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The Marin and Sonoma chapters invite you to their monthly meeting on Saturday, September 13 at 9 AM PT here.
We'll discuss changes in our chapters' leadership, concerns over the state of American democracy and CCL's potential role, opportunities in California for electricity rate reform (see below), and we'll allow time for everyone to share their observations about where we are at this critical time.
Then, join the National meeting at 10 AM here,
with Dr. Daniel Swain, Marin native,
research scientist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Dr. Daniel Swain is a climate scientist focused on the dynamics and impacts of extreme events–including droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires–on a warming planet. A graduate of San Rafael High, Daniel holds joint appointments as a research scientist within UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, as a research fellow in the Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and as the California Climate Fellow at The Nature Conservancy. Daniel engages extensively with journalists and other partners, serving as a climate and weather science liaison to print, radio, television, and web media outlets. Daniel also authors the Weather West blog, which provides real-time perspectives on California weather and climate. He can be found on Twitter (@Weather_West).
Tune in at 10 AM PT here.
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There is no scientific evidence to support the EPA’s greenhouse gas plan
The Hill
August 26, 2025
"The Environmental Protection Agency’s landmark 2009 Endangerment Finding established that greenhouse gases pose a demonstrable risk to public health and welfare through their role in anthropogenic climate change.
The recent proposal by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to repeal this finding is not only scientifically untenable but represents a deliberate disengagement from decades of rigorous climate science, validated predictive modeling and overwhelming empirical evidence. Any attempt to revoke the Endangerment Finding constitutes a rejection of the scientific method itself.
Climate science is not in a state of theoretical infancy nor ambiguity. Over 97 percent of active climate researchers and virtually every major scientific body — including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Academy of Sciences — are part of this robust consensus.
Human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from fossil fuel combustion, are the primary driver of global warming. To repeal the Endangerment Finding would be to engage in institutional gaslighting, effectively disregarding the unified voice of an entire scientific community and the foundational tenets of evidence-based policy."
This is an excellent essay by an opinion contributor of The Hill. Read it here in its entirety
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NYC killer smog, November 23, 1966, before the Clean Air Act and EPA
CCL responds to EPA's intent to reverse the Endangerment Finding, the basis for U.S. GHG pollution regulation for the past 15 years
This action by the Trump administration, while unsurprising, has generated huge pushback. The public comment period is open until September 22, 2025. You can join thousands of citizens in expressing your own thoughts. Read on.
Here is an excerpt from CCL's official response:
"We believe this proposal rests on misinterpretations of the law, Congressional intent, and scientific
and economic research. Rescinding the endangerment finding and associated regulations of greenhouse
gas emissions would pose a grave risk to Americans’ health, safety, and economic wellbeing. CCL thus
urges the EPA to withdraw this ill-conceived Reconsideration and resume regulating the greenhouse gas emissions that pose a clear threat to public health and welfare."
Read all about CCL's response here, and its entire statement here. Well done, Dana Nuccitelli and staff!
Now find out how you can comment using this action guide. While it seems unlikely that the head of the EPA will be staying up nights reading thousands of irate comments from Americans, these will be important in the inevitable legal wrangling ahead. Help show the courts what Americans think about this, uh...pick your own adjective... move backwards into the polluted past. Make it personal -- because it is.
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Here's much more on the recent dangerous move by the EPA and DOE:
"A Dagger in the Heart of Climate Change Regulation" -- NYT, The Daily, July 31, 28 min audio
EPA attacks climate science. Here are the facts. -- E&E News. An excellent point-by-point debunking.
"The Trump administration’s proposal to revoke the endangerment finding is rife with climate disinformation, scientists say. This is a general theme in the report; they cherrypick data points that suit their narrative and exclude the vast majority of the scientific literature that does not,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at the science nonprofit Berkeley Earth, said in an email." Keep reading.
The Republican campaign to stop the U.S. EPA from protecting the climate -- Yale Climate Connections, by Dana Nuccitelli, CCL research coordinator
“Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, the head of the agency whose mission is to protect human health and the environment, using regulations as a primary tool. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”
"A new Department of Energy report “fundamentally misrepresents” climate research and leaves out key context, multiple scientists cited in the report tell WIRED."
[Is anyone really surprised?]
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Trump, With Tariffs and Threats, Tries to Strong-Arm Nations to Retreat on Climate Goals
NYT, August 27, 2025
"President Trump is not only working to stop a transition away from fossil fuels in the United States, he is pressuring other countries to relax their pledges to fight climate change and instead burn more oil, gas and coal."
Meeting with the E.U. president last month
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"Think Globally, Act Locally": News from
Climate Future California
Attention California members:
Here's a 2-minute opportunity to help make clean electrification affordable year-round for all Californians:
CA electric rates are almost twice the national average, and high rates are depressing EV and heat pump adoption by as much as a third.
Climate Future California has organized a coalition of Marin and Sonoma-based environmental groups to advocate for lower electric rates.
Our coalition has helped shape current bills in the legislature focused on lowering California electricity rates with funds from polluters (cap-and-trade revenue).
We’re pushing for further refinement of the proposed bills to ensure that clean energy is affordable year-round. Bills need to be finalized by September 6, which makes this a crucial moment.
Could you take 2 minutes now to send your legislators a pre-drafted email asking them to make clean electrification affordable year-round for all Californians?
Please share this call to action with other Californians. Time is short. Thank you!
More at:
Climate Future California (CFCa)
CFCA CCL Community page.
Here's what high electric rates might feel like if you're a poor Texas novelist:
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Nervous about humanity's dithering response to what we know to be true about global warming?
Here's Dr. Mike MacCracken, senior climate scientist who has worked on this problem for close to 50 years, on whether it's "too late," (it is very late) and why we need to explore "solar radiation management" i.e., geoengineering, now. Another very sobering episode from Radio Ecoshock, your consistent source for maximal climate reality (and dread.) Not for the faint of heart, but do it anyway.
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Money talks!
Republicans who backed Trump’s anti-environment bill have accepted over $105m from big oil
The Guardian
"The Republican lawmakers who voted for Donald Trump’s anti-environment tax and spending bill have accepted more than $105m in political donations from the fossil fuel industry, a new analysis has found, raising concerns about their relationship with big oil.
Signed into law last month, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes billions of dollars in giveaways to oil and gas companies and their executives, alongside provisions to scale back credits for clean vehicles, wind and solar which were enshrined by Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
All but two GOP House members voted to support the budget bill, as did all but three GOP senators. That includes many Republicans from districts who benefited most from the IRA’s green credits, and those who spent months attempting to defend renewable energy tax credits from the budget bill’s provisions.
The new report from the environmental advocacy group Climate Power totalled up the funds the bill’s backers have accepted from the fossil fuel industry over the course of their political careers, finding that House members accepted $54.4m and senators accepted $51.5m.
“These Republicans in Congress are caught red-handed taking massive donations from the oil and gas industry, and voting to give them billions and to destroy their competition from their own state’s clean energy industries,” the analysis says."
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Do Not Miss This Series!
If you've already seen it, watch it again. You'll then understand how we got into this mess -- Denial, Doubt and Delay -- and what it will take to get us out: Massive popular political pressure supporting robust solutions that this industry and their agents will inevitably oppose.
| | Words of wisdom from the great climate scientist, Dr. Willie Nelson | | |
You're invited, but...
This is how one behaves inside The Capitol:
Make an appointment. Business attire recommended. Bring nothing that even looks like a weapon.
Long live democracy.
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Prepared by Peter G. Joseph, M.D.
Peter.Joseph@cclvolunteer.org
Apologies for cross postings.
If you know someone who would like to be added to this distribution list, please suggest they join CCL.
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