California Senator Dianne Feinstein died on Friday, at the age of 90.
Long regarded as an environmental champion, though no radical progressive, Feinstein’s thirty-year career in the Senate began with a significant win in the early 90s with legislation that created Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve, significantly preserving swathes of California desert.
On climate, Feinstein backed drives to improve fuel economy standards and pipeline safety—but her record on water preservation in the West was much more complicated, and she famously clashed in recent years with progressives pushing for a Green New Deal.
“For decades, I was fortunate to count Dianne as a partner in protecting the American people from the existential threats of our time: advancing historic fuel economy standards to combat the climate crisis, championing an assault weapons ban to curb gun violence, and stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons to avert Armageddon,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said in a statement.
(Grist, E&E, LA Times $, Sacramento Bee $, CBS)