Coons, C Sen
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lcv 92/93 %
xl? TPP? other pipelines?
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BS morano gmaIl 10 25
no lnx
Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter
October 13, 2025
Republican Utah Sen. John Curtis is reportedly planning to co-lead a delegation to the annual U.N. climate change conference, which some critics told the Daily Caller News Foundation clashes with President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.
Curtis told E&E News Friday that he and Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons will lead a delegation to Brazil together for this year’s COP30 and that three other unnamed Republicans are also interested in joining the troop. The U.N. climate change conference is set to host several youth-led climate forums and discuss the Paris Agreement that Trump directed the U.S. to abandon through a day-one executive order.
“RINOs like Sen. Curtis are trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of MAGA victory by going to the annual UN climate confab in Brazil,” Steve Milloy, Senior Fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute told the DCNF. “There, they will conspire with China and Europe in trying to subvert President Trump’s agenda of defeating the climate hoax, terminating the Green New Scam and making America energy dominant.” (RELATED: John Curtis Has History Of Raking In Thousands From Green Energy Donors)
U.S. Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT) arrives for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)
U.S. Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT) arrives for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Curtis’ office told the DCNF that “plans are not finalized yet for the Senator’s travel,” though E&E News reported Friday that Curtis said “we have an agenda that is really coming together nicely. We’re super happy with it.”
The Trump administration has not announced that it will send a delegation to the November conference and Trump recently called climate change policy the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” in front of the United Nations General Assembly in September. Trump has moved to ax federal support for green energy sources like wind and solar that the Biden administration favored while bolstering conventional resources like coal.
“Leave it to ‘Mitt Romney’ style Republicans like Sen. Curtis to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. … The UN climate agenda and the UN’s COP30 meetings should be disbanded, not given credibility by GOP senators,” Marc Morano, author and Climate Depot executive editor, told the DCNF. “This is a pathetic throwback to the pre-Trump Republicanism of George H. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. … The UN climate agenda has quite literally overseen the outsourcing of the West’s once dominant industries to China, India, and the developing world. The U.S., Canada, and Europe have boasted about emission accounting tricks, while China builds two new coal plants a week and benefits from the West’s attempts at a ‘green transition.’ The U.S. does not need ‘a seat at the table’ at the UN climate summit, we need to knock the table over.”
Curtis has historically split with many Republicans over climate change policy and has notably advocated against a wholesale repeal of Biden-era green energy tax credits that Trump railed against. Earlier this year, Curtis told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it is “really important” to have a “Republican voice at that table,” in reference to COP30.
The Senator pointed to nuclear specifically as an energy resource Republicans could elevate at COP30.
Critics like Milloy, Morano and President of the Heartland Institute James Taylor told the DCNF that COP30 should not be endorsed by Republican participation as it runs counter to Trump’s energy policies and suggests that the left-leaning climate talking points the president has fought hold legitimacy.
“Republicans who attend COP30 for any reason other than to mock it are hypocrites and grandstanders,” Taylor told the DCNF. “How much carbon dioxide are they going to spew into the atmosphere merely so they can have a ‘photo op’ at a portion of the Amazon rainforest that was destroyed in order to create a venue for this vacation conference of UN bureaucrats?”
Notably, developers razed portions of the Amazon rainforest to construct a road for COP30, and a 2024 study released right before COP29 showed that emissions rise sharply during major conferences due to private jet travel.
Coons’ office did not respond to the DCNF’s multiple requests for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Tags : brazil climate change cop 30 john curtis rinos trump administration
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6 22
goterdone? gop HAD to post buffalo uvalde TX? more mental health than gun control? 18yo not buy ar15 assault?
gun framework 10 MoC cornyn boo'd tex gop?! --> cya? chris coons
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), one of the lead negotiators of gun legislation in the Senate, tells CNN's John Berman what is included in the bipartisan gun safety bill and how a group of senators agreed to close the "boyfriend loophole" in domestic violence laws.
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omg
no lnx
https://www.alternet.org/critical-race-theory-2659941137/
twenty or 30 years ago, most consumers of right-wing media didn't know what critical race theory (CRT) was. Many liberals and progressives, for that matter, were unfamiliar with CRT — a college-level African-American studies discipline that, in essence, argues that racism of the past affects present-day institutions.
But in recent years, CRT has become a major boogieman in right-wing media and among MAGA Republicans. MAGA pundits and politicians, according to their liberal critics, have weaponized the term CRT and used it to attack any book or article that makes them uncomfortable — be it "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" or Alice Walker's "The Color Purple."
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Scholar Stanley Kurtz is among the right-wing figures who has been railing against CRT, but his efforts go beyond trying to keep books out of public schools.
READ MORE: Why Texas Republicans’ crusade against 'woke civics' does students a huge disservice: report
Reporter Asher Lehrer-Small, in an article published by The 74 on May 2, emphasizes that Kurtz has "spearheaded a quiet but influential campaign to cleanse classrooms of what he calls 'woke civics.'" According to Lehrer-Small, Kurtz's "advocacy in Texas led to the 2021 passage of an unprecedented state law banning assignments that involve 'direct communication' between students and their federal, state or local lawmakers."
The reporter notes, "At the core of Kurtz's activism is a central idea: that hands-on civics lessons, such as students writing to their legislators, will lead to 'school-sponsored indoctrination and political action in support of progressive policy positions'…. Accurate or not, Kurtz's depiction of 'woke civics' is now being felt in America's classrooms."
Lehrer-Small adds, "When the scholar penned his model legislation in 2021, which said students should be banned from receiving class credit for 'lobbying' or 'advocacy' at the federal, state or local level, lawmakers and advocates across the country pounced."
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The reporter notes some specific examples of Kurtz's influence. In 2022, for instance, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, according to Lehrer-Smalls, proposed a bipartisan bill that called for increasing grants for civics education. But the bill was "stopped in tracks" when Kurtz labeled it CRT.AndFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis "mimicked" Kurtz's messaging by claiming that the bill would "award grants to indoctrinate students with ideologies like critical race theory."
READ MORE: 'Censorial filters are unconstitutional': DeSantis' aim to control FL colleges' academic freedom worsens
Read Asher Lehrer-Small's full report for The 74 at this link. https://www.the74million.org/article/the-conservative-scholar-who-convinced-gop-lawmakers-civics-conceals-crt/
FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES
'My heart is broken': Florida teachers ordered to remove, block class libraries or face felony prosecution ›
'Bless your heart': Twitter scorches Marsha Blackburn for untrue anti-critical race theory 'klansplaining' ›
Is the white working class ready to trade in some of their whiteness? ›
RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB
Ron DeSantis's Attack on Black Studies Is Textbook Proto-Fascism ... ›
DeSantis defends rejection of African American studies class | The Hill ›
What Is Critical Race Theory? A Brief History Explained - The New ... ›
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1119 dereg nat
With voter worries about Trump environmental rollbacks on the rise (“Surge in young Republicans worried about the environment,” Reuters, Aug. 29, 2019), GOP lawmakers are looking for ways to boost their green credentials.
First, in July, came the jointHouse-Senate “Republican Roosevelt Conservation Caucus.” This is a purely Republican effort to tout non-regulatory solutions to pollution, conservation, energy, and climate problems.
Now comes the “Climate Solutions Caucus,” a bipartisan Senate effort. Sen. Mike Braun, an Indiana Republican, and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, told NBC News that they got the idea for the caucus “after meeting with constituents in town halls across both of their very different states…[T]he group will first meet with scientists, policy experts and business leaders to try to find common ground and move forward from there.”
Skepticism seems warranted. As my friends at Sludge report, both senators have received campaign donations from the fossil fuel sector and related industries:
- Braun has taken in nearly $120,000 since 2017.
- Coons has accepted around $63,000 since 2015.
It’s not inevitable that politicians take money from this sector. “All but one of the remaining major Democratic presidential candidates have signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge,” Sludge notes, “a commitment to reject donations of over $200 from PACs, executives, and lobbyists of fossil fuel companies. Coons has not made either commitment.”
On the other hand, Coons has co-sponsored (with Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.)) a carbon-pricing bill that, unlike many such proposals in the House and Senate in recent years, does not try to nullify the EPA’s Clean-Air-Act-granted authority to regulate carbon pollution, as InsideClimate News reported in July. The legislation also contains a provision stating that “nothing in this legislation preempts any state law or regulation.”Translation: It leaves open the door to suing Big Oil firms at the state level for climate-related damages, as some cities and counties are already trying to do.
It is hard to imagine climate legislation getting a vote while Trump is president. But the fact that lawmakers are hashing out their climate policy ideas despite Trump’s policy of climate denial is worth watching. It could lead to faster action under a different White House — or if senators challenge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s cynical legislative gridlock. (“No man has done more in recent years to undermine the functioning of U.S. government,” writes Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.“His has been the epitome of unprincipled leadership, the triumph of tactics in service of short-term power.”)
In either scenario, “winning” will probably involve getting some senators who’ve taken fossil fuel money on board with the plan.
Trade group airs ads to boost five senators facing reelection
A trade group representing chemical companies will spend more than $150,000 on advertising during July in support of four Republican senators and one Democrat, all of whom face reelection in 2020.
The American Chemistry Council, which represents nearly 200 companies including DuPont, Chevron Phillips and ExxonMobil, is running TV and radio ads in Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Montana and South Dakota between July 8 and 21, according to Federal Communications Commission records accessed via OpenSecrets’ political ad database. Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) all face reelection next year.
The ads that mention Cassidy, Daines and Rounds praise the three senators for tax cuts. Sullivan receives recognition for ocean cleanup, while Coons is applauded for his sustainability efforts. All of the ads end by encouraging viewers to call their senators and thank them.
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6:25pm EDT: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the Mercatus Center, which he said "should be called the Koch Center" due to its massive Koch funding. He discussed the connections to the tobacco industry's attacks on tobacco science and the overlap with the Koch-funded Mercatus Center.
5:55pm EDT: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) spoke about the Virginia Institute for Public Policy and the CO2 Coalition and the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation and mentioned DeSmogBlog's research in his #WebOfDenial speech. He also talked about the funding from Donors Capital Fund and Donors Trust to denier organizations.
5:40pm EDT: Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke about the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI),Willie Soon and Christopher Monckton's Hitler Youth outrage and claims to have a cure for AIDS and other "completely made up" Monckton-isms.
5:25pm EDT: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse spoke about the #WebOfDenial and the $700 billion in global subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, annually. He highlighted the work of Drexel University professor Robert Brulle to expose the climate change counter movement and what the Senators are calling the climate #WebOfDenial.
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5:15pm EDT: Sen. Tom Udall spoke about the front groups Greening Earth Society and the Information Council on the Environment (ICE) and the web of denial.
5:10pm EDT:Sen. Christopher Coonsspoke about the historical denial efforts of The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC)
5pm EDT: Sen. Cardin spoke about the attacks on climate science by the defunct group Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy which received funding from ExxonMobil and the tobacco industry. He was introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who was thanked for leading this effort. Whitehouse delivered his 144th statement on the need for climate action and discussed the influence of the web of denial blocking action.
Update 4:30pm EDT: Senator Reid kicked off the action on #WebOfDenial, railing against the Koch Brothers and Exxon for dishing out millions to fund climate denial organizations. Reid named Heartland Institute, Cato Institute and Americans For Prosperity, among others. You can watch the action on C-SPAN2.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23052019/carbon-pricing-microsoft-pepsi-stonyfield-corporate-lobbying-congress-climate-change-solutions
An epic quest loomed Wednesday before the largest gathering of business leaders in a decade to advocate for climate action on Capitol Hill.
Could they find a single Republican in the U.S. Senate to take up the cause of carbon pricing?
The answer appeared to be: "Not yet."
Officials from Microsoft, Nike, Pepsi, eBay, Exelon, Gap, Levi's, Mars and Tesla were among more than 75 business leaders making the case for a national price on carbon. They scheduled 80 meetings with lawmakers and staff, half of them with Republicans. Lawmakers and their aides ducked behind closed doors to confer with members of the delegation throughout the day.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who introduced bipartisan carbon tax legislation in the last Congress and would like to do so again, set up one roundtable meeting between his colleagues andsix CEOs with a ground rule that he wouldn't name which members of Congress came to hear the pitch.(The bill he introduced last session put a fee on emissions of greenhouse gases and paid the revenues back to the public as a so-called "dividend.")
"By offering an invitation to come have an off-the-record conversation with CEOs, I was partly recognizing that it is politically challenging or sensitive to have conservative Republicans in a room talking about a price on carbon," Coons said. "And I'm trying to find a way to move that conversation forward."
One Republican who is seen by some as a hope for GOP climate leadership did stop and speak briefly with a reporter outside the door on his way out of a half-hour session with CEOs.
"I think we're a long way from legislation of that character at this stage," saidSen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) of their plea for congressional action.
Although Romney maintained a skeptical stance on climate during his 2012 presidential run, his more recent statements show openness to addressing climate change—including a 2017 Tweetpraising the carbon fee-and-dividend proposal by the Climate Leadership Council, a coalition of businesses and environmental groups. But Romney, who represents astate where coal is the state rock,was not ready to commit to any view on what Congress should be doing.
"They made a number of important points about creating incentives for the various industries to consider a carbon-friendly approach as opposed to a less carbon-friendly approach, and creating pricing mechanisms that would encourage them to emit less carbon," Romney said.
Climate Reports, Polls and a Republican Shift
The companies lobbying for carbon pricing together represented combined annual revenues of more than $2.5 trillion, according to the sustainability nonprofit group Ceres, which helped organizing the lobbying effort. Boston-based Ceres works with investors and companies to build networks of leaders on climate issues.
Dawn Martin, executive vice president of Ceres, said the business members of its policy network began pushing for the idea of a group lobbying effort on Capitol Hill after back-to-back climate science reports last fall—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 1.5 degrees report and the Fourth National Climate Assessment—issued stark warnings about the need to rein in greenhouse gases quickly.
"It's been a game-changer for people," said Martin. And while there isn't a GOP standard-bearer in Congress on carbon pricing, Martin said she has seen a shift.
"To have Republicans saying, 'We get it, but it's the wrong solution'—at least they get it now," she said. "And that has happened relatively overnight."
That was also the finding of a national survey released earlier this week by the GOP polling firm Luntz Global. The surveyfound that by a margin of 8 to 1, U.S. voters are more worried about climate today than they were a year ago. Luntz found majority support across party lines for the carbon fee-and-dividend proposal of the Climate Leadership Council, which commissioned the survey. Among Republicans under age 40, 75 percent supported the idea of pricing carbon and returning all revenue to households.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are acting as though they've seen similar polling. Fewer are now openly questioning the core science of climate change, but many are still steering clear of the idea of strong government action.
The Republican-controlled Senate Agriculture Committee, stacked with farm state lawmakers who have largely ignored the topic, held a hearing Tuesday focused on climate change in which several senators and witnesses raised the prospect of carbon markets. With the farm sector battered by a series of natural disasters and suffering under President Donald Trump's trade policies, the idea of possible farm revenue from carbon markets has appeal, and evenAgriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue voiced support for the idea.But Republican lawmakers, who have long fought anything that remotely hints of regulation on American farms, were wary.
"What I would hate to see is heavy handed government regulation," said Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. "I think we can do this on our own."
What Business Leaders Are Saying
Many Republicans are touting technology subsidies—not taxes—as the solution. At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing last week, several Republicans voiced support for increased incentives to spur innovation.
Hugh Welsh, president of DSM North America, a nutrition and health company, said he was telling lawmakers that government incentives are fine for sparking innovation, but not for scaling them up enough to make a difference on climate change. For example, DSM has developed a feed additive that the company says would reduce methane emissions from cows by 30 percent, but he said there's not enough incentive for farms to buy the product unless there is a market imperative to reduce greenhouse gases.
Jeff Eckel, CEO of the Annapolis, Md.-based clean investment firm Hannon Armstrong, is convinced he can make a business case for carbon pricing that should appeal to Republicans. To rely on subsidies and incentives alone, he said, "is a distinctly non-conservative economic position. If you want to go back to free market principles, you put a price on carbon and you stop socializing the cost" of climate change.
The business leaders said they understood, however, that no matter how much progress they made in their lobbying day on Capitol Hill, they were not likely to see legislation in the short-term with the Trump administration maintaining its stance of climate denial.
"We know where this administration is. It's living in a fact-free fantasy," said Gary Hirshberg, chairman of theorganic yogurt company Stonyfield Farm."But this is a matter of enormous urgency. What we need to help our colleagues and representatives understand is that this is not a partisan issue."
Said Welsh, "I think everybody understands that not much is going to get done in this Congress, in the polarized, divisive state we're in. But that's not a deterrent. That does not discourage us. It may be the first time we're up on the Hill, but it won't be the last time."
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Wind, Solar
Lawmakers led by Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, are pursuing a proposal to extend the MLP break to renewable energy companies such as wind and solar-power producers. Proponents in both chambers of Congress introduced bills last year that failed to win passage.
Coons plans to reintroduce the bill in March, said Ian Koski, a spokesman for the senator.
The estimate increased primarily because the latest data show MLP’s are generating more income than before, said Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the committee, in an e-mail.
The market value of the MLP industry has grown to about $370 billion, more than double its size as recently as 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Pretax income for about 90 MLP’s rose to a record $16.9 billion in 2011, Bloomberg News reported last month.
Last year, the committee estimated the cost of the MLP exemption at $1.4 billion for the four years ended in 2015. The new estimate pegs the cost during those same four years at about $5.4 billion.