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Dolores Huerta, a labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the organization that became the United Farm Workers (UFW), died on October 28, 2026, at her home in Bakersfield, California, according to the Dolores Huerta Foundation. She was 96.

“Her life’s work was to empower her community to face and overcome injustices, and she has left farm workers and the entire Latino community stronger and more organized than she found it,” UFW President Teresa Romero said in a statement.

Born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, in Dawson, New Mexico, Huerta grew up in Stockton, California. After earning a teaching credential, Huerta began working as an elementary school teacher in the San Joaquin Valley.

Witnessing the poverty experienced by her students and their families, she decided to pursue community organizing. “I thought I could do more by organizing farmworkers than by trying to teach their hungry children,” she recalled in a 2017 PBS Independent Lens documentary about her life.

Huerta became involved with the Community Service Organization (CSO), a Latino civil rights group. She organized voter registration drives, advocated for improvements in underserved neighborhoods, and founded the Agricultural Workers Association.

She met fellow organizer César Chávez in 1955, and in 1962, Huerta and Chávez established the National Farm Workers Association. The organization later merged with the Filipino-led Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to form what became the United Farm Workers.

During the Delano grape strike in 1965, Huerta helped organize a nationwide boycott that brought millions of consumers into the campaign and put economic pressure on California grape growers. In 1970, after five years of strikes and boycotts, Huerta helped negotiate collective bargaining agreements which secured higher wages, health benefits, pensions, and protections against unsafe working conditions.

In 1963, she helped secure disability insurance and Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits for California agricultural workers. She later helped build support for the state’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. The law established farmworkers’ right to union representation and required employers to bargain in good faith with unions chosen by their employees.

Beyond wages and labor rights, Huerta fought to protect farmworkers from hazardous pesticides and helped organize a boycott to pressure growers to reduce their use. She also advocated for immigration reform, reproductive rights, and greater political representation for women and Latino communities.

“As a Latina in the labor movement, she challenged the norms that kept women of color out of those spaces and brought women and families onto picket lines and up the ranks of unions and community organizations,” Neidi Dominguez, Executive Director of Organized Power In Numbers, said in a statement. “She showed that women were and are central to the farmworkers and all workers’ collective struggle.”

She coined the phrase “Sí, se puede,” or “Yes, it can be done,” which became a rallying cry for labor and civil rights movements.

Huerta was jailed 22 times during labor demonstrations and endured threats and violence throughout her career. In 1988, while protesting then-Republican presidential candidate George H.W. Bush, Huerta was struck by a police officer’s baton, breaking several ribs and rupturing her spleen. Following her recovery, she continued organizing and increasingly focused on women’s rights and encouraging Latinas to seek elected office.

In March 2026, Huerta bravely disclosed in an interview with the The New York Times that Chávez had sexually assaulted her twice during the 1960s. Both assaults resulted in pregnancies.

Huerta explained in a statement that she had remained silent for decades because she feared revealing the abuse would undermine the farmworker movement. “The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual,” Huerta wrote.

After stepping down from her leadership role at UFW, Huerta established the Dolores Huerta Foundation in the early 2000s. The organization supports community organizing and civic participation, particularly in California’s San Joaquin Valley. It has trained thousands of community members to advocate for improvements in education, environmental health, public services, and political representation.

Huerta’s contributions earned numerous honors, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. She was also the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Schools are named in her honor in California, Texas and Colorado. She received 15 honorary degrees.

Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg had the chance to meet Huerta several years ago in California and remembers that “she was magnetic and so full of energy. Her leadership inspired so many people in the food and agriculture movement.”

Huerta continued participating in demonstrations, registering voters, mentoring young organizers, and advocating for underserved communities into her 90s. Throughout her life, she emphasized the importance of empowering people to organize and advocate for themselves.

“I hope that my legacy will be one of an organizer that organized to fight injustice,” Huerta said in the 2025 documentary Seeds of Change: The Life and Legacy of Dolores Huerta. “We want to give our children an inheritance of justice, right, not jewels or property or money.”

Huerta is survived by 14 children, 24 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, and 7 great-great-grandchildren. Her legacy continues through the United Farm Workers, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, and generations of organizers working to advance labor rights and social justice.

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Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

The post Honoring Dolores Huerta appeared first on Food Tank.

New York City residents are riding commuter trains at record rates thanks to cheaper tickets that let people pay less to ride between stations inside city limits, MTA officials said on Wednesday.

Ridership on the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro-North Railroad has nearly rebounded to pre-pandemic numbers — largely thanks to disproportionate ridership growth in New York City, whose residents have taken advantage of $5 off-peak and $7 peak “City Tickets” for intracity travel that the MTA expanded from a weekend-only deal in 2022.

Ridership at city stations has grown a flabbergasting 180 percent compared to just four years ago, according to figures revealed at Wednesday’s MTA board member.

Commuter rails have become a popular ride for New Yorkers in the last few years.

“Ridership at stations within New York City is outpacing ridership growth at at non-New York City stations,” said MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara. “That growth has exploded since the expansion of the weekday City Ticket back in 2022.”

LIRR President Rob Free said the agency’s move to attract more riders has paid off handsomely. This year, 29 percent of all ticket sales on the commuter railroads were City Tickets, and ridership has increased by 478 percent at the Laurelton station in Queens and 503 percent at the Melrose station in the Bronx.

“In looking at ways to increase ridership, address transit deserts and provide more affordable travel options for New York City residents, we uncovered a new market for commuter rail service,” Free said on Wednesday. “From 2022 to 2025 [City Ticket] ticket sales grew a whopping 361 percent for the commuter railroads.

The MTA introduced the City Ticket in 2003 as a $4.50 weekend-only discount ride for intracity travel on the LIRR and Metro-North. Advocates and elected officials spent the following years pushing the MTA to make even better use of its commuter rail stations inside the five boroughs, many of which are service neighborhoods with limited or zero subway service. In 2022, the agency began offering a $5 off-peak version of the ticket; in 2023, it introduced a $7 peak option, Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed the idea as a way to encourage post-pandemic transit ridership.

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Advocates who pushed the MTA to open the city to more potential riders celebrated the good news as proof that giving people options can increase ridership.

“The success of the City Ticket shows that people want to be able to choose their mode of choice or whatever is easiest for them to make their trip shorter, and that riding the railroad is often that that way of travel,” said Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “We recommended this dozens of years ago, and are thrilled that it’s going stronger than ever.”

Daglian and the PCAC previously pushed the MTA to more widely adopt a different type of discount commuter rail ride that they called the Freedom Ticket. The proposed arrangement would have paired a weekly City Ticket with a seven-day MetroCard. While the MetroCard has gone the way of the Laserdisc, Daglian still hoped the MTA would explore more ways to take advantage of the clear interest in the City Ticket.

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“We continue to encourage the MTA to look at a City Ticket weekly, a City Ticket monthly, a City Ticket with some kind of transfer to transit. Give the people what they want. If it works, make it better. And it works, so we can make it even better. Let’s figure out how to do that, now’s the time,” she said.

MTA leadership wouldn’t commit to adding a subway transfer to the City Ticket, but said they were open to exploring ways to grow the program and introduce even more discounts.

“We will always consider them as part of our consideration of strategies to keep the system affordable,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber. “We’re always looking at new ideas in the appropriate time frame.”

We talk to the developers of one of Australia's biggest, privately-owned non-mining microgrids, that will power a massive almond farm and slash diesel use by 90 pct. Plus news of the week.

The post Solar Insiders Podcast: The utility, the almond farm, and the landmark renewable microgrid appeared first on Renew Economy.

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In our latest, we talk about the “Tax the Rich” campaign, that has manifested as state wide ballot initiatives called Proposition 3 and Proposition 40, in California. Listen in: Proposition…

On Tuesday, Oct. 27, one week before the midterms, registered nurses in six U.S. cities demanded the country’s major hospital groups do their part to protect free and fair elections.

Researchers estimate output from solar farms in worst bushfires would have fallen by up to 70 pct within 50 km of hotspots, and 40 pct in regions more than 150km away.

The post Bushfire smoke chokes output from solar farms, even more than 100 km away, researchers find appeared first on Renew Economy.

Location: Mid-Atlantic & Northeastern States with easy access (via plane or train) for regular travel to Washington, DC & Salt Lake City, UT; can also be based out of SUWA’s Washington, DC Office.  
Department: Campaigns 
Team: Organizing
Reports to: Regional Organizing Manager 
Status, Salary, & Benefits: Full-time, Non-Exempt. Benefits & salary range at suwa.org/careers.  

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), Utah’s largest conservation organization, has an immediate opening for an East Coast Organizer. Interested applicants should send a cover letter, resume, a writing sample of your choosing (a link to materials online is fine), and three references to the East Coast Organizer Hiring Team at jobs@suwa.org.  The deadline to submit your application is Monday, November 23, 2026. Please include your name and the words “East Coast Organizer” in the subject line.

Of note: This position is open to individuals currently residing in or willing to relocate to a Mid-Atlantic or Northeastern US State with easy access (via plane or train) for regular travel to Washington, DC & Salt Lake City, UT; they can also be based out of SUWA’s Washington, DC Office. 

Click here to view this job description as a PDF

Position Summary 

The Regional Organizer builds and sustains grassroots power across a multi-state region in support of SUWA’s mission. Working within the Campaigns Department and collaboratively with other program teams, this position implements organizing tactics within their region; identifies opportunities for influence, recruits and develops advocates and emerging leaders, and builds coalition and constituent relationships. The Regional Organizer represents SUWA to the general public, elected officials and their staff, and coalition and Tribal partners. They mobilize activists nationally, especially when developments require a rapid, coordinated grassroots response outside of Utah by activating individuals, building networks, and engaging with regional coalitions.  

This is a dynamic, travel-intensive role suited to someone who thrives in field and community-based environments, communicates and coordinates well across diverse coalition spaces, and is comfortable balancing independent judgment in the field with close collaboration across teams. 

Duties & Responsibilities  Campaign Strategy & Grassroots Organizing 

• Contribute to the design, evaluation, and adaptation of regional campaign strategy; enacts tactics in response to legislative, legal, and political developments. 

• Build and sustain a regional network of grassroots advocates and volunteers; recruit, mentor, and develop emerging leaders through training, coaching, and leadership pipelines. 

• Cultivate constituent power in priority states, districts, and communities, and in coordination with other SUWA staff leverage that power to meet the organization’s goals.. 

• In consultation with Regional Organizing Manager, recruit, supervise, and support interns, fellows, and contractors. 

Federal Advocacy & Coalition Building 

• Advance federal legislative and administrative priorities through coordinated advocacy, grassroots mobilization, public comment campaigns, earned media, and coalition action. 

• Build and strengthen relationships with conservation organizations, Tribal partners, outdoor industry leaders, educators, and other allied stakeholders; represent SUWA in regional and national coalitions. 

• Prepare advocates and partners for effective engagement with elected officials and federal agencies, and translate complex public lands policy into clear, compelling public narratives. 

Events, Training & Public Engagement 

• Lead the planning and execution of advocacy events, fly-ins, rallies, and trainings; deliver presentations as a public spokesperson for SUWA. 

• Work collaboratively with other Regional Organizers to refine leadership curricula and advocacy training that build skills and capacity among advocates and emerging leaders. 

Operations & Project Management 

• Manage multiple concurrent campaigns, work plans, timelines, and regional budgets. 

• Track supporter engagement and campaign performance through CRM systems and produce evaluations and reports to inform organizational planning. 

Other Duties & Responsibilities 

• Support organizational retreats, publications, donor and member engagement, and other special initiatives connected to campaign goals; perform other duties as assigned to advance SUWA’s mission. 

Work Environment & Travel Requirements 

• Work independently in the field and collaboratively across teams, departments and time zones, exercising sound judgment. 

• Travel occasionally within the region, national travel may occur during periods of urgent conservation threats or rapid-response mobilization; work evenings and weekends as campaign priorities require. 

• Regular public speaking and presentation responsibilities; ability to transport outreach and event materials up to 50 lbs. 

• Work performed in office, community, travel, remote, and public settings. 

Training & Qualifications 

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or ability required for the role — the ideal candidate will have all or some of these qualifications. If you don’t have all of them, apply anyway and tell us about your skills and experience. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. We strongly encourage applications from people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, veterans, and other underrepresented groups.

Required Qualifications 

• A passion for SUWA’s mission of conservation of wilderness lands in Utah and a strong desire to connect people to action in service to these lands.  

• Demonstrated experience in grassroots organizing, campaign management, or community engagement, across multiple states or regions a plus 

• Aptitude and inclination for building relationships across diverse constituencies, including Congressional offices, and to recruit, train, and manage volunteers or activist networks within region. 

• Strong organizational, budgeting, public speaking, and interpersonal communication skills 

• Ability to travel extensively (frequently 25–75%+ depending on programming needs), maintain a flexible schedule, and a valid driver’s license 

• Computer literacy including Google and MS Office products, plus database/CRM tools 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience in advocacy, campaigns, public affairs, conservation, political strategy, or coalition work 

• Knowledge and/or experience in land conservation, environmental advocacy, or related policy work; knowledge of wilderness conservation or federal land management 

• Experience building coalitions with allied organizations; familiarity with legislative or regulatory processes 

• Curriculum development or training/facilitation experience; experience representing organizations in public-facing or spokesperson roles 

• Bilingual or multilingual skills; ties to Utah a plus but not required 

The post Now Hiring: East Coast Organizer appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

On October 27, 2026, Canada made a commitment to protect an additional three percent of its marine and ocean areas by the end of 2027. It is one in a series of announcements made as Madame Diana Fox...

On Tuesday, October 27, representatives from six communities dealing with the impacts of Canadian mining projects in Latin America and the Caribbean testified in a thematic hearing held by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. For years, these communities have fought to have their human rights and right to a healthy environment upheld both in their home countries and in Canada. 

Community leaders testify to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Corporate investment and abuses cross borders. Communities’ solidarity does too. At yesterday’s hearing, leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean joined with Canadian and international NGOs to strengthen each others’ voices. Together, they posed a question to the Canadian government: The issues at each of these mine sites are well documented, so why hasn’t the Canadian government done more to hold Canadian mining companies accountable for their actions abroad?

Their testimonies show how individual community experiences add up to a pattern of corporate abuse that demands immediate action.

Canada’s government supports mining companies as communities call for action.

Canada’s laws and state practices provide political, legal and economic support that enables the sector… There are no effective mechanisms to prevent or investigate damages.

Charis Kamphuis, Justice and Corporate Accountability Project, Canada

Canadian stock exchanges are home to roughly half of the world’s publicly traded mining companies, but Canada does not hold the sector to strict and binding human rights and environmental due diligence standards. Mechanisms for corporate accountability in Canada fall short. Instead, it often uses its economic and diplomatic resources to support companies’ operations despite the impacts these have on local communities. 

In Argentina, toxic spills contaminate the Jachal River. 

For more than ten years, we have fought for our right to clean water… We have waited for more than ten years without response. We do not want more broken promises. We want clean water, justice, and guarantees that this will not repeat.

Saúl Zeballos, Argentina

Two witness testimonies heard yesterday relate to Barrick Gold’s operations abroad. 

At the Veladero Mine in Argentina, five spills have contaminated the Jachal River with cyanide and mercury, and community members are still asking for the company to take responsibility for the contamination. 

While mining company Barrick acknowledged the first three spills, in regards to two additional spills documented through independent water sampling, the company said it “is aware of the allegations regarding a recent incident at Veladero, and categorically denies them.” 

In the Dominican Republic, concerns about pollution are met with bottled water and denials.

We have many health problems, both kidney and lung problems, vision problems, lead in the blood… We are suffering from a lack of water… I believe it is not acceptable for us to be living in the situation we are living in…Without water, there is no life.

Casilda Lima, Dominican Republic

At its Pueblo Viejo Mine in the Dominican Republic, residents living near one of the largest gold mines in the world have to deal with constant air pollution and impacts on water. Community members have had to drink bottled water for the past 15 years.

The company denies any responsibility and has not developed a permanent solution for the  health issues and pollution that communities allege comes from their proximity to the mine. In response to a Guardian article about issues at the Pueblo Viejo mine, Barrick stated that it is “committed to operating in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Contrary to the allegations, the water quality surrounding our operations has improved due to the extensive environmental remediation and water treatment activities we have undertaken.” 

In Ecuador and Colombia, land defenders are imprisoned and harassed.

We have people who are unjustly criminalized for defending our rights, for defending our nature, for defending our water, our Pachamama.

Marco Manobanda, Ecuador

In Ecuador, the Curipamba-El Domo mine threatens the health, livelihoods, and water resources of local Indigenous and campesino communities. Land defenders who have spoken out about the impacts of the project have faced criminalization and imprisonment without due process.

Those of us who have raised our voices for 17 years have been stigmatized and labeled as belonging to groups outside the law… 

We have gone to the authorities, we have gone to the courts, and the risk continues. That is why we have come before you today.

Mayerly López, Colombia

Members of the Santurban Committee protesting a Canadian mine project in Colombia have also faced harassment and criminalization. 

In response to these allegations, Aris Mining claims “we remain steadfast in our assertion that we do not and have not participated in, nor do we condone, the intimidation of anyone.” 

The Committee and UN experts have sent letters to the Canadian Government about the situation. Despite this, Canada has not responded or taken responsibility for the actions of Aris Mining.

In Panama, residents cannot enter their home communities without company permission.

Before we had to travel on foot through the mountain for many hours. Now, even though the road is much faster, the company controls it and complicates our access. There is a security checkpoint and they monitor who enters or leaves… If there is an emergency, and my family calls me, without a company ID, I cannot get to them quickly. 

Why do we have to ask First Quantum for permission to pass if the company is on our territory? Instead of asking the Indigenous People for permission, they come to tell us what to do…

This testimony is anonymous because I am worried that they will threaten me and my community, or that they will prevent me from using the road to reach my family.

Name withheld

In Panama, Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals has had its contract revoked twice by the country’s Supreme Court. Despite this, they continue to operate a checkpoint along the main road into the mine concession area. First Quantum Minerals told the media that the checkpoint is “only within the industrial zone itself” with “no restrictions in the remainder of the region.” 

Nevertheless, nine communities are located within the concession area, and are required to have a company-issued identification in order to pass through, greatly restricting their freedom of movement. Canadian officials have repeatedly expressed their support for First Quantum and the company has filed international arbitration for $20 billion USD against Panama. 

In Mexico, a community leader opposing a mine was murdered.

We are not saying that the [Canadian] Embassy ordered my father to be killed. But by denying him support for security, and by only working in favor of the company, we think that they put him at greater risk… Today, almost 17 years after my father’s murder, we are still seeking justice.

José Luis Abarca

In 2009, community leader Mariano Abarca was murdered for his opposition to a Canadian mining project near his home in southern Mexico. This was after the Canadian Embassy received multiple letters stating that Abarca feared for his safety. Canadian authorities have refused to investigate the case and a Canadian court claimed that human rights policies were not binding for government officials. 

At the time of Abarca’s murder, Blackfire’s CEO claimed that the company “is not involved in this in any fashion…We’re just trying to continue working and moving forward with our projects.” Mariano Abarca´s son, José Luis Abarca, continues to fight for justice for the murder of his father. He testified on Canada’s obligations in the hearing.

It’s time for the Canadian government to uphold human rights.

Each of these communities have had their livelihoods, health, safety and wellbeing threatened by Canadian mining companies. 

This is not the first time that these issues have been raised to the Canadian government. In a 2023 House of Commons hearing, Catherine Coumans stated that, “Harm caused or contributed to by Canadian mining companies, their subsidiaries and contractors overseas is widespread globally and persistent.” 

Leaders from countries across Latin America and the Caribbean made their message clear: It is past time for Canada’s government to uphold international human rights standards and hold its mining industry accountable for the many harms it has caused abroad. 

The post Hearing Spotlights Human Rights Failures of Canadian Mining throughout Latin America and the Caribbean appeared first on Earthworks.

With a mission of protecting birds and the places they need, the National Audubon Society was founded more than a century ago. Despite Audubon’s work to establish laws holding people accountable...

This article Tens of thousands get ready to defend the vote was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Garnet DeGrave and other organizers with Citizen Action Wisconsin watched in shock as news broke this June that FBI agents had raided the office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a nonprofit that hosts voter registration drives and does political organizing. The incident was largely understood to be an attempt to intimidate progressive organizers in the state and foster uncertainty in the state’s elections. DeGrave realized if a similar situation happened in Wisconsin — if a government agency interfered with community organizers or, in the worst case scenario, the election — they were woefully unprepared. 

“There weren’t enough people that were organized in the western half of the state to be able to handle that,” DeGrave, Citizen Action Wisconsin’s northeast organizer, said. 

This spurred the organization to try to fill the gap. At the end of September, Citizen Action Wisconsin — which does grassroots organizing around electoral and issue-based campaigns for social and racial justice — partnered with local organizations to pivot to election protection  ahead of a crucial midterm. 

It’s one of many community organizations and advocacy groups across the United States that have built out their election protection and defense work this year in an effort to combat misinformation and protect election integrity — a basic tenet of democracy that has come under attack from a president who is an election denier. Alongside national groups like the ACLU, which has had 68,000 sign-ups for its Democracy Defenders Task Force program, these state and local organizations have undertaken an unprecedented coordinated effort to bolster voting rights amid efforts by the federal government to undermine election results. 

According to DeGrave, the work falls into two categories. “Election protection” is pre-election work to help people overcome any barriers to voting — a process that differs in every state. This can include challenging laws that might restrict voter access, running voter assistance hotlines or holding voter education campaigns.

“Election defense,” on the other hand, is work during voting and after polls close to ensure every vote is counted and to defend election results. This can include nonpartisan poll watcher programs and community-led trainings that prepare people to mobilize in the event of a contested count due to political interference. 

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For Citizen Action, the pivot was a natural one, as the group had done small-scale election protection work and occasional direct action, DeGrave said. Citizen Action partnered with GROWW, a grassroots group that organizes behind progressive candidates in western Wisconsin, to host training sessions on how to mobilize in the event of election interference. In Michigan, Voters Not Politicians is running a similar election defense program, taking inspiration from protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. In Maine, organizations like the League of Women Voters have worked to grow a statewide poll watching program — a tactic also being used by groups in Florida and California.

Though election protection and defense efforts have been an integral part of American politics for decades, part of the reason this year’s efforts have grown in size is because the stakes feel so high.

“This election is such an important moment for us to be prepared for, in order to vote out authoritarians,” DeGrave said.

A surge of volunteers

In the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections, the Trump administration has intensified tactics that advocates say are meant to intimidate or disenfranchise voters. 

On the pretext of combating voter fraud — which experts say is virtually nonexistent in the U.S. — the administration has demanded sensitive voter information to identify alleged noncitizen voters from every state. Its attempts have been consistently denied by judges, though that hasn’t stopped the administration from trying to remove 20,000 people from voter rolls in California or from creating a federal voter database that’s incorrectly flagged some voters as noncitizens. The administration also tried to make voting more difficult for Americans with new Postal Service restrictions on mail-in voting, which a district court put on hold until after the election. 

State Republicans have followed President Donald Trump’s lead. Since Trump entered office in January 2025, at least 19 states have passed laws that will make it harder to cast ballots in the midterms. 

Government officials have also repeatedly implied they will deploy armed federal agents to poll sites, an action illegal under national law since it could constitute voter intimidation. The administration has also indicated its intention to send around 1,000 Department of Justice federal monitors to all 50 states to observe voting procedures, which advocates say is another intimidation tactic. And privately, Trump opponents worry he could claim that foreign governments interfered in the election as a way to discredit results. 

“It’s highly, highly unlikely. But if ICE were to be around the polling places, we want our observers to report it.”

Jen Lancaster, League of Women Voters of Maine

Mel Neal, legal counsel on voting rights issues for democracy defense organization the Campaign Legal Center, characterized the Trump administration’s actions as undermining trust in the election system. “They are attacks on democracy and are an attempt to sow distrust in our election system so that election results can’t be trusted,” she said. 

In response to these threats, organizers have built statewide coalitions of nonpartisan poll watchers: people who travel to poll sites during early voting and on Election Day to ensure that people are able to vote without difficulty. 

Such poll watching programs have been around for decades, explained Amy Keith, executive director of Florida’s chapter of Common Cause, a national voting rights group founded in opposition to the Vietnam War in 1970 whose initial campaign successfully reduced the voting age from 21 to 18.

Poll watching emerged first and foremost to document any and all issues that could discourage voters trying to cast their ballots: police presence, overlong lines, lack of disability access, language barriers, etc. Jen Lancaster, the deputy director of the League of Women Voters of Maine, said the league’s poll watching program emerged during COVID-19 to ensure all polling places followed public health standards, such as by implementing plexiglass or acrylic barriers. 

“We are always watching for anything that could intimidate or deter or make it harder for voters,” Keith said. The goal, she added, was “to make sure that polling places are calm and welcoming, so that everybody can have that experience to cast their ballot and to participate in the process.”

But this year, organizations have also begun advising volunteers about what to do if agents from federal agencies like the FBI or ICE show up. 

“It’s highly, highly unlikely,” Lancaster emphasized. “But if ICE were to be around the polling places, we want our observers to report it.” The presence of any officer, including ICE agents, near a polling location can discourage voters, which is why organizers look out for it. “It can be scary to walk by an armed officer in order to cast their ballot,” Keith said. Poll observers don’t typically engage in direct action themselves when these situations arise; instead, they alert their teams, who often have experienced advocates or lawyers on standby to provide advice or assistance.

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Maine’s nonpartisan poll watching program has grown to around 400 registered volunteers. “For Maine, this is a pretty big number,” Lancaster said. In Florida and California, poll watching programs co-run by Common Cause chapters reported over 1,000 recruits. They are part of a nationwide boom in poll watching volunteers, which state-level chapters of Common Cause and the League of Women Voters have worked quickly to accommodate. 

Eileen Ma, director of democracy and national initiatives at the Asian Law Caucus, which has co-led an election protection program in California since 2012 with Common Cause, said the program could only channel the surge of volunteers into trained roles because of years of  infrastructure development.

“We have the capacity to bring on and train 1,000 volunteers because we built up over time the materials and the expertise and the practical knowledge of how to do that,” Ma said. “The work over the last decade [has] been critical to our being able to respond in this moment.”

Combating misinformation and building trust

Advocacy organizations have also, for years, operated national and state-level voter hotlines where prospective voters can call to clarify any questions they have about voting and make plans to cast their ballots. All day, including on weekends, Keith and her team at Florida Common Cause field calls about early voting, ID laws and polling locations. 

Lately, the Florida Common Cause team and other organizations with voter hotlines have fielded questions related to new voter ID laws, which have gone into place in several states. These laws have caused confusion about what identification can be used to vote, organizers said. 

Keith sees clarity on voter laws as crucial to combatting voter misinformation, which she and other advocates characterize as an unfortunate side effect of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine election results. 

Misinformation has included false rumors about the number of noncitizen voters in elections, how ballots marked by poll workers could be disqualified, incorrect guidance about how to register to vote, and more. 

“We want people to have the correct information, not misinformation — whether it’s disinformation being spread by bots or [others] intentionally trying to confuse people, or it’s misinformation because they don’t understand the process,” Keith said.

By combatting these rumors through voter education and voter hotlines, which are increasingly available in more languages, Keith believes trust in the electoral system — the number one defense against attempts to overturn election results — could be restored. 

The League of Women Voters of Maine distributes a community newspaper at a No Kings rally on October 17, 2026. (League of Women Voters of Maine)

Groups around the country are using various channels to get correct information to voters. In Wisconsin, the legal advocacy group Law Forward has invested in its social media strategy, and used social media and op-eds as avenues to combat voter misinformation. 

Democracy Defense Foundation adviser Brian Jones said the organization, which was founded in 2024 in part to reverse the erosion of trust in the U.S. electoral system and operates in eight states, has heavily invested in partnering with community organizations like churches and local nonprofit groups to get information about elections out.

In Maine, where internet access in rural areas remains an issue, Lancaster said the League of Women Voters prints a newspaper with information about candidates across the state. This year, they distributed 50,000 copies in 16 counties. In rural counties, they left the newspapers in town hubs — community centers and libraries — for people to see. 

“There’s a transparent system here and play,” Jones said. “People need to understand that and ensure that faith and trust in their elections, and it’s not driven by just a partisan point of view.”

Ready to deploy

Unlike Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, organizations that have worked in voting rights spaces for years, like Citizen Action Wisconsin and GROWW, don’t have a volunteer base dedicated to this type of work. In the past month, Citizen Action Wisconsin and GROWW have trained about 70 volunteers across Wisconsin in voting rights and post-election mobilization, and then trained those volunteers to conduct outreach to get others involved in election defense. 

“If they talk to five people and those five people talk to five people, then we can actually end up at over 700 people that are motivated and organized and ready to be deployed in a rapid response situation if something does go wrong with the election,” DeGrave said.

Volunteers will be posted outside of key polling sites across Wisconsin when ballot counts begin, and will remain at the ready to host vigils and press conferences outside polling sites if any issues arise.

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In Michigan, Voters Not Politicians, which primarily focused on distributing information about early voting and ballot drop-off locations to voters across the state, has worked on recruiting dozens of volunteers to mobilize in anticipation of election interference. 

Communications director Melinda Billingsley said the organization plans to have volunteers watch polls and, if needed, advocate for voters experiencing issues at the ballot box as part of a statewide nonpartisan poll watching program. 

In the event of a contested election, “we’re recruiting folks to be willing and able to go to any place they’re needed and to throw a party and create a joyful, safe atmosphere,” Billingsley said. This strategy is partially inspired by anti-ICE protests across the United States, which has involved organizers utilizing creative approaches to defend community members from federal agents.

Staying on watch

Though organizers have welcomed the increased interest in poll watching and voter education programs this year, many are wondering how to sustain that energy in future election cycles, where the stakes will arguably be just as high. 

“It’s even more important because in 2028, we have a presidential election year and in 2030, we have a census year,” Darius Kemp, California Common Cause’s executive director, said. Census counts help determine congressional districts, and voting rights organizations are advocating and educating against legislation that would skew a census count, such as a proposed rule to not count noncitizens.

But beyond ensuring fair and accurate elections safe from federal interference, organizers see the expansion of their work as critical to restoring Americans’ faith in the electoral system, which has dropped in the past decade. 

“It is not just a one-day struggle,” said Ma, from the Asian Law Caucus. “It’s not just a one kind of activity kind of struggle. It has to be a full-frontal assault or full-frontal defense, however you choose to look at it, in order to preserve people’s voting rights.”

This article Tens of thousands get ready to defend the vote was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

After the state endured its hottest year-to-date period on record and a multi-million-dollar battering by Hurricane Marie in September and Hurricane Rachel in October, much greater destruction could be on the way this winter. El Niño is continuing to warm coastal waters, and because water expands as it heats, sea levels could rise to unprecedented heights during the coming king tides at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and late January. In concert with the rising seas will likely come a battering by record-wet atmospheric rivers when the jet stream assumes its usual California-centered configuration during the coming very strong ("super") El Niño winter. Atmospheric rivers, like rivers in the sky, carry moisture out of the tropics.

If it comes to pass, a disaster this winter in California would strain FEMA, which has been decimated under the Trump administration. Since 2025, “the agency has so far lost 17 percent of its staff, including one-third of full-time employees responsible for the agency’s day-to-day operations," according to the Brennan Center. And it's an open question how much the federal government would help: According to a March analysis by politico.com, President Donald Trump has approved just 23% of blue state requests for disaster aid, compared to 89% for red states.

Figure 1. Predicted precipitation from the October 1 run of the European seasonal model. A very wet winter is predicted for California. (Image credit: Daniel Swain)

An unusually high risk of a record-wet winter for California

In an October 12 post at weatherwest.com, climate scientist Daniel Swain shared alarming odds of a record-wet winter for California. He analyzed the winter forecasts from 10 different seasonal forecast models; eight of them gave at least 10% odds that one or more months from January through March 2027 would be the wettest on record in Southern California, Central California, or both.

"In a few locations along the Central Coast, the odds are depicted as being as high as 40-50%," Swain wrote. "Technically, a dry winter is still possible, though it is very unlikely (in my estimate, 5-10% or less)."

The latest run of the European Copernicus climate service (C3S) October 14 outlook, which combines 10 seasonal forecast models from nine weather agencies, concurred with Swain's analysis: About 13% of the 454 model ensemble members explicitly predicted California’s wettest winter on record; only 8% showed a drier-than-average December through February period statewide.

The Golden State has a long history of cataclysmic floods, which have occurred about every 200 to 400 years — most recently in the Great Flood of 1861-62, which swamped the 300-mile length of the Central Valley. And climate change has made these extreme floods more likely.

In fact, climate change has already doubled the risk of a megastorm, and more than tripled the risk of a trillion-dollar megaflood of the type that occurred in the 1860s, according to a 2022 study that Swain co-authored. The study authors found that the odds of a lesser megastorm costing tens of billions of dollars — less precipitation than in 1861-62, but more than in California’s recent wettest winters — were about 1% (26% over a 30-year period).

I asked Swain on Bluesky for the odds of such a lesser megastorm this winter. He replied, “It is reasonable to interpret that the risk is at least 10x baseline, and quite possibly higher.” That implies at least a 10% risk this winter of a California flood costing over $10 billion (2023 dollars), which would be the state’s costliest flood on record.

A separate 2022 study estimated that a 1% per year likelihood flood affecting only the Los Angeles area would likely inundate property worth about $56 billion containing a population of about 425,000 to a depth of a foot or more, with the risks disproportionately higher for non-Hispanic Black and other underresourced populations.

Figure 2. The 13 costliest California flood seasons (in 2023 USD), 1949-2025. This includes flooding from all causes. Of the eight seasons that exceeded $1.5 billion in statewide flood damage, only three were El Niño seasons: one very strong (1982) and two moderate (1994-95, 1968-69). (Image credit: Jan Null, ggweather.com)

Timing of the rains will be crucial

Despite their obvious power, strong El Niño events have historically been a mixed bag for severe flood impacts in California. San Francisco-based meteorologist Jan Null wrote by email that a very wet winter won’t necessarily bring destructive flooding if the storms are strung out over the winter.

For example, the strong El Niño winter of 1997-98 had more than double California’s average rainfall — the second-largest amount ever — but ranks only No. 13 for most destructive, because the rain was spread over almost twice the number of rainy days as usual. Conversely, the strong El Niño winter of 1982-83 had less rain but more significant damage (ranking No. 4), as multiple big storms occurred in a short period of time. And in the winter of 2015-16, predicted heavy rains from El Niño never materialized, despite much higher-than-usual odds.

Figure 3. Predicted departure of sea surface temperature from average from the ECMWF ensemble model average for November 2026-January 2027. Highly extreme sea surface temperature anomalies near or exceeding 10°F are predicted along the entire California coast and in the equatorial Pacific. (Image by Daniel Swain using ECMWF SEAS5.1 data)

Record sea surface temperatures will intensify

Sea surface temperatures along the California coast from San Francisco Bay southward are about 2-6 degrees Celsius (3.6-10.8°F) above average and are record-warm for this time of year along the stretch from San Francisco Bay to Los Angeles.

Why? Partially because California has experienced its hottest year-to-date period on record. In addition, an oceanic “Kelvin wave” has transported warm water from the tropics along the coast over the past few months. The Kelvin wave was generated by strong westerly winds from the intensifying super El Niño, which pushed record-warm waters from the western Pacific against the western coasts of North and South America. The Coriolis effect caused by the planet’s rotation then pinned the bulge of warm water against land, forcing it to spread along the Pacific coast. These warm waters will spread farther north and south later this autumn and into the winter.

Swain wrote that water temperatures along much of the California coast could average about 8-10°F above average this winter. "These are, again, pretty astonishing numbers, and would blow records from 1982-83, 1997-98, and 2015-16 right out of the water," he wrote. "In addition to (alas) potentially very serious marine ecosystem impacts, these extremely warm near-shore waters will likely add considerable additional moisture to incoming winter storms."

These warm waters will mean that much of the winter precipitation in the mountains of California will fall as rain, with snow restricted primarily to the highest elevations.

The unusual ocean warmth will also boost atmospheric instability this winter, increasing the risk of coastal thunderstorms, possibly bringing severe thunderstorms with flash flooding, damaging straight-line wind gusts, and a few isolated tornadoes. The unusually active jet stream expected this winter will contribute to this risk.

Record coastal flooding has already occurred and will worsen

Average water levels at Los Angeles were already running one to four inches above expected in the spring of 2026 and rose an additional 9.5 inches between May and September because of the arrival of the Kelvin wave. Water levels have ranged about one to two feet above expected levels so far in October. (An additional sea level rise of six to eight inches since pre-industrial times has already been factored into the “expected” water levels reported by NOAA.)

Figure 4. The top-10 water levels on record for three California cities with long-term periods of record. Data from NOAA Tides and Currents.

These high water levels contributed to millions of dollars of coastal damage as a result of the large swells from Hurricane Marie in September and Hurricane Rachel in October. Nearly the entire Balboa Peninsula near Los Angeles was inundated up to two to three feet by Hurricane Rachel’s waves in October.

Add in king tides

The highest tides of the year — the king tides — occur during the full moon of certain months. The king tides during July — which hit at the same time that a two- to three-foot swell from a Pacific storm arrived at the coast — brought San Diego its highest water levels since its tide gauge was installed in 1906.

More king tides are expected November 24-26, 2026, December 22-25, 2026, and January 20-23, 2027. These king tides are almost certain to cause coastal flooding, even on calm sunny days.

“Even a moderate storm could bring water levels higher still, and a strong storm would likely produce widespread damaging, and probably historic, coastal flooding,” Swain explained.

Figure 5. Forecast from NOAA of the percent probability of at least minor coastal flooding during the coming king tides of November, December, and January in California. The minor flood thresholds (in feet above high tide) are given at left beneath the city's name. (Image credit: Chris Gloninger)

//

What is the cost of polluting the air that Coloradans breathe? 

On February 24, 2025, we filmed pollution pouring out of a storage tank valve on a well pad owned by PDC Energy, a subsidiary of Chevron. The well pad is located just outside Brighton, Colorado and is within a half-mile radius of dozens of homes. Colorado’s Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) responded promptly and an APCD inspector observed the same pollution at the site a few days later. The valve was not operating as designed, so the APCD issued a notice of alleged violation.

(Top) Image of storage tanks on the well pad
(Bottom) Optical gas imaging video showing invisible pollution from a valve on one of the tanks

On March 4, 2025, the valve was fixed. 

For nine days the facility was in violation of Colorado’s air quality rules, dumping harmful compounds into the air that pose a threat to public health, degrade regional air quality, and accelerate climate change. 

The maximum daily fine in 2026 for violating Colorado’s air quality regulations is $57,773. A violation lasting nine days could result in a fine of over half a million dollars.

Yet, on August 13, 2026, the state proposed a total fine of only $18,375. This is less than 5% of the maximum fine that could have been assessed.

A few justifications APCD offered for this drastically reduced fine:

• One was the operator’s good behavior and cooperation. Meanwhile, another Chevron subsidiary in Colorado was just fined $1.5 million for a well blowout that rained toxic chemicals down on Galeton, Colorado for days. 
• The other was the operator’s willingness to get back into compliance, but notably only after they were caught in violation of Colorado rules by Earthworks.

So, to answer the question posed above: for the oil and gas industry, polluting the air that Coloradans breathe is significantly cheaper than lobbying lawmakers and convincing the public that their pollution is not a threat.

We aim to change that. 

Colorado is preparing for the 2027 legislative session, which is the first with a new governor in 8 years. This creates a rare opportunity for decisive action to put people over polluters. The Polis Administration has operated under the idea that “compliance” is the only thing that matters when it comes to air pollution, routinely negotiating penalties down to tiny fractions of the allowable maximum. This has allowed operators to routinely spew pollution into Colorado communities for pennies. 

To truly put people, health, and the environment first, we need penalties that actually matter. 

The post A Slap on the Wrist appeared first on Earthworks.

Oct. 28th, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact

Milagros R. Elia

Program Manager, Climate and Clean Energy Advocacy

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

milagros@envirn.org

914.455.1165

Nurses Condemn EPA Methane Rule Rollback

[Washington, D.C.]- On Oct. 27th, 2026, the U.S. EPA announced its proposal to rollback the landmark 2024 Methane Rule, removing requirements for oil and gas companies to monitor and detect leaks at both new and existing operations. The 2024 Methane Rule was developed with significant input from community leaders and advocates, the oil and gas industry, investors, health experts, and members of Congress. 

Methane pollution from oil and gas operations is released alongside other dangerous pollutants, such as smog-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can worsen asthma and respiratory disease, and known carcinogens, such as benzene and toluene. 

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, which can contribute to premature births and premature deaths. Ground-level ozone contributes to asthma attacks and aggravates other chronic lung diseases and pre-existing heart problems. 

In response to this latest EPA proposed rollback, the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments’ Executive Director Katie Huffling, DNP, RN, CNM, FAAN issued the following statement:

“Rolling back the 2024 methane rule would compromise all of us. As nurses, many of our patients are in the estimated 17.3 million people and 3.9 million children across the country who live within half a mile of an oil and gas facility. Living near oil and gas wells is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease, impaired lung function, asthmatic attacks, preterm birth and childhood leukemia. The commonsense approach required by the 2024 EPA methane rule was estimated to avoid up to 700 premature deaths and 73,000 childhood asthma attacks each year.

“The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) strongly condemns the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rollback of this health protective rule. Weakening methane safeguards undermines efforts to protect vulnerable populations, and  reverses efforts to reduce harmful emissions that accelerate climate change. ANHE calls on the EPA to abandon this proposal and ensure strong, enforceable methane standards are in place that hold polluters accountable.”

###

The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is the only national nursing organization focused solely on the intersection of health and the environment. The mission of the Alliance is to support nurses in promoting planetary health and equity globally by educating and leading the nursing profession, advancing research, incorporating planet-safe practice, and influencing policy.

http://enviRN.org

 

The post Nurses Condemn EPA Methane Rule Rollback appeared first on ANHE.

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• ‘New course on energy’
• Energy bills
• Warm homes plan
• Fuel duty and EVs
• CCS and hydrogen
• Data centres
• Other announcements

Chancellor John Healey has announced a “new course on energy” for the UK, focused on keeping bills low amid the global crisis triggered by war in the Middle East.

As he laid out his first budget, Healey said the Labour government would still prioritise the expansion of clean power and remain “unshakably committed to net-zero”.

The budget sets out what the chancellor calls a “radical reform of energy”, including a longer-term effort to “break the grip of gas on bills”.

There are also a variety of short-term measures to curb energy bills, including a council-tax rebate and the removal of the gas “standing charge”, though these fell far short of pre-budget calls to tackle high prices.

Moreover, in order to fund defence spending, the government is cutting £1bn from its “warm homes plan” and £700m from hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.

The budget also appears to cut up to another £4.7bn from the warm homes plan – as well as ending zero-rated VAT for solar panels and extending a “temporary” 5p cut in fuel duty.

Finally, the government set out plans to ensure new data centres meet strict environmental regulations, while leaving the door open to on-site fossil-fuel power generation.

Below, Carbon Brief runs through the key climate- and energy-focused announcements from the budget.

• ‘New course on energy’
• Energy bills
• Warm homes plan
• Fuel duty and EVs
• CCS and hydrogen
• Data centres
• Other announcements

‘New course on energy’

Conflict in the Middle East has driven up energy bills for people in the UK, as the global trade in oil and gas has been thrown into disarray.

In this context, the new budget sets out a “shift in the government’s approach to energy”, focusing on “cheaper energy” as the main priority.

At the same time, Healey was clear that fossil fuels were driving the price increases and that clean power would be essential for the government’s cost-cutting agenda.

In its accompanying analysis, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) notes that “fossil-fuel prices rose by 83% in the year to September 2026”.

In his speech, the chancellor announced a “radical reform of energy to reduce bills”, stating: 

“Today, I’m setting a new course on energy. To get UK energy costs down in line with Europe, from this point, our Labour government priority is first and foremost cheaper energy, with clean power key to achieving this. This is possible because of the progress we have made towards clean power over the last two years.”

Conservative and Reform politicians have argued that the UK should abandon its net-zero targets, including Labour’s “clean power by 2030” goal, in order to cut energy prices.

This is despite expensive gas driving most of the recent price increases and renewables saving the UK billions in gas imports since the start of the Hormuz crisis.

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The government has not explicitly rolled back any climate targets and Healey stressed in his speech that “this government remains unshakably committed to net-zero by 2050”.

Nevertheless, the budget document speaks of a “new energy pathway” on which the government’s upcoming “10 year plan” will build. It also states:

“Cheaper electricity will boost electrification, increasing the UK’s energy security and helping to decarbonise the whole economy.”

The budget mentions short- and long-term measures to bring costs down, including expansion of the electricity grid. (See sections below for more details.)

It says the government will “consult on market arrangements for gas”, potentially a nod to the idea of putting gas-power plants into a strategic reserve.

Healey also used his speech to welcome the recent approval of the controversial Jackdaw gasfield, which he framed as a “pragmatic” decision that would boost UK “energy security”.

The government is yet to make a decision on the Rosebank oilfield, but OBR forecasts released alongside the budget assume that it will be approved.

Energy bills

The budget offers short-term relief on household and industrial energy bills, as well as promising longer-term sectoral reform.

Nevertheless, it falls far short of proposals for cutting bills that had been set out by industry bodies, thinktanks, charities and energy companies ahead of the budget.

This has stoked expectations that the government may be forced to offer further support on energy bills after the price cap for January 2027 is announced later this year.

Forecasts suggest bills could rise by a quarter – some £470 – to around £2,200 a year.

The only substantive and immediate new bills measure in the budget is a £100 council-tax rebate for English households in bands A-D, which Healey said would cost £2.6bn.

Devolved governments will receive a share of the funding to provide their own support. Meanwhile, local authorities will receive an additional £100m to provide targeted support to households “acutely impacted” by rising energy bills.

In addition, Healey announced that the temporary removal of VAT from household electricity bills – worth around £45 per year – will be extended by three months, from April to July 2027. 

Healey also made a commitment that no new policy costs would be added to energy bills until a comprehensive “cost-control framework” is in place. This is expected at the spending review in 2027. The budget says:

“The government will introduce a new comprehensive cost control framework (CCF) at the spending review in 2027 that will set budgets for components of energy costs, including policy costs, to ensure government action drives bills down over the next 10 years.”

“As part of this, the budget specifies that going forward, the government will only procure new clean-power projects that lower bills and can easily connect to the grid. 

It specifically notes that the upcoming eighth “contracts for difference” (CfD) auction (AR8) “will lower bills, as well as deliver[ing] a good outcome for energy security and climate”.

Speaking to Carbon Brief, James Dyson, senior researcher at E3G says that an effective framework should “set out a specific, timebound commitment to remove the hidden costs from energy bills which have accumulated over the last two decades”, as well as providing oversight of system costs in the future.

A planned levy on gas bills – a long-term funding mechanism for the low-carbon hydrogen dubbed the “gas shipper obligation” – will be moved into general taxation, so that “government rather than consumers fund the costs of hydrogen projects”.

On the morning of the budget, the government announced that the “unfair and outdated” gas standing charge would be removed for around 23m homes in the UK. 

A standing charge is a fixed daily fee paid by households as part of their bill, regardless of how much gas they use. This costs around £108 a year for a typical household. 

The government says it will ask energy regulator Ofgem to move the cost of the standing charge onto gas unit rates in 2027, or as soon as possible. It says this will save 60% of households an average of around £45 a year on their gas bill

The change will disproportionately benefit the poorest households, according to analysis from thinktank Nesta shown in the figure below.

Nesta says the shift will reduce the “spark gap” – the ratio between electricity and gas prices – by around 0.3 points, from 3.3 under the current price cap to 3.0. This could help encourage a shift to electrified technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles (EVs).

The budget also includes a commitment to “reform” standing charges on electricity bills, with further details to be published in 2027.

However, Jess Britton at UKERC tells Carbon Brief that “simply moving [electricity standing] charges on to unit costs risks disincentivising electrification”.

From next year, the government will introduce a new “energy debt circuit breaker”, which will save billpayers £30 by 2030, according to the budget.

This is designed to “tackle the scourge of energy debt”, which currently adds around £60 to typical household energy bills each year, according to Carbon Brief analysis. . 

The initiative follows warnings from trade association Energy UK that customer energy debt is on course to hit £7bn by the end of 2026, potentially adding another £10-15 to bills. 

The budget also confirmed additional support for business energy bills. It says the “British industrial competitiveness scheme” (BICS) will be expanded to provide a 20-25% electricity discount to 10,000 energy-intensive manufacturing firms from April 2027. This will include back-payments for 2026-27. 

According to the OBR, the treasury will indirectly cover the cost of expanding BICS by taking a portion of CfD levies off electricity bills for other consumers.

In the longer term, the budget includes a commitment to “breaking the grip of gas on bills”.

A consultation published alongside the budget fleshes out the options for a proposed “wholesale contracts for difference” (WCfD) scheme, initially outlined in April. This would offer fixed-price contracts to eligible renewable-energy generators.

The expansion of renewables is already helping to decouple gas and power prices, with gas setting wholesale electricity prices around 60% of the time in 2025, down from around 90% in the early 2020s.

Warm homes plan

Following speculation in the run-up to the budget, chancellor Healey confirmed a cut to the UK’s flagship energy efficiency programme. 

His budget cuts £1bn from the “warm homes plan” to help cover a shortfall in defence spending. 

The warm homes plan is supposed to provide up to 5m households with £15bn of grants and loans to support the installation of heat pumps, rooftop solar panels and insulation. 

The budget states that the “government remains committed to heat-pump deployment”.

It says it will continue to fund the “boiler upgrade scheme” (BUS) at current funding levels of £400m in 2027‑28, after which it will rise broadly in line with inflation.

However, this represents a significant cut in funding for heat-pump deployment of around £800m, relative to previously announced levels. Analysts tell Carbon Brief that this could lead to around 100,000 heat pumps not being installed over three years.

Andrew Sissons, director in sustainable future at Nesta tells Carbon Brief:

“The chancellor has announced that funding for future heat-pump subsidies will be reduced by nearly £800m over three years. This is a backward step at a time when Britain urgently needs to move away from using gas.”

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In an emailed statement, Yara van Ingen, lead buildings and heat analyst at BloombergNEF said the cut would make the government’s ambition to reach 450,000 heat-pump installations a year by 2030 “harder to achieve”.

In addition to the £1bn in lost grants for the warm-homes plan, the budget also suggests that significant additional funding for the scheme has been cut.

It says a new £4.7bn “your first home” scheme is being funded by reallocating “financial transactions” previously allocated to the energy and environment departments.

While the details of this shift remain sparse, this suggests funding for the warm homes plan could end up being reduced from the headline £15bn to as little as £9bn, analysts tell Carbon Brief.

E3G’s Dyson adds: 

“An unknown amount of funding has been cut from the ‘financial transactions’ pot, which is money that is used to loan to businesses and households. The cut is between £1.5bn and £5bn. 

“The government’s not even tried to spend this money, it only officially launched its [warm-homes] loan scheme today. Businesses and households need certainty to invest in decarbonising homes and this kind of reaction does not support it.”

Ben Westerman, director of policy and advocacy at campaign group Electrify Britain, tells Carbon Brief that “all in all, [the budget is] really disappointing for electrification”.

The budget comes the day after the government launched its “warm homes loan” scheme, which offers households no- and low-interest loans of between £7,500 and £35,000 for installing technologies such as solar panels, batteries and heat pumps. 

According to the government, households that install a heat pump, a battery and solar panels could save £550 a year on their energy bills. This could rise to £800 a year when combined with a time-of-use tariff. 

Fuel duty and EVs

The budget froze fuel duty once again – for the 16th year in a row. 

Chancellor Healey also confirmed the extension of the 5p per litre fuel-duty cut announced in 2022 under Conservative then-chancellor Rishi Sunak, in response to the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The cumulative cost of these freezes has now reached £139bn since 2010-2011, according to the OBR. If fuel duty continues to be frozen until 2029-30, the OBR says that public-sector net borrowing will rise by £4.3bn.

.cb-tweet img{ border: solid 1.25px #333333; border-radius: 5px; } @media (max-width:650px){ .cb-tweet{ width:100%; } }

Alongside the budget, the government published an independent review of the cost of public EV charging. This includes plans to cut prices at local, lower-powered public chargers, saving drivers around £150 a year on average, according to the government. 

This will be funded through £100m of government money over two years from spring 2027.

Additionally, the government states that it is “laying the groundwork for a better system in the future” by taking forward a recommendation by the review to launch a “tariff porting” taskforce. This will explore ways to allow drivers to use cheaper domestic tariffs at certain public chargers.

However, the budget also specifies that “electricity supplied through publicly accessible and workplace electric-vehicle charging points is subject to 20% VAT and is not considered domestic use”. This definition will take effect from 1 November 2026, as part of legislation in the finance bill 2026-27. 

Industry bodies criticised this categorisation, with Shane Brennan, CEO of ChargeUK, writing in a statement on LinkedIn that it will “do serious damage to the EV transition”. He continues: 

“Instead of listening to the call of EV drivers for fairness on VAT, the government has slammed the door shut on ending a rank unfairness between at-home and out-of-home charging…[which] even the courts ruled to be illegal earlier this year.”

Within the budget, the government confirmed some changes to the electric-vehicle excise duty (eVED) pay-per-mile tax, announced in last year’s budget. This includes introducing a mileage estimate tool, developing an opt-in system for connectivity and other changes. 

The government will publish its response to the zero-emissions vehicle mandate review by the end of 2026, with a view to changes taking place in 2027. 

CCS and hydrogen

The government has confirmed a £200m cut in capital-grant funding for CCS and £500m for low-carbon hydrogen projects.

This is part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) “reprioritising its budget” to contribute more to the UK’s defence spending.

There are four planned CCS “clusters” in the works across the UK – part of a government-backed effort to make the nation an “early leader” in the sector.

The budget says the government will “prioritise” the two “mature” clusters under development on Teesside, and on Merseyside and North Wales. These include “blue-hydrogen” production, gas power with CCS and industrial uses.

It also says the government will “maintain grant funding” for the Viking cluster in the Humber region.

The £200m in removed funding will therefore come from the Acorn cluster, which was planned for north-east Scotland.

At the same time, the government says it is “actively looking at how loan or equity investments can support the continued development of future CCS and hydrogen projects…including for the Acorn cluster”.

While the Labour government has stressed the importance of CCS for reaching the UK’s net-zero targets, the billions in public spending committed to these projects have drawn criticism from both climate activists and climate sceptics.

Details of the cuts remain limited, but Prof Rob Gross, director of the UK Energy Research Centre, tells Carbon Brief:

“The history of CCS investment in the UK is not a happy one and if the government wishes to retain investor confidence and the regional economic benefits that the clusters could bring then a repeat of the precipitous cuts made in 2015 must be avoided. It appears that the government is aware and treading carefully.”

Data centres

As part of efforts to boost the UK’s use of artificial intelligence (AI), the budget sets out a “data-centre covenant”, with “tests” that data centres must meet to gain approval.

These include a stipulation that developers must pay for “any energy costs they create”, while also “support[ing] grid resilience, flexibility and clean power”.

The “covenant” will also require data centres to “adhere to the highest environmental standards”, including protecting nature, curbing water use, publishing energy-use data and using waste heat to heat nearby buildings “wherever practical”.

In return, the government will use new planning powers to accelerate the grid connection of data centres, alongside other “strategically important” projects.

When grid connection is not immediately available, the government says it will set out a framework to allow on-site generation until a grid connection can be secured.  

The government stresses that on-site generation will be “tightly controlled” and “only…available for exceptionally strategic projects”.

Nevertheless, NGOs raised the likelihood that “on-site power” would come in the form of gas or diesel generation, rather than clean power, potentially threatening the UK’s climate goals.

Other announcements

There were various other climate- and energy-related announcements in the budget, including: 

• The government has not extended zero-rated VAT for “energy saving materials” – including solar panels – when installed on homes beyond the end of March 2027.
• The budget confirms the establishment of an “energy wealth fund”, which was recently announced as a way to invest revenues from North Sea oil and gas into low-carbon energy infrastructure.
• The government is legislating for the “oil and gas revenue levy” to replace the “energy profits levy” when that ends by April 2030 at the latest.
• It freezes the electricity main rates of the “climate-change levy” from April 2028, in order to “reduce electricity costs in real terms for businesses”.
• As part of the government’s efforts to promote housebuilding, it has introduced an exemption from “biodiversity net gain” requirements for residential brownfield developments on sites up to 1.5 hectares in England.

Related Analysis: How the UK spent more than £11.6bn on climate aid since 2021 28.10.2026 UK policy Revealed: UK relied on £2bn of ‘questionable accounting’ to hit its climate-aid goal 28.10.2026 UK policy Q&A: Why are UK energy bills so high – and how could they be lowered? 27.10.2026 Oil and gas Revealed: Expensive gas behind ‘nearly 90%’ of rise in UK electricity bills 21.10.2026 Oil and gas

The post UK budget 2026: Key climate and energy announcements appeared first on Carbon Brief.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 28, 2026

Radio Ad Features 911 Call From CO2 Pipeline Rupture, Warns Nebraska Landowners of Safety and Eminent Domain Threats From Summit Carbon Pipeline

Ad running across Nebraska documents 2020 CO2 pipeline rupture in Satartia, MS that caused evacuations, hospitalizations and lingering health impacts to this day

Hastings, NE – A new 60-second radio ad sponsored by Bold and Nebraska landowners opposed to Summit Carbon’s risky CO2 pipeline proposed to traverse the state features a 911 call recording from a 2020 carbon pipeline rupture in Satartia, Mississippi that caused evacuations, hospitalizations and lingering health impacts to this day.

In the radio ad – that began running last week on stations across Nebraska – the narrator describes what happened during the 2020 incident in Satartia, MS where a carbon pipeline operated by Denbury Resources ruptured, causing an explosive release of carbon in an immense plume, which was later found by a government-issued report to be toxic for more than a mile from the site of the rupture. A video version of the ad will also run as an ad on Facebook across Nebraska counties that may be impacted by the proposed Summit pipeline.

The ad then features a 911 recording from a Satartia victim who is very concerned and confused about what is happening after her car has stalled – a direct result of the high CO2 concentration making the combustion engine nonfunctional – and her friend is having what she believes is a seizure, as CO2 is an asphyxiant.

After facing insurmountable obstacles to obtaining permits for its CO2 pipeline in South Dakota and North Dakota, Summit earlier this year announced a pivot of its troubled business plan, and instead now intends to route its proposed CO2 pipeline across the entire state of Nebraska, with Wyoming as a new final destination for the CO2 waste dumps. Summit would need eminent domain to seize landowners’ property across Nebraska for the dangerous carbon pipeline.

Already in Nebraska, Stanton County voted unanimously to deny a conditional use permit to Summit for its proposed pipeline, while Dakota County tabled and subsequently removed a pipeline permit request from its official agenda. More recently, Logan County, McPherson County and Red Willow County approved 12-month moratoriums on projects that include CO2 pipelines, and Hitchcock County has considered a similar moratorium. Meanwhile, counties including Antelope, and Holt have taken action to adapt local zoning rules, and enact conditional provisions on any possible permits for Summit.

“The pipeline company and their investors are using this unproven and hazardous idea as a tax scam and will try to take our land for their own private gain. The safety questions go unanswered by the pipelines’ representatives, but they continue to state their pipelines are going to be “different” than the one that exploded in Satartia. The farmer and landowner takes all the risk – including the risk of explosion and death of all living beings in the path of the plume,” said Shelli Meyer, Nebraska Director for Bold Alliance and impacted landowner on a century farm in Dixon County, Nebraska.

“South Dakota said no to Summit’s carbon capture scheme. North Dakota said no. Iowans are saying no. It’s time for Nebraskans to say no too. Our land, our water, our rights are more important than the greed-fueled desires of an out-of-state corporation and its foreign investors.” said Emma Schmit, Organizing Director at Bold Alliance.

Bold is currently collecting signatures on a petition urging Nebraskans to support a bill in the legislature in the coming year to ban eminent domain for CO2 pipelines. Bold also recently launched another petition in response to recent applications to permit carbon injection well waste dumps in western Nebraska counties, a new threat of contamination to the Ogallala aquifer and our groundwater resources.

The new petition also targets Nebraska’s pending application to the U.S. EPA to take over “primacy” of these sequestration wells, and instead authorize the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment to handle both permitting and monitoring of risks from the highly-pressurized gas injected underground, supposedly forever.

View the video version of the ad running on Facebook:

About Bold’s Easement Action Teams:
The Easement Action Teams are a project of the Bold Education Fund. The EATs work with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land. We stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain. (https://easementteams.org) The first landowners legal co-op formed was the Nebraska Easement Action Team, which successfully organized landowners to fight the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, and currently works with landowners fighting carbon pipelines in the state. (https://neeasement.org)

About Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub:
The Bold Pipeline Fighters Hub, a project of the Bold Education Fund, provides technical, legal, story telling and organizing assistance to any community fighting pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, with the goal of protecting the land and water. (https://pipelinefighters.org)

About Bold:
The Bold Alliance and Bold Education Fund are coordinating state-based groups with our Pipeline Fighters Hub and landowner legal groups called the Easement Action Teams to stop pipelines from using eminent domain for private gain. (https://boldalliance.org)

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The post Radio Ad Features 911 Call From CO2 Pipeline Rupture, Warns Nebraska Landowners of Safety and Eminent Domain Threats From Summit Carbon Pipeline appeared first on Bold Nebraska.

Former Biden climate adviser John Podesta says the Senate’s bipartisan permitting bill would let President Donald Trump approve projects on public lands that courts could not reverse, even if the approvals break the law. Podesta made the remarks Friday at a University of Colorado Boulder symposium, according to a recording obtained by Heatmap. He applauded the parts of the bill that would allow new long-distance transmission construction, but criticized the bill’s reforms to fossil fuel permitting and federal land development.

The bill would bar agencies from altering federal permits issued after September 2026 and from denying or delaying permits in a way that shows a “pattern of disparate treatment” against specific projects. Podesta said this would mean the Trump administration could permit development, even illegally, in places including near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Podesta said lawmakers should pass the bill in the lame-duck session only if they fix those provisions.

“I think they have handed Trump not just a loaded gun, but they’ve handed him a loaded Howitzer to go after public lands, to permit stuff that even if it’s illegal can’t be reversed by the courts,” said Podesta. “They’re going to have a permit gorge like you’ve never seen, not really caring about whether they’re going through the legal steps to do it, and under this bill, those can’t be reversed.”

Trump moves to loosen methane rules for the leakiest oil and gas wells

President Trump on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to weaken federal methane rules for oil and gas operations, including wells on public lands. The rule would set looser standards for low-producing “marginal” wells, which produce about seven percent of the nation’s oil and gas but roughly half its methane emissions, and would repeal the Super Emitter Program, which requires companies to respond to credible reports of major leaks.

“The Trump administration is giving oil companies a free pass to spew methane across the country, and the Senate permitting bill would make that pass permanent,” said Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities.

Quick hits Trump’s arch would cast a shadow over Arlington Cemetery

Washington Post

Trump loosens rules for oil firms on methane

New York Times | Bloomberg | The Hill | The Verge | Politico | Washington Post | Center for Western Priorities [press release]

A missing Wabanaki marker in Maine and the fight over what stories national parks should tell

Associated Press

Burgum signs order to expand grazing on public lands

Bloomberg Law | WIBW | KFYR | Western Watersheds Project

Opinion: Instead of asking what we can take from our public lands, we should first ask what we owe them

Ground Shift

The quiet collapse of America’s wildlife refuges

RE:PUBLIC/MeatEater

Conservationists sound the alarm on Trump’s Endangered Species Act changes

Harvest Public Media

The creepiest ghost stories from America’s national parks

Outside

Quote of the day

What if we began with reverence? Essentially, what is our righteous relationship to land? I’m not talking about worship, sentimentality, total exclusion, or leaving every piece of landscape untouched. I mean that some things in this world have value beyond what we take from them, and we can honor that without taking sides.”

—Jim Enote, Zuni Tribal member, CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation, and Board Chair for the Grand Canyon Trust, Ground Shift

Picture This @grandcanyonnps

Hikers can once again explore several inner-canyon trails. These trails have reopened following repairs after trail damage caused by recent flooding.

The South Kaibab Trail below The Tipoff and the entire River Trail, connecting the South Kaibab to the Bright Angel Trail, has reopened to hikers. The Bright Angel Trail between Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse and Havasupai Gardens has reopened to hikers only. This section will remain closed to stock use as crews continue to repair additional trail damage.

Emergency response times may be delayed in the inner canyon, and rescue is not guaranteed. Hikers should assess their abilities, prepare for changing conditions and understand the risks before beginning their trip.

go.nps.gov/gc-hkm

NPS Photo – South Kaibab Trail below Cedar Ridge.

 

 

Featured photo: Blythe Solar Project, California. BLM

The post Podesta says permitting bill would shield illegal approvals on public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.