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Salah satu langkah yang sering dilakukan pemain adalah memperhatikan beberapa indikator teknis yang tersedia pada informasi permainan. Indikator tersebut dapat membantu memahami cara kerja sebuah slot sebelum mulai bermain.

1. Memeriksa Nilai RTP (Return to Player)

RTP merupakan persentase teoretis yang menunjukkan seberapa besar dana taruhan yang dikembalikan kepada pemain dalam jangka panjang.

Sebagai contoh, jika sebuah slot memiliki RTP 96%, maka secara teori permainan tersebut mengembalikan Rp96 dari setiap Rp100 yang dipertaruhkan dalam periode yang sangat panjang.

Banyak pemain cenderung memilih permainan dengan RTP di atas 95% karena dianggap lebih kompetitif dibandingkan slot dengan RTP lebih rendah.

2. Memahami Tingkat Volatilitas

Volatilitas menunjukkan karakter pembayaran sebuah slot.

• Volatilitas rendah: kemenangan lebih sering muncul tetapi nominalnya relatif kecil.
• Volatilitas sedang: keseimbangan antara frekuensi dan nilai kemenangan.
• Volatilitas tinggi: kemenangan lebih jarang, tetapi berpotensi memberikan hadiah yang lebih besar.

Pemahaman mengenai volatilitas membantu pemain memilih permainan yang sesuai dengan gaya bermain dan pengelolaan modal yang dimiliki.

3. Memperhatikan Fitur Bonus

Slot modern biasanya dilengkapi berbagai fitur tambahan seperti:

• Free Spin
• Multiplier
• Wild Symbol
• Scatter Symbol
• Bonus Game
• Buy Feature

Permainan yang memiliki banyak fitur bonus umumnya lebih diminati karena menawarkan variasi pengalaman bermain yang lebih menarik dan dinamis.

Cara Menemukan Slot yang Sedang Populer

Selain melihat aspek teknis, banyak pemain juga memanfaatkan informasi dari komunitas untuk mengetahui permainan yang sedang populer.

Forum diskusi, media sosial, grup komunitas, hingga ulasan dari pemain berpengalaman sering menjadi sumber referensi. Meski informasi tersebut bersifat subjektif, data pengalaman pemain dapat memberikan gambaran mengenai tren permainan yang sedang ramai dimainkan.

Namun, pemain tetap perlu melakukan evaluasi sendiri karena pengalaman setiap orang dapat berbeda tergantung waktu bermain, strategi, dan faktor keberuntungan.

Pentingnya Mengelola Modal Saat Bermain Slot Online

Salah satu kesalahan yang sering terjadi adalah fokus mencari slot gacor tanpa memperhatikan pengelolaan modal.

Praktisi industri permainan digital menilai bahwa manajemen modal memiliki pengaruh besar terhadap kenyamanan bermain. Pemain yang menetapkan batas anggaran cenderung mampu menikmati permainan dengan lebih terkontrol dibandingkan mereka yang bermain tanpa perencanaan.

Beberapa langkah yang umum dilakukan antara lain:

• Menentukan batas modal harian.
• Mengatur target kemenangan dan batas kerugian.
• Menghindari keputusan emosional setelah mengalami kekalahan.
• Menggunakan nominal taruhan yang sesuai dengan saldo yang dimiliki.

Pendekatan ini membantu menjaga aktivitas bermain tetap berada dalam batas yang sehat dan terukur.

Membedakan Fakta dan Mitos Tentang Slot Gacor

Di tengah maraknya informasi di internet, banyak mitos berkembang mengenai cara menemukan slot yang dianggap gacor.

Beberapa klaim seperti jam pasti menang, pola yang selalu berhasil, atau trik yang menjamin kemenangan sebenarnya tidak memiliki dasar teknis yang dapat dibuktikan secara konsisten.

Sistem RNG yang digunakan pada slot modern dirancang untuk menghasilkan hasil acak. Oleh karena itu, tidak ada metode yang mampu memastikan kemenangan dalam setiap sesi permainan.

Pemain sebaiknya bersikap kritis terhadap informasi yang beredar dan lebih mengutamakan data yang dapat diverifikasi, seperti RTP, volatilitas, serta informasi resmi dari penyedia permainan.

Faktor yang Membuat Sebuah Slot Banyak Direkomendasikan

Sebuah permainan slot biasanya memperoleh reputasi positif karena beberapa alasan berikut:

• RTP kompetitif.
• Fitur bonus yang beragam.
• Tampilan visual yang menarik.
• Animasi dan efek suara berkualitas.
• Potensi kemenangan yang dinilai menarik oleh komunitas.
• Pengalaman bermain yang stabil dan nyaman.

Faktor-faktor tersebut sering kali menjadi alasan mengapa suatu permainan mendapat label “gacor” dari para pemain, meskipun hasil akhirnya tetap bergantung pada mekanisme acak permainan.

Kesimpulan

Mencari slot online yang benar-benar gacor tidak cukup hanya mengandalkan rumor atau rekomendasi dari komunitas. Pemain perlu memahami aspek teknis seperti RTP, volatilitas, fitur bonus, serta karakteristik permainan secara keseluruhan. Pendekatan yang berbasis informasi dan analisis jauh lebih bermanfaat dibandingkan mempercayai mitos yang belum tentu terbukti kebenarannya.

Pada akhirnya, slot online merupakan permainan yang mengandalkan sistem acak. Oleh karena itu, pemahaman yang baik, pengelolaan modal yang bijak, dan ekspektasi yang realistis menjadi faktor penting untuk menciptakan pengalaman bermain yang lebih nyaman dan bertanggung jawab.

Headline News:

• “European Energy Receives German Hydrogen Support” • European Energy secured support under Germany’s hydrogen auction framework linked to the European Hydrogen Bank for adding 150 MW of hydrogen production capacity in Denmark. Funding of up to €228 million will support additional hydrogen production connected to its Kassø site. [reNews]

Kassø hydrogen plant (European Energy image)

• “Four EU Countries Push Brussels To Ease Carbon Market’s Pressure On Industry” • Estonia, France, Germany, and Spain are urging the European Commission to rethink part of its planned carbon market reforms, warning that some industries could face serious competitive pressure under stricter emissions rules due to take effect between 2026 and 2030. [Euronews]
• “Iran Deal Coming Soon – Because Exxon Is Running Out of Oil” • Exxon Mobil Senior Vice President Neil Chapman warned that oil inventories are draining fast and could reach “really low levels” in the coming few weeks if the situation in the Middle East isn’t resolved. Naturally, if that happens prices will spike. We could be in for a real shock. [CleanTechnica]
• “Africa Is Embracing Renewable Energy” • African countries are increasingly looking to renewable energy to meet growing power demand. In 2025, African countries added a total of 11.3 GW of renewable capacity, up from 4.2 GW in 2024, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. And increasingly, renewables are displacing fossil fuels. [Yale E360]
• “Over 100 Home Heat Pumps Helped Balance Germany’s Grid For Nearly Three Years Without Affecting Comfort” • Viessmann Climate Solutions, part of Carrier Global Corporation, said it has concluded a pilot in Germany that shows residential heat pumps can actively support grid operations, according to Renewable Energy Magazine. [The Cool Down]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world lately, you’re not alone.

Every day seems to bring another crisis: rising costs, deepening inequality, escalating conflicts, and climate disasters arriving faster and harder than before. It can feel relentless.

But beyond the headlines, something else is happening too.

Across the world, ordinary people are building the future we’ve been fighting for – together, in their communities, with their own hands. They are organizing, installing solar panels, demanding accountability, and proving that another kind of future is not only possible, but already underway.

This week alone, we’ve seen powerful reminders of that.

1. The United Nations took a historic step on climate accountability

United Nations member states have adopted a landmark resolution affirming that governments have a legal responsibility to act on climate change. The move follows the groundbreaking advisory opinion issued earlier this year by the International Court of Justice.

More than two-thirds of UN member states, 141, voted in favour of the resolution on Wednesday, with eight voting No and 28 abstaining.

For years, climate movements around the world have pushed for accountability from the countries and corporations most responsible for the crisis. While this resolution does not solve everything overnight, it marks a significant shift: climate justice is becoming impossible to ignore at the highest levels of global power.

This is what sustained public pressure can achieve. Change rarely comes all at once, but movements create momentum, and momentum matters.

2. Pacific communities are building energy sovereignty

In Nadi, Fiji, community leaders from Fiji, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu are currently taking part in a hands-on Solar Scholars training led by 350 Pacific and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities.

By the end of the training, participants will have assembled and installed two community-owned solar systems: one serving a village in Sigatoka and another powering a kindergarten in Lautoka.

That means children will be able to go to school with reliable electricity and communities will have greater control over their own energy future.

“One of the dreams has always been to learn how to reach out to communities and bring energy sovereignty in our communities,” said 350 Pacific Coordinator George Nacewa.
This is what a just energy transition looks like: communities building solutions for themselves, rooted in care, self-determination, and shared knowledge.

3. People around the world are demanding renewable energy

New polling across 13 countries, including Brazil, India, Colombia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, shows something striking: people increasingly understand that fossil fuels are tied to conflict, instability, and rising living costs. They want something different.

Across political divides, majorities support investing in solar and wind energy, taxing excessive fossil fuel profits, reducing dependence on oil and gas, and treating energy as a public good rather than a source of corporate profit.

The message is clear. People want energy systems that are cleaner, fairer, more stable, and more affordable. Governments now need to catch up with the public.

4. Southeast Asia is embracing rooftop solar

As global fuel prices continue to rise, families and governments across Southeast Asia are increasingly turning to rooftop solar.

In the Philippines, solar installations have surged by 70%, while customer inquiries reportedly increased six-fold following the recent Iran conflict. Indonesia aims to expand rooftop solar capacity from 1.3 gigawatts today to 100 gigawatts by 2034. Vietnam and Thailand are also introducing new policies and targets to accelerate solar adoption on homes and public buildings. This is people power in action.

When renewable energy becomes accessible, people choose it, because it lowers costs, increases energy security, and offers a path away from dependence on volatile fossil fuels.

Every rooftop panel represents more than electricity. It represents a choice for a different future.

5. Africa is mobilizing for affordable, community-owned energy

Across the African continent this week, thousands of activists, young people, and community organizations are mobilizing as part of AfrikaVuka Week.

Their demand is simple but powerful: stop expanding fossil fuels and start investing in affordable, community-owned renewable energy.

For decades, fossil fuel expansion has been framed as development, even while millions of people continue to lack access to reliable and affordable electricity. Afrika Vuka Week challenges that narrative by calling for energy systems that prioritize people, not corporate profits.

Climate justice and energy justice are inseparable, and communities across Africa are making that connection impossible to ignore.

The transition is already happening

It is easy to believe that progress is too slow, or that powerful interests will always stand in the way of change.

But around the world, the transition is already underway.

Communities are organizing. Families are choosing renewable energy. Young people are demanding accountability. Movements are growing stronger across borders.

And together, they are proving something important: a safer, fairer, more affordable future is not a distant dream. It is already being built.

Across the world, people are proving that another energy future is possible. Join the Great Power Shift campaign and help build a future powered by the people, not fossil fuels.

The post 5 pieces of good climate news that you probably missed recently appeared first on 350.

In spring, Tricolored Blackbirds stage one of California’s great birding spectacles, amassing in the tens of thousands to breed in the Central Valley. This season, the largest colony documented so...

Regulator quantifies the revenue cuts caused by the delayed start of the giant shock absorber" battery, and the impact of the catastrophic transformer failure.

The post Delays at Australia’s most powerful battery lead to a more than $90 million cut in payments appeared first on Renew Economy.

May 29, 2026 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SUWA Statement on President Trump’s Repeal of Travel Management Executive Orders – 5.29.26  Will bring unregulated motorized recreation and chaos across public lands  

Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org

Washington, DC – Friday evening, in his latest attack on federal public lands, President Trump announced the repeal of Executive Order 11644 of February 8, 1972 (Use of Off-Road Vehicles on the Public Lands), and Executive Order 11989 of May 24, 1977 (Off-Road Vehicles on Public Lands). He further directed federal land management agencies including the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service to rescind or revise their regulations implementing these Orders. Below is a statement from SUWA Legal Director Steve Bloch and additional information.  

“The reality is that there are tens of thousands of miles of dirt roads and trails in Utah’s canyon country open today to motorized vehicles. Far from motorized vehicles being kept out of public lands, it’s quite the opposite: it’s the wildlife and visitors trying to picnic or camp with their families that are being chased out at every turn,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “These executive orders provided the foundation for common-sense management of motorized vehicles on public lands. They recognized the destructive impact unmanaged motor vehicles have on our public lands and required federal agencies to minimize the damage. The impacts of today’s Order will be significant, long-lasting, and devastating.” 

About Executive Orders 11644 and 11989 

Presidents Nixon and Carter issued Executive Orders 11644 and 11989 in 1972 and 1977, respectively, in response to the growing use of dirt bikes, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and other off-road vehicles (ORVs) and corresponding environmental damage and conflicts with non-motorized recreationists. These executive orders require federal land managers to plan for ORV use to protect resources and other recreational uses. Specifically, the executive orders require that, when designating areas or trails available for ORV use, the agencies locate them to: 

(1) minimize damage to soil, watershed, vegetation, and other resources of the public lands;  

(2) minimize harassment of wildlife or significant disruption of wildlife habitats; and  

(3) minimize conflicts between off-road vehicle use and other existing or proposed recreational uses of the same or neighboring public lands.   

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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org. 

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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards a world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org. 

The post SUWA Statement on President Trump’s Repeal of Travel Management Executive Orders – 5.29.26  appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Reducing methane emissions will slow climate change but could also slow the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer, new research from the University of Reading shows.

Chika Okoye discusses Movement Generation’s Just Transition Principle: If it’s not soulful, it’s not strategic.

  At the start of this year we decided to embark on a process of evolving MG frameworks, tools, and curriculum—including Just Transition, Resilience-Based Organizing, Three Circles and others—to reflect the more than 10 years of practice with our movement comrades and, most importantly, to meet this moment. We started by reaching out to beloved comrades from many, many organizations and have already received so much excellent feedback, critique, gaps, innovations, and offerings!   Please consider donating to Movement Generation to support our Frameworks Evolution project!   DONATE

Urban planning needs to tackle greenhouse gas emissions – and an important way to achieve this is by reducing the number and length of car commutes. 

Engineers have invented an ingenious liquid-metal pump which could make future soft robotics and wearable devices much more portable and agile.

A historic gold mine re-opened using modern technology, to scour out minerals the old-timers couldn’t get at? Twenty kilometres from Tofino? Is this the best we can hope for, a third of a century after the historic 1993 Clayoquot Summer peaceful protests put the region on the map of global ecological hotspots?

It seems that’s what the BC government wants. This spring, they issued mineral exploration permits to Vancouver-based Imperial Metals. The permits would allow Imperial to explore in the territories of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation (TFN), in Clayoquot Sound. This despite 2 years of consultation, in which TFN made it clear that mining is not a permissible activity in their territories.

The permits issued allow for 22 drill pad sites, 6 trenches, and 3 helipads in the Tranquil Creek watershed, which is designated as a Tribal Park by Tla-o-qui-aht. They will not expire until 2031. Imperial Metals also holds mineral rights on Catface Mountain (čitaapii), just 13 kilometres from Tofino.

A disaster that changed the conversation around mining in BC

Imperial Metals is notorious for the catastrophic 2014 failure of the tailings dam at their Mount Polley mine, spilling 25 million cubic metres of toxic tailings and slurry into pristine Quesnel Lake—home to a quarter of the Fraser River’s sockeye salmon. It was one of the biggest mining disasters in the world. They are currently facing 15 charges under the federal Fisheries Act in relation to this disaster. Mount Polley is located in the traditional territory of Xat’sull First Nation, near Likely BC in the Cariboo region.

“The province of BC should be respecting our vision for our territories, not issuing permits for mineral exploration without our consent and against our wishes,” said Saya Masso, Tla-o-qui-aht Manager of Lands and Resources. “We’ve seen some positive steps from the BC NDP government, but this move jeopardizes efforts towards reconciliation here in Clayoquot Sound.”

Clayoquot Action has stood united with Tla-o-qui-aht against mining since our founding in 2013, and will continue to oppose any attempts to open mines here in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region.

Take action now. Please make your voice heard—send your letter now using our simple online tool. The letter is already written; it only takes a minute! Send the letter HERE

The post No mines in Clayoquot Sound appeared first on Clayoquot Action.

By Cecilia Allen, Global Projects Advisor, GAIA

(c) Nipe Fagio

Once seen as the domain of dreamers, zero waste is now mainstream. It has even entered the language of the UN: the body created a resolution urging governments to “promote zero‑waste initiatives,” an International Day of Zero Waste, and a Zero Waste Advisory Board, and UNEP, UN‑Habitat and other UN bodies use the concept in campaigns and reports. This year, zero waste was named one of the top priorities on the Global Climate Action Agenda. Türkiye’s Zero Waste Foundation, a leading promoter of these efforts, is organizing its second Global Zero Waste Forum under the motto Road to Antalya: Zero Waste as Climate Action. Türkiye will be the host of climate COP31. 

While this progress is exciting, words matter. When the same UN bodies that are meant to promote zero waste recognize waste-to-energy incineration plants and reuse of the highly toxic incinerator fly-ash as a zero waste solution, it means something is off. Likewise, when Pakistan claims to pursue a “zero waste” economy by increasing waste-to-energy capacity, alarm bells go off among zero wasters worldwide: Incineration is an oxymoron to zero waste. What these examples show us is that a true definition of zero waste needs to be adopted and vigorously defended.

What is zero waste?

The concept of “zero waste” emerged 30 years ago by adapting manufacturing targets such as “zero defects” to solid waste.  Zero waste is both a vision and an action plan. As an action plan it includes strategies to design out the idea of “waste”: waste prevention, redesign, reuse, changes in consumption patterns, recycling, composting, and other methods to reprocess organic material. Zero waste is guided by the goal of progressively reducing disposal in landfills and incinerators, a yardstick for judging the effectiveness of waste programs and policies.

As a vision, its ultimate objective is to change how we produce, consume and process discards so our materials economy fits within planetary boundaries. This concerns not only materials but our relationship with them, the environment, and one another. That is why zero waste is rooted in environmental justice– supporting the flourishing of everyone regardless of race, class, or any other identity, and the rights of nature. Zero waste systems are community‑based, recognize waste pickers as workers, eliminate “sacrifice zones” that disproportionately burden poor and marginalized communities, and put people at the center of solutions.

That is the beauty of zero waste: it offers an encouraging alternative to a linear waste system that perpetuates disposal, resource depletion, climate change and pollution that threaten public health and well-being. It will not happen overnight, but it sets a clear direction.

Defending zero waste

There are multiple conversations within the environmental movement about the co-option of the zero waste concept. Should we let it go? Defend it? There are solid arguments on all sides of the table. But our objective is to expand true zero waste worldwide. Mainstreaming means ideas become accepted as normal because most people share them — that is what thousands of communities, government officials and businesses have worked toward for decades. Fighting this co‑option is therefore an inevitable part of mainstreaming.

Every time a waste‑to‑energy or plastics‑to‑fuel project is presented as “zero waste,” authorities in the field must set the record straight. Waste‑to‑energy incineration perpetuates waste generation because it requires feedstock to burn, competes with reuse and recycling for high‑calorific materials, relies on fossil‑based feedstocks such as plastics, produces greenhouse gas emissions, and creates hazardous residues. None of that could be farther from zero waste. 

Most importantly, zero waste is not just an abstract concept. For over three decades, hundreds of cities, thousands of communities and many waste practitioners have led the transition toward it. They have shown that it is possible to achieve over 90% source separation, diversion rates of 80% and higher, improved working conditions for waste pickers, and local economies based on repair and reuse. They also demonstrate that following the waste hierarchy creates more jobs, reduces more methane emissions, and improves public health.

Enabling zero waste implementation 

In recent years more governments, financial institutions, universities, and waste practitioners have embraced the zero waste vision and prioritized upstream measures over disposal. That is encouraging, but much more is needed. For example, only 1% of international finance aimed at methane abatement in the waste sector goes to zero waste strategies such as composting.

If multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions directed the remaining 99% shifted from harmful end‑of‑pipe systems like incinerators and megalandfills to community‑based organic waste prevention and recovery, the the playing field would level: there would be more incentives for a shift in production and consumption patterns, and local governments and communities would speed up the zero waste transition. If governments that claim to pursue zero waste acted accordingly, they would lead the transition and inspire others.

UN bodies such as UNEP, UN‑Habitat and the Zero Waste Advisory Board have a special responsibility to set a clear vision for governments and institutions, and promote an authentic zero waste agenda to advance environmental sustainability, social equity and economic systems that respect natural boundaries.

As we continue the work toward a zero waste future, let us honor its true spirit that drives systems change. And let us support and scale up the proven programs and policies that governments, communities, waste pickers, NGOs, and businesses are sustaining.  Let us protect the term, and honor the practice: put real zero waste into action.

Rommel Cabrera/GAIA, 2019. Waste pickers collecting separated waste from households. Tacloban City, the Philippines.

The post Defending the Real Spirit of Zero Waste first appeared on GAIA.

ICYMI: Clean fuels report card is A+++ Leah Missik Fri, 05/29/2026 - 1:19 pm

  Nicolas Salmon In our experience working on nature-based solutions in cities across Ecuador and Latin America, the problem is not that we do not know participation matters. Everybody says participation matters. The problem is that almost everything in the way projects are designed — timelines, funding structures, institutional cultures, and even expert anxieties — […]

Transcript of EWG podcast 'Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode' – Episode 60 Adam Levin May 29, 2026

There is an ongoing lawsuit between the American Academy of Pediatrics and Robert F Kennedy, Jr., head of the Department of Health and Human Services. The lead attorney of the lawsuit challenging the HHS vaccine policy changes is EWG co-Founder and President Ken Cook’s guest today.

Richard H. Hughes VI is a professor at George Washington University Law School as well as a partner at Epstein Becker Green. In addition to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Hughes’ law firm also represents the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association.

Hughes breaks down the legal framework behind the lawsuit against Kennedy, including the effort to dismantle and remake HHS’ immunization advisory committee, the broader implications for federal vaccine policy, and the growing erosion of public trust in pediatricians, vaccines, and public health institutions.

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

Ken Cook: Hello there. Ken Cook here, and I'm having another episode. You know, ever since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and specifically during his confirmation process, I've been keeping a close eye on the dismantling of our vaccine policy infrastructure. I suspect a lot of you have been keeping an eye on it too.

It's one of the top priorities of the public health community now. And I've come to think of the approach that he's taken, uh, I've, I've coined a term for it, I call it vaccilation. This is why, uh, he's able to make the case on the one hand to his anti-vax followers that he's doing all he can to pursue their agenda, and that agenda is to prove various things about vaccines being harmful, even maybe more harmful than the diseases they prevent, that vaccines cause autism and so forth.

And he always does it in a kind of vacillating, vaccilating way where science is never settled, so we can always ask questions. A gold standard science is needed, and he's bringing that because you can't rely on existing authorities. And m-most importantly of all, he's not wanting to be positioned as either anti-vaccine or supporting vaccine.

He's in that vaccilating middle ground. And that has worked for him surprisingly well. It didn't work for Casey Means. Ultimately, she got caught up by not really saying what she thought when she was rejected by the Senate in the confirmation process for becoming surgeon general. But for Kennedy, it has mostly worked.

But there's one arena where it does not work, not the arena of hearings where Kennedy gives and takes with senators, not press statements, not podcasts, not Instagram posts. In all of those places, vaccilation has been a very smart strategy for him to remain elusive about where he is even as he pursues anti-vaccine measures.

But the one place where it doesn't work is in court, in legal proceedings before a judge. And today I'm joined by a lawyer who's doing something about vaccilation. Richard H. Hughes IV, who is a partner at Epstein Becker Green, a health law professor at the George Washington University Law School. And the lead counsel in American Academy of Pediatrics versus Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This was a landmark lawsuit challenging the vaccine policy changes Kennedy has implemented at HHS. 

And in that setting, there is no wiggle room afforded for vacillating. You have to follow the law. Now, Richard's clients have included some of the most respected medical organizations in the country: the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Disease Society of America, among others.

And in March, a federal judge looked at all this vacillating, and specifically the steps Kennedy had taken under the cover of vacillating, and handed these organizations a very significant early victory, ruling that HHS had acted arbitrarily, ignored established law, and failed to follow basic administrative process.

But the fight is far from over. Richard is one of the nation's leading experts in vaccine law, and he has spent his career building the very public health infrastructure that's now under attack. I'm grateful that he's here because he, like EWG, follows science, and his objective is very clear: to protect the health of America's children and their future.

Professor Hughes, thank you so much for being here. The stakes could not be higher. And knock on wood, at least from my perspective, and I'm sure yours. So far it looks like it's gone pretty well, but we've got quite a ways to go, no question about that. I just wanted to ask, how did you, as you were starting your career, what brought you, Richard, into the health arena, and specifically this subset of health pertaining to vaccines? If you don't mind. I'm just curious to know. 

Richard Hughes: I don't mind. Yeah, no, Ken, I appreciate that question. It actually goes, uh... and, and thank you for having me. It goes so far back, long before I was a lawyer. I was a very young political appointee in my home state of Arkansas. So I was 22 years old, and I was appointed to the Arkansas State Board of Health, and I didn't know anything about public health.

I was incredibly unqualified. It was an undeserved privilege to get that appointment. And right after I was appointed, I survived a brain tumor. 

Ken Cook: Oh my goodness. 

Richard Hughes: Yeah. I was misdiagnosed with glioblastoma. It was basically a death sentence, and got a second opinion and found out that I was gonna live, and got involved in cancer issues.

And I said, "You know, I'm in this position, and I can do something, you know, to, to improve the health of Arkansans." I felt compelled to do that. And I learned about the HPV vaccine. So a colleague came to me one day and said, "There's this vaccine to prevent cervical cancer." And I didn't know anything about it.

But as I, as I dug into it, as I learned more about it, I said, "You know, we really need to talk about, uh, this vaccine, and we really need to make this vaccine accessible." At the time, this was before the Affordable Care Act, we had a lot of access issues in our state, and I knew that if we were gonna reach the most rural parts of the state, that we should consider requiring the vaccine.

That was a really unpopular opinion to have. It got me kicked out of party politics. It ended my political ambitions completely, and so I got my master's in public health, I moved to DC and said I'm gonna work in vaccine policy for the rest of my career. I went back to law school, and, um, you know, added a lot more tools to my toolbox.

Ken Cook: Wow, I, I had no idea there were so many layers to that, to your history, and, uh, just as a editorial note to start off with, you know, Environmental Working Group has, you know, we, we generally speaking, have, have always supported vaccine policy, the conventional policy that is now at least temporarily back in place, and the, the CDC's positions on all, all of those things.

We did raise questions about thimerosal back in the day, but those were resolved. But generally speaking on vaccine policy, my overall feeling is the environmental health community looked the other way on the vaccine debate, which was probably not helpful. I think we now find ourselves in a s- a situation where, uh, there is such a threat to that frontline defense, and so much energy around undoing the reputation of the CDC and of science and of practicing physicians. 

I, I read some of the things people say about pediatricians, and I just... I wonder what, what pediatricians are they talking about? Uh, everyone I've ever met, and I've met, hundreds of them, because we work on children's environmental health all the time, and m- from my own experience having a son, I don't get it.

But anyway, I just wanted to, I wanted to put that out there... because a big part of this is the, the kind of atmospherics that drove you away from the job in Arkansas, right? I mean, you must feel that... in your current role as well, right? 

Richard Hughes: I absolutely do. I absolutely do. And it was really hard to watch the distortion around vaccine science, and a lot of that was wrapped up in religion back in Arkansas, right?

And... you know, talking about abstinence and sex and, and that was unfortunate, but I feel like, you know, we're up against a lot of the same issues, a willingness to spread misinformation and disinformation so easily, a public that maybe at first glance sometimes, you know, you might see something, uh, that looks like a potential correlative relationship, and you might have real questions.

And I do think that we should be answering those questions and helping- Yeah ... people understand the science, right? But... it's really hard to, you know, sometimes get people off of these beliefs, these misguided beliefs, when you have somebody like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with the bully pulpit now, right, spreading all this misinformation. 

Ken Cook: Yeah, no, and, and of course there's conspiracy-minded, uh, approaches to these issues. It's very convenient and very hard to overcome. It's, uh... a great, uh, retreat from, from critical thinking. 

Richard Hughes: Yes, it is. 

Ken Cook: Right? And that- that's, that's done a lot of harm. I found myself, when I read the judge's, uh, decision, uh, in March, I was fortified by that. Uh, not... not just because of the way the decision came down, but the learned way in which he argued it.

And I just want, I just wanna say, uh, just from the beginning of his order, uh, he, he writes that, "For our public health, Congress and the executive have built over decades an apparatus that marries the rigors of science with the execution and force of the United States government. One extraordinary product of that apparatus has been the eradication and reduction of certain communicable diseases through the development and use of vaccines."

And right there, he's drawing a distinction in his position, his conclusions, from Kennedy's, which... increasingly is to argue that these vaccines didn't play any role. And so, uh, the, the whole presence of the government in this sphere is questionable because, you know, better nutrition and sanitation and other measures… really, that's what caused polio and mumps and other diseases to be controlled. Patently not the case, but I appreciated that he was standing upright then. 

Richard Hughes: Yeah. Yeah, I did too. I love that decision. It reads beautifully. I love that on the first page, he intertwines science and law, and talks about... the importance of process to both.

This is the first case I've worked on as a litigator. I'm not a litigator. I didn't go to law school to sue anybody. 

Ken Cook: Oh, is that right? 

Richard Hughes: It is. It is. 

Ken Cook: Oh my goodness. 

Richard Hughes: And sitting in the courtroom, you know, sitting in the courtroom as a vaccine law expert at the counsel table and, and really just hoping that we are doing the best possible job to help the judge get the facts right, to get the law right, to make the best, most informed decision, because we want the decision to stand.

He wants... to write an, an effective decision. He wants to get it right. He's not an ideologue. And, you know, the government over here is saying in the, in the courtroom that, you know, there's no binding, you know, guiding principles in the law that says the secretary has to do this or that, the secretary can just basically do whatever he wants, and that, you know, reasonable minds can differ on how to best prevent infectious disease, and that we're all here to protect public health.

It was really disturbing to hear some of those arguments and the way they framed it. And, and then it was so encouraging to hear the judge come back to them and, and, and to recite back to them law, and to see how he followed the apparatus that, that he described. And it has... I mean, I have to say, there was a time when all we had were vaccines, and we didn't put policy or the force of law behind it.

Sometimes then we would do that in an outbreak context. So late, you know, late 1800s, smallpox outbreaks, we're saying, "You have to go get vaccinated because we're trying to prevent it." But one of the greatest innovations in the law and in vaccine law and policy in the, in the 20th century was we realized, if we can just get everybody vaccinated early, we can actually stop the transmission of these diseases.

We can lower the overall incidence of disease, the overall morbidity and mortality, and we started to do that in a really systematic way with vaccine policy. And as the judge recited, we have these federal laws. The federal government is not making people get vaccines, that's the role of the states. 

But there is a robust apparatus in federal law that says, you know, Congress has thought about this, and they've enacted a variety of laws where we essentially presuppose that vaccination is the best way to control vaccine preventable diseases in this country. And that's what, simply what we're trying to do. 

Ken Cook: Yeah. I was astonished at some of, uh, when the judge asked certain questions about, well, how, how far could Secretary Kennedy go?

You know, how much power... does he have? Could he actually say, um, "Getting some of these diseases is okay, or is good, or we would, we would like to pursue policies that would encourage them to get these?" Which, which of course, Aaron Siri and others, Dale Bigtree have openly said they think that should be the case.

Yeah. I was astonished. What, what was it like in the courtroom when you were hearing that? 

Richard Hughes: Well, what's really hard is when you're a... you know, I, I, I speak a lot on these issues publicly, right? I'm, I'm a policy-oriented lawyer, and I have opinions. And to sit in the courtroom at the counsel table and to really, you have to maintain decorum in the courtroom.

It's not a raucous place, right? You know? And, uh, you know, and so to have to sit and listen and keep a straight face to those kinds of arguments was really, really, really hard for me. And the number of things I w- I w- you know, that you wish you could say, right? And so for the judge to point that out, uh, and to use that example, and I think it's one of the great things that, that judges sometimes do, is to present absurd hypotheticals, and it was a really really, really effective one. 

And so I think what gets overlooked is they frame up natural infection as just fine. You know? That, that natural infection is just fine. And what in reality is if you go to old graveyards and you look at the number of infant graves that are there, and you can, these graveyards are all over our country, right?

In the early 20s, late 19th century,  early 20th century, right? And then I always go back, I, I tell my team all the time about this letter to the editor that I read around 1994 or 1995 in The New York Times, where a mother wrote to The New York Times, and she said, "You know, I just learned about this new vaccine to prevent chickenpox, and I don't understand why I wasn't made aware of this five years ago when the vaccine first became available."

Because she said, "To my family, chickenpox is not a minor illness." Chickenpox had devastated her household. Her kids ended up with all sorts of infections that I didn't even realize that, you know, measles, chickenpox, these things can result in other infections, other morbidities. 

Ken Cook: Very serious, yeah. 

Richard Hughes: Right. Very serious. Very serious, and, and sometimes very deadly. And so, you know, vaccination is a way not just to prevent cases and to have fewer or hopefully zero cases. You know, we have a sophisticated tool. People don't have to die from these diseases. They don't have to deal with the long-term effects of these diseases.

Ken Cook: And, you know, the, the consequence of not intervening through vaccines on the, the cost of the healthcare system, and I've even said to, to my colleagues in the environmental community, we all noticed what happened during COVID, where all the resources rushed from the CDC  and elsewhere, rushed straight to the concerns and the, the need to a- adapt to the COVID conditions. 

You lose a lot of ability to do other health-related interventions, including environmental health, and talking about pollution or, uh, contamination of food or what have you. 

Richard Hughes: Yes. Yeah. 

Ken Cook: That, that contracts in the face of emergencies, where it has a huge impact. I noticed, and I, I just, I wanna mention the other plaintiffs, because it's an impressive list. It's the American Academy of Pediatrics, the lead plaintiff, but it's also the American College of Physicians, the APHA, the American Public Health Association. We also have a longstanding association with them. Infectious Diseases Society of America, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, and I'm sure there are others that I'm not naming. 

It's impressive to me, and I've, I've said this to several, uh, people, you know, when you look at the way these, uh, interests are arrayed on the two sides of this issue, it's kind of shocking to think that there is virtually no reputable independent science association or organization that, that stands with Kennedy.

Now, I think everyone agrees, yes, there can be vaccine injuries, and yes, we should address those, and we should, we should be concerned about those, and, uh, unfortunately sometimes they're, fortunately very rarely, but sometimes they are serious. 

Richard Hughes: Yes. Yeah. 

Ken Cook: No question about that. But on the basic question of whether we need vaccines, whether the, where any kind of mandate, again, at the state level, which is where these are proffered, it really is shocking that we're at the state of the debate that we're at. And even to the point where I noticed that quite a bit of time was spent by the government to try and make the case that the plaintiffs you represent shouldn't have had standing. 

Richard Hughes: Right, right, right, right, right, right.

Ken Cook: Can you talk a little bit about that? I just- I mean, why not try it? Why not try it? 

Richard Hughes: I sure can. And I... look, I'm very honest. I, I, I'm very honest and open about how we got to this point. We knew when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came into office that he was going to do a lot of these things. I knew he was gonna do a lot of these things because I've helped build up the system that he's trying to tear down.

And so I, I looked around me and I said to my team, I said, "You know, he's going to do these things, and we have to be prepared. We have to watch everything he does. We have to watch when he takes these actions, and we're gonna need to be prepared to put up a legal fight." 

Okay, so we have a policy disagreement. Absolutely, we do. The government wants to suggest that that's all we have, and that policy disputes don't belong in court, and they belong in the legislature and, and, and all that. But there are real harms here. And I would not, I would not have pursued this and put my name and, and, and resources and effort behind this if I thought it was a mere policy disagreement.

I knew that this was going to harm, uh, not only public health and families, but that it was actually going to harm the organizations that we're representing. And they do have standing. And so if you look at the pediatricians of this country represented by AAP, not only has AAP itself as an organization had to divert all of its time and resources to deal with, with this, but the providers on the front lines, and they'll, they'll say, "Oh, you know, it's just… you know, they make a lot of money." 

You know, it is so not true. Being a pediatrician is not some sort of gangbusters, you know, business to be in. It's very, uh, costly to maintain an inventory of vaccines in those practices, and the reimbursement, you know, it's not usually profitable. And so this is causing them, you know, the, the frustrating experience of having to address misinformation and disinformation that their patients are hearing, coming in confused, and to practice effective medicine.

That's been frustrated. And the same thing, uh, American Public Health Association, and, and Dr. Benjamin doesn't mind me telling folks that when I called him and I said, "You know, would you be a part of this?" He said, "We're in." It was a no-brainer. Because he and I knew, we instinctively knew, that this was going to impact health departments across the country.

There are clinical practitioners that are members of the American Public Health Association. They represent this vast constituency across the country of public health workers, clinical workers, all kinds of folks, and, um, we knew that the harm was going to just, just permeate the public health system. And so we demonstrated those harms.

We're proud to represent these plaintiffs and we take very seriously the work of showing the court that they have been harmed, and we did that. We went in in December. The government tried to get our case dismissed on standing. And we went in, and we, you know, demonstrated to the court — they're experiencing real harms.

And if anybody's interested, go read the declarations that have been filed by the dozens of, of physicians and others, uh, in the case. 

Ken Cook: Yeah, I encourage people, you know, to read the whole record so far. Yeah, yeah. Every aspect of it is to me informative, up to and including the, the judge's order at, in mid-March.

You know, Kennedy's often claims that pediatricians are in the pocket of big pharma, as you suggested, and it's very profitable to, uh, give kids shots, and they make a lot of money doing it. Sometimes I've, I've seen it suggested that this is the main way they make money is by vaccines. I haven't seen any evidence of that.

But what interests me is that i- in order for his, uh, approach to work, he has to then say, "We want you to have a conversation with your doctor before you decide for yourself about getting vaccinated." So where do all the good doctors go, and where, where do all the bad doctors go that you can just... and it turns out that if it's your pediatrician, that's a good doctor.

But when they gather together under The Academy of Pediatrics or they, when they assemble, that's when they're evil. Makes no sense. 

Richard Hughes: No, it doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. And there are fringe, you know, very, very, very, very fringe physicians out there that are a part of his movement, right? That, and I'm, I'm sure that's who they would rather you go to and talk to. But they want to frame this, because these are political issues, right? 

And they, they know he has a, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a base and a constituency that he is pandering to. And when they talk about medical freedom and choice and forced medical treatment, this is all so deceptive.

And so if you go back, the old case Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 1905, the Supreme Court, where the Supreme Court said states can require vaccination. There's a lot of really great discussion in that case. It's a dense read, and I have my class read it every year. But it talks about sorting junk science from evidence, you know, in early 20th century terms. 

And by the end of the decision, it talks about the importance that we not make people who shouldn't be vaccinated get vaccinated. It acknowledges that. That is in the opinion. So inherent, when I think about vaccine policy, and I think about requiring vaccines so that people can be healthy and we save lives, what I know as a part of that equation is that it's always going to be a conversation between the pediatrician and the parent about the child's health, and they should sit down, and they should say, you know, "Which vaccines do you need to get? Well, we have this schedule, and it's standardized, and it's based on evidence, and we should follow it." 

But if this child's contraindicated, if they're at risk of some sort of harm that is ascertainable, you know, then we shouldn't vaccinate. But those cases are rare. Those cases are rare, and we should acknowledge when there are rare vaccine injuries, we need to compensate those. 

We need to do it quickly and adequately. So that we can continue to pursue the public health goal. I ask my class every year, would you rather have 100 cases of polio or would you rather have, you know, two injuries? And, you know, we have to make some trade-offs. And there's a, there's a social compact here that they misconstrue, that they absolutely misconstrue.

Ken Cook: Yeah. No, I think that's right, and it's hard to think of a, of a medicine or a drug that doesn't have those kinds of potential complications for some subset of the population, these side effects. Um, and, um, I mean, even cancer drugs sometimes cause cancer, so it is a conversation with physicians, and to me, what, what I worry about is th- this debate is missing how to actually make parents better consumers of information and make them more able to have those conversations. You don't have a lot of time often in those offices. But how to, how to make the most of those conversations because that's certainly gonna be in the interest of the physician treating you as well. 

Richard Hughes: That's right. 

Ken Cook: So one of the things that I had all kinds of thoughts about which direction Kennedy might take vaccine policy.

I did not foresee him going immediately in the face of what he promised Congress and firing every member of the committee and replacing them summarily with his own people. B- but it goes to a, a question that I've, I've had, which is I thought in this second Trump administration they were being more careful than in the first Trump administration, certainly in environmental, uh, decision-making, where they, they made it easy to lose in court, and they mostly did lose to my colleagues in the environmental community who practice public interest law, so law that sues the government.

But then I, as I read this judge's decision and saw what, what was piling up, I was shocked at the fumbles, the mistakes that HHS made with the Administrative Procedure Act, that you made great use of, um, of that law to point out to the judge, and he ruled, I think in every instance, on your side. That's there for a purpose, too, in addition to vaccine law, which is, you know, it's to make sure that the government proceeds in an orderly manner.

It's not, uh, arbitrary. It's not capricious. And the thing that puzzled me the most, Richard, was, you know, if you're an environmental lawyer, the Administrative Procedure Act is central to how you think about challenging the government, maybe more than almost any other area.

Richard Hughes: Yes. Yes.

Ken Cook: Of public interest law, right? Because it's, it's, it's the clockworks of EPA and Interior Department and Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Richard Hughes: Yes.

Ken Cook: And when they get a procedure wrong, when they're arbitrary, when they're capricious, when they side, uh, make a decision, you know, in favor of, of industry that is ill-considered, that's where the environmental community, and Kennedy in the past, has grabbed on.

I was surprised that there were so many mistakes that they're, uh, in the rush to get these decisions made, which to me tells me also that they're, they're not likely to be lasting. But I'll go back to that. But just talk a little bit about the the Administrative Procedure Act and how you saw that play in this case. 

Richard Hughes: Uh, you don't even need to take a, a law school administrative law class to see that. I mean, it is so just patently obvious. I said early on, I said, "Anything this man does is going to be arbitrary and capricious because- ... the science isn't there." The science doesn't support it.

They're not going to be able to point to anything legitimate and to say, "That's the basis for this decision." Now, what I didn't expect was the lack of process. You know, the explanation part of it, and these are all, I'm talking about sort of the recipe of, of what we expect government officials to follow, right?

Ken Cook: Yeah, yeah. 

Richard Hughes: We expect them to take a hard look at evidence. We expect them to follow a process to explain why they did it. I knew that they wouldn't find the evidence. I did think that they would at least try to give the appearance that they were following a process and taking a hard look. The way they throw around the term, the, well, the terms gold standard science and transparency and everything, I, I think it's very misleading, and I didn't expect a lot of explanation or transparency.

But I really did think that they would try to follow some process. 

Ken Cook: So did I.

Richard Hughes: You know, right? And so for a long time environmental lawyer, who, as you said, you know, should have a deep understanding of the importance of the APA and procedure, to just go out one day and film a video, and in 58 seconds make statements like, "The previous administration's recommendations were based on nothing," right? 

And to say that, "I, standing here, you know, a lawyer surrounded by two other political appointees, I'm just gonna tell you that I, I'm delighted, in fact, I'm gonna use the word delighted, to tell you that you no longer need to get the COVID vaccine."

I mean, it just reeked, it reeked of lack of process, of unseriousness. And, um, same thing with the January 5th schedule changes. And as President Trump is saying, "Well, let's look at the Danish schedule," I think there was actual reporting that, that HHS knew that what they were discussing would likely violate or potentially violate the APA. So they're, they know this, and I think that this is just evidence of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the forces around him will stop at nothing, you know, to get their agenda through. 

Ken Cook: Yeah, I mean, w- what I've been saying to my friends on the other side of this issue is, "If you really did believe that you wanted to tear down vaccine policy in this country, and do it on the basis of transparency and gold standard science, you've been failed by Kennedy."

The pace at which he's operated. The fact that, I mean, here he has, he has control over the, all these funds. He could launch- the study that he says we've long not done to link vaccine harm to, you know, autism or whatever it might be. I mean, th- you've got all the money now. You could, you could control it.

Where are the studies? Where is the evidence that you're- Yeah ... putting forward or, or what basis? And then you have a, a press conference in the, in the White House a- about Tylenol, and the promise that by September of 2025 we'll know what causes autism. So obviously these aren't serious people. They don't show their work.

Anti-vax interests, anti-vax proponents, ought to begin to understand by now that these changes are not going to endure. They're not gonna stand up scientifically, and as we f- see in the case that you've been arguing, it's not standing up in the law either. 

Richard Hughes: No. 

Ken Cook: And the political support seems to be eroding.

At least Republicans wanna talk about healthy eating, not vaccine policy anymore. It's a real shortcoming of Kennedy's approach, but I think it's what he's left with because the evidence really isn't there. 

Richard Hughes: Yeah. You know, it's not, and ultimately we're gonna prevail. We have to litigate this thing, and I, it's, it's unfortunate, but we, it, I, I knew that if he did these things and if we were going to stop him and show to be true what you just said, is that they're not showing their work, this is all false, and we need to stop it, and we need to go back to... and it's not to say that our system before couldn't use improvements. Absolutely it needs improvements. 

But, you know, if we were ever going to stop this and restore sanity, we were going to have to sue, and we still have the work to do to do, we're not done yet, right? But ultimately, yes, it won't endure. It won't endure because we're stopping it. 

Ken Cook: Yeah. Now let me just ask you. Kennedy in, in recent weeks, and I, I, I don't know exactly where this stands now, so help me out here — he has proposed a restructuring of the, uh, advisory committee on immunization practice, the ACIP committee at the CDC, to restructure it to include the kinds of personnel that he thinks will represent vaccine-injured people.

I was surprised the judge actually went as far as he went in go- kind of going through the list of people appointed to this committee and basically- Yeah ... saying, "You know, we, this committee can't continue." It doesn't meet the, the, the test of the law for expertise. So how do you see this latest move by Kennedy to reorient the committee and give it a, a different charter?

Richard Hughes: Yeah. Yeah. So they are trying to circumvent the judge's ruling. 

Ken Cook: Patently. 

Richard Hughes: Patently. I hope the White House is watching. I hope that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is listening to this podcast, and I assume that she wanted him to cool it on vaccines, because that's not a popular issue. Going into the midterms, I don't think they want him to continue this. 

Now, what they've done is they've gotten really creative. They said, "Oh, the charter's going to expire on April 1st." And so they got together, and Aaron Siri said, "We're gonna put in a petition, and we're gonna just change the charter." So Andel Bigtree, uh, has been on his podcast, and there was a Politico story that ran last week where he said, "Oh, you know, Kennedy basically just has to change the T's he's crossing and the I's that he's dotting."

Wow. You talk about transparency. I mean, they're being so transparent about their nefarious- Finally, yes. Finally.

Ken Cook: Right? Isn't it funny? So- finally some useful transparency, 

Richard Hughes: Yeah ... ri- right. Very useful, because it's like, okay, you broke the rules, and you got your hand slapped, and so now you're just going to change the rules?

Well, I'm sorry, you have to follow some rules to change the rules. And it goes back actually to where we started in this conversation, too, is that the law presupposes we want to use vaccines, right, to control vaccine preventable disease. There is that thoughtful apparatus that's been set up. 

They are flying, they continue to fly in the face of that. And so, you know, we'll see what he does. We need to see how he would execute on these charter changes. But it's, it's just egregious, and I hope it gets the attention that it deserves. 

Ken Cook: Yeah, I do, too. Well, we'll certainly try and help as much as we can to shine- Thank you a light on that, because, you know, there's, there's never been a more opaque administration when it comes to decision-making. 

And more arbitrary, almost clownishly so, and oftentimes to deadly effect. Lots of bad decisions on environmental policy that are causing harm. And we see from the shifting attitudes, the new poll that came out from Politico, that it seems like more and more Americans are, Republicans in particular, are vaccine skeptical and might decide not to have their kids vaccinated because of this ambient debate or discussion.

Debate's hard to say. Uh, it d- doesn't really suit it. What are the next steps that will unfold? Um, they haven't formally appealed yet, have they? 

Richard Hughes: They haven't, and they don't have a window to appeal. There have been statements made out of HHS that they have, you know, 60 days following the ruling. This was an interlocutory decision.

They have 10 days. They would have had to have a question of law certified to be able to take it up to the First Circuit on appeal. They have missed their window. And so if they want to try to appeal this late, we would oppose that. And so where we are right now is in a relatively boring place, where we essentially are working with the government to get the administrative record and, you know, going back to the APA, because this is an APA case, we are entitled to see the record, and there are different records for each of the decisions, right?

And so we're, it's the ver- again, the very boring part of litigation, of trying to get the documents. Now, are they going to give us all of the documents we want? Are we gonna see the emails and the text messages? You know, we're looking. 

Ken Cook: I would love to. I would love to. 

Richard Hughes: I would, I would as well. I would as well. I would as well. So, you know, once we have that record, and once it's completed, we'll be pursuing a final judgment and to get a final decision on the merits. And, um- presumably that could be appealed in the future. I would assume they want that to happen after the midterms, because of the way we've talked about this.

But we're doing the work of getting to that final decision. 

Ken Cook: Well, I wanna thank you for that work, and thank you for your time, Richard. Thank you. I've read deeply into the court record here. I, again, I encourage everyone to do the same, and I know your students will be reading through it. 

Richard Hughes: Yes, they have. They have already been... yes. 

Ken Cook: I, I'm sure, I'm sure. This is a pretty exciting time to be reading through something as a curriculum that's so present in the world, and that their professor is so heavily involved in. And I, I'm not happy that you had to leave your political career in, in Arkansas, but I'm, but I'm grateful in a way that where you ended up is, uh, making this case. 

Richard Hudges: Me too

Ken Cook: These organizations, again, they're not perfect. The law is not perfect. The science is not perfect. But in the scheme of things, we cannot afford this area of law and policy and science to be degraded in the way it is, and that's my, one of my greatest regrets. People wor- worry about authoritarianism, I get that.

But I think before, well before we get to that, it's the corrosion in understanding what authority really means. The authority of, of knowledge and expertise as well as the, the authority of law. To me, that's the greater, that's the greater threat right now. Because that sits in a parent's head.

Richard Hughes: Yeah. 

Ken Cook: Who do I trust? 

Richard Hughes: I agree. 

Ken Cook: If it's a pediatrician of the sort that Kennedy caricatures as in the pocket of big pharma, why would you trust them? On the other hand, you have a kid that, um, really will be vulnerable. Look at what's happened with, uh, all these infectious diseases just in the past year and a half. It's very worrisome. 

Richard Hughes: No, it absolutely is, and we have so much work to do to actually reestablish trust. He talks about reestablishing trust. I'm not saying that we were ever perfect at communicating about vaccines. I think there are so many things that we could do better when it comes to talking with parents, right? You know? 

Ken Cook: I agree. The fact that they feel ghosted is really upsetting to me. It is. People say that to me on, you know, on direct messaging and on, in LinkedIn and other ways I communicate, that I even questioned Kennedy, and we came out against his, his confirmation. And, uh, George Benjamin, when I called him, he said, "I'm in," when we were live streaming the con- confirmation hearings.

It's, it's like a no-brainer. And there's no one in the nonprofit environmental community who's standing up with Kennedy, which is also noteworthy. I say that to a lot of my friends who are, you know, MAHA fans and adherents that take note of that. It's kind of noteworthy that you don't have anyone in the major environmental groups that he worked with- 

Richard Hughes: No ... 

Ken Cook: Uh, who's willing to stand up for him. Quite the contrary, so.

Richard Hughes: That's right. That's right. 

Ken Cook: Anyway. Well, thank you so much. I really- 

Richard Hughes: Thank you, Ken 

Ken Cook: ... appreciate it. As this evolves, I hope I can get you back on if there's- 

Richard Hughes: Please, anytime 

Ken Cook: ...important developments that

Richard Hughes: Please

Ken Cook: Really great. Thanks so much, counselor. Thank you so much. 

Richard Hughes: Thank you, Ken. 

Ken Cook: Thank you to Professor Richard Hughes for joining me today, and thank you out there for listening. If you'd like to learn more, be sure to check out our show notes for additional links so you can take a deeper dive into today's discussion.

Make sure to follow our show on Instagram, @KenCooksPodcast, and if you're interested in learning more about EWG, head on over to ewg.org or check out the EWG Instagram account, @EnvironmentalWorkingGroup. Now, if this episode resonated with you or you think someone you know would benefit from it, send it along.

The best way to make positive change is to start as a community with your community. Today's episode was produced by the extraordinary Beth Rowe and Mary Kelly, who wrote that last sentence. Our show's theme music is by Moby. Thank you, Moby, and thanks again to all of you for listening.

Areas of Focus Family Health Children’s Health May 29, 2026

Least Terns are small seabirds that nest on the beach, typically in large colonies. These coastal birds depend on expanses of clean, healthy habitats to raise their families, and are increasingly...

 

Backbone Intern Giacomo Moody's Story Map for We the People is now LIVE!.

The Story Map traces the journey of this Iconic image, from its 2007 debut at Seattle Center to its current deployments in pro-democracy protests around the country. Check out Giacomo's great work and the amazing fruits of our collective labors.

Learn more about joining us in DC or pitching in to support our team going to Washington, DC to mark the 250th Birthday of this country. We'll once again take the streets in a defiant and beautiful expression of common cause and our shared commitment to fulfilling mission of creating a more just, sustainable, and democratic nation, and a future we can be proud to hand our children.

Check out the We the People Story Map at BackboneCampaign.org/WeThePeople.

 

 

For Immediate Release:

May 29, 2026

Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org

STOCKTON, CA — Today, Restore the Delta released a new report detailing one of the many local solutions outlined in the recently unveiled Water Renaissance Plan: expanding rice farming in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as a strategy to combat land subsidence and support a more sustainable regional economy.

Supported by BEAM Circular, which sponsored the critical research for the region, the report documents that Delta rice acreage has increased fivefold over the past eight years and lays out the environmental and economic benefits of rice cultivation as a strategic defense against subsidence.

“Without major levee investment in the next 25 years, over $10 billion in infrastructure faces severe flood risk,” said Morgen Snyder, Director of Policy and Programs for Restore the Delta. “Flooded rice cultivation restores the anaerobic conditions that slow and may stop peat oxidation that has already caused some Delta islands to sink as much as 25 feet. Pairing Delta levee investment with rice farming and wetland restoration benefits ecosystem health, as well as driving new economic opportunities for the region.”

The report maps current residue management practices and emerging bioproduct pathways, while identifying a major economic gap in which nearly all milling value from Delta-grown rice currently leaves the region for Sacramento County. To address this, the report’s central recommendation calls for the development of a regional grain mill that would:

• Consolidate agricultural residue streams
• Reduce transportation emissions
• Support local bioproduct innovation
• Create new jobs tied to the local agricultural economy

Rice hulls already contribute to electricity generation in the Sacramento Valley, and the report argues that a local processing economy could make rice farming more financially viable for Delta landowners.

The report arrives shortly after the release of the Water Renaissance Plan, a statewide framework that shifts California away from expensive and unreliable imported water systems toward local, sustainable solutions that provide long-term water reliability at an affordable cost.

This latest research builds directly on that vision. By documenting the Delta’s expanding rice industry, available feedstock supply, infrastructure gaps, and emerging bioproduct opportunities, the report strengthens the economic case for the Water Renaissance Plan’s broader approach to water and land management, one that depends on maintaining healthy peat soils, protecting levees, and supporting resilient local agriculture. 

“This is about more than rice,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. “It’s about creating a durable economic model that helps protect California’s water infrastructure, supports local communities, and keeps the Delta landscape functioning for generations to come.” 

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