Where does the climate movement go from here?

With the Trump administration’s attack on America’s climate and environmental protections getting more extreme by the day, it’s easy to feel like there is no path forward for effective climate action in the United States.

But Bill McKibben, the longtime environmentalist and journalist, says that’s only what the fossil fuel industry wants you to believe.

For the last few years, Bill has been immersed in reporting a book on the global solar energy revolution—and he’s convinced this is possible right here, right now. To move the needle on climate progress, he proposes bringing together a broad coalition of Americans to pressure local and state governments to loosen choking regulations on solar, the cheapest energy source on Earth.

In an interview with HEATED, Bill explains why a U.S. rooftop solar renaissance is possible in this political climate; why it would be effective in the fight to slow climate change; and why its success would help topple one of America’s largest oligarchical powers: Big Oil. He also pitches a national day of action to celebrate the power and potential of solar and wind—Sun Day.

This transcript has been edited for length and ease of reading. To hear our full conversation, lightly edited, check out the audio atop this email.

Bill McKibben: It must be kind of disorienting to realize that the fossil fuel industry is, for the moment, in charge of a lot of things.

Emily Atkin: It can make you feel like, what do we do?

BK: But here's the interesting thing about it—they're clearly very scared too. They've spent more money than they ever have on politics before. They're doubling down in every possible way—state, local, federal. They understand that they face an unprecedented threat.

The threat they faced for 30 years was a bunch of activists causing them some trouble. We shut down some pipelines, we divested a lot of money. But now, thanks to some combination of activism and engineering, they've got a deeper problem on their hands for the first time.

They don't have the cheapest power on Earth. We live on a planet where, all of a sudden, the cheapest way to make energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun.

EA: You know, my cynicism runs so deep. It's like a lovely, comforting armor. But I’ve been reading some of your recent pieces on what