September, 14 2015, 04:30pm EDT
Climate Coalition Calls on President Obama to Halt Fossil Fuel Leasing on Public Lands, Oceans
Hundreds of Organizations, Leaders Mobilize to Keep Publicly Owned Oil, Gas, Coal—and Up To Half of Potential Emissions from All Remaining U.S. Fossil Fuels—in the Ground
WASHINGTON
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.
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Rights Groups Urge Biden to Make Delayed Report on Israel's Use of US Arms Public
The report—due Wednesday under the terms of a White House directive—has been indefinitely postponed, according to congressional aides.
May 07, 2024
Before Tuesday's reporting that the Biden administration will delay a highly anticipated report on whether Israel is using U.S. military aid in compliance with international law, a coalition of advocacy groups circulated a letter urging the White House to share the document with the public once it's published.
In February, President Joe Biden issued National Security Memorandum (NSM)-20, which requires Secretary of State Antony Blinken "to obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments" receiving U.S. arms "that the recipient country will use any such defense articles in accordance with international humanitarian law" and then provide Congress with periodic reports "to enable meaningful oversight."
The first report is due by Wednesday. However, four congressional aides
toldPolitico Tuesday that publication would be postponed indefinitely.
"It is not clear if your administration intends to... make this report available to the public," coalition members Amnesty International USA, Defending Rights & Dissent, Freedom of the Press Foundation, National Press Photographers Association, Radio Television Digital News Association, and Reporters Without Borders said in a letter to Biden drafted ahead of Politico's reporting.
"We strongly urge you to make the report available to the public and the press to the greatest extent possible," the groups added.
Access to the document, the coalition argued, "will allow the press to more fully and accurately report on how elected leaders are making decisions about military aid to foreign countries" and "will help Americans make informed judgments about our leaders' decisions on foreign military aid."
"We strongly urge you to make the report available to the public and the press to the greatest extent possible."
The letter comes as Israel uses U.S.-supplied arms and ammunition to wage what hundreds of international legal experts and others say is a genocidal war on Gaza. These include 155-millimeter artillery shells and 2,000-pound guided "bunker-buster" bombs, which Israel says are necessary to target Hamas' underground tunnels.
Aided by artificial intelligence-based target selection systems, Israel Defense Forces commanders are ordering strikes they know will cause large numbers of civilian casualties. In a bid to assassinate a single Hamas commander, the IDF dropped at least two 2,000-pound bombs on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp on October 31, killing more than 120 civilians.
Even the U.S. military—which since 2001 has killed hundreds of thousands of people during the open-ended so-called War on Terror—avoids using 2,000-pound bombs in densely populated areas due to the tremendous damage they cause.
One prominent U.S. military historian called Israel's Gaza onslaught "one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history," comparing it to the Allied firebombing of Dresden during World War II, which also killed tens of thousands of civilians.
The letter also comes as the Biden administration reportedly believes that Israel's nascent ground invasion of Rafah does not cross the president's "red line" warning that any "major operation" in the southern city—where more than 1 million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents—would damage U.S.-Israeli relations.
The International Court of Justice found in January that Israel is "plausibly" perpetrating genocide in Gaza, where Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockades have left more than 123,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—dead, injured, or missing since October 7, and hundreds of thousands more suffering full-blown famine.
While the Biden administration has accepted the Israeli government's claims that it is not breaking international law when using American weapons, a number of House Democrats have challenged Israel's assurance, citing "mounting credible and deeply troubling reports and allegations" of human rights crimes committed by IDF troops in Gaza, and by soldiers and settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Officials at the United States Agency for International Development also concluded in a confidential April memo to Blinken that Israel is violating NSM-20 by blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip as children there starve to death.
Furthermore, a leaked State Department memo revealed last month that officials at four of the agency's bureaus concluded that Israel's assurances of legal arms use are "neither credible nor reliable."
In addition to NSM-20, federal legislation including the Arms Control Export Act and Leahy Laws also proscribe U.S. arms transfers to human rights violators—although there are many examples of these statutes being ignored for the benefit of key allies including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other nations.
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"If the Biden administration can stand behind its decisions about defense assistance, it should have no reason to withhold the report that members of Congress will see from the press and the public," Vogus added.
While Biden has criticized Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza and is reportedly holding up two shipments of precision-guided bombs to send a message to Israeli leaders, the president continues to affirm his steadfast support for Israel and has recently approved the transfer of more warplanes, 2,000-pound bombs, and other arms to its key Middle Eastern ally. The administration is also pushing Congress to approve the sale of $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel.
Earlier this year, a group of mostly Democratic members of Congress asked Blinken to explain what they called "highly unusual" moves by the Biden administration to bypass lawmakers in order to fast-track emergency military aid to Israel. Biden—who recently signed off on $14.3 billion in new armed aid to Israel atop the $4 billion it already gets from Washington each year—has also come under fire for approving more than 100 weapons sales to Israel since October.
Human rights defenders slammed Biden's reported decision to postpone publication of the report due on Wednesday.
"It's obvious why Biden is burying the NSM-20 report on Israel: He won't hold Israel accountable," Georgetown University adjunct professor Josh Reubner asserted on social media. "There's no way to conclude that Israel hasn't violated assurances it won't use U.S. weapons to break international law or block aid. Of course it's doing both."
Palestinian American author and political analyst Yousef Munayyer asked: "Hey, Joe Biden, what are you hidin'?"
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Anti-war voices on Tuesday welcomed Politico's reporting that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration is delaying "shipments of two types of Boeing-made precision bombs to send a political message to Israel," which on Monday launched a long-awaited invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
"The U.S. has yet to sign off on a pending sale of Boeing's Joint Direct Attack Munitions—both the munitions and kits that convert them to smart weapons—and Small Diameter Bombs," according to Politico, which cited unnamed congressional and industry sources. "While the Biden administration has not formally denied the potential sale, it is essentially taking action through inaction—holding off on approvals and other aspects of the weapons transfer process."
The piece followed Axiosreporting Sunday that Israeli officials said the administration "last week put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition" and The Wall Street Journal's Monday revelation that it "has held up delivery of Joint Direct Attack Munitions."
"If President Biden is taking the overdue but necessary step... he cannot leave his intentions open to miscommunication or spin."
The White House has neither confirmed nor denied Politico's report, which came as Biden again conflated campus protests against Israel's war on Gaza with antisemitism. Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the U.S.-backed offensive in October, Biden has faced mounting pressure to cut off arms to the country and use his influence to end the bloodshed.
"Reports that the Biden administration is delaying the sale of at least two types of bombs to the Israeli government, in reaction to its disastrous conduct of the war in Gaza, are highly welcome. That conduct is again on international display in Rafah this week, where the Israeli military has begun an invasion that, as we at Win Without War have previously warned, could lead to further horrific war crimes," the group's executive director, Sara Haghdoosti, said in a statement Tuesday.
"Now that this news has leaked, senior administration officials must publicly confirm this policy shift," she said. "If President Biden is taking the overdue but necessary step to condition weapons sales in line with U.S. law and policy and to force changes in Israeli government strategy, he cannot leave his intentions open to miscommunication or spin from those, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, who are continuing this conflict for their own political benefit. The White House must leave no stone unturned in its effort to stop the Israeli government's offensive on Rafah—the hundreds of thousands displaced there do not have more time."
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While multiple congressional Republicans condemned the Biden administration's supposed move to delay the delivery of the bombs to Israel, critics of the Israeli assault joined Haghdoosti in welcoming the development—which comes on the heels of Congress and the president approving billions more in military aid for Israel.
"Glad to see it. I wish they would've started sending this message thousands of lives ago, as so many urged," Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, said on social media.
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Refugees International president Jeremy Konyndyk, called it an "overdue but welcome development" that "hopefully... signals a pivot to beginning to impose more overt conditionality on U.S. arms transfers."
Politico separately reported Tuesday that according to congressional sources, "the Biden administration's report on whether Israel has violated U.S. and international humanitarian law during the war in Gaza has been delayed indefinitely."
The Israeli War Cabinet—made up of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, former chief of the general staff for the Israel Defense Forces—opted to attack Rafah on Monday despite Hamas agreeing to a cease-fire and hostage release deal. Biden previously said that Israel invading the crowded city was a "red line" and is now facing calls to stand by that position.
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"Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation," said one Columbia University student group.
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One pro-Palestinian protester was hospitalized on Tuesday after a pro-Israel driver "intentionally drove" into a group of picketers outside the home of one of Columbia University's trustees on New York City's Upper East Side, as demonstrations against Israel's bombardment of Gaza continued.
According to Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the protesters "were attacked on the crosswalk" by an "Upper East Side Zionist."
CUAD reported that the man drove up to the demonstrators, who have been calling on Columbia to divest from companies that contract with Israel and for the U.S. government to stop supporting the Israel Defense Forces, and asked for a flyer before grabbing a protester by the arm.
He then "circled the block to drive into our peaceful demonstration," striking one person who was "arrested and handcuffed to the bed while in the hospital," said CUAD.
The New York Police Department
toldUSA Today that an argument broke out between the driver and the protesters and that "as the group of roughly 25 demonstrators walked away, a driver hit one person with his Volvo."
CUAD noted that the alleged attack took place as U.S. politicians including President Joe Biden have condemned the campus protest movement, with at least one lawmaker
applauding abusive behavior by anti-Palestinian counter-protesters and New York City Council member Vickie Paladino (R-19) saying last week that the student movement is being led by "monsters, and it's now our job to slay them."
Paladino's "call for vigilante justice was almost fulfilled today," said CUAD.
USA Today also reported that at a separate protest on the Upper West Side near the apartment building of the co-chair of Columbia's board of trustees, "a woman punched a demonstrator in the face, seemingly at random."
In Los Angeles last week, city police stood by while a mob of pro-Israel counter-protesters
attacked nonviolent students who had set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has killed at least 34,789 and on Monday invaded Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced.
On Tuesday, in honor of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance, Biden gave a speech on antisemitism, conflating protests in support of Palestinian rights with the hatred of Jewish people.
CUAD and independent reporter Talia Jane said the driver is a relative of the late Meir Kahane, an American-born Israeli far-right extremist.
The driver's "actions today model a trend in which Zionists weaponize their discomfort over political slogans as an excuse to assault Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Black, brown, and dissident Jewish protesters in violent retaliation for imagined threats," said CUAD. "Just as white supremacists ran over a protester in Charlottesville, Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation."
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