theintercept--2020-08-07--ICE Resisted Coronavirus Testing to Avoid Releasing Detainees

of July 1 , four people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody slept on the floor of the intake room at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in Bakersfield , California .
A detainee who arrived with them had tested positive for Covid-19 , but there was no room in the detention center — which is run by the private prison company GEO Group — to isolate people exposed to the coronavirus .
The next morning , the four people were gone , transferred along with others to another facility .
“ Looks like we ’ re dodging a bullet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrote in an email on July 2 .
If new detainees continued to arrive at Mesa Verde , and people inside continued to test positive for Covid-19 , ICE would have no choice but to limit street arrests or release detainees to make room for people to isolate .
But only if people were tested .
On May 27 , Russell Hott , acting assistant director for ICE custody management , sent out a document outlining ICE ’ s new nationwide Covid-19 testing plan .
In response , San Francisco ICE field director @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exempt .
“ Hi – we submitted some concerns about being a test place , ” Jennings wrote in an email to Hott .
“ We have no place to cohort anyone who refuses , is positive , etc – were we Removed from the list ?
” Hott reassured Jennings .
“ Henry [ Lucero ] backed away from the full testing , ” he wrote back .
Lucero is ICE ’ s executive associate director for enforcement and removal .
Internal emails released as part of a lawsuit against ICE show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could have tested everyone in Mesa Verde for Covid-19 but chose not to , knowing that to make room for positive cases to isolate , they would need to drastically reduce the total number of people held in the facility .
( The emails were first reported by the Los Angeles Times . )
On Thursday , a federal judge ordered ICE officials to rapidly test everyone held at Mesa Verde on weekly basis and to stop taking new detainees .
ICE brought more people into Mesa Verde than it freed during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the legal coalition suing the federal government over conditions in the facility .
Bree Bernwanger , a senior attorney at the Lawyers ’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area , which is part of the suit , said testing would interfere with ICE ’ s mission of detention and deportation .
“ ICE does not want to test , didn ’ t test , and , essentially , stuck its head in the sand , because they didn ’ t want to release people from detention , ” Bernwanger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ declined to comment , citing pending litigation .
Mesa Verde , which currently holds about 120 people , has just two medical isolation cells .
Both are regularly filled with detainees on suicide watch and in protective custody , according to emails between ICE officials .
Officials feared that broad testing would reveal positive Covid-19 cases which the facility was not equipped to handle , so they preferred to avoid testing altogether , emails show .
ICE had already nixed a proposal to test all detainees in Mesa Verde because they had nowhere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brooke Sanchez Othon , a clinical specialist at Wellpath , a health care contractor with ICE , wrote in a July 6 email .
Comprehensive testing in the facility would create “ housing issues , ” she said .
“ Completing the testing is not the issue it is just what we will need to do with the results once they are received.
” Mesa Verde would be unable to isolate more than one person who tested positive , warned ICE Assistant Field Office Director Alexander Pham .
“ If/when a second positive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a June 4 email , “ there will likely be no logistical way to cohort/isolate which would then require the clearance of an entire housing unit/dorm in order to accommodate the positive case cohorts.
” “ Clearance ” meant letting people go — something ICE had been reluctant to do .
If Mesa Verde was required to implement widespread testing , the facility would have to release “ low risk ” detainees and halt new arrests to make room for quarantined detainees , Pham wrote in an email on May 27 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he wrote , they ’ d have to “ let the lows go and don ’ t take anymore in.
” A week later , GEO Group sent out a plan for comprehensive Covid-19 testing .
Pham explained in an email that the plan would ultimately force ICE to release large numbers of detainees from Mesa Verde .
ICE could “ identify the least egregious cases for release , ” to make room for a designated isolation dorm which could hold everyone who tested positive , Pham wrote in the June 4 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ egregious ” detainee tested positive , ICE would be unable to release anyone in their cohort , he explained .
Mesa Verde officials would instead have to release an estimated 25 to 40 of the “ more egregious ” detainees .
ICE knew testing and isolating for Covid-19 would disrupt the process of detention and deportation .
On May 26 , Nathan Allen , the GEO Group warden , wrote that the acting field office director “ would rather not have staff testing ” because it could interfere with Enforcement and Removal Operations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ ICE ’ s priority is containing people and deporting them , ” Bernwanger said .
“ They refuse to take actions to protect people in their custody from Covid-19 , because doing so would prevent them from continuing to detain and deport people.
” Covid-19 cases have spiked at Mesa Verde this week : According to Bernwanger , 10 detainees and 16 staff members have tested positive so far and two of four dorms are still awaiting results .
Advocates say the true number of infected people is likely higher than ICE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ written August 6 , people detained in Mesa Verde wrote that as recently as last week , ICE continued to transfer people into the facility , “ straight from prisons with massive COVID-19 outbreaks , without being quarantined or even tested for the virus , ” they wrote .
“ Dozens of people in our dorms are showing symptoms of COVID-19 , and are desperate for care.
” ICE and GEO “ knew that if they didn ’ t do testing , Covid-19 would be likely to spread , ” Sean Riordan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Northern California and one of the lead attorneys on the case , said in an interview .
“ And yet , they decided not to do broad and regular testing , because they didn ’ t want to have to deal with the truth .
”

On the evening of July 1, four people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody slept on the floor of the intake room at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in Bakersfield, California. A detainee who arrived with them had tested positive for Covid-19, but there was no room in the detention center — which is run by the private prison company GEO Group — to isolate people exposed to the coronavirus. The next morning, the four people were gone, transferred along with others to another facility.
“Looks like we’re dodging a bullet,” Mesa Verde warden Nathan Allen wrote in an email on July 2.
If new detainees continued to arrive at Mesa Verde, and people inside continued to test positive for Covid-19, ICE would have no choice but to limit street arrests or release detainees to make room for people to isolate.
But only if people were tested.
On May 27, Russell Hott, acting assistant director for ICE custody management, sent out a document outlining ICE’s new nationwide Covid-19 testing plan.
In response, San Francisco ICE field director David Jennings suggested that Mesa Verde be exempt. “Hi – we submitted some concerns about being a test place,” Jennings wrote in an email to Hott. “We have no place to cohort anyone who refuses, is positive, etc – were we Removed from the list?”
Hott reassured Jennings. “Henry [Lucero] backed away from the full testing,” he wrote back. Lucero is ICE’s executive associate director for enforcement and removal.
Internal emails released as part of a lawsuit against ICE show that the agency and GEO Group officials could have tested everyone in Mesa Verde for Covid-19 but chose not to, knowing that to make room for positive cases to isolate, they would need to drastically reduce the total number of people held in the facility. (The emails were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.)
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered ICE officials to rapidly test everyone held at Mesa Verde on weekly basis and to stop taking new detainees. ICE brought more people into Mesa Verde than it freed during the week of July 27, according to the legal coalition suing the federal government over conditions in the facility.
“Completing the testing is not the issue it is just what we will need to do with the results.”
Bree Bernwanger, a senior attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is part of the suit, said testing would interfere with ICE’s mission of detention and deportation. “ICE does not want to test, didn’t test, and, essentially, stuck its head in the sand, because they didn’t want to release people from detention,” Bernwanger said.
ICE and GEO Group both declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Mesa Verde, which currently holds about 120 people, has just two medical isolation cells. Both are regularly filled with detainees on suicide watch and in protective custody, according to emails between ICE officials.
Officials feared that broad testing would reveal positive Covid-19 cases which the facility was not equipped to handle, so they preferred to avoid testing altogether, emails show.
ICE had already nixed a proposal to test all detainees in Mesa Verde because they had nowhere to put people who tested positive, Brooke Sanchez Othon, a clinical specialist at Wellpath, a health care contractor with ICE, wrote in a July 6 email. Comprehensive testing in the facility would create “housing issues,” she said. “Completing the testing is not the issue it is just what we will need to do with the results once they are received.”
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
Mesa Verde would be unable to isolate more than one person who tested positive, warned ICE Assistant Field Office Director Alexander Pham. “If/when a second positive case is identified,” Pham wrote in a June 4 email, “there will likely be no logistical way to cohort/isolate which would then require the clearance of an entire housing unit/dorm in order to accommodate the positive case cohorts.”
“Clearance” meant letting people go — something ICE had been reluctant to do. If Mesa Verde was required to implement widespread testing, the facility would have to release “low risk” detainees and halt new arrests to make room for quarantined detainees, Pham wrote in an email on May 27. “If our hand is forced,” he wrote, they’d have to “let the lows go and don’t take anymore in.”
A week later, GEO Group sent out a plan for comprehensive Covid-19 testing. Pham explained in an email that the plan would ultimately force ICE to release large numbers of detainees from Mesa Verde.
ICE could “identify the least egregious cases for release,” to make room for a designated isolation dorm which could hold everyone who tested positive, Pham wrote in the June 4 email. But if a “less egregious” detainee tested positive, ICE would be unable to release anyone in their cohort, he explained. Mesa Verde officials would instead have to release an estimated 25 to 40 of the “more egregious” detainees.
ICE knew testing and isolating for Covid-19 would disrupt the process of detention and deportation. On May 26, Nathan Allen, the GEO Group warden, wrote that the acting field office director “would rather not have staff testing” because it could interfere with Enforcement and Removal Operations, ICE’s deportation program.
“They decided not to do broad and regular testing, because they didn’t want to have to deal with the truth.”
“ICE’s priority is containing people and deporting them,” Bernwanger said. “They refuse to take actions to protect people in their custody from Covid-19, because doing so would prevent them from continuing to detain and deport people.”
Covid-19 cases have spiked at Mesa Verde this week: According to Bernwanger, 10 detainees and 16 staff members have tested positive so far and two of four dorms are still awaiting results. Advocates say the true number of infected people is likely higher than ICE statistics reveal.
In a collective letter written August 6, people detained in Mesa Verde wrote that as recently as last week, ICE continued to transfer people into the facility, “straight from prisons with massive COVID-19 outbreaks, without being quarantined or even tested for the virus,” they wrote. “Dozens of people in our dorms are showing symptoms of COVID-19, and are desperate for care.”
ICE and GEO “knew that if they didn’t do testing, Covid-19 would be likely to spread,” Sean Riordan, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California and one of the lead attorneys on the case, said in an interview. “And yet, they decided not to do broad and regular testing, because they didn’t want to have to deal with the truth.”


theintercept--2020-08-07--Senators Push for Free Prison Calls in Next Coronavirus Relief Bill

has put into sharp relief an issue criminal justice reformers have been raising for years : the astronomical rates that prison-phone corporations charge for phone and video calls to incarcerated individuals .
Now , as Congress debates the next coronavirus stimulus deal , some lawmakers are pushing for provisions to make such calls free .
On Thursday , 17 Democratic senators , led by Sens .
Amy Klobuchar and Tammy Duckworth , sent a letter to Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer urging them to make this a federal priority in the next package .
“ Before the pandemic , more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incarcerated loved one struggled to pay for housing and food , and one in 29 children had a parent incarcerated , ” the letter stated .
“ In addition , one in three families with an incarcerated loved one went into debt in order to stay connected with them , and women shouldered 87 percent of these costs .
Now , as many facilities have suspended in-person visits and families face layoffs , furloughs , and evictions due to the pandemic , these calls are more necessary—and cost prohibitive—than ever.
” In some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can run as high as $ 25 , a cost that was untenable even before the current economic crisis .
The Federal Communications Commission currently has jurisdiction to regulate interstate calls , but more than 80 percent of prison phone calls are in-state , meaning the vast majority of calls for the 2 million incarcerated individuals across the U.S. could not be regulated unless Congress changed the law — a challenge highlighted in the senators ’ letter .
“ Without action from Congress to address the rates for in-state calls , families will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The pandemic and the nationwide protests for racial justice following George Floyd ’ s murder brought significant attention to conditions in U.S. jails and prisons , where there is a disproportionate rate of Covid-19 cases as compared to the broader U.S population ; one recent estimate put it at 5.5 times higher .
At the same time , the pandemic has made it even harder for incarcerated people to communicate with their loved ones , due to the combined stresses of expensive phone calls and the lack of in-person visitation .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been quietly chipping away at for months .
FCC announced it would act to address predatory in-state calling rates , but after telecom companies sued , FCC Chair Ajit Pai , a Trump appointee , in 2017 stopped defending his agency ’ s right to regulate those calls .
Later that year , a federal court ruled that the FCC has the authority to regulate interstate prison phone calls but not in-state ones .
In June 2019 , Duckworth , along with Sens .
Rob Portman , R-Ohio ; Cory Booker , D-N.J. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Markey , D-Mass .
; and Angus King , I-Maine , introduced a bill to expand the FCC ’ s authority to regulate prison phone calls .
The Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act is named in honor of Martha Wright , a woman who filed a lawsuit in 2000 against the private prison where her grandson was living , saying the costs of calling him were unconscionably steep .
The court ruled that Wright ’ s complaint was an issue for the FCC to handle , so she then moved to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2013 , the agency finally acted , voting to cap rates for interstate phone calls in jails and prisons .
Little changed following the introduction of Duckworth ’ s bill last year , but then the pandemic hit .
In the first stimulus package authorized by Congress , to advocates ’ surprise , language was included to make all phone calls free in federal facilities for the duration of the national emergency .
“ It wasn ’ t clear who led the effort with the CARES Act … but after years of advocacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has its allies in Congress , and it paid off in a bizarre moment , ” said Bianca Tylek , the executive director of Worth Rises , a group focused on dismantling the prison industry .
“ Unfortunately , the downside of that bill is that it ’ s only for the duration of Covid.
” In late March , Rep. Bobby Rush , D-Ill. , introduced a House bill , the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act , which builds on Duckworth ’ s legislation .
In addition to expanding the FCC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ phone calls , Rush ’ s bill would also bar state and local government agencies from collecting commissions from prison phone calls and set interim rate caps during the pandemic .
It was included in the HEROES Act , a supplement to the CARES Act that was passed by the House in May , a measure Tylek called “ the most significant federal legislative vote on prison phone justice in history.
” Meanwhile in the Senate , Duckworth and Klobuchar continued to push on the issue .
In mid-April , Duckworth organized a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , urging Pai , the FCC chair , to pressure telecommunication providers to commit to reducing call rates in prisons and jails .
“ The FCC is uniquely positioned to seek commitments from these providers , ” the senators wrote .
“ We applaud the FCC ’ s efforts to encourage traditional providers to bolster connectivity for Americans impacted by the coronavirus , most notably through the Keep Americans Connected Pledge ; however , this effort does not adequately reflect the dynamics of prison and jail telecommunication systems.
” In May , Klobuchar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 27 other senators in sending a bicameral letter to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE urging them to provide free phone calls to detained people during the pandemic .
In the House , Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Logfren organized 50 colleagues to also sign on .
Then in July , Pai surprised advocates by coming out forcefully on the issue .
On July 16 , the FCC announced a new proposed rule to significantly lower the per-minute rate caps for interstate prison phone calls , from $ .21 ( prepaid ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 0.14 for calls from prisons and $ 0.16 for calls from jails .
The proposed rule would also cap rates for international prison phone calls for the first time .
In an accompanying blog post , Pai wrote , “ Not surprisingly , without effective regulation , rates for inmate calling services can be unjustly and unreasonably high and make it difficult for inmates and their loved ones to stay connected.
” Four days later , Pai sent a letter to the president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , urging the group to take action on the “ unjust and unreasonable rates ” of in-state prison phone calls , which he noted disproportionately hurt Black Americans .
In 33 states , rates are at least double the federal cap , and in 27 states , the first-minute charge can be up to 26 times higher than that of an interstate call .
In his letter Pai pointed to recent statements NARUC made following George Floyd ’ s killing about addressing discrimination and racial injustice .
“ These are noble sentiments … @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to manifest in action , ” Pai wrote .
On July 23 , NARUC issued a response to Pai ’ s letter , saying they “ agree ” and will ask their members to “ take a comprehensive review in their jurisdictions around these rates and take action where warranted.
” NARUC president Brandon Presley noted that in some states , corrections officials negotiate prison phone call contracts “ outside the purview of state public service commissions , ” so they would need to be involved , in addition to governors .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power over in-state prison calls , and in the last few weeks Pai has begun campaigning more vocally for Congress to give his agency that authority .
While Pai has not endorsed Duckworth ’ s bill specifically , he has endorsed the most significant component of her bill .
On Thursday the FCC voted to advance the proposed rule to lower interstate prison phone call rates , setting the stage for public comment .
Tylek said no activist anticipated this momentum from the FCC .
“ We can ’ t say we expected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ‘ State regulators , all of you are writing Black Lives Matter statements but aren ’ t doing anything about prison phone calls , ’ ” she said , adding , “ Having a pro-industry , Trump-appointee conservative acknowledging the issue is very positive for the movement and a welcome change.
” Pressure has continued to ramp up in the Senate to get this included in the next stimulus package .
Advocates are planning to deliver a petition to Congress next week with over 75,000 signatures urging the passage of phone justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Klobuchar formally signed onto Duckworth ’ s bill , and joined her in circulating the Dear Colleague letter on Thursday .
Advocates say they are particularly excited about Klobuchar ’ s leadership since she has a good record of being able to corral Republicans onto legislation .
The real Republican gatekeeper on this issue is Sen. Roger Wicker , the chair of the Commerce , Science , and Transportation Committee .
Tylek says Wicker ’ s office has met with them , but he has not committed to support the legislation .
Wicker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for comment .

The coronavirus pandemic has put into sharp relief an issue criminal justice reformers have been raising for years: the astronomical rates that prison-phone corporations charge for phone and video calls to incarcerated individuals. Now, as Congress debates the next coronavirus stimulus deal, some lawmakers are pushing for provisions to make such calls free.
On Thursday, 17 Democratic senators, led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tammy Duckworth, sent a letter to Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer urging them to make this a federal priority in the next package.
“Before the pandemic, more than 50 percent of families with an incarcerated loved one struggled to pay for housing and food, and one in 29 children had a parent incarcerated,” the letter stated. “In addition, one in three families with an incarcerated loved one went into debt in order to stay connected with them, and women shouldered 87 percent of these costs. Now, as many facilities have suspended in-person visits and families face layoffs, furloughs, and evictions due to the pandemic, these calls are more necessary—and cost prohibitive—than ever.”
In some jurisdictions, a local 15-minute phone call can run as high as $25, a cost that was untenable even before the current economic crisis. The Federal Communications Commission currently has jurisdiction to regulate interstate calls, but more than 80 percent of prison phone calls are in-state, meaning the vast majority of calls for the 2 million incarcerated individuals across the U.S. could not be regulated unless Congress changed the law — a challenge highlighted in the senators’ letter.
“Without action from Congress to address the rates for in-state calls, families will continue to suffer,” they wrote.
The pandemic and the nationwide protests for racial justice following George Floyd’s murder brought significant attention to conditions in U.S. jails and prisons, where there is a disproportionate rate of Covid-19 cases as compared to the broader U.S population; one recent estimate put it at 5.5 times higher. At the same time, the pandemic has made it even harder for incarcerated people to communicate with their loved ones, due to the combined stresses of expensive phone calls and the lack of in-person visitation. It’s an issue federal officials have been quietly chipping away at for months.
In 2015, the FCC announced it would act to address predatory in-state calling rates, but after telecom companies sued, FCC Chair Ajit Pai, a Trump appointee, in 2017 stopped defending his agency’s right to regulate those calls. Later that year, a federal court ruled that the FCC has the authority to regulate interstate prison phone calls but not in-state ones.
In June 2019, Duckworth, along with Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; and Angus King, I-Maine, introduced a bill to expand the FCC’s authority to regulate prison phone calls. The Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act is named in honor of Martha Wright, a woman who filed a lawsuit in 2000 against the private prison where her grandson was living, saying the costs of calling him were unconscionably steep. The court ruled that Wright’s complaint was an issue for the FCC to handle, so she then moved to petition the agency to intervene. In 2013, the agency finally acted, voting to cap rates for interstate phone calls in jails and prisons.
Little changed following the introduction of Duckworth’s bill last year, but then the pandemic hit. In the first stimulus package authorized by Congress, to advocates’ surprise, language was included to make all phone calls free in federal facilities for the duration of the national emergency.
“It wasn’t clear who led the effort with the CARES Act … but after years of advocacy, the prison phone justice movement certainly has its allies in Congress, and it paid off in a bizarre moment,” said Bianca Tylek, the executive director of Worth Rises, a group focused on dismantling the prison industry. “Unfortunately, the downside of that bill is that it’s only for the duration of Covid.”
Photo: Michael A. McCoy/Getty Images Images
In late March, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., introduced a House bill, the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act, which builds on Duckworth’s legislation. In addition to expanding the FCC’s authority to regulate in-state prison phone calls, Rush’s bill would also bar state and local government agencies from collecting commissions from prison phone calls and set interim rate caps during the pandemic. It was included in the HEROES Act, a supplement to the CARES Act that was passed by the House in May, a measure Tylek called “the most significant federal legislative vote on prison phone justice in history.”
Meanwhile in the Senate, Duckworth and Klobuchar continued to push on the issue. In mid-April, Duckworth organized a letter, signed by 18 other senators, urging Pai, the FCC chair, to pressure telecommunication providers to commit to reducing call rates in prisons and jails. “The FCC is uniquely positioned to seek commitments from these providers,” the senators wrote. “We applaud the FCC’s efforts to encourage traditional providers to bolster connectivity for Americans impacted by the coronavirus, most notably through the Keep Americans Connected Pledge; however, this effort does not adequately reflect the dynamics of prison and jail telecommunication systems.”
In May, Klobuchar and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., led 27 other senators in sending a bicameral letter to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE urging them to provide free phone calls to detained people during the pandemic. In the House, Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Logfren organized 50 colleagues to also sign on.
Then in July, Pai surprised advocates by coming out forcefully on the issue. On July 16, the FCC announced a new proposed rule to significantly lower the per-minute rate caps for interstate prison phone calls, from $.21 (prepaid) and $0.25 (collect) to $0.14 for calls from prisons and $0.16 for calls from jails. The proposed rule would also cap rates for international prison phone calls for the first time. In an accompanying blog post, Pai wrote, “Not surprisingly, without effective regulation, rates for inmate calling services can be unjustly and unreasonably high and make it difficult for inmates and their loved ones to stay connected.”
Four days later, Pai sent a letter to the president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, a trade association of state utility commissioners, urging the group to take action on the “unjust and unreasonable rates” of in-state prison phone calls, which he noted disproportionately hurt Black Americans. In 33 states, rates are at least double the federal cap, and in 27 states, the first-minute charge can be up to 26 times higher than that of an interstate call. In his letter Pai pointed to recent statements NARUC made following George Floyd’s killing about addressing discrimination and racial injustice. “These are noble sentiments … but it is time for these sentiments to manifest in action,” Pai wrote.
On July 23, NARUC issued a response to Pai’s letter, saying they “agree” and will ask their members to “take a comprehensive review in their jurisdictions around these rates and take action where warranted.” NARUC president Brandon Presley noted that in some states, corrections officials negotiate prison phone call contracts “outside the purview of state public service commissions,” so they would need to be involved, in addition to governors. But NARUC opposes expanding the FCC’s power over in-state prison calls, and in the last few weeks Pai has begun campaigning more vocally for Congress to give his agency that authority. While Pai has not endorsed Duckworth’s bill specifically, he has endorsed the most significant component of her bill. On Thursday the FCC voted to advance the proposed rule to lower interstate prison phone call rates, setting the stage for public comment.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
Tylek said no activist anticipated this momentum from the FCC. “We can’t say we expected Commissioner Pai would come out and say, ‘State regulators, all of you are writing Black Lives Matter statements but aren’t doing anything about prison phone calls,’” she said, adding, “Having a pro-industry, Trump-appointee conservative acknowledging the issue is very positive for the movement and a welcome change.”
Pressure has continued to ramp up in the Senate to get this included in the next stimulus package. Advocates are planning to deliver a petition to Congress next week with over 75,000 signatures urging the passage of phone justice legislation, and this past Tuesday, Klobuchar formally signed onto Duckworth’s bill, and joined her in circulating the Dear Colleague letter on Thursday. Advocates say they are particularly excited about Klobuchar’s leadership since she has a good record of being able to corral Republicans onto legislation.
The real Republican gatekeeper on this issue is Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Tylek says Wicker’s office has met with them, but he has not committed to support the legislation. Wicker’s office did not return requests for comment.


theintercept--2020-08-07--On Climate Policy, Biden's Advisers Reveal More Than His Proposals Do

, Joe Biden ’ s presidential campaign released a sweeping climate proposal calling for 100 percent clean energy and net-zero emissions by 2050 .
Meanwhile , the Democratic Party is working to finalize its 2020 platform .
As of now , the platform is more aggressive than the 2016 document , but somehow does not mention fossil fuels in its section on climate change .
While some climate activists raised concerns about the party tiptoeing around the largest driver of climate change , most mainstream media marveled over Biden ’ s personal climate promises .
These include calls to hold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impose limits on existing oil and gas operations , and incorporate climate change into the country ’ s foreign policy agenda .
To hear one former Republican congressman tell it , Biden is calling for “ a version of the Sanders Green New Deal , ” and has given progressive populists anything they could ever hope for .
But that ’ s only if you take platforms and campaign promises at face value .
Vague platitudes in a speech or campaign proposal aren ’ t the best indicator of a candidate ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ influence a Joe Biden White House .
There is a better gauge : personnel .
Viewed through that lens , environmental activists may have serious reason to worry about the man who could lead the United States for about half of our remaining years to prevent an irreversible climate catastrophe .
For all the warranted celebration of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez co-chairing a task force on climate policy , Biden has not yet agreed to follow its recommendations .
Meanwhile , several of Biden ’ s informal advisers and confidants on energy policy are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ all of the above ” strategy , which embraced fossil fuel development and technologies like fracking while publicly trumpeting clean energy commitments .
These individuals oversaw the BP oil spill and the violent repression of the Dakota Access pipeline protests ( a set of tactics which President Donald Trump is now emulating to put down peaceful demonstrators ) and then went to work for oil and gas companies or law firms , investment companies , and think tanks funded by the fossil fuel industry .
If appointed to key energy and environmental @ @ @ @ @ @ @ threat to even the most ambitious climate plans .
Former Obama climate policy chief Heather Zichal began informally advising the Biden team on climate mere weeks after the former vice president threw his hat into the ring .
Zichal served as a liaison between the Obama administration and the energy industry .
During her tenure , Zichal worked closely with industry executives to “ streamline ” federal regulations on fracking , meeting more than 20 times with industry groups and lobbyists in 2012 alone .
Leaders in the oil and gas industry have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the regulatory burden on their sector .
Immediately after leaving her post in the Obama White House , Zichal joined the fossil fuel industry ’ s ranks , accepting a lucrative position on the board of Cheniere , one of the largest natural gas companies in the country .
While Zichal was still in office , Cheniere was the first company to receive approval from the Obama administration to export fracked gas .
The company has since ramped up its exports under this administration , earning praise from Trump .
Zichal also joined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , an industry-funded think tank that includes Cheniere as one of its many corporate sponsors .
The Atlantic Council ’ s most recent work includes a report commissioned by Trump ’ s secretary of energy recommending the administration expand nuclear power , natural gas exports , and oil and gas exploration .
Zichal also works as an independent energy consultant , offering up her connections and expertise to fossil fuel companies , including PG & E .
As an adviser , Zichal provides the fossil fuel industry with a direct line to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy advice from Ernest Moniz , board member of Southern Company , and Frank Verrastro , head of the Center for Strategic and International Studies ’ Energy and National Security Program , which is funded by Exxon Mobil .
Meanwhile , she has shown little patience for climate activists over the years , dismissing their policy platforms as unrealistic and going so far as to equate them to members of the tea party .
Zichal did not respond to a request for comment .
Jason Bordoff , who served as a climate adviser @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Council on Environmental Quality under Obama , is informally advising the Biden campaign on energy and climate issues , providing the industry with yet another path to exert influence on a future administration ’ s energy policy .
Bordoff , like Zichal , has argued in favor of increased natural gas exports and fracking .
Immediately after leaving the administration , Bordoff founded the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University , a reputational laundromat .
Underwritten by the oil and gas industry , the center produces reports that coincidentally lend support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advocating for privatizing Mexico ’ s energy sector and expanding fracking efforts in China .
Bordoff personally authored a report arguing in favor of lifting the ban on crude oil exports in the U.S. , a paper that has been widely cited by the oil and gas industry , as well as Republican legislators .
Huge oil and gas companies , including BP , Cheniere , Exxon , and Chevron , have opened their checkbooks to support CGEP ’ s research , which Bordoff hopes will “ draw out all arguments on both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Bordoff ’ s assumption that the science and data behind climate change is up for debate should shock Democrats across the spectrum and immediately disqualify him from a role in a potential Biden administration .
But even if one accepted Bordoff ’ s premise that there was a debate about the climate crisis , his financial backers and publications clearly reveal on which side he falls .
In response to a request for comment , a spokesperson for Bordoff stated that he “ has focused on the urgency of the climate crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ follow the facts and evidence wherever they lead , independently , objectively , and in accordance with the highest academic standards.
” Bordoff also serves on the National Petroleum Council , a federal advisory committee made up of oil and gas industry executives that provides advice to the Department of Energy .
The NPC has advocated for lifting restrictions on oil and gas exploration in the arctic and developing new gas pipelines at the request of Energy Secretary Rick Perry .
Both the Trump administration and the fossil fuel industry use NPC reports @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NPC has gained notoriety for attempting to shield energy company information from the public , including information on how the fossil fuel industry affects climate change .
Obama ’ s secretary of energy , Ernest Moniz , has also joined the Biden team as an “ informal adviser.
” Moniz was ( and remains ) a vocal advocate for fracking and natural gas — watch enough of Moniz ’ s speeches , and you ’ ll notice that he only ever calls for a “ low-carbon future , ” not a “ zero-carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Moniz has a personal stake in the carbon economy : He currently sits on the board of Southern Company , the Atlanta-based natural gas utility , and he ’ s called its CEO Tom Fanning “ an industry leader.
” Fanning says he and Moniz are “ kind of a tag team.
” Moniz , in other words , is business partners with a man who has publicly denied that human activity causes climate change .
“ Is climate change happening ?
Certainly .
It ’ s been happening for millennia , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Southern was among the first companies to sue the Obama administration over its Clean Power Plan , which was a set of regulations aimed at cutting power plant emissions by 30 percent .
The Center for American Progress found that the litigants on that suit , including Southern , were responsible for 21 percent of all U.S. carbon emissions in 2013 .
Fanning isn ’ t the only fossil fuel CEO with whom Moniz is close .
The former CEO of BP , Lord John Browne , is the chair of the advisory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think tank , the Energy Futures Initiative .
Moniz also sits alongside Browne on the advisory board of private equity fund Angeleno Group .
The Energy Futures Initiative ’ s signature proposal is the “ Green Real Deal , ” a centrist alternative to the Green New Deal , which Moniz has suggested is a “ demonstrably impractical , short-term , feel-good solution.
” Moniz first pitched the Green Real Deal to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce , the corporate lobbying group that spent decades denying climate change .
And the Green Real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fracking , both of which he ’ s defended against what he calls “ the climate elite.
” In a debate at the Oxford Union , Moniz claimed that “ the climate elite have done much too much moralizing and hectoring about the path for addressing climate change as opposed to working locally , regionally , [ and ] recognizing regional differences.
” He demanded that college students adamant about ending fossil fuel emissions “ translate that into a practical program that involves technology , social dynamics , politics , policy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a former cabinet secretary .
He is a Ph.D and multimillionaire , the very definition of an “ elite.
” If the energy transition thus far has failed to create the “ practical program ” he wants , that ’ s a failure of his own policymaking .
In the years since that debate , young people created a “ practical program ” in the Green New Deal , which was propelled into the national spotlight by the youth-led Sunrise Movement .
Moniz ’ s response ?
To castigate that work through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s former CEO .
Wall Street ’ s route into Biden ’ s climate policy may run through Brian Deese , a former senior Obama aide who now works for BlackRock , the world ’ s largest asset manager .
On Friday , E & E News reported that Deese is working with the campaign , following rumors that have swirled throughout the campaign cycle about him receiving a plum job in a potential Biden administration , especially given Biden ’ s early favor-currying with Deese ’ s boss at BlackRock , Larry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fretting from climate-watchers .
Reached through a spokesperson , Deese did not respond to a request for comment .
Deese , who helped negotiate the Paris Climate Agreement , now runs BlackRock ’ s sustainable investing division .
This does not mean that he pushes BlackRock to use its wealth and influence for environmentally responsible purposes .
Instead , his job is to factor the climate apocalypse into the firm ’ s investment decisions , such as avoiding “ operating in extremely climate-exposed regions , like the coastal United States.
” As John @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New Republic , “ Managing the investment risk of climate change , in short , does not mean fighting climate change .
It means making sure that your investment portfolio earns the highest returns despite climate change or even from climate change.
” BlackRock is the single largest investor in the fossil fuel industry , but it is also the largest investor in renewables : Due to its sheer size , as Deese puts it , “ we end up being one of the top owners of every industry.
” But he does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s continued oil and gas holdings , declaring , “ This is not just about excluding entire industries or entire classes of companies.
” Of course , for millions not to die , the entire fossil fuel industry must cease spewing carbon into the atmosphere ( much sooner rather than later , preferably ) .
But Deese ’ s job is to prevent low returns on financial investments , not extinction .
As he told Christiane Amanpour , “ We are very focused on these questions of ‘ where is public sentiment ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ will actually affect how long-term value is created.
” Translation : The public only matters to the extent that it impacts BlackRock ’ s money .
He had similar aims in the Obama White House : Deese described his White House job to a Bloomberg podcaster as thinking about “ how do we create the right conditions for private capital to move into lower-carbon solutions and accelerate the transition to lower-carbon economy ?
” In other words , his concern was “ how do we set up Wall Street to profit from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how do we green the economy.
” And then there ’ s his record on non-climate issues .
At a confirmation hearing to become the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2013 , he told Congress that he ’ d work toward a “ comprehensive deficit reduction agreement ” ( read : austerity ) focused on “ entitlement reform and tax reform.
” What kind of entitlement reform ?
“ I think it is appropriate to look at means-testing Medicare .
I think the president has put a proposal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because as part of these overall reforms , I think we have to ask the questions about whether those who are the most fortunate should be paying a little bit more .
It ’ s still going to be a good deal for them as part of the system.
” To this day , Deese advocates for drastic cuts to government spending and gets paid to do it .
He gives paid speeches to corporate trade groups through the APB speaking agency , where his page advertises that he can speak about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be used to reform entitlements and the tax code .
”

Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP
Last month , Joe Biden’s presidential campaign released a sweeping climate proposal calling for 100 percent clean energy and net-zero emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is working to finalize its 2020 platform. As of now, the platform is more aggressive than the 2016 document, but somehow does not mention fossil fuels in its section on climate change.
While some climate activists raised concerns about the party tiptoeing around the largest driver of climate change, most mainstream media marveled over Biden’s personal climate promises. These include calls to hold fossil fuel companies and polluters accountable, impose limits on existing oil and gas operations, and incorporate climate change into the country’s foreign policy agenda. To hear one former Republican congressman tell it, Biden is calling for “a version of the Sanders Green New Deal,” and has given progressive populists anything they could ever hope for.
But that’s only if you take platforms and campaign promises at face value. Vague platitudes in a speech or campaign proposal aren’t the best indicator of a candidate’s direction, nor of what will actually influence a Joe Biden White House. There is a better gauge: personnel.
Viewed through that lens, environmental activists may have serious reason to worry about the man who could lead the United States for about half of our remaining years to prevent an irreversible climate catastrophe. For all the warranted celebration of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez co-chairing a task force on climate policy, Biden has not yet agreed to follow its recommendations.
Meanwhile, several of Biden’s informal advisers and confidants on energy policy are veterans of the Obama administration’s “all of the above” strategy, which embraced fossil fuel development and technologies like fracking while publicly trumpeting clean energy commitments. These individuals oversaw the BP oil spill and the violent repression of the Dakota Access pipeline protests (a set of tactics which President Donald Trump is now emulating to put down peaceful demonstrators) and then went to work for oil and gas companies or law firms, investment companies, and think tanks funded by the fossil fuel industry. If appointed to key energy and environmental jobs, they could pose an existential threat to even the most ambitious climate plans.
Photo: Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP
Heather Zichal
Former Obama climate policy chief Heather Zichal began informally advising the Biden team on climate mere weeks after the former vice president threw his hat into the ring. Zichal served as a liaison between the Obama administration and the energy industry. During her tenure, Zichal worked closely with industry executives to “streamline” federal regulations on fracking, meeting more than 20 times with industry groups and lobbyists in 2012 alone. Leaders in the oil and gas industry have praised her for her efforts to decrease the regulatory burden on their sector.
Immediately after leaving her post in the Obama White House, Zichal joined the fossil fuel industry’s ranks, accepting a lucrative position on the board of Cheniere, one of the largest natural gas companies in the country. While Zichal was still in office, Cheniere was the first company to receive approval from the Obama administration to export fracked gas. The company has since ramped up its exports under this administration, earning praise from Trump.
Zichal also joined the Atlantic Council as a senior fellow, an industry-funded think tank that includes Cheniere as one of its many corporate sponsors. The Atlantic Council’s most recent work includes a report commissioned by Trump’s secretary of energy recommending the administration expand nuclear power, natural gas exports, and oil and gas exploration. Zichal also works as an independent energy consultant, offering up her connections and expertise to fossil fuel companies, including PG&E.
As an adviser, Zichal provides the fossil fuel industry with a direct line to the Biden camp. Zichal has already sought policy advice from Ernest Moniz, board member of Southern Company, and Frank Verrastro, head of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Energy and National Security Program, which is funded by Exxon Mobil. Meanwhile, she has shown little patience for climate activists over the years, dismissing their policy platforms as unrealistic and going so far as to equate them to members of the tea party. Zichal did not respond to a request for comment.
Photo: Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Jason Bordoff
Jason Bordoff, who served as a climate adviser to the National Security Council and the Council on Environmental Quality under Obama, is informally advising the Biden campaign on energy and climate issues, providing the industry with yet another path to exert influence on a future administration’s energy policy. Bordoff, like Zichal, has argued in favor of increased natural gas exports and fracking.
Immediately after leaving the administration, Bordoff founded the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, a reputational laundromat. Underwritten by the oil and gas industry, the center produces reports that coincidentally lend support to industry talking points, such as advocating for privatizing Mexico’s energy sector and expanding fracking efforts in China. Bordoff personally authored a report arguing in favor of lifting the ban on crude oil exports in the U.S., a paper that has been widely cited by the oil and gas industry, as well as Republican legislators.
Bordoff’s assumption that the science and data behind climate change is up for debate should shock Democrats and disqualify him from a role in a potential Biden administration.
Huge oil and gas companies, including BP, Cheniere, Exxon, and Chevron, have opened their checkbooks to support CGEP’s research, which Bordoff hopes will “draw out all arguments on both sides” of the environmental debate. Bordoff’s assumption that the science and data behind climate change is up for debate should shock Democrats across the spectrum and immediately disqualify him from a role in a potential Biden administration. But even if one accepted Bordoff’s premise that there was a debate about the climate crisis, his financial backers and publications clearly reveal on which side he falls. In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Bordoff stated that he “has focused on the urgency of the climate crisis” and that he and CGEP “follow the facts and evidence wherever they lead, independently, objectively, and in accordance with the highest academic standards.”
Bordoff also serves on the National Petroleum Council, a federal advisory committee made up of oil and gas industry executives that provides advice to the Department of Energy. The NPC has advocated for lifting restrictions on oil and gas exploration in the arctic and developing new gas pipelines at the request of Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Both the Trump administration and the fossil fuel industry use NPC reports to defend their anti-environmental stances. The NPC has gained notoriety for attempting to shield energy company information from the public, including information on how the fossil fuel industry affects climate change.
Photo: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for National Clean Energy Summit
Ernest Moniz
Obama’s secretary of energy, Ernest Moniz, has also joined the Biden team as an “informal adviser.” Moniz was (and remains) a vocal advocate for fracking and natural gas — watch enough of Moniz’s speeches, and you’ll notice that he only ever calls for a “low-carbon future,” not a “zero-carbon future.” Moniz declined to comment.
Moniz has a personal stake in the carbon economy: He currently sits on the board of Southern Company, the Atlanta-based natural gas utility, and he’s called its CEO Tom Fanning “an industry leader.” Fanning says he and Moniz are “kind of a tag team.” Moniz, in other words, is business partners with a man who has publicly denied that human activity causes climate change. “Is climate change happening? Certainly. It’s been happening for millennia,” Fanning said on CNBC in 2017.
Southern was among the first companies to sue the Obama administration over its Clean Power Plan, which was a set of regulations aimed at cutting power plant emissions by 30 percent. The Center for American Progress found that the litigants on that suit, including Southern, were responsible for 21 percent of all U.S. carbon emissions in 2013.
Fanning isn’t the only fossil fuel CEO with whom Moniz is close. The former CEO of BP, Lord John Browne, is the chair of the advisory board for Moniz’s energy policy think tank, the Energy Futures Initiative. Moniz also sits alongside Browne on the advisory board of private equity fund Angeleno Group.
Moniz is business partners with a man who has publicly denied that human activity causes climate change.
The Energy Futures Initiative’s signature proposal is the “Green Real Deal,” a centrist alternative to the Green New Deal, which Moniz has suggested is a “demonstrably impractical, short-term, feel-good solution.” Moniz first pitched the Green Real Deal to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the corporate lobbying group that spent decades denying climate change. And the Green Real Deal has a place for natural gas and fracking, both of which he’s defended against what he calls “the climate elite.”
In a debate at the Oxford Union, Moniz claimed that “the climate elite have done much too much moralizing and hectoring about the path for addressing climate change as opposed to working locally, regionally, [and] recognizing regional differences.” He demanded that college students adamant about ending fossil fuel emissions “translate that into a practical program that involves technology, social dynamics, politics, policy, all of the above.”
But Moniz is a former cabinet secretary. He is a Ph.D and multimillionaire, the very definition of an “elite.” If the energy transition thus far has failed to create the “practical program” he wants, that’s a failure of his own policymaking. In the years since that debate, young people created a “practical program” in the Green New Deal, which was propelled into the national spotlight by the youth-led Sunrise Movement. Moniz’s response? To castigate that work through a think tank advised by BP’s former CEO.
Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Brian Deese
Wall Street’s route into Biden’s climate policy may run through Brian Deese, a former senior Obama aide who now works for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. On Friday, E&E News reported that Deese is working with the campaign, following rumors that have swirled throughout the campaign cycle about him receiving a plum job in a potential Biden administration, especially given Biden’s early favor-currying with Deese’s boss at BlackRock, Larry Fink. This has prompted plenty of fretting from climate-watchers. Reached through a spokesperson, Deese did not respond to a request for comment.
Deese, who helped negotiate the Paris Climate Agreement, now runs BlackRock’s sustainable investing division. This does not mean that he pushes BlackRock to use its wealth and influence for environmentally responsible purposes. Instead, his job is to factor the climate apocalypse into the firm’s investment decisions, such as avoiding “operating in extremely climate-exposed regions, like the coastal United States.” As John Patrick Leary wrote of BlackRock in the New Republic, “Managing the investment risk of climate change, in short, does not mean fighting climate change. It means making sure that your investment portfolio earns the highest returns despite climate change or even from climate change.”
BlackRock is the single largest investor in the fossil fuel industry, but it is also the largest investor in renewables: Due to its sheer size, as Deese puts it, “we end up being one of the top owners of every industry.” But he does not appear troubled by the company’s continued oil and gas holdings, declaring, “This is not just about excluding entire industries or entire classes of companies.”
Of course, for millions not to die, the entire fossil fuel industry must cease spewing carbon into the atmosphere (much sooner rather than later, preferably). But Deese’s job is to prevent low returns on financial investments, not extinction. As he told Christiane Amanpour, “We are very focused on these questions of ‘where is public sentiment?’ but to the degree that it will actually affect how long-term value is created.” Translation: The public only matters to the extent that it impacts BlackRock’s money.
He had similar aims in the Obama White House: Deese described his White House job to a Bloomberg podcaster as thinking about “how do we create the right conditions for private capital to move into lower-carbon solutions and accelerate the transition to lower-carbon economy?” In other words, his concern was “how do we set up Wall Street to profit from the green economy” — not just “how do we green the economy.”
And then there’s his record on non-climate issues. At a confirmation hearing to become the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2013, he told Congress that he’d work toward a “comprehensive deficit reduction agreement” (read: austerity) focused on “entitlement reform and tax reform.” What kind of entitlement reform? “I think it is appropriate to look at means-testing Medicare. I think the president has put a proposal out that I think makes some sense, because as part of these overall reforms, I think we have to ask the questions about whether those who are the most fortunate should be paying a little bit more. It’s still going to be a good deal for them as part of the system.”
To this day, Deese advocates for drastic cuts to government spending and gets paid to do it. He gives paid speeches to corporate trade groups through the APB speaking agency, where his page advertises that he can speak about “how the budget process can actually be used to reform entitlements and the tax code.”


theintercept--2020-08-07--Energy Companies Have Spent Billions on Projects That Go Nowhere

Similar scenarios have played out in at least six other states with major utility monopolies .
Energy companies with strangleholds on state legislatures in South Carolina , New Mexico , West Virginia , Georgia , and Pennsylvania have pushed billions of dollars in bills onto ratepayers for coal and nuclear projects that have failed or fallen out of competition as public support for renewable energy investment continues to grow .
In another energy-related case , the largest electric utility in Illinois was fined for trading contracts and payoffs in exchange for legislation that made it easier to increase electricity rates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an alternative to fossil fuels in the U.S. has stopped and stalled for decades , losing most of its steam after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 .
But investment picked back up after 2002 , when President George W. Bush launched the “ Nuclear Power 2010 ” program , which provided a government cost-sharing program and subsidies to help identify and develop new sites for nuclear development to meet projected energy needs by 2010 .
Investment and operating costs for nuclear run much higher than those of other renewable energy sources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plus the immense amount of water required to produce nuclear power , make it less efficient than other available sources of carbon-neutral energy .
Most of the flagship nuclear plans introduced around that time have since stalled or been abandoned completely , a result of cost overruns and yearslong delays .
Ohio legislature approved a bailout for nuclear power plants in Oak Harbor and Perry , on opposite sides of Cleveland .
According to the federal criminal complaint , that bill ’ s passage came after a number of dark-money groups — including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in support of Householder and other candidates who supported the bailout .
Generation Now , the 501 ( c ) ( 4 ) nonprofit controlled by Householder , funneled money from FirstEnergy Corp. , — an electric utility headquartered in Akron whose former subsidiary , FirstEnergy Solutions , now known as Energy Harbor , had filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and threatened to stop operating if it didn ’ t get a bailout — to support numerous candidates for state legislature , to help reelect Householder as speaker , and to defeat a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ March 2017 and March of this year , Generation Now received $ 60 million from FirstEnergy , referenced only as “ Company A ” in the federal complaint , filed July 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio .
“ In exchange for payments from Company A , Householder ’ s Enterprise helped pass House Bill 6 … a billion-dollar ‘ bailout ’ that saved from closure two failing nuclear power plants in Ohio , ” affiliated with FirstEnergy .
In 2019 , Householder ’ s enterprise “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 6 went into effect by defeating a ballot initiative , ” the complaint reads .
Following Householder ’ s arrest last month , his colleagues in the state voted unanimously to remove him as speaker .
Householder ’ s name will still appear on the ballot in the upcoming November 3 general election .
He ’ s currently running unopposed , although it ’ s unclear whether he will stay in the race , as the investigation is still ongoing .
So far , two write-in candidates have also filed to run in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Ohio scandal came to light , West Virginia ’ s Democratic gubernatorial nominee is calling for an investigation into the company ’ s operations in West Virginia , where it ’ s one of the state ’ s two major energy utilities .
FirstEnergy ’ s PAC gave thousands of dollars to Republican Gov .
Jim Justice ’ s reelection campaign after meeting with his office about legislation to help the company avoid paying taxes for its major coal plant in Pleasants County .
Last July , around the same time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , lawmakers in West Virginia overwhelmingly passed the bill , allowing the utility to avoid $ 12.5 million a year in taxes .
The law passed 77 to 5 in the West Virginia state House and unanimously in the senate , the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported .
It included a narrow definition for covered companies , which in effect applied only to FirstEnergy ’ s Pleasants Power Station .
FirstEnergy applied to purchase the plant in 2017 .
In Pennsylvania , a bill to bail out two nuclear plants , including one owned by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislature following arrests in the company ’ s Ohio scandal .
In March , Energy Harbor — what FirstEnergy changed its name to after emerging from bankruptcy in February — reversed plans to close its nuclear power in Beaver , citing the governor ’ s efforts to implement a new climate policy that would penalize energy companies that give off carbon emissions .
Democratic Gov .
Tom Wolf announced last year that Pennsylvania would join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative , a state-level program to reduce greenhouse gas emission by requiring fossil fuel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Harbor President and Chief Executive Officer John Judge said joining the RGGI would “ help level the playing field ” for nuclear plants , which don ’ t give off carbon emissions , by making polluters pay .
Pennsylvania lawmakers have blocked the move several times , most recently in July .
In June , Wolf extended to September 15 an earlier deadline for the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop rules to allow the state to join the initiative .
abandoned plans to expand a nuclear power plant in Jenkinsville , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and stuck ratepayers with the billion-dollar bill .
The former chief operating officer of the state ’ s major utility company pleaded guilty last month to defrauding customers .
The failed plan to expand nuclear reactors at the V.C .
Summer Nuclear Station ended up costing more than $ 9 billion in total .
The energy company announced delays on the project before it was even slated to begin and , soon after its projected start date , announced $ 1.2 billion in cost increases .
After a principal contractor filed for bankruptcy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officially scrapped it before completion .
The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed separate investigations into the failed project in 2017 .
And at least 19 lawsuits — including class-action suits by ratepayers and shareholders , and a lawsuit by the South Carolina Public Service Commission , which had approved the plan — were filed against the main company involved , South Carolina Electric and Gas .
Executives at the utility concealed information about delays , project flaws , and financing issues as estimated project costs steadily increased , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ executives persuaded lawmakers to adjust regulatory measures that would allow them to increase utility rates to pay for the project as costs soared .
Ratepayers are currently responsible for at least $ 2.3 billion over the next 20 years .
A judge ruled last June in a class-action lawsuit that the utility ’ s customers would get up to $ 146 million in refunds .
Last month in Chicago , federal prosecutors charged Commonwealth Edison , which holds a virtual electric monopoly in the city , with bribery and a $ 200 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan , who is facing multiple subpoenas probing his relationships with a number of other companies including AT & T and Walgreens , along with other political operatives and lobbyists , WBEZ reported .
ComEd , the largest electric utility in the state , paid at least $ 1.3 million in contracts , jobs , and other payments to associates of Madigan , and in return received $ 150 million in benefits resulting from legislation that relaxed oversight of the utility .
Public Service Company of New Mexico , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ electricity , is slated to close a coal plant in Northwest Mexico in 2022 .
PNM announced the plan in 2017 after an analysis found the plant would not be economically viable after that point .
An energy transition law enacted in 2019 allows covered utility companies , like PNM , to sell off bonds to recover project investments .
As a result , PNM ’ s customers are paying to recover those costs .
The Energy Transition Act requires the state to transition to non-carbon electricity by 2045 .
Gov .
Michelle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nez petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court in December to apply the Energy Transition Act to allow PNM to retire the coal plant and to recover its investments , given that the company had announced plans to close the plant before the law passed .
The court ruled in their favor in January , in a decision applauded by environmental groups , including the regional Sierra Club chapter and the Western Environmental Law Center .
“ These are utilities with a ton of money , ” said Mariel Nanasi , attorney and executive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advocacy group that ’ s been organizing against PNM ’ s energy monopoly for years .
“ In these states over and over again , is this barrier to renewable advancement , ” Nanasi said .
“ It ’ s been regulatory capture.
” PNM has spent more than $ 155 million between 2015 and June 2019 on the coal plant to prop it up , she added .
“ PNM rate payers are paying all of that money .
And PNM is paying nothing .
Zero.
” Nanasi was frustrated with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ PNM on the deal .
“ Around 40 percent of PNM rate payers are poor or financially insecure , she said , “ and these green groups sided with the utility and foisted all these hundreds of millions of dollars onto these poor people and other PNM rate payers in exchange for an increase in the renewable portfolio standard , ” she said , referring to a measure in the ETA .
The ETA refers to a “ carbon-free standard , ” a term broad enough to encompass nuclear energy , which takes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of both PNM and El Paso Electric .
Nanasi described this change from the previous wording , which had described the standard as “ renewable , ” as “ Orwellian.
” “ This is all about propping up utilities that in essence , no longer need to be in business , ” she said .
PNM contributes a significant amount to state and federal campaigns , and its parent company spent $ 440,000 in a 2018 race to elect members of the commission that oversees it ; the utility wholly funded a PAC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The only nuclear reactors currently under construction in the U.S. is in Georgia , where work on two nuclear reactors has stalled amid the ongoing pandemic .
The project at Georgia ’ s Plant Vogtle — jointly owned by Georgia Power , a subsidiary of Southern Company ; Oglethorpe Power Corporation ; and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia — has already cost more than $ 28 billion , including more than $ 12 billion in federally backed loans .
That ’ s more than double its initial estimated cost at $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than five years behind schedule , and is the largest jobs-producing construction project in the state , according to Georgia Power .
After construction had already fallen months behind schedule , two construction contractors sued the utility companies involved in the project over changes to planned construction .
Earlier , inspectors reported that parts of the plant had been improperly installed .
One of the contractors , Westinghouse , filed for bankruptcy five years later , at which point the project ’ s cost overruns topped $ 755 million .
Georgia ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of dollars in loans to plant owners , while independent monitors reported that one of the construction contractors , the Shaw Group , “ lacked experience in the nuclear power industry and was not prepared for the rigor and attention to detail required to successfully manufacture nuclear component.
” The plant , which original contracts guaranteed would be completed between April 2016 and 2017 , has still not begun operating .
Vogtle completed one of several testing phases last month , and is currently scheduled to start service in 2021 for one unit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a May press release after the plant installed a device that operators will use to monitor nuclear reaction , the company said , “ This milestone brings the unit another step closer to loading nuclear fuel inside the reactor .
”

Federal agents arrested Ohio State House Speaker Larry Householder last month on racketeering and bribery charges in a $60 million scheme involving a utility-funded political slush fund and a $1.3 billion bailout of two state nuclear power plants. Householder was charged, along with four others, in relation to controlling the slush fund and using it to fund campaigns for himself and his preferred candidates in return for passing the bailout bill, in what federal prosecutors called a quid pro quo. It’s the biggest corruption scandal in Ohio history.
Similar scenarios have played out in at least six other states with major utility monopolies. Energy companies with strangleholds on state legislatures in South Carolina, New Mexico, West Virginia, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have pushed billions of dollars in bills onto ratepayers for coal and nuclear projects that have failed or fallen out of competition as public support for renewable energy investment continues to grow. In another energy-related case, the largest electric utility in Illinois was fined for trading contracts and payoffs in exchange for legislation that made it easier to increase electricity rates.
The thrust for nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels in the U.S. has stopped and stalled for decades, losing most of its steam after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. But investment picked back up after 2002, when President George W. Bush launched the “Nuclear Power 2010” program, which provided a government cost-sharing program and subsidies to help identify and develop new sites for nuclear development to meet projected energy needs by 2010. Investment and operating costs for nuclear run much higher than those of other renewable energy sources like wind and solar. That, plus the immense amount of water required to produce nuclear power, make it less efficient than other available sources of carbon-neutral energy. Most of the flagship nuclear plans introduced around that time have since stalled or been abandoned completely, a result of cost overruns and yearslong delays.
In 2019, the Ohio legislature approved a bailout for nuclear power plants in Oak Harbor and Perry, on opposite sides of Cleveland. According to the federal criminal complaint, that bill’s passage came after a number of dark-money groups — including one controlled by Householder — spent money in support of Householder and other candidates who supported the bailout. Generation Now, the 501(c)(4) nonprofit controlled by Householder, funneled money from FirstEnergy Corp., — an electric utility headquartered in Akron whose former subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions, now known as Energy Harbor, had filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and threatened to stop operating if it didn’t get a bailout — to support numerous candidates for state legislature, to help reelect Householder as speaker, and to defeat a referendum on their bailout bill.
Between March 2017 and March of this year, Generation Now received $60 million from FirstEnergy, referenced only as “Company A” in the federal complaint, filed July 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. “In exchange for payments from Company A, Householder’s Enterprise helped pass House Bill 6 … a billion-dollar ‘bailout’ that saved from closure two failing nuclear power plants in Ohio,” affiliated with FirstEnergy. In 2019, Householder’s enterprise “then worked to corruptly ensure that HB 6 went into effect by defeating a ballot initiative,” the complaint reads.
Following Householder’s arrest last month, his colleagues in the state voted unanimously to remove him as speaker. Householder’s name will still appear on the ballot in the upcoming November 3 general election. He’s currently running unopposed, although it’s unclear whether he will stay in the race, as the investigation is still ongoing. So far, two write-in candidates have also filed to run in November.
After FirstEnergy’s role in the Ohio scandal came to light, West Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee is calling for an investigation into the company’s operations in West Virginia, where it’s one of the state’s two major energy utilities. FirstEnergy’s PAC gave thousands of dollars to Republican Gov. Jim Justice’s reelection campaign after meeting with his office about legislation to help the company avoid paying taxes for its major coal plant in Pleasants County.
Photo: F. Brian Ferguson/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP
Last July, around the same time lawmakers in Ohio were bailing out FirstEnergy, lawmakers in West Virginia overwhelmingly passed the bill, allowing the utility to avoid $12.5 million a year in taxes. The law passed 77 to 5 in the West Virginia state House and unanimously in the senate, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. It included a narrow definition for covered companies, which in effect applied only to FirstEnergy’s Pleasants Power Station. FirstEnergy applied to purchase the plant in 2017.
In Pennsylvania, a bill to bail out two nuclear plants, including one owned by FirstEnergy, has stalled in the state legislature following arrests in the company’s Ohio scandal. In March, Energy Harbor — what FirstEnergy changed its name to after emerging from bankruptcy in February — reversed plans to close its nuclear power in Beaver, citing the governor’s efforts to implement a new climate policy that would penalize energy companies that give off carbon emissions.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf announced last year that Pennsylvania would join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a state-level program to reduce greenhouse gas emission by requiring fossil fuel plants to pay for emissions. Energy Harbor President and Chief Executive Officer John Judge said joining the RGGI would “help level the playing field” for nuclear plants, which don’t give off carbon emissions, by making polluters pay. Pennsylvania lawmakers have blocked the move several times, most recently in July. In June, Wolf extended to September 15 an earlier deadline for the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop rules to allow the state to join the initiative.
In 2017, South Carolina abandoned plans to expand a nuclear power plant in Jenkinsville, some 30 miles northwest of Columbia, and stuck ratepayers with the billion-dollar bill. The former chief operating officer of the state’s major utility company pleaded guilty last month to defrauding customers.
The failed plan to expand nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station ended up costing more than $9 billion in total. The energy company announced delays on the project before it was even slated to begin and, soon after its projected start date, announced $1.2 billion in cost increases. After a principal contractor filed for bankruptcy years into the project, the companies officially scrapped it before completion. The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed separate investigations into the failed project in 2017. And at least 19 lawsuits — including class-action suits by ratepayers and shareholders, and a lawsuit by the South Carolina Public Service Commission, which had approved the plan — were filed against the main company involved, South Carolina Electric and Gas. Executives at the utility concealed information about delays, project flaws, and financing issues as estimated project costs steadily increased, the Post and Courier reported.
Corporate executives persuaded lawmakers to adjust regulatory measures that would allow them to increase utility rates to pay for the project as costs soared. Ratepayers are currently responsible for at least $2.3 billion over the next 20 years. A judge ruled last June in a class-action lawsuit that the utility’s customers would get up to $146 million in refunds.
Photo: Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP
Last month in Chicago, federal prosecutors charged Commonwealth Edison, which holds a virtual electric monopoly in the city, with bribery and a $200 million fine. The high-profile investigation has ensnared Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is facing multiple subpoenas probing his relationships with a number of other companies including AT&T and Walgreens, along with other political operatives and lobbyists, WBEZ reported.
ComEd, the largest electric utility in the state, paid at least $1.3 million in contracts, jobs, and other payments to associates of Madigan, and in return received $150 million in benefits resulting from legislation that relaxed oversight of the utility.
Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state’s largest provider of electricity, is slated to close a coal plant in Northwest Mexico in 2022. PNM announced the plan in 2017 after an analysis found the plant would not be economically viable after that point. An energy transition law enacted in 2019 allows covered utility companies, like PNM, to sell off bonds to recover project investments. As a result, PNM’s customers are paying to recover those costs.
The Energy Transition Act requires the state to transition to non-carbon electricity by 2045. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court in December to apply the Energy Transition Act to allow PNM to retire the coal plant and to recover its investments, given that the company had announced plans to close the plant before the law passed. The court ruled in their favor in January, in a decision applauded by environmental groups, including the regional Sierra Club chapter and the Western Environmental Law Center.
“These are utilities with a ton of money,” said Mariel Nanasi, attorney and executive director of New Energy Economy, an advocacy group that’s been organizing against PNM’s energy monopoly for years. “In these states over and over again, is this barrier to renewable advancement,” Nanasi said. “It’s been regulatory capture.” PNM has spent more than $155 million between 2015 and June 2019 on the coal plant to prop it up, she added. “PNM rate payers are paying all of that money. And PNM is paying nothing. Zero.”
Nanasi was frustrated with the environmental groups that sided with lawmakers and PNM on the deal. “Around 40 percent of PNM rate payers are poor or financially insecure, she said, “and these green groups sided with the utility and foisted all these hundreds of millions of dollars onto these poor people and other PNM rate payers in exchange for an increase in the renewable portfolio standard,” she said, referring to a measure in the ETA.
The ETA refers to a “carbon-free standard,” a term broad enough to encompass nuclear energy, which takes up a significant portion of the portfolios of both PNM and El Paso Electric. Nanasi described this change from the previous wording, which had described the standard as “renewable,” as “Orwellian.” “This is all about propping up utilities that in essence, no longer need to be in business,” she said.
PNM contributes a significant amount to state and federal campaigns, and its parent company spent $440,000 in a 2018 race to elect members of the commission that oversees it; the utility wholly funded a PAC protecting two incumbents and attacking their challengers.
The only nuclear reactors currently under construction in the U.S. is in Georgia, where work on two nuclear reactors has stalled amid the ongoing pandemic. The project at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle — jointly owned by Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company; Oglethorpe Power Corporation; and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia — has already cost more than $28 billion, including more than $12 billion in federally backed loans. That’s more than double its initial estimated cost at $14.1 billion. The plant is more than five years behind schedule, and is the largest jobs-producing construction project in the state, according to Georgia Power.
After construction had already fallen months behind schedule, two construction contractors sued the utility companies involved in the project over changes to planned construction. Earlier, inspectors reported that parts of the plant had been improperly installed. One of the contractors, Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy five years later, at which point the project’s cost overruns topped $755 million.
Georgia’s Department of Energy continued to approve billions of dollars in loans to plant owners, while independent monitors reported that one of the construction contractors, the Shaw Group, “lacked experience in the nuclear power industry and was not prepared for the rigor and attention to detail required to successfully manufacture nuclear component.”
The plant, which original contracts guaranteed would be completed between April 2016 and 2017, has still not begun operating. Vogtle completed one of several testing phases last month, and is currently scheduled to start service in 2021 for one unit, and 2022 for another. In a May press release after the plant installed a device that operators will use to monitor nuclear reaction, the company said, “This milestone brings the unit another step closer to loading nuclear fuel inside the reactor.”


theintercept--2020-08-08--In Washington State, Beth Doglio Secures a Spot on the Ballot

With 81 percent of the precincts reporting , Strickland was leading with 20.9 percent of the vote and Doglio with 14.9 percent .
Former State Rep. Kristine Reeves came in a close third place at 13 percent .
Rian Ingrim , the leading Republican candidate , finished with 11.1 percent .
On Tuesday night , the former mayor of Tacoma , Washington , Marilyn Strickland pulled into the lead in the crowded primary race to replace outgoing Rep. Denny Heck .
Heck , a member of the business-friendly New Democrat Coalition , is retiring after serving five terms to run @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were counted , state Rep. Beth Doglio , who ’ s backed by prominent progressives in Congress , placed second and is set to face Strickland in all-Democratic general election in November .
The Congressional Progressive Caucus , which usually remains on the sidelines in open primaries , made the race in Washington ’ s 10th Congressional District a key priority and went all in on Doglio ’ s campaign , as The Intercept previously reported .
Its political arm spent nearly $ 140,000 on TV ads highlighting Doglio ’ s support of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group ’ s broader effort to beat centrist candidates in open primaries .
She was one of 19 Democrats running for the seat being vacated by Heck , representing a solidly blue district that includes Olympia and part of Tacoma .
Doglio had backed CPC Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal in her first run for Congress in 2016 , and the Seattle-area congresswoman returned the favor in May , endorsing the two-term state representative in the crowded race .
She also won high-profile endorsements from Sens .
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren , along @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reps. Katie Porter , Jamie Raskin , and Ro Khanna .
Doglio , who rejects corporate campaign funds , entered the final stretch of the primary having outraised the rest of the field .
“ Beth has shown that will be a relentless champion for working people , not special interests or corporations , ” CPC PAC said in a statement .
This cycle , CPC PAC ramped up its election efforts , making its first major investment in support of Mondaire Jones , a progressive who ’ s on track to replace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ groups like Medicare for All PAC and the Sierra Club PAC also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Doglio .
Strickland , who is Black and Korean American , was supported by groups like Collective PAC and the Korean American Democratic Committee .
She picked up endorsements from the Seattle Times , the News Tribune , and the Seattle Medium editorial boards .
She was mayor of Tacoma for nearly a decade and went on to serve as president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of money on behalf of Amazon in the recent City Council elections trying to oust a progressive majority .
Though she tried to brand herself as a progressive candidate , Strickland opposes a Green New Deal and Medicare for All , and instead backs a public option for health care .
As mayor , she fought against a $ 15 minimum wage .
Early on in the race , Joshua Collins , a 26-year-old truck driver and democratic socialist candidate , generated hype around the primary on social media , resulting in national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He largely ran his campaign online and attracted large followings on Twitter , Instagram , and TikTok , which helped him raise more than $ 249,000 — more than many of the other candidates managed to raise .
But after he disappeared from Twitter and Instagram for a day in May without an explanation , some of his supporters began to turn on him .
Followers speculated over why he would abruptly abandon his campaign and questioned whether his bid was an honest attempt to lead the district .
His communications and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Collins deactivated his accounts to take a break from the notifications .
Collins also dropped the Democratic party affiliation last minute to run under the banner of the “ Essential Workers Party.
” On Tuesday night , he came in 15th place with less than 1 percent of the vote in early counts .
Reeves , one of the serious contenders , was backed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus ’ s BOLD PAC , as well as a number of local labor unions , including Laborers ’ International Union of North America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the American Federation of Teachers .
Rep. Adam Smith , longtime incumbent and chair of the House Armed Services Committee , also threw his support behind Reeves .
She would have been the first Afro-Latina to represent the Pacific Northwest in Congress and highlighted this , along with her experiences going in and out of homelessness as a teenager , in her campaign .
But her policy platform didn ’ t go as far as Doglio ’ s , pledging to build on the Affordable Care Act and create a public option .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @

On Tuesday night, the former mayor of Tacoma, Washington, Marilyn Strickland pulled into the lead in the crowded primary race to replace outgoing Rep. Denny Heck. Heck, a member of the business-friendly New Democrat Coalition, is retiring after serving five terms to run for Washington lieutenant governor. When votes were counted, state Rep. Beth Doglio, who’s backed by prominent progressives in Congress, placed second and is set to face Strickland in all-Democratic general election in November.
With 81 percent of the precincts reporting, Strickland was leading with 20.9 percent of the vote and Doglio with 14.9 percent. Former State Rep. Kristine Reeves came in a close third place at 13 percent. Rian Ingrim, the leading Republican candidate, finished with 11.1 percent.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which usually remains on the sidelines in open primaries, made the race in Washington’s 10th Congressional District a key priority and went all in on Doglio’s campaign, as The Intercept previously reported. Its political arm spent nearly $140,000 on TV ads highlighting Doglio’s support of Medicare for All as part of the group’s broader effort to beat centrist candidates in open primaries. She was one of 19 Democrats running for the seat being vacated by Heck, representing a solidly blue district that includes Olympia and part of Tacoma.
Doglio had backed CPC Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal in her first run for Congress in 2016, and the Seattle-area congresswoman returned the favor in May, endorsing the two-term state representative in the crowded race. She also won high-profile endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, along with CPC Co-Chair Mark Pocan, and Reps. Katie Porter, Jamie Raskin, and Ro Khanna. Doglio, who rejects corporate campaign funds, entered the final stretch of the primary having outraised the rest of the field.
“Beth has shown that will be a relentless champion for working people, not special interests or corporations,” CPC PAC said in a statement.
This cycle, CPC PAC ramped up its election efforts, making its first major investment in support of Mondaire Jones, a progressive who’s on track to replace the outgoing Rep. Nita Lowey. Outside groups like Medicare for All PAC and the Sierra Club PAC also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Doglio.
Strickland, who is Black and Korean American, was supported by groups like Collective PAC and the Korean American Democratic Committee. She picked up endorsements from the Seattle Times, the News Tribune, and the Seattle Medium editorial boards. She was mayor of Tacoma for nearly a decade and went on to serve as president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, a business lobbying group that spent exorbitant amounts of money on behalf of Amazon in the recent City Council elections trying to oust a progressive majority. Though she tried to brand herself as a progressive candidate, Strickland opposes a Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and instead backs a public option for health care. As mayor, she fought against a $15 minimum wage.
Early on in the race, Joshua Collins, a 26-year-old truck driver and democratic socialist candidate, generated hype around the primary on social media, resulting in national media coverage and a number of profiles. He largely ran his campaign online and attracted large followings on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, which helped him raise more than $249,000 — more than many of the other candidates managed to raise. But after he disappeared from Twitter and Instagram for a day in May without an explanation, some of his supporters began to turn on him. Followers speculated over why he would abruptly abandon his campaign and questioned whether his bid was an honest attempt to lead the district. His communications and political director explained in a Twitter thread that Collins deactivated his accounts to take a break from the notifications. Collins also dropped the Democratic party affiliation last minute to run under the banner of the “Essential Workers Party.” On Tuesday night, he came in 15th place with less than 1 percent of the vote in early counts.
Reeves, one of the serious contenders, was backed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s BOLD PAC, as well as a number of local labor unions, including Laborers’ International Union of North America and the state’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Rep. Adam Smith, longtime incumbent and chair of the House Armed Services Committee, also threw his support behind Reeves. She would have been the first Afro-Latina to represent the Pacific Northwest in Congress and highlighted this, along with her experiences going in and out of homelessness as a teenager, in her campaign. But her policy platform didn’t go as far as Doglio’s, pledging to build on the Affordable Care Act and create a public option. She also accepts corporate PAC money.