Departments

Energy and Environment

Charting an equitable and just path to a 100 percent clean economy with net-zero climate pollution, protection of 30 percent of lands and waters, and community investments

Solar photovoltaic power plant farm installation. (Getty/Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket)

What We're Doing

Pursuing environmental justice

Investing in equitable climate solutions that address the country’s legacy of environmental racism while working to ensure that all communities have the right to breathe clean air, live free of dangerous levels of toxic pollution, access healthy food, and share the benefits of a prosperous economy

Creating good clean jobs at home

Laying the groundwork for an urgent transition to a clean energy economy that works for all, creating millions of good-paying jobs with the opportunity to join a union, and improving the quality of life for all Americans in the process

Protecting nature

Addressing the linked climate and biodiversity crises by working with a diverse coalition of states, tribes, and local stakeholders to conserve 30 percent of all U.S. lands and water by 2030 and promote natural solutions to the climate crisis that benefit all communities

Restoring U.S. climate leadership on the global stage

By urging strong and equitable domestic ambition for the U.S. government, restoring the United States to international leadership on climate action through bold emission reductions targets and plans to get there, climate finance, and strategic partnerships across the world

InProgress is a weekly newsletter that keeps you up to date on key policies and empowers you to advocate for change.

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Featured Experts

All Members

Partners & Coalitions

The Energy and Environment Department engages with national, international, state, local, tribal, and environmental justice advocates to support the goals of climate, economic, environmental, and racial justice; bridge the gap between advocacy and action; and implement just and effective policies.

Climate Action Campaign

The CAC is a coalition of major national environment, environmental justice, and public health groups, working together to drive ambitious federal action to address the climate crisis.

Equitable and Just National Climate Platform

This coalition of environmental justice and national organizations advances economic, racial, and environmental justice to improve all communities’ well-being.

National Ocean Protection Coalition (NOPC)

The NOPC supports and implements ocean policies that balance a variety of environmental, commercial, industrial, recreational, and infrastructure interests.

Ocean Justice Forum

The forum works to create and advance an ambitious ocean policy agenda that promotes the goals of economic, racial, climate, and environmental justice.

Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign (ARDC)

The ARDC is a coalition of Alaska Native, climate, and conservation groups that works to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas drilling.

Featured work

About our department

The Energy and Environment Department will build agreement around the climate change and conservation crises, with a focus on the demonstrable impacts people feel now to build urgency to act. We will deepen and expand our coalition, both domestic and in key foreign countries, around the scope of the challenges, and we will work on our own and with our partners to create ambitious, equitable, and just policies to protect  lands; oceans; and the health, safety, and prosperity of all communities. This includes addressing systemic racism and economic inequality, reducing pollution and its cumulative impacts in communities of color and low-income communities, and measurably improving the lives of people in the near term through our policies as we address environmental challenges. We will work with partners in key foreign countries to build agreement on agendas for ambitious global action, which will further bolster domestic support for action at home. To achieve our goals, we must confront fossil fuel corporations and their allies that are standing in the way of Americans’ desire to safeguard the planet and the survival and well-being of all life on earth.

Latest

Compact View

The Nature Gap: Communities of Color and Those With Low Incomes Are Bearing the Brunt of America’s Nature Loss Report
Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of

The Nature Gap: Communities of Color and Those With Low Incomes Are Bearing the Brunt of America’s Nature Loss

New analysis reveals persistent environmental inequality in the United States. Communities of color are three times more likely than white communities to live in nature-deprived areas, and three-quarters of residents of these areas have low household incomes.

Fact Sheet: The Nature Gap: Communities of Color and Those With Low Incomes Are Bearing the Brunt of America’s Nature Loss Fact Sheet
A house is seen with a chemical plant in the background in Louisiana's

Fact Sheet: The Nature Gap: Communities of Color and Those With Low Incomes Are Bearing the Brunt of America’s Nature Loss

New analysis from Conservation Science Partners, the Center for American Progress, and Justice Outside reveals persistent inequality in nearby nature in the United States.

Fact Sheet: 5 Hidden Ways the Government Rigs the Market in Favor of Fossil Fuels Fact Sheet
The Houston skyline is seen from an oil refinery.

Fact Sheet: 5 Hidden Ways the Government Rigs the Market in Favor of Fossil Fuels

Contrary to the Trump administration’s claims, fossil fuel industries have benefited heavily from government subsidies in the form of direct tax incentives, steep discounts on public lands, reduced permitting barriers, government services, and lack of accountability for their pollution and public health impacts.

5 Hidden Ways the Government Rigs the Market in Favor of Fossil Fuels Report
Pumpjacks lift oil from wells at an oil field near Taft, California, on October 17, 2025.

5 Hidden Ways the Government Rigs the Market in Favor of Fossil Fuels

While renewables have received scrutiny from the Trump administration and congressional Republicans over subsidies, the administration’s narrative hides how fossil fuel industries reap the benefits of a distorted market that has made Americans pay more for polluting fossil energy for decades.

Declining Global Demand for Oil and Gas Benefits Americans, and U.S. Policy Can Accelerate It Report
An oil pumpjack is seen near a field of wind turbines.

Declining Global Demand for Oil and Gas Benefits Americans, and U.S. Policy Can Accelerate It

Through strategic policy tools including trade, security, and foreign development assistance, the United States can accelerate the peak in global oil and gas demand—resulting in cost savings, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and less reliance on volatile energy markets for Americans.

Courtney Federico

How the Trump Administration’s Embrace of Oil, Gas, and Chemical Industry Interests Will Endanger Children’s Health Report
Children climb on play equipment during sunset in Liberty State Park.

How the Trump Administration’s Embrace of Oil, Gas, and Chemical Industry Interests Will Endanger Children’s Health

The Trump administration’s actions to eliminate lifesaving environmental protections would allow corporate polluters to emit more toxins and chemicals, exposing more than 2 million kids to pollutants that increase the likelihood of lifelong health concerns—such as asthma, autism, ADHD, and cancer—while undercutting the administration’s own “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

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