Jacob Fischler, Author at The Pulse

Revised voting rights bill named for John Lewis wins over one GOP senator

By Jacob Fischler

November 2, 2021

In News, Voting

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday she would join Senate Democrats in backing a compromise voting rights bill, marking the first time this year a Republican has signed on to a measure that likely still lacks enough GOP support to become law.

Murkowski, of Alaska, joined Democrats Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia to introduce a new version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named after the Georgia civil rights icon.

The compromise version is more permissive of state voter ID laws. It also includes a provision to expand Native American voting access.

The senators said the changes were the product of “months of bipartisan negotiations,” but Murkowski was the only Republican senator to endorse the legislation Tuesday.

Under Senate rules, the measure would have to receive 60 votes to advance to debate, meaning nine more Republicans beyond Murkowski would have to vote for it.

Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said in a statement he was “hopeful that more Republicans will follow Senator Murkowski’s lead.”

The compromise measure includes language that would require courts hearing challenges to state practices to consider whether the practice “advances a valid and substantiated state interest.” The bill’s sponsors said that would strengthen the landmark Voting Rights Act’s protections against discriminatory voter laws.

The bill would also allow courts not to consider voter photo ID laws when looking at the totality of circumstances in Voting Rights Act lawsuits.

In the release, Murkowski highlighted the inclusion of the Native American Voting Rights Act, a bill introduced earlier this year by New Mexico Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján.

The measure would allow tribes to request the number and location of voter registration sites and polling places on tribal lands, authorize tribal ID cards as a valid form of voting identification and authorize a $10 million Native American Voting Rights Task Force grant program, according to a summary from cosponsor U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, (D-Calif.).

The evenly divided U.S. Senate is expected to vote on cloture on the bill Wednesday. If that procedural vote fails, the bill will be stalled.

Congressional Democrats have made several previous efforts at voting rights reform this year, as Republican-led state legislatures put in place more restrictive laws, but have not won support from any Republicans.

Biden to outline major methane reduction strategy at UN climate conference

By Jacob Fischler

November 2, 2021

In Environment, News

Plan to be unveiled a day after President calls for ‘decade of action,’ issues apology for Trump exit from Paris accord

The Biden administration plans to release a comprehensive methane reduction plan as part of the president’s participation in the United Nations climate summit, administration officials said Monday.

In addition to a comprehensive White House plan, several executive agencies will take action on methane, administration officials told reporters on a background call Monday.

The officials said the moves would protect the climate, create jobs, improve health and demonstrate U.S. leadership on climate at the critical global summit in Glasgow, Scotland, this week.

President Joe Biden also plans to announce a new U.S. initiative to conserve global forests while meeting Tuesday with world leaders at the U.N. conference, the officials said. Biden is scheduled to return to Washington Tuesday evening.

A third initiative is meant to spark private sector demand for clean energy. An official said the administration has won commitments from major corporations, including Apple, to buy certain amounts of clean energy.

Officials briefed reporters on the plans Monday on the condition that speakers were not named.

President Joe Biden arrives for the COP26 UN Climate Summit on November 1, 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. (Photo by Adrian Dennis – Pool/Getty Images)

Potent methane

Biden’s agenda at the U.N. meeting has focused in part on methane, a greenhouse gas that comes from the oil and gas industry, landfills and agriculture.

“Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases,” an official on the call said. “This is the single best strategy to defeat the climate crisis that we have in the near term.”

By Monday evening in Glasgow, about 90 countries had signed onto a commitment to collectively reduce methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade, the official said.

To show the U.S. interest in the issue, the administration would launch a government-wide initiative to increase methane reduction commitments.

As part of the U.S. methane plan, the Environmental Protection Agency would reinstate a methane storage and leakage rule.

The EPA rule goes further than a similar one established under President Barack Obama and later repealed by his successor, President Donald Trump, an administration official said.

In addition, the Interior Department will write a rule to address the same issue on public lands. That rule would cover methane venting, the release of gas into the atmosphere, an official said.

And the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, an agency within the Department of Transportation, would put rules in place to require stronger monitoring by pipeline companies and better leak detection.

The Agriculture Department would also continue a “climate-smart” initiative to help farmers and ranchers operate in more climate-friendly ways, an official said.

Forest conservation

Biden’s participation in Tuesday’s session of the conference will focus on a decade-long forest conservation initiative and private sector innovation, officials said.

The government-wide forest program would be a “first-of-its-kind” effort to conserve global forests and other ecosystems that naturally capture carbon, an official said.

The plan is built around four key components, the official said:

Incentivize forest conservation and forest landscape restoration;
Catalyze private sector investment for conservation;
Build data systems to enhance accountability;
Dedicate up to $9 billion of international climate funding for forest conservation.

Biden will also announce a “First Movers Coalition,” a group of private companies to make “demand commitments” for energy derived from clean fuel sources.

The coalition has 25 founding members, including “some of the largest companies in the world” that will each make commitments to purchase a certain amount of non-fossil-fuel energy.

Calling for a ‘decade of action’ and apologizing for exit from Paris Accord Read more

No climate deal yet for Biden as he joins global allies at critical UN conference

By Jacob Fischler

October 29, 2021

In Environment, News

Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden will arrive at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, without new federal programs in hand to fight climate change, after Democrats in Congress failed to reach an agreement to pass his revised $1.75 trillion spending plan.

But environmental advocates say they haven’t given up and praised the new proposal for not trimming as much in climate spending as it could have. They said they viewed the framework as a positive step, even if it didn’t meet the administration’s goal of passage before the overseas trip.

Biden had sought an agreement by the time the conference started to bolster a pledge to the international community that the United States wanted to be part of a worldwide climate effort. More than 100 world leaders are expected in Glasgow, with Biden arriving Monday.

The White House released a $1.75 trillion framework Thursday that included $555 billion devoted to addressing climate change, including clean energy tax credits and other provisions, but lawmakers were still negotiating its details as Congress adjourned for the weekend. A vote could come as soon as next week, but that would be after Biden’s participation in the pivotal U.N. meeting.

“It’s not ideal that we haven’t secured this before the Glasgow conference,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the climate advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists. “But I think it is really coming into focus quickly.”

U.S. leadership is essential to the global issue of climate change because the U.S. has historically been the greatest emitter of climate-changing greenhouse gases, and because as a rich country it has the resources to do something about it, Cleetus said.

The president’s spending framework, which the administration calls the Build Back Better plan, is crucial to restoring U.S. leadership on climate, said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, the executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, a public interest law firm that advocates for the West.

“If President Biden’s Build Back Better plan is not passed by Congress, the U.S. will take yet another hit on the international stage,” he wrote in a Tuesday email, adding that former President Donald Trump’s administration “was an unmitigated disaster” for U.S. credibility on climate.

Manchin pressure

The Biden proposal released Thursday is a slimmed-down version of a $3.5 trillion package House Democrats pieced together.

Under pressure from coal-friendly U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III, (D-W.Va.), the White House dropped the Clean Energy Performance Program that would have paid utility companies to meet renewable energy targets and penalize those that didn’t. Some climate experts considered the program the most aggressive climate measure in that bill.

Still, the new framework would have a major climate impact, said Robbie Orvis, the senior director of energy policy design at the nonprofit think tank Energy Innovation that models climate policy.

The $150 billion earmarked for the CEPP in the earlier proposal was mostly redistributed to other climate programs and policies — including clean energy tax credits, carbon capture tax credits and a fee on methane — and retains most of its impact.

To meet goals set in the 2016 Paris Agreement, the U.S. must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by about 2 gigatons. Energy Innovation’s model of the earlier bill showed a reduction of 1.3-1.5 gigatons.

The group is still working on modeling the updated framework, but Orvis said the range would likely be similar. Read more

As negotiations continue, Congress clears temporary extension of federal transportation programs

By Jacob Fischler

October 29, 2021

In News, transit

Biden’s national parks nominee pledges to ramp up workforce, improve staff morale

By Jacob Fischler

October 20, 2021

In Environment, News

President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the National Park Service told a U.S. Senate panel Tuesday he would work to rebuild the agency’s workforce, which has shrunk even as park attendance hits new records.

Charles F. Sams III, of Oregon, would be the first enrolled tribal member to lead the National Park Service. He is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

If agreed to by the full Senate, he would also be the first confirmed head of the National Park Service since January 2017.

He faced members of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who asked for his commitment to improve specific parks and other NPS sites in their states.

Sams highlighted challenges with the National Park Service labor pool. The park service workforce is down from its peak, he said, while attendance has increased.

An agency web page shows permanent employment in 2020 was about 6% less than it was in 2010. Sams said the park service workforce has decreased 20% from “several years ago.”

Park attendance dropped from 327 million in 2019 to 237 million in 2020 as severe COVID-19 restrictions limited travel. But as outdoor recreation became seen as a safe alternative to other travel options, some parks, including Yellowstone, have set record monthly attendance records this year.

Sams said he would work to increase the workforce and improve morale, including by adding housing. He also said he would prioritize recruitment to boost staffing numbers.

“The National Park Service cannot achieve its mission without a well-supported workforce, and I’m committed to focusing on the caretaking of this mission,” he said. “Housing, staffing and other issues are impacting morale and deserve active attention.”

Sams told Chairman Joe Manchin III, (D-W.Va.), that he would prioritize staffing and addressing the roughly $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog.

Sams also said he would work to improve the federal relationship with tribes, saying they should expect an open conversation with the federal government ahead of decision-making, “not after the fact.”

Sams is a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, a position he was appointed to by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. He also worked as the executive director of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and in other roles in tribal and state governments and nonprofit tribal and conservation groups.

Manchin said he expected Sams would be in office “very quickly.”

Republicans on the panel didn’t raise major objections to Sams, though ranking Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming said he was concerned Sams had never worked for the park service.

Other members of the committee asked Sams to commit to addressing issues at NPS sites in their states.

Sams told U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, (R-Mont.), he knew that some NPS employees in Montana commute more than 50 miles to their service stations and pledged again to improve housing options for parks employees.

Barrasso asked Sams to look into the $563 million maintenance backlog at Yellowstone National Park and $181 million backlog at Grand Teton National Park.

New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich said a lack of fencing was allowing cattle into the Valley Caldera National Preserve, disrupting wetlands, subalpine meadows and elk populations there.

Sams told U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, (D-Ariz.), the NPS could use funding from the Great American Outdoor Act, a law enacted last year that provides additional funding to national parks, to adapt boat ramps in Lake Mead for lower water levels.

Sams won an endorsement from his home state senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, who introduced the nominee Tuesday. Wyden called Sams a “real leader and a role model” for stewardship and conservation.

“I can’t think of anybody in America better and more qualified to do this than Chuck Sams, with his unique perspective as the first Native American to lead the park service,” Wyden said. “This is, frankly, long overdue.”

Posts by jfischler

Revised voting rights bill named for John Lewis wins over one GOP senator

Biden to outline major methane reduction strategy at UN climate conference

No climate deal yet for Biden as he joins global allies at critical UN conference

As negotiations continue, Congress clears temporary extension of federal transportation programs

Biden’s national parks nominee pledges to ramp up workforce, improve staff morale

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Posts by jfischler

Revised voting rights bill named for John Lewis wins over one GOP senator

Biden to outline major methane reduction strategy at UN climate conference

No climate deal yet for Biden as he joins global allies at critical UN conference

As negotiations continue, Congress clears temporary extension of federal transportation programs

Biden’s national parks nominee pledges to ramp up workforce, improve staff morale

Top Stories from NCPW

Now Hiring

Recent Blog Posts