National Analysis

FAST COMPANY 06/01/17 By Michael Shank and US Congressman Steve Cohen This is the opposite of winning. Forget, for a moment, the environmental implications that come with undercutting an unprecedented climate commitment by the international community, such as beach erosion, the loss of coastal cities, famine-causing droughts, and more severe […]

FAST COMPANY 04/05/17 By Michael Shank and Maxine Bédat  You may not realize it, but you have a lot of political power–not at the voting booth, but in the checkout line. In this new age of consumer activism, buyers are sending strong signals to American companies–with impressive results. No longer […]

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT 3/27/17 By Michael Shank President Donald Trump is missing a major market opportunity in loosening fuel economy standards, a direction decided in Detroit last week. Trump, apparently, wants America to miss out on the global growth of energy efficient vehicles. The numbers speak for themselves. […]

NEWSWEEK 03/17/17 By Michael Shank and U.S. Congressman Hank Johnson As thousands of Native Americans protested across the country this weekend, led in part by the Standing Rock Sioux, taking the protest to the White House and to Trump Tower, it’s important to remember that Standing Rock was recently a […]

HUFFINGTON POST 03/09/17 By Michael Shank America has a dangerous and deadly addiction to plastic. If recent trends in New York State are any indication, it’s not going away anytime soon, thanks, in part, to multi-million-dollar lobbying by the plastic manufacturing industry. Yet the recent showdown over plastic bag fees […]

THE HILL 02/17/17 By Michael Shank and Danya Hakeem This year is set to witness one the greatest rollbacks of environmental protections in Republican history. Even if Scott Pruitt hadn’t been confirmed this week as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) administrator, Republicans are already easing the restrictions on coal mining […]

TIME 02/17/17 By Michael Shank and U.S. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke As President Donald Trump’s Cabinet confirmation hearings continue, it’s shocking to see how far the President has deviated from Republican presidential precedent when it comes to selecting his Cabinet. President Richard Nixon, for example, after reading and reacting to the […]

THE HILL 01/09/17 By Michael Shank and Former US Congressman Michael Honda Meryl Streep concisely summed up America’s increasingly violent temperament at the Golden Globes Awards ceremony this week, “When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.” Streep said it plainly and powerfully. “Disrespect invites disrespect. […]

HUFFINGTON POST 12/16/16 By Michael Shank This week, in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks for Departments of State, Energy, and Interior, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, mayors from Canada, Europe, Latin America and Australia sent a sharply worded letter to mayors of American cities, noting that […]

HUFFINGTON POST 12/07/16 By Michael Shank As President-Elect Donald Trump stacks his cabinet with climate deniers – including Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general suing the Environmental Protection Agency, to head the EPA – it’s helpful to keep reminding the country that not too long ago Republicans were acknowledging and […]