Your weekly resource to learn what the environmental movement is saying about the news of the day and the political fight of our generation. This week, we’re covering attacks on our climate, democracy, and energy bills.
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“Without [the Endangerment Finding], we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change—all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.”
— Former President Barack Obama on the Trump EPA’s reversal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding that concluded greenhouse gases are harmful to human health.
“No statute gives the President, let alone EPA, discretion to terminate all previously obligated and disbursed funds allocated by Congress.”
— A coalition of eight senators and 32 House Democrats on the Trump administration’s unlawful termination of $20 billion in grants under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
“America’s energy policy should be grounded in facts, fiscal responsibility, and the national interest — not ideology or politics.”
— A group of nine House Republicans in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth questioning the Trump administration’s stop work orders on five offshore wind projects.
KEEPING MICHIGAN COAL PLANT OPEN HAS COST RATEPAYERS $135 MILLION: The net cost for keeping Michigan’s J.H. Campbell coal plant operational has risen to $135 million since the Trump administration forced the plant to stay open past its planned retirement date in May 2025. These costs are being passed onto ratepayers to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day.
TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER PROPS UP DIRTY, COSTLY COAL: In his latest attempt to prop up the flailing, health-harming coal industry, Trump issued an executive order for the Department of Defense (DOD) to source energy from expensive, dirty coal plants. Trump’s Department of Energy also announced over $175 million for outdated, broken-down coal plants in red states, wasting more taxpayer dollars to enrich his fossil fuel cronies.
OUR TAKE: LCV Vice President of Federal Policy and former EPA scientist Matthew Davis said, “By directing the Department of Defense to enter contracts with dirty, expensive, and unreliable U.S. coal-fired power plants, the Trump administration risks further driving up energy prices for American families struggling to pay the bills. Coal power not only has one of the highest costs of any energy source, but also has the worst reliability record of any form of energy, with twice as many unplanned shutdowns and interruptions in generation as wind power. Instead of forcing the government to waste taxpayer dollars on dirty outdated coal, we should be focusing on increasing access to clean, reliable energy sources like wind and solar that are the fastest, cheapest way to deploy energy onto the grid. At a time of rising energy costs, the Trump administration is propping up costly, aging coal plants and forcing American taxpayers to foot the bill.”
CLEAN ENERGY KEPT THE LIGHTS ON DURING WINTER STORM: During the winter storm that brought heavy snow, ice, and extreme cold to 20 states, renewable energy and batteries played a key role in providing power and keeping energy prices lower. Texas’ electrical grid operator, ERCOT, saw solar energy provide more power than natural gas for several hours, and solar and wind provided about a third of MISO’s power between 12-4pm. At times when renewable generation was high, energy prices per megawatt/hour fell by over $100.
TRUMP NAMED ‘UNDISPUTED CHAMPION OF COAL’: Earlier this week, the Washington Coal Club, a group with financial ties to the fossil fuel industry, named Trump the “Undisputed Champion of Coal.” Trump’s energy policy has focused on propping up the dirty, expensive, outdated fuel, further driving up energy bills and harming the health of people across the country. Trump’s championing of the most expensive source of energy is only a win for the fossil fuel industry and Trump himself, padding the pockets of billionaires while everyday people struggle to pay their bills.
EPA RESCINDS ENDANGERMENT FINDING: Trump’s EPA has rescinded the landmark 2009 Endangerment Finding. The Endangerment Finding states that greenhouse gas emissions are harmful to public health and welfare and underpins EPA’s responsibility to limit them. It is the bedrock of nearly all federal climate pollution limits – those for cars, trucks, power plants, and other emitters. This recession is just the latest in a slew of decisions from the agency to endanger and ignore human health while enriching their fossil fuel donors.
OUR TAKE: LCV Vice President of Federal Policy and former EPA scientist Matthew Davis said, “Trump and EPA administrator Zeldin are giving polluters a free pass to pollute – enriching billionaire fossil fuel executives at our expense. Their impending decision comes after the EPA announced earlier this year that they will no longer count premature death or other health effects from air pollution in rulemakings. The EPA has one job — to protect our health and our environment. Instead, Trump and Zeldin are gaslighting the public and denying the harms from the climate crisis and air pollution. Repealing the endangerment finding takes the legs out from under the EPA’s carbon pollution standards that save lives, and would raise families’ insurance, transportation, and energy costs by letting fossil fuel companies off the hook for their harmful pollution. At the same time, rolling back the vehicle pollution standards would expose communities across the country to more air pollution from vehicle exhaust, worsening the risks of lung and heart disease, cancer, and premature death.
“Adding insult to injury, Trump and Zeldin are poised to provide another handout to coal-fired power plants to allow them to continue polluting our air and water, while harming our health and our children’s future. Rolling back the mercury and air toxics standards, which have been saving lives and improving children’s development, is particularly harmful when the administration is also forcing dirty costly coal plants to stay running past their closure dates.
“At a time when energy bills are skyrocketing and climate impacts—from extreme heat to wildfires to superstorms–are ravaging communities and spiking insurance costs, we should focus on bringing cheaper clean energy online, not delaying clean energy projects and endangering public health and our environment.”
TAKE 2: During an interview with ABC, LCV Vice President of Federal Policy and former EPA scientist Matthew Davis said, “This is definitely not a decision based on science. The science is clear. It’s indisputable. Climate impacts are going to affect people’s health. We’re going to see more pollution, so we’ll see more heart attacks, more strokes, more asthma attacks, and more people’s lives will be cut short.”
EPA RELEASES RULE DELAYING COAL ASH CLEANUP: EPA announced a rule to delay the monitoring and cleanup of millions of tons of toxic coal ash until 2031. Delaying these protections will lead to further contamination of water sources as hazardous pollutants found in coal ash, including heavy metals, carcinogens, and neurotoxins, remain unattended and uncontrolled.
OUR TAKE: On Bluesky, LCV said, “Trump is giving coal power plants another three years — until Feb. 2031 — to legally pollute our environment with toxic coal ash without even monitoring. This administration is determined at all costs to reward polluting industries and billionaires at the expense of American communities.”
EARTHJUSTICE TAKE: Earthjustice Senior Counsel Lisa Evans said, “Rather than enforcing the law and making polluters clean up their toxic coal ash, Trump’s EPA lets them continue to pollute our water with toxic chemicals that threaten our health. The longer industry delays, the more toxic waste enters our water, and the more difficult cleanup becomes.”
TRUMP ROLLS BACK PROTECTIONS FOR MARINE MONUMENT: Trump has rolled back protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Monument from commercial fishing, threatening the monument’s diverse and fragile ecosystem.
TRUMP RECINDS FUNDING FOR EV CHARGING IN BLUE STATES: The Trump administration illegally clawed back nearly $135 million that Congress appropriated for electric vehicle charging programs in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota.
CALIFORNIA APPROVES $30 MILLION FOR ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUSES: Southern California has approved a $30 million grant to replace polluting diesel school buses with zero-emissions models. Replacing diesel buses with cleaner models will mean cleaner, safer air for southern California communities and students.
HOUSE PASSES VOTER SUPPRESSION BILL: The House passed the Save America Act over bipartisan opposition. This bill is another, more extreme version of the SAVE Act, the anti-democracy voter suppression bill that passed the House in April 2025. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate, but extreme MAGA agitators are putting pressure on Senate Republicans to pass these bills by any means. Prior to the vote, LCV put out a statement on the bill and sent a letter to members of the House urging them to reject it.
OUR TAKE: LCV Senior Director of Judiciary and Democracy Doug Lindner said, “MAGA Republicans are determined to do Trump’s bidding to keep voters from exercising our fundamental rights by pushing new and worse versions of their sweeping voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act 2.0 represents an unprecedented attack on the people’s freedom to choose our elected leaders and would be the biggest federal voting rights rollback in American history. This MAGA effort would imperil online voter registration, mail voter registration, and voter registration drives. It would make voter registration harder for the 146 million Americans without passports, 69 million married women whose birth certificates don’t show their current names, and 21 million who can’t easily access either.
“With midterm elections approaching, Trump and his loyal allies in Congress want to take away power from everyday people and put it in the hands of their billionaire and Big Polluter friends by making voting harder for millions of eligible American voters. Congress must reject this clear attempt to suppress and intimidate voters, and all MAGA efforts to interfere in our right to free and fair elections, including the SAVE, SAVE America, and MEGA Acts.”
TAKE 2: From the letter, “These bills would not make our elections more secure. Instead, they would weaken our democracy by denying eligible Americans their rights and burdening our hard-working local election officials. They would end online voter registration, voter registration drives, and voter registration by mail. They would create significant barriers to voting for massive numbers of eligible American voters and cause the biggest federal voting rights rollback in the history of the United States.”
ON THE BLOG: Not a whole lot of love in the air for the Trump administration and Congress, who both took drastic actions this week to harm our democracy and environment. Read about the status of House Republicans’ newest voter suppression bill, the SAVE Act 2.0, and what EPA’s reversal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding means for clean air and climate, now on The Power Source Blog.
ON OUR SOCIALS: Are you the Endangerment Finding and voting rights? Because, this Valentine’s Day, we’d do anything to get you back.
TONIGHT: Partial (DHS) government shutdown funding deadline.
FEBRUARY 14: Valentine’s Day.
FEBRUARY 16: President’s Day.
FEBRUARY 17: Lunar New Year.
©2026 League of Conservation Voters