Today when news broke that my Senator, Joe Manchin, killed climate legislation in Congress, I was visiting Portugal's biggest coal plant that's being demolished & replaced with a clean energy hub. I was so angry but I also thought: Joe Manchin can't stop this & he can't stop us🧵 As a West Virginian, I'm livid that he threw away a once-in-a-generation chance to lift our state out of poverty into a thriving clean economy. With his leverage, Manchin could have brought us anything - jobs, schools, restored mountains and rivers, opportunities. But he blew it.

Today's SCOTUS decision limiting EPA's authority on climate pollution from power plants (our #2 source of greenhouse gases) is bad. But it's not game over for climate. I led @SierraClub’s campaign on these rules for a decade+. My thoughts and reasons not to give up hope: 🧵 1/ Quick 101: Once EPA finds a pollutant harms the public, which EPA did for greenhouse gases in 2009 based on SCOTUS precedent, they're required to set pollution limits for existing facilities under Clean Air Act section 111(d), which they did in 2015 culminating in this case. 2/

I've been heartbroken over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and also thinking a lot about what it means for our work to confront the climate crisis and move beyond fossil fuels, especially here in the US. Some thoughts & helpful articles I've read recently:🧵 2/ As @billmckibben explains so eloquently here, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sharpened the urgency of ending our reliance on fossil fuels and the autocratic regimes they prop up, and accelerating the transition to clean energy. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

A thread on the recent extreme weather and power outages. @SierraClub at this time is most concerned about the safety of our colleagues, friends, and families as harsh weather continues to hit the central and southern US, bringing blackouts throughout countless communities. 1/6 While this episode of extreme weather gripping communities may pass quickly, the overall problem won’t. We need change. 2/6

One word we didn't hear in the debate last night: coal. Our first debate with real questions on climate and environmental justice was also the first I recall with no mention of coal, a sharp contrast to Trump's grandstanding about coal 4 years ago. Why? 1/ nytimes.com/2020/10/05/us/… Trump promised to revive coal but couldn't overcome public demand for clean energy, a decade of advocacy that's moving us @BeyondCoal, and the reality that renewable energy is cheaper than coal - I talked to @NPR's Morning Edition about that this week. 2/ npr.org/2020/10/19/925…

My thoughts on the big news that Arch is accelerating its exit from thermal coal: Our country has been shifting away from coal for the last ten years, because coal can no longer compete with the affordable clean energy that the public is demanding. 1/ marketwatch.com/story/arch-res… Arch's decision to finally act on that reality is a clear signal that the decline of coal in the US won't be reversed, which is why it's so essential to support a fair and robust national transition for workers and communities as we move to a clean energy economy. 2/