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This article Why we need to think outside the box this election was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

This election is not like any other. You’ve heard that before, and so have I. But after decades of “this presidential election is the most important election in your lifetime,” I have finally conceded that this midterm election may be the most important election in my lifetime — because it will be the ultimate test of whether Trump and MAGA have succeeded in their authoritarian consolidation of power. 

And so it’s appropriate that many groups are trying new things ahead of this election — because the old playbook alone won’t get us there.

No Kings. On Oct. 17, No Kings is going to try something it hasn’t tried before. Instead of another mass march, the coalition is holding No Kings: Vote Early, a nonpartisan day of action in which communities will host block parties, BBQs and local protests to make a voting plan together and vote early where local rules allow. Organizers say it’s “not purely a protest,” but rather a nonpartisan action to encourage voter participation. The idea is to treat voting not as something we do alone, but as something we do together. I’m not old enough to remember it, but people used to go to the polls with their neighbors and make an event of it. This is bringing back that collective spirit.

(It’s easy to host. Go here for all the info you need by Thursday Oct. 15.)

Election Holiday. Another experiment is popping up for the Nov. 3 election — Election Day: Our Civic Holiday. This group (which I’m a part of) rests on a simple idea: treating Election Day as a day for showing love for democracy by doing our civic duty. Vote, help someone else vote, become a poll worker or observer, or find another way to participate in civic life. The idea is to translate that into a cultural vibe, like Valentine’s Day, but for a different form of love — love for democracy and our neighbors.

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These are two experiments among many in how we protect elections in new ways under new circumstances. (I’ll be writing more about possible post-election actions later.) Neither solves the problem on its own, but both actions build on the understanding that stealing an election gets much harder when there’s a large blowout. Hungary is the reminder. As I wrote in April, Orbán’s defeat was so decisive that he conceded before all the votes were counted, with turnout near 80 percent, the highest since their transition to democracy. As Micah Sifry put it, it was “too big to rig.”

New tactics aren’t easy — and it’s worth reminding ourselves of that.

The trap of the winning tactic

Until now, No Kings has been known for one thing: enormous marches, each bigger than the last. Organizers put the first at five million, the second at seven million, and the third, in March, at more than eight million. When a tactic works like that, the pressure to keep repeating it is immense.

I’ve seen this up close. After Greta Thunberg began her Friday walkouts, Fridays for Future grew and grew. I was working with 350.org — a global environmental organization — at the time and we provided a lot of the backend technical support to help it grow. That growth created tremendous pressure and helped drive movement at the United Nations and in many countries. (You can certainly argue it contributed to the Inflation Reduction Act, which — despite significant cuts — has some parts that are still very active.)

But every tactic eventually peaks. As Saul Alinsky put it, “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Suddenly an organization named for leaving school on Fridays needs to improvise — and that’s hard.

Student protesters asked me to write the Climate Resistance Handbook to try to assist Fridays for Future (and others) to break out of their tactical doldrums.

Occupy Wall Street hit the same wall. In Philadelphia, where we had an encampment outside of City Hall, my ears still ring with painful, shouted debates over whether we could do anything other than occupy. The argument largely won out that occupying is the thing that held us together — and like most occupations around the country (but not all!), we never tactically transitioned.

That’s the pull: The familiar tactic feels like the glue. The drive to stay the course is strong. And it takes a strong decision-making process to break out.

Many of us know this tactical challenge: endless weekly vigils and letter-writing with no changes. Worried about this dynamic in my anti-casino organizing group, I once made us promise we would only use the same tactic once — resulting in new tactics like citizen’s search warrants, Philly’s Ballot Box or the public filibuster. 

So No Kings deserves congratulations for breaking the mold. Yes, many would love to see something more escalated that increases the level of risk-taking — but it’s worth just underlining how difficult it is to change course at all. So greeting this pivot with encouragement makes all pivots more possible.

The strategic logic

Why put so much energy into the election? 

I’ve regularly argued there is so much more than elections. And Trump’s attempt at consolidation is happening in places where elections alone won’t save us. Take the military, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to purge 20 percent of the military’s top leaders. He’s already blocked and purged many women and Black leaders. Many view his attempts as a long-term purge to keep control of the military. (The military is hardly defensive and has its own ways of pushing back — including the extensive leaking about the eight sailors in the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group who attempted suicide.)

But the elections remain critical both as a narrative (exposing Trump’s unpopularity!) and also because Congress (for all its faults) remains a key pillar in allowing the theft of congressional money, putting in radical judges, co-signing his corruption and so much more.

Previous Coverage

What D.C.’s election defense under occupation can teach us

Trump knows this, which is why it is such important contested territory for him. In September, Trump led the crowd at the Republican National Convention in a pledge to “cheat like hell” (Newsweek claimed he was joking — but I’d say the intent is hard to dismiss). The Callais decision echoes widely as the single largest loss of Black political power in recent memory. 

Trump hopes terror can keep us from voting. In March he signed an executive order restricting mail-in voting, and while courts have kept the restrictions from taking effect this year, the fear it stoked is already having an impact. Trump is adding more fuel by making up stories of noncitizen voting. Why? So he can actually steal the election. I lay out 18 ways the regime might take our votes away in this scenario guide.

If nothing else, remember that a 2028 election becomes far easier to steal with a willing Congress. You don’t need a strong imagination to picture a Trump-led Jan. 6 insurrection under current Republican leadership ending in a fully effective coup backed by Congress and the Supreme Court. That becomes much harder with a hostile Congress.

All of this brings us back to why the midterms matter and the context of why collectively voting early and supporting each other on Election Day matters.

Why turnout is protection

Mass participation can overwhelm a system and make the likely accomplices of would-be election thieves less willing to go along. Trump can try to control the narrative, but the mechanics of theft require a chain of accomplices: election deniers in the certification process, state actors, and behind them businesses and supporters who quietly approve. That’s why folks at May Day Strong launched the Business for Democracy Pledge. By signing on, businesses commit to oppose obstacles to voting and, if results aren’t honored, to close ranks in defense of the election. It pulls potential accomplices back before they cross the line.

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Then there are the efforts to recruit more voters, like the Oct. 17 Vote Early Day coming up soon — a chance to mix large-scale decentralized actions for an electoral good. Or the Election Day: Our Civic Holiday effort where we’re not asking for a federal policy change. We’re asking people to treat the day differently. Vote if you haven’t. Help someone else vote. Make it visible.

We’re trying to feed into the energy by reminding everyone to stay active on Election Day, Nov. 3, by:

• making sure you’ve voted, and that the people around you have too
• becoming a poll worker or nonpartisan observer
• joining Singing Resistance, Souls to the Polls, or Joy to the Polls, and meeting any interference with positivity
• connecting with rapid-deployment teams or people already at polling sites, not to confront ICE, but to redirect and escort voters so everyone eligible gets to vote.

You can share the word at election.holiday. Businesses can support the campaign by pledging to give their employees time off to do their civic duty through Time to Vote, the coalition founded by Patagonia. And if you’re still looking for roles to support the election, find them at We are Ground Control.

All of this is part of the pre-election plan: Get large numbers of people voting against an awful regime. There’s an abundant range of opportunities to help protect our election. I hope you find your role.

This article Why we need to think outside the box this election was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

GARNER, NC—Kick off the fall planting season by celebrating North Carolina Native Plants Week from October 19-25. The week highlights the importance of native plants for birds, pollinators, and...

Agreement hides largest costs to North Carolinians and rebates upfront expenses to the tech billionaires

Last week, Duke Energy gained deceptive headlines and gushing praise after claiming its recent deal with tech oligarchs would protect other customers from the costs of providing power to controversial new A.I. data centers. In truth, the agreement cleverly excludes billions in coming expenses for new power plants to fuel these massive developments.  

The arrangement deals only with upgrades to grid equipment such as power lines and poles – not expensive new generating facilities. Duke says that data center developers would “pay” upfront for the grid upgrades, but the deal only involves letters of credit – or guarantees to Duke that developers would pay if they break their contracts. Otherwise, costs would be borne by other customers. 

Duke Energy also misled the public by framing the issue as a done deal – a wonderful one for data centers! – just because the Charlotte-based corporation reached agreement with the tech billionaires. In reality, the Commission still has a say, and the courts might also become involved. 

On top of it all, the negotiations locked out many interested parties by being announced and held within another ongoing Utilities Commission proceeding. Even a Utilities Commissioner, Donald van der Vaart, said that the process was exclusive and not an “adequate vehicle” for resolving the critically important issue.

This is one of Duke Energy’s biggest scandals ever. It seeks to paper over two of the public’s biggest concerns: that Duke Energy and A.I. data centers are driving up power bills and massively expanding fossil fuels – even as 2026 continues breaking records for cascading climate disasters in the US and across the world.

Duke Energy has claimed that its massive planned expansion of fracked-gas-fired power plants is to serve all customers, but NC WARN has proven that the demand for new plants is coming from the very data centers that Duke Energy spends millions to recruit.

NC WARN filed a demand on October 1 for all records from the Governor’s Office and Commerce Department pertaining to their assistance to Duke Energy in recruiting the data centers. 

Last week, NC WARN launched a statewide petition drive calling on Gov. Josh Stein to use his authority and political power to implement a 2-year moratorium on data centers. 

The Governor helped fuel the data center frenzy and massive backlash. Now, it’s on him to freeze current data center development and protect North Carolinians from further backroom scheming.

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Now in its 38th year, NC WARN is building people power in the climate and energy justice movement to persuade or require Charlotte-based Duke Energy – one of the world’s largest climate polluters – to make a quick transition to renewable, affordable power generation and energy efficiency in order to avert climate tipping points and ongoing rate hikes. 

The post Duke Energy’s Latest Lie: Backroom Deal “Protects” Other Customers from A.I. Data Center Costs — NC WARN News Release appeared first on NC WARN.

The Cobbs Creek Community Greening Plan Steering Committee is seeking proposals from qualified consultants and planning firms to help develop a community-led greening plan for Cobbs Creek Park, its trail system, and surrounding neighborhoods in West and Southwest Philadelphia.

The plan will focus on:

• Restoring and protecting the park and watershed
• Improving park access and maintenance
• Expanding environmental education and programming
• Strengthening community stewardship

The selected consultant will work with residents, community organizations, and City agencies to develop a plan that identifies priority projects, funding opportunities, and strategies for long-term implementation.

The project is supported by funding from the William Penn Foundation, with Clean Air Council and the Water Center at Penn serving as administrative partners.

Important Dates

Deadline for Written Questions: October 16, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET

Proposal Submission Deadline: October 30, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET

Interested in submitting a proposal?

Review the full Request for Proposal for qualifications, scope of work, and submission requirements.

VIEW THE FULL RFP

Long before we strung together the words “national wildlife refuge,” people were already paying attention to what made Alaska’s northeastern corner extraordinary. They saw a landscape where rivers ran wild from the Brooks Range toward the Arctic Ocean, where vast herds of caribou moved across the tundra with the seasons, and where the coastal plain provided essential habitat for polar bears, migratory birds and countless other species. For the Gwich’in people, who have lived across what is now northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada for generations, this landscape is also home—and the Porcupine Caribou Herd that migrates through it is central to their culture, food systems and way of life. 

That relationship with the land goes back thousands of years. Gwich’in communities have followed the seasonal movements of the Porcupine Caribou Herd across the region, relying on caribou for food and passing knowledge about the animals and their habitat from one generation to the next. The herd’s journey between its wintering grounds and calving grounds on the Arctic coastal plain is one of the great migrations of the North, and for the Gwich’in, the coastal plain is more than important wildlife habitat. It is sacred ground—a place where the caribou give birth and begin the next generation. 

That deep relationship is part of what makes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge so extraordinary. The Refuge is not an empty wilderness waiting to be discovered or developed. It is a living landscape that sustains people and wildlife together, as it has for generations. 

The story of the Refuge is also part of a much larger American idea: that there should be places set aside not for development, but for wildlife. The National Wildlife Refuge System began in 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt established Florida’s Pelican Island as the nation’s first wildlife refuge to protect birds from plume hunting. Over the decades that followed, the system grew into a network of hundreds of refuges protecting habitat across the country, from coastal wetlands and grasslands to forests, rivers and Arctic tundra. 

These places serve a simple but increasingly important purpose. Wildlife needs somewhere to live, and people need healthy lands and waters that can sustain them. 

For migratory species, that need is especially clear. A bird may spend one season in Alaska and the next thousands of miles away in another state or another country. A caribou herd may travel hundreds of miles across its range in search of food and suitable conditions. Protecting the places these animals depend on means recognizing that wildlife does not live according to the boundaries we have drawn on a map. 

The Arctic Refuge is one of the clearest examples of what that kind of protection can make possible. In 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower established the 8.9-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Range after years of advocacy from conservationists including Olaus and Mardy Murie, who understood that the region’s extraordinary wildlife and wilderness values deserved lasting protection. Twenty years later, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, dramatically expanding the protected area and creating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge we know today. 

At nearly 20 million acres, the Arctic Refuge is larger than many U.S. states. Its landscape stretches from the Arctic Ocean across the Brooks Range and into boreal forests, encompassing mountains, rivers, wetlands and the coastal plain. It provides habitat for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, polar bears, muskoxen, Dall sheep, wolves and hundreds of species of birds, including migratory birds that travel thousands of miles to reach Alaska each year. 

For the Gwich’in, protecting this landscape has always been inseparable from protecting the caribou and the future of their communities. The Porcupine Caribou Herd ranges across Alaska and Canada, crossing an international border that means little to the animals themselves. Its annual migration has sustained Gwich’in communities for generations, and the health of the herd remains closely tied to the health of the lands and waters it travels through. The Gwich’in have therefore been among the strongest and most enduring voices defending the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain from oil and gas development. Their opposition is rooted not only in concern for a particular ecosystem, but in a relationship with the land and caribou that reaches back thousands of years. 

That history matters because the Arctic Refuge is not simply a place we protect for wildlife that people might someday come to see. It is a place where wildlife continues to sustain human communities, where Indigenous knowledge and traditions remain alive, and where the relationship between people and the land is still visible across the landscape. 

Today, that relationship faces growing pressure. The Arctic Refuge has been targeted for oil and gas development for decades, and efforts to industrialize the coastal plain continue despite the risks to wildlife, ecosystems and the people who depend on them. Yet the reason the Refuge exists in the first place has not changed. This is a place where caribou need room to migrate, where polar bears need habitat to den, where migratory birds return each summer, and where Gwich’in communities maintain a relationship with the land that has endured for generations. 

National Wildlife Refuge Week is a chance to celebrate that idea. Across the country, refuges give wildlife habitat to survive while protecting the lands and waters that sustain communities. They preserve places that might otherwise be lost and maintain the ecological connections that stretch far beyond the boundaries of any single refuge. 

And nowhere is that responsibility more visible than in Alaska. 

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is part of a much larger story about what we choose to protect and what we choose to pass on. Its future belongs in the hands of the people, communities and wildlife who depend on it—not the oil companies that have spent decades trying to industrialize it. 

When we protect the Arctic Refuge, we are protecting more than a spectacular landscape. We are giving caribou room to migrate, birds a place to return, bears a place to raise their young and Gwich’in communities the opportunity to continue a relationship with the land that has sustained their people for generations. 

That is worth celebrating this National Wildlife Refuge Week and worth protecting for generations to come. 

Photo credit: Dave Shreffler

The Electric Power Research Institute analysis found a dramatic drop in energy storage system failures from 2018 to 2025 amid a host of technology and project improvements. “Early-vintage” systems may require retrofits, however.

The Canadian Deep Geothermal Coalition (CDGC) and ORKIS Energy Cluster Iceland (ORKIS) are pleased to welcome the Joint Statement between Canada and Iceland, which will accelerate geothermal energy innovation and deployment to advance clean energy and energy security.

The agreement establishes an Embassy-led Canada-Iceland geothermal network that brings together the private sector, Indigenous partners and relevant government stakeholders to identify opportunities for collaboration, including in northern and remote communities.

The Joint Statement is an important step forward on geothermal collaboration between Canada and Iceland, complementing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the CDGC and ORKIS in June 2026. The MOU calls on the CDGC and ORKIS to collaborate in propelling geothermal energy to more widespread development and use.

Specifically, the June 2026 MOU aims to achieve the following:

• Exchange best practices in geothermal development, including in technology and innovation, regulation, financing, and policy;
• Jointly promote investment in geothermal in both Icelandic and Canadian markets, by reaching out to capital markets and institutional investors and garnering the attention of the financial sector;
• Identify opportunities for joint/coordinated research, as well as joint development and/or demonstration projects;
• Develop joint workforce, training, and capacity building to identify skills and the educational pathways required for next-generation geothermal development;
• Collaborate on educational content and communications materials to highlight geothermal energy’s role in the energy transition.

Geothermal energy has been moving forward across the world as next-generation technologies transform what’s possible. Canada and Iceland are actively driving this transformation through innovative technologies and projects. As electricity demand rises amidst growing geopolitical instability, Canada and Iceland can meet the moment by advancing geothermal energy.

“Energy cooperation is one of the most practical ways for Canada to deepen ties with trusted allies. Iceland has shown the world what a country can build when it commits to geothermal, and Canada has one of the world’s most skilled drilling and subsurface workforces. Together, we can move faster than either country could alone,” said Peter Massie, Director of the Geothermal Energy Office at the Cascade Institute. The Cascade Institute acts as Secretariat for the Canadian Deep Geothermal Coalition.

Sverrir Jan Norðfjörð, Managing Director of ORKIS Energy Cluster Iceland, said: “Iceland has spent decades turning its volcanic geology into a reliable source of clean energy and valuable know-how. Canada has the opportunity to develop geothermal on a much larger scale, and by combining Iceland’s experience with Canada’s deep subsurface expertise, we can help move geothermal from proven potential to a major part of the next generation of energy systems.”

To arrange interviews, please contact Jax Jacobsen, Strategic Communications Lead, Geothermal, at the Cascade Institute (jax@cascadeinstitute.org), or Sverrir Jan Norðfjörð (sverrir@orkis.is).

About the Canadian Deep Geothermal Coalition (CDGC)

The Canadian Deep Geothermal Coalition was established in 2025 to bring together organizations committed to advancing deep geothermal energy in Canada. Coalition members span industry, Indigenous organizations, communities, academia, government, technology developers, and other stakeholders united by a shared vision: making Canada a global leader in geothermal energy.

About ORKIS Energy Cluster Iceland

ORKIS Energy Cluster Iceland is a collaborative platform bringing together Icelandic companies, research institutions, public organizations, and other stakeholders working across the energy sector. Building on Iceland’s long experience in geothermal energy, ORKIS supports collaboration, innovation, knowledge-sharing, and international partnerships that help advance geothermal and other sustainable energy solutions. ORKIS works to connect Icelandic expertise with international opportunities and partners, contributing to the continued development and global application of geothermal energy.

The post Canada and Iceland deepen geothermal ties appeared first on Cascade Institute.

EWG statement on California announcing clean energy milestone during 'extreme' heat Anthony Lacey October 13, 2026

SACRAMENTO – California Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced that the state’s power grid met the highest demand for electricity in four years. 

The peak demand on the grid, due to “extreme” heat, was on par with the peaks of 2006 and 2017. It was met without having to conserve energy or take emergency steps.

The Environmental Working Group recently released a report finding climate change is driving up “major” and “extreme” heat advisories between 30% and 145% in parts of the state. Yet soaring electricity costs make home cooling unaffordable for millions, threatening public health.

This dynamic creates an impossible choice for many Californians struggling with affordability: Suffer during hazardous heat or default on electricity bills.

EWG is calling for policymakers to find solutions that tackle both the heat and utility bills. 

One step is doing more to expand consumer access to distributed generation devices, such as rooftop solar or balcony solar, that can help power electricity-hungry air conditioners more cost-effectively and without contributing to climate change or adding strain to the electric grid. 

Newsom last month signed into law an EWG-backed measure that will significantly expand access to balcony solar for millions of Californians. The state needs to take similar actions to continue to lower costs and expand access to solar energy. 

The following is a statement from Bernadette Del Chiaro, EWG’s senior vice president, California:

California kept the lights on – but could consumers afford to run their AC?

With the help of even the smallest solar energy systems, such as balcony solar, millions of California families are turning toward the sun to achieve greater energy affordability and beat the heat with solar-powered AC. 

California should do more to ease restrictions on customer-sited solar energy, lower upfront costs, and put local solar energy devices in the hands of everyone.

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

Areas of Focus Renewable Energy California Grid met highest electricity demand in four years without emergency measures Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 October 13, 2026

It has been a hard-fought year for Alaska’s public lands, and few places have felt the pressure more intensely than the Western Arctic. 

Stretching across more than 23 million acres of federal public land, what is formally known as the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA) is one of the largest expanses of public land in the country. It is also one of the most ecologically important places in the Arctic, supporting caribou herds, migratory birds, fish, polar bears, and other wildlife, as well as the Alaska Native communities whose cultures, livelihoods, and traditions are deeply connected to these lands and waters.  

For decades, the NPRA—or what we call the Western Arctic—has been a place where the public has fought to balance the demands of development with the extraordinary ecological and cultural values of the region. 

This year, that balance has been under relentless pressure. 

The Lease Sales 

In March, the Administration held an oil and gas lease sale in the Western Arctic that was devastating to witness. Industry showed up with the money and interest to claim huge portions of this public landscape, with more than 1.3 million acres ultimately leased.  

Familiar names were among the bidders, including ConocoPhillips, which has previously talked about pursuing a “smaller footprint” in Alaska and has relinquished leases in the Western Arctic in the past. ExxonMobil also bid on tracts along the shores of Teshekpuk Lake, one of the most important and ecologically sensitive places in the entire Western Arctic. The largest spender at the sale was Repsol, a foreign Spanish oil company. 

For a region so often invoked in conversations about American energy independence, it is worth taking a close look at who is actually lining up to develop these public lands, and who stands to benefit from doing so. The companies placing bids may have different histories and different corporate strategies, but they share an interest in securing access to some of the most consequential public lands in the Arctic.  

You can read more details in our press release here.  

For those of us who care deeply about public lands, the lease sale was a crushing day. These places are more than mere acreage or parcels available for companies to acquire. The Western Arctic is a landscape of extraordinary scale and ecological importance, and decisions made there reverberate far beyond the boundaries of individual lease tracts. 

But we did not let the lease sale silence us. 

Instead, Alaska Wilderness League and our supporters launched a corporate accountability campaign aimed directly at the companies that had chosen to pursue oil and gas development in the Western Arctic. Thousands of people took to social media to make their views known, flooding corporate accounts with comments and questions and demanding that these companies answer for their plans in the Arctic. It was one way for people across the country to remind these corporations that public lands come with a public interest — and that the American people are paying attention to what happens on them. 

We’re still bringing that energy. Unfortunately, so is Big Oil. 

Opening The Door Wider 

In July, the Bureau of Land Management proposed another major change that could have consequences across the Western Arctic. The proposal, developed with significant input from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, would make it easier for companies to advance development projects in the Western Arctic while limiting opportunities for public oversight and participation. 

The proposal comes with the familiar trappings of public engagement: a 60-day comment period, public meetings, and virtual hearings. Those opportunities matter, and people across the country have made use of them. But the substance of the proposal raises much larger questions about what meaningful public participation looks like when the rules governing development are being rewritten to make development easier in the first place. 

The Western Arctic deserves careful review of major projects because the stakes are enormous. The region contains wetlands, rivers, lakes, coastal areas, migration routes, and critical habitat that sustain wildlife and communities across the Arctic. Changes to the way development is reviewed can affect far more than a single project or lease block, particularly when they reduce opportunities to evaluate cumulative impacts and hear from the people who know these lands best. 

So we showed up. 

Members of the public packed hearings and meetings, submitted comments, and made their voices heard. More than 80 people testified during the public hearings, calling in from across the country — from Alaska to Maine and communities in between. Their messages varied, but the concern was unmistakable: decisions about the future of the Western Arctic deserve meaningful public scrutiny, and people expect the federal government to listen before making changes that could shape this landscape for decades. 

Those comments have been submitted to the Bureau of Land Management, and the public comment period remains open through November 9. 

If you haven’t yet weighed in, you can take action here. 

A Familiar Playbook 

The proposed BLM rule is only one piece of a much larger effort to change how development happens in the Western Arctic. 

The Administration has also moved toward codifying a categorical exclusion for certain exploratory activities in the Western Arctic, a step that could allow these efforts to move forward without undergoing the full environmental review typically required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

Environmental review is one of the primary ways the public gets to understand what a proposed project could mean for wildlife, habitat, communities, and the broader landscape before decisions are made. It provides a process for identifying impacts, considering alternatives, and bringing information into the public record. 

Eliminating that review means reducing opportunities to ask hard questions before bulldozers, roads, drill rigs, and other industrial infrastructure arrive. 

Taken together, these changes point toward a broader shift in how the Western Arctic is being managed. Longstanding safeguards are being reconsidered or dismantled, opportunities for public participation are being narrowed, and the rules governing development are being rewritten in ways that could make it easier for industry to move forward. 

The Western Arctic has spent decades at the center of debates about how much development is appropriate on public lands and where the lines should be drawn to protect places that are especially important for wildlife and communities. Those debates are not going away, but neither should the public’s role in them. 

This is Public Land 

It can be easy, after another lease sale or another proposed rule change, to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of threats facing Alaska’s public lands. But the scale of the challenge is also a reminder of why public engagement matters. 

The Western Arctic belongs to all of us. 

It belongs to the people who live closest to it and depend on its lands and waters. It belongs to the caribou that travel across it, the birds that migrate thousands of miles to reach it, and the fish and other wildlife that depend on its interconnected wetlands, rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. And as public land, it belongs to the millions of Americans who may never set foot in the Arctic but still have a stake in what happens there. 

That public interest deserves a voice in every decision that shapes the future of this extraordinary place. 

Sometimes that means showing up when the government hands us the microphone. Sometimes it means creating enough public pressure that decision-makers have to listen. Sometimes it means holding corporations accountable for the choices they make on public lands. And sometimes it means doing all three at once. 

The fight for the Western Arctic has been long, and this year has brought more than its share of difficult days. But across the country, people continue to speak up for these lands. They are submitting comments, showing up at hearings, calling out corporate actions, and reminding decision-makers that the Western Arctic is worth protecting. 

We are deeply grateful to everyone who has stood with us through this fight. 

There is still a long road ahead, and there is still plenty of work to do. But we’re here for it — and we’re not going quietly. 

Photos: © Florian Schulz / visionsofthewild.com

Registered nurses across the country continue to build our union movement, asserting our collective power against a profit-driven health care system and a corporate-aligned federal government. CNA/NNOC announced today that nurses at four hospitals – which in total employ 4,500 nurses and serve more than 1.7 million patients annually – filed petitions over the past week with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for union elections.

Food technology platform Wonder said it is saving about 5% on energy expenses using stationary plug-in batteries. “Our No. 1 goal was to figure out how we can reduce our utility bills, shave the peaks off of our utility usage,” a senior VP for the company said.

When oil and gas shipments stopped flowing through the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the Iran war, Southeast Asian nations were left reeling as the supply crunch laid bare their acute reliance on fossil fuel imports.

As prices soared, governments in the region scrambled to introduce emergency energy-saving measures – from a four-day work week to curbs on air conditioning. Thailand revived decommissioned coal plants while the Philippines, which imports nearly all of its oil, declared a “national energy emergency”.

But the crisis has also prompted renewed resolve to find a long-term solution to their vulnerability at a time when electricity demand is booming to power the region’s growing industry, cooling needs and the mushrooming of energy-hungry data centres.

At the heart of Southeast Asian nations’ response is a longstanding infrastructure project to connect the region’s power grids by 2045 and enable cross-border trading of clean electricity through a network of underground and subsea interconnectors.

• Aug 5, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier Southeast Asia’s fragile grids threaten billions in clean energy investment Renewables developers need reliable electricity infrastructure and stable policies to help the region meet climate goals and surging demand for power Read more
• Sep 23, 2026 News UN backs push to upgrade grids slowing clean power uptake in Africa and SE Asia The Global Grids Accelerator will help turn national and regional plans to expand electricity infrastructure into viable projects on the ground Read more
• Aug 20, 2026 Clean Energy Frontier China keeps Indonesia’s battery dream afloat but future less certain Chinese capital and technology turned Indonesia into the world’s top nickel supplier, but its dependence on China and the rise of nickel-free batteries could upset its battery ecosystem plans Read more

The plans will allow nations with high renewable energy generation potential to trade surplus power to their neighbours and major demand centres like Singapore, helping to integrate more renewables into the power mix and reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports.

“[It] will give us more energy security,” the Philippines’ energy secretary, Sharon Garin, told a press conference after a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) energy ministers last week, when they discussed accelerating the delivery of the regional grid as part of measures to respond to the energy crisis.

“The Philippines is rich in solar power, Malaysia is rich in hydropower and Indonesia has geothermal: different countries have different resources. [The ASEAN Power Grid] will optimise the utilisation of renewables to the benefits of each member state,” said Garin.

But turning this decade-old political vision into a reality has been slow, held up by painstaking work to harmonise a patchwork of regulatory and legal frameworks and mobilise the private capital needed to build cross-border infrastructure.

More than $300 billion is needed to expand and modernise the region’s fragile grids to support the projected energy demand increase by 2050. This includes $27 billion required to deliver the cross-border interconnections by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Every year of delay could cost the region billions of dollars in additional fuel costs and lock in new gas infrastructure for decades to come, according to analysis by global energy think-tank Ember.

The building block for energy security

With electrification high on the agenda of the COP31 climate talks in Türkiye next month, there is growing attention on the need to modernise and expand grid infrastructure to cope with growing electricity use and more renewables in the power mix.

Clean electrification and energy efficiency could deliver about a third of cumulative carbon emission reductions between 2026 and 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook. But delivering that would require doubling annual global grid investment to $1 trillion between now and 2035.

Last month, the UN launched an initiative to accelerate investment into expanding and modernising grids in Southeast Asia and Africa.

A technician walks next to solar panels that partially provide electrical power to the Grand Mosque of Istiqlal in Jakarta, Indonesia (Photo: REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan)

First conceptualised in 1997, the ASEAN Power Grid has gained fresh impetus in recent years as countries turn to renewables to cut their emissions and move away from volatile fossil fuel markets.

Energy supply disruption caused by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East has strengthened the case for regional grid connections. Before this year’s conflict began, the Middle East accounted for 60% of Southeast Asia’s crude oil imports. Competition for fewer, more expensive oil and gas shipments has left Southeast Asia facing a $160 billion energy import bill this year. Based on current policies, this could rise to $400 billion by mid-century.

In the Philippines last week, energy ministers agreed on an enhanced planning framework to deliver the ASEAN Power Grid and made progress on regulatory guidelines.

Garin said ministers were considering accelerating the project’s delivery. “The first study was to connect [by] 2045 – that’s too far,” she said.

A strong business case

The economic benefits of the plan have “captured the political imagination” of leaders in the region, Robert Cooke, grids advocacy lead at the Global Renewables Alliance, told Climate Home News. “The business case is stronger than ever,” he said.

“If countries were to go about building their own separate grids, of course that would be an expensive endeavour. But the discussion around the ASEAN Power Grid includes what costs could we share in building out this grid,” added Tiza Mafira, director of the Indonesia office for the Climate Policy Initiative.

Stronger grids would help the region meet collective targets to increase the share of renewable energy in total primary energy supply from 14% to 30% and in installed power capacity from 34% to 45% by 2030.

Connecting and pooling dispersed renewable resources would also help smooth local power shortages caused by daily and seasonal variations, reducing the need for backup gas plants and battery storage.

The IEA found the ASEAN Power Grid could help unlock some of the 20 terawatts of untapped solar and wind potential across Southeast Asia – an amount around 55 times the region’s current total power capacity.

From lines on a map to shovels in the ground

Rather than building a single unified network, the ASEAN Power Grid is developing cross-border links between neighbouring countries and smaller groups of nations.

As of 2025, nine of 18 priority interconnection projects are operational – accounting for around 10 GW of capacity with an additional 13.7 GW planned by 2040.

A power line channelling up to 200 MW of clean electricity generated from hydropower in Laos to Singapore via Thailand and Malaysia has emerged as a key building block for grid-to-grid trading.

Progress on technical discussions will also help provide the clarity the private sector needs to invest in bankable projects, said Cooke.

In 2025, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank announced a dedicated funding initiative to support the project.

“The enabling pieces are emerging,” said Monalisa Dimalanta, former chair of the Philippine Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Renewable Energy Board. “But the timelines remain unclear and a 2045 vision cannot answer today’s emergency,” she said.

“A power grid… that exists only on paper will not keep the lights on.”

Singapore: the delivery test

The implications of failing to deliver the ASEAN Power Grid are most acute in Singapore.

Constrained by space, with few renewable energy resources and dependent on gas for more than 90% of its electricity mix, Singapore has emerged as a leading proponent of a regional power grid as it seeks to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

To meet its power needs, the city-state aims to import 6 GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035, around one-third of its energy demand – a target which it is set to miss, however.

The plans heavily rely on building interconnectors to import solar power from Indonesia across the South China Sea. Around 40% of the ASEAN Power Grid’s planned interconnections are directed towards Singapore.

Skyscrapers in Singapore (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Ember’s analysis found that delivering the planned interconnectors by 2035 could enable renewables to meet nearly half of Singapore’s electricity demand. Delays could drop this to only a fraction of the country’s needs, and risk locking in new gas capacity until the 2050s. Without the ASEAN Power Grid, Singapore would need to install an additional 300 MW of gas-fired power capacity to bridge the gap by 2035.

Already home to the largest data centre capacity in Southeast Asia, Singapore’s electricity demand keeps rising, driven by the boom in AI infrastructure. “At one point, [it] either has to build a new gas plant, or it has to get the interconnection to supply that demand,” Lam Pham, an Ember energy analyst and the report’s author, told Climate Home News.

A region at a crossroads

With capital increasingly available, political will is now the biggest risk standing in the way of timely execution, said Pham.

But there are other challenges too, including the lack of frameworks on transmission tariffs and how to share the benefits of clean power trading. “It’s really hard to justify projects without that,” he said.

In addition, climate-fuelled weather events, including extreme heat and tropical storms, pose major threats to the region’s grid infrastructure. Experts say stronger grid interconnection can isolate damage and build the system’s resilience.

Efforts to deliver on the ASEAN Power Grid also come as ministers stressed the “continued importance of oil and gas” for economic development and seek to secure fossil fuel supplies and stockpile oil to prepare for the next crisis.

Despite an acceleration of renewable deployment, particularly solar, coal still generates nearly half the electricity supply in ASEAN member states and dominates the power mix in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, while Singapore and Thailand rely on gas.

While these measures might help the region with the immediate crisis, “the long-term answer is more domestic renewable energy, electrification, storage, efficiency and regional power trade”, Dimalanta said.

Main image: An aerial view of the MTerra solar project in the Philippines, set to become one of the world’s largest solar-and-battery developments (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

The post SE Asia speeds up plan for connected clean power grid after oil shock appeared first on Climate Home News.

Farmworker leaders from the CIW (Nely Rodriguez, speaking, and Lupe Gonzalo, to her immediate left)  join plant nursery workers with WeCount! at a press conference on the Planting Justice initiative earlier this year.

Sixteen years ago, the Fair Food Program ushered in a new day for farmworkers in the United States, replacing generations of poverty and powerlessness with a groundbreaking system built to guarantee fundamental human rights in the fields.  The Program’s unique standards include protections against wage theft, sexual harassment, retaliation, modern-day slavery, and — as of just over two years ago — protections the Washington Post called “America’s strongest workplace heat rules“. Today, the Presidential Medal-winning FFP has become a beacon of hope far beyond the fields where it began, demonstrating to workers around the world that even the most deeply rooted abuses can be overcome when workers themselves are empowered to monitor and enforce their own rights.

In recent years, workers and human rights advocates from industries across the U.S. and around the world have traveled to CIW’s headquarters in Immokalee to learn firsthand about the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model based on the Fair Food Program — and explore how they can adapt that model to confront abuses in their own workplaces. Among them have been members of WeCount!, a worker-based human rights organization from Homestead, Florida, whose members have long marched alongside the CIW in the Campaign for Fair Food and participated in multiple worker-to-worker exchanges in Immokalee, learning directly from workers on FFP farms how worker-led monitoring and binding market commitments have transformed life in the fields.

Over the past several years, that longstanding solidarity has grown into a deeper collaboration between WeCount!, the CIW, and the Fair Food Standards Council to adapt the lessons of the FFP to another corner of Florida agriculture: the sprawling plant nursery industry. As that partnership has developed, nursery workers have taken the lead in shaping Planting Justice — Sembrando Justicia — a new WSR initiative designed to put workers themselves at the center of monitoring and enforcing their rights, backed by the same binding commitments from the corporations with the power to change conditions on the ground as are found in the FFP. Today, workers are calling on Costa Farms, one of the nation’s largest growers of houseplants, to become the initiative’s first corporate partner.

A powerful new feature article from Grist shines a national spotlight on the latest chapter in that collaboration — and on an industry where the beautiful plants lining floors in Home Depot, Lowe’s, Whole Foods, Walmart and Costco stores across America can conceal a far harsher reality for the workers who grow them. Nursery workers describe extreme heat, inadequate access to clean water, a lack of shade and rest breaks, pesticide exposure, and other dangerous conditions, even as traditional avenues for securing protections have narrowed. But the story is also one of exciting possibility: Drawing on years of organizing and the proven lessons of the Fair Food Program, workers are building a path to safeguarding their dignity in the workplace.

Check out excerpts from Grist’s powerful feature below, and click here to read the full article.

America’s houseplants come at a steep price for greenhouse workers The people who grow houseplants aren’t often thought of as agricultural workers, but they face many of the same hardships — especially in extreme heat.

…Since 2021, WeCount has been advocating on behalf of outdoor workers who lack meaningful protections from extreme heat. Based in South Florida, WeCount previously campaigned for a municipal heat standard in Miami-Dade County, where deaths from heat exposure are estimated to spike by 60% (opens in new tab) during extremely hot periods. But those efforts were cut short in 2024, when industry groups complained(opens in new tab) and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed a law preempting local governments from enacting their own heat standards. (DeSantis said such regulations could cause “a lot of problems.”(opens in new tab)

Planting Justice, WeCount’s new campaign to protect outdoor workers across the South, aims to bring corporations like Costa Farms to the table and create consumer awareness around where their plants come from — and the human cost of growing them.

This model of mobilizing for stronger workplace protections is known as worker-driven social responsibility. WeCount’s campaign is heavily inspired by the Fair Food Program, which farmworkers have successfully used for years to boost their labor conditions and is considered the highest standard of labor protections for farmworkers in the U.S. The Fair Food Program, launched in 2011 by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, has proven effective as a framework for workers to continually surface and address their needs. For example, while access to drinking water is one of the core tenets of the program, this year, workers won the right to electrolyte beverages or supplements year round.

CIW staff provide an on-the-clock, worker-to-worker education session as part of the FFP, on Rancho Durazno

“We know that every year this crisis is getting worse,” said Londoño, referring to how summer temperatures climb year to year, driven by human-caused climate change. “But increasingly, legislative avenues are more and more limited.”

Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather(opens in new tab). In the U.S., official counts of deaths from extreme heat exposure vastly underreport the scope of the problem(opens in new tab), as a two-year investigation by Boston University and NPR recently demonstrated. For years, labor advocates and community groups have pushed for the creation of a federal heat standard — a set of guidelines that would apply to employers across the country designed to reduce workers’ risk of heat illness. While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — or OSHA,  the nation’s workplace regulator — seemed to be making progress toward such a rule under the Biden administration, those efforts have since stalled out. Meanwhile, agricultural workers, a category that includes plant nursery workers who handle the greenery directly, are excluded from federal collective bargaining protections under the National Labor Relations Act. And yet, agricultural workers are also more than 35 times more likely(opens in new tab) to die from heat-related complaints than workers in other industries.

The goal of the Planting Justice campaign is for Costa Farms to sign onto a code of conduct developed by workers. The agreement outlines relatively straightforward demands: educating workers and supervisors on the signs of heat illness; providing access to shade, water, and rest breaks; and creating systems for monitoring and responding to heat stress.

Organizers believe the agreement would help directly address issues that workers themselves see on the job. For example, while Costa Farms reports that the company provides access to hydration stations on very hot days, workers industry-wide have reported water with a strong chemical smell, as well as seeing mold in water coolers, said Londoño.

Alejandro Gonzalez, a plant nursery worker originally from Guatemala, told a Florida rally that the summer days have topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit on occasion. “They don’t give us cold or clean water,” Gonzalez said emphatically, in Spanish. “They don’t provide any breaks or shade.”

Eighty-six percent of nursery workers who responded to a survey by WeCount(opens in new tab) reported dangerous incidents on the job, stemming from heat illness, pesticide exposure, and workplace accidents. Over two-thirds reported being entirely denied breaks and days off. The visa conditions of many houseplant workers — dependent on H2-A or other visas, or entirely undocumented — leave them with few rights to recourse, often entirely dependent on their employers for housing, and unable to rely on much of federal labor law for support should they speak out.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates about new WSR initiatives!

Bold is offering local organizers the opportunity to host their own phone banks for our endorsed candidates, and providing our hosts with a “Phonebank ToGo” kit that includes t-shirts, stickers, buttons, and gift cards to buy snacks for your phone bankers!

Fill out the form below to organize your Phonebank ToGo and Bold will arrange to drop off your supply basket. 

Phonebank ToGo Supply Kit includes: 

• Instructions
• Invitation graphic to share on social media
• BOLD Shirts for you and your pals
• Gift card for Dinner and or Snacks
• Gift Card for Butterfly Bakery
• Stickers and Pencils
• Thank you gift for the PhoneBank ToGo Host

How to Organize Your Phonebank ToGo:

1. Choose a BOLD Endorsed Candidate to host a phonebank for:
   Brian Seck
   SuAnn Witt
   Rick Vest
   George Dungan
   Sean Flowerday
   Jess Goldoni
   Carol Blood
   Sara Kohen
   Cindy Johnson
   Cindy Maxwell Ostdiek
2. Pick your date and time!
3. Invite your friends. (This is a virtual phone bank, so you can phone bank from anywhere.)
4. Submit t-shirt sizes for you and all your volunteers on the form
5. We will deliver your PhoneBank ToGo supply basket

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The post Be a BOLD Volunteer: Host a Phonebank appeared first on Bold Nebraska.

The shutoffs — potentially affecting more than two dozen counties, mostly in northern and central California — could continue through Saturday.

Child care workers at Ideal Child Service Group (ICSG), which operates five child care locations across Toronto, were locked out by their employer on October...

The post Child care workers locked out by employer and forgotten by government first appeared on Spring.

Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline.

Does onshore wind power need subsidies to compete with fossil fuels?

Unsubsidized onshore wind is now generally cheaper than building fossil fuel plants.

Cost of energy sources are compared using “levelized cost of energy,” or the average lifetime cost to build and run a power plant divided by electricity produced. A 2026 report estimated the mean LCOE of unsubsidized onshore wind at $68 per megawatt-hour, compared to $90 for new natural gas plants and $124.50 for coal.

Developments like supply chain maturation, improved monitoring, and larger, more productive turbines have allowed the LCOE of onshore wind to decrease by 70% since 2010. 

While recent inflation, rising interest rates, and trade barriers have increased costs across all energy generation technologies, onshore wind is still cheaper than fossil fuel plants and projected to decrease further in the long-term.

Go to full rebuttal on Skeptical Science or to the fact brief on Gigafact

This fact brief is responsive to quotes such as this one.

Sources

Lazard Lazard Releases 2026 Levelized Cost of Energy+ Report

IRENA Renewable power generation costs in 2025

U.S. Department of Energy The Future of Offshore Wind Is Big—Literally

IRENA Wind energy

U.S. Department of Energy Experts Predict 50% Lower Wind Costs Than They Did in 2015

Columbia Law School Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles

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About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer "yes/no" answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact — a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all of our published fact briefs here.

CELDF is launching a new series called Capitalism and Democracy, and we are inviting you to join us!

The post “Common Sense” Newsletter – October 2026: New Series: Are Capitalism & Democracy Compatible? appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

The state's electricity prices are double the national average, and wildfires are a big reason — but far from the only one. Fresh leadership can show the way on regulatory, financial and operational reform, write experts at GridLab and Energy Innovation.