On Democracy, Liberated Energy, and the Perfect Moment

I think I’ve read five hundred articles in the last four months asking: is this moment that we became a fascist country?

A better question to ask is: is this a teachable moment? And yesterday we had one, so stark in its imagery and so perfect in its timing that it should help us for many years in the drive against authoritarianism.

By now you’ve seen the images of California Senator Alex Padilla pinned to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents for the crime of Asking Questions at a Press Conference. Every decent American looking at those images should think: ‘that’s not how it’s supposed to work.’ (It’s hard to imagine what Hispanic Americans looking at the scene must think). But what makes the scene so exemplary is what happened right before, and what will happen shortly after.

The before: Noem, previously best known for gunning down her puppy and for posing in front of caged prisoners in El Salvador, had just finished the most unAmerican sentence imaginable. She and her various neck-gaitered federal agents in LA, she explained, “are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

The Trump administration, in other words, considers it its right to “liberate” Californians from their elected leadership. And it demonstrated that prerogative by tackling and handcuffing one of the Golden State’s two Senators—a man who had received 6.6 million votes (compared with, say, the 217,000 votes cast for Noem the last time she ran for governor of South Dakota, and second only to his California colleague Adam Schiff for the most votes any Senator has received). No federalism, no respect for other branches of government, just the raw exercise of power through the use of troops and police. I can think of no starker challenge to America’s basic freedoms in my life.

And, happily, it comes at the right moment. Because we are now just a few hours away from what may be the biggest outburst of anti-authoritarian sentiment in America since—I don’t know. Maybe the uprising against the Intolerable Acts in 1774, when King George closed Boston Harbor and began the process of uniting colonial America against his rule.

Tomorrow is No Kings Day, a loosely organized set of protests set for every corner of the nation. Scheduled to coincide with his absurd tank parade through the streets of DC, it’s now the perfect opportunity to react to the LA mess. If you don’t know where to go in your community, here’s the map. The demonstrations will be different across the country (I’m going to be in a rural corner of Elise Stefanik’s upstate New York district, a red region). But they allow people everywhere, from many different backgrounds, to join in what till now has always been the basic American message: No Kings. Not George, Not Elon, not Don.

And Senator Padilla has reminded us of how to play it: firm, dignified, and peaceful. Had he started swinging at police he would have lost the day; instead he demonstrated yet again the power of courageous nonviolent resistance. His image now hangs next to those of John Lewis and Rosa Parks in the pantheon of entirely civil and entirely powerful disobedience. It may not be easy tomorrow—one Florida sheriff threatened to “kill” protesters “graveyard dead.” But I have no doubt it will be overwhelmingly peaceful, dignified, and crucial.

Once the day of demonstrations is past and the grind of steady opposition returns on Monday, we’ll be able to think in the slightly longer term.

There is a very real chance that Trump’s plummeting popularity will start changing the political dynamic. We’ll know as we watch the fight over the Big Beautiful Bill (a phrase I confess, given my first name, to feeling some affection for…). It’s the dumbest piece of legislation advanced in my lifetime, on so many counts—in a moment of gross inequity it accelerates the distribution of wealth toward the richest. And it also threatens to, as the Center for American Progress put it yesterday, “crush America’s energy system” by removing the IRA funding for clean energy just as it began to hit its stride. Solar and wind are what we can build fast—and the BBB will stymie all that. (Here’s an excellent guide to organizing against the repeal of the IRA).

Which, in turn, lets us think a little about the political meaning of different kinds of energy. The best reason to build lots of clean power is to slow catastrophic global heating, and the second best is to spare the 9 million humans who die each year from breathing the combustion byproducts of fossil fuel. (That’s one death in five). But the third best reason is because, by its nature, this is liberating energy, in sharp contrast to coal and gas and oil.

Indeed, fossil fuel has an inherent quality that we focus on too rarely: it’s only available in a few places around the world, where the biology of ancient times (all those plankton and ferns) piled up to create the deposits of coal and gas and oil on which we currently depend. In the real world, that means that the people who control those small and scattered deposits have way too much wealth and power—which they have used to dominate the rest of us.

How did we get to Trump and Noem? No one played a bigger role in degrading our democracy than the Koch Brothers, and they got their power from their sprawling network of refineries and pipelines. Or think about Vladimir Putin; were it not for oil and gas, he’d have no way to intimidate Europe and the world. Or think about the rulers of the Middle East, so awash in oil cash that they’re able to bribe our leaders with spare 747s. As Samuel Miller McDonald pointed out in his 2024 book Progress, as the 19^th century began the richest one percent held just 8.5 percent of America’s wealth; by the time it ended, the top dogs had fifty percent of the money, “partly thanks to fossil fuels, which could be easily concentrated, controlled, and transformed into liquid capital by a small management class.”

By contrast, the sun is everywhere, a liberating force precisely because it can’t be hoarded or held in reserves. No one will ever fight a war over the sun (worth thinking about as oil prices spike this morning on news of Israel’s attack on Iran). No one will ever be able to embargo it; decentralized power is a key part of the fight against the centralized power that Trump represents. Gandhi used the spinning wheel as a symbol (and tool) of the fight against centralized British power—it represented the ability of people and communities to make what they need on their own. If Gandhi were alive today, I have no doubt that his symbol would be the solar panel.

Which, of course, is a good reminder that No Kings Day won’t be the last important date on the resistance calendar. One to circle right now is September 21, SunDay—in no small measure because it celebrates the potential freedom that sunlight represents. If you don’t like what the assault on Senator Padilla represents, then help build the power of states and cities everywhere to run themselves on the energy that falls nearby—register an event at the SunDay website. To inspire you, here’s the Sun of the Week, from the ten thousand now available in the global gallery, and it gets across the message of the moment

In other energy and climate news:

+My colleagues at Third Act, led by the super Maine chapter, are outside L.L. Bean stores and offices across the country, reminding them to stop supporting global warming by running their credit card through fossil fuel financier Citibank. I love my Bean gear—but I love the outdoors where I use it even more!

Meanwhile, Ben Elgin at Bloomberg finds that many of the corporate icons that pledged all kinds of green goodness are now abandoning those commitments.

BP Plc is pulling back on renewables and drilling more oil. Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. abandoned or weakened promises they made in 2021 to slash their use of new plastics. Big banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC Holdings Plc walked back various plans to reduce their emissions. Walmart Inc. admits it’s behind on its climate targets, while FedEx Corp. says it will likely miss its goal to go electric on half of its delivery truck purchases by 2025.

…Some experts argue that this corporate backpedaling might come with a silver lining. That’s because it could force investors, lawmakers, academics and the broader public to reckon with the fact that voluntary corporate action was never going to stave off climate disaster. This could bring sharper attention to corporate political activities, where even self-proclaimed responsible businesses obstruct regulations needed to phase out fossil fuels and boost clean alternatives.

“I am heartened by the alacrity of the retreat and the ferociousness of it, because I think it uncovers the reality that we all need to understand, which is companies aren’t going to save the planet,” says Ken Pucker, a professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and former chief operating officer at apparel maker Timberland. “The quicker that people understand and integrate that, the better.”

Jacqueline Kerr, writing in the journal of American University’s B-School, has some ideas about how to turn around that trend

Right now, too many companies are stuck trying to report last year’s emissions while neglecting the urgent work of actually reducing them.

This is creating burnout in sustainability teams, damaging long term relationships, and leaving unmeasured value on the table.

The solution isn’t more top-down mandates. It’s unlocking the hidden leaders in your system, such as:

• Employees who care but remain unpaid champions

• Suppliers with proven innovations who are treated like a number

• Community leaders ready to organize but who lack initial sponsorship

• Consumers eager to change but needing more help than an app

+Mark Gongloff has an interesting account of how big waves are causing big problems for seaside infrastructure. It includes a set of findings I had never come across before:

A warmer sea surface generates faster winds, which in turn drive higher waves that also produce more energy. A 2019 study by a UC Santa Cruz associate professor, Borja Reguero, and others used satellite data and modeling to suggest waves had grown 0.47% more powerful each year (or about 1 megawatt per meter per year) between 1948 and 2008 and then 2.3% each year between 1994 and 2017. Two separate studies last year in the journal Applied Energy found similar results.

In a similar vein, reliable weather watcher Bob Henson has an account of precisely why that Swiss glacier collapsed so telegenically last week, and why it’s unlikely to be the last of its kind

The tendrils of a warming climate appear to be goosing glacier detachments in several ways, as analyzed by Kääb and colleagues. When meltwater or high-altitude rainfall shows up in places where it’s been rare or absent in modern times, it can add instability to rock and glacier structures. Compromised permafrost can help destabilize rock walls above glaciers. And as seems likely in the Birch Glacier case, heavy rock deposits can increase stress near a glacier’s base and induce basal melting and sudden advance and/or collapse.

+In collaboration with the marvelous substackers at Heated, Atmos’ Yessnie Funes has the goods on how fossil fuel billionaires are bankrolling anti-trans legislation

An independent analysis of 45 right-wing groups advocating against trans rights found that 80% have received donations from fossil fuel companies or billionaires. The analysis, conducted by two independent researchers in 2023 and not peer-reviewed, was shared exclusively with Atmos and HEATED. Through a qualitative search, the researchers identified 45 groups advancing anti-trans lobbying, events, and publications and checked reports about their donor disclosures for fossil fuel funding.

Vivian Taylor, a climate policy expert who co-authored the analysis, said the fossil fuel industry has a real interest in funding panic over transgender people: It distracts the public from “the very real and ongoing risks that climate change creates.”

+An answer to climate change beloved of politicians is "grow trees.” And even if you’re not trying to deflect demand for more substantive change, who doesn’t love a forest. Sad news, however—a new study shows that the land area for growing carbon-sucking stands of trees is 71% smaller than we’ve been thinking

The result is a map that shows the places where reforestation offers both the greatest climate benefits and the fewest downsides for both people and nature.

During a year when the UN climate COP will be hosted in the most iconic forest of all, our study is less a critique of the pre-existing numbers and more an effort to create the most precise and pragmatic maps of reforestation potential. This can help ensure that we get the reforestation part of the climate equation right.

+As the Senate fight over the big beautiful bill accelerates, there’s an emerging understanding of the ways it will push the price of electricity ever-higher—basically, by undercutting the move to clean energy in favor of higher-priced gas, even as the administration also promotes the sale of LNG abroad, raising prices once again. Brad Plumer and Rebecca Elliott have a straightforward primer in the Times

“There’s a lot of concern about some pretty big price spikes,” said Rich Powell, chief executive of the Clean Energy Buyers Association, which represents companies that have committed to buying renewable energy, including General Motors, Honda, Intel and Microsoft.

A study commissioned by the association found that repealing the clean electricity credits could cause power prices to surge more than 13 percent in states like Arizona, Kansas, New Jersey and North Carolina and lead to thousands of job losses nationwide by 2032.

Happily, the Building Trades unions, normally eager supporters of Big Oil, have begun to voice their opposition to the megabill on the grounds that it would scuttle projects their members were hoping to build. Under the IRA, reports Paul Prescod,

Some of the tax credits were cleverly designed to encourage the use of union labor. Companies receive a 30 percent tax credit if they pay their workers a prevailing wage for their region. More importantly for the building trades, companies also need to hire a designated number of union apprentices. These apprentices receive paid classroom instruction and on-the-job training.

It’s hard to deny that the legislation, whatever its limits, has been putting union members to work. Ethan Link, assistant business manager for the Southeast Laborers’ District Council, told Heatmap that it’s been like “night and day” since the passage of the IRA. Solar developers are proactively reaching out to the union about working together on projects. This has set off a virtuous cycle where, as a result, the union is investing in more solar training for apprentices.

The Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council was able to double its apprenticeship program as a result of the IRA. Kent Miller, the union president, believes that IRA incentives made Wisconsin’s four biggest utilities agree to employ union labor on all future clean energy projects.

Similar examples can be found across the country, from the growth of union offshore wind jobs off the coast of New England to a slew of wind and solar projects in Illinois.

As the coalition against the IRA shows cracks, building trades unions have become more outspoken about the good jobs the IRA has already created.

The tax credits supported over $220 billion in manufacturing investment, and manufacturing employment increased by about 750,000 during the Biden administration. In March 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that construction job openings were up by 111,000 from last year.

+Richard Munson has excerpts from his fine forthcoming book on utility corruption up on Substack. First up, the saga of Charlie Jones

As CEO of utility giant FirstEnergy, he flew the future speaker of Ohio's House of Representatives on the company's jet to Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017. Over posh dinners at The Palm and Charlie Palmer Steak, the executive and the politician plotted to have FirstEnergy secretly pay more than $60 million to the speaker's allies in exchange for the House leader advancing a $1.3-billion bailout of the utility's uneconomic power plants. On the day House Bill 6 passed, Chuck gloated about his team's victory: "Fuck anybody who ain't us."

+Alberta, the unrequited hydrocarbon hub of the north, has passed a new law making it impossible to build renewable energy by requiring absurd reclamation guarantees. Derrick Lila explains

Effective May 31, 2025, these rules mandate that new renewable energy projects provide upfront financial security equaling 30% of decommissioning costs, increasing to 60% after 15 years. These rules apply to all new projects and, by 2027, will include existing ones as well.

Critically, the new rules exclude salvage value—the potential recovery from recycling infrastructure like concrete and metals—from the equation, inflating financial requirements beyond what’s seen in other jurisdictions across North America, Europe, or Australia.

This is highly ironic given the hundreds of thousands of orphaned oil wells across the province, posing ongoing environmental risks orders of magnitude higher than solar panels.

+Some interesting news to end: the first all-electric passenger flight touched down at JFK on June 3, after traveling 250 miles from East Hampton with five on board. The cost of the electricity for the flight? Eight bucks