Environmentalists say they're averting climate disaster. Conservatives say it's terrorism.

Rhetoric vilifying environmentalists is making a comeback. No Images? Click here         Environmentalists Say They’re Averting Climate Disaster. Conservatives Say It’s Terrorism.​ Michael Foster, 53, is a mild-mannered mental health counselor and father of two from Seattle, with short-cropped silver hair and soft features. But in a North Dakota court last October, prosecutors painted Foster as a ruthless killer and agent of chaos. The prosecution team compared him to the 9/11 hijackers who killed 2,996 people in the worst terror attack in history, and warned that he envisioned an anarchic future under Islamic religious law. Prosecutors even put him in a league with Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber whose 17-year bombing spree left three dead and injured 23.  Foster hadn’t killed anyone. He didn’t even injure anyone when, on Oct. 11, 2016, he put on a white hard hat and neon-yellow safety vest, grabbed some bolt cutters, and clipped the chain locking a fenced section of the Keystone Pipeline in Walhalla, North Dakota. Once inside the fence, Foster cranked a giant wheel-like valve until it closed, temporarily stopping the flow of tar sands oil. Foster’s action was part of a protest in solidarity with the indigenous activists fighting to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs through a sacred water source at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on the other side of the state. In October, 84 members of Congress, including four Democrats, sent Attorney General Jeff Sessions a letter urging him to find out whether the Department of Justice could prosecute pipeline saboteurs as terrorists. The Justice Department has yet to announce a decision, but said in November that it was “committed to vigorously prosecuting those who damage this critical energy infrastructure in violation of federal law.” Doing so would be a break from the Obama administration’s decision to let states handle such cases, rather than treating them as federal crimes. But policymakers are sharpening their knives on the state level, too. READ MORE     WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING? President Donald Trump announced he has ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take steps to ban bump stocks, the type of gun modification that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock used to kill 58 people in October. READ MORE Trump lashed out at a woman accusing him of sexually assaulting her in Trump Tower, tweeting that he had “never met” her. READ MORE Republican efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act’s insurance reforms continued, with the Trump administration proposing regulations that would make it easier for health insurers to sell cheap, short-term policies that leave out key benefits and are available only to people in good health. READ MORE    .     ICYMI A number of teenagers who survived last week’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have been outspoken in their calls for stricter gun legislation. Some conservatives have sought to discredit arguments in favor of gun control by targeting the students themselves.   House Democrats just had their best ever January fundraising haul, raising more than $9 million.   This Supreme Court case is the biggest threat to unions in years.    . Want more?  Idaho Senator Rants At Students Who Drove 300 Miles To Meet Him Mueller Charges Lawyer With False Statements In Russia Probe Congressional Candidate Defends AR-15 Giveaway After School Shooting     How will Trump’s administration impact you? Sign up for our email and find out. Did a friend send you this? Subscribe here. Like what you see? Share it. Want more? Here are two other newsletters you'll love: The Morning Email and Must Reads. ©2018 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 You are receiving this email because you signed up for updates from HuffPost Feedback | Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe    . - - Preferences  |  Unsubscribe