WASHINGTON, September 12, 2025 – Like all of us, there are a lot of emails in my inbox, and many of them are calls to action urging me to do something (you might receive plenty from EDF and EDF Action!). Yesterday, I read one that moved me to tears. The subject line from my colleague Ali at Moms Clean Air Force urged me to “Be Like Hazel.”
Hazel Chandler has been a proud Moms Clean Air Force member and organizer and is a co-founder of a group called Elders Climate Action. She was profiled by People Magazine a couple summers ago, and other coverage of Hazel’s work and the challenges she’s faced have referenced that Phoenix is so hot that she had no choice but to carry oven mitts in her purse so she wouldn’t burn her hands as she walked down the stairs. A couple of months ago, I was saddened to learn that Hazel had moved to hospice care. She has fought valiantly against cancer for over a decade. My hopes for Hazel were centered around wishing her and her family peace and comfort in what seemed likely to be among her final days.
So I was stunned to learn that Hazel had testified from hospice care during an open hearing that the EPA held to take public comment on their decision to repeal the endangerment finding, which has underpinned many of the limits placed on pollution from carbon emissions. The courage and perseverance required for Hazel to offer her testimony is remarkable, and it’s hard to watch her struggle to deliver her powerful message, but it is well worth watching.
I’ve watched it repeatedly since it was shared with me and have taken the admonition to be like Hazel to heart. Earlier this year, EDF Action’s Board formed its first new standing committee, our engagement committee, since I’ve been here. Its focus is on challenging ourselves to think about how and where we show up. I’m excited that next week, thanks to this committee’s leadership, a group of staff, volunteers, and board members will go as a group to knock doors for Abigail Spanberger, a champion on climate, clean energy, and resilience who will be a terrific Governor of Virginia if she wins the election this November. It won’t require anywhere near the level of effort that testifying took Hazel, but I know many of us will draw inspiration from her and understand that she’d agree that showing up matters.
This is a time of profound challenge to so much that we care about at the Federal level, with the latest developments coming since my last update including a senseless bureaucratic assault on large-scale wind projects that are nearly completed. I won’t sugarcoat the threats that those efforts pose, but especially because of them, it’s important to highlight places where substantive progress is being made. Just yesterday, I learned that the Corpus Christi City Council voted against advancing a $1.2 billion desalination plant that was at the heart of fossil fuel expansion plans in the state. A few years ago, there wasn’t a single councilor willing to oppose the project. EDF Action’s Texas team has worked on this issue alongside a number of partners for years. I’m also optimistic that two meaningful priority bills might pass through the California legislature and reach the Governor’s desk before the legislative session’s adjournment at the end of this week. It’s been fun watching and trying to pitch in as our California team tries to get both Western Grid Integration and Cap and Trade reauthorization fixed and over the finish line, and I’m hopeful that they will both move forward and become law.