My colleague @toni-v-aguilar.bsky.social has the scoop on Trump re-routing millions in visitor fees from National Parks to fund vanity projects in his own backyard:

Check out this new report we worked on with @cplusc.bsky.social. "The AI and data center buildout is not the spontaneous outcome of an imagined 'free market.'...We are witnessing a corporate takeover of state capacity."

Proud to have made a minor contribution to this great report in collaboration with @kennystancil.bsky.social and the brilliant folks at @cplusc.bsky.social!

thinking about Dred Scott today in advance of the birthright citizenship decision. the 14th amendment it isn’t just about status or paperwork—it’s about humanity. that all people born here are citizens.* Scott died after being free for just 16 months. he had fought for his daughters, not himself.

Excellent analysis from @hannahstoryb.bsky.social on the senselessness of Alaska LNG. I especially appreciate the little bit of history of the role that Biden admin played in promoting the project, as I imagine that's not well known prospect.org/2026/06/25/l...

Finally—we've been needing this investigation for a long time, and who better to do it than @propublica.org and @drilledmedia.bsky.social? What happens if we stop baking carbon capture into our emissions reduction models and climate projections? Taking fossil fuel phaseout more seriously, I hope.

This is just terrific reporting by @themadstone.bsky.social, @amywestervelt.bsky.social and @katieworth.bsky.social Beyond Denial: How Oil Execs Shaped a Landmark Climate Study www.propublica.org/article/wedg...

“In a rational world, waiving most of the economic benefit to Alaskans in order to enable an ecologically destructive carbon bomb that primarily serves foreign markets would be a political nonstarter.” Great reporting from @hannahstoryb.bsky.social.

A 2020 EPA report concluded glyphosate harms 93% of endangered species and 96 percent of the critical habitat they rely on—creatures including the Sierra Nevada red fox, gray wolf, and spotted owl, all protected in Lassen National Forest. This hasn't stopped it from being sprayed in record amounts.

Excellent new @billmckibben.bsky.social piece explains how fossil fuels are making life more expensive. While planet-heating pollution drives up the cost of living, climate action—e.g., accelerating the transition to clean, cheap energy—puts us on a path toward greater affordability.

Alaska has been trying to make an LNG pipeline work since the 1980s. Despite the state bending over backwards to cut taxes for it and tens of billions in federal subsidies, it's still not coming together. Our friends at @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social on a bridge fuel to nowhere:

Alaska is on the front lines of climate change, with thawing permafrost, melting glaciers, and disrupted wildlife remaking the state. How are politicians responding? They're fixated on giving a gas pipeline—for exporting gas to Asia—a $16 billion tax cut, on top of tens of billions in subsidies.

Faced with a slow-motion ecological crisis at an Alaska-sized scale, politicians from Juneau to Washington are stuck in the mud of a tedious old dream: Alaska LNG. @hannahstoryb.bsky.social digs into the failure of imagination (and billions in subsidies) buoying this boondoggle for @prospect.org.

Wondering what we've been up to lately? This week's newsletter takes us from Silicon Valley to Trump's July 4th "vanity cringefest" to the halls of the Supreme Court. The common thread across these disparate stories is elite impunity: powerful people rigging the game without fear of consequences.

"And yet, faced with the plainly and painfully disastrous results of America’s addiction to hitherto cheap fracked oil and gas, so-called moderates are wringing their handkerchiefs and suggesting maybe we should build more fossil pipelines." prospect.org/2026/06/22/a...

in trying to dismiss the NAACP’s lawsuit against xAI, Trump's DOJ is both retreating from its legal duty to enforce Black people’s right to a livable environment, and declaring that Black people have no rights under the Clean Air Act that xAI is bound to respect ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics...

Shout out to @theguardian.com for consistently nailing climate change attribution. An island of consistency in a wishy-washy sea. Also for comparing the cost of mitigation to windfall fossil fuel profits..! From @dpcarrington.bsky.social's Down to Earth newsletter:

The problem with "politicians shouldn't talk about climate change and only focus on pocketbook issues" is that voters aren't stupid. A majority (even Republicans!) already see climate and affordability as two sides of the same coin. @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The Trump Administration's assault on federal capacity has taken a toll on the government's ability to protect us from foodborne illness and preventable diseases. In today's newsletter, we detail a few of the key policy and personnel changes responsible: therevolvingdoorproject.org/department-o...

America's 250th was going to be nonpartisan. Then Trump took over. Now it's being run by Trump loyalists & funded by $100+ million in federal contracts sent to MAGA-fied events. New report from us + @publiccitizen.bsky.social

In new reporting for @prospect.org, our @dylangyauchl.bsky.social details internal documents from Bay Area abundance groups pitch the movement to tech elites as a way to take control of Democratic politics and describe a 9-figure funding stream from billionaires. (1/2) prospect.org/2026/06/12/n...

Democrats have adopted the Republican's 2000s era approach to climate. Their approach is framed as savvy pragmatism, but it's just a reactionary surrender to the power, influence, & access of billionaire-controlled energy & technology interests. Reads as—and fundamentally is—just weakness.

Exhausting nonsense feat. longtime fossil fuel pushers. Yes—it's hard to change the world for the better, to realize policies that actually meet the scale of public and planetary needs! But that doesn't mean backsliding is justifiable politically, scientifically, or morally.

After a decade+ of nonstop pollution offenses, GOP Sen. Jim Justice's coal empire learned earlier this year that it was under federal criminal investigation. But before prosecutors could gather crucial evidence, Todd Blanche's office told them "pencils down."

This fall, SCOTUS will hear two fossil fuel companies’ arguments for why they shouldn't stand trial for their climate lies. It's curious why Alito, "well known for his fossil fuel holdings and track record of deciding in the industry’s favor, decided not to recuse," says @hannahstoryb.bsky.social.

NEW: The Trump administration has relentlessly undermined hurricane readiness and response capacity. When things go wrong, the opposition should make the president and his GOP accomplices pay a political price.

It’s truly astonishing to see how comprehensively the US government is tearing down every part of the system that has made it up until now a world-leading power in science, research, and technological development. The entire world will suffer from this wanton destruction.

John Roberts' Supreme Court is built on the belief that it is legal if powerful people do it. That's been their approach to what had been white collar crime (legalizing it), campaign finance regulations (slashing them), and of course legal ethics (mocking them).

"Meetings are held, emails are sent, phone calls are made, and something like 520,000 children die of malnutrition, diarrhea, tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV." prospect.org/2026/05/22/w...

As Trump's approval ratings continue to plummet, he has doubled down on enriching of his core constituents: insurrectionists and AI industrialists. From our @kjboyle.bsky.social:

Alito should recuse from Suncor v. Boulder, along with the parallel cases, as he has before. What I told @nbcnews.com: “The oil company petitioners in these cases have been explicit in court filings that they view the cases as linked; there is no reason for Justice Alito to view them otherwise."

Watchdogs urge Senate to investigate Justice Samuel Alito's oil stock conflicts [via @theguardian.com]

@dharna.bsky.social for @theguardian.com quotes our @hannahstoryb.bsky.social on Justice Alito's problematic failure to recuse from a major upcoming climate deception case: “A blanket refusal is the only consistently ethical option for Alito when faced with any of these parallel cases."

Along with 29 other organizations, we called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Justice Alito's failure to recuse from an oil case where he could profit from its outcome. Senator Durbin said the letter reiterates why the Supreme Court needs to be more transparent with the public.

"If the grassroots resistance to polluting AI data centers cropping up across the country is any indication, communities want a say…and the window for a confrontational climate justice politics is far from closed."

"How can the Democrats expect to win back the confidence of voters without demonstrating a fighting spirit? And who better to fight than the corporations—from Big Oil to Big Tech—that the Trump administration is allowing to reshape the American landscape and economy without public input or consent?"

Of course Democrats should talk about climate change. The real question is how. A politician looking for how to talk climate with their constituents should pay attention to what material conditions constrain the flourishing of the community they represent. A climate story is in there.

We cannot & will not stop talking about climate change, especially in these dark days of Trump 2.0. For me, the climate movement must evolve to be far less technocratic, far more human and rooted in the world around us, built to last beyond the poll-driven freneticism of the next election cycle.

A Super El Niño is approaching, potentially the strongest El Niño we’ve seen in a century, and Trump is proposing to cut weather agency NOAA by 26 percent to save money for taxpayers Meanwhile the amount it’s proposing to cut from NOAA is equivalent to 1.3 days of taxpayer spending on the Iran war

horrible. this country’s turn away from science based medicine in the name of “wellness” is killing children and will kill a lot more. www.propublica.org/article/more...

Here's my response to the Jacobin piece criticizing the movement against AI data centers. A working class coalition has formed in opposition to the Big Tech billionaires enshittifying every aspect of our lives. The Left should be uniformly on its side. jacobin.com/2026/04/data...

NEW In the space of a year, Trump has destroyed the DOJ's voting rights section, turning what was once the "crown jewel of the Civil Rights Division" into what one former DOJ lawyer called "the losingest law firm in America" This is the story of that demise. www.wired.com/story/the-ju...

NEW: I've been shocked by some of the numbers I've been seeing on behind-the-meter power plants for data centers, so I did a little math. less than a dozen gas plants being built to power data centers for big tech companies could emit a maximum of nearly 130 million tons of CO2e each year (!)

Something to be said about politicians and pundits taking AI developers' apocalypse preaching more seriously than decades of very good climate science

Texas' only licensed Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu legal interpreter is now languishing in a Raymondville detention center. She’s lived in America for 35 years: www.texasobserver.org/immigration-...

My story on the 57 forest service research stations that are going to be closed is up now

As ships return to the Strait of Hormuz, mines, sonar, and congestion continue to reshape the Gulf beneath the surface. www.wired.com/story/marine...

OMB Director Russell Vought it set to testify before the House and Senate Budget Committees this week. For far too long, Vought has operated in the shadows as the chief architect of Trump's destruction of the federal government. It's time to shine a light on Vampire Vought.🧵