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 the upholding of national soot standards, House Republicans’ attacks on voting rights, and how states are making life more affordable with clean energy.
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“Many of the items that were on your wish list are now done. Over the course of the coming few months, hopefully [we get to] the remainder of those items.”
— EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to coal industry executives on fulfilling their wish list of demands.
“We are given only a limited number of truly perfect summer days in our time on Earth. One of the more insidious cruelties of fossil fuel greed is how it slowly strips those days from us.”
— Reporter Emily Atkin on the dangerous air quality experienced across the country as a result of climate-change-fueled wildfires raging across Canada.
“You cannot have a healthy environment without a healthy democracy. There was a moment when Blanche said, ‘I’m [Trump’s] lawyer.’ He quickly backtracked, but that is how he views his job.”
— LCV Senior Director of Judiciary and Democracy Doug Lindner on why Todd Blanche should not be the next Attorney General.
FERC FAILS TO PROTECT PJM CONSUMERS: Advocates and lawmakers from several states gathered outside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission where they called for reforms to PJM Interconnection, the utility that manages the grid for 13 states and D.C. PJM’s mismanagement has worsened grid reliability, raised energy prices, and increased pollution.
CVPA TAKE: Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania Executive Director Molly Parzen said, “The latest capacity auction has again highlighted PJM’s total failure to properly manage our electric grid and keep costs down for Pennsylvania’s families and local businesses. We can no longer trust PJM to police itself. The public deserves real transparency that lifts the veil on its secretive operations. We need PJM to remove artificial obstacles that are keeping clean energy projects from coming online and lowering energy prices for families who are struggling.”
MDLCV TAKE: Maryland League of Conservation Voters Director of Climate Policy and Justice Rebecca Rehr said, “We are here to ask PJM to put ratepayers’ interests first. A fundamental flaw in PJM’s governance structure is that it is not designed to prioritize ratepayer or affordability needs. We’re seeing mismanagement at PJM and the resulting electricity cost spikes in part because states and ratepayer advocates lack an adequate voice at the table.”
OHIO ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL JOINS AES RATE CASE SETTLEMENT: The Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) has signed a settlement agreement to resolve a rate case with the utility AES Ohio. The settlement adds programs to manage stress on the grid and improve its reliability, ensures data centers pay their fair share, and reduces AES Ohio’s equity so more money will go towards grid upgrades instead of company profits.
OEC TAKE: Ohio Environmental Council Senior Attorney for Clean Energy Karin Nordstrom said, “The unopposed agreement reached by the parties in AES Ohio’s rate case reflects an important step forward towards utility accountability in a time of rising energy costs and grid reliability concerns. The settlement lowers the return AES Ohio receives from customers. It also puts guardrails in place to penalize overspending and poor performance while rewarding better spending and performance controls. The settlement also creates demand response programs, getting more use out of the existing grid while making it more resilient. Finally, the settlement takes an important step towards ensuring that costs caused by data centers are allocated to data centers and not subsidized by other customers.”
CALIFORNIA EXPANDS PROTECTIONS AGAINST UTILITY SHUTOFFS: California regulators prohibited utilities from disconnecting power for customers who are behind on their bills during dangerous heat. The new rules lower the temperature threshold for shutoff protections from 100°F to 90°F and require utilities to develop more accurate heat standards to keep residents safe during extreme weather.
CALIFORNIA CLIMATE CREDIT BRINGS RELIEF TO CONSUMERS: Millions of consumers will have climate credits applied to their energy bills thanks to California’s Cap-and-Invest program, which requires polluters to pay a fee to emit carbon. The resulting funds will be used to reduce some consumers’ energy bills in August and September.
NEW DATA TRACKER HIGHLIGHTS DATA CENTERS’ CLIMATE IMPACT: Climate Power and Cleanview have released a tracker for pollution from data centers.The tracker scores major tech companies on the climate pollution from their data center projects. Environmental and public health advocates say the tool can help communities understand the local air quality and climate impacts of nearby data centers while increasing pressure on companies to reduce emissions.
EPA ADMINISTRATOR PROMISES TO FULFILL COAL INDUSTRY’S WISHLIST: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin just said the quiet part out loud. At a meeting of the National Coal Council, Zeldin told industry executives that “many of the items on [their] wishlist” have been fulfilled. He promised to continue advancing their agenda, telling officials “we’ll have a lot to celebrate the next time you all get together again in January.” Zeldin’s statements leave no question about the Trump administration’s top priorities: increasing Big Polluter profits at our expense.
OUR TAKE: LCV said, “This week, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin promised at a hotel gathering of coal executives to continue delivering the coal industry’s “wish list” (his words). While blocking cleaner, more affordable energy like wind, solar, and battery storage, the Trump administration instead gave the coal industry a $700 million bailout in taxpayer dollars to build more dirty, expensive coal plants. Not only is coal devastating for clean air, clean water, and climate change, but it’s an obsolete and expensive energy source. Trump may as well try and subsidize the horse and buggy industry.”
SENATOR PROPOSES FEDERAL JUDICIAL REFORM: Senator Adam Schiff (CA) proposed a set of bills to increase accountability and strengthen ethical standards for Supreme Court justices and lower court judges. The bills would prevent federal judges from handling cases where they have financial conflicts of interest, require judges to place their assets into blind trusts, and bring more transparency to the judicial branch. Senator Schiff also reiterated his support for expanding the Supreme Court, establishing term limits for Supreme Court Justices, and enforcing a Supreme Court code of ethics.
OUR TAKE: LCV Senior Director of Judiciary & Democracy Doug Lindner said, “Protections for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and a free and fair democracy depend on public institutions that earn the people’s trust and are free from corruption. For too long, the nation’s highest court has operated with the lowest ethical standards, including shocking revelations about MAGA Justices ruling against environmental protections despite personal ties to the fossil fuel industry. LCV is proud to stand with Senator Schiff in his pursuit of bold legislation to reduce judicial conflicts of interest, increase judicial transparency, and ensure our courts work for the people, not just for Big Polluters and other powerful special interests.”
HOUSE REPUBLICANS ADVANCE VOTER SUPPRESSION BILLS: This week, the House narrowly passed three bills that include dangerous provisions to make voting harder for massive numbers of Americans. House Republicans are once again attempting to force through the SAVE Act by attaching it to the National Defense Authorization Act. This is not the first time the House has forced the Trump-favored voter suppression bill through the chamber. The Senate has previously blocked the bill, and is likely to do so again. House Republicans also passed a resolution in pursuit of a new filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill that allocates billions of dollars for voter suppression policies, though it remains unclear how this procedural strategy for voter suppression could work in the Senate. The House also advanced the Stop Insider Trading Act, a bill that purports to ban congressional stock trading… without actually doing that. The version of the bill passed by the House includes a voter ID provision more severe than any current state policy. This, too, is a part of the SAVE America Act, and is very unlikely to pass the Senate.
OUR TAKE: LCV Senior Director of Judiciary & Democracy Doug Lindner said, “Instead of focusing on the problems people are facing like skyrocketing energy costs and extreme weather caused by our dependence on fossil fuels, Trump and his Republican Congressional allies are continuing their efforts to take away our freedoms and make voting harder for hundreds of millions of Americans. Each of these attempts to suppress the people’s freedom to vote is an admission that the MAGA agenda is deeply unpopular, and that Republican leaders do not care what the people actually want.
“Passing any part of the SAVE Act would not make our elections more secure – instead, it would suppress eligible voters and create chaos, making 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 eligible voters who can’t easily access either. Congress must reject any version of the SAVE Act’s provisions and any attempt to force them on states using federal funds.”
COURT UPHOLDS NATIONAL SOOT STANDARD FOR EPA: A U.S. district court ruled that EPA must implement the 2024 National Ambient Air Quality Standard for soot and identify areas violating the standard by February 2027. This comes after the EPA requested that the court strike the standard down.
PLATFORM FOR A JUST CLIMATE CELEBRATES 7TH ANNIVERSARY: The Platform for a Just Climate is celebrating its seventh anniversary of working towards the goal of creating a just and equitable future for all. Focused on defending community investments and protections and building climate futures, the Platform aims to ensure that those most harmed by climate change and fossil fuels can actively participate in addressing community needs.
ON THE BLOG: Stay tuned for exciting new content, coming soon to The Power Source Blog!
ON OUR SOCIALS: Despite Trump’s rollbacks of myriads of climate protections, the reality of the climate crisis is evident by the damaging wildfire smoke in New York City last week. While Trump and Republicans attempt to scapegoat Canada, Democrats are turning to local communities to discuss the importance of clean energy.
COMING UP:
JULY 27: Climate Action Campaign hosts a youth climate townhall with Rep. Maxwell Frost at 7pm ET.
JULY 29: Comment period on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to weaken protections for the Chaco Culture National Historical Park closes.
AUGUST 11: National Poll Worker Recruitment Day
©2026 League of Conservation Voters