Extreme Temperature Diary- Saturday July 26th, 2025/Main Topic: Sanders-Omar Bill Would Repeal Big Oil ‘Welfare’ – Guy On Climate
Dear Diary. For decades big oil corporations have been getting tax breaks and subsidies for their planet killing products. Now that Trump is in power both tax breaks and subsidies will continue to sour fossil fuel production and to line the pockets of oil and coal corporate presidents.
Looking forward to a better future without Trump, some progressive democrats are proposing that we should chuck millions of dollars’ worth of subsidies and tax breaks so that companies will transition faster to green energy production. Does this seem logical? You bet! But the planet does not operate on logic when confronted with greed. I applaud Senator Bernie Sander’s and Rep. Ilhan Omar’s proposals to start starving the fossil fuel bear, but when a wild animal that has a lot of teeth and claws gets cornered, watch out. I seriously doubt that their proposal will be adopted through 2028 until the democratic party regains both houses of Congress and the presidency. We will keep tabs on any news here, though.
Here are more details from Common Dreams:
commondreams.org
 U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks to a capacity crowd during an event at University of Wisconsin-Parkside on March 7, 2025 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Sanders-Omar Bill Would Repeal Big Oil ‘Welfare’ in Trump Budget Law“We are done letting fossil fuel executives write the rules while our communities pay the price,”said Rep. Ilhan Omar. Brad Reed
Jul 25, 2025
Two progressive lawmakers are teaming up to take down the subsidies for fossil fuel companies contained in the recently passed Republican budget law.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Friday introduced a bill that is an update of a 2012 Sanders bill to repeal the nearly $200 billion worth of federal subsidies and tax loopholes that they describe as “welfare” for oil and gas companies.
While the United States has long provided such subsidies to fossil fuel companies, Sanders and Omar noted that the GOP budget law recently signed by President Donald Trump adds roughly “$20 billion in new subsidies for coal, oil drilling, methane emissions, pipelines, and other false climate solutions.”
Among the budget law’s expenses singled out by the lawmakers are $1.48 billion for the production of metallurgical coal, up to $3 billion for power plant owners to transport carbon, a $447 million initiative aimed at helping fossil fuel companies avoid having to pay the corporate minimum tax, and $1.5 billion in tax breaks for methane-emitting polluters.
“Donald Trump has sold out the young people of America and future generations,” said Sanders. “Big Oil spent $450 million to elect Donald Trump and Republicans during the last election cycle. In return, the president has directed the full regulatory, legal, and financial weight of the federal government toward helping his fossil fuel executive friends get rich at the expense of a healthy and habitable planet for our kids and grandkids.”
Omar said that “we are done letting fossil fuel executives write the rules while our communities pay the price.”
“For decades, Big Oil has raked in billions in taxpayer handouts while destabilizing our climate,” she added. “The End Polluter Welfare Act will finally hold polluters accountable and eliminate these harmful subsidies once and for all. I’m proud to reintroduce this legislation with Sen. Sanders because our planet can’t wait, and neither can we.”
In addition to Omar and Sanders, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, as have more than 20 lawmakers in the House of Representatives. Hundreds of nonprofit advocacy organizations, including the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and Friends of the Earth U.S., have also endorsed the bill.
The GOP’s budget package tore up most of the renewable energy subsidies and initiatives that were passed by Democrats in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Brad Reed
Brad Reed is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
Full Bio >
Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports
Brutal weekend ahead!! Record highs possible in Tampa and all across the Bay Area through early next week. Highs 94-98 and peak feels like temps 108-115!! — Jeff Berardelli (@weatherprof.bsky.social) 2025-07-26T02:42:36.336Z
The #climate crisis and the #water crisis are part and parcel of the same thing.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j... — Peter Gleick (@petergleick.bsky.social) 2025-07-24T14:35:02.411Z
There’s a surprising climate solution right under your feet.
Mycorrhizal fungi help plants thrive, and sequester an enormous amount of carbon. But a new atlas shows that they need urgent protection.
grist.org/climate/ther...
#Nature #Mushrooms #Climate #Fungi #Plants #Environment — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-07-24T16:55:40.009Z
The International Court of Justice advisory opinion on #climate is a landmark moment for international law and climate change. Corina Heri (@cohelongo.bsky.social) unpacks the key features of the opinion here:
www.justsecurity.org/117723/icj-c...
#ICJ #ClimateChange #Environment — Just Security (@justsecurity.org) 2025-07-25T14:17:56.298Z
🧪 I’m just a biologist who fights the oil and gas industry but even I know you can’t build a pipeline without insurance.
This smart group 👇 knows shit about the insurance industry AND the oil and gas industry and is now on BlueSky and you should follow them. @insureoursurvival.bsky.social #climate — Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️🌈 (@ssteingraber1.bsky.social) 2025-07-24T17:18:59.482Z
The scope of the US heat dome for thus weekend into next week is immense, but equally impressive is the peak intensity. In magenta is where it’s record breaking for this time of year. In addition, it’s 3.5 standard deviations from the mean at 500mb.
Thanks @burgwx for the diagnostics map! — Jeff Berardelli (@weatherprof.bsky.social) 2025-07-25T16:46:42.760Z
Tropics starting to show signs of life. A # of models are highlighting a wave exiting Africa early next week trying to develop. This is the newest European ensemble spread. IF, and it's a big IF, this were to head towards the US it would not be near until ~10 days. The next name would be #dexter — Jeff Berardelli (@weatherprof.bsky.social) 2025-07-25T20:10:27.906Z
Trump is fast-tracking new coal mines — even when they don’t make economic sense.
In Appalachian Tennessee, mines shut down and couldn't pay their debts. Now a new one is opening under the guise of an "energy emergency."
grist.org/energy/trump...
#Climate #Coal #Economics #Policy #Politics — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-07-25T19:08:00.483Z
Great news! Court overturns massive #coal mine approval on climate grounds stopping 876 megatonnes of #carbondioxide for selling and burning overseas. #climate #auspol #nswpol
www.smh.com.au/environment/... — Blair Palese (@blairpalese.bsky.social) 2025-07-26T03:14:40.520Z
A celebrated startup promised Kentuckians green jobs. It gave them a ‘grueling hell on earth.’
The inside story of how AppHarvest's indoor farming scheme imploded — and took its blue-collar workforce down with it.
grist.org/agriculture/...
#Food #Agriculture #Kentucky #Climate #Farms #Farming — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-07-24T20:58:48.046Z
This is just what we need, but we need it even faster.
Vietnam setting bans on gasoline motorcycles next year (in downtown Hanoi), followed by cars
Ultimately, 72 million gasoline motorcycles will be banned, plus gasoline cars.
electrek.co/2025/07/20/v... — Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson.bsky.social) 2025-07-24T20:10:50.896Z
How the Klamath Dams Came Down.
grist.org/project/indi...
#Indigenous #Climate #Dams #Salmon #Stories #Writers — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-07-25T15:20:11.386Z
They've destroyed the #climate COP process in order to keep fossil fuels in the fast lane
Their next goal is to make sure there are no restrictions whatsoever on plastic production
www.theguardian.com/environment/... — Prof Bill McGuire (@profbillmcguire.bsky.social) 2025-07-23T09:21:20.249Z
This fuel is 50% plastic — and it’s slipping through a loophole in international waste law.
Environmental groups are concerned that rich countries are exporting plastic to poor countries in the form of “refuse-derived fuel."
grist.org/accountabili...
#Plastic #Climate #Oil #Pollution #Energy — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-07-24T20:51:46.051Z
Can plant populations evolve quickly enough to keep up with changing fire regimes?
Here is an interesting reading about how "mismatches between plants and emerging fire patterns can reduce fitness while driving selection and adaptation".
🧪 🌐 #Science #Ecology #Climate
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... — Manuela Casasoli (@manuelacasasoli.bsky.social) 2025-07-25T14:19:59.514Z
Georgia sterilization plants using toxic gas among those exempt from new rules.
Exemption allows facilities using ethylene oxide, a gas linked to health problems in humans, two more years to meet federal standards.
grist.org/regulation/g...
#Georgia #GA #Climate #Gas #Environment #Toxic — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-07-26T13:11:19.264Z
Inside the movement to recognize nature as an artist.
Musicians have long sampled nature sounds. Now, they have a way to share credit — and share their royalties with conservation efforts.
grist.org/looking-forw...
#Art #Artist #Climate #Nature #Music #Musicans — Grist (@grist.org) 2025-07-24T21:00:12.542Z
|
