April 22, 2025 - Acting for Earth Day

Making polluters pay, showing our numbers, turning out low-propensity environmental voters, and more

Apr 22, 2025

Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: Congress.gov
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot

If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!

A watering can waters a plant growing out of a globe. This is drawn against a black background. Image source: Freepik.

THIS EARTH DAY, IT’S TIME TO MAKE POLLUTERS PAY

Climate change doesn’t care whether we believe in it or not, and neither do the debt collectors. The Los Angeles wildfires alone are estimated to have done $250 billion in damages, and disasters on this scale are becoming a common part of our lives. These are bills someone is going to have to pay.

Environmental activists at the state level are working to ensure fossil fuel companies foot the bill to help us recover from climate damage and prepare our infrastructure for more in the future. In 2024, both Vermont and New York passed climate superfund laws that require their state’s largest carbon polluters to pay into an account that would be used for disaster prevention and cleanup – taking the burden off of regular folks and putting it on the corporations who profited from the crisis. Now at least 10 other states are considering doing the same.

The polluters, naturally, can’t stand the idea of cleaning up their own mess. Since they spent hundreds of millions electing Donald Trump, he is trying desperately to protect them. He issued an executive order on April 8th demanding the Justice Department take action against state laws addressing climate change in the name of boosting the fossil fuel industry, which will be used to target climate polluter pays laws. This is as clear a sign as we are going to get that this movement is winning.

Passing climate polluter pays is a blow against Trump and an important step forward into the climate age – and extremely politically popular. Let’s take a moment this Earth Day to reach out to our governors and state legislators in support of climate polluter pays laws in our state. We can find scripts, language and information on bills currently under consideration here, or send this message via Resistbot by texting SIGN PQDLOO to 50409. (Let’s also sign up for updates from Make Polluters Pay and whoever is leading efforts in our state!)

SHOW OUR NUMBERS AT LOCAL EARTH DAY EVENTS

Trump’s efforts to undermine state climate action laws are just one part of a full-bore attack on green jobs, climate action, environmental justice, clean air and clean water regulations and all sorts of crucial environmental protections. There are even reports he is planning to abuse tax enforcement to target environmental groups. It is a moment that requires us to show our strength – and our numbers.

Activist groups and community organizations across the country are hitting the streets in force for Earth Day, with rallies, teach-ins, marches, clean-ups and a whole variety of other mass actions. Let’s find one near us to take part in. We can find opportunities with the All Out on Earth Day mobilization here, or check out Earth Day events near us on Mobilize or on

We the People Dissent

’s master list here. This is also a good opportunity to look for local environmental action groups we can connect with – they’ll be the best source for who to rally with today and who to organize with year-round!

FINDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL VOTERS

“Did Not Vote” was the real winner in November 2024, with almost 86 million eligible voters sitting out the election compared to 77 million who cast ballots for Trump and 74 million for Kamala. If we are able to maintain free and fair elections, winning going forward – and in particular securing climate action – will require getting people among those 86 million who care about the environment to the polls. That’s the focus of the Environmental Voter Project, which this year is aiming to mobilize six million low-propensity climate voters in 300 state and local elections. This week they’re aiming to turn out folks for municipal elections in San Antonio and Lincoln, Nebraska. Let’s sign up for a phonebank shift or join their email list to learn of future opportunities to call, canvass or postcard here.

TRUMP WANTS TO KILL CLEAN ENERGY, RAISE OUR ELECTRIC BILLS

While Trump actively works to boost his fossil fuel industry donors and undermine climate action, he is also trying to cover the costs of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks that will mainly go to billionaires and big corporations. As we’d expect, that means the clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act are in trouble. They are a likely target as MAGA Republicans try to nail down the details on their steal-for-the-rich budget.

Climate activists and green energy boosters are making the case to save them for the family budget – emphasizing that getting rid of these credits will raise our electric bills. A recent study found repealing the IRA tax credits would drive energy prices up nearly 10% by 2029. Let’s make our voices heard! We can contact our members of Congress to save the IRA tax credits and make energy more affordable with scripts and language here, or text SIGN PEGPKQ to 50409 to send this message via Resistbot.

THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT IS IN DANGER

Laws protecting the places where endangered species live are getting in the way of big corporations profiting off our natural resources, so the Trump Administration has put a target on them. Habitat destruction is currently regulated under the Endangered Species Act. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service are trying to claim that habitat destruction doesn’t qualify as “harm” because endangered species are not intentionally targeted by the action – even though habitat destruction is well known to be “the biggest cause of extinction.” They’ve submitted a proposed rule that would make this change official policy, and they’re accepting public comments until May 19th.

Let’s make our voices heard against it. We can submit our comments directly here or search FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0034 at www.regulations.gov. We can find language to work from via the Sierra Club here, Earthjustice here and the Center for Biological Diversity here.

MORE WAYS TO WORK FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE WITH AMERICANS OF CONSCIENCE

Communities of color and low-income communities carry far more than their fair share of the cost for environmental damage and climate change – their neighborhoods are more likely to be polluted and more likely to be exposed to extreme weather disasters. Trump has treated acknowledging this as anti-white and anti-wealthy discrimination, and environmental justice has been a major target for his administration.

This is a moment that calls for solidarity with those on the frontlines of the crisis, and for Earth Day our friends at the Americans of Conscience Checklist have put together a special issue on ways we can, in this moment, work for climate justice – with dozens of actions from donating to plant trees to pushing local leaders for just climate planning to volunteering with community gardens. Let’s check it out here and pick a few things we can do.

THE REAL NEWS ON CLIMATE ACTION

Climate change is the most important story of our time, and one that is inextricably intertwined with the fight for our democracy. Yet all too frequently it goes under-covered by corporate media sources. Let’s consider signing up for one of these free newsletters from independent journalists and thought leaders focused on climate and the environment, and consider a donation to support their work:

KEEPING AN EYE ON…

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