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With less than two weeks until Trump’s inauguration, the Senate confirmation process for his roster of loyalists will be underway before we know it. The confirmation hearings for Trump’s energy picks are already set, with hearings for Interior nominee Doug Burgum, Energy nominee Chris Wright, and EPA nominee Lee Zeldin scheduled for January 14, January 15, and Wednesday or Thursday of next week respectively. This newsletter series will highlight the ties between Trump’s personnel picks and the exploitative industries and their billionaire CEOs who will be enriched by their appointments.

With anger, fear, and determination, we’re with you in this unsettled moment a week out from the election. It’s hard to predict or overstate how much may be on the brink of changing; hard to measure how much we’ve already lost, like the ‘functionally extinct’ goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2.7°F, or 1.5°C. And it’s hard to know how much we may stand to gain from new visions and forms of solidarity and resistance that grow in the years to come.

In an election year in which one presidential candidate cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the largest piece of clean energy legislation in U.S. history, and another has pledged to “tell the frackers” to “drill, baby, drill” on Day 1 and repeatedly lied about the impacts of wind turbines, you would be forgiven for assuming that a political action committee (PAC) which claims to represent the interests of the renewable energy industry would be more aligned with the former candidate’s party than the latter. 

The Revolving Door Project has previously proposed that the Biden administration pass an executive order enshrining a strongest-ever ethics commitment for executive branch political appointees. Among other things, this commitment would include a pledge not to own individual stocks while in public office. A new Inspector General report on the ethical minefield of a high-level EPA appointee who owns dozens of individual companies’ stocks demonstrates why this sort of simple, clear ethics rule is essential for increasing trust in government.

Gas industry influence groups Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future and the Partnership to Address Global Emissions (PAGE Coalition) are reportedly hosting an event on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA). The event seeks to bring attention to a new report they’re releasing downplaying the lifecycle emissions of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the Energy Department works to update its impact analysis for permitting new gas exports. Founded and funded by LNG industry players, the groups are vocal proponents of expanding methane gas exports, aiming to frame exports as a climate solution despite their outsized greenhouse gas emissions and toxic local air pollution. 

How much do you remember about what politics was like under President Donald Trump? I would not blame you for putting Trump’s parade of scandals in the rearview mirror. But we have to look again, because that clown show is still on the road. It’s in our blind spot, endeavoring to pull ahead.

Fossil-fueled Democrats want to use unverifiable “certified gas” schemes to undermine one of Biden’s most important climate moves.

In late May, Brian Deese, the former director of President Biden’s National Economic Council and current MIT fellow, wrote about “The Next Front in the War Against Climate Change” for The Atlantic. Deese explained that while the Inflation Reduction Act’s incentives have stimulated clean energy demand “beyond my wildest hopes,” he still finds himself “lying awake at night, worried that America could still fail to meet its climate goals.”