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Showing 963 posts and replies from Sheldon Whitehouse.
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- SW
They’re ahead of us knowing that climate change is increasing their costs. And they’re ahead of us knowing that fossil fuel has too much influence. And they’re ahead of us knowing that an oligarchy of billionaire CEOs and wealthy donors and large corporations is a problem.
- SW
So if we wanted to have a fight about the fossil fuel billionaire CEOs, the wealthy fossil fuel donors and the large fossil fuel corporations who wield too much influence and do too much damage, once again we’re pushing on an open door. The people are actually ahead of us.
- SW
2. Then, if you look at the industries whose influence people are most concerned about, the top one is oil and gas companies, numero uno. People are sick of the fossil fuel industry having too much influence (that’s bad news for fossil-fuel sock-puppet Republicans, btw).
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- SW
1: People are really concerned about undue political influence, and what they’re most worried about is billionaire CEOs, wealthy donors and large corporations — Trump’s people, in a nutshell; the dark money crowd. People are sick of them having too much influence.
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- SW
On this not-fighting-about-climate-change stuff we’ve been seeing, here’s some relevant new polling. 🧵
- SW
Senator Johnson objected.
quote:at://did:plc:qqixzm5pwprzdnkbh2hglpax/app.bsky.feed.post/3mloppt36ak2n
- SW
I’m on the Senate Floor preparing to ask my colleagues if we can all agree on this one, simple truth: our oceans are warming.
- SW
Americans are concerned about costs and corruption. Polluters are on the wrong side of both. I’m headed to the Senate floor to deliver my 307th Time to Wake Up speech. www.youtube.com/live/mfh-tL0...
link:https://www.youtube.com/live/mfh-tL0g46Q?si=7G_jzzsdQefBdoOR
- SW
Trump: “I don't think about Americans’ financial situation.” Well, that much is certainly clear.
quote:at://did:plc:iu4j537hox5huj4bwnwgub4z/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlof2b4eqh2b
- SW
IMO, another big fat Trumpian favor for the fossil fuel industry. Maybe paired with our excess profits clawback bill this makes sense, but not while they’re busy gorging themselves at the public’s expense.
link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/11/trump-suspend-gas-tax-iran/
- SW
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- SW
(10) When the reckoning comes (and it will), our sleeping watchmen will be less culpable than the creeping burglars, but not without sin. It matters to speak up now about this massive enterprise of climate denial fraud and dark money corruption.
- SW
(9) While they were at it, the fossil-fuel billionaires packed and captured the Supreme Court, so that its every regulatory decision helps the polluters and their “free-to-pollute” business model. Look no further than the leaked Clean Power Plan memos ONLY considering polluter costs.
- SW
(8) On our side, we have almost no infrastructure to track and expose that armada. The creepy front groups are played like piano keys, and most people don’t even see there’s a piano.
- SW
(7) A massive creepy bestiary of influence has emerged to prey on us: superPACs, twinned 501c3s/501c4s, identity-launderers like Donors Trust, captive business groups like the Chamber and NAM — a corrupting armada of literally hundreds of front groups.
- SW
(6) But those of us in politics sure do. Bipartisanship on climate, common beforehand, was killed dead by the 2010 Citizens United decision when it unleashed all that fossil fuel dark money. Politics has never been the same.
- SW
(5) An unjustified subsidy that big creates a massive motive to meddle in politics. If fossil fuel spends $70 billion a year on corrupt political influence, it’s still a 10-1 payback on their investment. You don't see it all because so much is hidden “dark money.”
- SW
(4) If that subsidy weren’t protected by politics, it would create a big incentive for products to reduce the harm. A $100/ton pollution fee creates a $99/ton incentive to innovate and reduce the harm. The “free-to-pollute” subsidy kills that incentive.
- SW
(3) As a subsidy, this is a big one: the International Monetary Fund pegs it north of $700 billion per year, just in the United States. That means $700 billion in harm annually we all have to absorb.
- SW
(2) “Pollute-for-free” has no economic, moral or environmental justification. Even Milton Friedman taught that “negative externalities” like pollution need to be in the price of the product, or it’s a subsidy.
- SW
Let’s remember: (1) the fossil fuel industry is desperate to pollute for free; if they can’t pollute for free, their business model collapses. 🧵
- SW
Shared this thread with a friend in the investment space (no greenie!), and here’s what he had to say: “In ten years, no one will buy a house without thinking about climate change-induced risks and costs … It is a future that is rapidly coming into focus.” Exactly.
quote:at://did:plc:qqixzm5pwprzdnkbh2hglpax/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlc6u2wez22b
- SW
They’re used to false facts. How about Citizens United’s “no need to worry about corruption, all the political money we just released is going to be transparent: you’ll know who the donors are”?
link:https://newrepublic.com/post/210174/samuel-alito-bad-data-ruling-voting-rights-act
- SW
And, of course, then they lied about it (lying to Congress is SOP for Trumpsters):
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- SW
Trump’s bogus FEMA in action: www.politico.com/news/2026/05...
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- SW
Happy Mother’s Day! 💐
- SW
Trump is granting polluters’ wishlists to poison our air with cancer-causing chemicals, no questions asked. The No Passes for Polluters Act would stop this corruption. www.propublica.org/article/clea...
link:https://www.propublica.org/article/clean-air-act-exemptions-trump-emails
- SW
Equal parts gangster and gong show, playing carelessly with people’s lives. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/05/09/doj-sees-fallout-after-push-prosecute-former-fbi-director-james-comey/
- SW
Yet Dems shy away from the issue, despite voting 100% to get rid of dark money when given the chance. (Republicans 100% defend dark money.) www.politico.com/news/2026/05...
link:https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/09/poll-americans-say-too-much-money-in-politics-00912455
- SW
Should be us. This is the price of the corrupt Trump administration decision to cede this entire industry to the Chinese, just for added gasoline sales for his big fossil fuel donors. Corruption has a cost. American industries will pay.
link:https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/giant-battery-company-900-miles-range/
- SW
10. Last, but definitely not least: It’s fun as hell to fight the bad guys!! So let’s saddle up for a big ol’ fight.
- SW
If we want to shed those labels, the best way to do that is to wage a big ol’ fight; better still against bad ol’ villains; better still if the fight is against fraud and corruption to protect families from being swindled.
- SW
9. Many Americans think Democrats are “weak” and “don’t fight.”
- SW
We shouldn’t leave the villains out of the story. Every story is better with a villain, and these are first-class villains. We would do well to talk loudly about the villainy.
- SW
8. Fossil fuel’s climate denial fraud operation and dark money corruption operation are villains right out of Central Casting (cue the moustache twirl).
- SW
My four-year-old grandchild knows that 9 is less than 18, but Trumpsters lie about this constantly. BTW: People don’t like liars.
- SW
7. Or you can look at power contracts like Revolution Wind’s, whose offshore wind power by contract comes on our grid at 9 cents per kWh, into a grid that averages 18 cents per kWh.
- SW
(Add enough clean power to the grid, and those big polluting units don’t run at all — because they cost too much.)
- SW
6. It’s easy to prove that clean is cheaper: grids run the least expensive power first, and what they run first is clean power. When that runs out, they go up their “generation stack” to more-expensive fossil fuel units.
- SW
Every blocked kilowatt of clean energy comes instead from fossil fuel. Customers’ rates go WAY up, and all that extra cost families pay goes to (cue drumroll) Trump’s corrupt fossil fuel donors. It’s on purpose.
- SW
5. Electricity costs are slamming Americans, as a result of a not-so-covert Trump plan to stall or block inexpensive clean energy.
- SW
Be prepared, is the motto. Truth-teller is the role. Which means telling it.
- SW
4. Insurance meltdowns happen “gradually, then all at once.” When “all at once” hits (and it will), Democrats will want to have built a sturdy foundation of honesty and credibility to contrast with Republican and fossil-fuel lies.
- SW
In Florida, 46% of Trump voters (yes, Trump voters!) see the link between their insurance meltdown and “climate change.” The public gets it. We push on an open door.
- SW
3. The connection to climate change is obvious. 92% of Texans are concerned about home insurance cost; 66% see the link to “climate-driven extreme weather.”
- SW
The economic pain, bad already, will widen and worsen. One warning is a $25 trillion hit to global real estate markets. That’s Crash-level stuff.
- SW
2. Insurance meltdown cascades into mortgage markets and property values. Florida, first and worst into this mess, now leads the country in lost residential property value.
- SW
Behind the cost impact is huge hassle factor, as insurers abandon customers and whole markets, and families suddenly face massive “get new insurance” problems.
- SW
1. In some states, the top economic issue is the home insurance meltdown. Start with a big cost, add a huge increase, and you get big cost impact on families.
- SW
Top 10 reasons why Democrats need to talk about climate change now: 🧵