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August 10, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
A Janus-Faced Energy Bill Changes the Path Forward
We’re in a big moment, as the political landscape liquifies and reshapes beneath our feet. We at RDP expect to be spending significant time in coming months grappling with the vast impact of the 725-page Inflation Reduction Act and its tag-along coal baron wishlist (aka “permitting reform” bill), from the shifts in executive branch authority, funding, and personnel, to the bills’ diverging impacts on millions of people’s lives, and on ecosystems from Cook Inlet to the Appalachian Basin. Here’s a preview of some of the things we expect to focus on…
August 04, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
As Cabinet Members Head For Exits, Biden is Cruising For A Bruising
All signs point to Mayor Pete leaving the DOT station, a worrying trajectory as airline companies continue ripping off consumers while the former Mayor prepares a victory lap over the Department of Transportation’s long overdue announcement on a rule change that could drastically alter America’s air travel. Sneakily for Pete, this DOT rule won’t take effect until after the midterms, when he’ll kick his 2024 bid for high office into high gear according to rumors coursing through Washington.
July 15, 2022
Biden Should Not Trade Executive Actions for Mythical Senate Promises
The president’s proposal to restart fossil fuel projects would abdicate his responsibility to ensure the laws are faithfully executed.
July 01, 2022 | The American Prospect
In The Wake Of "Dobbs," Biden Leans on Familiar Excuses for Inaction
During his campaign, now-President Biden loved likening his image to that of FDR. But when a rogue U.S. Supreme Court threatened to overturn the sweeping reforms of FDR’s New Deal, Roosevelt directly challenged their gross power grab by threatening court expansion coupled with expansive judicial reforms. The controversial move paid off; the Court subsequently backed down and FDR preserved the slate of New Deal–era reforms that kept the working class alive during the depths of the Great Depression and formed the basis for much more broadly shared prosperity in the subsequent decades.
June 30, 2022
Press Release Climate and EnvironmentCongressional OversightEthics in GovernmentExecutive BranchIndependent Agencies
RELEASE: Impact of Supreme Court’s EPA Decision Can Be Minimized Through Decisive Executive Counteractions
Today the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in West Virginia v. EPA, curbing the EPA’s authority to establish carbon emissions caps under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act. It is a significant blow, and is further evidence of how far this empowered, extremist Supreme Court will go to erode the functions of our government and contravene the public interest. But it is not a lethal blow. Many tools to stave off the climate crisis and facilitate an equitable energy transition remain available to the EPA, to the White House, and to Congress.
June 29, 2022
Biden Must Take On Refineries To Lower Gas Prices
Rising gas prices may not be a problem of the Biden administration’s making, but they are a problem it cannot afford to ignore. People across the country are feeling their effects, with some groups like gig workers and those in the trucking industry – which has seen an increase in layoffs as gas prices have risen – suffering more acutely. In the face of these difficult conditions, it is essential that the Biden administration take decisive action to ease the pain people are feeling right now and, in the medium-term, address the structural factors that created this crisis.
June 28, 2022
Rogue Regulator: Biden Cedes Chance to Enlist FMC in Inflation-Fighting Agenda
Biden had a chance to change the commission undermining his inflation messaging. Instead, he demurred.
June 08, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
June Gloom for Student Debtors, Plus Biden’s Solar Breakthrough
The tortuous game of will-they-won’t-they cancel student debt continues. Biden’s decision this week to cancel $5.8 billion in debt held by 560,000 former students of the systematically fraudulent, now-defunct Corinthian Colleges seems to signal a willingness (finally!) to wield executive authority on higher ed issues. Meanwhile, a historic coalition of over 500 labor, civil rights and advocacy groups continues to press Biden for sweeping cancellation. The labor movement has been ramping up its calls for student debt cancellation, and more unions, including the Amazon and Starbucks unions and several traditionally blue-collar unions, are joining the fight. This show of force from a broad labor base could help Biden overcome his political reservations, with organized labor actively refuting the Republican talking point that student debt relief is a handout to elite university graduates.
June 06, 2022
RELEASE: Revolving Door Project Applauds Use Of Defense Production Act For Clean Energy Projects
In response to the Biden administration’s announcement that it will activate the Defense Production Act to spur domestic production of crucial clean energy projects including solar panel parts, building insulation, heat pumps, and power grid infrastructure, Revolving Door Project Senior Researcher Dorothy Slater released the following statement:
June 01, 2022
New Papers Explore Biden’s Climate Options At Justice Department, Economics Agencies
The Climate Corporate Crackdown series explores how the federal government can use existing law to bring corporate polluters and greenhouse gas emitters to heel and shift the American economy off of fossil fuels and toward a more equitable and sustainable future.
June 01, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Biden's War Against Himself
If the unchecked blood letting, billowing inflation, foreign conflict, and typhoon of domestic Covid infection wasn’t enough to set Americans on edge the past week, a persistent high pitched whine–not unlike the kind projected outside 7/11s to deter listless teenage delinquents from Sacramento to Scranton–descended on the nation. It emanated not from a thoughtfully angled speaker system, but out of the oval office and into the pages of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News studios. Nonetheless, It has had a similar effect in driving young people away.
May 30, 2022
Biden’s Main Legislative Accomplishment Is in One Man’s Hands
Mitch Landrieu is overseeing the bipartisan infrastructure law. His record does not inspire confidence in how that might be handled.
May 27, 2022
Means-Tested, Minimalist Student Debt Cancellation Would Please No One
“If this plan is implemented, then by trying to please everyone, Biden will likely please no one.”
May 25, 2022 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
The Filth Circuit Takes a Wrecking Ball to Precedent
Over the past week Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to require that the ingredients necessary for baby formula go to formula manufacturers first, and initiated Operation Fly Formula, using military planes to fly the equivalent of 1.5 million bottles of hypoallergenic formula across the Atlantic. It’s good to see the White House roused to take action, and to use emergency presidential powers to protect people in need. That’s what emergency powers are for.
May 24, 2022
10 Things Biden Can Do About Inflation Without Congress
ome of the approaches can provide immediate relief, but many of them involve fixing broken incentive systems through increasing competition and corporate oversight. Inflation is not just a flash-in-the-pan issue, it is a consequence baked into our market structure and regulatory regime.