Reads of the Week: Conservative Climate Policy, Deporting Legal Immigrants, and Invasive New Car Regulations

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? Learn more about how the Writing Fellows Program can help boost your writing career!

The American Conservative Climate Movement is Failing to Keep Up With Our Global Counterparts by Clay Robinson (Summer 2020) in The Western Tribune

If there’s one thing I learned at COP26 as a conservative American climate activist, it’s that we have a lot of work to do. 

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to join the American Conservation Coalition in Glasgow to participate in the first-ever Global Conservative Climate Conference, which occurred alongside COP26. Simply being involved in the climate conversation was a tremendous accomplishment for conservative climate activists, because for years we have been silent, and to our detriment…

The Problem of ‘Documented Dreamers’ by Billy Binion (Spring 2018) in Reason

Padma Danturty has been a legal resident of the United States since she was 8 months old. But had she come to the country illegally, her future in the U.S. probably would be more secure.

That’s because 18-year-old Danturty does not qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects about 650,000 young immigrants who came to the U.S. unlawfully as children through no fault of their own. DACA beneficiaries, known as “Dreamers,” are protected from deportation and able to apply for work permits…

The Government Is Your Car’s Next Passenger by Sarah Montalbano (Summer 2021) in The American Spectator

Politicians have already cashed in on the infrastructure bill victory, but Americans will eventually suffer the consequences of today’s virtue-signaling. In a few short years, the government may be an omnipresent passenger in every new car.

The 2,000-page infrastructure bill, signed into law a few weeks ago, includes a mandate that newly manufactured cars keep a digital eye on their drivers — and figure out whether or not they’re in any condition to drive. This certainly sounds well-intentioned, but as lamentable as drunk-driving deaths are, mandating technology that has yet to be invented raises serious practical and privacy concerns…