Excerpt:
Disheartened, worried, even scared, activists and strategists are nevertheless better prepared this time around and bracing for a long fight.
Donald Trump has promised to demolish the country’s domestic and international climate policies at a crucial moment, when climate scientists say the window is closing on the world’s ability to avoid the most dangerous impacts of global warming.
But in the eight years since Trump’s shocking 2016 win, environmental groups have built more organized, collaborative coalitions and say they won’t be caught off guard by Trump’s second term in the White House.
“This is much less of a surprise than it was the last time,” said Jonathan Pershing, the former special envoy for climate under the Obama administration, who helped oversee the transition to the first Trump administration. “It’s not been a question of the kind of shock that the system collectively saw when it was expected that Hillary Clinton would win.”
“The consequence of that,” Pershing added, is that there’s been “a great deal of planning, a great deal of scenario work, a great deal of thinking on how to reflect on the last time this happened.”
Despite the challenges posed by a clearly anti-climate-action administration, the groups have some momentum behind them and say they plan to strategically capitalize on it. The world’s seemingly inexorable transition away from fossil fuels will continue with or without a Trump White House, they say. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest-ever investment in climate action, has already disbursed billions in tax credits and subsidies to clean energy programs, cities and states, the majority of them led by Republicans who could be skittish about rescinding any funds. Finally, and perhaps most crucially, the country will see a swell of young voters in coming elections who, regardless of party affiliation, have felt the impacts of climate change-fueled disasters and understand the realities of global warming.
“We know the climate crisis under the Trump administration could be accelerated,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of NextGen America, a youth advocacy group founded by billionaire Tom Steyer. “We are determined to do everything possible to stop that from happening, to make sure that the incredible gains under the Inflation Reduction Act will be defended. … We’re not going to let progress be rolled back without an absolute fight.”
This week, many of the country’s major environmental and climate advocacy groups held calls with reporters, voicing their resolve, outlining specific plans and, perhaps, giving themselves a public-facing pep talk.
“We’re ready. We have a plan to fight against any and all efforts to harm public health, climate action and the environment,” said Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a call with reporters Thursday. “We’re going to use every lever we have to defend people and nature.”
Less publicly, they’ve been meeting for months to strategize. Staff have been told to expect longer hours and more work ahead.
“Let’s be honest, we can’t sugarcoat it, we’re deeply disappointed in the results,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “It’s very clear that the big polluters have friends at the White House again…”
