News Feeds

Robin Mann reports on how support for both Plaid Cymru and Reform is transforming the Welsh political landscape

The post Elections 2026: The political shifts reshaping Wales appeared first on Red Pepper.

Participants from the Maritimes, Ontario, and Puerto Rico will take part in a week of farm work, discussions, and workshops.

The post Canada: National Farmers Union Nova Scotia to Host Agroecology Brigade with Partners from Puerto Rico appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Meat your new gene edited food Channel News brendan 29th May 2026 Teaser Media

Plans to install a big battery with up to six hours storage in a sweet spot between a coal generation hub and major electricity demand centres have been waved through the federal green queue.

The post Huge six-hour battery gets federal green tick for grid sweet-spot at edge of coal hub appeared first on Renew Economy.

State formally declares five onshore renewable energy zones and one “shoreline” REZ, to guide its step-change to 65% renewable by 2030 and 95% by 2035.

The post State locks in six renewable energy zones after final round of nips, tucks and rethinks appeared first on Renew Economy.

A cut in emissions led by more renewables, batteries and EVs, and less coal, lower prices and a boost in new projects make for a good week for Labor's green energy plan.

The post Lower emissions, lower prices, and new investment: It’s been a good week for Labor’s green energy plan appeared first on Renew Economy.

OK, it’s not an Onion headline (except that it was 15 years ago): the state of California is studying the potential of running 140-mile-per-hour “high-speed buses” on highways, even though the state’s first high speed rail line has been in the works for decades.

We love the latest from Cities by Diana, which explores where versions of the high-speed bus concept are actually a thing around the world, and debates the pros and (mostly) cons of the model for the Golden State and beyond. It’s a big departure from her channel’s usual found-AI-urbanist-fever-dream videos (which you might have seen on Streetsblog before, because we love them), but it’s no less wild, absurd, and fascinating.

• Cities are using porous pavement, light-colored paint, and native plantings and solar panels for shade to cool down parking lots and reduce the urban heat island effect. (Associated Press)
• Suspending gas taxes hurts transportation funding a lot more than it helps drivers (NPR). Gas taxes are already inadequate, and the State Smart Transportation Initiative recommends fees based on mileage and vehicle weight.
• The Federal Transit Administration is releasing $166 million to replace aging train cars. (Metro)
• The Trump administration is loosening regulations on refrigerator trucks, which will result in millions of tons of harmful chemicals leaking into the environment. (Carbon Upfront)
• Elaborate requirements for public comment and a fear of lawsuits are paralyzing bureaucracies and making simple street safety fixes all but impossible, writes Stephanie Nakhleh. (We Can Have Nice Things)
• Car-centric cities in the Midwest and Rust Belt are redesigning their public spaces to be more people-friendly. (Common Edge)
• Salt Lake City recently completed new protected bike lanes on the South Viaduct, offering a safe route to bike and walk over train tracks and freeway approaches. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• About two out of every five pedestrians killed in Austin is a person experiencing homelessness. (KVUE)
• Crashes in the Columbus, Ohio area are down from last year, but there have still been 8,000 so far in 2026. (WOSU)
• Houston is fixing Midtown sidewalks as part of a “walkable place” pilot project. (Chron)
• Pittsburgh’s POGOH bikeshare is expanding outside the city limits. (Axios)
• Portland transit agency TriMet is lawing off hundreds of employees and cutting back bus service. (Tribune)
• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill reorganizing the Regional Transportation District board, which oversees Denver transit. (Newsline)
• Maryland passed a law removing parking minimums near transit stops and requiring cities to zone those areas for mixed use to encourage more transit-oriented development. (National Center for Smart Growth)
• Iranian hackers were likely responsible for a March breach at the Los Angeles Metro. (Tech Crunch)
• A California city is using robots to assess sidewalk conditions. (KSBW)
• Washington, D.C. is auctioning off several unused streetcars. (DC News Now)

Jet Charge founder Tim Washington on the need for more chargers, faster machines, multiple bays and electric trucks. Plus: CIS tender results, electrification and other news of the week.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Plugging the holes in EV charging appeared first on Renew Economy.

Community members across Perth and the South West have today staged coordinated actions across six WA Labor electorate offices, including those of Premier Roger Cook and senior ministers, calling on the state government to rule out fracking in the Kimberley. 

Big batteries scoop the pool and sideline gas in "firming tender" designed to secure supply at times of system stress as state moves to 100 per cent net renewables.

The post Big batteries scoop the pool in grid firming tender that was also open to gas generators appeared first on Renew Economy.

Rumours. False announcements. Lies. What’s going on with immigration changes in Canada these days?!

Join us on June 10 for a free online information session just for migrants like you. Let’s break through the noise together to get the facts, and learn how migrants are uniting to take action against unfair immigration rules to win permanent status for all.

What we’ll cover:

• Recent TR to PR announcement
• Changes to Express Entry
• What to do if your permit is expiring
• & more

Don’t miss out! Sign up now and invite a friend:

The post Recent immigration changes: Free online information session first appeared on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

The post Recent immigration changes: Free online information session appeared first on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Rule maker kicks off review that will look at role of networks in providing EV chargers, but also the broader issue of "ring fencing" in a rapidly changing energy world.

The post “Contentious piece of work:” Regulator kicks off review of EV chargers and the broader role of networks appeared first on Renew Economy.

Fox ESS announces an important step in the brand’s ongoing journey of innovation, trust, and long-term commitment to a more resilient future.

The post Fox ESS announces rebrand ahead of SNEC Exhibition appeared first on Renew Economy.

Spanish energy giant lobs another plantation wind project into EPBC queue, highlighting the minimal impact these projects will have on highly modified sites.

The post Spanish giant lobs second plantation wind project into EPBC queue just a week after the first appeared first on Renew Economy.

Thermal energy storage hopeful begins key engineering and design study for what could be the largest project of its kind in Australia.

The post Australia’s largest industrial thermal storage project takes next “significant step” appeared first on Renew Economy.

Open access notables

Climate Change Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Schäfer et al., Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Chang

Artificial intelligence (AI), and especially generative AI (GenAI), is rapidly reshaping climate change communication (CCC). Once dominated by news coverage and public campaigns, CCC now extends across scientists, NGOs, corporations, journalists, influencers, and citizens—all increasingly encountering and adopting AI tools. This article provides a comprehensive review of scholarship on the nexus of AI and CCC, synthesizing insights scattered across disciplines from social and computer science, and interdisciplinary fields like environmental and science studies. It identifies robust patterns alongside significant gaps, highlighting areas where future research is needed. Based on existing evidence, it shows that AI—as of now—functions less as a disruptive replacement of established communication and information-seeking practices rather than as an assistive layer in CCC: accelerating routine newsroom tasks, enabling personalized and multilingual outreach, and generating new textual, visual, and multimodal representations of climate change. Stakeholders use AI to monitor discourse, expose greenwashing, and broaden access to climate information, though systematic research on uptake and effects remains limited. Journalists experiment cautiously with AI, emphasizing human oversight, while influencers and content creators are understudied despite their growing role. The potential of AI-driven systems for fact-checking, policy analysis, and creative engagement has been explored, yet studies remain heavily English-centric and focused on text. Citizen studies reveal promises and risks: generative dialogues can reduce skepticism and foster engagement, but biases, misinformation, and equity concerns persist. Advancing the field requires comparative and interdisciplinary agendas that integrate computational and traditional methods, foreground transparency and inclusion, and address how AI can equitably support awareness, trust, and climate action.

Vacuuming the Sky? Metaphorical Framing in News Coverage of Carbon Dioxide Removal Methods, Bruggen et al., Environmental Communication

Discussions of proposed climate solutions, such as carbon dioxide removal (CDR), are multi-layered and contested. This study examines the role that metaphors play as frame devices in news coverage (2018–2024) about CDR. Using critical metaphor analysis, we examined 257 articles from major UK, US, and Canadian news outlets to identify and interpret contrasting metaphorical expressions from journalists and their sources, including industry, science, and civil society. We find that a wide range of source domains, including references to, e.g. historical events, household objects, crime, religion, and medical analogies, is used to metaphorically frame CDR. These metaphors reflect actors’ competing ideologies and interests, rooted in hopeful rational-optimist and socio-ecological visions. We also discuss how metaphor use could influence public engagement and policy and reflect on how language might oversimplify or obscure critical aspects of the technology.

Consensus Messaging Shifts Beliefs About Climate Change in a Field Experiment, Rode et al., Science Communication

Previous research on climate change consensus messaging has mostly taken place in controlled lab settings. In this field experiment, we engaged U.S. residents (N = 158) in brief doorstep conversations on climate change. Research assistants read a script about the scientific consensus (treatment) or basic facts about climate change (control) and then provided participants with a magnet containing the same information. The consensus message had a significant positive effect on consensus estimates (β = 0.45) and belief in climate change (β = 0.41), but not on other downstream attitudes or behavior. These results mostly align with theory and have implications for consensus messaging.

From this week's government/NGO section:

24/7 renewables. The economics of Firm Solar and Wind, Dardour et al., The International Renewable Energy Agency

The authors show that the cost of firm renewable electricity has declined rapidly across all major technologies and markets. In high-quality solar and wind resource regions, co-located hybrid systems can already deliver round-the-clock electricity at costs competitive with - and in many cases below - those of new fossil-fuel generation. China currently defines the global cost floor, while costs in Brazil, India, South Africa, Australia, and the Gulf region are declining rapidly towards fossil-fuel cost parity. The authors identify key drivers of firm renewable costs – technology performance, resource quality and system configuration – and examine the policy levers that are proving decisive in translating cost competitiveness into deployment at scale. They conclude that the technologies are maturing, the costs are falling and the commercial demand is growing. The pace at which firm renewable electricity is deployed will be among the most consequential determinants of the global energy transition in the decade ahead.

Climate Promises, Industry Handouts. Canada’s Fossil Fuel Funding in 2025, Environmental Defence Canada

The Government of Canada has provided at least $10.2 billion in fossil fuel subsidies and public financing in 2025. Since Environmental Defence began tracking fossil fuel subsidies in 2020, the federal government has provided at least $85.2 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. This figure includes government direct spending as well as public financing through Crown corporations, such as Export Development Canada. In addition to fossil fuel subsidies, the Government of Canada provided at least $405.53 million dollars in subsidies for carbon capture and fossil fuel hydrogen projects in 2025. These technologies have failed to deliver on their promises to reduce emissions and have instead locked in further fossil fuel production. Furthermore, this figure excludes the estimated cost of the carbon capture investment tax credit, which is estimated to cost Canadians up to $5.7 billion by 2028, and up to $12.4 billion by 2035. The changes introduced in the Budget 2025 could increase the cost to Canadians by an additional $3.75 billion. In 2025, the cost of pollution from oil and gas companies operating in Canada was an estimated $56.4 billion. This figure was calculated by taking the most recent oil and gas emissions figures and multiplying with the social cost of carbon. Climate pollution created by oil and gas companies has massive costs, including health costs, property damage from extreme weather events, and decreased agricultural productivity due to changing weather patterns. The social cost of carbon helps to estimate what those costs to society are. 76 articles in 46 journals by 755 contributing authors

Physical science of climate change, effects

Intensified Stratosphere–Troposphere Ozone Transport over Asia under a High-End Climate Trajectory, Luo et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0426.1

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Global aviation contrail climate effects from 2019 to 2021, Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 10.5194/acp-24-6071-2024 68 cites.

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Observations of climate change, effects

Abrupt stream acidification and metal mobilization from permafrost degradation, Skierszkan et al., Science 10.1126/science.aea2898

Increasing exposure to compound heatwave and drought events in China during 1961–2020, Qin et al., Atmospheric Research 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109099

Two decades of urban heat intensification and exposure across 1400 cities, Naserikia et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03665-y

Wildfire Hazard in Poland in a Warming Climate: Past and Future Impact of Extreme Weather, Pi?skwar et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70439

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Multivariate extremes in lakes, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-49012-7 29 cites.

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Instrumentation & observational methods of climate change, effects

Assessing winter climate change using cumulative sub-zero temperatures, HE et al., Advances in Climate Change Research Open Access 10.1016/j.accre.2026.05.008

Critical dependence of global ocean heat monitoring on the ocean observing system, Zhu et al., Nature Climate Change 10.1038/s41558-026-02661-6

Increasing Power When Controlling Multiple Hypothesis Testing with Climate Data via Covariate Smoothing, McEvoy & McKinnon, Journal of Agricultural Biological and Environmental Statistics Open Access 10.1007/s13253-026-00738-5

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Biogeographic patterns of daily wildfire spread and extremes across North America, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1355361 19 cites.

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Modeling, simulation & projection of climate change, effects

Evolution of Compound Drought and Extreme Precipitation Events on the Tibetan Plateau, Sun et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0306.1

Statistical-dynamical downscaling of EURO-CORDEX projections to 50 m resolution: characteristic days for Baden-Württemberg under climate change, Kermarrec et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1778467

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Central-Pacific El Niño-Southern Oscillation less predictable under greenhouse warming, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-48804-1 14 cites.

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Advancement of climate & climate effects modeling, simulation & projection

Epistemic and aleatoric uncertainty quantification in weather and climate models, Mansfield & Christensen, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society Open Access 10.1002/qj.70219

Evaluating Nex-GDDP CMIP6 Models for Extreme Wet and Dry Events Over Indonesia, Kurniadi et al., International Journal of Climatology 10.1002/joc.70437

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Is Bias Correction in Dynamical Downscaling Defensible?, Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2023gl105979 24 cites.

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Cryosphere & climate change

An Extreme Antarctic Event; 2025 Was Record Low Seasonal Sea Ice and Record High Iceberg Scouring, Barnes et al., Global Change Biology Open Access 10.1111/gcb.70938

Abrupt stream acidification and metal mobilization from permafrost degradation, Skierszkan et al., Science 10.1126/science.aea2898

Constrained simulation of permafrost thermal changes from 1980 to 2018 on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Ji et al., Global and Planetary Change 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105542

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Widespread seawater intrusions beneath the grounded ice of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10.1073/pnas.2404766121 52 cites.

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Sea level & climate change

Estimating the cost of sea level rise, Sugiyama et al., DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Open Access pdf pmh:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38529

Improved closure of the global mean sea level budget from observational advances since 1960, Zheng et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.aea0652

Paleoclimate & paleogeochemistry

Diminished Ross Ice Shelf and West Antarctic Ice Sheet during Last Interglacial warming, Carter et al., Nature Geoscience Open Access 10.1038/s41561-026-01988-1

Multi-model assessment of the deglacial climatic evolution at high southern latitudes, Obase et al., Climate of the past Open Access pdf 10.5194/cp-21-1443-2025

Biology & climate change, related geochemistry

Acute temperature effects on cilia beating increase coral deoxygenation, Pacherres et al., Science Advances Open Access 10.1126/sciadv.aeg0950

An Extreme Antarctic Event; 2025 Was Record Low Seasonal Sea Ice and Record High Iceberg Scouring, Barnes et al., Global Change Biology Open Access 10.1111/gcb.70938

Climate and land use change potentially drives southern range contraction and latitudinal shift in Caucasian Lynx, Shahsavarzadeh et al., Scientific Reports Open Access 10.1038/s41598-026-54072-4

Climate change accelerates global forest deadwood dynamics, Edelmann et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03651-4

Climate-driven vegetation vulnerability in a monsoon-dominated dryland: a dual-index (kNDVI–VHI) assessment for Pakistan, Mehmood et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1745938

Flood events from climate extremes drastically shift prey energy densities, Nitschke et al., Marine Environmental Research Open Access 10.1016/j.marenvres.2026.108136

Hot days increase the risk of heat-stress-related deaths in endangered koala populations, Mella et al., Biology Letters Open Access 10.1098/rsbl.2026.0117

Resilient nekton composition in the face of climate-driven foundation species shifts, Leavitt et al., Ecology Open Access 10.1002/ecy.70397

Taxonomic and functional diversity of benthic foraminifera as a promising proxy for tidewater glacier retreat, Fossile et al., Boreas Open Access 10.1111/bor.70068

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Asymmetrical Impact of Daytime and Nighttime Warming on the Interannual Variation of Urban Spring Vegetation Phenology, Earth s Future, 10.1029/2023ef004127 20 cites.

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GHG sources & sinks, flux, related geochemistry

An Upper Bound on Carbon Emissions of Drained Peat Soil Grasslands From Satellite Radar Interferometry, Conroy & Hanssen, Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2025gl115732

Forest carbon protocols underestimate climate-driven carbon loss risks, Wu et al., Nature 10.1038/s41586-026-10571-y

Lowland tropical forests remain a methane sink under warming and long-term hurricane disturbance recovery, Conte et al., Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Open Access 10.1016/j.agrformet.2026.111225

Machine-learning-based estimates of global natural vegetated wetland methane emissions (2000–2025), Li et al., Earth system science data Open Access 10.5194/essd-18-3507-2026

Reduction of tropical cyclone-induced ocean carbon outgassing since 1993, Ye et al., Nature Geoscience 10.1038/s41561-026-01985-4

Widespread peat carbon losses driven by the 2025 Scottish megafire, Schoenecker et al., Nature Geoscience Open Access 10.1038/s41561-026-01994-3

Winter Mixing Controls Carbon Sequestration by the Biological Pump in the Subpolar North Atlantic, Fogaren et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans Open Access 10.1029/2025jc023822

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Whole-soil warming leads to substantial soil carbon emission in an alpine grassland, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-48736-w 65 cites.

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CO2 capture, sequestration science & engineering

Concerns and Questions About Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Luczak, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change Open Access 10.1002/wcc.70063

Determinants community involvement in a forest carbon sequestration initiative: a study case in Indonesia, Triana et al., Frontiers in Forests and Global Change Open Access pdf 10.3389/ffgc.2026.1770765

Economic costs of global forest protection may be overstated, Nepal et al., Nature Communications Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-026-73569-0

Impact on oysters in first-of-its-kind field trial of marine Enhanced Rock Weathering (mERW) with olivine as carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategy, Jankowska et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1851765

Vacuuming the Sky? Metaphorical Framing in News Coverage of Carbon Dioxide Removal Methods, Bruggen et al., Environmental Communication Open Access 10.1080/17524032.2026.2673348

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Taking stock of carbon dioxide removal policy in emerging economies: developments in Brazil, China, and India, Climate Policy, 10.1080/14693062.2024.2353148 14 cites.

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Decarbonization

An energy scenario for Japan towards 2040: Focused on efficiency improvements and renewable energy, Takase et al., Energy Policy 10.1016/j.enpol.2026.115398

Averting the steel carbon lock-in through strategic green investments, Bachorz et al., Nature Climate Change Open Access 10.1038/s41558-026-02635-8

High-impact weather effects on wind and solar power systems under future climate scenarios in China, Sun et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-73427-z

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Biological fermentation pilot-scale systems and evaluation for commercial viability towards sustainable biohydrogen production, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-48790-4 68 cites.

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Geoengineering climate

Artificial Flooding Leads to Thicker and Brighter Arctic Sea Ice, Blanchard?Wrigglesworth et al., Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2025ef007894

Contrasting Changes in Rainfall Structure Between Monsoon and Adjacent Dry Regions Under Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, Jiang et al., Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 10.1029/2026jd046329

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Rethinking the Susceptibility?Based Strategy for Marine Cloud Brightening Climate Intervention: Experiment With CESM2 and Its Implications, Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2024gl108860 13 cites.

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Black carbon

Sediment records reveal elevated black carbon emissions potentially amplifying Arctic snowmelt, Gong et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access pdf 10.1038/s43247-026-03654-1

Aerosols
Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Constraining effects of aerosol-cloud interaction by accounting for coupling between cloud and land surface, Science Advances, 10.1126/sciadv.adl5044 25 cites.

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Climate change communications & cognition

Climate Change Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Schäfer et al., Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change Open Access 10.1002/wcc.70073

Consensus Messaging Shifts Beliefs About Climate Change in a Field Experiment, Rode et al., Science Communication Open Access 10.1177/10755470261442409

From cognition to action: climate risk perception and corporate capital structure optimization, Fu et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1826872

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Trust in climate science and climate scientists: A narrative review, PLOS Climate, 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000400 34 cites.

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Agronomy, animal husbundry, food production & climate change

Assessing rainfall and temperature trends to guide agricultural adaptation, Msangi & Deus, Discover Agriculture Open Access pdf 10.1007/s44279-026-00607-2

Contextualizing the marginal returns of regenerative agriculture on maize performance under climate change in Nigeria, Kolapo & Sieber, Frontiers in Climate Open Access pdf 10.3389/fclim.2026.1767448

Dolomite in conjunction with straw application increased straw-derived CO2 emission while depressed soil organic carbon mineralization in two acidic paddy soils, Xu et al., Biology and Fertility of Soils 10.1007/s00374-026-02017-4

Effect of organic mulches in vineyards: CH4 and N2O emissions and their contribution to the GWP and carbon balance, Rodrigo et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science Open Access pdf 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1846259

Evaluating the Intercropping Systems in the Context of Agroecological Resilience in the Current Era of the Changing Climate: A Scenario of Scientific Analysis of Last Decade Data, Maitra et al., Climate Resilience and Sustainability Open Access 10.1002/cli2.70050

Nonlinear temperature change responses shape soil organic carbon loss-gain transitions in global Mollisol croplands, Meng et al., Nature Communications Open Access 10.1038/s41467-026-73759-w

Uncertainties in global hydrological and climate models challenge future estimates of crop water use and sustainability, Sun et al., Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 10.1038/s43247-026-03621-w

Viral mediation of anaerobic methane oxidation to carbon sequestration in paddy soil, Tong et al., Nature Geoscience 10.1038/s41561-026-01998-z

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Climate-resilient agricultural ploys can improve livelihood and food security in Eastern India, Environment Development and Sustainability, 10.1007/s10668-023-03176-2 21 cites.

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Hydrology, hydrometeorology & climate change

Decoupling Between Heavy Precipitation Expansion and Population Exposure in a Warming World, Zhou et al., Earth s Future Open Access 10.1029/2025ef007771

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Widespread societal and ecological impacts from projected Tibetan Plateau lake expansion, Nature Geoscience, 10.1038/s41561-024-01446-w 131 cites.

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Climate change economics

Achieving climate justice: climate finance and income inequality in developing countries, Li et al., Open MIND Open Access pmh:10.6084/m9.figshare.31389871

Estimating the cost of sea level rise, Sugiyama et al., DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Open Access pdf pmh:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38529

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Has climate change promoted the high-quality development of financial enterprises? Evidence from China, Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1332748 1 citation.

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Climate change and the circular economy Climate change mitigation public policy research
Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Integrated assessment modeling of a zero-emissions global transportation sector, Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-024-48424-9 99 cites.

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Climate change adaptation & adaptation public policy research

An institutional perspective on integrating climate and societal challenges in urban areas, Wöhler et al., Climate Risk Management Open Access 10.1016/j.crm.2026.100829

Reframing climate adaptation and societal collapse: governance pathways for systemic risk in the Anthropocene, Granberg & Glover, Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1825767

The public mandate for equitable climate adaptation: Evidence from Aotearoa New Zealand, Parsons et al., Environmental Science & Policy Open Access 10.1016/j.envsci.2026.104398

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
The Multi-Scalar Inequities of Climate Adaptation Finance: A Critical Review, Current Climate Change Reports, 10.1007/s40641-024-00195-7 29 cites.

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Climate change impacts on human health

Associations between climatic variables and dengue incidence in high-burden countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis, James et al., Frontiers in Climate Open Access 10.3389/fclim.2026.1804553

Climate Change Elevates the Risk of Antibiotic Resistance in Global Surface Ocean, Yuan et al., Global Change Biology 10.1111/gcb.70929

Differentiated associations of daytime and nighttime heatwaves with long-term survival: A nationwide population-based cohort in China, Liu et al., Advances in Climate Change Research Open Access 10.1016/j.accre.2026.05.009

Eroding heat resilience in South Asian cities under observed warming trends, Yadav et al., Scientific Reports Open Access 10.1038/s41598-026-55172-x

Health Impact of Climate Change on Older Adults Living With Dementia: A Scoping Review, Gurung et al., Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change 10.1002/wcc.70071

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Climate Change, Environment, and Health: The implementation and initial evaluation of a longitudinal, integrated curricular theme and novel competency framework at Harvard Medical School, PLOS Climate, 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000412 23 cites.

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Climate change & geopolitics

Climate Legislation and Global Green Development Transition: The Role of International Environmental Engagement and Government Readiness, Liu & FENG, Weather Climate and Society 10.1175/wcas-d-25-0140.1

Climate change impacts on human culture Other

Northern Hemisphere Wintertime Stratospheric Circulation Response to Smoke Injection From a Regional Nuclear Conflict, Yook et al., Geophysical Research Letters Open Access 10.1029/2026gl122395

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
Increasing frequency and lengthening season of western disturbances is linked to increasing strength and delayed northward migration of the subtropical jet, , 10.5194/egusphere-2023-1778 1 citation.

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Informed opinion, nudges & major initiatives

The subnational wedge in Paris-aligned pathways, Hsu et al., PLOS Climate Open Access 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000921

Most cited from this section, published 2 years ago:
‘Mind the Gap’—reforestation needs vs. reforestation capacity in the western United States, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1402124 28 cites.

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Book reviews

Book Review: Loss and Damage in Climate Politics, Tirivangasi, Environmental Politics 10.1080/09644016.2026.2677325

Articles/Reports from Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Addressing Aspects of Climate Change

Data Centers in California, Mark Specht and Vivian Yang, Union of Concerned Scientists

California already has many large data centers, and the state is expecting to see a surge of new data centers over the next decade. While data centers and the proliferation of AI pose a wide range of potential effects on the economy, the environment, and society, the authors focus specifically on the effects on the state’s electricity system and its ratepayers, along with policy solutions to mitigate those effects. If left unaddressed, data center growth could undermine grid reliability, slow the clean energy transition, and raise costs for ratepayers. Policymakers should require data centers to provide more transparency into their operations and pay their fair share of electricity costs. The state should additionally implement guardrails to minimize the harmful air quality effects from data center backup generation and ensure the growth of data centers does not stall clean energy progress or threaten grid reliability.

2026 State of the Market. Corporate Demand, Market Evolution, and Buyer Leadership, Corporate Energy Buyers Association

Corporate energy buyers continue to play a defining role in the evolution of clean energy markets. Despite higher power purchase agreement (PPA) and energy prices, reliability risks, and growing complexity, corporate demand for clean energy reached new heights in 2025 and early 2026. Since CEBA’s tracking began in 2014, corporate buyers have announced more than 143 gigawatts (GW) of new large-scale clean energy capacity in the United States, with back-to-back record-setting years in 2024 and 2025. Corporate buyers are no longer simply participating in the energy transition — they are shaping it.

Powering Canada Strong: A National Strategy for an Electrified Canadian Economy, Natural Resources Canada, Government of Canada

The national strategy will enable Canada to meet two initial challenges including building new infrastructure to double Canada’s electricity supply by 2050 and meet growing demand; and, accelerating electrification across the economy to support competitiveness and address climate change.

Boom and Bust Coal 2026. Tracking the global coal plant pipeline, Shearer et al., Global Energy Monitor

Boom and Bust Coal is an annual survey of the global coal fleet by Global Energy Monitor and partners. The authors analyze key trends in coal power capacity and track various stages of capacity development including planned retirements. This provides key insights into the status of the global phaseout of coal power and evaluates progress towards the world’s climate targets and commitments. The data come from GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker, an online database updated biannually that identifies and maps every known coal-fired generating unit and every new unit proposed since January 1, 2010 (30 MW and larger). In 2025, the world built more coal and used it less. New coal power capacity additions increased by 3.5% to reach one of the highest levels on record, even as coal-fired electricity generation declined by 0.6%. This gap was particularly pronounced in China and India, where wind and solar met most or all new demand, driving down coal generation even as coal plant commissioning reached decade highs. Coal capacity is increasingly maintained not as a primary source of generation, but as a form of system insurance. The U.S. stood out as the only major economy in 2025 to increase coal generation, and the total number of countries pursuing new coal development is shrinking. The central challenge heading into 2026 is not the availability of alternatives to coal, but the persistence of policy frameworks that continue to treat coal as necessary even as power systems move increasingly beyond it.

Proposed Amendments to the Cap-and-Invest Program, Legislative Analysts Office, California State Legislature

California has established statutory goals for reducing statewide GHG emissions—down to at least 40 percent below the 1990 level by 2030, and to at least 85 percent below the 1990 level by 2045. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) sets a declining, aggregate cap on the amount of GHGs allowed to be emitted under the program. CARB issues a set number of allowances each year equal to the annual cap. Entities covered by the program can comply with the program by (1) reducing their emissions, (2) purchasing allowances, or (3) purchasing offsets. Each allowance is essentially a permit to emit one ton of carbon dioxide equivalent. In September 2025, the Legislature extended and made various changes to the cap-and-invest program. These changes: (1) modified the program’s design features and allowance allocations; (2) changed the allocation of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund revenues; and (3) added reporting, evaluation, and oversight provisions. April proposed amendments include establishing the total number of allowances through 2045, including removing 118 Million allowances through 2030, but adds back up to 118 million allowances above the cap for a larger and broader Manufacturing Decarbonization Incentive.

Build Here: How Targeted State Investment in Geothermal Can Fill California’s Clean Firm Gap, Wilson Ricks and Ann Garth, Clean Air Task Force

The authors found that next-generation geothermal energy could dramatically reduce the cost of achieving California’s clean energy goals, but only if the state acts now to remove critical development barriers. The authors call on California to fund an in-field testbed program to explore and map the subsurface across high-potential geologic regions, generating the data needed to unlock large-scale private investment in next-generation geothermal development. The authors point to a proven model for unlocking next-gen development: the U.S. Department of Energy’s Utah FORGE testbed drilled a series of wells in rural Utah and publicly released the resulting subsurface data. Billions of dollars in private investment followed, including the world’s first commercial-scale enhanced geothermal systems facility, Fervo Energy’s Cape Station project, located directly adjacent to the Utah FORGE site. California now imports that zero-emission power to satisfy its own electricity demand but does not receive the economic advantages. California has the opportunity, and the geology, to direct development inside the state.

From Paper to Practice : A Practical Guide to Formulating and Institutionalizing Long-term Climate Strategies (World Bank), Sutherland et al., World Bank

This guidance note is designed to equip governments and practitioners with implementable insights and a practical how-to framework for formulating and institutionalizing long-term strategy. It focuses on formulating technically sound LTSs and addresses their institutional integration, which involves embedding long-term low-emission, climate-resilient pathways in planning, budgeting, and decision-making processes across the government so that they can be operationalized through existing policy and fiscal instruments.

Climate Promises, Industry Handouts. Canada’s Fossil Fuel Funding in 2025, Environmental Defence Canada

The Government of Canada has provided at least $10.2 billion in fossil fuel subsidies and public financing in 2025. Since Environmental Defence began tracking fossil fuel subsidies in 2020, the federal government has provided at least $85.2 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. This figure includes government direct spending as well as public financing through Crown corporations, such as Export Development Canada. In addition to fossil fuel subsidies, the Government of Canada provided at least $405.53 million dollars in subsidies for carbon capture and fossil fuel hydrogen projects in 2025. These technologies have failed to deliver on their promises to reduce emissions and have instead locked in further fossil fuel production. Furthermore, this figure excludes the estimated cost of the carbon capture investment tax credit, which is estimated to cost Canadians up to $5.7 billion by 2028, and up to $12.4 billion by 2035. The changes introduced in the Budget 2025 could increase the cost to Canadians by an additional $3.75 billion. In 2025, the cost of pollution from oil and gas companies operating in Canada was an estimated $56.4 billion. This figure was calculated by taking the most recent oil and gas emissions figures and multiplying with the social cost of carbon. Climate pollution created by oil and gas companies has massive costs, including health costs, property damage from extreme weather events, and decreased agricultural productivity due to changing weather patterns. The social cost of carbon helps to estimate what those costs to society are.

Building Europe’s alternative fuels industry for military resilience, Irina Patrahau and Ron Stoop, The Hague Center for Strategic Studies

Europe’s military readiness is increasingly tied to the resilience of its fuel supply chains. The authors warn that Europe risks replacing one strategic dependency with another unless it scales up domestic production of alternative fuels for defense. The authors examine how the 2026 Middle East oil disruption exposed Europe’s vulnerability to fuel supply shocks. Around half of the EU’s jet fuel imports originate from the Middle East, while military operations remain heavily dependent on liquid fuels such as jet fuel and diesel. The authors argue that “drop-in” fuels such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), e-SAF and e-diesel offer the most viable pathway to strengthen resilience in the short to medium term because they can be integrated into existing military infrastructure without technical modifications. However, the study finds that current production levels remain far too limited to support military needs during crisis scenarios. Existing civilian-driven expansion plans would cover only a fraction of potential wartime demand, leaving armed forces exposed to shortages and competition with civilian consumers. The authors identify three priorities for policymakers including developing a coordinated civil-military strategy for alternative fuel scale-up; treating alternative fuel plants as dual-use strategic infrastructure eligible for defense and EU funding; and establishing minimum domestic production benchmarks for fuels critical to defense readiness.

Climate change makes Arctic operations ever more complex, Lin Alexandra Mortensgaard, Danish Institute for International Studies

Climate change is already making Arctic planning and operations more complex. The notion that climate change multiplies existing threats increasingly falls short when it comes to understanding the scale, processes and the unknowns of climate change. Drawing on ongoing knowledge exchange with climate scientists, security actors could instead practice thinking in terms of types of change to avoid assuming foresight of operational and infrastructural consequences based on existing, known threats.

Built to Endure. A Smart Guide for US Cities To Build Resilient Infrastructure That Lasts, Losos et al., Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Duke University

Resilience is needed for every community to thrive in a world at increased risk of natural disasters. But small and medium-sized communities do not need expensive analyses or teams of people to get started. Resilience is achievable—even for lean municipal teams—when people, sound governance, and systems thinking are supported by increasingly accessible digital tools that help inform decisions and strengthen community outcomes. The authors offer practical, step-by-step advice for small and midsized communities to integrate resilience into their infrastructure systems. Featuring eight case studies from cities in the United States and abroad, the guidebook is meant for immediate use in the real world. The guidebook also includes a separate section—Getting Started: Practical Entry Points for Local Governments—that will jump-start the systems thinking needed to truly achieve resilience.

24/7 renewables. The economics of Firm Solar and Wind, Dardour et al., The International Renewable Energy Agency

The authors show that the cost of firm renewable electricity has declined rapidly across all major technologies and markets. In high-quality solar and wind resource regions, co-located hybrid systems can already deliver round-the-clock electricity at costs competitive with - and in many cases below - those of new fossil-fuel generation. China currently defines the global cost floor, while costs in Brazil, India, South Africa, Australia, and the Gulf region are declining rapidly towards fossil-fuel cost parity. The authors identify key drivers of firm renewable costs – technology performance, resource quality and system configuration – and examine the policy levers that are proving decisive in translating cost competitiveness into deployment at scale. They conclude that the technologies are maturing, the costs are falling and the commercial demand is growing. The pace at which firm renewable electricity is deployed will be among the most consequential determinants of the global energy transition in the decade ahead.

The AI Data Center Race and Big Tech Monopoly Power. A Policy Framework for Community Self-Determination and Democratic Accountability, Stacy Mitchell and John Farrell, The Institute for Local Self-Reliance

To consolidate control over generative AI and deepen their monopoly power, dominant tech firms are driving a wave of hyperscale data center construction that is colliding with communities nationwide. In response, the authors developed a policy framework to help communities reassert public authority, curb monopoly power, prevent public cost-shifting, and ensure digital infrastructure is developed transparently and in the public interest.

A Water Renaissance for California, Restore the Delta et al., Restore the Delta et al

California must create a new urban water renaissance: a new approach to prioritize local water and local communities in developing the reliable water supplies needed for the future. To accomplish this, California must choose to invest in local water supplies, reject sending billions of ratepayer dollars to take an ever-diminishing supply of water from the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta (Bay-Delta) and the Colorado River, and ensure adequate water to restore the Bay-Delta ecosystem and protect water quality. Following these improvements, interested parties must be brought together to work towards solutions to repair the aging levees in the Delta and the aging infrastructure of the State Water Project (SWP). Southern California and the Bay-Delta must move from conflict to collaboration to create a sustainable and reliable water supply for people and the environment. Create local drought-resistant water supplies and create resiliency. Reject costly new imported water projects. Local water supplies provide numerous benefits.

Rethinking insects as alternative protein, Verkuijl et al., Stockholm Environment Institute

Insect farming often falls short of its environmental promise. Greenhouse gas emissions generated per kilogram of protein from insect production in temperate climates vary, but they can approach those of chicken and pork, and exceed those of soymeal and fishmeal. Favorable environmental results depend on conditions rarely met in practice. Low-emission insect farming requires organic waste as feed, minimal heating and renewable energy – a combination seldom achieved in temperate countries. Insect farming reinforces conventional animal agriculture rather than replacing it. A substantial proportion of insects are farmed for feed for farmed animals and aquaculture, not to substitute for meat in human diets. The sector poses underexamined risks. Insect farming introduces potential biodiversity threats from accidental releases and emerging animal welfare concerns, given growing evidence that at least some insect species may be capable of suffering. Investment in insect farming carries opportunity costs. To date, major companies, accounting for more than a third of total investment, have failed or have entered restructuring. Resources directed towards insect protein may divert funding, policy attention, and public goodwill from plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated proteins: alternatives that may offer clearer sustainability benefits, with fewer drawbacks. About New Research

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Transcript of EWG podcast 'Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode' – Episode 57 Adam Levin May 28, 2026

What does it look like to stand on principle when everyone around you is playing it safe? In today’s episode, EWG co-Founder and President Ken Cook sits down with Rina Shah, a political commentator, GOP strategist, geopolitical risk advisor and one of the most recognized Republican voices on national television.

As a former senior Capitol Hill advisor and two-time presidential campaign chief spokesperson, Shah spent years appearing on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and nearly every major network covering politics and global affairs. But long before the television appearances and the op-eds, she was the daughter of a Ugandan refugee family that lost everything under the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin. That experience shaped everything about how she sees leadership, power and democracy.

Shah shares her family's remarkable story of survival, why she recognized the echoes of authoritarianism in President Donald Trump long before most were willing to say it out loud, and what it cost her to become the first elected Republican delegate to publicly challenge Trump’s nomination in 2016. A decade later, she’s still a Republican, still speaking out, and still refusing to let the party she loves be defined by fear and silence.

Disclaimer: This transcript was compiled using software and may include typographical errors.

Ken: I'm Ken Cook and I'm having another episode. And this is what I'm really excited about. This is a friend I've made over the internets. Over the past year and a half or so. And um, I have followed Rina Shah in her public persona, which is on just about every network television program I can think of that deals with politics, global affairs. The world of Washington. The, the world of GOP Democratic Party conflict. 

You are constantly sought for your input and your perspective and just having spent, for the first time, you know, an hour or so together, uh, in person, I can see why. And so I'm tickled you were able to make some time and, and come on and talk to me, Rina. We've got

Rina: I had to make time, for a digital friend. We had to make it IRL, so here we are. 

Ken: I'm so glad you did. Thank you. And, and there's so much to talk about. You know, one of the things that we chatted about just before the camera started rolling was sometimes I've felt like the Democratic party has left me.

Sometimes I felt like I left it. I've often identified as a bipartisan, nonpartisan in my professional life because I felt that was the best way to, to go about it. As well as abiding by the law and being nonpartisan. It just felt right. And for years, some of the best advice, some of the best support we got for environmental initiatives came from Congressional Republicans who had a conservation mindset who believed that we needed to protect nature because conserving things for the long term was a value that they held dear and so forth. 

And even today, we, we never initiate a policy idea that we don't at least try to recruit Republican interest in or talk through with Republicans, both in California and here in in DC. And we were talking beforehand about how much that had changed. And it changed even during the course of your coming of age, right?

Rina: It did. 

Ken: You had different plans, then to be someone who raised concerns about. Donald Trump in 2015 or 16. 

Rina: And continue to, to this day, warn about Trumpism. Because what I, I think has happened in my journey is I've seen the light. And I, some people find it much earlier, people find it later. For me, I was forced to find it because I went through such a dark moment.

Exactly 10 years ago, I was the first elected delegate to the Republican National Convention to buck Trump and to say that I wanted to fight his nomination. And I did so in a place that was most unusual, but certainly had the most spotlight, which was Fox News. And I didn't expect to, because when I did it, it was just a natural answer to a question.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And so that experience taught me that, you know, you think you have friends one minute, and because you've said something, they suddenly don't wanna see you or affiliate with you. And it was a political fight that actually took a legal angle as well, because I was removed from a list of democratically elected delegates to the Republican National Convention, erased by my party.

And so, uh, to my family's credit, they helped me mount a legal fight. And I didn't take it lying down. And in doing so, I was the first challenge to Trump. And, uh, the whole world, the whole nation saw it. And so I still meet people to this day who said, I know who you were. I just never knew your name or what you look like, but I knew you were the first. 

I remember I met filmmaker Michael Moore and he said, oh, I already know who you are. And there were people then, because it was the first kind of potential stop to Trump, because what my case signaled is that we could fight him on the floor of the convention and deny him the nomination to the party.

Which ultimately ended up not happening. I started basically the Free The Delegates movement. My case rather did. Other cases followed from, uh, a group of North Carolina delegates and Colorado delegates. And so I'm glad that I inspired people to do the right thing and express publicly what we felt about a man who did not, I feel, felt at the time, was not a Republican, a man who didn't seem to really show any allegiance to, to Republican party principles.

And had a lot of, I think, characteristics about him that gave me pause. Probably prime of which was, he was really somebody that looked like he saw the presidency as a, as a king. He wanted to be king. And I thought, oh, no, no. Because in my family's history, we know what that's like. On my dad's side, we were kicked out after three generations in Uganda by a dictator, by the name of, Idi Amin. And uh, we lost everything and so I grew up with my grandparents. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Because they came and lived with my father in the US. The rest of my family all became political refugees to the United Kingdom. But because my father was already here in the United States getting medical training, we were lucky enough, and my dad had really chosen America too.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: As a young boy growing up in Uganda, he knew he wanted to come to America. He, of course, he could have never predicted that we'd be kicked out after three generations. I have cousins, older cousins of mine who have Ugandan passports as their birth passport. So this is a very recent experience in my family that I have had to see what you know, the result of was. And I've had to live that experience. I always say that dictators cause intergenerational trauma because 

Ken: Yeah 

Rina: My dad had seven sisters and loads of cousins who all looked up to him and, and many of whom needed him on a monetary level too. So much of my childhood and, and even young adult life was spent seeing that and seeing kind of the shambles of, again, losing everything we had, uh, and what it does just because one man didn't like how successful we were as merchants there in Uganda and he, and he killed many, I mean, it was a genocide. 

Ken: Yeah, for sure. 

Rina: My grandfather was able to escape a camp, and again, knowing these things, knowing that the madman Ida Amin, wanted to be a dictator, I kind of just knew that anybody who behaves that way is gonna create an America that I wouldn't recognize. 

Ken: Had impulses that go in the wrong direction. And just to be clear to everybody you declare still as a Republican do, and it's not, not like you've left the Republican party. Yeah. It's more that under Trump, 

Rina: The party’s left me. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: In a way. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: In a way. Yeah. 

Ken: Yeah. Exactly. Right. 

And, and you know, just in our, you know, brief conversation before. I so admire the way you express your values, and they're not all the same as mine. But the one thing that I, that I'm really impressed by is it's sort of the inverse of betrayal, which is, you know, loyalty to principles versus betraying them for the sake of power.

And we talked a lot about that. Of course, this is a town that trades in that. Where you're, you're almost seen as a sucker if you don't know the game and play by it. Right. Uh, what kind of loser would stand up for their principles, instead of get the next job? And, and I'm just thinking you must have been, you know, at, at that point in your career, you would've seen yourself in a Republican party, like the party of the of Bush.

You would've seen yourself maybe going into government rising up in the ranks and, and, and living within the Republican values that you hold dear and serving the country in that way. But that future, 

Rina: It's not there that, that's not a reality, right. Yeah. I, I, well, I think I was telling you, all my family, or everybody in my family is a doctor.

My, my husband, my late father, both my brother and my sister. All four of my brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws, everybody has a medical degree. And I just have the greatest utmost respect for that because of course it is, I've seen their, their journeys and their tough journeys. You know, it is not only one of great sacrifice, emotionally and physically, it's a monetary sacrifice. Because going into the medical profession nowadays isn't an instant 

Ken: No. 

Rina: You know, um, sort of payday. I mean, yes, it's good money, but you gotta really want it. And I, I think I always grappled with what I really wanted and I, I looked back at some point in my, uh, young professional life and, and this was like right after college and I said, what is it I really wanna do?

And I had always loved the American presidency, and now I'm, I have the great pleasure of saying that I've actually served two US presidential campaigns at the highest level. Yeah. I've been a comms director and chief spokesperson for two of them, and they were chaotic and unsuccessful. But they were still full fledged presidential campaigns that allowed me to live outta my suitcase in many, many states, including South Carolina, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico.

I mean, learning all the things that you need to know and yeah, so I had this great life as a political operative when I left Capitol Hill, and I left Capitol Hill only in 2011. 

Ken: Yeah 

Rina: So I hadn't been a political operative for very long when I did the thing I did in 2016, so 10 years ago, I blew up my own career by bucking President Trump.

And after that, I, I think it's been a recurring question to me. What do I really want? Well, I wanna help people the way that my siblings and my husband and my dad did. And so, uh, to honor my late dad's legacy, we kept all his clinics open and, and it's just been a really great thing to be able to do that.

So, the way I see public service or having a job in government is public service to me. It's a way to change people's lives for the better. And I keep thinking about that. Well, surely there's an opportunity for me to do that again and, and every couple years I get a call from somebody saying, well, you run somewhere.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And in this past 10 years, it's been a no. Because I suffered what I suffered 10 years ago. I've lived to tell the tale, which I feel great about, and I was vindicated, of course by the impeachment decisions on Capitol Hill. And you know, I will say, I'm still able to enter the White House. So that is the testament to how America is a beautiful nation in which anything is possible. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: But I definitely worry about just the impact I could have on, um, my fellow man because I'm, I'm not able to run for something and take on a real role in, uh, in public life that I, I would've wanted prior to 10 years ago. 

Ken: Well, I, I mean, just to be clear, again, I think that the role you have in public life is more than impressive now.

Rina: Um, thank you. 

Ken: Like I say, I don't, I, I can hardly turn on the television where your, your perspective hasn't been sought by someone and for good reason. Let's talk a little bit about the whole question of how so many people made the opposite decision that you made, Rina. Saw the same things, probably thought very close to the same thing about what they were seeing in Trump.

Rina: Oh yeah. 

Ken: And yet they decided that they were going to go along or they were gonna be quiet, or they were going to look the other way. Or, or maybe they thought, and I think this was probably quite common, that they felt like someone needed to serve the interests of the public with a Republican lens and that they could do it.

And if they were in the government or if they were following along, they would get things done that would advance the greater good. Saw maybe Trumpism as more of a sideshow that they could work within. I think that was pretty common in his first term. 

Rina: Yeah. 

Ken: I think maybe some people were hiding out a little bit and maybe just liking the power and the position, but I think a lot of people really felt like, I gotta stick with this job 'cause someone worse will come in, that will bend to his will and I can — and so that became part of what Trump wanted to get rid of in his second term. 

Those RINO Republicans, right. And uncontrolled bureaucrats in the deep state. And so now, how does it all hold together for so many of those people?

And we talked about it before and I think you summarized it and just said it's power. 

Rina: Yeah. There's an obsession with power and money once you get here. It's exactly like what you see in the movies. It's disturbing to actually be able to have to, you know, say that that, that it is on that level. The sort of mental, I think acrobatics that have to take place 

Ken: Yeah.

Rina: Are kind of mind boggling to me when I see people working through a lot of, what are illogical pathways to an answer under this administration? Because a lot of what this administration puts out, it, it just doesn't make sense. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Take for example, the tariffs. 

Ken: The tariffs, and we have to, we have to tell everyone. You were one of the name plaintiffs. In the tariff case, then you opposing Trump's tariffs and, um, congratulations on winning at the Supreme Court among many others. 

Rina: Yeah. The team definitely, uh, deserves a credit. I was actually named in the amicus brief, so I can't take full credit, but, uh, but def, defending democracy together.

Neal Katyal, uh, Norm Eisen. These are giants. I think if, if you're not following them, uh, you're missing out because they make the most coherent arguments. And I think that's, that's where we're at. You just have to, in the face of this nonsense, you have to sort of very squarely and coherently say, no, this is what's what.

And so that tariff case, the one that I was in the amicus brief for, was, um, with many other Republicans, I must add. Former congresswoman from Virginia, Barbara Comstock. Uh, there were some folks from the Nixon administration, Reagan administration. So you can tell these are long time.

Ken: My people.

Rina: Yes. I mean, I was gonna say, come on now. Experience learned, people who care a lot about principles and values. So yes, you, I have figured that out in our friendship. Ken, you just, you, you seem to understand that at no point does one need to turn their back on what they've been saying all along. No, because then that makes you completely untrustworthy.

And what kinda leader are you then? There have been any many times I've, I've looked at sort of my trajectory and thought, well, is this. I'm a businesswoman now. I have a firm, I get clients, we do geopolitical risk advisory services. These are, I'm selling something to companies. So, uh, a lot of what I'm out there saying could endanger some of their businesses, but that is why I decided to do all of this under non-disclosure agreements.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: But I had to get creative to save myself. To be able to continue to earn money. That kind of bothers me at the end of the day. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: I shouldn't. A person that's been a two time senior Capitol Hill advisor and a two time presidential campaign chief spokesperson should not have to worry about where their next job is gonna be.

And so, um, fortunately I've kept my firm running, but, but back to the tariffs case, because I, I wanna bring that together and say, I was a, a, a creature of Congress and why I signed onto this case is because the case hinged entirely on Trump not having the authority to impose these tariffs. That Congress has the actual authority.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: You know, I know most Americans don't think about Article One. But when you start to kind of, even at the surface level, like start to follow some of these people, you'll see very plainly what is at stake in the, in the Trump era, and it's some of the most decent common stuff. So the fact that we had to do a case for something so simple just really made me livid.

Uh, and, and I was named in the case that was actually Learning Resources, which is a toy company they brought first. And, and so a 

Ken: A toy company,?

Rina: I love this toy company, right? Yeah. I bought the toys well before I, they brought this case and so. I noticed their, their toys were pretty good quality. I noticed at times they were not made in the USA, but that's kind of the norm these days.

And um, most millennial moms like me will say most everything we've been buying since we first find out we're pregnant, is made offshore, made in China, made somewhere else and, and it's been really discouraging and I, and I get what the president has been trying to say, make in America, but you can't snap your fingers and do it right away.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: I am concerned, yes. About what's going into our landfills. I'm concerned about this consumption centric culture. But I don't think the president is concerned about those things. 

Ken: No. 

Rina: I think he's trying to negotiate better trade deals. He's had plenty of time to do so and he hasn't. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: So I was glad we were successful with this case.

People say, well, he turned around and said the next day he's gonna issue a 15% global tariff and, and sure he can do that under another temporary order. But even experts are saying that they don't think he has the right to do so. 

Ken: It won't hold either. 

Rina: Yeah. So I was I, to that end, I was like, we'll fight him anywhere and any time and anyhow.

Yeah, because yeah. He's not doing things that he has the authority to do. That is what we, the American people have the right to do is to stand up against that. And so a lot of this is hard for me to talk about, Ken, to be real honest. 

Ken: I, I understand. '

Rina: ‘Cause I'm a bridge builder. I'm not a real fighter where I'm like, yeah, we're gonna get him, we're gonna tear him down.

Ken: We're gonna, we're gonna defeat. 

Rina: Yeah. Time to shred this guy, you know? I'm not that type. And I, I guess people would say, well, what kind of political operative were you? Well, probably not a great one, you know? I mean, I, I gave it my all, but I am a lover, not a fighter. I, I care about building bridges and I think it's so obvious to me in this moment we need to do that because we’ve become completely polarized.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And uh, the people on the right are just defending nonsense every day of the week in the name of sticking it to the other side. 

Ken: Yeah. Yeah. And being loyal to Trump. I noticed the distinction he made with, uh, Erika Kirk, where she said she forgave even the person who shot her husband and, uh, said, you know, spoke about embracing and loving, uh, even the most vile direct enemies, and Trump got up at the same ceremony and said, he likes to hate his. 

Rina: Yeah. It's, it's completely bizarre how those kind of people remain around him when he says the kind of things that we teach our children not to say. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: The kind of things we would never utter in a meeting. We've just allowed our, our, you know, the head of our executive branch, who by the way doesn't recognize that he is co-equal to the legislative branch.

I mean, you can't normalize this. There's not any degree of what he says that I can feel proud of, and I think that's. Real tragic because the American presidency is a place where you genuinely look up to for direction. When the country feels lost, I mean, I was very young on 9/11, but I remember Bush two leading us, George W. Bush

Ken: He rose to the moment 

Rina: For what it was, he was able to do that. And there were plenty of times President Obama did too. I, because I think what I, I, we were discussing earlier, right? Is that sense that those guys cared? 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: They showed care. Yeah. Trump actually shows the opposite in so many of his interactions, he's showing you how little he cares. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: He wants you to know that he's got something more important than that. And, and that is another instance in which I have to wonder what kind of impact is this gonna have on the next generation of Americans? Gen Alpha? I don't know what that's gonna do to their brains about how they see government. Elected office. Do they see that

Ken: Civic discourse? 

Rina: Yeah. What is leadership to them? Is leadership just being in the role and then behaving any which way you see fit? 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: That to me is even worse because so much of the work you've done, I love that we connect on this, is that you know you wanna treat things, people around you well, right?

If you're not even treating the people around you, well, are you treating this earth we've inherited? Well, no, I don't think so. 

Ken: And I, I came up in a time where some of the best advice I got certainly in Washington to try and get legislation passed or try and build bridges, as you were saying, came from Republicans who would pull you aside and and say, look, here's how to approach some of my members who don't maybe agree with you or even with me.

Try these arguments, see this person first, and if that person agrees. Basic coaching, because the goal was to do something that was good for the conservation of natural resources, the protection of the environment. It doesn't get more conservative than that. You know now so many of those impulses because they run against what Trump says, you know, that windmills cause cancer and we have to keep producing unlimited amounts of coal and oil, uh, because they're all clean and solar panels are dangerous.

All this stuff that he's saying. And then the deregulatory efforts, uh, for climate change and clean water, clean air. I know there are Republicans on Capitol Hill. I know it. Who object to this, but they dare not speak out. 

Rina: They don't wanna be primaried, they don't want to be in his cross hairs, because with that comes public attention.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: So many of them don't want that. Um, because then it trickles down to their families too. And it is, every time Trump pours a little bit of gasoline on a fire, it just doesn't turn into a small fire or even one that's a house fire. It's, it becomes a blazing inferno. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And that's what each one of them fear is that inferno will take them down in a different way.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: But at the same time, what you're seeing is a complete capitulation to a man who acts as if he's king. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Like I said, kind of doing things under temporary orders, which he doesn't even have the right to do. And so everything goes to the courts. And I trust the courts. I'm somebody that has always believed that the courts give me at least hope.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Um, because the courts have saved us from a lot of terrible things in this republic. But again, in a representative democracy like ours, 'cause that is what we are, we have trust in these men and women to go up there and speak the minds of their constituents. And their constituents all aren't one party and they all aren't one demographic.

And so it's almost like they've been derelict of their duty in not speaking up against Trump and just kind of keeping their heads down and ho hum doing the job. I think a lot of them do that too. Well, I think this is a problem across the political spectrum. They remain in office just because of the money and the power.

Ken: The entourage, the attention.

Rina: Awards for doing nothing almost. I mean it's, it's kind of laughable that we've created an entire class of Americans that are above the average retirement age in this country, which is somewhere between 61 and 67. Whole crop of folks that go to Congress and stay out how? Oh, wait until death. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: I mean, it is, it is just, 

Ken: They get, they have to be carried out. 

Rina: Yeah. So many people look at Congress and feel kind of betrayed and, and that there's no hope in it anymore because they know these people just stay to become fat cats. I mean, genuinely, if you're not leaving, what are you doing?

And, and I, I think term limits I can, the best case I've heard against them is that, well, it doesn't leave people enough time to come and have the impact they wanna have. Like, so be it. So then they're gonna be forced to try to have that impact in a shorter, truncated timeline. But really going back to kind of what these people are consumed with, the fact that there's no ban on insider trading is a huge tell.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: The fact that so many of their net worth just grows and grows and grows over the years, though they've held no other jobs outside. 

Ken: And we know what they make. 

Rina: Indeed. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And then, uh, just a real desire to be relevant. I think that's why so many of them don't leave. 'Cause they fear again, won't have that, that fanfare that they're so used to.

Ken: Yeah

Rina: It, it's almost like a coming down off of that. But that's not mine and your problem. We are the taxpayers who pay for them to go up there and really advocate for us. How many of them advocate for us anymore? 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And I don't even know that they're advocating for the right thing. I mean, there were good Republicans who were so concerned about Trump and the Paris Accords and, and this horrible hand.

Ken: The climate, the climate, international climate accords.

Rina: Exactly. Just the flat out denial he's done of climate change. That, that 

Ken: It's a hoax, 

Rina: It's a sickening thing when you know that there, even in my beautiful Native West Virginia, there are rivers and streams that are contaminated with literal poison. Toxins that are causing people to get sick. So why do we have a president that is again, doing this?

And to answer my own question, it's because he knows that distraction is the best way to slip other things through. 

Ken: Yeah. Yeah. One of the moments when I, I really sort of thought this second term was going to be bad, was in the consideration of the great Big Beautiful Bill. 

When all of the investments that had been made under the Biden administration in red states for clean energy, battery plants, uh, electric vehicles, all manner of investments that were being made in red states. And there were plenty of Republicans going to the ribbon cuttings. It was gonna be more jobs, it was gonna be more tax revenue. All good things. They didn't vote for the bill, but that's okay.

Biden, you know, Biden kind of gave him a wink and said, I know you didn't vote for it. This is an American 

Rina: Oh yeah. 

Ken: Effort to, you know, to green our energy supplies and compete with China. But when, when Trump came in and just, you know, just said, it's all a hoax and we have to end everything that Biden invested in, even in Republican districts and states, they just, so many of 'em just stayed silent. 

Rina: I mean, hundreds of billions of funds, public, private funds. And um disproportionately 

Ken: And jobs. 

Rina: Right. And disproportionately going to red states. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: I mean, the logic there would be okay, just kinda let that one go. People you know, over time will, will figure out that these are there, I'm looking at where were the top districts that saw most, uh, of the billions in factories, like EVs and uh, and solar and batteries. These were deeply red. In Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Texas. I mean, when you're creating jobs in rural and suburban red communities and you're not saying anything about those people not having voted for it, I think that's a true statesmanlike stance.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And I think that's what we can credit Biden for, but when we're talking about there being no lasting political insulation for that, that's a real missed opportunity on the Trump administration's part.

Ken: I felt like it was, I, I thought that would really undercut a lot of environmentalists and Democrats.

You know, it, it just didn't cross my mind. I mean, I have seen over, over years I've seen. You know, the tea parties say, well, we shouldn't even build highways.  

Rina: Yeah. 

Ken: Block the highway bill. But this is something very different. And I've taken a lot of this Trump stuff very seriously. It's, people have commented on it. But that's, that's how I do my environmental policy and politicking. 

Rina: I love that, Ken, because why wouldn't you take it seriously? This is about how 

Ken: How could you not. 

Rina: The country and, and what you just said right there again, the missed opportunity on, on economy and jobs and growth. This is should be nonpartisan.

Ken: Totally. And it's the cheapest energy now, right? I mean, we're going back to coal that costs more. Didn't used to, but it does now. 

Rina: Right. I just think that it's, it's nonsensical — that these leaders resisted preserving these subsidies. 

Ken: Yeah.

Rina: Constituents, I hope, tell some of these people how they feel, but I do think most people are tuning in.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Because they, they're tired of the chaos and, and Trump knows that too. He knows when it's too chaotic. Everybody's not tuning in fully. And in fact they're tuning out because they're sort of like, okay, it's too much. 

Ken: Yeah, 

Rina: It's too much. 

Ken: I'll live my life somehow without that channel. 

Rina: I mean, with the Biden stuff, there was no chaos.

So that's why I think. The mainstream media zeroed in on his health so vehemently obviously he was in decline. 

Ken: Mm-hmm. 

Rina: Not everybody makes it to the age of 80 and behaves the same. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: I, I was in shock the other evening to see Trump at the podium in the House of Representatives for the state, uh, state of the Union, because he's not that much younger than Biden.

Ken: Right. 

Rina: And the fact that he seemed very perky and no letting up on the gas. Uh, that was surprising to me. But again, aging hits different people differently. Everyone's different. Yeah. I just think that because the Biden administration didn't engage in the chaos strategy that this administration deploys every day of the week, then 

Ken: That's interesting.

Rina: They were able to unfortunately have a target on their back. 

Ken: Yeah. One of the things that caught my eye, uh, with you in the last couple of years, and there've been many 'cause I see you all, like I say, I see you all the time on my screen, was when you raise concerns about RFK Junior as the nominee for HHS, and you know, you're, you're someone who trained in as to the master's level in public health.

So you might well have been someone who rose through the ranks if you'd gone into government and been a high official now at HHS or FDA or whatever. And we would've been well served by your, our attitude to build bridges and, and compromise, if, if we'd had that. So say a little bit about speaking out on Kennedy's nomination.

We, of course we opposed it here for a lot of different reasons, but what caught your eye there? He seems very like Trump in many ways. Uh, and the way he approaches debates by just making them go away. Or like, instead of, you know, having gold standard science, which would mean a scientific debate, just firing scientists who disagree with them.

What was your early warning sign? As someone with some public health background and a family of doctors. They must have been calling you up. Say this is a disaster. 

Rina: Well, I th, I think they know that I'm, I'm very, very much, uh, disturbed by the a Secretary Kennedy. I still believe Trump should rescind him because — the vaccine stance.

Ken: Yeah, the vaccine stance. I agree.

Rina: Toughest one for me. And it's, it's personal actually. My, my late dad, um, was a polio survivor. And so, uh, a lot of why dad passed away is 'cause he had post-polio syndrome, which weakens your, your muscles. Uh, internally. 

Ken: Yeah, yeah. 

Rina: And, um, he contracted polio at age three in Africa at a time where people here in the US were getting polio vaccine, my dad was not. He was a surgeon. He was able to operate for eight hours at a time. His right shoe was built up, uh, because his leg was shorter. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And so every one of his shoes were built up and, and yes, it was absolutely amazing. He was a real life Superman, just knowing that if he'd had access to that vaccine. That wouldn't have been a story. And maybe he'd still be with us today. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And so I, I think for dad, if he were alive today, he'd be completely gobsmacked, by the idea of this Kennedy, in, you know, in a cabinet role, telling Americans that vaccines are not safe. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: With the measles outbreak in Texas.

Ken: And South Carolina, even now, there were up to a thousand cases there.

Rina: Right. I, I mean, it's just a really disturbing, disturbing thing. I mean, he, I know RFK Jr has brought attention to a lot of under-discussed issues. Chronic illness, the roots of those, uh, illnesses. Uh, environmental toxins, obviously. Food additives. 

Ken: Yeah, yeah. 

Rina: Food system reform. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: You know, I know these are areas where EWG, you are champions, but he's also shifted the conversation in the Republican party towards health is a core issue, which means something. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: But again, kind of, not just softly or indirectly pointing to that crowd of generally homeschooling mothers who are nervous about whatever vaccine for their kids. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: He's elevated those people. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: To the point where I don't think the criticisms he gets are unfounded.

I'm, I'm glad he's seeing a lot of challenges because in, in the polling that I've seen, people are showing that they are concerned about his performance. 

Ken: They're very concerned. 

Rina: It's a mixed bag. 

Ken: After all his criticism of the medical profession, parents still trust their doctors. 

Rina: Yeah.  

Ken: They mistrust him on vaccine policy. 

Rina: Yeah. 60% overall disapprove in KFF data. 

Ken: Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because time, and again, Kennedy will say that the, the medical profession's been corrupted by Big Pharma and so forth, and yet he'll always fall back on the point that you should just have a conversation with your doctor.

Well, where are all these crooked doctors then. Why are they, what's not fitting together here? And, you know, people do trust their family doctor, and, you know, none of the doctors in your family are making money by what they prescribe. 

Rina: No. No, they're not. Absolutely not. And I think that's, that's a huge misconception.

And, and certainly there was a point in time where the pharmaceutical industry had a choke hold on American doctors. Yeah. I mean, seventies, eighties. I remember when I, I was born in the eighties, but. There were, you know, reps that were, their sole job was to entertain the doctor and his family 

Ken: Yes, of course.

Rina: And take them on these lavish vacations. And all this, and give them all this swag. So in my own home I remember there being like Cipro pens and stuff like that. And I just remember like my, my dad was not a prescriber, like in that way. Of course he prescribed, but he was a surgeon more. 

So, you know, he didn't have the challenges his friends who were internal medicines had. I would go over to some of my dad and mom's friends' houses and they were, you know, family physicians or internists. I mean, everything would be drug company, like the Post-It notes even. 

Ken: Yeah. Yeah. 

Rina: So that branding came from, yes, them wanting doctors to prescribe their stuff and there was a heavy hand on that. But there's been serious legislation over the past 25 to 35 years. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: That has really made it difficult for a doctor to be genuinely owned by a pharmaceutical company. I mean, there, there are certain areas, pain and addiction medicine where.

You know, people could make some claims, but I mean that, we are such a litigious society, let me put it that way. That I, I don't think we're seeing in American medicine what we saw years ago. Uh, you are seeing because it's a, a, actually, actually not as lucrative as it used to be. You are seeing a more of a, a servant minded physician leader go in.

Ken: Yeah, that's been my impression. 

Rina: Yeah. It's been really fascinating.  

Ken: And you see them online now. More of them. Some, oftentimes speaking out against things Kennedy has said, and I'm encouraged by, you know, doctors in everyday life just saying, okay, I'm gonna turn on the camera and I'm gonna.

Rina: I think they should.

Ken: Talk about my lived experience.

Rina: Yeah, you know, uh, we should definitely meet, uh, Dr. Vin Gupta, who's up in New York City. I think a frequent guest on MS Now. 

Ken: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Rina: He's great. He's got a real service mind too, and I think 

Ken: Absolutely. 

Rina: He happens to be also of Indian descent like me. I think for many of us who grew up with fathers or mothers who were in the service profession. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And, and my mom ran my dad's clinics for many years. Yeah. And in addition to a, a, a very large staff, it was about this do good, you know, do good for your fellow man. Particularly in impoverished areas where, where we've had rural clinics, I mean, you see people come in that haven't had access to a hot meal or a hot shower, you know, they've got a lot of things going on, uh, malnourished people.

And, and all you can say is that that is the place where, you know, we need to be talking most about how to really make sure we strengthen the safety net in this country. I think that is the one thing that this administration has disappointed me greatly in the second term on — it's a lack of regard for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.

Ken: Yeah. I'm very worried about that. 

Rina: Government's job is to help those that can't help themselves. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: The young, the poor, the, the sick and the elderly. 

Ken: And in many cases there, you know, there's significant overlap with environmental pollution — those are the, the communities that are most afflicted.

They're the communities where they often are underinsured or uninsured. They won't have access to the same safety net that had a year ago because of some of the changes in the, in the law last year. And I've said to several people, environmental protection in some ways is built on the control of infectious disease by public health professionals.

That allows us to worry now about environmental pollution and its chronic, uh, effects on health because we, we have this baseline that's been taken care of. That's driven by acceptable vaccination rates and protection against measles and polio and mumps and and so forth. If that starts to erode, the public health profession's not gonna say, well, we need to keep focused on lead poisoning or some of these more complex environmental exposures.

They're gonna rush to the emergency, and the emergency is going to be measles, it's going to be mumps, it's going to be pertussis, it's going to be all those diseases that we can control with vaccines.

Rina: I just think to continue to paint out doctors is a problem, is a really terrible thing that RFK Jr. is doing because.

There is no greater trust, and this, again, another nonpartisan view than the relationship. And, and it, it's a trust relationship between a patient and a doctor. 

Ken: A hundred percent

Rina: Or any provider, even if you've got a nurse practitioner. I think he's, he's really by not having any formal training. I, I think he's doing a real disservice to the country.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And that's why I had, um, I had said, uh, I believe on CNN, that I believe that Dr. Marty Macari or Dr. Scott Gottlieb would've been better people and could still be if Trump chooses to rescind this guy. Because I'm not entirely sold that he is a bridge to getting independence to become Republicans. No, I mean, he is just, he is somebody who's distracting from the priorities that this country has on a public health level.

Ken: Yeah. We'll have to see what the midterms bring, but I 

Rina: Oh yeah. 

Ken: We've been commenting quite a bit on social media lately that his decision to support Trump in the executive order to make more of this weed killer glyphosate by under, you know, defense authorization conditions. A lot of Maha moms feel really betrayed by that. And they’re right to feel betrayed. 

Rina: I was very excited about the MAHA movement at first. It's vaccines that's turned me completely off. I actually even attended a MAHA Roundtable. 

And so I got the invitation for the second one, but it was, um, oh, it was on the epidemic of vaccine injury.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And I was a total, whew. 

Ken: Hard no. 

Rina: Yeah, because it's like really? Because the one I was at was really good. It was about school lunches. And these were really great moms who were up there talking about how they're getting everything local from, the meats even. And 

Ken: So exciting. 

Rina: It, super exciting.

I had meant to stay for like 20 minutes just to see what it was all about. I ended up seeing like an hour and a half, 'cause it's a great concern to me. I have children. And my children are very small and I, I don't get much right in motherhood. In fact, every day I think I'm being a hashtag bad mom.

But, I do pride myself on making their lunches and snacks fresh every day. And they are in, um, Planet Box, which are, it's a great company. I love them. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Yeah. Uh, I've been using Planet Box for years and, and these are just stainless steel reusable, so easy with my faucet just to wash them quickly.

Absolutely. I, I don't have these plastic things that I'm putting in a dishwasher worried about. 

Ken: The microplastics and all the rest, 

Rina: The chemicals. None of it

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And my kids know, I even send dipping sauces and little stainless steel. They know their, their utensils are stainless steel. 

Ken: So if you're, you're just, you're basically saying if something opens up here at EWG, you'd be a good, you'd be a good candidate.

Rina: I'm a big fan.

Ken: I think you might be 

Rina: My kids even eat off of stainless steel plates, I, I'm just so concerned about kind of, all of the leaching of the toxins. Coming off the, the materials that we have just normalized for ourselves and giving these tiny, tiny babies, these all plastic bottles. I mean, when I was growing up, we just didn't even have anything that had that many components.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And sure we weren't taking water bottles to school.  

Ken: No, no. 

Rina: We were drinking from water fountains

Ken: No. When did we get so thirsty? Exactly. Well, you know, and, and I have to say, we look at the MAHA Moms and except for the vaccine part, which we looked the other way from. I regret that now I should have paid more attention to what was happening with that dynamic.

But they're EWG people in many ways, right? They, they're worried about what's in their food, their air, their water. They don't want to have tons of ultra processed food. They want to make sure that we have a food environment, as it were, that offers other choices that are affordable and accessible.

All good things, not things Kennedy worked on directly before he went to support Trump, by the way. He was not a food policy guy, we never saw him in those debates. But still, he got the idea and it allowed him to not talk about vaccines during the campaign, which I think they didn't want him to do. 

But now it is, it has turned out that it's harder to make lasting real change in food policy. Most of the jurisdiction for environmental protection is not under Kennedy, and they're deregulating just as fast and deeply as they can over at EPA, uh, and energy and interior. So he's brought along a lot of people with big promises and one after another, at least by my estimation, I think even in vaccines, ultimately it won't pan out. 

I think ultimately, the decisions he's making defacto now, will be overrun by the march of science, ultimately. So he can make the decisions now 'cause by fiat because he has that power. But in order for them to really stick, he really does have to have gold standard science and go up against the best scientific minds that have a different approach.

And that's how you resolve these debates, not by firing the scientists that disagree with you, you. 

Rina: Evidence is so important. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: I mean, I remember when Obama and and Bush would come out even with charts, I mean, that wasn't uncommon. This president doesn't bring a single shred of evidence that is normal.

Ken: They don't show their work. 

Rina: No, they don't. And if they do put up a picture or a graph or something, it's highly questionable. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Because let's not forget, this is a president that lied about his inauguration numbers in the first term 

Ken: From the start? Yeah. Like day one. Yeah. And then he got his press secretary 

Rina: To double down.

Ken: To double down. And that's the dynamic that is, has been more than anything disheartening to me knowing so many Republicans here in Washington and in just in life. I know so many of them. I know you're disappointed to see people not speaking truth to power. Just, just running for, for cover. 

Rina: Well, I always say I stay in the Republican party to be an agent for good and change.

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Because what happened to me 10 years ago, easily could have pushed me out of the party and I could have said, I'm an independent now, I'm a Democrat now. We're a multi-party system. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Or so we like to think. But the reality is we are a duopoly. And yes, the independents are growing in number. When you live in this town, you kind of have to pick a side and I, I don't wanna be pushed out, I'll tell you that.

I'm, maybe I'm a little too arrogant on that piece.  

Ken: You don't strike me as the kind of person that's pushed out very easily. 

Rina: Exactly. 

Ken: I think you got that from mom and dad too. 

Rina: I think I did. And it was, you know, one of those moments where I had to say, is this worth fighting for? And now 10 years later, I can absolutely say it was because I stood up for what I believed in.

I stood up against an injustice, what was wrong. They had no right to do that when I had become the number two vote getter. Out of 160 people a ballot. And so I, I just knew that I had to stand my ground. But in standing my ground, in this town, I've also realized a few things — is that there are people here who will keep their mouths shut because they are tired of having to defend their decision.

And also because their decision was one that was more about being against the other side than being for this side. That's kind of what I've seen with many a Republican who supports Trump, uh, that may even go and work in one of these agencies. The way I, I see them, these people, is that they feel that they aren't able to do anything outside of what they've got their sight set on.

So they'll do it, but they'll stay quiet about the tough stuff. Because why rock the boat for themselves? Why ruin a good thing, when this is probably a job that has a nice price tag attached? You know this, there's a lot of power and money concern in this town because it all leads back to somewhere. And as humans, I get it.

We wanna be tribal. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: I mean, I know there's a growing crop of us that are anti-Trump. Uh, particularly with my organization, our Republican legacy, which, uh, Senator Jack Danforth of Missouri, Missouri and I we're, we've, uh, he created the org. He and some others. He is, uh, right now our, our figurehead and just a gem of a, a human.

Ken: Yeah, he is, of course. 

Rina: He's got so much fight in him. He, uh, he asked me to co-author a Wall Street Journal op-ed with him this past fall in October. It was, um, titled Republicans, uh, ditch MAGA and, and so, you know, we were sort of making the case as to why Republicans need to abandon. 

Ken: Take their party back

Rina: Yeah. And I, I think there's a growing sense that we can do it because Trump can't be here forever. And, uh, if he tries there's certain things in the Constitution that prohibit him from doing so. But I also believe that there are people out there who don't feel that JD Vance, the vice president, has what it takes to be 

Ken: The successor.

Rina: Mm-hmm. The, yeah, to be the person who carries the mantle for, for Trumpism or MAGA or for MAHA, like he just doesn't have it. But certainly from a lot more people, I do hear that there was a silent Trump voter this last time. And many women my age, you know? Who would never tell you that they did. 

Ken: Yeah.

Rina: Because they felt so betrayed by Biden on the economy. Now here we sit. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: Over a year out from Trump having taken office and we see the economy isn't any better. 

Ken: No. 

Rina: So I think voters are hungry for not just a bridge builder, but somebody that's gonna really roll their sleeves up and get it done and be creative policy-wise.

Not do this nonsensical stuff of, let me just issue these tariffs across the board. And if you're really aiming at China, why aren't the tariffs against them much higher? 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: So he's not ever able to explain to the American people why he does what he does. 

Ken: Yeah. 

Rina: And the next, uh, leader of the Republican Party, I think will have that. Will have to explain. 

Ken: Well, let's hope so. Um, and I just wanna thank you and, and tell you how much I admire your courage and uh, your consistency. It's inspirational. I'm not one who thinks institutions protect themselves. I think institutions a, actually, are very malleable, and that the only thing that matters is the people in them.

You know, you, you just decided to stand up and say, no, this, you know, the way our process works, I should be represented. I earned the votes and refused to believe otherwise when you were challenged because you have the evidence. So I look forward to the day when Republicans like you are the ones in charge.

When we can have these conversations about all manner of issues and come out the other side and not just be friends, but be allies for the common good, 'cause that's how you strike me, my friend. I'm so grateful that you took some time to be on the show with me today. 

Rina: For having me here and you give me hope that wherever there's a wrong, there'll be somebody who makes it right, 'cause that's what you've been doing in your work and in your life. So thank you.

Ken: Thank you. It's good to be in the foxhole with you.

Rina: Indeed. Thanks again.

Areas of Focus Food & Water Ultra-Processed Foods May 28, 2026

Op-Ed by Victoria Higgins, CCAN Action Fund’s Virginia Director, initially published in Richmond Times Dispatch.

 

Make it make sense: At a time when Virginians’ bills are being hit by soaring fuel costs, yet again tied to never-ending wars overseas, Dominion is proposing what would be the second-largest gas plant in the United States. Never mind that clean energy is both cheaper and its fuel-free, unlimited and unaffected by foreign affairs. You and I will finance this unnecessary three-gigawatt behemoth in Cumberland County, and AI data centers will use the electricity.

Dominion keeps repeating the false claim that “Virginians” are using more electricity. It’s simply not true — residential electricity demand is relatively unchanged in recent years. Over 90% of projected demand is from data centers. In the absence of Big Tech leeching ever more electricity from our collective grid, the insanely oversized Cumberland Gas Plant would look even more like what it is — a cash grab.

It’s a winning formula if you’re a wealthy CEO like Bob Blue, who in 2025 made $15,219,108, including a $4.5 million bonus and $9 million in stock awards. Data centers increase statewide electric demand, your company builds enormously expensive gas infrastructure to serve them, and captive Virginia customers pay you back, plus a handsome profit. Better yet, all of the risk of volatile gas fuel costs goes directly to households and other electric customers.

So if you’re already struggling to pay — or not paying, and risking eviction in one of the highest eviction-rate states in the country — your electric bill, well, that’s a bummer. Dominion is about to add more fuel charges, and on top of that, it wants you to finance their newest enormous gas plant, plus interest, to serve data center electric demand. It’s all just cash under the mattress to Bob Blue and Mark Zuckerberg.

Exactly how much will this gargantuan plant cost you and me? We don’t have the exact numbers yet, but consider that the recently approved 1-gigawatt Chesterfield gas plant, large for a gas plant but diminutive in comparison to Cumberland, is projected to cost ratepayers over $8 billion once fuel and Dominion profits are added to already billion-dollar construction costs. Common sense would indicate that Cumberland, three times as large, could cost us three times as much. Just checking — could you and your neighbors maybe cobble together $24 billion? Zuckerberg and friends could really use the favor.

To add injury to insult, on top of the added costs to your electric bill, gas plants like Chesterfield and Cumberland are an insidious, often invisible adder to annual healthcare costs. Indeed, a Southern Environmental Law Center report found that pollutants like fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the smaller Chesterfield plant would saddle Virginians with an additional $3.5 billion in health costs.

A few years ago, the war in Ukraine sent gas costs spiking. We will continue to pay those fuel costs for decades, because policymakers chose to spread them out over time as opposed to causing sudden short-term increases. This was, of course, before data center demand caused massive short-term increases anyway.

Now, the United States’ foray in Iran has caused oil and gas costs to once again skyrocket (by the way, Shell reported $7 billion in profit last quarter, up 24% from last year). So long as Dominion continues to choose volatile, costly gas over local, affordable clean energy, these deferred fuel costs will continue to stack onto one another for decades — locking today’s foreign conflicts into decades and decades of high energy bills.

What’s maddening is that there is very clearly a better way. Clean energy has rapidly become the lowest-cost source of electricity in the world, with solar and wind costs falling dramatically over the past decade. The International Energy Agency has called solar power “the cheapest electricity in history.” As technology improves and battery storage becomes cheaper, experts expect clean energy prices to continue declining, making renewable power even more affordable for homes and businesses.

The good news is that Virginia lawmakers have wisely chosen to chart a long-term path towards a more stable, clean energy future, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger has made energy affordability a major focus of her tenure. But decision points like Chesterfield and Cumberland test policymakers’ commitment to affordability in real time. Virginia families quite literally cannot afford to keep shelling out billions for corporate profits, volatile fuel prices and endless new data center demand. We must ask that these policies and campaign commitments to people over corporate profit hold fast.

Op-Ed by Victoria Higgins, CCAN Action Fund’s Virginia Director, initially published in Richmond Times Dispatch.

About the author: Victoria Higgins is the Virginia Director for CCAN Action Fund. Her career in environmental advocacy began with Green Corps, a rigorous training program for environmental organizers.

She worked on campaigns with Mighty Earth, Conservation Colorado, and Environment Virginia to hold corporate polluters accountable, pass state climate policy, and limit plastic pollution in Virginia’s waterways.

She received a Master of Science in Energy Policy and Climate at Johns Hopkins University. 

The post Why Virginians Are Paying Billions for Dominion’s Data Center Gas Plant  appeared first on Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Legal papers have been submitted to the High Court in a legal challenge against plans for lower-volume fracking at an oil and gas site in East Yorkshire.

Campaigners opposed to the West Newton oil and gas site in East Yorkshire.
Photo: West Newton Said No

The case, brought by local campaigner Peter Lomas, seeks to quash the Environment Agency’s decision to permit the operation at the West Newton-A site in Holderness.

The site operator, Rathlin Energy, plans to inject liquid and proppant into the West Newton-A2 well at pressures high enough to fracture surrounding rocks.

The operation is intended to make oil and gas flow more readily to the surface and allow the commercial exploitation of the well.

The A2 well is drilled through the chalk aquifer, which supplies water locally. The West Newton-A site is 882m from the Lambwath Meadows site of special scientific interest.

The case

The case papers set out Mr Lomas’s three main reasons for applying for a judicial review of the decision:

• The EA breached environmental permitting and water protection regulations by failing to recognise the prohibition of inputting hazardous substances into groundwater. The EA has admitted an error in law by stating there would be an “indirect input” into groundwater. In fact, there would be a direct input. As a result, there was insufficient information for the public to comment, making a consultation so unfair as to be unlawful.
• The EA breached its responsibilities on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, facilitating public participation and understanding the effects of proposed work on the climate.
• The EA erred in law by granting Rathlin’s request for a variation of its environmental permit to allow fracking, without first reviewing the Hydraulic Fracturing Plan (HFP). This is a required document that aims to manage the risk of seismic events caused by fracking. Rathlin submitted the HFP to the EA three hours after the decision to allow fracking had been issued.

Peter Lomas said today:

“As can be seen by the grounds of my challenge it’s important that I oppose this environmental permit variation as far as I can.

“The regulators need to be held accountable at all stages of the environmental and planning processes. Scrutiny is paramount, as is transparency throughout all processes.

“Playing with figures, percentages and confusing wording when it comes to the very real risk of our precious drinking water being compromised is not negotiable. The risk of seismic events is a reality, it’s not an untruth.

“We simply cannot sit by and do nothing about it in the hope that it will all go away. We must all act and that’s why I’m acting as an individual, in the hope of quashing this permit variation.

“I thank everyone so far that have helped me in realising my legal challenge, and I hope that this will be a catalyst for others to follow suit.”

Fracking using large volumes of liquid has, in effect, been banned in England by a moratorium, in force since 2019.

But lower-volume fracking, like that proposed at West Newton and at Burniston in North Yorkshire, is allowed.

Environmental campaigners have described this as a legal loophole and urged the government to ban all forms of fracking.

• The campaign group, West Newton Said No, has launched a crowdfunder to raise money for Mr Lomas’s legal fees. At the time of writing, it had raised more than £2,000 from 36 donations. The target is £20,000.