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For Immediate Release
November, 22 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Morgan Folger, Clean Car Communities Campaign Director, 203-343-1736, mfolger@environmentamerica.org
Mark Morgenstein, Director of Media Relations, 678-427-1671, markm@publicinterestnetwork.org
General Motors Commits To All-Electric Car Future
General Motors announced Monday that it plans to immediately withdraw from litigation supporting the Trump administration's effort to block states from setting their own tough tailpipe emissions standards.
WASHINGTON
General Motors announced Monday that it plans to immediately withdraw from litigation supporting the Trump administration's effort to block states from setting their own tough tailpipe emissions standards.
In a letter sent to Environment America and 10 other groups that sued the Trump administration for going the wrong way on clean cars, GM CEO Mary Barra highlighted the company's vision for an all-electric future and expressed confidence that the Biden administration, the state of California and automakers could again find common ground on clean car standards.
In addition to encouraging other auto manufacturers to take similar action, GM outlined its intent to accelerate the consumer adoption of electric cars. GM announced last week that it will launch 30 new electric car models by 2025 and spend $27 billion dollars on electric and autonomous vehicles. It has also announced a $4.2 billion investment to build electric cars in Detroit, Mich. and Spring Hill, Tenn.
Wendy Wendlandt, acting president of Environment America, issued the following statement:
"It is about time that major auto companies such as GM head the right way on clean cars. We cannot address climate change without phasing out gas-powered cars, and GM embracing the promise of electric cars goes in the right direction. With this year's record-breaking hurricane season and some of the hottest temperatures on record, it's increasingly clear we need to act fast to stop burning the fossil fuels that cause global warming.
"This is a victory for Americans from every corner of the country who all deserve cleaner cars and clean air. We hope other automakers will follow the lead of GM, Ford, BMW, Honda, Volkswagen, Volvo and others driving toward the right side of history when it comes to the clean car standards. It's never too late to do the right thing."
With Environment America, you protect the places that all of us love and promote core environmental values, such as clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and clean energy to power our lives. We're a national network of 29 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state. Together, we focus on timely, targeted action that wins tangible improvements in the quality of our environment and our lives.
(303) 801-0581LATEST NEWS
Trump Tells Walmart to 'Eat' the Cost of His Tariffs
"If you think Walmart is going to eat the costs of tariffs, then you don't understand Walmart's greed and how it exploits its customers and workers to make its billions," said one observer.
May 17, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump verbally thrashed Walmart on Saturday following the retailer's announcement this week that it expects to raise prices on some goods as a result of tariffs imposed by the White House.
On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote that Walmart should "STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain."
"Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, 'EAT THE TARIFFS,' and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!!" he wrote.
On Thursday, leaders at Walmart said that they will have to raise prices in response to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration even after lowered duties on Chinese imports were announced.
The Trump administration has placed 10% universal tariff on goods entering the United States and imposed higher tariffs on goods coming from China—though on Monday the two countries said they reached a deal to temporarily lower the tariffs they had imposed on one another while they try to hash out a trade deal. Imports from China will now be subject to a 30% tariff, whereas before many goods coming to the U.S. from China previously had at least a 145% tariff.
CEO Doug McMillon said that Walmart, which is known for its low prices, will do its best to keep prices low, but that "given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren't able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins."
One observer expressed skepticism that Walmart would heed Trump's demand.
"If you think Walmart is going to eat the costs of tariffs, then you don't understand Walmart's greed and how it exploits its customers and workers to make its billions," saidMelanie D'Arrigo, the executive director of a group fighting for universal healthcare in New York State.
Economists expect the cost of tariffs, which are a form of tax applied on imports that can be used to support homegrown industries that employ American workers, to be largely passed on from businesses to American consumers.
In an analysis of the Trump administration's tariff regime as of late April, with the higher duties on Chinese goods in place, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that in 2026 the poorest Americans would see the biggest tariff-induced tax hikes compared to other income groups.
Some observers also used Trump's social media post to highlight that in the past he has claimed that other countries would bear the brunt of tariffs.
The social media posts echoes a recent episode when, last month, after a news report that Amazon would display tariff-based price increases next to the price of products online, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called such a move "a hostile and political act." After a call between Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, a company spokesperson said displays had been considered for only a section of the site but wouldn't be happening.
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'Insanity': Observers Blast Reported Trump Administration Plan to Move Palestinians to Libya
"American-led ethnic cleansing should be flatly unacceptable," said one professor.
May 17, 2025
A plan reportedly under consideration by the Trump administration to send up to one million Gazans to the divided country of Libya was met with criticism on Friday and Saturday, with several observers calling it part of a plan to carry out ethnic cleansing.
On Friday, NBC Newsreported that the Trump administration has broached the plan with Libya's leadership, though no final agreement has been reached. NBC News' reporting relied on several unnamed sources "with knowledge of the effort."
"This is absolutely categorically an ethnic cleansing and sending people to Libya of all places is unconscionable," wrote investigative journalist James Stout on Bluesky on Friday, in response to the reporting.
An unnamed spokesperson for the Trump administration told NBC News after publication that "these reports are untrue."
As part of the plan, the Trump administration may unfreeze billions of dollars of funds originally meant for Libya that the U.S. froze over ten years ago, the outlet reported.
"A decade and change after U.S. military intervention in Libya under Obama, a direct appeal from the Trump administration to make it a destination for a 21st century Trail of Tears," remarked Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, the Georgetown University assistant professor and philosopher, referencing the forced displacement of indigenous people in the United States in the 19th Century.
Gregg Carlstrom, a Middle East correspondent for the The Economist, called the NBC News' reporting "insanity."
"Skeptical that there's a serious 'plan' here (rather than just spitballing). But the underlying premise is correct: the Trump administration has spent months approaching various countries to see if it could bribe them into helping out with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza," Carlstrom wrote in a post on X on Saturday.
NBC News also reported that the Trump administration has discussed multiple locations for resettling Palestinians in Gaza, and that the administration is considering Syria as a potential location.
In February, Trump floated a plan to "take over" Gaza and mused about permanently displacing Palestinians in Gaza. International law prohibits the forced deportation and transfer of civilians.
Israel has carried out a brutal military campaign on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Observers pointed out that Libya is itself experiencing instability.
"This would be an expensive nightmare to practically implement, Libya is an active war zone with a current [population] of only 7 million and in no shape to absorb refugees, and American-led ethnic cleansing should be flatly unacceptable," wrote David Burbach, an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College on Bluesky on Friday
In 2011, a U.S.-backed intervention toppled Libya's then leader, Muammar Gaddafi, which was followed by a six-year civil war between rival political factions. Currently, eastern Libya is controlled by Khalifa Hifter and a United Nations-recognized government lead by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah is in control in the west. While the humanitarian situation in the country has eased in recent years, largely due to a cease-fire implemented in 2020, the country still experiences outbreaks of violence.
The spokesperson for the Trump administration also highlighted instability in Libya in their response to NBC News. "The situation on the ground is untenable for such a plan. Such a plan was not discussed and makes no sense."
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Supreme Court Extends Block on Trump's Alien Enemies Act Deportations
One attorney in the case called the ruling "a powerful rebuke to the government's attempt to hurry people away to a gulag-type prison in El Salvador."
May 16, 2025
For the second time in less than a month, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled against the Trump administration's dubious use of an 18th century law to deport immigrants including at least one person with protected status without due process.
In a 7-2 ruling—with far-right Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito dissenting—the high court found that President Donald Trump violated Venezuelan migrants' right to due process as a class by trying to fast-track their deportation to the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison in El Salvador by invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act during peacetime.
The ruling is not a repudiation of Alien Enemies Act deportations and focuses solely on migrants' due process rights.
"Notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster."
"The detainees' interests at stake are accordingly particularly weighty," the court's opinion states. "Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster."
"But it is not optimal for this court, far removed from the circumstances on the ground, to determine in the first instance the precise process necessary to satisfy the Constitution in this case," the court continued and, referring to the federal appellate court that "erred in dismissing the detainees' appeal for lack of jurisdiction," said that "we remand the case to the 5th Circuit for that purpose."
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project and lead counsel in the case, said Friday that "the court's decision to stay removals is a powerful rebuke to the government's attempt to hurry people away to a gulag-type prison in El Salvador."
"The use of a wartime authority during peacetime, without even affording due process, raises issues of profound importance," Gelernt added.
The Supreme Court opinion noted the case of Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland man with protected status who was wrongfully deported to CECOT in March. Last month, the high court unanimously ruled that Trump must facilitate Abrego García's return to the United States. The Trump administration has resisted the order, despite the president proclaiming that "if the Supreme Court said, 'Bring somebody back,' I would do that."
Steve Vadeck, a professor at Georgetown Law Center, toldCNN Friday that "because lower courts have blocked use of the [Alien Enemies Act] in every other district in which the president has sought to invoke it, that means it's effectively pausing all removals under the act until the 5th Circuit—and, presumably, the Supreme Court itself—conclusively resolves whether they're legal and how much process is due if so."
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines—who was appointed by Trump—issued the first court ruling supporting Alien Enemies Act deportations.
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