On Wednesday, Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, took a flamethrower to the sanctimony of a plethora of Democrats and their environmental absurdities.
During a hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Rhode Island Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse — a man who has spent years perfecting the art of the dramatic pause and the &#8220;dark money&#8221; conspiracy theory — launched into a vitriolic tirade. Whitehouse accused Zeldin of being a fossil fuel puppet, executing a &#8220;money pump&#8221; to enrich &#8220;Trump’s big corrupt donors&#8221; while supposedly driving up electricity bills.
Whitehouse, leaning heavily into the &#8220;climate reckoning&#8221; trope, claimed that &#8220;four-year-olds know&#8221; wind is cheaper than gas and hyperventilated, “All the climate denial fraud that you help propagate. All the corrupt, dark money your polluter bosses sluiced through this building. None of that will stand against nature&#8217;s reckoning.”
Zeldin, however, was not interested in being lectured by a man whose commitment to &#8220;diversity&#8221; apparently ends at the gates of an all-white country club.
Zeldin began by dismantling the idea that disagreement equals &#8220;villainy,&#8221; pointing out that the radical Left’s &#8220;science&#8221; is often just the most pessimistic 2009-era assumptions masquerading as fact. He then turned the tables on the &#8220;corruption&#8221; narrative, highlighting the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) — a multi-billion-dollar pot of taxpayer gold that seems to find its way into very specific pockets.
But the real knockout blow came when Zeldin addressed Whitehouse’s moral posturing directly. Noting their twenty-year acquaintance, Zeldin signaled he was done with the hypocrisy.
&#8220;I’m not going to take morality lessons from people who join all-white country clubs,&#8221; Zeldin shot back, a direct reference to Whitehouse’s long-standing membership in Newport’s exclusive Bailey’s Beach Club. Despite Whitehouse’s 2006 campaign promise to quit the club due to its lack of diversity, the Senator <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/06/21/sheldon-whitehouse-under-fire-for-membership-at-all-white-club/">remained</a> a member of the elite, non-diverse enclave for years, dismissing the exclusion as a &#8220;long tradition in Rhode Island.&#8221;
Zeldin didn&#8217;t stop at the hearing room. He took to X to dub the Senator &#8220;Sheldon WhiteClub&#8221; and went after the broader &#8220;lying cabal&#8221; of climate alarmists, writing, “I told Senator Sheldon WhiteClub today that I won’t be listening to or caring about any of his lessons on morality knowing that he joined an all-white Rhode Island Country Club. I’m also done with the likes of AOC, Al Gore, John Kerry, and the rest of the lying cabal that make stupid climate predictions, plunder tens of billions of tax dollars, enrich their well-connected allies, and are committed to strangulating out of existence entire sectors of our economy.”
Zeldin gleefully pointed out that AOC’s 2019 &#8220;12 years left&#8221; clock has less than five years remaining, and mocked Al Gore for pivoting to &#8220;global freezing&#8221; after his 2006 prediction that Mt. Kilimanjaro would be snow-free &#8220;within the decade&#8221; turned out to be a total bust. (There is, in fact, still snow on Kilimanjaro).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I told Senator Sheldon WhiteClub today that I won’t be listening to or caring about any of his lessons on morality knowing that he joined an all-white Rhode Island Country Club.
I’m also done with the likes of AOC, Al Gore, John Kerry, and the rest of the lying cabal that make… <a href="https://t.co/En25wkTNnV">pic.twitter.com/En25wkTNnV</a>
&mdash; Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) <a href="https://twitter.com/epaleezeldin/status/2049608687413567495?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The message from the EPA was clear: The &#8220;Green New Scam&#8221; is dead, and the era of Republicans cowering before the Left&#8217;s moral &#8220;reckonings&#8221; is officially over.

Lee Zeldin

Zeldin Takes Flamethrower To Democrat Environmentalist Hysterics

Al Gore

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Environmentalists

John Kerry

Sheldon Whitehouse

In a Republic, lasting progress depends on the art of persuasion. To shape policy, politicians and activists must first convince the public that their ideas work. Yet with increasingly radical tactics — from <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/monkeywrenching-vandals-are-reinventing-climate-activism/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">vandalizing infrastructure</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/arts/design/vandalizing-art-protests.html">defacing priceless works of art</a> — and open dismissal of the affordability challenges many Americans face, it’s little wonder the environmental movement has struggled to win hearts and minds.
Faced with soaring energy costs, a <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/the-clean-energy-transitions-voter-problem/">2024 YouGov poll</a> found that 73% of voters ranked the price and availability of energy as their top concern. Rather than confronting this reality, radical environmental activists have abandoned persuasion in favor of reckless, unfounded lawsuits against American energy companies, actions that threaten not only our energy security but the very principles of fairness and accountability that our democracy depends on.
The trend is best illustrated by Greenpeace International’s so-called “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/greenpeace-files-suit-against-us-pipeline-company-energy-transfer-2025-02-11/">anti-SLAPP</a>” lawsuit against Energy Transfer, a U.S. pipeline company. Greenpeace filed the case in the Netherlands, even though Energy Transfer has no presence or infrastructure in the European Union, claiming the company tried to silence it through costly litigation in North Dakota. Earlier this year, a North Dakota jury found Greenpeace liable for defamation, property damage, and civil conspiracy over its actions during the 2016 and 2017 Dakota Access Pipeline protests. The jury even ordered Greenpeace to pay roughly <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/greenpeace-energy-transfer-lawsuit-verdict/">$660 million </a>in damages. Instead of accepting that verdict, Greenpeace is now taking the fight overseas in an apparent attempt to escape responsibility — an act of desperation mirrored by recent high-profile <a href="https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/10/16/greenpeaces-top-legal-staffers-exit-00611338">resignations</a> from its own legal team. 
Greenpeace is not alone. In September 2024, California’s attorney general and several environmental groups <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/climate/exxon-california-plastics-defamation-lawsuit.html">sued</a> ExxonMobil, accusing the company of contributing to environmental damage from single-use plastics. Yet ExxonMobil doesn’t manufacture single-use plastics and has <a href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/sustainability-and-reports/sustainability/meeting-societys-critical-needs-energy-products/expanding-the-plastics-life-cycle#Ourapproach">invested</a> heavily in recycling innovations to expand the kinds of plastics that can be reused. “Instead of suing us,” an Exxon representative <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-plastics-lawsuit-exxon/">said</a>, “they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills. To date, we’ve processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials.” Ignoring such cooperation and the vital role plastics play in healthcare and food safety, activists continue to favor publicity over practical solutions. 
These lawsuits come at a pivotal moment for America’s energy future. The AI revolution promises to drive economic growth and create new opportunities, but data centers powering that revolution demand historic levels of energy. The United States has the resources to meet this challenge, but if energy producers are buried in costly, politically motivated litigation, our ability to keep energy affordable and reliable will be at risk.
For all the rhetoric from environmental activists, it is American energy producers who have delivered the environmental progress that actually improved people’s lives. Affordable and reliable energy helped drive an almost 80% reduction in common air pollutants since the 1970s and made the United States the world leader in access to clean and safe drinking water. When the Safe Drinking Water Act was first implemented, more than one-third of public water systems failed to meet federal standards, as documented in the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-04/documents/epa816f04030.pdf">EPA’s historical overview of the Safe Drinking Water Act.</a> Early federal surveys summarized by the <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL31243">Congressional Research Service</a> show that roughly 60% of systems were out of compliance in the 1970s. Today, more than 90% of water systems meet EPA’s strictest health-based requirements, according to the agency’s <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL31243">National Public Water Systems Compliance Report</a> and reviews by the <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL31243">National Academies of Sciences</a>. These gains occurred while American oil and gas production set records. The lesson is simple: prosperity powered by abundant energy produces cleaner air and cleaner water, not political mandates or litigation campaigns.
These hard-won gains are exactly why the current wave of activist lawsuits is so destructive. Instead of building on America’s energy strengths, groups like Greenpeace are working to undermine the very industry that made this environmental progress possible.
When an organization found liable by a jury for defamation and property damage turns around and cries “SLAPP,” it risks undermining the very legal protections meant to safeguard legitimate free speech and activism. If every losing activist can hide behind these claims, true environmental advocacy becomes collateral damage.
Real progress will continue to come from harnessing America’s ingenuity to responsibly produce energy, without sacrificing prosperity, stability, or the rule of law. The path forward isn’t reckless litigation. It’s common sense and energy abundance.
* * *
The Honorable Jason Isaac is the Founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, a trade organization that unapologetically champions free markets and American energy. Previously, he served four terms in the Texas House of Representatives.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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TOPSHOT-DOUNIAMAG-US-environment-THUNBERG

Environmental Activists Abandon Persuasion For Litigation

Court

Energy

ExxonMobil

Greenpeace

Lawsuit

Oil and Gas

The Netherlands

As climate alarmists gather in New York City for “Climate Week,” a new mobile billboard has popped up that chips away at the alliance between Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul and radical environmental groups.
The mobile billboard features images of Hochul wearing a MAGA-style hat saying “Make Nuclear Great Again,” photos of the vehicle obtained by The Daily Wire show. The mobile billboard highlights Hochul’s recent promise to bring a new nuclear power plant to New York.
The billboard features a quote from Hochul describing plans for the new plant as “a model of 21st century nuclear design.” The mobile first started driving around New York City on Monday and will continue until Wednesday.
<div id="attachment_976045" style="width: 1290px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-976045" class="size-full wp-image-976045" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MBB_6.jpeg" alt="" width="1280" height="960" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MBB_6.jpeg 1280w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MBB_6-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MBB_6-768x576.jpeg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" />Mobile billboard drives through NYC: Daily Wire.</div>
Nuclear power is a form of energy frequently opposed by environmentalist groups who prefer things like wind or solar power. The Daily Wire reached out to multiple environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Greenpeace that have previously expressed support for Hochul, yet also oppose nuclear energy.
The Sierra Club <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/nuclear-free" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that it is “unequivocally opposed to nuclear energy” and wants to work to “phase out nuclear as quickly as possible.” The Natural Resource Defense Council has also <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/nuclear-power-101" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expressed</a> skepticism about nuclear energy.
Both those organizations <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/making-oil-companies-pay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised</a> Hochul’s <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/governor-hochul-signs-bill-make-polluters-pay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">establishment</a> in December of a “Climate Superfund” that her office claimed <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-landmark-legislation-creating-new-climate-superfund" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shifted</a> “the cost of climate adaptation from everyday New Yorkers to the fossil fuel companies most responsible for the pollution.&#8221;
Additionally, Greenpeace <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/climate/issues/nuclear/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that nuclear energy is “dirty, expensive, and dangerous” and argues that it’s “bad for the economy.” The organization previously <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/greenpeace-usa-applauds-new-york-governor-hochuls-moratorium-on-crypto-mining/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">applauded</a> Hochul after she signed a moratorium on crypto mining.
President Donald Trump, who ripped into solar and wind power on Tuesday during his speech to the United Nations, took executive action in May “to modernize nuclear regulation, streamline nuclear reactor testing, deploy nuclear reactors for national security, and reinvigorate the nuclear industrial base.”
Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Hochul <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-directs-new-york-power-authority-develop-zero-emission-advanced-nuclear-energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directed</a> the New York Power Authority “to develop and construct a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant.”
That decision was met with criticism from some environmentalists who accused her of adopting Trump policies. The group Public Power NY <a href="https://publicpowerny.org/press-releases/public-power-ny-responds-to-hochuls-order-for-new-york-power-authority-to-build-nuclear-energy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the decision was “based on promises from Donald Trump&#8221; that &#8220;shows just how unserious she is about New Yorkers&#8217; energy bills and climate future.”
Hochul, who is running for re-election, is viewed favorably by fewer than 50% of New Yorkers, <a href="https://sri.siena.edu/2025/09/16/hochul-approval-favorability-ratings-up-a-little-favorability-best-since-jan-24-majority-hochul-works-hard-demonstrates-honesty-integrity-plurality-gets-things-done-provides-dec/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to recent polling.

MixCollage-23-Sep-2025-04-07-PM-3120

Mobile Billboard Trolls Kathy Hochul In NYC As She Faces Criticism From Climate Activists

Climate Change

Kathy Hochul

New York

New York City

Nuclear Power

In yet another victory for Elon Musk and the future of American space dominance, a federal judge on Monday <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/17/texas-spacex-boca-chica-faa-environmental-lawsuit/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">dismissed a lawsuit</a> from environmental activists attempting to derail SpaceX’s rocket launch operations in South Texas. The lawsuit, filed by groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy, claimed that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) violated federal law by approving SpaceX’s launch program without conducting a more rigorous environmental impact review.
At the heart of the dispute was the FAA’s 2022 approval of SpaceX’s expanded rocket activity at Boca Chica — now the newly incorporated city of Starbase — adjacent to a wildlife refuge. Environmental groups insisted that noise, construction, road traffic, and light pollution from rocket launches endangered local wildlife, including ocelots, jaguarundis, and Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles.
But U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wasn’t buying it.
In his ruling, Nichols made it clear: the FAA had fulfilled its legal responsibility under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by conducting a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA), which included mitigation measures. The judge said of the FAA’s analysis, “Most of the (assessment&#8217;s) conclusions were well-reasoned and supported by the record,” adding it fell “within a broad zone of reasonableness”—a key legal standard that gives agencies latitude to make policy decisions without courts stepping in to micromanage.
He emphasized that most of the FAA’s conclusions were “well-reasoned and supported by the record,” and dismissed the environmentalists’ claims that the FAA simply rubber-stamped SpaceX’s data.
This ruling is especially significant in light of President Donald Trump’s August 13 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/enabling-competition-in-the-commercial-space-industry/">executive order</a>, which sought to streamline and loosen environmental regulations for private space companies. Trump called it “imperative to national security” that rocket launches dramatically increase by 2030.
SpaceX has already received FAA approval to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/15/musk-spacex-texas-wildlife?utm_source=chatgpt.com">ramp up</a> Starship launches from five to twenty-five per year at the Texas site. The company is also aiming to nearly double the number of Falcon rocket launches at California’s Vandenberg base. This lawsuit threatened to throw a wrench into those plans — until Nichols shut it down.
The environmentalists also took issue with the April 2023 Starship test launch, which ended in a dramatic explosion, scattering debris across wildlife habitats.
The judge’s decision leaves Musk’s vision of making humanity multi-planetary — and launching frequently from the Lone Star State — very much intact. Environmental activists may appeal, but for now, the courts are siding with American innovation over bureaucratic obstruction.

TOPSHOT-US-SPACE-AEROSPACE-SPACEX-STARSHIP

SpaceX Wins Again: Judge Tosses Environmental Challenge To Starbase Launches

Business

Courts

Elon Musk

Space X

Texas

There’s a new sheriff in town in Washtenaw County, Michigan, who is pushing for major changes to how the sheriff’s department enforces laws and policies that she says are important to protecting the environment. 
Sheriff Alyshia Dyer, a former deputy who became a social worker, is <a href="https://www.dyer2024.com/priorities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">focused</a> on protecting the community “from the negative environmental and human health impacts of pollution and climate change.” Dyer, a Democrat, was sworn in earlier this month, becoming Washtenaw County’s first female sheriff after she pulled out an upset victory in the Democratic Party primary in August and ran unopposed in the general election. 
In a phone interview with The Daily Wire, the new sheriff emphasized that under her leadership, the sheriff’s department will drastically change its outlook on environmental issues and said that she wants to implement an “Environmental Crimes Unit” in her first term, which would focus on looking into “air pollution, water contamination, and hazardous waste management.” 
“The sheriff’s office historically hasn’t been necessarily a strong champion in this work, but there’s no reason we can’t be,” Dyer said. 
Washtenaw County — which encompasses Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is located — had the <a href="https://witl.com/michigan-counties-with-the-most-crimes-committed/">10th highest</a> crime rate among Michigan counties in 2021, and in each of the following years, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office <a href="https://www.washtenaw.org/3915/Sheriff-Data-Information-Dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> over 1,000 assault offenses, over 900 larceny/theft offenses, and more than 100 sex offenses. 
Dyer told The Daily Wire that bringing down violent crime in Washtenaw County is “connected” to fighting for environmental justice and prioritizing officers’ “mental health and wellness.&#8221; 
“It’s all connected. Looking at, number one, I talked a lot about officer mental health and wellness. Officers can’t effectively do their jobs if they’re not taking care of themselves. Looking at the environment, looking at corporate polluters, looking at the quality of life for residents, it has a really big impact on wellbeing.”
Dyer argued that it’s important for the sheriff’s department to focus on “creating better environments for the community.” 
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After publication, the Washtenaw County Sheriff&#8217;s Office sent a statement to The Daily Wire, reiterating its commitment to fighting violent crime and saying that &#8220;violent crime specialty units will remain, along with the implementation of investigative units to focus on corporate and environmental crime.&#8221;
Instituting environmental policies in the sheriff’s department would begin with reducing vehicle emissions from the department’s patrol car fleet, according to the new sheriff. To accomplish this, Dyer suggested placing new systems in patrol cars that cut back on gas or potentially moving to electric vehicles. 
“We have the largest fleet in the county,” Dyer said. “So we’re thinking about moving toward reducing vehicle emissions. There’s another sheriff’s office, I believe it was in Santa Barbara, California, and they put idling reduction systems in their cars, saved 260 gallons of gasoline. Also adding remote starters so deputies aren’t leaving their vehicles running all day, so it’s easy to turn them on and off — things like that.” 
Dyer said she plans to cut back on the number of patrol vehicles on the road and put two deputies in a patrol car instead of one, a move the sheriff said will help cut back on emissions. The main reason for pairing up deputies, according to Dyer, however, is to “help reduce vehicle crashes” and “lower stress” on officers who are currently working 16-hour shifts. In a statement to The Daily Wire after publication, the sheriff&#8217;s office said that deputies requested to be paired up in patrol vehicles. 
“The last thing I want is officers out here sleep-deprived with a gun, angry, driving around. No one wants that,” Dyer added.  
Asked if the sheriff’s department has any plan to hire more deputies, Dyer replied, “We do need to fill some spots because we are probably the shortest in road patrol that we have been in a very long time, which has created a lot of forced overtime, which has hurt morale, hurt staff, and in turn, has hurt the community.”
“We’re trying to get hiring up. It has been harder to hire in law enforcement because everyone is hiring,” the sheriff continued. “So that is something we’re definitely focused on.”  
Dyer <a href="https://www.dyer2024.com/priorities">wrote</a> on her campaign website that she will prioritize “diversity” and “inclusivity” in the hiring process. She lamented that “the Sheriff’s Office is predominantly male, white, and not representative of our LGBTQ+ population” and vowed to ensure “that hiring practices are inclusive.” 
The new sheriff will partner with a leftist prosecutor, Eli Savit, who was just re-elected after running unopposed, according to a <a href="https://boltsmag.org/a-michigan-sheriff-and-prosecutor-join-forces-to-implement-progressive-policy-washtenaw-county/">report</a> from Bolts. Savit was first elected to office in 2020 amid the protests and riots that spread across the country after George Floyd’s death in police custody. The leftist prosecutor has taken a soft-on-crime approach to criminal justice and has also <a href="https://www.washtenaw.org/3284/Prosecutor-Eli-Savit">pushed</a> “environmental initiatives in Michigan and across the country.” 
Dyer also said she’s looking forward to partnering with the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office to go after corporate crimes, such as “wage theft” and “tip theft.” 
“Hand-in-hand with the environmental crimes is also the corporate crimes,” she said.
This article has been updated to include an additional comment from the Washtenaw County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.

Alyshia Dyer

New Sheriff In Major Michigan County Wants To Fight Violent Crime Through ‘Environmental Justice’

Michigan

Sheriff

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) on Monday will participate in a campaign event alongside the radical environmentalist group pushing to close the state&#8217;s largest coal plant.
The Sierra Club, a radical environmental group that pushes for the closure of &#8220;all U.S. coal plants,&#8221; will join Brown at a virtual phone bank sponsored by the Ohio Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign. Earlier this month the group, along with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, sent a <a href="https://pestakeholder.org/news/pesp-sends-letters-to-blackstone-ecp-urging-gavin-plant-retirement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Blackstone, the owner of the Gavin coal plant in southeast Ohio, demanding the coal plant be shut down.
&#8220;You cannot undo the damage from pollutants emitted during Blackstone’s nearly eight years of ownership of Gavin. But you have the opportunity to announce a retirement date of no later than 2028, which could lend Blackstone some credibility in its pledges of emissions reductions and an energy transition and avoid the perception that Blackstone is incapable of shepherding assets through an energy transition and is simply interested in passing the buck,&#8221; the letter read.
The Sierra Club&#8217;s &#8220;Beyond Coal Campaign&#8221; is seeking to replace &#8220;coal and gas with clean energy&#8221; by &#8220;retiring coal plants, preventing new fossil fuel plants from being built, and working to stop the expansion of fracked gas.&#8221;
Brown&#8217;s partnership with the Sierra Club could cause him problems as he navigates a close race against Republican Bernie Moreno in a state that has long relied on coal for energy and jobs. Brown has attempted to position himself as a moderate on energy, vowing that he &#8220;will not turn my back on Ohio’s rural electric co-ops, Ohio energy workers, and Ohio families whose energy bills are already too high.&#8221;
The Sierra Club officially <a href="https://www.sierraclubindependentaction.org/endorsements#OH" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed</a> Brown, and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/sierra-club/summary?id=D000000259" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave</a> over $2,000 to his campaign this cycle.
Brown&#8217;s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The Sierra Club refers to the Gavin coal plant, which is the largest coal plant in Ohio, as &#8220;America&#8217;s deadliest coal plant.&#8221; Earlier this week, the group also launched an ad campaign calling on Blackstone to close the plant. The Gavin plant employs around 300 people, and energy experts <a href="https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/regulation/bidens-epa-likes-to-deny-permits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warn</a> that closing coal plants, such as the one in Cheshire, Ohio, would &#8220;negatively impact the stability of the electric grid and power markets.&#8221;
Southeast Ohio has long relied on coal for energy and jobs, and Brown has uniquely positioned himself as a Democrat who opposes some of the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s clean energy mandates for power plants. As the Environmental Protection Agency was seeking to implement new power plant emission rules earlier this year, Brown <a href="https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/sherrod-brown-will-vote-to-overturn-epa-power-plant-rule" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the &#8220;unachievable rule &#8230; could undermine grid reliability, cause job losses for energy workers, and raise energy costs for Ohioans.&#8221; Brown has also vowed that he &#8220;will not turn my back on Ohio’s rural electric co-ops, Ohio energy workers, and Ohio families whose energy bills are already too high.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
Energy has become a top issue of the 2024 presidential campaign, as former President Donald Trump is promising to ramp up U.S. drilling and fracking, adding that he wants to reduce Americans&#8217; energy costs by 50% in his first year back in office. The former president <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-addressing-economic-woes-begins-with-one-issue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during a town hall event in Michigan earlier this month that reducing the cost of groceries begins with addressing high energy costs.
&#8220;We have to start always with energy,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;I don’t want to be boring about it, but there’s no bigger subject that covers everything. If you make donuts, if you make cars, whatever you make, energy is a big deal.&#8221;

Sherrod Brown

Ohio Dem Senator To Hold Event With Group Pushing To Close State’s Largest Coal Plant

Ohio Dem Senator To Hold Virtual Event With Group Pushing To Close State's Largest Coal Plant

2024 Election

Coal

Ohio

U.S. Senate

The following is an edited transcript of an interview with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley and Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, on an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/a-win-for-fisherman-chevron-deference-is-overturned-7-6-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Extra edition of Morning Wire</a>.
In a landmark ruling last week, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference, stripping federal agencies of what had become increasingly unilateral power to interpret and enforce policies without checks and balances. The ruling was a result of a lawsuit, Relentless Incorporated vs. Commerce Department, involving government overreach in the fishing industry. We talked with the founder of an influential fishermen’s association, who filed an amicus brief in that case, about what he says is a long pattern of government intrusion that’s destroying whole industries.
* * *
JOHN: Joining us now is Jerry Leeman, New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association <a href="https://www.nefishermen.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Founder &amp; CEO</a>, who filed an amicus brief in the case that ended up overturning Chevron deference. Welcome, Jerry. First, tell us about your background. How long have you been in the fishing industry?
JERRY: I was raised in Harpswell, Maine by a commercial fishing family – lobstering and ground fishing, seining, urchining, scalloping, shrimping, back when the state of Maine had it. I&#8217;ve been in all the fisheries. Since 2000, I have spent 23 years at sea. Fishing 220-240 days a year, multi-species trawling. I&#8217;ve been networked in all the major fishing ports here: Portland, Maine, Gloucester, Boston, Mass, New Bedford, Mass. And I&#8217;ve covered a lot of the region&#8217;s territory.
JOHN: In terms of progress and decline, what have you seen in this industry as a whole over the decades you&#8217;ve worked in it?
JERRY: I&#8217;ve been seeing decline steadily since 2000. We don&#8217;t even see new participants really getting into the fisheries. We&#8217;ve moved the goalposts too far. And now with these restrictions and quotas, now you&#8217;re forcing people to buy fish in order to catch fish. And the problem is the price that you pay to catch a fish is less than the market value once you&#8217;ve retrieved it. So most times when you go to buy a lease quota, you&#8217;re only buying it just for the sake of keeping the vessel active. You&#8217;re not actually making any financial gain. If anything, it&#8217;s a financial burden.
JOHN: Now this brings us to the case in which you filed, an amicus brief: Relentless Incorporated vs. Commerce Department. It’s now the case that overturned Chevron deference. It came in response to a new federal law requiring government observers on fishing vessels. What sparked your involvement in the case? 
JERRY: Well, we’ve just been watching what&#8217;s been taking place over the years and now that they&#8217;re pushing for fishing vessels to pay for observers aboard our vessels, which if you do the breakdown, now they&#8217;re going to account for the fisheries to pay more towards observers than we&#8217;re actually paying our crews, which does not make for a viable business.
JOHN: So this really was a question of whether or not you can actually keep business open if this policy were to be enacted.
JERRY: This was a fisheries killer.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/a-win-for-fisherman-chevron-deference-is-overturned-7-6-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LISTEN: Catch the full interview with Jerry Leeman on an Extra edition of Morning Wire</a></h4>
JOHN: So, what was the thinking from the government here, that this would actually be viable?
JERRY: It&#8217;s just more overreach and overwatch. I mean, we have less fishermen every year and yet now they want 100% coverage? We haven&#8217;t even broken any rules or laws. So why are we having to pay to have somebody watch us around the clock? I mean, our arguments were pretty easy. I mean, look at how many truck drivers are in America. How would we feel if we put an observer in each truck and then made those truck drivers pay to feed those observers, maintain them, babysit, and pay them more than what they&#8217;re paying their crews? It&#8217;s preposterous.
<div id="attachment_759847" style="width: 861px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-759847" class="size-large wp-image-759847" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-602983061-851x576.jpg" alt="USA, Maine, St. George, Three fishermen working on boat." width="851" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-602983061-851x576.jpg 851w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-602983061-300x203.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-602983061-768x520.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-602983061-1536x1039.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-602983061-2048x1385.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 851px) 100vw, 851px" />Daniel Grill/Tetra Images</div>
JOHN: Is this part of a pattern that you&#8217;ve seen from the Commerce Department related to the fishing industry?
JERRY: Oh, this is something that&#8217;s been taking place for quite a while now, and this is a good first step in the right direction.
JOHN: You said “first step.” Are there some other things you believe need to be overruled or overturned in terms of policies?
JERRY: I think some of these policies that have been dictated to the fisheries didn&#8217;t have a logical excuse, as far as the economics of the fisheries viability, which has been detrimental. If you talk to fishermen and recreational fishermen up and down the coast, nobody seems to see a problem in our biomass, but yet our surveys that keep coming back are depleting our allowable catches. And then on top of that they&#8217;re requesting us to pay for observers. These are people that come straight from college with little to no experience at sea. And here in New England, we have variable weather. I mean, it&#8217;s not very nice out there in the winter months. So now you have somebody that doesn&#8217;t even know if they get seasick trapped on a vessel with us for 10 days and then it&#8217;s our responsibility to monitor them and to keep them safe. It was a lot of overreach.
JOHN: What do you think the role of the federal government should be with the fishing industry?
JERRY: Well, we&#8217;re a big part of our food securities. Up here in New England, this has been a major part of this country&#8217;s food banks. And now we&#8217;re removing it from the populace. 94% of the product that is now consumed is foreign product. So why are we restricting U.S. harvesters from providing wild, local, heart-healthy product that&#8217;s environmentally friendly and sustainable? Meanwhile, we&#8217;re purchasing product from other nations that do not abide by our rules and regulations. This has been something that&#8217;s been going on for a while. Now we have less fishermen than we had in colonial days. And this was just one more further step in pretty much cutting the throats of the entire fishing fleet.
JOHN: What do you hope to see in the coming years from both the federal government and state governments? How can they help the industry thrive again?
JERRY: Well, a lot of it has to do with the data that we receive. I mean, it&#8217;ll be good to have knowledgeable fishermen who have spent their entire lives, decades at sea, using these equipment to garner the best data available using the science teams. So, this guess on modeling based on multiple surveys would be more accurate, which would allow us to develop better marketing strategies, put together working fisheries and education to be applied to the future. I mean, right now, we teach fisheries management in college. We don&#8217;t teach fisheries.
JOHN: What do you mean by that – that we don&#8217;t teach fisheries?
JERRY: Well, we teach how fishing management works based on surveys, allocations, and statistical committees. But as far as using trawl gear, migrational patterns of our stocks, and how to harvest these things responsibly and sustainably, mending is a big part of trawling, we don&#8217;t really teach that as well. We have no educational classes on getting fundamentally educated employees to get the job done safely in a manageable, environmentally friendly way.
JOHN: What&#8217;s the solution for that? Who should provide that education?
JERRY: It&#8217;s going to have to be from the fisheries that are pre-existing, and right now we have an aging fleet, so we&#8217;re on a ticking time bomb as far as passing that knowledge on to the next generation. That has been the forefront of my arguments — you only know what you know and how do you know it? The fishermen that came before us learned from the fishermen in their region based on time and effort. And that&#8217;s something that has been passed down through families and multiple vessels and skippers to their mates who passed that knowledge over time and effort to their mates. And that&#8217;s how, collectively, we&#8217;ve moved along and advanced ourselves. But now we have so very few people left. And we don&#8217;t teach these things. I mean, back in the 80s and 90s, a lot of schools used to offer programs with marine trades. And that&#8217;s something that went away about 25 years ago. And now what we&#8217;re left with is a crippled fleet.
JOHN: Do you have hope that the industry will bounce back?
JERRY: I think there is time to still salvage that knowledge and pass it onto the next generation, which will go back to the food securities of this nation. I mean, it&#8217;s one thing to say we have it, but we have to be able to harvest it to provide it to the U.S consumer, and to do so in a responsible, sustainable way, so this way our food securities of the nations are here for longevity.
JOHN: Well, Jerry, thank you for talking with us – and for taking the steps you did to protect your industry.
JERRY: Thank you very much. 
***
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/a-win-for-fisherman-chevron-deference-is-overturned-7-6-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LISTEN: Catch the full interview with Jerry Leeman on an Extra edition of Morning Wire</a></h4>

Line of colorful lobster boats, Portland, Maine.

‘This Was A Fisheries Killer:’ The Fisherman Who Fought Chevron Deference All The Way To The Supreme Court

'This Was A Fisheries Killer:' The Fisherman Who Fought Chevron Deference All The Way To The Supreme Court

Chevron deference

Fisherman

Fishing

Morning Wire

Readers Pass

Supreme Court

Here&#8217;s a little ancient history that&#8217;s suddenly become relevant again. 39 years ago this month, just ahead of the summer solstice, the Battle of the Beanfield took place in Wiltshire, England. This wasn&#8217;t a &#8220;battle&#8221; in the traditional military sense. It was a violent confrontation between a convoy of around 600 New Age hippies, and roughly a thousand police officers. 
The police officers were there to enforce an injunction preventing the hippies from holding a festival at Stonehenge. That injunction was necessary because, just one year earlier, around 100,000 hippies had — as hippies tend to do — caused tens of thousands of dollars in property damage to trees, fences and several archeological artifacts in the area, including Stonehenge itself.
So, in 1985, the authorities understandably wanted to prevent any more hippie carnage from being inflicted on Stonehenge. They set up a roadblock several miles away to turn the &#8220;New Age travelers&#8221; away. That&#8217;s when, according to the BBC, &#8220;Police said they came under attack, being pelted with lumps of wood, stones and even petrol bombs.&#8221; 
Of course, to this day, the hippies maintain the police were the aggressors. That&#8217;s probably not true, but it certainly appears that the police officers used significant force once mayhem broke out. At one point, the police reportedly threw fire extinguishers and stones at the hippies to keep them from fleeing. In any event, ultimately, two dozen people were hospitalized, and more than 500 hippies were arrested. By most accounts, the Battle of the Beanfield marked the single largest mass arrest in the history of England, at least since World War II.
I mention the Battle of the Beanfield because it illustrates a couple of things. First of all, it demonstrates an obvious point, which is that the use of force by police officers does indeed deter lawlessness. You don’t have to endorse all of the tactics the police used that day in order to see that. In the years after the Battle of the Beanfield, there were still some hippies who tried to throw a festival at Stonehenge for the summer solstice, but it was nothing like what happened in 1985. For the most part, the hippies got the message loud and clear.
The other important takeaway is that, for whatever reason, Stonehenge has long been an object of fixation for antisocial, anti-civilization, anti-human weirdos. Most likely, the interest stems from the mystique of the whole construction. Stonehenge was constructed more than 5,000 years ago without the benefit of the wheel, and it&#8217;s still unclear to archaeologists exactly how the builders pulled that off — or even who exactly the builders were. It&#8217;s one of the most impressive monuments ever built in human history, so it kind of makes sense that listless, uninteresting people would latch onto Stonehenge in a desperate attempt to imbue their own lives with more meaning.
That brings us to the events that took place at Stonehenge yesterday. 
A couple of vandals associated with the group &#8220;Just Stop Oil&#8221; — one aged 73 and the other aged 21 — charged towards Stonehenge and began blanketing it with some kind of orange powder paint. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Spray Paint Stonehenge" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RtBSvmkv2WM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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As you can see, it fell to a tourist to stop these two people from defacing Stonehenge. There were no police officers nearby to immediately detain them, so a random guy on vacation had to step up to preserve one of the most famous structures in the entire world. We&#8217;ve seen this again and again. When vandals <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/national-archives-rotunda-evacuated-climate-activists-dump-pink-powder-case-holding-us-constitution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dumped</a> pink powder on the case containing the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives Rotunda in February, no security guards lifted a finger to stop them. Late last year, activists with Just Stop Oil were able to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/14/just-stop-oil-activists-throw-soup-at-van-goghs-sunflowers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">throw</a> soup on a Van Gogh painting, then glue themselves to the wall, all without anyone intervening. And of course, on too many occasions to count, these kinds of activists have obstructed traffic with impunity. They get away with it so consistently because, at some level, they have the tacit endorsement of the state.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1391-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
I&#8217;ve covered these brats extensively before, but even with all those other incidents in mind, this latest attack on Stonehenge is especially egregious to me. Defacing a monument as ancient as Stonehenge is really an attack on humanity. The fact that Stonehenge is still standing is a testament to human ingenuity and resourcefulness that&#8217;s hard to comprehend even to this day, thousands of years later. The only people who would want to deface or destroy Stonehenge and erase the evidence of humanity&#8217;s accomplishments are people who despise humanity itself. It&#8217;s the same reason why climate activists want everyone to stop having children. It&#8217;s the same reason they want to &#8220;end fossil fuels&#8221; and crash the global economy. They&#8217;re not really concerned about global temperatures rising by a degree or two. They want humanity to go extinct.
In comments to the media, Just Stop Oil has denied all of this. They&#8217;ve claimed that this orange cornflour paint is going to wash away in the rain, so it&#8217;s not really vandalism. Of course, Just Stop Oil has made that same claim before when they vandalized several other monuments, and it&#8217;s turned out to be false. 
Additionally, there are apparently 80 <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/two-arrestedjust-stop-oil-protesters-spray-stonehenge-orange-paint-99fp2gf2t#:~:text=Nearly%2080%20species%20of%20lichen,sea%20cliffs%2C%20according%20to%20Richards." target="_blank" rel="noopener">species</a> of lichen on Stonehenge that might be dead now, including rare species that scientists wanted to preserve. They&#8217;re still trying to figure out the precise extent of the damage. And even if it does all wash away, they still have no right to use an ancient monument as a platform for their delusional political statement. So even if the paint ultimately does come off, the point remains the same: these activists are fundamentally anti-human — and they&#8217;re becoming increasingly emboldened. In a video message, the 21-year-old Stonehenge attacker — who apparently identifies as nonbinary — explained why they/them/zim/zir decided to deface the monument. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Plan for Stonehenge" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ceHz547ZHQI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
A few things to note here. First of all, there&#8217;s something physicians refer to as the &#8220;gestalt.&#8221; That includes a person&#8217;s general appearance, tone of voice, and the like. And the gestalt is a little concerning here. For starters, this person is whispering for some reason, which comes off as a little unsettling. On top of that, this nonbinary activist is also wearing a Patagonia shirt, even though Patagonia <a href="https://www.patagonia.com/climate-goals/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admits</a> on its website that its vast array of suppliers — by necessity — relies on fossil fuels to conduct operations. They emit something like 200,000 metric tons of CO2 every year. So I guess we&#8217;re meant to conclude that ending fossil fuels is important, except when nonbinary University of Oxford students need a nice sweater vest or t-shirt. Then fossil fuels are okay. 
Of course, every accusation is really an admission with these people. When these activists warn of death and destruction and devastation on an &#8220;immeasurable scale,&#8221; they’re actually revealing precisely what groups like Just Stop Oil want to happen. It&#8217;s what they know will happen if Western nations stop producing fossil fuels, which supply an overwhelming majority of the world&#8217;s energy. We&#8217;ll be taken over by China in about a week. Civilization as we know it will come to an end.
For some reason, that appears to be what a significant number of young people now want to see happen. They&#8217;ve been indoctrinated into a nihilistic death cult. And on social media, many of these young people are now celebrating what just happened at Stonehenge. On Twitter, Oli London posted an <a href="https://x.com/olilondontv/status/1803529776969167156?s=46" target="_blank" rel="noopener">image</a> of a blue-haired British archeologist with &#8220;she/they&#8221; pronouns who wrote that the attack was &#8220;well done.&#8221; More than 10,000 people liked that particular tweet, which gives you some indication of how popular the sentiment is.
It&#8217;s not hard to see why this is becoming a trend. For one thing, there&#8217;s a lot of money in it. 
As Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dark-money-fund-poured-millions-dollars-eco-activist-groups-blocking-highways-destroying-famous-art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> late last year, the Beverly Hills, California-based, Climate Emergency Fund, or CEF, sent roughly $4 million in grants overseas in 2022 alone: &#8220;The most sizable slice [of these grants was] wired to U.K. climate activists. The largest beneficiary of CEF&#8217;s funds appeared to be Just Stop Oil, a British activist group that has repeatedly made headlines for stopping traffic and disrupting public places across the UK.&#8221; And this is just one dark money group based in the United States.
So that amateur quality, creepy video you just saw from the nonbinary activist may have been amateurish on purpose. In reality, Just Stop Oil is an extremely well-funded operation. They could&#8217;ve sprung for better production quality if they wanted to. So-called &#8220;environmental activism&#8221; is now a very big business, and a lot of people are making a lot of money on it from sources we can&#8217;t identify.
That could be one reason the whole movement is attractive to young people, many of whom are now looking for jobs. On top of that, of course, government officials all over the world have become propagandists who indoctrinate young people as a matter of course. 
Here for example is New York governor Kathy Hochul warning of an impending heat emergency in the city:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 NY Gov hot weather" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aI7MUNVFr2k?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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The central claim that Kathy Hochul is making — that New York has never before seen temperatures that feel like 100° — is completely false. It&#8217;s so obviously false that you can disprove it with about five seconds of Googling. According to the National Weather Service, the highest temperature ever <a href="https://www.weather.gov/media/okx/Climate/CentralPark/extremes.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recorded</a> in New York City&#8217;s Central Park was 106° Fahrenheit, all the way back in July of 1936. And that&#8217;s the actual temperature, not the heat index. 
Before that, there was a heat wave in 1896 that killed more than 1,000 people, as temperatures exceeded 90°. The National Weather Service reports that the warmest month on record in New York was all the way back in July of 1999. And in several years since, New York has hit 100° on several occasions.
So what Kathy Hochul is saying is wrong for about a million reasons. But she said it anyway because she knows it&#8217;s effective. People hear what she&#8217;s saying — especially young people — and they believe it. They become activists and loyal voters for the Democrats. And unless they&#8217;re met with force, as they were at the Battle of the Beanfield, some of those activists will continue to deface priceless historical artifacts to attract attention to their nihilistic death cult. They will continue to block roadways, preventing people from going to work and ambulances from transporting patients. Appeasing these cultists simply does not work. That much is now very clear. If we want to have any monuments or any history left at all, we need to take the threat as seriously as the British did in 1985, and shut them down.

Rainbow over Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain

Anti-Human Eco Brats Deface One Of The Oldest Monuments On Earth

Activists

England

Opinion

Protesters

U.K.

Vandalism

A fanatical environmentalist group claimed it wrecked a gala at which Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski was to be honored by a major oil company and called her a “murderer” and an “ecocidal pyromaniac.”
A video posted by the group Climate Defiance, a self-proclaimed “youth-led group using direct action to resist fossil fuels,” showed people storming a stage and tussling with other participants at the event.
“We just shut down a gala honoring U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski,” the group tweeted. “Murkowski is a murderer. She incinerates us to enrich her cronies. As Chevron&#8217;s top lobbyist gave her an award, we stepped in and stopped the ceremony. Respect us or expect us.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: We just shut down a gala honoring U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski is a murderer. She incinerates us to enrich her cronies. As Chevron&#39;s top lobbyist gave her an award, we stepped in and stopped the ceremony. Respect us or expect us. 🧵 <a href="https://t.co/Q72mHerpdg">pic.twitter.com/Q72mHerpdg</a>
&mdash; Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateDefiance/status/1780981172442415450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Murkowski brands herself as a moderate but in truth she is an ecocidal pyromaniac. She fought tooth and nail to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to big oil. Is nothing sacred? Is nothing sacred?” they continued.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Murkowski brands herself as a moderate but in truth she is an ecocidal pyromaniac. She fought tooth and nail to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to big oil. Is nothing sacred? Is nothing sacred? (2/5) <a href="https://t.co/PTcG8TvSvz">pic.twitter.com/PTcG8TvSvz</a>
&mdash; Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateDefiance/status/1780981174296289352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Murkowski played a lead role in persuading Biden to approve the Willow Project. This monstrosity will transport 200,000 barrels of oil every single day. This is hideous. This is cruel and barbaric beyond description,” they added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Murkowski played a lead role in persuading Biden to approve the Willow Project. This monstrosity will transport 200,000 barrels of oil every single day. This is hideous. This is cruel and barbaric beyond description. (3/5)
&mdash; Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateDefiance/status/1780981176565461073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) consists of 19,286,722 acres in northeastern Alaska. Polar bears, grizzly bears, and American black bears reside within the Refuge, along with moose, caribou, wolves, and foxes. In August 2020, the Department of opened 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain for drilling, less than 1% of the area of the ANWR. On January 20, 2021, President Biden, on his first day in office, implemented a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moratorium</a> on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1713449380053000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0e-HYFsZYxlnnLDshKhFqj">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Referring to the coastal plain, the U.S. Geological Survey has <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/fs-0028-01.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, “Technically recoverable oil within the ANWR 1002 area (excluding State and Native areas) is estimated to be between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels (95- and 5-percent probability range), with a mean value of 7.7 billion barrels.”
“Total petroleum imports into the United States amounted to 8.5 million barrels per day in 2023,” <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/191251/total-petroleum-imports-into-the-us-since-2000/#:~:text=Total%20petroleum%20imports%20into%20the,petroleum%20imported%20into%20the%20U.S." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Statista</a> reported.
If 7.7 billion barrels could be retrieved from the ANWR, that would constitute importation of 8.5 million barrels for 905 years, assuring American energy independence for nearly a millennium.

2023 JDRF Children’s Congress, Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing

‘Murderer … Ecocidal Pyromaniac’: Radical Eco-Group Claims It Stormed Stage, Wrecked Murkowski Event

Alaska

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Lisa Murkowski

Politics

Republican officials continued their probe of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/blackrock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BlackRock</a> this week, saying that the financial giant has not been forthcoming about how climate activists are shaping its policies, according to a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire.
In a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/Follow_up_letter_to_BlackRock_Directors_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to BlackRock on Tuesday, 15 Republican attorneys general led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, demanded more answers from BlackRock about its participation in climate organizations and what kind of environmental, social, and governance policies it has implemented. BlackRock, which has over $10 trillion in assets, has faced scrutiny from Republicans over accusations that it prioritizes leftist activism over customer benefit.
“I have serious concerns about BlackRock’s Environmental, Social, and Governance investments, their conflicting statements regarding ESG, and the potential conflicts of interest with independent fund directors,” Knudsen told The Daily Wire. “Mutual fund directors have a fiduciary obligation to their clients to make them as much money as possible, but BlackRock appears to be more concerned with pushing the woke, liberal agenda.”
The 18-page letter raises concerns about conflicting statements made by BlackRock on ESG, BlackRock’s participation in leftist climate groups, and conflicts of interests.
BlackRock recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/financial-giants-pull-14-trillion-from-climate-group-that-pressures-companies-to-take-action-on-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stepped away</a> from the Climate Action 100+ organization, but remains in other groups like the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, and Ceres. BlackRock International, a subsidiary, is still part of the Climate Action organization.
Knudson told The Daily Wire that while BlackRock “took a step in the right direction by dropping out Climate Action 100+ earlier this month, it’s not enough.”
“BlackRock has made commitments to environmental activist groups that may conflict with the fiduciary duties it owes to clients, and we seek more information about how the independent directors have overseen this,” the letter says. “Further, BlackRock’s relationships with certain large institutional clients, especially state pension funds, may unduly influence BlackRock’s overall approach to engaging with companies in which it invests, including investments that have disclaimed any reliance or focus on ESG factors.”
The Republicans AGs also say that BlackRock has made misleading statements about the motivations behind its ESG policies. Some comments from BlackRock indicate that it believes that ESG policies provide financial benefit are undercut by other statements that sustainability criteria don’t help assess the potential risk or reward of a fund, the letter notes.
“BlackRock’s claims that its focus on climate and ESG is motivated by concern about financial return are also undermined by the performance of its ESG-managed funds, which lag behind the performance of non-ESG benchmarks while charging higher fees,” the letter said.
Additionally, the letter raises concerns about the independence of mutual fund directors at BlackRock and whether they can be directors on other corporations where BlackRock controls significant shares.
“From a conflict-of-interest perspective, there is a clear risk that service on a public company board creates a dynamic where the director will be hesitant to offend or anger BlackRock, when BlackRock manages, votes, and controls significant shares in that public company,” the letter says.
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In addition to Montana, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Utah all signed on to the letter.
&#8220;Thanks to persistent efforts from Republican attorneys general to defeat the radical and illegal ESG movement, BlackRock and other investment firms have rightly withdrawn from certain environmental organizations committed to a foundational transformation of America&#8217;s energy and financial sectors,&#8221; Utah AG Sean Reyes told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Our coalition, however, still has concerns with BlackRock&#8217;s past and present actions involving the financial interests of our constituents. We will remain steadfast in holding BlackRock and others like it accountable by protecting the financial freedom of our people.&#8221;
The Republicans previously wrote to BlackRock in July voicing many of the same concerns and received a reply in August. They said that August&#8217;s reply did not sufficiently answer their questions or concerns about ESG investing. Tennessee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-attorney-general-sues-blackrock-for-misleading-investors-about-esg-agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> BlackRock in December, saying that firm violated consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its attempt to pursue left-wing social and environmental goals.

Blackrock Posts 22 Percent Increase In Quarterly Profits

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Officials Demand Answers On BlackRock’s ‘Woke’ Climate Agenda

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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer <a href="https://www.wnem.com/2023/11/28/watch-live-whitmer-signs-michigan-jobs-michigan-energy-bill-package/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> Democrat-proposed energy bills Tuesday, giving the state some of the most rigid energy mandates in the nation.
The Democrats’ green energy plan — a package of three bills passed along party lines — requires utility providers to transition to completely carbon-free energy generation by the end of the next decade, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-democrats-clean-energy-301c639cc089fca26a746ad2f4baff3d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The mandate, which is even more fast-tracked than the green energy bill passed in <a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/topics/renewable-energy/clean-energy-serving-california#:~:text=Senate%20Bill%20100%20(2018)%20set,zero%20carbon%20energy%20by%202045.">California</a>, will force utility companies to generate half of their energy through renewable sources by 2030, 60% by 2035, and 100% by 2040.
“With passage of these game-changing bills, Michigan will become a national leader on clean energy,” Whitmer said in a <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/press-releases/2023/11/08/governor-whitmer-statement-on-passage-of-clean-energy-legislation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> earlier this month. “These bills will help us make more clean, reliable energy right here in Michigan, creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, and lowering utility costs for every Michigander by an average of $145 a year.”
Still, some far-Left environmental activists were not completely happy with the legislation, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/whitmer-signs-clean-energy-package-make-michigan-carbon-free-2040-rcna126977" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticizing</a> the mandate for allowing utility providers to use carbon capture technology and saying that it fails to “adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions while bringing more pollution to Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor communities.”
Republicans in the state House and Senate on the other hand said the mandate would effectively ban natural gas and take control of hundreds of thousands of acres of land for renewable energy.
Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt told The Daily Wire in a phone interview that Michigan&#8217;s power outage problem, which is already <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2023/09/05/michigan-power-outage-rates-double-the-national-average" target="_blank" rel="noopener">double</a> the national rate, would only get worse thanks to the Democrats&#8217; bill.
“This does nothing to correct the issues on the distribution system. All this does is increases the likelihood of power outages and decreases reliability,” said Nesbitt.
Nesbitt added that the law will also “industrialize” Michigan farmland, meaning that the law&#8217;s land requirement for renewable energy will “preempt” residents from having any say in how local land is used.
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“Currently, 50,000 acres are used for renewable energy. This will mandate that over 350,000 new acres of land will have to be pushed into renewable energy,” he said.
An <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/pressroom/2023/new-energy-bills-would-increase-costs-and-blackouts">analysis</a> from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy also found that the new green energy mandate will cost residents an extra $2,746 a year while giving them less reliable electricity. Republican House Floor Leader Bryan Posthumus told The Daily Wire, “Without a doubt, these mandates will lead to higher costs and lower reliability.”
&#8220;In government, you literally get what you pay for,&#8221; Posthumus added. &#8220;By mandating wind and solar, only the governor has taken many other necessary and useful options off the table to score points with the coastal elites. Michigan could have been the national leader in how to do renewable the right way. Instead, Whitmer chose the strong-arm approach with an eye on a 2028 presidential run. It really is truly disappointing.&#8221;
Many residents of Marquette Township, Michigan, which is in the state&#8217;s Upper Peninsula, voiced frustration with their Democratic Representative Jenn Hill after she joined Democrats in passing the energy mandate. After a meeting last week, Forsyth Township Supervisor Joe Boogren said questions were not being answered on the issue, TV6 <a href="https://www.uppermichiganssource.com/2023/11/20/tensions-high-townhall-about-energy-laws/">reported</a>.
“We can read. We’re not as dumb as you think we are or make us out to be, and we wanted to talk to you as elected officials to elected official and ask you questions that mean something, not go for this,” Boogren said.

Gretchen Whitmer

Gretchen Whitmer Signs One Of The Nation’s Most Extreme Green Energy Mandates

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Two of the protesters who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/you-suck-eco-protesters-hold-up-us-open-match-glue-feet-to-the-floor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">held up a semi-final match</a> at the US Open on Thursday night as they protested against fossil fuels were hit with criminal charges. 
Gregory Schwedock, 35, of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/new-york-city" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York City</a>, and Sayak Mukhopadhyay, 50, of White Plains, New York, were charged with criminal trespass after the two were involved in an environmental protest that led to a 50 minute game delay at the US Open. Mukhopadhyay also faces a disorderly conduct charge. 
During the second set of the match between American Coco Gauff, 19, and Karolína Muchová, 27, from the Czech Republic, Schwedock, Mukhopadhya, and a woman stood up and started yelling “end fossil fuels.”
The New York City Police told Forbes that they responded to reports of attendants at the match acting “disorderly” and that one “had apparently glued his feet to the floor.”
“Personnel from the Emergency Service Unit responded and were able to safely free the male and take him into custody,” police <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/us-open-protesters-charged-criminal-trespass-disrupting-match-rcna104051" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. 
One of the protesters later claimed that the protest was raising awareness for an existential threat. 
“There is no tennis on a dead planet. There is no art on a dead planet, everything that we take for granted as our way of life will cease to exist,” Mukhopadhyay told NBC. 
Gauff had won the first set and was leading in the second 1-0 when play was halted; she ultimately won the match 6-4, 7-5. The crowd booed the protesters, and yelled at them as they were taken away by the New York City Police Department. “You suck!” and “F*** you!” people yelled. 
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While Gauff appeared frustrated during the match with the delay, she later said that she couldn’t be “upset” with the protesters 
“I always speak about preaching about what you feel and what you believe in,” Gauff said. “It was done in a peaceful way, so I can’t get too mad at it. Obviously I don’t want it to happen when I’m winning, up 6-4, 1-0, and I wanted the momentum to keep going. But hey, if that’s what they felt they needed to do to get their voices heard, I can’t really get upset at it.”
Extinction Rebellion, a radical environmentalist group, said that it was behind the protest. 
&#8220;Today’s action highlights the neglect of the climate and ecological breakdown by governments and corporations,&#8221; the group <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/2-people-arrested-criminal-trespass-us-open-protest-police-force-tournament-increased" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;The group emphasizes that the present socioeconomic system can&#8217;t protect people from the crises to come because its very structure creates these crises and then ignores them.&#8221;

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