{"id":106325,"date":"2016-03-09T00:35:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T07:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/clean-power-plan-stay-spurs-enviros-into-action\/"},"modified":"2016-03-09T00:35:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T07:35:54","slug":"clean-power-plan-stay-spurs-enviros-into-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/clean-power-plan-stay-spurs-enviros-into-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean Power Plan stay spurs enviros into action"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Then last month, the Supreme Court delivered the movement an unexpected defeat by staying the Clean Power Plan. The blow showed environmentalists just how fragile their victories are, but it also re-energized their efforts to influence the coming elections. \u201cWhen you contrast the incredible progress we\u2019ve had and the stay, it does underscore that the stakes couldn\u2019t be higher,\u201d Sittenfeld adds.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s rank-and-file supporters apparently understand those stakes. Online donations to the League of Conservation Voters started pouring in the evening the stay was announced. Within 24 hours, the organization had received $100,000 \u2013 making it one of the largest days for online contributions in the group\u2019s history, Sittenfeld says.<\/p>\n

Climate change has not yet emerged as a major issue in the presidential campaign. But that likely will change as the frontrunners shift from trying to win their parties\u2019 nominations to attacking their likely opponents in the November general election. The contrast is stark. Climate policy is a top priority of the chairman of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign, John Podesta, who told High Country News last year that the issue was shaping up to be \u201cmassive\u201d in this election. She has vowed to protect the Clean Power Plan, promote renewable power and even put a new fee on oil and coal to reflect their impact on climate change. GOP frontrunner Donald Trump by contrast has repeatedly said he\u2019s not a \u201cbeliever\u201d in climate change, he\u2019s called it a \u201choax\u201d and a \u201ccanard\u201d that hurts industry, and has ridiculed those who take it seriously.<\/p>\n

Climate change was not a major issue in previous elections, in part because the two parties were not as far apart as they are now, says David Goldston, director of government affairs for the NRDC Action Fund. For example, in 2008, GOP candidate John McCain and Obama both favored cap-and-trade legislation. This election, however, is different. Candidates are not just talking about possible future climate change initiatives. \u201cThere are specific policies on the line,\u201d Goldston says, chief among them the Clean Power Plan, that have already been enacted by the Obama administration but that a GOP president likely would undo.<\/p>\n

Leaders of environmental groups say their members were energized by both the stay of the Clean Power Plan and Republican senators\u2019 determination to block Obama from appointing a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Scalia, who died last month. Especially galling to the groups\u2019 supporters were statements within hours of Scalia\u2019s death from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other Republicans, that the next president should pick Scalia\u2019s replacement. \u201cI hadn\u2019t seen a level of outrage this high from our members in the last several years,\u201d says Michael Brune, the Sierra Club\u2019s executive director. Within 12 hours, the Sierra Club had gathered 50,000 signatures for a petition calling on senators to hold hearings on Obama\u2019s nominee.<\/p>\n

The Democratic National Committee released a video this week with members of Congress, most from Western states, talking about the heavy toll on their states of climate change in terms of record forest fires and more destructive droughts. They call on senators to \u201cdo your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though they still don\u2019t have nearly the financial impact on elections that industry does, environmental groups and their supporters are gaining influence. The League for Conservation Voters is the top donor for many Democratic members of Congress, and has collaborated with the NRDC Action Fund PAC on GiveGreen.com, a website that raises money for individual candidates. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, was a recipient in the 2012 elections, and says in a testimonial on the site that he couldn\u2019t have won without the support.<\/p>\n

Heinrich\u2019s biggest donor in 2012 was the League of Conservation Voters, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which shows the group and its members pitched in more than $150,000 that cycle.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups haven\u2019t spent much yet this time around. But already GiveGreen has raised $114,000 to support the reelection of Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, D, and $104,000 to elect Catherine Cortez Masto, D, to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is retiring. Environmental leaders frequently mention these two as high-stakes races. Environmentalists are especially keen on Democrats winning control of the Senate because of the Senate\u2019s role in confirming Supreme Court nominees, including Scalia\u2019s replacement. In addition to giving cash to campaigns, green groups will also urge their supporters to do old-fashioned electioneering, like going door-to-door to persuade people to vote.<\/p>\n

Brune, himself, says he plans to spend some of his weekends knocking on doors. One of the two things that have scared him most in his career as an activist is the prospect of a Trump presidency and what it would mean for climate change. (The other, he says, is raising children in a world destabilized by climate change.) The way for environmentalists to help defeat Trump, if he becomes the nominee, Brune adds, is \u201cby not underestimating him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Shogren is HCN\u2019s DC Correspondent.<\/p>\n

Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president for government affairs of the League of Conservation Voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

last month, the Supreme Court delivered the movement an unexpected defeat by staying the Clean Power Plan. The blow showed environmentalists just how fragile their victories are, but it also re-energized their efforts to influence the coming elections. \u201cWhen you contrast the incredible progress we\u2019ve had and the stay, it does underscore that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[489,875,876,1426],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-alternative-energy","tag-energy-and-resource","tag-energy-resources","tag-renewable-energy"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106325"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}