’s capital. Hill reporters track his movements on the Senate floor, staking out his office, sometimes for hours, and then orbiting around him…
By Sammy Roth Photo: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times 10/28/21
Four hundred thirteen parts per million.That’s how much carbon dioxide was built up in Earth’s atmosphere last year — a record 413.2 parts per million on average, according to the latest data from the World…
By Tony Romm, Mike DeBonis and Marianna Sotomayor Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik 10/27/21
The White House intensified meetings with 2 senators as they raced to resolve a number of issues in giant tax-and-spending measure.
By Maxine Joselow Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 10/21/21
Good morning! My colleague Dino Grandoni helped with today’s edition of The Climate 202. Loyal Post readers will remember that Dino used to write The Energy 202, and apparently he missed the newsletter life. 😆…
By Margot Sanger-Katz and Alicia Parlapiano 10/20/21
To win over their most centrist members, the Democrats will need to fit all their wishes into the smaller box.
10/20/21
A group of climate activists are beginning a hunger strike outside the White House today to demand Congress and President Biden pass the climate crisis provisions in the reconciliation package. The youth activists made the…
By Zachary B. Wolf 10/20/21
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin -- a Democrat -- appears to be intent on ripping the heart out of President Joe Biden's climate change agenda. With his all-powerful 50th vote as leverage, Manchin's reported opposition…
By Jocelyn Timperley Photo: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg/Getty 10/20/21
Fossil-fuel subsidies are one of the biggest financial barriers hampering the world’s shift to renewable energy sources. Each year, governments around the world pour around half a trillion dollars into artificially lowering the price of…
By Emily Cochrane Photo: T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times 10/18/21
The West Virginia Democrat could decide the fate of President Biden’s top legislative priority, and he has not been shy about outlining the kinds of changes he wants to see.
By Paola Rosa-Aquino Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images 10/17/21
The White House is struggling to find a way to significantly address climate change after Democratic senator Joe Manchin reportedly signaled his opposition to President Biden’s clean-power plan, a critical element of his climate agenda.
By Coral Davenport and Luke Broadwater Photo: Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times 10/16/21
Faced with the likely demise of a central pillar of President Biden’s agenda, the White House and outraged lawmakers are scrambling to find alternatives.
By Coral Davenport Photo: T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times 10/15/21
The West Virginia Democrat told the White House he is firmly against a clean electricity program that is the muscle behind the president’s plan to battle climate change.
By Brad Plumer and Winston Choi-Schagrin Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times 10/15/21
Legislation aimed at infrastructure and social programs also includes big changes in energy, transportation and disaster preparation. They would amount to the most significant climate action ever taken by the United States.
10/13/21
Sen. Elizabeth Warren talks about Biden’s infrastructure agenda, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and why the Democratic Party needs to show how they can help the American people.
By Michael Barnard 10/13/21
Recently, Republicans received some favorable climate-related coverage. Utah’s 3rd District Congressman John Curtis announced the formation of a Conservative Climate Caucus. It came with a roster of roughly 60 Congresspeople, none of them particularly well…
By Paul Krugman Photo: Benjamin Norman/Redux 10/12/21
Even if inflation is a bigger problem than the Biden administration or like-minded economists think it is, however, what are the implications beyond monetary policy? In particular, is the risk of inflation a reason for…
By Zack Colman Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images 10/05/21
Members of the environmental justice movement sent an email blast more than 5,600 times over a 48-hour period to top Biden administration officials, disrupting White House communication and sparking a tense exchange between the administration’s…
By Robinson Meyer Photo: Lukas Schulze / Getty 10/01/21
The trade group that represents Apple, Walmart, Nike, and dozens of other companies is trying to kneecap the U.S.’s final chance to meet its 2025 climate goals.
By Bill McKibben 10/01/21
With regard to energy, he made one basic demand, which follow the industry’s line to a T. And it only took five words: “Spending on innovation, not elimination.” In other words: it is permissible to…
By Tony Romm 09/30/21
The votes in the House and Senate followed weeks of hand wringing between the two parties, after Democrats initially sought to move the measure along with another proposal to raise the country’s debt ceiling. Senate…
By Scott Waldman Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 09/30/21
Two lobbying groups for the oil and gas industry have bombarded Facebook with hundreds of ads opposing climate legislation in Congress that have been viewed 23 million times. The American Petroleum Institute and the American…
By Chris Galford 09/30/21
The United States solar industry raised its goals for generation this week, as the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) reported a push for solar to represent 30 percent of U.S. electricity generation within the decade.
By Mark Hertsgaard Photo: AP 09/30/21
Joe Manchin has never been this famous. People around the world now know that the West Virginia Democrat is the essential 50th vote in the US Senate that president Joe Biden needs to pass his…
By Nick Sobczyk, Geof Koss, Emma Dumain Photo: Francis Chung/E&E News 09/29/21
Carbon pricing is back in the climate change conversation, but House and Senate Democrats are at odds about the policy as reconciliation talks reach a breaking point. Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is pushing…
By Andrew Solender Photo: Associated Press 09/26/21
Congress is slated to have its busiest and most chaotic week this year, with the House set to consider several of President Joe Biden’s proposed spending bills as the Senate tries to simultaneously avert a…
By Christopher Flavelle and Zolan Kanno-Youngs Photo: Doug Mills , The New York Times 09/14/21
President Biden visited California on Monday to tout his efforts to better protect the state against the raging wildfires that have burned more than two million acres, displaced thousands and pushed responders to the brink…
09/10/21
The House Energy & Commerce Committee is poised to mark up budget reconciliation measures Sept. 13 that would appropriate billions of dollars for EPA to cut greenhouse gases and conventional air pollution, while also imposing…
By Emily Atkin Photo: Twitter 09/07/21
The world's second-largest company is still bankrolling climate deniers' re-election campaigns, and defending the practice.
By Sahir Doshi Photo: Getty/Bonnie Jo Mount 08/25/21
No one is immune to the effects of the climate crisis—not even those responsible for its causes. Rising sea levels, record heat, unprecedented extreme weather disasters, and increasingly unstable environmental conditions are making it costlier…
By Alexander C. Kaufman Photo: Karem Yucel , Getty Images 08/18/21
Eight Democratic senators and nearly two dozen House members criticized the Biden administration for allowing pipeline giant Enbridge to continue building Line 3 across wetlands in a letter sent Monday that HuffPost viewed. The lawmakers…
By Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman Photo: T.J. Kirkpatrick 08/13/21
After a decade of disputing the existence of climate change, many leading Republicans are shifting their posture amid deadly heat waves, devastating drought and ferocious wildfires that have bludgeoned their districts and unnerved their constituents…
By Ben Lefebvre And Anthony Adragna Photo: Keith Srakocic/AP Photo 08/11/21
The United Nations report that found the nations are already facing catastrophic effects from climate change drew a cool reception from Republican senators, who were largely unmoved by the dire warnings.
08/11/21
In the latest climate report released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, scientists painted a grim outlook for the world as a result of global warming and an increasing global temperature. For…
By Tony Romm Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP 08/09/21
The scope of the spending outlined by Democrats is vast, reflecting the party’s grand ambitions to grow the size and reach of the federal government to a level not seen in decades. The measure paves…
By Sammy Roth Photo: Anschutz Corp. 08/05/21
Way back in 2019, I asked an energy company owned by one of America’s richest individuals to alert me when they were down to one final landowner standing in the way of their plan to…
By Robinson Meyer Photo: George Rose / Getty 08/03/21
Last week, Senate negotiators released the text of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal. For the first time since the deal was announced in June, we can actually see what’s in it.
By Chris D'Angelo Photo: RJ Sangosti via Getty Images 08/03/21
One week after being sworn in, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order aimed at “tackling the climate crisis at home and abroad.” It included seemingly clear language about ending subsidies for the industry…
By Rebecca Morin 08/02/21
A cross section of refugee and climate organizations say President Joe Biden can help address refugees driven from their homelands by climate change-related factors by using a number of actions at his disposal.
By Marianne Levine and others Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images 07/22/21
With bipartisan infrastructure talks trapped in limbo, progressives are already hustling to protect — or even grow — their massive social spending proposal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has yet to indicate when exactly he’ll…
07/20/21
IEA’s new Sustainable Recovery Tracker monitors governments’ fiscal responses to the Covid-19 crisis and estimates their impact on clean energy investments and global CO2 emissions
By Jason Plautz Photo: Ryan Johnson 07/12/21
In 2013, a 15-year-old named Benji Backer shot onto the conservative media scene, appearing on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show claiming to have been bullied by his high school teachers in Appleton, Wis., over his…
By Gino Spocchia 07/09/21
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called out GOP colleagues in Congress for blocking her Green New Deal amid flooding in New York and New Jersey. Torrential rain brought by storm Elsa on Thursday flooded New York City’s…
