Show Your Mother Some Love This Earth Day (4/22/26)
Fighting giveaways to the polluters in DC and closer to home, turning out environmental voters, direct action and more
TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ
Stop Republicans from putting Big Oil above the law by calling and emailing our members of Congress, writing letters to the editor, posting on social media, passing municipal resolutions, signing this petition
Companies who claim to care about climate change have the option to do business with credit card issuers that won’t finance fossil fuels – let’s use this email tool to encourage them to take it, and participate in efforts to turn up the heat on Costco
Join Stand Up For Science for a virtual Earth Day rally TOMORROW at 8 PM ET
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
BIG OIL IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW AND WE’RE GOING TO KEEP IT THAT WAY
Everyone knows this song by now: Trump and the GOP are preparing a massive payoff to their fossil fuel donors.
Multiple states, along with municipal and tribal governments, are filing tobacco industry-style lawsuits targeting the fossil fuel industry to recover damages for climate disasters. Meanwhile, New York and Vermont have passed climate polluters pay laws, forcing them to help pick up the bill for the mess they’ve made, and plenty of state legislators are looking to follow in their footsteps.
In response, Big Oil has lobbied MAGA to pass a federal liability shield based on the one that currently protects gun manufacturers, giving them total legal immunity from any laws or lawsuits that could hold them accountable for their role in the climate crisis. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill last week that would provide a “liability shield” for Big Oil.
The American Petroleum Institute—the largest oil and gas trade lobbying group in the U.S.—announced that stopping state climate lawsuits and climate superfund laws is one of their top legislative priorities in 2026. Sixteen Republican attorneys general even proposed a game plan for how the Trump administration could shield fossil fuel companies modeled on the shameful 2005 law protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits. State-level immunity bills for the fossil fuel industry have already been introduced in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee as part of the larger coordinated effort to strip communities of their right to take Big Oil to court – Utah has even passed one.
🫱🏻🫲🏿 Here’s a few ways we’re pushing back: 🫱🏾🫲🏼
They’re hoping to sneak this bill by us in Congress. We’re not going to let them. We can find call scripts and an email tool to urge our reps to block it here and here.
The Sierra Club has built an easy tool for submitting letters to the editor to our local paper warning about this effort, along with base language we can start with. Let’s put it to work here.
We can find a social media toolkit to spread the word about Big Oil’s demand for immunity here.
Our cities and counties can approve local resolutions calling on Congress to reject this giveaway. We can find a draft and an action plan for passing one here.
Activists are circulating a national petition against immunity for the fossil fuel industry, hoping to get 100,000 Americans on board before the end of the month – we have 34,000 to go. We can sign here.
(H/t Lexington Climate Action Network, Fossil Free Media)
BETTER OPTIONS FOR NOT FINANCING CLIMATE CHANGE
In 2021, the IEA concluded that, in order to reach net zero by 2050, there can be no new upstream coal, oil, and gas development. The financial industry will have a crucial role to play in making those projects possible or not. Oddly enough, some of them are actually making a responsible choice, with Stop The Money Pipeline reporting that eight out of the largest 20 credit card issuers in the United States did not provide large-scale financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2021-2024. That means large companies and nonprofits who claim to support climate action have the option to do business in a way that aligns with their declared values.
🫱🏻🫲🏿 We’re turning up the heat on them to do so. Here are some easy ways to start: 🫱🏾🫲🏼
We can use this email tool to contact executives at Costco, L.L. Bean, Alaska Airlines, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and REI to ask them to drop their current credit card partners
If we’re Costco members, we can use their feedback form to send the same message
If we live near a Costco, we can deliver the Better Options report direct to a Costco manager
TURNING ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN INTO ENVIRONMENTAL VOTES
“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. At the same time, polls show significant majorities of Americans understand the threat of global warming and want us to act on it. That suggests a lot of the missing 86 million are people who could help us secure badly-needed climate action. The focus of the Environmental Voter Project is getting those who care about the crisis of our lifetime to show up.
☎️ Their work to mobilize low-propensity climate voters is ongoing, with multiple phonebanks this week into key districts in Nevada, Nebraska and Georgia. We can sign up to join them and get updates on future opportunities to help here. ☎️
CONTINUING THE FIGHT TO PROTECT THE BOUNDARY WATERS FROM TOXIC MINING
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota is a vast network of over 1,000 lakes and unspoiled forests stretching across more than one million acres. It’s one of the nation’s most visited wilderness areas, and it’s in trouble. A Chilean mining company wants to build a toxic copper-nickel mine just upstream.
Joe Biden took executive action to ban mining near the area, but as always in MAGA Washington the corporate polluters are getting their way, and the House and Senate have narrowly passed a Congressional Review Act resolution to tear up these protections. Now activists are trying to push back at the state level, asking Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to cancel one of the company’s state mineral leases and putting a third of the ore they’re seeking out of reach. 🗣️ Let’s add our voices to their call. We can find language we can use and contact info for the DNR here, contact info for Governor Walz’s office here and an email tool from Friends of the Boundary Waters here. 🗣️ (H/t K. Starling)
TAKE DIRECT ACTION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
While there’s a lot of important local organizing and traditional political advocacy underway we can support, it’s hard for it to feel equal to the terrifying breadth of the danger we face with climate change. We need to make sure we’re getting the message across to powerful people that we’re in crisis and we’re not going to let them pretend otherwise - and this sort of activism is proven to help the movement overall. ✊🏼 Climate Defiance (find them on Substack @ Climate Defiance) organizes direct action to confront and call out decision-makers for not doing enough for the change we need. We can sign up to help their efforts here. ✊🏾
CELEBRATE EARTH DAY WITH STAND UP FOR SCIENCE TONIGHT AT 8PM ET
Finally, our friends at Stand Up For Science (check them out on Substack via Science Fight Club!) are bringing together lawmakers, scientists, advocates, activists, and diverse intersectional voices for a virtual and accessible Earth Day rally TONIGHT at 8PM ET. We’ll hear from a range of folks including former NOAA chief scientist Craig McLean and Katrina relief effort coordinator Lieutenant General Russel Honore. This will be an opportunity to get fully up to speed on the Trump regime’s attacks on science and our planet and learn more about ways we can get engaged to defend Mother Earth. 🏫 We can sign up to join here. 🏫
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… 👀
NEWS: Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) resigns ahead of possible expulsion vote
NEWS: Trump extends cease-fire with Iran pending next peace proposal from Tehran
Tell Senators to vote no on Trump’s Federal Reserve puppet after yesterday’s confirmation hearing
Get trained on community strike readiness with Freedom Trainers TONIGHT or next Monday
We’re now just NINE DAYS AWAY from the May Day shutdown - commit to joining, find events near us, and convince more people to be part of it
Join a mass call on organizing for the Working Families Guarantee MONDAY at 8 PM ET
Public Citizen identifies 446 hospitals at risk thanks to the MAGA murder budget, let’s make sure folks in our community know we’re in danger and who’s to blame
Looking for ways to get engaged in the midterms? Here’s a full list! And here’s some ways to help with the spring elections!
Amazing resources. Thank you.