The climate advocates who cheered President Joe Biden’s arrival at the White House last year are preparing to give up on Washington.
“There’s lots of tension around what comes next. I think the power is going to be outside of Washington, D.C.”On the other hand, relying on the states that led the U.S. climate fight during Donald Trump’s presidency won’t get the nation to Biden’s target of aggressively cutting greenhouse gases by 2030.
At the state and local levels, battles on environmental justice often center on individual power plants, factories and other facilities that produce pollution such as mercury, soot and ozone. The EPA still has the authority to regulate those pollutants despite Thursday’s decision, though the court raised uncertainties about how much leeway the agency has for future rules.
Environmental justice groups fighting these kinds of battles have seen a surge of funding in recent years, including a $100 million commitment this spring from the Donors of Color Network. With governors from 23 states and Puerto Rico as members, the alliance recently hired former EPA official Casey Katims to lead it through a refresh as the federal outlook dims. It plans to work as a policy and legislative clearinghouse, developing model bills and regulations to advance through member states.
That is why the advocacy model is shifting to embrace more partnerships with environmental justice organizations with a history of engagement and connections in local battles in states often opposed to sweeping climate policies. Hive Fund, a philanthropy that received $43 million from the Bezos Earth Fund, specifically focuses on funding groups in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina — states whose emissions are key to addressing climate change.
Many organizations are also staffing up in states to coordinate spending from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law to ensure that governors don’t bungle what may amount to the Biden administration’s largest legislative accomplishment on climate. At the federal level, most advocates are hitching their hopes to EPA, saying the court’s ruling doesn’t take the agency totally out of the climate push.
Why do so many think a POTUS is a magician, or a dictator who can snap his fingers & do whatever he wants? It's time to reintroduce American to Civics classes
Climate activism is not appropriate at the state level. There is a reason to have a federal government contrary to GOP beliefs
well no $hit sherlock. You mean the fed is just an inefficient money pit? Nawwwww. can't be.