“I think it basically degrades the institution”

PRESENTED BY A RIFE OF EGRETS

The Movement Cooperative is hosting an online workshop on the state of the progressive movement tonight at 8 PM. Micah Sifry has all the details on why this is such an important call.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the Maserati-sporting sink of corruption who owns a network of dirty coal companies raking in millions from his work as an elected official, has bravely taken a hard stand against hoodies, dressing down¹ Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) for the new, relaxed Senate dress code:

“No, Joe, it is YOU who degrades the institution!” Fetterman did not reply.

Manchin is in good company—Senate Republicans and Rep. Lauren “Beetlebop” Boebert (R-Colo.) have taken a similarly principled stand against Fetterman’s sartorial choices. “It’s truly unbecoming for someone to show up like that to any job,” she said this May, two months after joshing around at the Heartland Institute’s climate denial conference and four months before showing the nation what true decorum entails.

This posturing almost comes as a relief from the meltdown of the Republican-led House, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is being exposed as an empty suit, completely incapable of managing his caucus of wingnuts as the government funding deadline nears. This dysfunction probably will end as an irrelevancy with the passage of a clean continuing resolution at the end of the month, but as David Dayen warns, there’s always the possibility Democrats will voluntarily cave when they don’t need to.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, President Joe Biden proclaimed:

And as we all know, there is nothing more inspiring than infinitesimal progress for existential threats!

Today, the White House’s Ali Zaidi announced the formation of the American Climate Corps by executive order, using $150 million in existing and newly launched programs to support 20,000 Americans, mostly in pre-apprenticeship job-training programs in the building trades. Most of the funding, $110 million, is allocated to Department of Labor. The Indian Youth Service Corps, a grant-making program launched last year by Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland and which just announced its first round of grants, is being expanded, and the Department of Energy is supporting skills-training grants. Eighty (80) people will be eligible for participation in the AmeriCorps NCCC Forest Corps, the one new initiative most like the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which employed three million young men over ten years.²

These diverse initiatives now have a central website for interested youth to apply for information.

The Sunrise Movement wanted a Climate Corps on par with the New Deal CCC, supporting legislation from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) that would have authorized $132 billion over 10 years to employ and train 1.5 million people a year. President Biden’s original Build Back Better proposal offered $30 billion for 300,000 young Americans.

So today’s announcement gets us a half-percent of the way towards the Build Back Better plan, and 0.01% of the way to Sunrise’s original goal. But it is a step in the right direction, which is better than a lot of the news these days. And you’ve got to start somewhere if you want to finish the job, right?

Let’s look at the Hill: At 10 am, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg began testifying before the House Transportation Committee. His opening statement carefully avoided mentioning climate change while celebrating infrastructure projects in Republican districts.

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) chairs an energy subcommittee hearing to promote the Hydropower Clean Energy Future Act (H.R. 4045), which would expedite environmental permitting for hydropower projects. Federal officials including White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) chief of staff Matt Lee-Ashley and FERC official Terry Turpin are testifying.

At the Science Committee, CEQ is in the hot seat for its proposed National Environmental Policy Act regulations for federal contracting, which unwind Trump administration policies. Ceres director Steven Rothstein is testifying alongside U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Chad Whiteman and aerospace lobbyist Eric Fanning.

In the afternoon, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) chairs a Joint Economic Committee hearing on job training for the clean energy transition fueled by Biden’s energy and infrastructure legislation.

The afternoon also features a pair of hearings on the fossil-fueled Southwest drought: Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) chairs an environmental subcommittee hearing on drinking water and tribal communities, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) chairs an energy subcommittee hearing on drinking water and drought.

Hearings on the Hill:

• 10 AM: House Transportation and Infrastructure
  Oversight of the Department of Transportation’s Policies and Programs

• 10 AM: House Energy and Commerce
  Energy, Climate, and Grid Security
  American Hydropower

• 10 AM: House Science, Space, and Technology
  Investigations and Oversight
  CEQ’s Proposed Regulations for Federal Contracting

• 2:15 PM: Joint Economic Committee
  Growing the Economy Of the Future: Job Training For the Clean Energy Transition

• 2:30 PM: Senate Environment and Public Works
  Fisheries, Water and Wildlife
  Drinking Water Infrastructure and Tribal Communities

• 2:30 PM: Senate Energy and Natural Resources
  Water and Power
  Drought Impacts on Drinking Water Access and Water Availability

Climate Action Today:

• 8 PM: Movement Cooperative
  Forging Our Future: The State of Our Movement

Finally, a quick #ClimateWeekNYC update: President Joe Biden is not attending today’s Climate Ambition Summit organized by Secretary-General António Guterres, where governments are being asked to present new 2030 pollution targets and climate fund pledges.

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. Connect with me—@[email protected] and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky

1 Get it?

2 Yes, that’s right: eight-zero.

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