David Watkins

Director of Government Affairs, Climate & Energy Program

David Watkins is Director of Government Affairs for the Climate and Energy Program. He writes about how Congress and the federal government are making progress on climate action.

A young person plays basketball behind a truck stop restaurant as emissions spew out of a large stack nearby at the coal-fired Morgantown Generating Station on the Potomac River in Newburg, Maryland.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

September 4, 2024

New Energy Permitting Legislation: One Step Forward, Too Many Steps Back

David Watkins
Director of Government Affairs, Climate & Energy Program

A lithium mine supervisor inspects an evaporation pond of lithium-rich brine in the Atacama Desert in Salar de Atacama, Chile.

John Moore/Getty Images

August 1, 2024

Battery Minerals: A Common Fight Over Uncommon Things

David Watkins
Director of Government Affairs, Climate & Energy Program

US House of Representatives

Alex Wong/Getty Images

February 27, 2024

Could the US House Find a Path to a Bipartisan Budget Deal?

David Watkins
Director of Government Affairs, Climate & Energy Program

Bohdan Pyryn/Unsplash

September 27, 2023

NEPA, the “Magna Carta” of Federal Environmental Laws, May Be About to Improve

David Watkins
Director of Government Affairs, Climate & Energy Program

image of the US Capitol at night

Jackson Lanier/Wikimedia

April 24, 2023

Using the Debt Ceiling to Advance Fossil Fuels Over Renewables is Bad Faith Bargaining

David Watkins
Director of Government Affairs, Climate & Energy Program