Climate and Health Related Writings

My writings during the Biden Administration

I’ve been asked to post my climate and health-related writings during the Biden Administration. Though I’ve hesitated for a long while for obvious reasons, below are most if not all of them.

You’ll quickly conclude I largely trolled HHS because the public was told by President Biden via a January 2021 Executive Order that his administration would, as I noted ad nauseum, take a “whole of government” approach to “fighting the climate crisis.” Clearly that did not happen. If there was one writing that may have had an effect it was #19 since HHS created an Office of Health Equity a few months after it was published.

As for state of play, if you’ve not been keeping up, HHS’s Office of Climate Change and Health Equity no longer exists (not that it ever legitimately did having never been funded) and Secretary Becerra’s climate pledge (patented greenwashing) is defunct. HHS’s co-sponsorship of the National Academy’s Action Collaborative to Decarbonize the Health Care Sector has ended but the Collaborative, privately funded, will, now in its fifth year, continue it appears through 2026. Its new co-chair former Sen. Bill Frist, in introducing himself at a Collaborative virtual public meeting last October 8th, immediately dropped the classic manufacturing doubt line, “there’s still not a clear understanding of what can be done.” (It’s worth noting none of his family’s 185 hospitals, under the name HCA Healthcare, are EPA Energy Star certified for energy efficiency.) Sen. Frist more recently argued the industry has “been slow to seek” IRA subsidies because “much of the industry operates with negative margins,” a comment or belief seldom if ever questioned despite the fact that Americans pay the healthcare industry nearly $5 trillion annually for grossly overpriced mediocre care for just 4% of the world’s population despite not being comparatively or exceptionally disease burdened. As for financial distress, for example, Sen Frist’s older brother is worth an estimated $20 billion.

Yesterday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced he will consider scrapping the 2009 “endangerment” finding that the EPA could/would regulate GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act. Think: he’ll rescind.

To use a phrase that has recently been beaten to death: this is where we are. As for the other oft repeated line, “we’re in this together,” the Ds certainly fooled me.

It may be time to pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.

1. “HHS Says It Is Working to Stop the Climate Crisis. But It’s Really Just Climate Washing,” STAT (8/15/24). At: https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/15/hhs-climate-change-climate-washing-health-care-greenhouse-gasses/

2. “The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Ongoing Failure to Address the Greatest Threat to Human Health,” 3 Quarks Daily (8/1/24). At: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2024/08/the-us-department-of-health-and-human-services-ongoing-failure-to-address-the-greatest-threat-to-human-health.html

3. “The SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rule Will Reveal Healthcare’s Significant Climate Risk Exposure,” Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Blog (7/23/24). At: https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2024/07/23/the-secs-climate-disclosure-rule-will-reveal-healthcares-significant-climate-risk-exposure/

4. “Efforts to Build Climate Resilience Do Not Protect Human Health,” Undark Magazine (7/11/24). At: https://undark.org/2024/07/11/opinion-climate-resilience-human-health/

5. “HHS’s Proposed Rule Pays Lip Service to Addressing the Climate Crisis, the Greatest Threat to Human Health,” STAT (May 20,2024). At: https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/20/hhs-proposed-rule-lip-service-addressing-climate-crisis/

6. “With Solar, We Can Solve Non-Profit Hospitals’ Carbon and Community Benefit Problem Simultaneously,” The Hill (3/2/24). At: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/4500802-with-solar-we-can-solve-non-profit-hospitals-carbon-and-community-benefit-problem-simultaneously/

7. “The Social Costs of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Healthcare Are Astonishing – And We’ve Been Ignoring Them Completely,” The Hill (1/12/24). At: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4405074-the-social-costs-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-healthcare-are-astounding-and-weve-been-ignoring-them-completely/

8. “How US Hospitals Undercut Public Health,” Undark Magazine (10/5/23). At: https://undark.org/2023/10/05/hospital-emissions-deaths/

9. “Why Are Congress’s Budget Experts Failing to Address the Rise of Climate-Related Health Care Spending,” The Hill (8/21/23). At: https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4162309-why-are-congresss-budget-experts-ignoring-the-rise-of-climate-related-health-care-spending/

10. “As the Climate Crisis Intensifies, HHS Refuses To Do Its Part,” The Hill (7/9/23). At: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4085604-as-the-climate-crisis-intensifies-hhs-refuses-to-do-its-part/

11. “HHS’s proposed Rule Pays Lip Service to Addressing the Climate Crisis, the Greatest Threat to Human Health,” (5/20/24). At: https://www.statnews.com/2024/05/20/hhs-proposed-rule-lip-service-addressing-climate-crisis/

12. “When Will the US Government’ Failure to Decarbonize the Healthcare Industry Compel Litigation,” 3 Quarks Daily (5/15/23). At: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2023/05/when-will-the-us-governments-failure-to-decarbonize-the-healthcare-industry-compel-litigation.html

13. “HHS’s Environmental Justice Index Institutionalized Climate Apartheid,” STAT (3/1/23). At: https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/01/hhs-environmental-justice-index-institutionalizes-climate-apartheid/

14. “FYI: The Healthcare Industry Is Not Decarbonizing,” The Hill (1/5/23). At: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/3801506-fyi-the-health-care-industry-is-not-decarbonizing/

15. One Small Regulatory Update Can Lay Out the Path Toward Decarbonization,” Health Facilities Management (11/18/22). At: https://www.hfmmagazine.com/articles/4609-one-small-regulatory-update-can-put-the-health-care-sector-on-the-path-towards-decarbonization

16. “How the Inflation Reduction Act Can Help Decarbonize the Health Care Sector,” STAT (9/30/22). At: https://www.statnews.com/2022/09/30/inflation-reduction-act-reduce-health-care-industry-greenhouse-gas-emissions/

17. “How To Solve HHS’s Failure to Address the Climate Crisis,” Health Affairs (9/9/22). At: https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/solve-hhs-s-failure-address-climate-crisis

18. “FDA User Fee Legislation Needs to Mitigate the Pharmaceutical Industry’s Carbon Pollution,” STAT (6/8/22). At: https://www.statnews.com/2022/06/08/fda-user-fee-legislation-address-pharmaceutical-industry-role-climate-crisis/

19. “HHS’s Failure to Address the Health Harms of the Climate Crisis Constitutes Environmental and Institutional Racism,” STAT (3/28/22). At: https://www.statnews.com/2022/03/28/hhss-failure-to-address-the-health-harms-of-climate-crisis-constitutes-environmental-and-institutional-racism/

20. “The National Academy of Medicine’s Climate Crisis Effort Must Turn Words Into Action,” STAT (October 15, 2021). At: https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/15/climate-crisis-effort-national-academy-medicine-words-to-action-2/

21. “Public Reporting: The First Step in Addressing the HealthCare Industry’s Bloated Carbon Footprint,” STAT (6/29/21). At: https://www.statnews.com/2021/06/29/public-reporting-health-care-greenhouse-gas-emissions/

22. “We Must Connect the Climate Crisis With Human Health,” 3 Quarks Daily (2/5/21). At: https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2021/02/we-must-connect-the-climate-crisis-with-human-health.html