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For Immediate Release
August, 06 2021, 10:29am EDT
Contact:
Dana Johnson, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, dana@weact.org
Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity, jsu@biologicaldiversity.org
Brittany Miller, Friends of the Earth, bmiller@foe.org
Ted Glick, Beyond Extreme Energy, indpol@igc.org
Seth Gladstone, Food & Water Watch, sgladstone@fwwatch.org
Dorothy Slater, Revolving Door Project, slater@
Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network, tomg@ienearth.org
466 Groups Urge Biden to Fill FERC Seat With Environmental, Energy Justice Champion
WASHINGTON
More than 460 environmental and energy justice, racial justice, faith and youth organizations from across the United States sent a letter today urging President Joe Biden to appoint a nominee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who will champion environmental and energy justice.
The letter names three candidates to replace Republican commissioner Neil Chatterjee, whose term has expired. One is Daniel Blackman, a previous contender for the Georgia Service Commission and critic of the fossil fuel-focused utility giant Georgia Power. Another is Marquita Bradshaw, the first Black woman to win the Democrat nomination for a Tennessee Senate seat and a victorious opponent of the Byhalia Pipeline. The third pick is Nidhi Thakar, a long-time renewable energy lawyer and national co-chair of Clean Energy for Biden.
The Biden White House's climate and environmental justice legacy will hinge on this nomination, the groups say. As the federal agency that oversees interstate gas infrastructure and wholesale electricity markets, FERC has immense power to curtail the growth of fossil fuels and integration of just renewable energies.
"The Biden administration will not achieve its goal of rooting out systemic racism in energy and environmental decision-making with a status quo appointment to FERC," said Dana Johnson, federal policy director with WE ACT for Environmental Justice. "We urge President Biden to nominate a commissioner that is concerned about FERC's legacy of prioritizing projects over people, has the courage to apply an equity and justice lens to their work, and will be accountable to the people and communities that are disproportionately harmed by the energy industry."
"We must seize this consequential opportunity to appoint a visionary commissioner who can enact federal change to our racist and ecocidal energy system," said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "With people dying from coast to coast of extreme heat waves and hurricanes, the climate emergency is undeniably here. FERC has a critical role to play in making sure we prioritize renewable and just energy before it's too late."
"The Biden administration must uplift a FERC candidate that will uphold justice for Indigenous and frontline communities. The impacts of the fossil fuel industries, pipeline infrastructure, including at Enbridge Line 3, are putting our people in prison. A Justice-based FERC candidate could be a first step in showing good faith on meeting the unmet promises of the Biden Administration," said Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
"If the world is going to prevent escalating climate and social disruption, the U.S.'s FERC agency must play a key role," said Ted Glick, organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy. "It needs to stop being a rubber-stamp agency for gas industry expansion, and it needs to upgrade the electrical grid to rapidly advance renewables and battery storage. This FERC nomination, if a strong one, can make that a reality."
"We don't need little changes at FERC: we need a whole new agency and new leadership," said Drew Hudson, senior national organizer at Friends of the Earth. "If President Biden is serious about achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035, he must look beyond the industry insiders and utility sympathizers who got us into the climate crisis."
"It's past time for President Biden to name a new FERC commissioner. Every day he waits on this appointment -- and others at crucial independent agencies -- is a missed opportunity for climate action," said Jeff Hauser, executive director at the Revolving Door Project. "We look forward to Biden choosing a commissioner who aligns with his stated campaign goals of securing environmental justice and accountability to the people, not to polluters and corporations."
"After six months in office, President Biden's climate and environmental platform hangs in the balance. If he doesn't act decisively now, he could doom us to a future of unlivable climate chaos. Choosing a FERC nominee that will reject new fossil fuel development would be a strong sign that Biden intends to take our climate crisis seriously," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.
"For too long FERC has been a rubber stamp for pipeline companies, helping to accelerate the destruction of communities throughout the Gulf South. If President Biden is serious about his commitments to environmental justice, he must nominate a commissioner who will put people first," said Kendall Dix, policy lead at Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy.
The letter notes that this coalition of groups was able to identify the three individuals who center justice in their work with far fewer resources and less time than the White House. It encourages the Biden administration to consider these candidates as part of widening their own search for a candidate.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Judge Orders Trump Admin to Swear $1.8 Billion Slush Fund 'Is Not Happening'
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has insisted that the plan to pay taxpayer funds to Trump allies is dead. But he hasn't said so under oath.
Jun 12, 2026
A federal judge may have dealt the final blow to President Donald Trump's $1.8 billion "weaponization fund" on Friday, indefinitely blocking it and ordering his administration to state unequivocally that it's no longer happening.
In the face of bipartisan backlash, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had publicly backed off plans to use the money earlier this month, and a court temporarily blocked the transfer of the money to what opponents had dubbed a "slush fund" for Trump's supporters, including January 6 rioters who claim to be victims of government "weaponization" by the Biden administration.
But The Atlantic reported on Thursday that even as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) publicly swears that the payouts are dead, administration officials have been reassuring Trump's cronies behind the scenes that they'll get their checks and that the administration simply needs to wait for the legal blowback to die down or find an alternative way to award them the money, which was set to follow a DOJ-brokered settlement between Trump and his own Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
That may prove more difficult after Friday, however, when US District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued a preliminary injunction indefinitely extending her previous two-week pause on the fund.
She described the arrangement, to have taxpayer funds disbursed without court rulings to “an extremely small group” that many Americans feel engaged in “unacceptable” conduct, as "problematic."
The DOJ had attempted to have the case against the fund dismissed, arguing that it was now a moot point, since Blanche had publicly declared it dead. But Brinkema said, "The [government’s] mootness argument, in my view, doesn’t go anywhere.”
While the DOJ stated that the fund has “not been set up and is now not going forward," Brinkema noted that Blanche had declined to state that under oath, while Trump has publicly continued to champion the fund even as his administration has backed away from it.
During the hearing in the Eastern District of Virginia, Brinkema pressed DOJ lawyer Andrew Block on why, if the fund was truly defunct, the administration had not formally rescinded the order setting it up. He said he didn't know.
The judge gave Blanche, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr., and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, whose department would have overseen the fund, one week to sign a “clear, unambiguous” declaration stating under penalty of perjury that the fund is dead, and wrote in the order that they must affirm that it "will not proceed in any manner, or under any name."
She said in order for the lawsuit to be thrown out, the government needed to put it in writing because "we don’t have the kind of absolute certainty that this fund wouldn’t rear its head."
CEO @SkyePerryman and Senior Counsel Pooja Boisture break down our major slush fund win from court. pic.twitter.com/ngneLRsl8R
— Democracy Forward (@DemocracyFwd) June 12, 2026
Outside the courtroom, Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward—the watchdog group that sued the DOJ—celebrated that the court had "put the brakes on Donald Trump's slush fund."
The group is representing several plaintiffs who say they'd be harmed if the fund were to be enacted.
They include a former federal prosecutor fired after leading January 6 cases; the city of New Haven, Connecticut, which has been targeted by the administration over its sanctuary policies; the National Abortion Federation, which says the fund could reward anti-abortion activists convicted of clinic-related offenses; and the watchdog group Common Cause, which argues that the opaque scheme could embolden January 6 defendants.
"We were thrilled that the judge understood the significant harm that our clients face as a result of the fund, as well as the American people," said Democracy Forward senior counsel Pooja Boisture. "We were thrilled that she got it right. She understood that this was not a partisan issue."
It remains unclear whether the order would stop the administration from pursuing other methods for rewarding Trump's allies. Reuters reported on Friday that his legal allies have discussed dusting off a 1946 law called the Federal Tort Claims Act, which would allow individuals to file administrative claims and lawsuits that could be settled out of court with a lot of flexibility for the government.
“The Trump administration cannot be trusted with the public’s money,” said Omar Noureldin, Common Cause’s senior vice president for policy and litigation. "We’ve successfully locked the president’s personal slush fund for now, and we’ll keep the pressure on until it’s shut down for good.”
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While Slashing Food Aid and Healthcare, GOP Advances Trillion-Dollar Military Budget
“The money that Trump wants to burn on war should instead be spent on the needs of the American people, including restoring funding for healthcare, food, housing, and climate action,” said one critic.
Jun 12, 2026
Republicans in both houses of Congress voted Thursday to advance President Donald Trump's request for record-high US military funding for 2027, prompting rebuke from Democrats and consumer advocates who decried the GOP's deep cuts to social safety net programs amid an ongoing affordability crisis.
The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 18-9 to advance the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2027. Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee advanced the Fiscal Year 2027 Defense Appropriations Bill during a closed-door markup. The House bill provides $1.072 trillion for the Pentagon and other military-related activities, a $234 billion increase from this year's enacted level.
The Trump administration's broader national security proposal requests nearly $1.5 trillion in total defense-related spending for 2027, which includes $350 billion in supplemental funding for munitions production, shipbuilding, missile defense, drones, artificial intelligence, and other long-term military programs. Trump wants Congress to use the budget reconciliation process to secure the additional funding. However, GOP lawmakers are wary to do so for a third time; just this week, Republicans used reconciliation to pass $70 billion in new funding for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
"This year, the majority has written a Defense Appropriations Act that provides the department with over a trillion dollars—an unprecedented sum. But this level of defense spending comes at the cost of cuts to domestic investments like education and workforce training, as well as international diplomacy," Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) said in a statement.
"President Trump said, ‘Jump,’ and Republicans in Congress said, ‘How high?’ Meanwhile, Republicans are proposing nearly $13 billion in cuts to domestic programs that provide relief for working families struggling to stay afloat as costs keep rising," the congresswoman added. "The American people are begging for relief from high prices, but the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are deaf to their pleas."
In addition to increasing the national debt by an estimated $6.9 trillion over the next decade, Trump is seeking over $70 billion in proposed domestic cuts, including the elimination of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, sharp cuts in student aid, ending the Job Corps, slashing medical research and public health programs and Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, reducing mental health and substance abuse programs, and halving Environmental Protection Agency funding.
These and other proposed reductions follow the enactment of the biggest cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in the programs' histories under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Trump last July. The OBBBA cuts were made to help fund trillions of dollars in tax reductions that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.
Robert Weisman, co-president of the consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen, noted significant opposition to Trump's proposed $234 billion increase in Pentagon spending for 2027.
“There is a rising tide of Democratic and Republican opposition to Trump’s illegal Iran war and massive proposed increases to the Pentagon budget," Weissman said Thursday, pointing to the "dozens" of lawmakers who voted against the additional spending during committee sessions, and the "bipartisan majority of the House" that "voted in support of the war powers resolution that directs Trump to end his war on Iran."
“Trump has repeatedly stated that he doesn’t care about childcare, inflation, or addressing the needs of the American people," Weissman continued. "Instead, he is seeking an overall $600 billion annual increase in Pentagon spending that would raise the total Pentagon budget to over $1.5 trillion."
“The American people are demanding Congress block Trump’s attempts to increase the Pentagon budget," he said. "This means voting against his National Defense Authorization Act, rejecting any Iran war supplemental funding bill, and blocking his proposed third reconciliation bill."
"The money that Trump wants to burn on war should instead be spent on the needs of the American people, including restoring funding for healthcare, food, housing, and climate action," Weissman added.
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'He's Scared... and He Should Be,' Platner Says of Trump Calling Him Worst Person to Ever Run for Office
"Donald Trump and all of his depraved billionaire friends who think that they can get away with disgusting acts... that they're above the law, they're about to find out that they're not," said the Maine Democrat.
Jun 12, 2026
Just a few days after winning Maine's Democratic primary for US Senate by over 52 points, Graham Platner on Friday shared a short video of his reaction to Republican President Donald Trump calling him a "thug" and "worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably."
In the video posted on social media, Platner holds a laptop and watches 20 seconds of the president's comments, chuckling, before responding: "Wow! I got to say, being called a thug and the worst person to ever run for office by Donald Trump might be the highest compliment that I have ever received."
Since Trump's Wednesday attack on Platner in the wake of his decisive primary victory, critics have pointed out that the president has used his position to enrich himself and his family while gutting programs for working families and cutting taxes for the rich. He was also found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, and reportedly named over a million times in files related to his former friend, convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
"He's also right: There might not be a lot of other people like me who've run for office," Platner said. "You know, people that actually serve their country, fought in this nation's wars, came home, started the business, lived down here in the real world, have spent years and years being involved at the local level in the community, and then one day decided to go run for US Senate."
When Platner launched his campaign last August, he named "the oligarchy"—the billionaires, and the politicians who do their bidding, including Maine's Republican Sen. Susan Collins—as "the enemy." The combat veteran and oyster farmer quickly won support from progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Mainers across the state, who have stood by him amid media and public scrutiny of his old Reddit posts, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that he's now covered up, and his personal relationships.
Platner's primary challenger, Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her campaign in April, citing a lack of financial resources. The seat long held by Collins is a key target for Democrats, who aim to reclaim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, to continue fighting against Trump—and potentially impeach him for a historic third time.
According to Platner, the reason Trump is now attacking him personally, less than five months away from the general election, "is that he's scared... He knows that we're coming after him. He knows that when we win this election, when we take this kind of politics down to Washington, when we retake this seat for working-class Mainers, when we retake the Senate with fighting Democrats who actually want to hold Trump and his cronies and all their corruption accountable, he knows that's coming—and it's got him shaking in his boots."
"And he should be, because we are coming, because we're building something here in Maine the likes of which has not been seen before. We are really building a true, broad-based, working-class coalition, to build power the old-fashioned way, organizing people and taking it," he continued. "Taking it to fight for a better future."
"The Epstein class... Donald Trump and all of his depraved billionaire friends who think that they can get away with disgusting acts, think that because of their money and their power and their wealth and their influence that they're above the law, they're about to find out that they're not, and it's got them terrified," he added. "And they should be."
Platner's video came on the heels of The Maine Monitor publishing an analysis of campaign finance data showing that nearly 100 billionaires and their spouses have contributed to Collins' reelection bid so far, dumping nearly $10 million into her campaign committee and political action committees supporting her.
"While Susan Collins' campaign is backed by billionaire donors, our campaign is built on a movement funded by the people, with an average donation of $26," said Ben Chin, Platner's campaign manager. "The establishment can bring it on—they cannot defeat the will of working Mainers, 15,000+ volunteers, and a campaign powered by small-dollar donors from nearly every ZIP code in Maine."Keep ReadingShow Less
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