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Win by Losing
The document details a legal effort led by attorney Mike Sherwood and the American Fisheries Society to protect the Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon. Although the initial lawsuit and subsequent appeal did not result in a court order for listing, the legal pressure prompted the National Marine Fisheries Service to voluntarily use emergency powers to list the species. This listing led to critical environmental interventions, including retrofitting the Shasta Dam for colder water releases, opening the Red Bluff diversion dam during migration, cleaning up the Iron Mountain Mine, and installing fish screens in irrigation districts. Consequently, the salmon population increased from a low of 190 fish during the appeal to more than 15,000 by 2004.
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Document type: Case study
Big Tech And The Flames Of Wildfire Lies
The briefing identifies a structured pattern of wildfire-related disinformation on social media, where 'core' narratives like arson deflection and government mismanagement serve as gateways to more extreme conspiracy theories and climate denial. It highlights how these narratives have spread across different regions, including Chile, Spain, Greece, Canada, and Hawaii, often leveraging the 'attention economy' of Big Tech platforms to undermine the link between climate change and increasing wildfire intensity.
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Document type: Briefing
Extreme Weather, Extreme Content: How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation In a World on the Brink
The report details the persistence of climate disinformation across major platforms like X, Meta, TikTok, and YouTube. It identifies key narratives used to discredit renewable energy, the use of extreme weather events (wildfires and hurricanes) to fuel conspiracy theories and incite violence, and the extensive use of Meta's advertising tools by fossil fuel entities for greenwashing and lobbying. The authors argue that platform architectures reward engagement over truth, necessitating systemic policy changes to disrupt the economy of disinformation.
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Document type: Report
Federal Funding Programs to Support Advanced Clean Trucks Implementation
The document outlines how states can leverage billions of dollars in federal funding to support the transition to zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs). It categorizes funding opportunities into manufacturing, procurement, charging infrastructure, workforce development, emissions monitoring, and state planning, providing specific program details, eligibility, and strategic next steps for state officials.
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Document type: Guide
pops_bills_28feb2006-95846d82e9477a0d.pdf
The document examines the legislative hurdles preventing the United States from ratifying the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). It analyzes four proposed bills intended to amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), concluding that only the Solis TSCA bill (H.R. 4800) aligns with the treaty's health-based standards and supports state-level environmental protections.
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Document type: Report
Opportunities for a Green Bank in California
The fact sheet proposes a California Green Bank to bridge the financing gap for low-carbon technologies. It suggests using carbon emissions auction revenues to provide credit enhancements, loan guarantees, and project aggregation to help homeowners, small businesses, and innovators access affordable capital. The document highlights specific barriers in electric vehicle financing, energy efficiency upgrades, and grid-scale storage, while citing existing green bank models in New York, Connecticut, and Hawaii as precedents.
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Document type: Fact sheet
How Could a California Green Bank Help Accelerate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency?
The fact sheet proposes that a California green bank could overcome financing barriers for underserved homeowners, small businesses, and public entities. It suggests the bank act as a credit enhancer, direct lender, or project aggregator to lower costs and risks. Additionally, it argues that a green bank could support the state's energy storage mandate and bridge the gap between technology demonstration and commercial scale-up for clean energy innovations.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Climate Change Communication Guide
The guide equips National Park Service (NPS) staff to communicate climate change by segmenting the American public into six audience types based on their beliefs and motivations. It provides tailored communication tips for each group—ranging from the 'Alarmed' to the 'Dismissive'—and details specific climate impacts across ten U.S. bioregions to help staff create place-based narratives. The document emphasizes using local park stories and scientific consensus to motivate visitors toward climate action and energy conservation.
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Document type: Guide
RE-REPRESENTING A CLIMATE CHANGE STORY
The document is a student guide for an activity titled 'Re-representing a Climate Change Story,' which directs students to source radio stories from the Yale Climate Connections website. It provides a list of suggested stories covering diverse topics such as urban climate action in Milwaukee, flood sensors in New York City, and electric vehicle adoption in rural Appalachia, and notes the availability of a grading rubric.
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Document type: Guide
DEFENDING OUR COUNTRY AND OUR COURTS
The report details a concerted effort by the Trump administration and members of Congress to restrict judicial review, expand forced arbitration, limit class action lawsuits, and increase the financial risks of public interest litigation. It argues that these measures, often supported by corporate interests, undermine the constitutional system of checks and balances and disproportionately affect marginalized communities. The document provides specific examples of pending bills and administrative directives that would shield government agencies and corporations from legal accountability, specifically citing impacts on the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and medical malpractice recovery.
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Document type: Report
THE SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT AT 50
The report argues that the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) has transitioned from an 'outstanding' to an 'outdated' framework due to 1996 amendments that slowed the regulation of new contaminants and a chronic lack of federal infrastructure funding. It highlights critical failures in monitoring and sampling protocols, which allow water systems to use infrequent or misleading tests, and criticizes the lack of transparency in Consumer Confidence Reports. The document emphasizes that low-income, Black, and Indigenous communities disproportionately suffer from these weaknesses. A case study of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in O‘ahu illustrates how the SDWA failed to detect and report jet fuel and PFAS contamination. Earthjustice calls for a modernized SDWA with streamlined chemical regulation, advanced monitoring technology, and at least $20 billion in annual federal funding.
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Document type: Report
BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE LAW PROFESSORS IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS’ OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO DISMISS
A group of over 30 law professors argues that the public trust doctrine (PTD) is an inherent attribute of state sovereignty that obligates Utah to protect the Great Salt Lake. The brief contends that Utah has violated this duty by failing to restrain upper basin water diversions, which have reduced the lake's footprint by half and threatened species extinction. The authors assert that the PTD applies not only to navigable waters but also to non-navigable tributaries and groundwater that sustain the lake, citing legal precedents from other Western states like California, Nevada, and Hawaii.
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Document type: Legal commentary
Hawaii
The Green Energy Money $aver (GEM$) program, launched in April 2019 by the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority (HGIA), provides on-bill financing for clean energy upgrades to approximately 95 percent of Hawaii's population via Hawaiian Electric Companies (HECO) customers. The program targets low-to-medium income (LMI) households—specifically those earning less than 140 percent of the area median income—to democratize access to solar PV and energy efficiency measures. By tying repayment to the utility meter rather than the individual, GEM$ allows for repayment terms up to 20 years and enables the transfer of obligations between tenants or owners, overcoming the rental split incentive. In its first nine months, the program funded $6.6 million in solar PV projects, with 78 percent benefiting LMI customers, resulting in 1.6 megawatts of installed capacity and 12,000 metric tons of projected avoided greenhouse gases. The program is funded by the Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) program and is the first of its kind operated by a green bank.
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Document type: Case study
Federal Policy Recommendations for Coastal Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the United States
The document provides a set of policy recommendations aimed at the 117th Congress to improve coastal resilience in the United States. It emphasizes the integration of climate justice, the use of nature-based solutions, and the necessity of basing federal decision-making on future climate projections rather than historical data. The recommendations are supported by regional models, such as Louisiana's LA SAFE initiative and living shoreline projects in North Carolina, highlighting the need for community-centered planning and updated benefit-cost analysis tools.
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Document type: Fact sheet
150+ CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS CALL ON CALIFORNIA TO ENDORSE THE FOSSIL FUEL NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY PROPOSAL
A coalition of more than 150 civil society organizations is urging California to support Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 2 (Gonzalez). This resolution calls for an end to fossil fuel expansion, a fair phase-out of coal, oil, and gas, and the establishment of an international Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to address the climate crisis at its root. The signatories argue that because fossil fuels are omitted from the Paris Agreement, a specific international mechanism is required to stop production expansion and ensure a just energy transition, particularly for Indigenous Peoples and communities of color.
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Document type: Statement
COVID-19: Ten Priority Options for a Just, Green & Transformative Recovery
The briefing argues that the COVID-19 crisis exposed systemic fragilities and provides an opportunity to build resilience against climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequality. It outlines ten priority options, including the adoption of green economy principles, the use of 'Green Deals', the removal of fossil fuel subsidies, and the implementation of gender-responsive recovery plans. The authors emphasize that recovery spending must align with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, particularly in the global South where public debt may limit fiscal space.
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Document type: Briefing
Making Waves at The Atlantic: A Rebuttal to The Atlantic Magazine’s Contention That “We’re Going to Keep Burning Oil—and Lots of It”
This document is a rebuttal by Amory B. Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to an article and subsequent response by Charles C. Mann in The Atlantic. Lovins argues that Mann ignores the role of efficiency and technological innovation in reducing oil demand and misrepresents the reliability and economic viability of renewable energy, specifically in Germany.
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Document type: Report
SENSE AND RESPONSE
The paper examines the historical relationship between human settlements and their environments, contrasting traditional sustainable systems with modern industrial disengagement. It proposes a new regionalism in architecture that uses climatic data to inform design and advocates for 'ecological utilities'—buildings designed primarily to repair and rebuild the environment by providing ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, water remediation, and soil regeneration.
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Document type: Research paper
NATURAL CAPITALISM
The text presents 'green development' as a superior paradigm for real estate, demonstrating through case studies that integrating passive design, high-efficiency technology, and human-centric planning reduces costs and increases financial returns. It highlights the economic benefits of improved labor productivity due to better indoor environments and argues that current market incentives for architects and developers are 'perverse' because they reward inefficiency. The document details specific technical innovations in lighting, insulation, and appliances, while advocating for 'New Urbanism' to reduce infrastructure costs and restore community vitality.
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Document type: Report
THE ECONOMICS OF BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE
The report categorizes battery energy storage services into three stakeholder groups: ISO/RTOs, utilities, and customers. It details the technical application and economic value of services such as frequency regulation, resource adequacy, and demand charge reduction. The document includes a meta-study of six major energy storage valuation publications and outlines specific use-case assumptions for commercial and residential systems in San Francisco, New York, and Phoenix.
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Document type: Report