September, 28 2015, 04:30pm EDT
350 Statement on Shell & Arctic Drilling
After Royal Dutch Shell announced its intention to abandon drilling plans in the Arctic Ocean "for the forseeable future," 350.org Executive Director May Boeve issued the following statement:
"Drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean has always been a misguided disaster; it would worsen climate change and almost certainly result in expensive and damaging spills. Today, thanks to the work of dedicated activists in Seattle and across the world, even the most irresponsible company on Earth was forced to admit that Arctic drilling simply doesn't make sense.
WASHINGTON
After Royal Dutch Shell announced its intention to abandon drilling plans in the Arctic Ocean "for the forseeable future," 350.org Executive Director May Boeve issued the following statement:
"Drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean has always been a misguided disaster; it would worsen climate change and almost certainly result in expensive and damaging spills. Today, thanks to the work of dedicated activists in Seattle and across the world, even the most irresponsible company on Earth was forced to admit that Arctic drilling simply doesn't make sense.
This is a huge win, and ramps up pressure on the Obama administration even more to nix future Arctic leases for good. Three points makes a trend: coming on the heels of an announcement by a front-runner Presidential candidate against Keystone XL, and dimmer prospects than ever for Adani's coal mine in Australia's Galilee basin, today's news makes it clear our movement is succeeding in defusing the biggest carbon bombs on the planet."
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
LATEST NEWS
DeSantis' Florida GOP Introduces 'Extreme, Dangerous' 6-Week Abortion Ban
"No one wants Ron DeSantis in the exam room with us," a Democratic state lawmaker said, referring to the far-right governor who said he looks forward to signing the legislation.
Mar 07, 2023
Reproductive rights supporters responded with disgust Tuesday after right-wing lawmakers in Florida's GOP-controlled Legislature unveiled legislation that would prohibit abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
On the first day of the legislative session, state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-78) and state Sen. Erin Grall (R-54) filed H.B. 7 and S.B. 300, companion bills to outlaw abortion care after six weeks, before many people know they are pregnant.
In addition to toughening the 15-week ban approved by Florida Republicans last year, the legislation aims to bar the use of public money to subsidize travel to other states for abortion care as well as the use of telehealth for abortion care, including mailing abortion pills. Medication abortion became the most common method in the U.S. for terminating a pregnancy in 2020.
The measure also seeks to prohibit "any person other than a physician from inducing a termination of pregnancy," language that criminalizes self-managed abortions. Anyone who "willfully performs or actively participates in a termination of pregnancy" in violation of these restrictions can be charged with a third-degree felony and put behind bars for up to five years.
The draconian plan threatens to cut off access to lifesaving reproductive healthcare for Floridians and, as HuffPostnoted, "a large swath of the Southeast." Many people in the region have long relied on Florida's relatively looser abortion restrictions, especially since several southern states enacted six-week abortion bans after the U.S. Supreme Court's reactionary majority struck downRoe v. Wade last summer―a decision experts say has opened the door to violations of international human rights law.
Florida's proposed six-week ban already has the support of far-right Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said during his Tuesday State of the State address that "we are proud to be pro-family and we are proud to be pro-life."
DeSantis, a presumed 2024 GOP presidential candidate, told reporters after his speech that he would sign the bill into law as soon as it reaches his desk.
"We should open up access to healthcare for impacted communities; not control their decisions and force Floridians into giving birth."
Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani (47), a former Planned Parenthood patient and employee, said in a statement that "Florida Republicans have once again demonstrated a complete disregard for the women of our state and for our collective freedoms."
"As we've already seen in other states, a six-week ban is extreme, dangerous, and will force millions of people out of state to seek care and others will be forced into pregnancy," said Eskamani. "Most people do not even know they are pregnant until after six weeks, so this six-week ban might as well be a complete ban."
"Let me be clear: each of us should be free to live our lives with dignity and to make the decisions that are best for our lives, families, and communities," Eskamani continued. "No one wants Ron DeSantis in the exam room with us; personal medical decisions should be between me, my family, my doctor, and my faith—not politicians."
The lawmaker pointed out that "abortion bans impact all people, but especially those without means to travel to other states to seek care."
"These bans have the most profoundly negative effect on marginalized and vulnerable communities," Eskamani stressed. "We should open up access to healthcare for impacted communities; not control their decisions and force Floridians into giving birth."
As HuffPost reported, Florida's proposed six-week abortion ban "includes exceptions for rape and incest, but only up until 15 weeks of pregnancy―and in order to get one, the survivor 'must provide a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record, or other court order or documentation' to prove she was a victim of rape or incest."
"The proposed legislation also includes an exception for the life of the pregnant person if two physicians certify in writing that the woman will die if she continues the pregnancy," the outlet noted. However, "exceptions to abortion bans are often useless and are only included to make extreme restrictions seem more reasonable."
As Common Dreamsreported earlier on Tuesday, abortion rights advocates say that a new, first-of-its-kind lawsuit challenging Texas' six-week ban demonstrates that "there is no such thing as an abortion exception."
"We will continue to fight like hell against this ban, and all new abortion bans."
State Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D-32) told HuffPost that "Florida Republicans have gone scorched earth with what is effectively an all-out abortion ban―with threats to criminalize women and their doctors."
"Today, women who suffer miscarriages are sent home to get sicker and risk death before they can receive medical care," she continued. "Today, child victims of incest are forced to flee the state as medical refugees to get care. And with this bill, it will only get worse."
Given the Florida GOP's supermajorities in the House and Senate, Democrats have little recourse to prevent the legislation from advancing, though Book saidthat "if it's a war they want, it's a war they will get."
"This issue bridges the partisan divide, and we will not go down as easily as they believe," she added. "On behalf of my daughter all women and girls in our state, that's a promise."
Eskamani echoed her colleague's message and called on people across the state to fight back against the GOP's life-threatening proposal.
"We are going to need every Floridian to wake up, show up, and demand that their lawmakers vote no on this bill," said the Orange County Democrat.
"Regardless of political affiliation, we know that Floridians time and time again have supported the right to privacy and have opposed extreme abortion bans," said Eskamani.
"We won't be truly free until everyone can make decisions about their own bodies, lives, reproductive care, and futures," she added, "which is why we will continue to fight like hell against this ban, and all new abortion bans."
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'A Very Dark Day': FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn Withdraws After Relentless Attack by Telecom Lobby
"I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies."
Mar 07, 2023
Longtime public advocate Gigi Sohn on Tuesday announced that she asked U.S. President Joe Biden to withdraw her
nomination to the Federal Communications Commission after over a year of enduring a smear campaign from dark money groups, telecommunications industry lobbyists, and right-wing figures.
"I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies," Sohn said in a statement. "The unrelenting, dishonest, and cruel attacks on my character and my career as an advocate for the public interest have taken an enormous toll on me and my family."
While her announcement came just after U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a frequent obstacle to his own party's priorities, confirmed Tuesday that he would not support the nomination, Sohn's lengthy statement—shared with The Washington Post—signaled that she decided to bow out after speaking with her family on Monday.
According to Sohn:
Unfortunately, the American people are the real losers here. The FCC deadlock, now over two years long, will remain so for a long time. As someone who has advocated for my entire career for affordable, accessible broadband for every American, it is ironic that the 2-2 FCC will remain sidelined at the most consequential opportunity for broadband in our lifetimes. This means that your broadband will be more expensive for lack of competition, minority, and underrepresented voices will be marginalized, and your private information will continue to be used and sold at the whim of your broadband provider. It means that the FCC will not have a majority to adopt strong rules which ensure that everyone has nondiscriminatory access to broadband, regardless of who they are or where they live, and that low-income students will continue to be forced to do their school work sitting outside of Taco Bell because universal service funds can't be used for broadband in their homes. And it means that many rural Americans will continue the long wait for broadband because the FCC can't fix its Universal Service programs.
It is a sad day for our country and our democracy when dominant industries, with assistance from unlimited dark money, get to choose their regulators. And with the help of their friends in the Senate, the powerful cable and media companies have done just that.
After thanking Biden—who first nominated her to the post in October 2021 and has stood by the choice—as well as the hundreds of organizations and advocates who have supported her throughout the process, Sohn said that "I hope the president swiftly nominates an individual who puts the American people first over all other interests. The country deserves nothing less."
During a media briefing Tuesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre praised Sohn.
"We appreciate Gigi Sohn's candidacy for this important role. She would have brought tremendous intellect and experience, which is why the president nominated her in the first place. We also appreciate her dedication to public service, her talent, and her years of work as one of the nation's leading public advocates on behalf of American consumers and competition," said Jean-Pierre, who declined to comment on what's next.
"The abject failure of Democratic leaders to stand up and advocate for their own nominee means that these companies will likely only double down on the kinds of deceitful and dirty tactics they deployed against Sohn."
Meanwhile, advocacy groups that rallied behind Sohn not only expressed disappointment that she won't be on the FCC but also took aim at Democratic leadership for failing to adequately stand up for her in the face of dishonest attacks.
"Gigi would have provided the final key vote needed to move forward on major White House priorities including net neutrality, digital discrimination, privacy, network competition, broadband maps, and the digital divide," said Demand Progress communications director Maria Langholz. "Sohn's nomination was marred by right-wing extremist attacks that centered on misinformation and politics of division and hate rather than her record and role at the FCC. While it would be easiest to blame the right-wing for her nomination failing, there was missing urgency and commitment from Democrats in the White House and Senate."
"With Sohn now out of consideration, we expect the White House to provide a strong nomination in the immediate future," Langholz added. "The American people cannot afford to have this stalemate at the FCC any longer. President Biden must expeditiously move forward a nominee who will be a champion on net neutrality and privacy, and avoid delivering big telecommunications companies a victory in the form of an industry-friendly pick."
\u201cThe Democratic failure to stand up to an industry-orchestrated smear campaign has cost the United States a veteran public-interest champion.\n\nThis is a very dark day. #NetNeutrality https://t.co/QbZR53viTq\u201d— Tim Karr (@TimKarr@mastodon.social) (@Tim Karr (@TimKarr@mastodon.social)) 1678218236
Free Press president and co-CEO Craig Aaron similarly said that "they're probably celebrating at Comcast and Fox today, and their lobbyists deserve most of the credit for concocting lies to derail her nomination. Republicans who willfully spread those lies must be thrilled, too. But they're not the only ones to blame: The failure of Democratic leaders to stand up to industry-orchestrated smears cost the agency—and the nation—a true public servant."
"The abject failure of Democratic leaders to stand up and advocate for their own nominee means that these companies will likely only double down on the kinds of deceitful and dirty tactics they deployed against Sohn," he warned. "We're angry about how Sohn was treated, and we're disturbed that Democratic leaders by and large failed to speak out against the lies, bigotry, and innuendo surrounding her nomination. But the answer here is not going back to the way things used to be at the FCC, when the industry got to hand-pick commissioners. Going backward would be a terrible mistake."
"There will be temptation in the weeks ahead to put forward an industry-friendly nominee to avoid a larger political fight. That's how the agency has worked in the past," Aaron added. "But the public—now more than ever—needs an independent voice at this crucial agency, one who won't cave to the industries they are supposed to regulate. Though Gigi Sohn deserved much, much better, we can only hope this moment will finally serve as a wake-up call to the Biden administration and the Democratic Party."
"Democrats promised to restore net neutrality and FCC oversight of telecom monopolies, and instead they caved to corporate interests and homophobic smears."
Fight for the Future director Evan Greer also expressed concern that the development will be followed by an industry-backed pick.
"Let's be perfectly clear: Democrats promised to restore net neutrality and FCC oversight of telecom monopolies, and instead they caved to corporate interests and homophobic smears. The same telecom companies that were caught red-handed funding a flood of fraudulent comments to the FCC and paying for misleading robocalls to senior citizens to kill net neutrality rules now will seemingly get to pick their own regulator, just as they did with Ajit Pai," Greer said, referring to a former FCC chair.
Internet service providers (ISPs) "are under immense pressure to censor legitimate content, including websites with accurate information about abortion care and LGBTQ issues, with state legislatures passing bills demanding ISPs block entire websites," she noted. "Meanwhile, lack of FCC oversight has enabled collection and sale of cel phone location data that puts vulnerable communities at risk of stalking, harassment, and surveillance. A fully staffed FCC could address these issues. Biden's deadlocked FCC is utterly impotent. And marginalized communities will pay the price for Democrats' incompetence and cowardice."
As for Biden's next nominee, Greer said that "we will fight tooth and nail to ensure that they don't pick another Ajit Pai clone. We demand an FCC commissioner that will fight for the public interest, and one that has no ties to the telecom industry that the agency is supposed to regulate."
This post has been updated with comment from Fight for the Future.
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Markey, Jayapal Propose Ban on 'Deeply Disturbing' Facial Recognition Use by Federal Agencies
"Biometric data collection poses serious risks of privacy invasion and discrimination, and Americans know they should not have to forgo personal privacy for safety," said Sen. Ed Markey.
Mar 07, 2023
As evidence mounts that facial recognition technology is racially biased and has led to wrongful arrests of people in the U.S., Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Tuesday reintroduced their legislation to impose sweeping prohibitions on the use of the technology by federal agencies and entities that receive federal funding.
The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2023 would prohibit federal agencies from using facial recognition as well as biometric technology, including "voice recognition, gate recognition, and recognition of other immutable physical characteristics," according to Markey.
The Massachusetts Democrat has in recent months called on federal agencies including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop using such surveillance mechanisms to identify people who may have committed crimes, warning the TSA last month that a recent federal study found "Asian and African-American people were up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white men by facial recognition technology."
The use of facial recognition stands "in the way of progress and perpetuate[s] injustice," said Markey in a statement.
"The year is 2023, but we are living through 1984. The continued proliferation of surveillance tools like facial recognition technologies in our society is deeply disturbing," said Markey. "Biometric data collection poses serious risks of privacy invasion and discrimination, and Americans know they should not have to forgo personal privacy for safety."
In addition to imposing a strict ban on the use of facial recognition and biometric technologies by federal entities, said Markey, the legislation would:
- Condition federal grant funding to state and local entities, including law enforcement, on those entities enacting their own moratoria on the use of facial recognition and biometric technology;
- Prohibit the use of federal dollars for biometric surveillance systems;
- Prohibit the use of information collected via biometric technology in violation of the law in any judicial proceedings;
- Provide a private right of action for individuals whose biometric data is used in violation of the act and allow for enforcement by state attorneys general; and
- Allow states and localities to enact their own laws regarding the use of facial recognition and biometric technologies.
Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, called the technology "invasive, inaccurate, and unregulated" and warned law enforcement agencies have already "weaponized" the surveillance systems against people of color.
In Maryland, Alonzo Sawyer was recently arrested near Baltimore for assaulting a bus driver and stealing their phone, despite the fact that he was home at the time of the attack and his wife confirmed his alibi. An intelligence agency used facial recognition technology to match Sawyer to CCTV footage from the bus.
Sawyer was just the latest Black American man to be arrested after being misidentified using facial recognition technology.
Those wrongful arrests are "why I have long called on government to halt the deployment of facial recognition technology," said Jayapal. "This legislation will not only preserve civil liberties but aggressively fight back against injustice by stopping federal entities from irresponsibly using facial recognition and biometric surveillance tools."
"Facial recognition has continued to harm vulnerable communities and erode our privacy, making this legislation more important than ever," said Caitlin Seeley George, campaigns and managing director for digital rights group Fight for the Future, which supports an outright ban on law enforcement use of the technology. "We cannot afford to wait any longer to put this invasive technology in check, and any lawmaker who claims to care about privacy and justice must prove it by supporting this legislation."
As they introduced the bill, Markey and Jayapal were joined by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren(D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley(D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib(D-Mich.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Jamaal Bowman(D-N.Y.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).
As Common Dreamsreported Tuesday, a lawsuit filed by the ACLU unveiled a "major investment" by the FBI in the development of facial recognition software.
\u201cThe FBI and the Department of Defense have been actively researching and developing facial recognition software for years.\n\nThe ultimate goal is to track large numbers of people using footage from any public surveillance camera \u2014 no matter how grainy, far, or obscured we are.\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1678202897
"This sweeping government surveillance software is a nightmare for our privacy rights," said the ACLU Tuesday. "Lawmakers need to close the door on government abuse of this technology now, before it's too late."
The newly reintroduced legislation demonstrates that "Markey understands Congress should not be using federal funds to underwrite the use of technologies that threaten our most sacred civil rights and civil liberties," said Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel for the organization. "The ACLU applauds Sen. Markey's leadership on this issue and thanks all the members of Congress who join him in safeguarding our freedoms against the prying eyes of unchecked government surveillance."
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