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Companies using fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal are facing heavy pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. If they don’t, they could get hit with financial penalties or be completely shut down. In response, these corporations have come up with a treatment of sorts -- it’s called carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS. The idea is that the industry can continue operating as it always has, but as a caveat, it will install a system to strip carbon from emissions. The carbon will be funneled through pipelines deep into the ground, where it will be buried forever. As a result, plants can keep running, businesses rally on as usual, there’s less pollution in the air, everyone wins. Right? Not exactly. As Connect the Dots host Rob Verchick and his guests discuss in this episode, CCS is not nearly comprehensive enough to reduce emissions at a level and rate necessary to make a difference.

By the time the environmental justice movement began taking shape in the 1980s, communities of color had already been suffering from the disproportionate burdens of pollution for decades. Since then, evidence of racially discriminatory patterns in the distribution of environmental harms has only continued to mount.

A week after taking office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order “on tackling the climate crisis” that aims to face the challenge comprehensively and equitably. Biden has quickly appointed and seen confirmed a team of leaders who are committed to all aspects of this mission. Our country is finally on the cusp of meaningful climate action. The climate action train is so popular that even fossil fuel companies, which have historically sought to derail it, are now saying they’re on board. We should, of course, welcome all sincere collaborators; the fossil fuel industry is not among them.

As Maryland heads into the final stretch of a collective effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, it has inexplicably passed over its best opportunity in years to modernize regulation of industrial stormwater -- rain and snow that collects toxic pollution as it runs off factories, warehouses, scrap metal dealers, and other industrial sites. Earlier this year, Maryland released a proposed revision of its general water pollution permit, which limits the type and amount of pollutants that facilities can discharge into public waters and sets monitoring and reporting requirements to protect public and environmental health. Unfortunately, the state missed an important opportunity to bring stormwater regulation from the last century into the present -- but it’s not too late to change course.

April 30 marks President Biden's first 100 days in office. He's appointed a great climate team and is negotiating an infrastructure bill that focuses on climate change. With luck, those actions will produce major environmental gains down the road. There are also some solid gains in the form of actions that have already come to fruition. Here's where things stand.

In 2017, Puerto Rico was hit hard by two major hurricanes, Irma and Maria. First came Irma, a Category 5 storm that pummeled the island, leaving a trail of destruction. Less than two weeks later came Maria, another Category 5 storm that directly hit the island in what became the worst natural disaster in the U.S. territory's history. The storm moved directly across the island, knocking out electricity and inundating towns with floodwaters and mudslides. Historically, Puerto Rico's ability to recover from tropical storms and other disasters has depended on the federal government's efforts to ensure that communities get the funds they need to reignite economic growth and development. However, the Trump administration greatly slowed -- and deliberately obstructed -- Puerto Rico's progress in repairing and rebuilding the island's infrastructure. Thankfully, the Biden administration has reversed course by lifting Trump-era restrictions on disaster relief.

When I think about climate, I also think about jobs. Jobs that don’t expose workers to toxins, COVID-19, or abuse. Quality jobs for workers and communities that reduce our carbon footprint and facilitate our transition to a clean economy. Jobs with protections and security in a changing economy. We simply cannot protect public health and the environment without addressing workers’ rights. With this in mind, it's perhaps no coincidence that we’re hiring two new policy analysts to enhance our research and advocacy around climate and worker justice. We'd love to have your help finding great candidates for these positions. Please spread the word and maybe even consider applying to one of these jobs yourself! CPR encourages people with underrepresented backgrounds in the nonprofit sector to apply, including people of color.

President Joe Biden's April 28 speech to a joint session of Congress -- his first major address since his inauguration -- offers him a chance to outline and defend his policy priorities. He should use this opportunity to articulate a positive vision of regulation as an institution within our democracy and to champion the crucial role it plays in promoting the public interest.

Making Congress functional again is having a moment. The debates over ending the filibuster and legislation to prevent hyper-partisan congressional districts have received the most attention in this space so far. But lawmakers did quietly take an important step forward on mending congressional dysfunction when they reinstated the practice of earmarking the federal budget, reversing a decade-old ban. Lawmakers should build on this fix to the budget process by cracking down on "poison pill" appropriations riders, a gimmick that proliferated in the vacuum left by the earmark ban.