Megan Wachspress
@meganwachspress.bsky.social
Legal teaching fellow, former climate attorney, parent, technically a doctor (of jurisprudence & social policy).
https://cooperativeoverlapping.substack.com/
https://cooperativeoverlapping.substack.com/
...Israel has done since, farsighted about the ultimate political goals of settler expansion in the West Bank and the isolation of Gaza. In short, in addition to being historically wrong, the article is wrong on the merits: allyship makes stronger coalitions for accomplishing political goals
November 11, 2025 at 12:21 AM
...Israel has done since, farsighted about the ultimate political goals of settler expansion in the West Bank and the isolation of Gaza. In short, in addition to being historically wrong, the article is wrong on the merits: allyship makes stronger coalitions for accomplishing political goals
...their language. Along those same lines, while I would not have defended the move to discontinue outings to Israel in the same way, I think it's fair to demand that any org, for any issue, refuse to collaborate in apartheid. That's not dilution, that's solidarity. And quite frankly, given what...
November 11, 2025 at 12:21 AM
...their language. Along those same lines, while I would not have defended the move to discontinue outings to Israel in the same way, I think it's fair to demand that any org, for any issue, refuse to collaborate in apartheid. That's not dilution, that's solidarity. And quite frankly, given what...
...groups to pass that state's landmark climate legislation, CEJA. If climate change is Club members' biggest priority, as the article says, there's a lot more power to be gained from working in coalition than from the single-issue local conservationists who objected to being asked to change...
November 11, 2025 at 12:21 AM
...groups to pass that state's landmark climate legislation, CEJA. If climate change is Club members' biggest priority, as the article says, there's a lot more power to be gained from working in coalition than from the single-issue local conservationists who objected to being asked to change...
...most coal plants in 2024. Huge team efforts, obviously, but totally at odds with the article's authors' claims that the climate movement shot itself in the foot by getting distracted in 2020-21. In Illinois, where I worked, the state Club was part of a huge coalition of racial justice & labor...
November 11, 2025 at 12:21 AM
...most coal plants in 2024. Huge team efforts, obviously, but totally at odds with the article's authors' claims that the climate movement shot itself in the foot by getting distracted in 2020-21. In Illinois, where I worked, the state Club was part of a huge coalition of racial justice & labor...
Oh and having done the hard-nosed econ arguments in political and regulatory spaces I am increasingly convinced gender is a surprisingly significant part of this whole story.
November 10, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Oh and having done the hard-nosed econ arguments in political and regulatory spaces I am increasingly convinced gender is a surprisingly significant part of this whole story.
I think it's more complicated than this (Averch-Johnson is a big problem) but have a long law review piece I'll be submitting next cycle about how decarbonization and public trust utility principles are interrelated.
November 10, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I think it's more complicated than this (Averch-Johnson is a big problem) but have a long law review piece I'll be submitting next cycle about how decarbonization and public trust utility principles are interrelated.
Goddamnit I hate that this is probably it, actually
November 10, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Goddamnit I hate that this is probably it, actually
But totally unrelated to 2020 BLM! NYTimes article attributes the effects of the later, unrelated conflict to BLM as a hit piece on DEI. (Also worth noting in 2023 they basically reinstated the old org structure)
November 8, 2025 at 9:18 PM
But totally unrelated to 2020 BLM! NYTimes article attributes the effects of the later, unrelated conflict to BLM as a hit piece on DEI. (Also worth noting in 2023 they basically reinstated the old org structure)
People were doing things, absolutely! And this was about the national energy reform and org infrastructure rather than local chapter stuff. Imagine a poorly thought out reorg where you lose talent and everyone gets new jobs they don't understand and must reinvent the wheel. Org performance drops.
November 8, 2025 at 9:18 PM
People were doing things, absolutely! And this was about the national energy reform and org infrastructure rather than local chapter stuff. Imagine a poorly thought out reorg where you lose talent and everyone gets new jobs they don't understand and must reinvent the wheel. Org performance drops.
On the external-facing stuff I actually lean carbon fundamentalist, but there are strong arguments for throwing in just to build coalitions *and* the whole piece just ignores the existence of environmental justice as a framework
November 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
On the external-facing stuff I actually lean carbon fundamentalist, but there are strong arguments for throwing in just to build coalitions *and* the whole piece just ignores the existence of environmental justice as a framework
I think there's a move made by places like the NYTimes to conflate managerial responses attempting to deflect (the sillier language stuff) with the worker demands, which were "salary equity study" and "older white volunteers should respect my expertise"
November 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
I think there's a move made by places like the NYTimes to conflate managerial responses attempting to deflect (the sillier language stuff) with the worker demands, which were "salary equity study" and "older white volunteers should respect my expertise"
@billcorcoran.bsky.social has a nuanced thread about this. I think Sierra Club's problematic racial history is pretty hard to deny and that there are really two concerns: is the org internally equitable and to what extent must the org embrace causes beyond conservation to effectively do that work
November 8, 2025 at 8:42 PM
@billcorcoran.bsky.social has a nuanced thread about this. I think Sierra Club's problematic racial history is pretty hard to deny and that there are really two concerns: is the org internally equitable and to what extent must the org embrace causes beyond conservation to effectively do that work
often the same people as those opposing better integrating racial justice commitments into all of our work. But extrapolating from local NIMBY battles to the full scope and resource commitments of the org is blinkered.
November 8, 2025 at 7:41 PM
often the same people as those opposing better integrating racial justice commitments into all of our work. But extrapolating from local NIMBY battles to the full scope and resource commitments of the org is blinkered.
We were in Grainbelt Express, PJM capacity market, more LNG export cases than I can count. And we're in every PUC proceeding involving a coal plant, more or less nationwide. And we had ton of membership support on all of this - the issue is a subset of that membership which, not coincidentally, were
November 8, 2025 at 7:41 PM
We were in Grainbelt Express, PJM capacity market, more LNG export cases than I can count. And we're in every PUC proceeding involving a coal plant, more or less nationwide. And we had ton of membership support on all of this - the issue is a subset of that membership which, not coincidentally, were
I don't want to take away from the amazing work done by Earth justice, NRDC, and UCS, but Sierra Club was part of every single major energy-related FERC case where an environmental group was involved during my tenure there, or made a strategic decision not to engage b/c we trusted our allies
November 8, 2025 at 7:41 PM
I don't want to take away from the amazing work done by Earth justice, NRDC, and UCS, but Sierra Club was part of every single major energy-related FERC case where an environmental group was involved during my tenure there, or made a strategic decision not to engage b/c we trusted our allies
As someone who did federal level energy reform work the second part of your statement is wildly incorrect. The Club is & was litigating grid decarb across the US and is leading tons of advocacy at FERC. Seven Counties was a response to a bunch of our pipeline victories
November 8, 2025 at 7:41 PM
As someone who did federal level energy reform work the second part of your statement is wildly incorrect. The Club is & was litigating grid decarb across the US and is leading tons of advocacy at FERC. Seven Counties was a response to a bunch of our pipeline victories
*bad leadership, yikes autocorrect
November 8, 2025 at 5:45 PM
*bad leadership, yikes autocorrect
To the other reply in this thread: my point is that the most important fact in these DEI moral panic pieces which is that the 2020 battles were happening under world historical conditions of isolation and stress and we shouldn't read the resulting conflict as discrediting the underlying claims
November 8, 2025 at 5:44 PM
To the other reply in this thread: my point is that the most important fact in these DEI moral panic pieces which is that the 2020 battles were happening under world historical conditions of isolation and stress and we shouldn't read the resulting conflict as discrediting the underlying claims
...while carefully obscuring the fact that the loudest voices opposing equity conversations were often the same resisting a focus on climate change and in fact (wrongly) implying the opposite by invoking the Beyond Coal campaign that Jealous eviscerated as a counterpoint to "woke-ism"
November 8, 2025 at 5:44 PM
...while carefully obscuring the fact that the loudest voices opposing equity conversations were often the same resisting a focus on climate change and in fact (wrongly) implying the opposite by invoking the Beyond Coal campaign that Jealous eviscerated as a counterpoint to "woke-ism"
It was. Basically this is an attempt to rehabilitate what was bog standard has leadership (eg hiring your friends with no subject matter expertise for upper mgmt) in 2022-onward by attributing the results to a 2020-21 internal conflict that was poorly handled but productive & necessary...
November 8, 2025 at 5:44 PM
It was. Basically this is an attempt to rehabilitate what was bog standard has leadership (eg hiring your friends with no subject matter expertise for upper mgmt) in 2022-onward by attributing the results to a 2020-21 internal conflict that was poorly handled but productive & necessary...
I think the genuine challenge that even outstanding leadership would have to navigate is balancing these two aspects (hiking club versus national-scope expert-informed policy shop) but recent leadership was not outstanding, to say the least.
November 8, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I think the genuine challenge that even outstanding leadership would have to navigate is balancing these two aspects (hiking club versus national-scope expert-informed policy shop) but recent leadership was not outstanding, to say the least.
Ah yes you've hit upon what I think is the real tension. About 20 years ago the Club voted to make climate change its primary issue and has been hugely effective in mobilizing local volunteers to fight climate issues at a local level. But there are contingents who, explicitly or not, resist this
November 8, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Ah yes you've hit upon what I think is the real tension. About 20 years ago the Club voted to make climate change its primary issue and has been hugely effective in mobilizing local volunteers to fight climate issues at a local level. But there are contingents who, explicitly or not, resist this