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Sadly, the times when I’m most likely to get a peek at the Platte River are only when I’m crossing over it on I-80, driving to or from the many meetings where I sit in a room and talk to people...

For Immediate Release:

September 28, 2026

Contact:
Ashley Castaneda, ashley@restorethedelta.org

SACRAMENTO —  Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB 872, a key water protection bill that would have dedicated funding to address two major threats to California’s water supply: aging levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and sinking canals in the State Water Project (SWP). The bill passed the Legislature unanimously. 

SB 872 was supported by more than 60 organizations and brought together Northern and Southern California legislators, environmental groups including Restore the Delta, and water interests around the need to protect critical water infrastructure and the state’s primary water source. 

In his veto message, Governor Newsom cited budget constraints and called the legislation “unnecessary”. The veto comes as the state considers other major, and significantly more expensive, water investments including the Fair Ranch deal, a voluntary agreement supported by Newsom that is expected to cost approximately $1 billion. 

Delta advocates are criticizing the veto, arguing that the decision leaves critical infrastructure vulnerable and fails to adequately prepare California’s water system for future challenges. They are also questioning the Governor’s priorities in water planning. 

“Not only did Governor Newsom veto a much needed bill to bring Delta levees to the necessary standards to deal with climate change, he vetoed funding for fixing existing conveyance for the State Water Project. Why? His never-ending quest for the Delta Conveyance Project. It is his white whale. And he has set California water infrastructure on a course for complete failure as a result of his wrongful quest,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director at Restore the Delta.

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This November, Napa residents have the opportunity to make the county a safer and more resilient community for all using their ballots! 

Measure B, the Napa County Wildfire Preparedness, Watershed Protection and Open Space Preservation Act of 2026, will provide a dedicated source of locally controlled funding to support actions to reduce wildfire risk, protect drinking water and local watersheds, and preserve open space for generations to come.

Measure B would establish a one-half of one percent (½% or 0.005) sales tax on the sale and use of tangible personal property within Napa County (groceries, medicine, diapers, and feminine hygiene products will be exempt), which would raise an estimated $23 million annually. 100% of the funds generated from Measure B are required by state law to stay in Napa County, meaning that ALL funds will go to improving the lives and safety of all Napans, and are earmarked to be used for wildfire preparedness, watershed protection, and open space preservation. 

Why It Matters

As extreme weather events are increasingly impacting lives in our region, and state and federal funds continue to shift, it is more important than ever for Napa County to establish locally controlled funding to protect the things that residents care about: protecting communities from fire, increasing access to safe drinking water, and preserving open space. Measure B would specifically support the development of fire-safe evacuation routes, preserve watersheds and reservoirs, protect native species, and ensure long-term access to parks. 

Vote YES on Measure B to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk, protect drinking water, and preserve Napa’s open spaces and parks.

The post Vote Yes on Measure B To Fund Wildfire Preparedness in Napa appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced today that it is gutting fuel-economy standards for cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks, an inconceivable decision given the purpose of the federal fuel economy program – to reduce gasoline consumption – and the skyrocketing prices at the pump Americans are already struggling to pay.

The final rule weakens existing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, lowering the expected fleetwide average to just 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031 – below what automakers on average have already achieved. In its proposal, NHTSA predicted that its changes would force the average driver to pay $1,400 more in fuel costs over the lifetime of their vehicle.

The following is a comment from Atid Kimelman, an attorney at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

“With Americans struggling to afford gasoline that is more than $4 a gallon, the Trump administration is going to force them to pay more at the pump. Oil companies will get a windfall from gutting the fuel economy standards, but the rest of us are going to be handing over more of our hard-earned paychecks to fill up the tank.

“This is a harsh blow to American families struggling to afford rising energy costs. It will raise drivers’ costs while also worsening air pollution across the country following a scorching summer marred by devastating storms and wildfires.

“Congress established fuel economy standards five decades ago after Middle East unrest led to a spike in oil prices. But with the war with Iran driving up oil prices, the Trump administration is doing all it can to keep us dependent on gas guzzlers. In fact, most automakers would not need to make any fuel-economy improvements over the next five years to meet these new standards.

“This rollback is not only bad policy; it also violates the law. Stay tuned.”

Background

Over the past five decades, fuel economy standards have been one of the most significant actions the United States has taken to reduce its reliance on oil and save drivers money at the pump. A bipartisan Congress first established CAFE standards in 1975 in the wake of the OPEC Oil Embargo a few years earlier. As a result of federal clean car and fuel economy standards, vehicles in the United States today use less gas and create less pollution than they used to. Since enacted, fuel economy improvements have saved more than two trillion gallons of gasoline, enough to run every car and light truck in the U.S. for more than 15 years. They have also saved drivers a combined $5 trillion in fuel costs and avoided 14 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, a Princeton University study concluded.

NHTSA’s 2024 fuel economy standards were forecast to raise the average vehicle’s fuel efficiency to 50.4 miles per gallon, saving Americans $23 billion in fuel costs. Those standards are being repealed in this action by the Trump administration today, and a new average goal of just 34.9 miles-per-gallon set.

Instead of following its statutory mandate to set vehicle fuel-economy standards at “maximum feasible levels” to reduce fuel consumption, with these new standards NHTSA set goals below what vehicle fleets on the road today already achieve.

Earlier today, the federal government under President Donald Trump finalized a rollback of fuel economy standards for passenger cars and trucks. By doing so, the administration effectively eliminated the nation’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which have improved vehicle efficiency and saved families about $321 billion at the gas pump since the modern CAFE program was implemented in 2010.

Below is a statement by Dr. Dave Cooke, senior vehicles analyst for the Union of Concerned Scientist’s (UCS) Clean Transportation Program.

“The federal government’s decision to gut fuel economy standards is a handout to automakers and oil companies that will strap American consumers already struggling with an affordability crisis. According to UCS analysis, CAFE standards have saved consumers over $32 billion since the Iran War began and sent gas prices skyrocketing. Weakening these standards means drivers will spend more on fuel while having fewer options to choose efficient vehicles.

“The administration claims this rollback will save consumers money, but even the government’s own analysis shows the opposite: consumers will spend more over the lifetime of their vehicles. Any small reduction in upfront vehicle costs will be outweighed by higher fuel expenses.

“This rollback doesn't just stall progress—it moves the nation backward. For example, the administration’s 2031 standards are weaker than what the new vehicle fleet had already achieved in 2024. This industry giveaway is a raw deal for drivers, who deserve vehicles that cost less to operate and give them more choices—not a policy that forces them to spend more at the pump.”

President Trump’s Department of Transportation today finalized a rule gutting Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards, which conserve billions of gallons of gas and save consumers billions at the pump.

Trump’s action is illegal because the law requires that the fuel economy standards be set at the “maximum feasible” level. The final rule ignores the feasibility of clean technology and the millions of fuel-efficient cars already on the road.

“Trump is tanking sensible mileage standards at the worst possible time for consumers, who’re getting hit with sky-high prices at the pump,” said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign. “Consumers will pay the price for these reckless rollbacks while Trump’s Big Oil and Big Auto buddies reap the short-term profits. This move spells short- and long-term disaster for people’s health, the planet, and even U.S. automakers who’ll sit on the sidelines while clean cars advance around the world. This standard was the biggest single step any nation has taken to save gas, money at the pump, and auto pollution.”

The fuel economy rule would have saved 64 billion gallons of gas. Even before the current rise in gas prices, it was set to deliver $35 billion in savings to consumers over the lifetimes of the vehicles covered. To do this, it would have required automakers to add gas-saving technology so new cars averaged 50.4 miles per gallon by model year 2031. The Trump rule will result in cars averaging a mere 34.9 mpg in 2031.

The standards also would have slashed pollution that harms Americans’ health and worsens the climate crisis. Transportation makes up the biggest share of climate-heating pollution from the United States, the world’s second biggest carbon polluter.

Gutting the fuel economy standards will allow automakers to make vehicles that guzzle more gas and pollute more, costing consumers at the pump and at the doctor’s office.

“Trump’s creating a perfect storm to crush competitiveness of domestic car companies, drive up consumer costs and kill the climate,” said Becker. “There’s nothing Trump won’t sacrifice on the altar of fealty to Big Oil and auto polluters, whether it’s our health or our wallets. Trump’s rollbacks are speeding us toward a sicker, poorer America. Major carmakers asked Trump to give them this Trojan SUV that could spell their doom since they won’t have to compete against the best auto technology in the world.”

CAFE standards are important because the United States is the world’s biggest oil guzzler, consuming 20 million barrels (840 million gallons) per day — 20% of the world’s oil use. Transportation is the biggest consumer of that oil, making strong auto standards the most effective way to cut pollution and oil use.

By resetting standards back to 2022, the administration will allow automakers to build up credits for meeting or surpassing the standards for the last four years.

“Adding injury to insult, the administration is gutting standards for past as well as future years,” said Becker. “This will hobble a future administration in setting strong standards since carmakers will be able to evade them with the ‘get out of jail free’ credits collected under Trump.”

The post Gutting Fuel Economy Standards Will Raise Drivers’ Costs appeared first on ACEEE | American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

A familiar Kearney art tradition is returning this year- but with a new twist!  Residents and visitors to Kearney have likely seen 6-foot tall, colorful crane sculptures around the city.  These...

This November, Sonoma County voters have the opportunity to secure funding for our local and regional parks for generations to come. Greenbelt Alliance proudly endorses YES on Measure H, Parks for All.

Measure H would maintain the 1/8th cent (0.125¢) sales tax passed in 2018 and change the funding structure to ensure that funding continues until ended by voters. This revenue provides stable, long-term funding without raising the current tax rate. Funds from this measure would generate $15.5 million annually, with two-thirds going to regional parks and one-third going to neighborhood parks. 

Learn more about the campaign here.

 

 

  Why It Matters

Local and regional parks are essential to the health of our community and environment. This measure would provide funds that enhance, protect, and expand the outdoor spaces where our community goes to play, exercise, relax, and connect with nature. Parks are also essential to climate resilience, contributing to healthy ecosystems and helping us to withstand extreme weather and environmental changes. This much-needed funding would go to the stewardship and protection of our open spaces, while also providing essential maintenance and expanding access for all residents. 

Beyond that, Measure H would enhance wildfire resilience across the county by supporting fuel reduction and vegetation management, as well as other actions that protect communities from rising wildfire risk.

Funds from Measure H will go to projects that promote the health of our land, water, and community. To continue funding our parks and Sonoma County’s climate resilience, vote YES on Measure H, Parks for All.

The post Vote Yes on Measure H for Parks for All in Sonoma County appeared first on Greenbelt Alliance.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
September 28, 2026

In Less Than a Month, Mining Claims Filed in Bear Ears Already Triple the Total Number Filed During Previous Trump Reduction Within a day, industry clamoring to exploit landscape

Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Keri Gilliland, The Wilderness Society, (KGilliland@tws.org)
Chaitna Sinha, Conservation Codirector and Staff Attorney, Grand Canyon Trust; (970) 399-9565 (csinha@grandcanyontrust.org)
Amy Dominguez, Sierra Club, amy.dominguez@sierraclub.org, (385) 355-4631
Andrew Scibetta, NRDC, (202) 289-2421, ascibetta@nrdc.org
Daniel Hernandez, National Parks Conservation Association, dhernandez@npca.org, (202) 573-2201

SAN JUAN COUNTY, UT – From 2018-2021 (during the previous, illegal reduction) there were a total of 20 mining claims filed in the lands cut from Bears Ears National Monument. As of Monday, Sept. 28 (two weeks after the mineral withdrawal was lifted during the second illegal reduction), more than triple that number – 72 claims – have been filed. 

Mining claims have been filed by Land Survey Advisors LLC (36), Kimmerle Mining (33), and George W. Schultz (3). A map of all claims can be found here. The claims are in the following areas on both Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land: Seven Sisters Butte, Fry Canyon, the headwaters of Dark Canyon Wilderness, just north of Natural Bridges National Monument, Lockhart Basin, & near the Easy Peasy Mine (the mine has been re-buried; two of Kimmerle Mining Claims are adjustments to Easy Peasy claims). These lands became subject to mining claims on Friday, September 11 – 60 days after President Trump decimated Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by shrinking these national monuments by over 90%. Additional information appears below, along with quotes from Tribal leaders and conservation groups. 

“The pace of new mining claims in Bears Ears National Monument is alarming and reinforces the need for vigilance while we work to undo Trump’s illegal actions and restore both Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments,” said Hanna Larsen, Staff Attorney at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “These claims are located in some of the region’s most remarkable places, including the headwaters of the Dark Canyon Wilderness and just outside Natural Bridges National Monument. As evidenced by the Easy Peasy Mine, claims like these often lead to real and long-lasting damage to the very qualities that make these monuments so special.”

“The sheer volume of mining claims filed so far in the land cut from Bears Ears National Monument should dispel any lingering illusion about the administration’s true aim,” said Charlie Luke, Utah state director for The Wilderness Society. “The president and the Utah delegation, led by Senator. Lee, would sacrifice irreplaceable cultural resources, wildlife habitat, clean air and water, and our freedom to experience this magnificent place for the short-term profit of a few. We owe future generations a Bears Ears that remains healthy, intact and conserved.”

“The speed with which the mining industry has moved to stake dozens of claims following the dismantling of the Bears Ears National Monument demonstrates the real-world consequences of stripping protections from some of America’s most important landscapes,” said Bobby McEnaney, Senior Lands Analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “This sequence of events underscores exactly why Bears Ears was originally established and why this landscape deserves lasting protection. These mining claims amount to a virtual giveaway of public lands.”

 “In the two weeks since the administration opened 90% of Bears Ears National Monument to mining, at least 72 new mining claims have been filed. New mines would leave devastating scars on one of America’s most important cultural landscapes and destroy a place that Utahns cherish and want protected,” said Chaitna Sinha, Staff Attorney and Conservation Codirector for the Grand Canyon Trust . “That is why, in a recent poll, Utah voters ranked conservation and protecting Native American places as the most important factors to be considered regarding Bears Ears, while oil/gas and mining ranked lowest. Utah’s congressional delegation needs to listen to Utah voters and take action to protect Bears Ears.”

“Corporations are already salivating at the prospect of destroying the lands we love in order to turn a quick buck,” said Director of the Sierra Club in Utah, Franque Bains. “The fact that nearly triple the number of mining claims have been filed since the first illegal reduction of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante underscores the depravity of an administration that prioritizes development over the people who cherish these landscapes. These treasured places require defending, and we’re committed to continue to restore their protections.”

“With 72 mining claims staked on lands withdrawn from Bears Ears over the last three weeks alone, the threat of a modern-day mineral rush has arrived at one of our nation’s most treasured landscapes,” said Sara Cawley, Energy Director at the National Parks Conservation Association. “The newest claims are located to the north and west of Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah’s first National Park unit and the world’s first International Dark Sky Park, that protects three amazing natural bridge formations and numerous archaeological sites. Even worse, mining companies won’t pay a cent in royalties for the minerals they extract or any fee to clean up the mess they may leave behind.“

Background Information on other Mining claims: 

Under President Trump’s proclamations decimating Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by over 90%, mining claims could not be staked until 60 days after the date of the proclamation: Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Despite this, on July 14, 2026, Kimmerle Mining filed 7 mining claims (see map) with the San Juan County (Utah) Recorder’s Office. Kimmerle Mining previously filed mining claims after Trump’s 2017 reduction of Bears Ears and excavated a partially reclaimed mine shaft on one of the claims – the so-called Easy Peasy claim (this mine has been re-buried); Kyle Kimmerle (a Managing Member of Kimmerle Mining) was also a plaintiff in one of the cases filed in the District of Utah challenging President Biden’s 2021 restoration of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.  

Two mining claims were also filed in Grand Staircase-Escalante, less than one month after Trump’s attack. On August 6, 2026, Craig Rosequist filed two mining claims (see map) with the Kane County (Utah) Recorder’s Office in areas cut out of the monument by the Trump proclamations. According to public records, Rosequist previously located several mining claims in neighboring Washington County, Utah. The Bureau of Land Management should reject claims filed in both national monuments prior to Sept. 11. 

• Map of 2026 claims in Bear Ears, showing the 2021 and 2026 Monument Boundaries and noting the location of the Easy Peasy Mine, created by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA)
• Map of 2026 Claims in Grand Staircase-Escalante, created by SUWA
• Photo and video assets of Kimmerle’s Easy Peasy Mine and surrounding claims, please credit Tim Peterson. 
  • Gallery & Gdrive 
  • Video b-roll

Background information about the national monument reductions:

• Statements from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal coalitions
• SUWA Statement on Trump’s Illegal Reductions of Grand Staircase-Escalante & Bears Ears National Monuments
• Full Statement and Quotes Tracking
• Maps of the reductions
• Reporter Background Memo on National Monuments

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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.

The post In Less Than a Month, Mining Claims Filed in Bears Ears Already Triple the Total Number Filed During Previous Trump Reduction appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

Federal regulatory actions are allowing on-site generators at data centers and other power plants to release dangerous emissions with fewer checks, according to the Environmental Protection Network.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

The Democratic Party has been spectacularly ineffective in providing an opposition to Trump’s drive for authoritarian domination. Merely electing Democrats is no solution to the crisis of American democracy. But popular defense of free and fair elections, and a massive electoral repudiation of Trump and MAGA in November, can play an important role in the struggle to democratize the U.S.

With a few honorable exceptions, Democrats have done little to resist Trump’s juggernaut or to present an alternative program to meet the needs of the American people and reverse the damage Trump and his minions have done to them. Far less have they mobilized their constituents to stand up to Trump’s depredations.

In democratic theory, elections give every person equal weight in deciding political outcomes. Of course, we all know that the reality of actually existing democratic systems barely resembles this. The power of money, oligarchical control of parties, institutional skewing of the playing field, disorganization of subordinate groups, and many forms of racial, gender, and other inequality make our so-called “democracies” highly undemocratic.

That doesn’t mean that elections are meaningless. Rather, they are part of the jostling through which various dominant and subordinate groups negotiate their relationships. They are part of the process that Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci characterized as “hegemony” — the way a ruling class maintains power through the active consent of the public, rather than through military force or physical coercion alone. To exercise hegemony, ruling groups must engage in negotiation and compromise with subordinate groups. Elections and the ecological systems surrounding them are part of the way such compromise is negotiated and implemented.

MAGA’s Strategy for Unending Domination

Trump, MAGA, and their supporters want to ensure that the upcoming mid-term elections are not free and fair, but rather a vehicle to perpetuate their power. Their goal is power that is permanent and uncontested – an equivalent to Hitler’s Thousand-Year Reich.

Trump/Republican attempts to prevent free and fair elections have been going on for years and have escalated since his inauguration. Successful recent actions have included the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and extreme gerrymandering. Key methods include intimidation, confusion, induced hopelessness, physical obstruction, and legal obstruction.

A just-released report called “The American Crisis” by a group of progressive scholars lays out what we can expect going forward:

• In the months and weeks preceding Election Day, we anticipate that election administration roles and responsibilities will be seized from states and cities, or attempts will be made to disrupt, sabotage, or seize their administrative powers. That could include the seizing of voter rolls, the threatening of election officials, and the disruption of vote-by-mail systems.
• In the days leading up to Election Day, and on the day itself, we anticipate a substantial increase of voter intimidation and election disruption tactics, with new deployments of military and paramilitary forces across U.S. cities, elections offices, and polling stations. The National Guard occupation of Washington, DC and the “Memphis Safe Task Force” provide proving grounds for these tactics, including street patrols, traffic stops, warrant service, fugitive apprehension, and court-authorized searches of residences. We expect that “state of emergency” declarations by federal and state officials will increase as well, to enable immediate deployments of military and paramilitary forces, and with fewer restrictions on those deployments.We expect these military and paramilitary intimidation tactics to extend to other non-state or subnational actors, like nonprofit and community-based organizations, unions, and universities, who are involved in monitoring and maintaining free and fair elections. We also anticipate a significant increase in disinformation and misinformation campaigns about polling places, hours, and practices, as well as voter intimidation at polling locations by national, non-state, and paramilitary actors.
• On and after Election Day, we anticipate major obstacles to a democratic transition of local, state, and federal seats and offices. At the state and local level, efforts to impede the post-election transfer of power include interference with vote tabulation and election certification by state and local governments through the use of force or police force or by other means, e.g. by proxy through militias or so-called “sovereign sheriffs” groups. At the federal level, efforts to obstruct or delay the swearing-in of newly elected officials include the removal of the Clerk in the House of Representatives or the refusal of the U.S. Vice President and outgoing House Speaker to swear in newly elected Members of Congress.

Current house speaker Mike Johnson told the September Republican Convention, “We cannot and will not allow them to take the majority in Congress. We’re not gonna do it.” The midterm elections will kick off an ongoing struggle that is likely to continue indefinitely – or at least until the next presidential election.

Social Self-Defense Against Election Subversion

The struggle to defend society against Trump and MAGA is likely to be long and difficult. It will require the self-organization and action of tens of millions of people. It is likely ultimately to require forms of resistance like social strikes that make the country impossible for MAGA to govern.

The struggle around the 2026 mid-term elections is only one piece of the struggle against Trump and for democratization – but it is an important one. It is a struggle not primarily between political parties, but for the protection of society against the MAGA attack. It is part of the broad defense of society against fascism – what I have elsewhere described as “Social Self-Defense”:

The protection of that which makes our life together on earth possible. It includes the protection of the human rights of all people; protection of the conditions of our earth and its climate that make our life possible; the constitutional principle that government must be accountable to law; and global cooperation to provide a secure future for people and planet.

Ending Republican control of the House and, if possible, the Senate will put a brake on the U.S.’s wild ride into fascism – especially if the scale of the turnout and the majority are overwhelming. That will show that a post-election coup is futile. It will also be an important marker on the road to a repudiation of Trump and all he stands for – an indication to all that not only is he vulnerable, but that he is doomed.

Recent polls indicate that such a massive repudiation is within reach. In a September New York Times poll,  a majority of voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of every major issue included in the poll: the economy, immigration, tariffs, the war, and the cost of living. Likely voters favored Democratic candidates over Republicans by close to 9 percentage points in their congressional district.

There is a wide swath of groups organized to defend a free and fair election against authoritarian subversion. They represent not one or the other political party, but rather nonpartisan social self-defense. I have described them elsewhere as a “Movement-Based Opposition.”

Many of these groups have initially been focusing on training. For example, Indivisible and the ACLU are collaborating on a series of “Hands Off Our Vote” online webinars. The Freedom Trainers network of nonviolence trainers has run in-depth trainings for thousands, and makes available an 83-page handbook presenting possible scenarios and how to deal with them. The May Day Strong coalition has held 750 “Solidarity Schools” and other actions from late August through mid-September nationwide, bringing together labor organizers and community members. The Voter Protection Advocate Network is building a nationwide cohort of trained and certified voter advocates. According to Deepak Bhargava of the Freedom Together Foundation, “Over one million people have been trained in organizing and nonviolence over the last year.”

Lines of Defense

HANDS OFF THE KENNEDY CENTER!!! Youtube short @tevindavisactor

The strategy for defending free and fair elections resembles the military strategy known as “concentric lines of defense.” That entails layered rings designed to “delay, detect, and respond to threats.” Diverse elements of the movement-based opposition are implementing such a strategy. Drawing on a review of their materials and presentations, here are the overlapping rings:

1. Make clear to people why they need to vote against Trump and MAGA. People need to understand that voting in this election is essential for their current and future self-protection and protection of their rights and wellbeing. Some Democrats are doing this quite forcefully, but much of the party is trying to sleaze by with vague promises about “affordability”; many Democrats are even advocating hyperscale data centers, despite the harm they do and their overwhelming unpopularity. Fortunately, civil society groups and the movement-based opposition can take actions that call out Trump’s depredations without waiting for Democrats to lead. Community-based actions against ICE transformed public opinion not only on ICE but on immigration as a whole; the Tesla Takedowns turned Elon Musk into a public pariah.

Such voter-education-through-action can be done locally and on short notice. For example, on September 18th thousands filled streets in Washington, DC and locked down traffic as they walked in a “Hands Around the Kennedy Center” action protesting Trump’s threats to shut or even tear down the iconic Kennedy Center. Indigenous groups have established the Thunderbird Nest resistance camp in Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula to protest a planned copper sulfide mine which is backed by a $50 million taxpayer subsidy. May Day Strong is organizing “Corporate Campaigns to Reject Trump’s Attack on the Elections”; when an ICE agent shot a DoorDash driver making a delivery, May Day Strong among others called for people to “delete DoorDash” until the company issues a public statement against ICE targeting delivery drivers and calls for Trump’s occupation agents to leave DC.

Local demonstrations and protests can select locations like supermarkets with tariff-induced price increases; corporations supplying the Iran war and Israel; banks financing AI data centers; ICE facilities; agencies involved in voter suppression; and hospitals and clinics whose budgets have been cut. Such actions need not be large: Two dozen people with signs and leaflets at a local supermarket or Social Security office can reach voters directly and through local news coverage and social media. Such actions can connect the dots between the deprivations people are feeling, the machinations of Trump and MAGA, and the power people have to fight back through the vote.

2. Encourage an overwhelming turnout to oppose Trump and MAGA. This includes conventional get-out-the-vote methods, such as phone banking, door-to-door canvassing, registration drives, encouraging people to check that they are registered, providing transportation, and escorting voters. In the era of voter suppression, it also involves countering all kinds of misinformation that is being used to discourage people from voting, ranging from false information about when, where, and how to vote to threats of violence and arrest at polling places. The organizations listed above can provide information to counter such voter suppression.

3. Forestall interference with elections. Most direct vote suppression takes place on election day itself. To forestall this, election protection efforts are focused on encouraging people to vote early. The No Kings Coalition is organizing a massive “No Kings: Vote Early” day of action October 17. It will include block parties, rallies, and walks to the polls.

Voter suppression can include among other things openly biased poll workers, attempts to discourage or block voter registration, incorrect or unevenly applied requests for voter ID, misinformation about where, when, or how to vote, and similar abuses. The abusers may be election officials or MAGA vigilantes.

Hundreds of thousands of “Nonpartisan poll monitors” are being recruited to prevent vote stealing. These volunteers will observe the voting process on election days. They are trained to assist any voters whose votes are not being allowed or counted; to document any infractions and immediately report them to voting officials; and to immediately contact the Election Protection 866-OUR-VOTE hotline or the Election Protection website 866ourvote.org, both staffed by lawyers and law students, for help and guidance.

4. Contest intimidation through rapid response. Community based rapid response networks are a crucial part of election protection. According to the ACLU/Indivisible Election Protection Training 201:

When something happens that risks someone’s vote or risks impacting the election, the single most effective way we can counter it is by responding fast. Half a dozen people outside their local elections office with a few signs just a few hours after something happens are more powerful than a bigger protest that happens later after the news cycle has moved on. So, whether your goal is to have volunteers ready to redirect voters to a correct polling place if they have been misled, if you’re looking to speak out in support of targeted local election workers, if you’re thinking to shine a spotlight on misinformation or bad behavior, what we want to do is be ready before it’s time to actually respond.

Rapid response networks, utilizing mobile communications and trained volunteers, have been central to the protection of American cities against ICE attacks – think Minneapolis. Many immigrant justice rapid response networks are repurposing their organizations for election protection. Immigrant defenders in Wisconsin, for example, are repurposing the Signal infrastructure they built for ICE to arrange for rides to the polls.

Part of the preparation for rapid response is for local groups to reach out in advance to plan coordination with others in their area. They also need to connect in advance with regional and national networks that can provide support in a crisis.

We can assume that Trump/MAGA will attempt to covertly or overtly disrupt our election protection efforts. Community-based rapid response networks are likely to be the most powerful tool for exposing and defeating their machinations – and for publicizing them as one more example of MAGA’s attempt to destroy democracy.

Election Defense 201 training by Hands Off Our Vote

5. Foil electoral coups. We know from the January 6, 2020 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that Trump and his supporters are likely to stop at nothing to retain power even if they have met a devastating electoral defeat. In such a case, only an unprecedented national popular resistance is likely to stop them. Indivisible refers to this as a “peaceful nonviolent sustained mobilization,” aka a “national freak-out.” Others call for a general strike and other forms of resistance.

Some kind of “all in” action has been widely advocated as a response to another attempted electoral coup, though advocates have been somewhat reticent about specific plans for such action. We now have a model for such sustained mobilization in the resistance to ICE in American cities, highlighted by the “No Work, No School, No Shopping” days of action in Minneapolis. Cliff Albright of Black Voters Matter told the ACLU/Indivisible Election Protection Training 201,

What do we mean by sustained mobilization? We mean a situation where everyday people are maintaining an in-person presence at a significant or symbolic location to demand action until it is met. Like a multi-day protest at someplace like the state capital. This might be the appropriate response if Trump or his administration refuses to concede power.

This wouldn’t be just like other protest moments. It would be a rapid response thing rather than something that’s pre-planned. It can’t just be a 2-hour march on a Saturday and then everybody goes home. Building momentum over time, more and more folks gathering in whatever location, not leaving until every vote is counted and the winners of the election are seated.

Cliff Albright conceded that “there’s a lot of possible unknowns around this.” Writer Micah Sifry identified some pertinent unanswered questions about this strategy: Who will be making the decision to go “all in”? How will demands be conveyed to the relevant authorities? If the Trump administration refuses to concede, then what? I have discussed at length the possibilities, problems, and strategies for such action in my report Social Strikes: Can General Strikes, Mass Strikes, and People Power Uprisings Provide a Last Defense Against MAGA Tyranny? It addresses in detail such questions as bases of power, organization, decision-making, negotiations, strategy, and tactics for a “people power” response to an attempted Trump coup.

6. Lay the groundwork for democratization. Long before Trump and MAGA, the U.S. and its electoral system were far from fully democratic. Trump’s efforts to establish tyranny have aimed to demolish their remaining democratic elements– with considerable success. Social self-defense requires more than just reestablishing the marginally democratic system that preceded Trump’s juggernaut. It requires accountability for those who have tried to destroy our human, democratic, and environmental rights. It requires structural change that reinforces the democratic aspects of our political system and that eliminates the undemocratic and authoritarian ones. That requires a process of democratization that builds popular power from the grassroots. The election protection movement can provide a propitious starting point for that democratization from below.

Note: If you are not already connected to local election protection efforts, you can go to Ground Control to find volunteer opportunities near you.

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The post Election Protection vs MAGA Tyranny first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

The first thing Brightline wants you to know about its bankruptcy is that the trains will keep running.

“BUSINESS AS USUAL,” read a message the company sent to customers after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move followed months of discussions with bondholders, according to the Financial Times, and will give the privately operated higher-speed rail line time to borrow another $490 million as it strives to increase ridership enough to keep up with payments on $4.4 billion in debt accumulated building, expanding, and operating the railroad.

Despite the setback, trains will continue zipping between Orlando and Miami at up to 125 mph because the filing does not include Brightline Trains Florida, the division that operates the line. It also does not affect Brightline West, which is developing a run from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

The company began offering service between Miami and West Palm Beach in 2018, then extended service to Orlando beginning in 2023. It has been held up as an example of how the private sector can bring high-speed rail to the United States, especially in regions with few transit options and little in the way of financing for them. The system saw ridership increase by 14 percent, and revenue by 17 percent, between January and August compared to the same period last year. It is also moving ahead with plans to expand service to Tampa and add a station in Cocoa.

“Brightline is a critical part of Florida’s transportation network that has changed the way people move around the state,” Patrick Goddard, CEO of Brightline Florida, said in a statement that followed Friday’s filing. “This transaction will be a catalyst for further growth in ridership and revenue.”

Brightline serves about 3.5 million people a year and generates roughly $240 million in revenue, which is less than half the ridership and one-third the income it predicted in 2024, Tim Hynes, head of Global Credit Research at Debtwire, told the Associated Press. That’s why Brightline needed to rework its debt and obtain additional financing.

Beyond its financial struggles, Brightline has faced scrutiny over its safety record. As of January, 182 people had been killed by its trains since 2018, many in collisions at crossings or involving people on the tracks. Brightline says none of the incidents were caused by train operations and points to hundreds of millions of dollars it has invested in safety improvements.

Yet Brightline’s struggles come even as it finds enthusiastic riders.

Ivan Reich enjoys rail travel and often rides Brightline for the 40-minute commute from his home in West Palm Beach to his office in Fort Lauderdale, where he practices bankruptcy law. He also uses it when he goes to Miami Heat basketball games, though he concedes that at $35 per ticket, it is too expensive for daily use. (A round-trip ride between Miami and Orlando can cost as little as $120.)

“Brightline’s literally like going to the airport and being on a plane,” he said. “It’s a luxury experience. It’s nice. It’s pleasant. It’s comfortable.” Beyond the cost of a ride, “there’s nothing to complain about.”

With Amtrak smashing ridership records and Brightline’s ridership rising, Americans appear increasingly willing to travel by rail. Brightline’s financial troubles raise a more difficult question: Who will pay to build the infrastructure needed to give more of them that option?

Brightline West is developing a 218-mile high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Cucamonga, where passengers could connect to a commuter line for the ride into LA. The roughly $21 billion project has received a $3 billion federal grant and is seeking a $6 billion federal loan as it works to secure the financing it needs to build the line.

Read Next Next stop for California’s high-speed rail: Finding private investors Benton Graham

California’s long journey toward a high-speed rail system connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles approached the problem from the other side of the equation. It has spent nearly two decades relying on public funding and is now exploring private funding.

Jim Mathews, who leads the Rail Passengers Association, sees Chapter 11 restructuring as a beneficial move that “probably gives Brightline breathing room” to get out from under “a crushing” debt load, he told Grist in an email. Improving the company’s financial outlook will benefit passenger rail overall by ensuring more people have access to it.

That said, the government needs to play a stronger role in financing rail because the sustained investment needed to launch projects is often beyond the private sector’s means, even with public-private partnerships. “Building a railroad is very hard and very expensive,” he said. “This is a good example of why governments always have a legitimate role to play.”

Money isn’t the only challenge. Private rail operators must also integrate their systems with existing public infrastructure, said Alon Levy, a research scholar at the New York University Marron Institute. Brightline West’s decision to stop in Rancho Cucamonga rather than Los Angeles illustrates the difficulty, Levy said, because reaching the city would require greater coordination with Metrolink. Building a more integrated passenger rail network will require “top-down federal action,” they said.

Rick Harnish, who leads the High Speed Rail Alliance, argues that rail should be treated more like other forms of transportation. Airlines don’t pay to build airports, and trucking companies don’t pay to build highways. Taxpayers do, because “private capital will not invest in the kind of infrastructure you need to fund public transit,” he said.

For Harnish, rising ridership on Brightline and Amtrak suggests the demand is there. What’s missing is greater public investment in the infrastructure needed to meet it. “It’s time for both the feds and states to start investing in good, high-quality tracks,” he said.

For Brightline, the immediate challenge is keeping the trains running. The larger one — for Brightline and passenger rail in general — is figuring out who pays to build the tracks beneath them.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Brightline shows people want more trains. But who will pay for them? on Sep 28, 2026.

East Bay Cities Stand Strong Together

The momentum of East Bay cities pushing back on the proposed West Oakland coal terminal continues to grow with each passing week: No Coal in Oakland stands with Richmond, Emeryville, and Berkeley as those cities reiterate their longstanding opposition to the terminal and urge the Air District to fully exercise its permitting, regulatory, and enforcement authority to prevent PM2.5 emissions from coal transport through the planned Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT).

Richmond and Berkeley City Councils passed unanimous resolutions against the proposed coal terminal in July and September, respectively, while the City of Emeryville submitted an urgent letter to the Air District.

The letter, dated September 11, 2026 explains that:

The City of Emeryville’s Land Use Section of the General Plan shows the rail line running through High-Density Residential areas, Mixed-Use/Residential areas, Park/Open Space Areas, Office/Technology areas, and Regional/Neighborhood Retail areas…

Maps show that the entire City of Emeryville is within one mile of the rail line, except the Marina Park area at the end of Powell St. The highest density areas are within 2400 feet of the rail line. As a result, the population of Emeryville would be highly exposed to toxic dust if it were to escape from trains passing through the city.

Emeryville passed a resolution in spring 2016 opposing the shipment of coal along the city’s Union Pacific rail line, declaring that “coal burning stands in direct conflict with the City of Emeryville’s Climate Action Plan.”

A month later, Emeryville’s then-Mayor Dianne Martinez co-signed a letter with ten other neighboring cities in a powerful display of unity, reinforcing the city’s opposition to any shipment of coal through West Oakland’s Marine Terminal. (Mayors’ letter on coal, April 14, 2016)

As the fight against Big Coal and developer Phil Tagami continues, now a decade later, so too does Emeryville’s steely resolution against the project. The 2026 letter was signed by current-Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur with the backing of the entire City Council.

Their letter, like the resolutions passed by Richmond and Berkeley, outlines a set of stringent measures the Bay Area Air District should take to protect workers and residents from “exposure to dangerous coal and petcoke emissions” — including covered rail cars and a wholly enclosed facility. It soberly concludes, “Bay Area residents are counting on the District to protect our health and safety.”

 

 

Image: Emeryville Amtrak station, June 2018. This is the rail line referenced in Emeryville’s letter (see above). Image credit: Pi.1415926535, via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.

 

Today, Groundwork Collaborative unveiled a Shoppers’ Bill of Rights, 12 basic protections aimed at reining in the hidden fees, pricing games, and corporate tactics that make everyday life more expensive.

Authors Lindsay Owens, Nia Law, and Elizabeth Pancotti argue that existing regulations to safeguard the shopper were written for a bygone era of newspaper coupon inserts, mail-order catalogs, and checkbooks. Technology is now a step ahead of shoppers every time they reach for their wallet.

Today, two shoppers can unknowingly be charged a different price for the same item at the same store. Cancelling a subscription can require clicking through dozens of screens. Even if you can look up a tutorial on YouTube to fix something when it breaks, you may be beholden to the manufacturer to get the parts you need for a repair. And with the rise of AI-powered shopping assistants like Sparky, Alexa, and Muse, consumers may be in store for high-tech pickpockets disguised as personal shoppers.

Consumer protections have been rewritten before. Women-led butcher shop boycotts in the early 20th century helped turn outrage over rising prices into an organized movement that helped win a Federal Trade Commission that answered to consumers. In 1962, President Kennedy articulated four basic consumer rights: the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. The generation he spoke for secured honest labels, upfront loan terms, and a product safety watchdog. And after the 2008 financial crisis wiped out trillions in household wealth, more than 200 consumer, labor, civil rights, and faith groups helped win the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Each time, the rules caught up with the marketplace. Now, the marketplace has changed again, and the rules have not.

According to new polling from Blue Rose Research, two-thirds of Americans support the Shopper’s Bill of Rights. Support is even higher for several individual protections it includes: nearly 75% support making it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up, nearly 7 in 10 support upfront, all-in pricing, and 65% support banning surveillance pricing.

Groundwork Collaborative President and CEO Lindsay Owens said:

“Companies are deploying a dizzying array of tricks and tactics to reinvent the ripoff and squeeze American consumers. Shoppers shouldn’t have to outsmart an algorithm, decode the fine print, or fight their way out of a subscription just to get a fair deal. Policymakers should put simple guardrails in place to protect consumers from the high-tech ways corporations are gouging us – the Shoppers’ Bill of Rights is a good place to start.”

Owens is the author of Gouged: The End of a Fair Price – and What That Means for Your Wallet (Viking Penguin 2026), providing a detailed look at how corporations use modern technology and market power to quietly raise prices across everyday goods and services – and what consumers and policymakers can do to fight back.

The Shoppers’ Bill of Rights

• Right to an All-In Price: Require companies to include all mandatory fees in the advertised price. A hotel room advertised for $149 should not become a $200 room at checkout.
• Right to a Fair Price: Prevent companies from using consumers’ browsing history, location, income, or other personal data to decide the price they pay. Uber has reportedly raised prices for riders with dwindling phone batteries and the Princeton Review has charged more for SAT prep in ZIP codes with large Asian populations.
• Right to a Predictable Price: Prohibit companies from raising the price of products in real time, even when the company’s costs to make or provide the product don’t change. As Walmart and Kroger are installing electronic shelf labels capable of adjusting prices up to six times a minute, companies shouldn’t be able to jack up the price of groceries or other essentials in real time simply because demand spikes.
• Right to Cancellation: Require companies to make cancelling a subscription as easy as signing up. Cancelling an Uber One subscription can take as many as 32 actions across 23 screens.
• Right to Repair: Require manufacturers to make the parts, tools, software, and repair manuals available so people can fix what they own. If iPhone owners use third-party repair shops when they crack their phone screens, they may find themselves unable to adjust the brightness settings.
• Right to Your Own Agent: Require AI assistants to act in the customer’s best interest, not the interests of the company behind them. A recent study found that LLMs steer users toward sponsored products over cheaper alternatives.
• Right to Resale: Consumers should be able to sell, transfer, or give away what they buy without platforms or professional scalpers rigging the resale market. For items that do not appreciate, like tickets, resale prices should be capped at the original face value. Tickets with a face value around $250 for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour resold for an average of upward of $3,800.
• Right to a Level Playing Field: Enforce and modernize the Robinson-Patman Act so suppliers charge small, independent stores the same price they charge big-box chains. A small grocer often pays more than Walmart for the same bag of chips before it ever reaches the shelf, leaving Main Street shops without a fair shot and customers who shop locally paying more.
• Right to Comparison Shop: Require stores to post the price per ounce, pound, or other standard size unit on shelf tags so the better value is clear. “Family Size” and “Party Size” Doritos bags have differed by just one ounce, making it harder to tell which is actually the better deal.
• Right to a Refund: Ban restocking and arbitrary return fees and require refunds in the original form of payment when a purchase is cancelled, never delivered, or does not work as advertised. Returning an online purchase by mail to Marshalls or TJ Maxx can cost $11.99, while Best Buy charges a 15% restocking fee on some electronics. Consumers shouldn’t have to pay another round of fees just to get their money back.
• Right to Proper Billing: Require accurate bills to arrive within a set period after a service is provided. Companies shouldn’t be able to turn their own billing mistakes into a surprise expense months later. After Duke Energy rolled out new billing software, it made more than 100,000 billing errors in a year. Thousands of customers went months without bills, and 15,000 were later hit with delayed charges.
• Right to a Competitive Price: Refresh the antitrust rulebook for the algorithmic age by closing loopholes that allow common pricing software to price-fix. Landlords’ common pricing software, RealPage, allegedly spiked rents by as much as $180 per month, while gas stations used Kalibrate which allegedly hiked gas prices by as much 30 cents per gallon.

September 28 , 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 Strongly Oppose final 2026 NHTSA Fuel Economy Rule (CAFE Standards)

[Washington, D.C.]- On September 28, 2026, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a final rule to weaken fuel economy standards for light-duty vehicles for model years 2022-2026 and model years 2027- 2031, making this new 2031 standard less stringent than model year 2024, which automakers have already achieved.

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

“Weakening fuel economy standards moves our nation in the wrong direction for public health. Less efficient vehicles mean greater fuel consumption and pollution across the transportation and fuel-production system, adding to the burden faced by communities already experiencing poor air quality and traffic-related pollution. NHTSA itself has previously stated that stronger CAFE standards reduce fuel use, transportation emissions, and air pollution and can benefit communities near heavily trafficked roadways.

“As health professionals, we are especially concerned about children, older adults, people with asthma and cardiovascular disease, and communities living near highways and other major transportation corridors, where additional pollution can compound existing health inequities. Strong fuel economy standards are more than an environmental safeguard, they are an important component of protecting health, reducing preventable illness, and limiting the economic burden that pollution-related disease places on families and our healthcare system.

“Nurses have a responsibility to advocate for policies that prevent harm before it reaches our patients, and we strongly oppose rolling back standards that help advance cleaner transportation, healthier communities, and a more sustainable future.”

###

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 Press Release! 2026 NHTSA Fuel Economy Rule (CAFE Standards) appeared first on ANHE.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should reject the proposal, in part because it would stifle markets, the Southwest Power Pool’s market monitor said.

Australian households have installed a record number of rooftop solar systems and home batteries so far this year, well above official forecasts.

The post Consumers put squeeze on coal as Australian households install record amounts of solar and batteries appeared first on Renew Economy.

Every evening , like clockwork, Arnen Sula wraps up work at his office, collects his drums, and heads to Skanderbeg Square in the Albanian capital of Tirana.

“Eskobari i Ballkanit
O hajduti i buxhetit
Ne nuk ikim pa doreheqje
HEY RAMA, SHPORRU TI TANI!”
 
(The Escobar of the Balkans!
You budget thief!
We won’t leave until you resign!
HEY RAMA, GET OUT NOW!)

These are lyrics to one of dozens of songs and poems that Sula and fellow demonstrators have chanted every day since June as they march while carrying cutouts of large flamingos.

“It is our take on Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall,’ and we have changed the first few stanzas to make it make sense in the Albanian context,” Sula explains.

The context he’s referring to is a months-long protest against the construction of a luxury resort funded by U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner that will potentially raze 42 square kilometers (16 square miles) of wetland around the Vjosa Narta river, as well as a proposed development on the 567 hectares (1.8 square miles) of Sazan Island close by.

Skanderbeg Square has been the heart of a movement that has grown steadily and consistently. Every day peaceful demonstrators fill the streets of Tirana with chants and folk songs and march toward the prime minister’s office.

There they are joined by artists who use a projector to broadcast their messages on the facade of the building.

 

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A post shared by Andi Begolli (@begolliandi)

“Initially, we started with a two-part animated video showing the machines and bulldozers working in Vjosa Narta, and the visuals of the flamingos,” says Besjana Guri, environmental activist, Goldman Environmental Prize winner, and founder of a nongovernmental organization called LUMI, which in Albanian means “river.”

 

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A post shared by @qendralumi

The flamingos represent one of hundreds of species of wildlife at risk from the Trump-Kushner development and inspired the name of the movement: the Flamingo Revolution.

Their voices, in unison, echo a collective demand: Save the last wild river of Europe.

“The protest is about opposing one of the huge touristic resorts with a severe ecological footprint that is planned to take place in the middle of one of the most important protected areas for Albania and for Europe,” explains Olsi Nika, environmental biologist and executive director of Eco Albania, an environmental protection organization.

What’s at Risk at Vjosa Narta

“Well, everything basically,” Nika tells The Revelator.

“We are not talking about just one building here, or one hotel there — although even that is not acceptable. But we are talking about the construction of a new city from scratch that will take place in the middle of a natural, pristine area,” he says.

 

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A post shared by Undiscovered Balkans (@undiscoveredbalkans)

Few details are available about the project, but according to some of the project renderings briefly published by Affinity Partners, the Kusher-linked investment firm, the Zvërnec Peninsula, which sits right beside the Narta Lagoon, will be home to a 445-hectare (1.7 square miles) luxury resort.

Meanwhile Kusher told The Guardian last year that he planned to “create the ideal resort…a very high-end luxury product” on Sazan Island, an abandoned communist outpost still littered with unexploded ordnance.

Environmentalists familiar with the developments say this involves construction of at least 10,000 units.

“When you imagine this … it involves construction that could take 10-15 years, trucks, bulldozers, with thousands of people working here, excavators digging in protected land, putting concrete,” says Zydjon Vorpsi, project manager at Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania.

“And once it’s operational, it will be a city of thousands of people that will need energy infrastructure, water, asphalt, pavements, lights, waste management — all of which comes at the expense of the wildlife here. We are talking about wiping out nature; we are talking about transforming this very special area completely,” Vorpsi says.

Nearly everyone interviewed for this article echoed the sentiment and called Vjosa Narta — the last free-flowing river in Europe — “very special.”

“The uniqueness of that river is its free-flowingness,” explains Nika. “It flows to the Adriatic, shaping the features of the delta along the way, which is also the only ecologically pristine delta in the entire Mediterranean Basin.”

The delicate ecosystem created where the Vjosa meets the Adriatic Sea on the southern coast of Albania is home to 2,300 species of flora and fauna, including 200 bird species, at least 70 of which are endangered, such as Dalmatian pelicans and stone curlews.

The rare sand dune formation on the coastline, which serves as a nesting spot for sea turtles, has already faced some damage from gravel dumped by excavators, a Birdlife International report noted earlier this year.

“Construction has also blocked one of the two openings connecting the Narta Lagoon to the sea, cutting off tidal exchange with immediate, cascading consequences for fish, birds, and the entire food chain,” the report stated. “Every day the blockage continues, the damage deepens.”

Additionally, the local Indigenous communities living for generations in the region are facing land disputes in part of the project.

“The village nearby does not have drinking water in taps,” Vorpsi says. “But meanwhile, we’re about to build 10,000 more units there, which, of course, will need fresh water that will be sourced from other areas, through pipelines that will add to the damage and destroy another river to feed this area with fresh water.”

But most importantly, Nika says, “This treasure simply does not belong to us alone, but also to Europe, to the world. It’s not only protected by Albanian law, but also has recognition from international treaties and conventions,” he says. “It is recognized as a Ramsar site under the Ramsar Convention and is a candidate for an Emerald Site in accordance with the Bern Convention.” The river also has the potential to be included in Natura 2000, the European Union’s protected sites, if Albania gets membership in the EU.

Albania applied for EU membership in 2009 and was granted candidate status in 2014. However, as protests expand, the EU Commission has indicated that the environmental violations linked to the Trump-Kushner project could risk Albania’s path to join the union.

Race to Save Vjosa Narta

The history of eco-resistance in Albania is long and complex. With abundant natural resources and an economy that relies heavily on tourism, the debate over protection versus development remains a constant battle.

The race to protect the Vjosa Narta actually started more than a decade ago, Nika says. “The current government, which came to power in 2013, already announced in 2014 its vision to develop the protected areas.” Since then the government has worked to rewrite legal and administrative frameworks to accommodate development.

In 2019 the government announced a full revision of the protected areas in Albania. But this process was rushed, according to Nika.

“Their assessment reduced the areas of protected territories, and one of them was the Vjosa,” he says, adding that in some areas appeared with permissible enclaves “like holes within the protected regimes” such as the Vlora Airport being constructed in the Vjosa region.

“If you exclude a part of a protected region, it still impacts the ecological integrity of the entire area. You cannot build a factory or an airport in the middle of a protected region,” he says.

But through persistent advocacy, environmental activists were able to achieve some success. “We managed to push back on that at least, and all these holes disappeared, with the exception of the airport,” he says.

Then in 2024 the government passed its new Law on Protected Area, “but ironically, it undermined all principles of conservation,” Nika says. “All its content is about how to develop the protected areas, not how to conserve protected areas.”

The new law “said that five-star resorts are allowed even in the national parks and in all protected areas, paving the way for this project, and other ‘tourism of excellence,’ as they call it,” says Vorpsi.

“In the beginning, when this project was announced, Jared Kushner always referred to it as Sazan Island, and never attached Vjosa Narta,” he adds.

Fast forward to April 2026, when environmentalists documented unannounced excavation taking place in the protected areas. Gradually, it became clear that the ongoing construction was linked to the Trump-Kushner project.

“We began protesting the presence of bulldozers and other heavy machinery in the region, which was supposed to be protected land. However, protesters were met with private security guards who used violence to remove them,” Vorpsi says.

A video from May 31 showing a protester being beaten until he fainted and was dragged out went viral across Albanian social media, attracting strong criticism and anger from the public.

“These constructions started without a public hearing, without a permit; they were illegal and criminal,” Vorpsi says. The Albanian anti-corruption prosecutor’s office in Vlora has since opened an investigation into the legality of the project.

Within days, thousands of Albanians took to the streets to demand the end of the Trump-Kusher project. Soon, however, the demonstrations expanded into a call for larger social change, particularly on systemic corruption that allowed billionaires to take advantage of Albania’s resources.

“It started as a protest for the environment and against this project, but it has changed it into something bigger,” Sula says. “It’s about the Narta, but it is also about corruption, the political situation, the theft by the government, the education system, the health care system, and everything else.”

‘Rhythms of Resistance’

As the movement remains resilient, it’s the music and art that have provided the protesters with the expression to communicate their message to the government and those in power.

In the months since the start of the protest, Guri has brought her projector to the town square nearly every day and used it to broadcast an array of messages onto the government building, sometimes accompanied by an impromptu choir.

“Every day we prepare a combination of elements: memes, messages, graphics, sometimes funny ones, sometimes strong — it’s a daily protest, and this is one way to keep it vivid,” she explains.

Not all songs and poetry recited by the protesters are Western-inspired. Some are derived from the region’s long history of folk music.

“We have collected some 10 old Albanian songs. These are songs all about nature, so they sing about the flowers, the birds, and so on. And we created a band and organized public concerts [at the protest site] of these songs,” Sula says.

Sula works with an organization called Tek Bunkeri that collaborates with rural communities and artists to create campaigns on shared social issues.

Their songs and chants have become something of an anthem for the protests. “We use art to make activism. And in these protests, we are creating the rhythm of the resistance,” he explains.

“Ki kujdes ki kujdes nga flamingot.
Revolucion ne kete shesh dhe ti rreshket.
Nje ze flet Rama ra nga flamingot.
Lumturia e pushtoi kete vend.”

(Watch out, watch out for the flamingos.
Revolution in this square — and you’re slipping.
A voice cries out: Rama fell from the flamingos.
Happiness has taken over this land)

 

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A post shared by Revolucioni I Flamingove (@flamingo_revolution_)

Tek Bunkeri has created an entire playlist of songs, Çel Ensemble, that “explores exploring memory, nature and tradition through sound” to raise awareness on ecological conservation. Using diverse forms of music, from jazz to chambers, the themes run between the topics of rivers, flowers, landscapes, and collective memory.

Music has always been at the heart of Albanian conservation efforts, environmentalists shared. In 2016 a similar movement to protect the Valbona River against hydropower projects that threatened damage to surrounding regions culminated in a protest concert in Valbona valley by Albanian and Kosovan musicians.

Later in 2018 Albanian artists collaborated to produce “Lum Lumi i Lirë!” (Blessed be the free rivers), a song to raise awareness of the need for protection of the Valbona and Vjosa rivers.

One thing that Albanians unanimously told The Revelator is that they feel a strong sense of responsibility for the land they inhabit.

“We do have plenty of protected areas in Albania because simply Albania has a lot to host when it comes to biodiversity and nature. And this is our duty to protect them,” Nika says, embodying the sentiment on the streets of Tirana.

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator:

The Two Words Giving Me Hope — Even As the Trump Administration Dismantles More Climate Regulations

The post The Flamingo Revolution and the Rhythm of Resistance: The Race to Save Europe’s Last Wild River appeared first on The Revelator.