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Darcey Rakestraw, 202-683-2467; drakestraw@fwwatch.org
A coalition of more than 400 organizations and leaders will deliver a historic letter to the White House on Tuesday calling on President Obama to stop new federal fossil fuel leasing on public lands and oceans in the United States.
The letter argues that, by keeping publicly owned fossil fuels that haven't already been leased to industry in the ground, President Obama can keep nearly half of the potential emissions from all remaining U.S. fossil fuels, up to 450 billion tons, from the global pool of potential carbon pollution.
More than 67 million acres of public land and ocean are already leased to the fossil fuel industry. That represents an area 55 times larger than Grand Canyon National Park and contains up to 43 billion tons of potential carbon pollution. Deeming unleased oil, gas and coal "unburnable" would accomplish more in the global fight against climate catastrophe than any other single climate action taken by the Obama administration.
Hundreds of prominent organizations and leaders from Alaska to Florida signed the letter, among them indigenous leaders, labor unions, scientists, religious leaders, public interest groups and climate activists, including: Bill McKibben, Winona LaDuke, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Noam Chomsky, Dr. Michael Mann, Tim DeChristopher, Dr. Stuart Pimm, Dr. Michael Soule, United Auto Workers Union, Unitarian Universalist Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Protect Our Winters, 350.org, Center for Biological Diversity, Environment America, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch, Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, REDOIL, Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, WildEarth Guardians and hundreds of others.
The American public owns nearly 650 million acres of federal public land, and more than 1.7 billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf -- and the fossil fuels beneath them. This includes federal public lands like national parks, national forests and wildlife refuges that make up about a third of the U.S. land area -- and oceans like Alaska's Chukchi Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard. These places and fossil fuels are held in trust for the public by the federal government; federal fossil fuel leasing is administered by the Department of the Interior.
The letter, which comes as international leaders prepare for December's climate negotiations in Paris, calls on President Obama "to make our nation the first to commit to keeping all of its remaining, unleased public fossil fuels in the ground, thereby challenging other nations to do the same." It concludes that "such leadership is necessary to ensure a livable climate and planet for both present and future generations."
Download a copy of the signed letter here.
Letter signers, who will hold a press conference outside of the White House on Tuesday, issued the following statements:
"If President Obama's serious about being remembered as the president who put America on the path to solving climate change, there's a simple step he can take today to put a huge dent in the problem -- and it doesn't even require Congressional approval. Every day, the federal government leases land owned by U.S. taxpayers to massive fossil fuel companies, all so they can dig huge amounts of oil, coal, and gas out of the ground and make climate change worse. In fact, 450 billion tons of carbon pollution sit beneath lands owned by U.S. taxpayers. Compare that to the 5 gigatons of carbon pollution the President's Clean Power Plan would cut by 2030, and it's pretty clear that fossil fuel extraction on public lands is a far bigger fish he can fry. That's the kind of bold, aggressive action it's going to take to solve this problem, and that's what it means to truly be a leader on climate change." --May Boeve, Executive Director, 350.org
"Coal companies like Peabody Energy have been mining federal and tribal coal in and near native communities like mine for decades. The tribal governments allow energy companies to impound peoples' livestock, which is the only source of income and food for communities impacted by forced removal--a legacy policy initiated by Senator John McCain for Peabody to gain access to coal mining locations. Peabody mine sites don't have bonds and liners in the waste ponds. Contaminated waters are released in the headwaters after every rain, polluting the little water they leave behind. The Gold King mining disaster is just the most recent example of the kind of devastation that has been happening to the Dine for generations. Before coal, we were devastated by uranium. Now, our families are the targets of a fracking boom on federal lands in places like Chaco Canyon. Dirty energy companies ruin our lands, while the profit goes elsewhere. Environmental concerns are not being addressed properly by agencies that should be accountable. Groundwater tables have dropped by big drops, the greenhouse gases being released into the air are not monitored correctly, and health impacts are not monitored at all. This devastation of our communities is a kind of terrorism made possible by Senators like John McCain, all while President Obama turns a blind eye. These industries are not accountable to the land, the natural world, or the people living here. Their destruction has to stop now." --Louise Benally, Big Mountain Dine Nation, Indigenous Cultural Concepts, Media Island International
"I would ask that you put yourself in our place. Over five years have passed since BP's broken promises spewed as easily from their tongues as the oil did from their broken pipe. To this day our peoples and ecosystems suffer from BP's brutal, callous, and lasting assault. Five years, and our dolphins still die, our turtles still die, our oysters still die, our marshes still die, our people still die... BP is a corporate serial killer. BP is a terrorist organization. Yet they not only remain free to continue their patterns of destruction, they are subsidized by our government to do it. How many more graves will there be, before justice is truly served in the Gulf Coast? That is the only question we have now." --Cherri Foytlin, Bridge the Gulf
"Each new fossil fuel lease worsens the climate crisis and shows a dangerous disconnect between Obama's energy policies and climate rhetoric. He can't have it both ways: Fighting climate change requires keeping fossil fuels in the ground. That work should start now by ending fossil fuel leasing on our public lands and oceans." --Kieran Suckling, Executive Director, Center for Biological Diversity
"Climate denial is the refusal to acknowledge that fossil fuels have to stay in the ground, so the basis for any honest climate policy has to be keeping fossil fuels in the ground." --Tim DeChristopher, Founder, Climate Disobedience Center
"The only surefire way to protect human health, clean drinking water and the global climate from coal, oil and gas is to keep them in the ground. We have fought for decades to protect communities and the environment from the negative impacts of oil and gas, and now, we call on President Obama to stand with communities and make sure that the U.S. does our part against global climate change." --Jennifer Krill, Executive Director, Earthworks
"The best way to prevent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere is to leave them where they lie. You can't be a climate leader while continuing to open up large amounts of federal land to extraction and encouraging continued fossil fuel development. If President Obama is to keep his commitment to curbing climate change, he must do everything he can to keep fossil fuels in the ground and stop drilling and fracking on public lands." --Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch
"The 'river of grass' in our Florida Everglades could soon become the home of numerous fracking rigs if the U.S. continues our unsustainable policy of extracting fossil fuels. Under Florida's antiquated laws, dangerous new fracking techniques are allowed in the state with almost no oversight. If allowed to expand, fracking in the Florida Everglades would threaten the drinking water of millions of South Florida residents and permanently damage the ecosystem of one of our national treasures."--Jorge Aguilar, Florida Director, Food & Water Watch
"To demonstrate strong climate leadership, President Obama needs to go beyond regulating the tailpipes and the smokestacks. The president must use all tools at his disposal, such as an executive moratorium, to stop the leasing of our public fossil fuels and keep them in the ground." --Erich Pica, President, Friends of the Earth
"President Obama understands the urgent crisis of climate change, and yet, his administration has allowed Shell to drill in the Arctic and companies like Peabody to lease billions of tons of coal from public lands. He still has the chance to be remembered as a climate leader, but he must take bold, concrete steps to keep fossil fuels in the ground." --Annie Leonard, Executive Director, Greenpeace
"The stakes have never been higher for Water in the West. Our small family business, Holiday River Expeditions, is completely dependent on clean, safe and abundant water running through the desert, not simply for our way of life but for survival in a desert. Every new extraction project leased on our state's ample public lands requires water; water our state and every community along the Colorado River's drainage doesn't have the capacity to give. For us, Keeping 'it' [fossil fuels] in the ground is not only about unforeseen impacts of Climate Change, it's about our lives right here and now."--Lauren Wood, Trip Director, Holiday River Expeditions
"The president desperately needs to align his energy policy with his climate action. The simple fact is we must leave the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground if we want any chance of a safe climate future. In other words, when you're in a hole it's time to stop digging. Leasing fossil fuels on public lands is irrational and an inappropriate use of our public resources in this time of climate crisis. It should end today." -Stephen Kretzmann, Executive Director, Oil Change International
"It's time to put health first. Stopping federal fossil fuel leasing will help fight climate change and aid in reversing its detrimental impacts on communities' health." --Catherine Thomasson, M.D., Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility
"The federal government is enabling some of the wealthiest companies in the world, with names like Exxon and Peabody, to mine and drill America's public lands for private profit. This egregious drilling, fracking and mining is devastating the health of communities and endangering the stability of our climate. We are simply asking President Obama to stop selling off our national forests, oceans and sacred heritage sites for pennies on the dollar and slow the effects of climate change by stopping fossil fuel leasing on public lands." --Lindsey Allen, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
"We are in climate crisis in Alaska, and advancing energy extraction within our ancestral territories would seriously exacerbate climate change and threaten our ability to survive in the Arctic. Climate Change is upsetting the delicate balance in many ecosystems. There is an urgency to take action now. The President was in Alaska, and saw for himself the consequences of climate change. Indigenous peoples of the North implore him to take effective action now to address the issue while we still can. If the U.S. is serious about Climate Change, rescind the Shell permits to drill in the Chukchi Sea, and permanently protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We must keep the remaining fossil fuels in the ground and continue towards a just transition to alternative energies. We do not have the luxury of time. We can implement clean energy systems in the U.S. now." --Princess Daazhraii Johnson, Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL)
"The science is definitive: If we are to lessen the effects of climate change, we must leave dirty fuels in the ground. President Obama has taken historic steps to moving America toward a clean energy economy while leading the world forward. It's time he solidifies his climate legacy by stopping new oil and gas leases on federally managed lands and waters, leaving dirty fuels where they belong: in the ground." --Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club
"Digging up these dirty fuels from America's treasured public lands is nothing short of climate denial. With the costs of climate change mounting with every ton of coal mined and barrel of oil fracked, it's critical that the president stand behind his calls for climate action and keep our fossil fuels in the ground." --John Horning, Executive Director, WildEarth Guardians
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing."
"It's becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a roof over their heads. Congress must respond with a plan that matches the scale of this crisis."
That's according to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who on Wednesday introduced the Homes Act in a New York Timesopinion piece and an event with supporters of the proposal on Capitol Hill.
"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing," the pair wrote in the Times. "That's why we're introducing the Homes Act, a plan to establish a new, federally backed development authority to finance and build homes in big cities and small towns across America. These homes would be built to last by union workers and then turned over to entities that agree to manage them for permanent affordability: public and tribal housing authorities, cooperatives, tenant unions, community land trusts, nonprofits, and local governments."
"Our housing development authority wouldn't be focused on maximizing profit or returns to shareholders," the congresswomen continued. "Rent would be capped at 25% of a household's adjusted annual gross income. Homes would be set aside for lower-income families in mixed-income buildings and communities. And every home would be built to modern, efficient standards, which would cut residents' utility costs. Renters wouldn't have to worry about the prospect of a big corporation buying up the building and evicting everyone. Some could even come together to purchase their buildings outright."
In addition to establishing the new authority under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the bill would repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prevents the use of federal money for building new public homes. Under the new plan, construction would be funded by congressional spending and Treasury-backed loans.
"In New York, the average worker would need to clock in 104 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. "This country is staring down a full-blown housing crisis. A crisis where affordable housing is slipping out of reach."
"This bill would create more than 500,000 jobs and create 1.25 million affordable housing units," she noted, declaring that "everyone deserves a place to call home."
It's not just New York City where lower-wage people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Smith pointed out that "more than 90% of workers cannot afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. Americans across the country are bidding for homes against the wealthiest financial firms and they're losing."
"We have a severe housing crisis," she stressed. "The private market cannot meet this moment on its own. The Homes Act meets peoples' needs through social housing."
As Jacobin's Samuel Stein wrote Wednesday:
The housing system sketched out in the Homes Act looks nothing like what we are used to in the United States. Though we have an important social housing legacy, we have never normalized decommodification as the cornerstone of our housing system.
Introducing legislation like the Homes Act does not accomplish that goal in and of itself, but it offers us a concrete depiction of what that transition could look like. It also highlights the severe disjuncture between what our housing and urban planning system does right now—promote private profits in real estate while minimizing the public provision of housing—and what we need it to do.
The goal of legislation like this is not to pass it immediately, since no sober person would expect the current U.S. Congress to line up in support. Nor is the goal to supplant the messy work of organizing with the schematic and technical language of legislation. Instead, the point is to inspire organizing: to show that the status quo is not the only way our housing could operate, to give tenant organizations a concrete and affirmative vision to build toward, and to offer socialist candidates for office a platform to run on.
The bill to create a social housing authority—introduced less than two months out from the U.S. general election—is backed by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and its affiliates from across the country.
"Working families are being forced to make sacrifices in order to pay the skyrocketing cost of keeping a roof over their heads, while corporate landlords and Wall Street executives are getting even richer," said CPD co-executive directors Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper. "This legislation provides a clear alternative to for-profit housing. It creates a framework to make community-owned, permanently affordable green social housing a reality."
Advocates from both sponsors' states also spoke out in favor of the bill.
"In Greater Minnesota, counties and towns don't have staff to build affordable housing projects, financing is another huge issue. We don’t have as many philanthropic organizations or financial institutions as urban areas," explained Noah Hobbs, policy director at One Roof Community Housing in Duluth. "This bill is the first real investment we've had in years. We're incredibly proud to endorse this legislation."
Aisha Hernandez, secretary of the Coalition to Save Affordable Housing at Co-op City in the Bronx, said that "cooperative housing gave me the ability to co-own my home. A few years ago, my neighbors and I came together to ensure our housing stays affordable, that our management is working in the interest of homeowners and prevent any corporate takeover of Co-op City."
"We are co-owners, not at the whims of corporate landlords," Hernandez added. "I want my fellow Americans to have the same access to housing that co-op has afforded me. This bill has the ability to do that. So let's get it done."
"This research provides a view into just how embedded the corporate, profit-fueled war machine is in our higher education and cultural institutions," said one campaigner.
A trio of human rights groups on Wednesday announced a new interactive initiative exposing what the coalition is calling a "Genocide Gentry" of weapons company executives and board members and "54 museums, cultural organizations, universities, and colleges that currently host these individuals on their boards or in other prominent roles."
The coalition—which consists of the Adalah Justice Project, LittleSis, and Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE)—published a map and database detailing the "educational and cultural ties to board members of six defense corporations" amid Israel's ongoing annihilation of Gaza, for which the U.S.-backed country is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
" Israel has destroyed every university in Gaza and nearly 200 cultural heritage sites since October 2023, using bombs and weapons manufactured by the companies included in the Genocide Gentry research," the coalition said. "As of April, these attacks have killed more than 5,479 students and 261 teachers and destroyed or critically damaged nearly 90% of all school buildings in Gaza."
"Universities across the country including the likes of Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and New York University have remained largely silent on Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza," the groups added. "Behind closed doors, these same universities are hosting executives and board members of the companies manufacturing the weapons used in these attacks as board members, trustees, and fellows."
Members of the Genocide Gentry include:
"Students on university campuses across the country have not only been demanding divestment, but transparency," said Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project. "Transparency about their institutions' investments, partnerships, donors, and decision-makers, and their connections to individuals and companies directly enabling and profiting off war and genocide."
"This research helps provide some of this transparency by illuminating just how embedded the interests of the weapons industry are within our institutions, so we can begin chipping away at the power and influence that they wield," she added.
ACRE campaign director Ramah Kudaimi noted that "as part of its genocide since October 2023, Israel has targeted universities and cultural centers across Gaza, destroying campuses, museums, libraries, and more."
"That this is all backed by the United States means U.S. educational and cultural institutions have a responsibility to consider what their role is in helping end these war crimes, and that starts with reconsidering their connections with the weapons companies profiting from the destruction," Kudaimi said.
Munira Lokhandwala, director of the Tech and Training program at LittleSis, said: "This research provides a view into just how embedded the corporate, profit-fueled war machine is in our higher education and cultural institutions. Through this research, we show how the defense industry shapes and influences our civic and cultural institutions, and as a result, their silence around war and genocide."
"We must ask our institutions: What role are you playing in whitewashing war and destruction by inviting those who profit from manufacturing weapons onto your boards and into your galas?" she added.
"The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates," said one economist.
Economists and working-class people across the United States on Wednesday welcomed the Federal Reserve's decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point as an incredibly overdue and necessary move.
In line with signals from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech last month, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered the federal funds rate by half a percentage point to 4.74-5%, the first cut "since March 2020 when Covid-19 was hammering the economy," as The Associated Pressnoted. Additional cuts are expected over the next two years.
"Finally," wrote Kenny Stancil, a senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and former Common Dreams staff writer, in a blog post. "The Fed should have provided interest rate relief months ago. While this overdue move is welcome, we must reiterate that Powell's deferral of interest rate cuts has hurt the clean energy transition and inflicted other economic harms."
Lawmakers and experts, including Groundwork Collaborative chief economist Rakeen Mabud, have long called for rate cuts and highlighted the harms of refusing to pursue them.
"Today's rate cut is a step in the right direction, but only a first step," said Mabud in a statement Wednesday. "The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates."
Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker also welcomed that the Fed is changing course, saying: "This is a belated recognition that the battle against inflation has been won. Contrary to the predictions of almost all economists, including those at the Fed, this victory was won without a major uptick in unemployment."
"Unfortunately, the Fed waited too long to make this turn," Baker continued. "As a result, the unemployment rate has drifted higher. While there is little basis for concerns about a recession, if the unemployment rate is 0.5 percentage points higher than it needs to be, that translates into 800,000 people out of work who want jobs."
"It is good that the Fed has now recognized the weakening of the labor market and responded with an aggressive cut," he added. "Given there is almost no risk of rekindling inflation, the greater boost to the labor market is largely costless. Also, it will help to spur the housing market where millions of people have put off selling homes because of high mortgage rates."
Liz Zelnick of Accountable.US similarly stressed the benefits, saying that "while it should have come sooner, the Fed's interest rate cut will ease some burden for many Americans that found it simply too expensive to buy new homes or cars."
"Fortunately, the Fed's aggressive interest rate strategy defied odds and did not spur a recession as the economy continues to grow hundreds of thousands of jobs every month while wages are rising," she said. "Persistently high interest rates were never going to get at the root of the corporate price gouging epidemic that has needlessly kept prices high on many necessities—a problem that is on Congress to fix."
Some members of Congress who have been pushing for rate cuts also applauded the belated action—including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chair of the Joint Economic Committee.
"Let's be clear: Today's decision is a big win for families across the country," he declared. "Lower rates mean that more families will be able to buy a home or a car without high interest payments looming over them, and their credit card bills will go down."
"But there is still work to be done," he said. "I will continue to work with my colleagues to fight for policies that raise wages, strengthen our economy, create new jobs, and lower prices for families in New Mexico and across the country."
Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, has also criticized the central bank's refusal to cut rates and praised the Wednesday reversal.
"We've made significant progress on inflation, but House Democrats know there is more to be done to bring down the cost of everyday goods and take on corporate price gouging," Boyle said, nodding to the November election in which former Republican President Donald Trump is facing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
"While House Republicans continue trying to inflict higher costs and higher taxes on the middle class with Trump's Project 2025 agenda," he added, "House Democrats will never stop fighting to deliver an economy that works for working families."
Harris similarly applauded the "welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices" while acknowledging that more must be done and vowing that "my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down."
"I know prices are still too high for many middle-class and working families, and my top priority as president will be to lower the costs of everyday needs like healthcare, housing, and groceries. That is why I am proposing plans to cut taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans, pass the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries, and make housing more affordable by building 3 million new homes and giving more Americans down payment assistance," she said.
The Democrat also took aim at Trump's intentions, warning that "while proposing more tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, his plan would increase costs on families by nearly $4,000 a year by slapping a Trump Tax on goods families rely on, like gas, food, and clothing. He wants to repeal the law I cast the tie-breaking vote to pass that caps the costs of prescription drugs for seniors, including insulin at $35. He would end the Affordable Care Act and erase the progress we have made to lower premiums for millions of Americans by hundreds of dollars a year."
"Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists say his plan would increase inflation, and a Moody's report found it would cause a recession by the middle of next year," she noted. "This election is about whether we are going to finally build an opportunity economy that gives every American a shot not just to get by, but to get ahead. As president, that will be my priority every day."