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Opinion
Whatever Industry Wants: How the FCC Is Steamrolling Locals in the Cell Tower Rollout
Two new FCC proposals would render an already weak NEPA process largely meaningless, strip local and state governments of nearly all of their congressionally granted authority, and leave the agency even less accountable to the public.
Jan 02, 2026
The Federal Communications Commission is poised to release two orders that would steamroll states and communities on behalf of the wireless industry. Long in bed with that industry, it will soon eliminate virtually any say locals have in the rollout of new infrastructure. Reflecting the industry’s wish list, these rules would override already-limited state and local control over how and where cell tower infrastructure is built, further erode environmental review safeguards, and trample on states’ rights.
Federal law already restricts states and communities from taking actions that “prohibit or effectively prohibit” the provision of wireless service. Yet Congress also recognized that local governments serve an essential role in responsible siting of telecommunications deployment through land-use planning, zoning, engineering oversight, public safety, and preservation of neighborhood character.
Historically, states and localities have retained the authority to charge industry reasonable fees and to regulate for public welfare—setting standards for structural safety, wildfire risk, flood exposure, resiliency, decommissioning, environmental protection, and aesthetics. Before siting, city councils, boards of supervisors, and other officials evaluate the impacts of large, industrial towers on homes and critical community assets, like parks, slope stability, or historic buildings.
For years, however, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has steadily chipped away at these core local functions through litigation and rulemakings that sharply curtail community authority to impose requirements on carriers. In November, the FCC proposed an even more aggressive series of changes that would all but obliterate what remains of local authority over wireless siting. The FCC claims these measures are necessary to “free towers and other wireless infrastructure from unlawful regulatory burdens imposed at the state and local level.”
As wireless technologies proliferate—with presumably even less scrutiny, oversight, and public input—the environmental and community impacts will only multiply.
One proposal would mandate automatic approval of tower and small-cell applications if localities miss federal deadlines. California officials warn these “unrealistic timelines” risk incomplete safety review and “threaten to silence the very people who must live with the consequences.”
The FCC would broadly preempt local aesthetic standards and cap fees that fund environmental review, rights-of-way management, and safety inspections, shifting industry costs on to taxpayers. It would treat setbacks aimed at limiting noise and visual impacts as impermissible RF radiation regulation, bar local requirements for industry-funded RF testing to verify compliance, prohibit updated safety and design standards at permit renewal, and override requirements that carriers consider less intrusive alternatives or demonstrate actual service need.
Taken together, these measures would eviscerate any local role in siting decisions that consider neighborhoods, landscapes, safety, and environmental integrity in communities across the nation, and replace it with the will of the wireless industry.
At the same time, the FCC is finalizing another rule that would eliminate community input in the agency’s already weak environmental review process. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), federal agencies must assess and disclose environmental impacts and consider public concerns, yet the FCC has one of the least rigorous NEPA frameworks of any agency. Few of its authorized activities undergo any meaningful review. It delegates the preliminary environmental review to industry with no oversight or agency record; industry also prepares the few environmental assessments that may be required from the preliminary review. Its notice and comment procedures seem designed to exclude the public, and, unlike most agencies, the FCC has no web page devoted to NEPA documents or compliance. It has almost never enforced its environmental rules against industry violators.
The consequences of these failures are visible nationwide: protected landscapes and historic viewsheds marred, wetlands filled, endangered species habitat destroyed, sacred sites desecrated, burial mounds disturbed, and fragile underwater environments degraded. Equally important, the voices of communities and citizens have been suppressed and ignored.
Now, echoing industry demands to cut “regulatory red tape,” the FCC is proposing to further weaken its skeletal NEPA rules, exempt more of its actions from environmental review, and further exclude the public. It would redefine which actions trigger environmental review so that even fewer authorizations—covering most cell towers and satellite deployments—would be assessed for environmental effects. It would narrow the scope of the few environmental documents that remain and make them less available to the public. Most egregiously, the FCC proposes eliminating its lone public notice provision that alerts communities when a new tower is proposed, thereby allowing residents to object. Although the FCC routinely dismisses objections, the provision complies with a key NEPA requirement.
Both of the FCC’s proposals are a draconian solution to a nonexistent “problem.” At the end of 2024, industry statistics show 651,000 cell towers and wireless facilities operating nationwide, with thousands more, including satellites, approved or underway. Every major wireless carrier has nationwide coverage. Industry has prepared few environmental assessments over the years, and the FCC has never produced a more thorough environmental impact statement. Contrary to industry claims, red tape has not hindered deployment.
As wireless technologies proliferate—with presumably even less scrutiny, oversight, and public input—the environmental and community impacts will only multiply. Taken together, the FCC’s twin proposals would render an already weak NEPA process largely meaningless, strip local and state governments of nearly all of their congressionally granted authority, and leave the agency even less accountable to the public.
With almost 30 bills introduced on accelerating broadband siting this session, Congress too is doing its part to “free” industry from local control and environmental laws. Any and all of these radical new frameworks will hand industry a carte blanche to deploy infrastructure that runs roughshod over local, state, and public interests as well as the environment.
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'Into Sunlight': Commemorating the Vietnam War Through Dance
Choreographer Robin Becker reimagines this story of the human tragedy of war and the eruption of violence during student protests into a powerful and poignant dance production.
Jan 02, 2026
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the American War in Vietnam, Hofstra University hosted a performance of choreographer Robin Becker’s “Into Sunlight.” Inspired by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss’ book, They Marched Into Sunlight,
Becker reimagines this story of the human tragedy of war and the eruption of violence during student protests into a powerful and poignant dance production. Through expressive movement and visual artistry, the performance explores the psychological, emotional, and moral complexities, as well as the historical significance of this tumultuous period.
As a combat veteran of the American war in Vietnam and having yet to “put the war behind me and go on with my life,” as is often advised by those who were not there, I must admit that I was profoundly conflicted by this performance. “Into Sunlight’s” portrayal of the horror and ugliness of war set against the artistic backdrop of Robin Becker’s brilliant choreography and the skilled movements of her dancers, provided a striking contrast that mirrored a personal unease, one that I have long endured and labored to express in my poem "The Rose":
I remember once, in another lifetime,
noticing a lone rose rising defiantly
from beneath the rubble
of a destroyed city North of Danang.
It had no business being there,
adding color to the drabness of war,
beauty to the ugliness of destruction,
and the hope of life
when life held nothing
but suffering and death.
It was a contradiction
and created confusion
amidst the clarity of killing to survive.
...I stepped on it.
There are no flowers in a warzone
nor color, nor beauty, nor hope.
During the talkback that followed the performance, my uneasiness found expression in my rather abrupt request that audience members refrain from applauding my “service” as they had for previous veteran speakers. While I understood that their intentions were sincere—especially at an event intended to honor the "selfless sacrifices" of veterans—I do not believe that my actions as a warrior deserve praise or appreciation. Nor do I believe that participation in war should routinely be met with honor or celebration.
Moreover, after experiencing the horror of war so powerfully portrayed aesthetically in dance, I thought it crucial that the lessons conveyed by the performance not be misunderstood or, worse, glorified. I felt compelled to point out that the common practice of heroizing veterans is not only misguided and dangerous, but perhaps more importantly, fails to serve the interest of both veterans and civilians for several important reasons.
The Mythology of Warrior Worship
- The glorification of warriors hinders readjustment. By providing veterans a refuge of sorts where they may choose to see themselves as heroes, they can avoid facing the realities of their experiences—especially their personal responsibility and guilt for the deaths and destruction they may have caused. Confronting these realities is an essential step toward healing, or better, for reestablishing a sense of normalcy in their lives.
- Heroization of warriors significantly affects public discourse about militarism and war. By making warriors into heroes, open discussion and debate about the necessity, legality, and morality of military engagement become far less likely. As a result, veterans and civilians may be more inclined to support the deployment of military forces to distant battlefields and, increasingly, to American cities, under the pretext of “quelling” what in many cases are manufactured crises.
- Glorification of warriors functions as an effective propaganda and military recruitment tool, an asset to maintaining public support for militarism and endless war, attracting the next generation of “cannon fodder” into military service, often without adequately addressing the realities and consequences involved.
- Though public displays of gratitude and support for veterans and members of the military may appear genuine, they are often superficial and mask the reality of the scandalous way this nation has neglected the needs of returning warriors—the high rates of unemployment, PTSD, moral Injury, homelessness, addiction, and suicide.
- And finally, the heroization of warriors benefits no one in this nation other than the militarists and war profiteers and does little to serve the true interests of veterans and the broader public. Instead, glorification upholds a system that prioritizes military endeavors over the well-being of those most directly affected by them.
Rejecting Troop Blame: Shared Responsibility in War
While recognizing that the mythology of warrior worship must be rejected, and that war is not noble, it is equally important to reject its antithesis as well, the mythology of troop blame. This view regards veterans as murderers and places the entire burden of responsibility for illegal and brutal war on their shoulders while backhandedly absolving civilians of culpability. In a democratic society, governance and responsibility for war is a collective burden—by and for the people. Thus, in a very real sense, there is blood on all of our hands.
The Integrative Power of “Into Sunlight”: Dance as a pathway to Healing
The genius of “Into Sunlight” lies in Robin Becker’s ability to choreograph the sublime movement of her dancers to provide audience members a face-to-face confrontation with the harsh realities of military violence, human suffering, and death. By blending the visual beauty of dance with the discomfort, awe, pain, and exhilaration experienced by warriors on the battlefield, Becker creates a powerful contrast that evokes, in the realm of art, the intense and complex emotions associated with personal trauma.
“Into Sunlight” is not to be passively enjoyed in the conventional sense. Rather, it is participatory, reactive, and demands personal engagement and interpretation. Such art provides an immersive experience transforming audience members from passive observers into active co-creators of meaning. By blurring the boundaries between creator and audience, this performance encourages personal growth, introspection, understanding, self-forgiveness, and reconciliation, opening a pathway for audience members to begin the difficult task of identifying, processing, and healing the lingering effects of personal trauma and moral injury. Or, at least, it provides a way to come to terms with these experiences—to find a place for it in one’s “being.” It is precisely at this intersection where beauty meets the sublime that anguish is transformed into poignant artistry, allowing “Into Sunlight” to succeed in ways other more conventional therapies may have failed.
Conclusion
Though the performance is undeniably unsettling, I know I have benefited from the experience and am confident that other “victims” of war or of personal trauma, will benefit as well. Facing the demons we have for so long tried to suppress, though uncomfortable, is a difficult, though necessary, prerequisite on the path to healing.
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10 Crucial Things You Can Do to Take On Trump in 2026
We will get through this, and we will prevail. But it will require confidence, courage, and tenacity.
Jan 01, 2026
Friends,
Trump 2.0’s second year may be even worse than the first. That’s because President Donald Trump, his sycophants, and the billionaires behind him know that with the coming midterm elections, 2026 could be their last unconstrained chance to suppress democracy and siphon off America’s wealth for themselves.
So, what can you do? Here are the 10 most important actions you can take in 2026:
1. Protect vulnerable immigrant communities.
This is an urgent moral call to action. As Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accelerates its brutal roundups, detentions, and deportations, many hardworking and long-standing members of our communities and their families are endangered and understandably frightened.
ICE is arresting immigrants at or near schools, places of worship, healthcare sites, shelters, and relief centers—thereby deterring families from sending their kids to school or getting help they need, and threatening the health and well-being of entire communities.
What can you do? Join with others in a voluntary effort to alert vulnerable people in your community to where ICE is. Check in with local and state officials to see what they are doing to protect vulnerable families in your community. Join others to keep ICE away from hospitals, schools, courts, and shelters.
Meanwhile, order these red cards from Immigrant Legal Resource Center and make them available in and around your community: Red Cards | Tarjetas Rojas | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC. You might also find these of use: Immigration Preparedness Toolkit | Immigrant Legal Resource Center | ILRC.
2. Protect LGBTQ+ members of your community.
Trump continues to make life far more difficult for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other people through executive orders, changes in laws, alterations in civil rights laws, changes in how such laws are enforced, and encouragement of bigotry and hate.
Work with others in being vigilant against prejudice and bigotry, wherever it might break out. When you see or hear it, call it out. Join with others to stop it. If you trust your local city officials, get them involved. If you trust your local police, alert them as well.
3. Demand that your Democratic and Independent senators block Trump nominations, require quorum calls, object to unanimous consent, and keep the public aware of the terrible things Trump and his regime are doing. Urge your Democratic and Independent House members to be loud and vocal, to cause good trouble, and to vote against all Republican initiatives.
Tiny Republican margins in both chambers give Democrats and Independents enormous power, if they stick together. Make sure your Democratic and Independent members of Congress know you’re counting on them to do so. [The phone number of the Capitol switchboard operator is (202) 224-3121.]
4. In November’s midterms, help Democrats and Independents take back control of Congress.
This is crucial. Compliant, corrupt, and cowardly Republicans in the House and Senate have enabled Trump and the people around him—Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, and JD Vance—to harm tens of millions of people. It’s vitally important that they’re booted out when the midterms are held in November and that they become the minority starting in January 2027.
Watch for open seats or retirements in close districts, using sites like GovTrack.us and Cook Political Report.
A good canvassing app for organizing is Reach.vote (also see here), providing means for letting supporters engage their personal networks via text/calls from their phones.
To connect with your local Indivisible group, start by visiting the Indivisible website to use their group map and find chapters in your congressional district, then find local events and actions on Mobilize.
5. Make the upcoming 250th anniversary of America about our duties to the Constitution and the world rather than loyalty to Trump or nativist bullshit.
Trump and his sycophants want to make the 250th about loyalty to Trump and to white Christian nationalism.
Don’t let them. Say it loudly and clearly: America’s challenge isn’t that we’re losing our whiteness or dominant religion or that too many foreigners are coming here. Our real challenge is preserving the ideals of democracy, the rule of law, equal justice, voting rights and civil rights, and social justice.
The 250th will be an opportunity for us to emphasize that “patriotism” has little to do with flag salutes or national anthems; it’s about what we owe one another: taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going. Paying taxes rather than lobbying for lower taxes, refraining from large political contributions that corrupt democracy, blowing the whistle on abuses of power, volunteering time and energy to improve our communities, and rebuilding our democracy.
6. Join with others to take progressive initiatives in your community and state.
Local and state governments retain significant power. Join groups that are moving your city or state forward on climate change, human rights, and voting rights, and counteracting the power of large corporations, in contrast to regressive moves at the federal level.
Lobby, instigate, organize, and fundraise for progressive legislators. Support progressive leaders. Again, Indivisible is a good source of information; you can find your nearest Indivisible group here.
7. Demonstrate against Trump’s tyranny.
The two No Kings protests in 2025 were important—revealing the depth and breadth of the resistance across America, reassuring millions of Americans that they aren’t alone and aren’t crazy, encouraging millions more to join the resistance.
More than 7 million of us marched in the second No Kings protest on October 18. It was enough to rattle Trump (who posted an AI-generated cartoon of himself defecating on the marchers). And it put us within reach of the 3.5% of a population researchers have found to be a precursor for overthrowing a tyrant.
This year, help make our protests even larger and their effects even greater.
8. Organize or participate in boycotts of companies that are enabling the Trump regime and/or treating their workers like sh*t.
Never underestimate the effectiveness of consumer boycotts. Corporations invest heavily in their brand names and the goodwill associated with them. Loud, boisterous, attention-getting boycotts can harm brand names and reduce the prices of corporations’ shares of stock.
What to boycott? Start with Elon Musk’s X, Tesla, and Starlink internet service. Also: Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks, and any companies that advertise on X or Fox News.
Support unions by joining picket lines, encouraging employees to organize in places you patronize, and boycotting anti-worker firms. Encourage union pension funds to divest stock in corporations that are enabling or encouraging the regime (especially Tesla, SpaceX, Palantir, Meta, and Amazon).
Here’s a good source.
9. To the extent you are able, fund groups that are litigating against Trump.
In 2025, the district courts and courts of appeals held the line against many Trump initiatives. In 2026, they’re likely to be even more important. (You can track the federal cases against the Trump regime here.)
The best groups spearheading federal litigation deserve your support. They include these:
American Civil Liberties Union has brought numerous civil liberties cases against the Trump regime, including those related to public health and immigration policies.
Earthjustice has filed several lawsuits over environmental regulations and funding freezes.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has been at the forefront of lawsuits against Trump for conflicts of interest, corruption, and ethical violations.
Natural Resources Defense Council has used litigation against Trump’s regressive climate policies.
Democracy Forward has mounted important legal challenges against Trump’s trampling of voting rights and the Constitution.
Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal have filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders seeking to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Public Citizen and Common Cause have challenged actions related to Trump’s moves against voting rights and equal opportunity.
10. Spread the truth.
Get news through reliable sources, and spread it. If you hear anyone repeating lies and Trump propaganda, including local media, contradict them with the truth.
Here are some of the sources I currently rely on for the truth: Democracy Now, Business Insider, The New Yorker, The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson, The Bulwark, More Perfect Union, Matt Stoller, and Mehdi Hasan.
And, of course, this Substack.
In addition to these 10 actions, please ALSO be sure to:
— Take care of yourself and your loved ones.
Don’t become so obsessed by what Trump and his sycophants are doing that you neglect your own well-being. It’s important that you take time for yourself, read a good book, or watch an absorbing TV series. See friends. Meditate. Take long walks. Find something to laugh at every day.
And hold your loved ones tight.
We will get through this, and we will prevail. But it will require confidence, courage, and tenacity. We need to stay healthy for this fight. We need to be fortified by those we care about. And we need to be there for those we love.
— Keep the faith.
Do not give up on America. Do not fall into the traps of cynicism and defeatism.
Remember, Trump won the popular vote by only 1.5 points, and even then, it was a scant plurality rather than a majority. By any historical measure, this was a squeaker.
America has deep problems, to be sure. Which is why we can’t give up on it—or give up the fights for social justice, equal political rights, equal opportunity, democracy, and the rule of law.
The forces of repression and neofascism would like nothing better than for us to give up. Then they’d win it all. We cannot allow them to.
We will never give up—not in 2026. Not in 2027 or 2028. Not ever.
We are winning. We will prevail.
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How You Can Help Save Boreal Forests in 2026
Want an easy New Years' resolution? Buy 100% recycled or alternative fiber toilet paper instead of rolls made from virgin forest pulp.
Jan 01, 2026
North America’s boreal forests are crucial for wildlife and the climate, but we’re literally trashing them to make pulp for toilet paper and other disposable paper products.
Companies are clear-cutting a million acres a year, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
The northern boreal forests are Earth’s largest terrestrial biome. They’re the breeding grounds for 3-5 billion migrating birds that populate our backyards. And they’re a key carbon sink, storing 20% of global forest carbon and 50% of global soil carbon.
Studies show these forests have been overharvested and degraded to such a degree that the ecological damage will be difficult to reverse. They’re increasingly beset by global warming, melting permafrost, fires (including multi-year, spontaneously reigniting “zombie fires”), and pests, which threaten to destroy them and release their carbon back into the atmosphere.
If every American bought just one roll of toilet paper made from recycled paper rather than a conventional forest-fiber roll, it would save 1.6 million trees, 1 billion gallons of water, and 800 million pounds of greenhouse gases.
The United Nations recently warned of an approaching tipping point that could turn them from carbon sinks to carbon sources. That would be catastrophic. The recent COP30 climate summit, held in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, was billed as “the forest COP.” But its outcomes were dubious for tropical forests—and nonexistent for boreal forests.
But if climate delegates don’t protect them, consumers can—by buying 100% recycled or alternative fiber products instead of toilet paper made from virgin forest pulp.
A market for these alternatives is emerging. The US toilet paper industry is worth $42 billion, but a whopping 68% of US consumers surveyed want eco-friendly toilet paper made from recycled pulp, bamboo, or cornstalks.
If every American bought just one roll of toilet paper made from recycled paper rather than a conventional forest-fiber roll, it would save 1.6 million trees, 1 billion gallons of water, and 800 million pounds of greenhouse gases—the equivalent of taking 72,000 cars off the road for a year, NRDC found.
Eco-friendly toilet paper start-ups have a $1 billion toehold on the overall market so far—little more than 2%. But they’re growing fast. Imagine how many trees, how much water, and how many emissions we’d save if they gained a 68% share.
The big paper companies are imagining it, too. Procter & Gamble (P&G) makes Charmin, the top US toilet paper brand. This year it launched a bamboo version. That gives the company a green-sounding talk point, and a theoretical way into the growing alternative market. But it isn’t really available in stores and doesn’t do anything to change P&G’s bad practices.
It’s well documented that P&G makes regular Charmin by clear-cutting Canadian boreal forests for pulp, cutting down old-growth groves that have stood for a century or more. Only about 20% of these old-growth trees are left.
Any remnant wood left (called “slash”) after logging gets burned, and the land gets plowed and sprayed with glyphosate (RoundUp), eradicating formerly diverse ecosystems that caribou and birds depend on. They’re replaced with monoculture plantations of softwood trees planted in tight rows, worsening vulnerability to wildfires.
Yet P&G has the chutzpah to claim its slash-and-burn practices “absolutely prohibit deforestation” and “incorporate sustainability.” No wonder the company is being sued for greenwashing, with plaintiffs demanding it be held accountable for “egregious environmental destruction of the largest intact forest in the world” and making “false and misleading claims of environmental stewardship.”
Ultimately though, the power to change practices resides with consumers, not courts. Some 90 million Americans buy regular Charmin—and another 5 billion consumers worldwide buy P&G products. Collectively they have enormous power, provided they’re alerted to the problem and aren’t fooled by greenwashing tactics.
But if those conditions are met, consumers can save the boreal forests, one roll at a time.
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