Sean Duffy was the world champion for five years, climbing trees up and down.”
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States want to force fossil fuel companies to pay for climate damage. Can MAGA stand in their way? Crooked’s climate correspondent Anya Zoledziowski digs in.
- You break it, you buy it. That’s the principle states around the country have begun applying to climate damage, with new laws that effectively charges fossil fuel companies to help pay for the cleanup caused by dirty emissions. That is, unless President Donald Trump and the GOP can stop them.
- These states are setting up so-called climate superfunds. The idea: Calculate the damage caused by burning fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — and then slap the responsible companies with a fee. Vermont pioneered the first such law in May 2024. New York followed in December with its own legislation, and the Empire State now foresees charging companies $75 billion over 25 years. California and other states are working on their own measures.
- “There’s a real fairness in having these companies that created this crisis pay their fair share rather than attempting to have Vermont taxpayers shoulder the full burden,” Ben Edgerly Walsh, Climate and Energy Program Director with Vermont-based advocacy group VPIRG, told What A Day.
- Naturally, conservatives and fossil fuel companies are pushing back hard. A coalition of 22 red states launched a lawsuit against New York, challenging its law. Big Oil and allies have sued Vermont.
- Legal action takes time, but Trump has signaled he backs the companies — and he’s not about to let this one go quietly. Last month, he signed an executive order targeting state-led climate action — including climate superfund laws — and accused them of getting in the way of America’s energy interests. The order asks the attorney general to identify such state laws, and to “take all appropriate action” to stop their enforcement.
- “While the executive order doesn't necessarily overturn laws, this marks a very clear demonstration,” Cassidy DiPaola, communications director for the Make Polluters Pay campaign, told What A Day. “We think it's really serious,” she said. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice filed lawsuits targeting the superfund laws in Vermont and New York.
Legal experts say Trump faces an uphill battle against the state legislation.
- Trump’s show of support for fossil fuel companies, which famously spent $219 million to elect the current government, drew ire from state leaders. “California’s efforts to cut harmful pollution won’t be derailed by a glorified press release masquerading as an executive order,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a statement. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also issued a joint statement, saying they “won’t be deterred” from forging ahead with climate action.
- Now, for the good news: It’s possible that a new study published in Nature has made it much easier to hold big emitters liable for climate damage: “Will it ever be possible to sue anyone for damaging the climate? Twenty years after this question was first posed, we argue that the scientific case for climate liability is closed,” the study says. According to its findings, the world’s biggest companies have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, and more than half of that figure is thanks to just ten fossil fuel giants, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell.
That means, as many states continue to pursue climate action, science is saying, “Go ahead, make ‘em pay!”
This story is supported by our nonprofit partner, Crooked Ideas. |
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The administration of America’s first reality TV star president is mulling some downright dystopian programming.
The Department of Homeland Security is considering a reality television show in which immigrants compete for potential U.S. citizenship. This feels eerily similar to “Squid Game” or “The Hunger Games,” right?
Well, the producer who pitched the show to the agency, Rob Worsoff, insists that he envisions a hopeful program. “This isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’ for immigrants,” Worsoff, a writer credited on “Duck Dynasty,” told the Wall Street Journal.
It’s meant to be a celebration of what it means to be American, he said, and the show would include contests involving U.S. history and science. (Worsoff pitched the show as far back as the Obama administration.)
“This is not, ‘Hey, if you lose, we are shipping you out on a boat out of the country,’” he said. Sure… Instead, the losing contestants could receive “iconically American” prizes such as 1 million American Airlines points, a $10,000 Starbucks gift card, or a lifetime supply of gasoline, the Daily Mail reports.
The show is in the early stages of a “vetting process” and is not approved yet, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. But it speaks volumes that this wasn’t denied immediately… |
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The Department of Justice said it’s investigating former FBI director James Comey after he posted a picture on Instagram of seashells on the beach — arranged as “86 47.” Trump is the 47th president, and 86 means to get rid of something… so Trumpworld is accusing Comey of calling for Trump’s assassination. “Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey wrote in the post, before deleting it. You’d think he would have more common sense than to post that???
A Newark air traffic controller spoke out about the difficulties of the job after he helped prevent a near-collision between two planes earlier this month. He’s now on stress-related trauma leave: “I don’t want to be responsible for killing 400 people,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
FEMA still doesn’t have a fully-formed disaster plan for hurricane season, which is two weeks away, Acting Administrator David Richardson told employees in a recent meeting. (Surprise, surprise, this guy has no experience in emergency management!) But he recognizes the challenges he’s facing: “I feel a little bit like Bubba from ‘Forrest Gump,’” Richardson said. “We’ve got hurricanes, we’ve got fires, we’ve got mudslides, we’ve got flash floods, we’ve got tornadoes, we’ve got droughts, we’ve got heat waves and now we’ve got volcanoes to worry about.” And we’ve got no plan!
Enough food to feed 3.5 million people for an entire month is rotting in warehouses after Trump’s cuts to foreign aid, Reuters reports. Some of the stocks are likely to be destroyed, possibly by incineration or feeding it to livestock.
Russian and Ukrainian officials met today for the first time in three years to discuss a potential ceasefire… but it didn’t seem to go well: “Russian demands are detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed,” a Ukrainian source told Axios. The meeting lasted less than two hours. Meanwhile, Pope Leo offered up the Vatican as a venue for peace talks.
Trump went on bizarre social media rants against two music stars today: “Has anyone noticed that, since I said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she’s no longer 'HOT?'” he wrote in one post. Then, he took aim at Bruce Springsteen, a prominent Trump critic: “This dried out 'prune”'of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country.” I mean, seriously, what the fuck. Maybe this is a call for help?
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LET'S MEET, IRL
Mark your calendars because on June 6th, Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell from the xxxxxx will join Lovett at the Lincoln Theater in Washington DC for Free Andry—A Crooked and The xxxxxx World Pride Fundraiser. They'll be celebrating Pride by venting, pre-gaming, commiserating, laughing, venting some more, and most importantly, raising money for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. They’re representing makeup artist and actor Andry Hernandez Romero and others who were disappeared to El Salvador without so much as a hearing.
Pride is about fighting for each other, and the power we have collectively when we aren’t afraid to tell the truth. And if I can share a stage with Tim – with a lesbian no less! – we can all come together this Pride to tell these evil creeps to fuck all the way off. We’re donating ticket proceeds to Immigrant Defenders Law Center, so it’ll be a big gay live show for a great cause.
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The Supreme Court maintained its block on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants, a significant setback for the White House’s radical deportation agenda.
Alex the Great, the social media famous giant rabbit, is in the spotlight again for cruising around in a mini Mercedes-Benz, jazzed up with a San Francisco Giants flag and red balloons. It’s not remote-controlled — his owners adapted the car so he can drive it himself.
A man who quit his job to sail from Oregon to Hawaii with his cat has also become social media famous, drawing more than 1 million followers on TikTok and Instagram. “The world kind of sucks and, like, I don’t think I’m alone in how I felt with my work … I think people are just tired of that and working really hard for nothing and want a way out,” he said. “Sailing around the world is such a ridiculous dream. Whatever your dream is, just go, just do it.” Amen! But maybe take some sailing lessons first…
Meet Georgia, an English cream golden retriever, and Mae, a husky-shepherd and border collie mix! They’re lovingly referred to as the “family princesses … we treasure them and they help us get through each day.”
— Ursula
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