June, 23 2009, 04:22pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748
Erich Pica, 202-222-0739
Friends of the Earth Launches Ad Campaign Opposing House Climate Bill
WASHINGTON
Friends of the Earth launched an advertising campaign today against
the energy and climate change bill that is expected to come to the
floor of the U.S. House of Representatives later this week.
The progressive environmental group's ads will run on a variety of
progressive and environmental blogs and websites. The ads call
attention to the fact that the bill is based on a blueprint written in
part by polluting corporations like Shell Oil and Duke Energy, which
has undermined the ability of the bill to solve the problems it is
intended to address.
Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder had the following statement:
"Corporate polluters including Shell and Duke Energy helped write
this bill, and the result is that we're left with legislation that
fails to come anywhere close to solving the climate crisis. Worse, the
bill eliminates preexisting EPA authority to address global
warming-that means it's actually a step backward.
"Last November, the American people voted for change. Unfortunately,
while the party in power may have changed, the process through which
this bill was negotiated makes it clear that the overwhelming influence
of corporate special interests has not. This exercise in politics as
usual is a wholly unacceptable response to one of the greatest
challenges of our time, and it endangers the welfare of current and
future generations. Speaker Pelosi and congressional Democrats simply
must do better. We are calling on them to vote against this bill unless
it is substantially strengthened. If the 'political reality' at present
cannot accommodate stronger legislation, their first task must be to
expand what is politically possible-not to pass a counterproductive
bill. This is the message carried by the ad campaign we are launching
today."
The initial ads that are running in the campaign can be viewed at: https://www.foe.org/new-ads-opposition-house-climate-bill.
Friends of the Earth is urging citizens to send messages about the
bill to Congress, and has set up a web page where they can take action
at https://action.foe.org/t/8815/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1117.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
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Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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