After the Election, What’s Next for Our Movement?

NOV. 6, 2026

The American public, struggling under the burdens of higher costs at home and war abroad, took to the polls Tuesday to demand change. I was working the polls in my neighborhood in South Philly and felt that energy all day. And change we got, from Georgia to Texas to Pennsylvania.

The next morning, everybody was asking, “What does this mean?” What does it mean for transit? For fracking? For data centers? The unspoken undercurrent of some of these questions was, “Can I finally relax and breathe out?”

The new political landscape brings with it great opportunities for the environmental movement to win good policy that has long been out of our grasp. For the first time in years, we have a more promising opportunity to secure safeguards from fracking, rein in unchecked data center expansion, and invest in the public infrastructure our communities need to thrive.

At the same time, we will get none of it unless we fight hard. Voting can get us a better playing field, but we have to move the ball.

That’s what Clean Air Council is here for. We will not stop pushing for fully funded public transit, for protective buffers from fracking wells, and for a moratorium on AI data centers. These things won’t happen without us, and that means all of us.

So yes, release some tension, breathe out. And then help us win a better world. We will only win it together.

In solidarity,

Alex Bomstein
Executive Director
Clean Air Council