Autum. Is. Here.
If you know me, you know this is my favorite time of year that isn’t December. And the first day of the Fall Equinox did not disappoint, delivering sweater weather to the DMV. With open windows, I’ll take it! The crisp change of seasons is so invigorating! (While equally, the gloom of the rain and gray skies earlier in the week made me sleepy. Or maybe it’s the novelty of being wrapped in a sweater after a hot humid summer.)
This week’s must read: We Need to Stop Talking Like Climate Change Is Partisan (TIME Magazine)
This op-ed co-penned by sociologist and author Dana R. Fisher and one of our all time favorite people, climate scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, struck a cord.
“A flood doesn’t knock on your door and ask who you voted for in the last election before it sweeps your house away, nor does wildfire smoke distinguish between Republicans and Democrats before it chokes the air,” they write, noting that because “polarized public discourse has made climate conversations more difficult,” people don’t always connect climate change with the issues we care about, the things we love. “Climate communication that isn’t polarizing and connects directly to what we already care about is exactly what we need; we just need more of it.”
To preserve America’s greatest idea, we have to maintain its assets
The Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 (GAOA) made a historic investment in protecting and maintaining popular federal lands in part by establishing the Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) to address billions of dollars in overdue maintenance needs. From 2021-2025, the LRF provided more than $9 billion to tackle priority repairs in national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, BLM areas and more. Unfortunately, the fund expired in August 2025, and the combined deferred maintenance backlog across federal land agencies is now estimated at over $35 billion.
As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, lawmakers have an opportunity to renew the fund and support continued repair of our most beloved landscapes and historic places. During its five-year lifespan, the LRF supported more than 1,500 Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service projects across all 50 states and D.C., reaching every corner of the country. Pew’s Rebecca Knuffke talks about the importance of renewing the LRF if we want to protect America’s greatest idea.
Rebecca joined The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Restore America’s Parks campaign in 2016 and helped advance the GAOA. With experience in strategic environmental advocacy, budget and appropriations, and public lands policy, she now works with Pew’s U.S. Conservation campaign to support reauthorization of the Legacy Restoration Fund. Before joining Pew, she worked at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where she focused on public lands policy, historic and cultural resources, and protection of lands sacred to Tribal Nations.
Coming up next week, my most delightful conversation with a newer member of the Mason 4C family, Doran Tucker. If you want to hear if he was able to connect national security and climate change to his grandfather, you’ll want to tune in.
Speaking of National Parks…
In a little bit of non-partisan fun, it’s Fat Bear Week, an annual contest judging which of the (humungous) brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park did the best job prepping for their winter hibernation. People like you can vote for the top bear in this single elimination contest.
Did you know a male brown bear can eat up to 30 salmon a day in its pursuit of fatness? And that they lose up to 1/3 their body weight duing the long winter sleep?
Go cast your vote!
Quote of the week
“A carbon tax would destroy the economy. But if you were to replace the income tax with a carbon tax, there would be no damage to the economy and you would clean the air.”
——Economist Art Laffer, who in 2008 co-authored a New York Times op-ed with Bob Inglis advocating for “a simple carbon tax coupled with an equal, offsetting reduction in income taxes or payroll taxes.” If you want to take a stroll down memory lane and revisit that piece, An Emissions Plan Conservatives Can Warm To, we’ve linked it for your reading pleasure.
Other news we’re following…
Permitting Reform: Despite positive outlook at National Clean Energy Week last week, it sounds like permitting reform is “worse than nearly dead. It sounds dead dead,” according to Utah Senator John Curtis.
Solar Energy: I was struck by new SEIA CEO and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty at National Clean Energy Week last week. Speaking at a Canary Media event at New York Climate Week this week, he said this truth:
” Eventually, the policymakers catch up to the facts. We have really good facts on our side. Some of the old narratives, some of the old spins … are out of date. If you bring policymakers to the current story with current facts, it goes something like this: Solar and storage is the most cost-effective form of energy in the country, without question.”
Bye, bye September…
See you in October!