March, 31 2016, 11:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
David Turnbull, david@priceofoil.org, 202-316-3499
John Sellers, john@other98.com, 510-390-6416
Rodrigo Estrada, rodrigo.estrada@greenpeace.org, 202-478-6632
100,000+ Urge President to End Fossil Fuel Leasing from Public Lands and Waters
Keep it in the Ground” petition meets goal, response from White House required
WASHINGTON
A petition calling for an end to fossil fuel leasing on public lands and waters has garnered more than 100,000 signatures on the White House's "We the People" online platform, surpassing the threshold necessary to trigger an official response from the White House.
The petition, supported by a number of progressive organizations, calls on the President to "secure [his] climate legacy by halting all new drilling, fracking, and mining on public lands and waters, including stopping all new offshore drilling in the Arctic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic."
Initiated by the Other98, Oil Change International and Greenpeace USA, the campaign to collect signatures and force an official White House response includes a broad range of additional progressive organizations, including: Courage Campaign, Daily Kos, Environmental Action, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch, The Nation, Stand (formerly ForestEthics), Rainforest Action Network, WildEarth Guardians, and WatchDog.
"In the last nine months, President Obama has rejected the Keystone pipeline, cancelled Arctic Ocean drilling leases, and halted new coal mining leases on public lands. But our children and grandchildren need him to be even more audacious in stabilizing the climate," said John Sellers, Executive Director of Other98. "When this President looks back in 25 years, will his legacy be as the President who finally broke with Big Oil, or the President who left our oceans and public lands on the table?"
"The movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground has been growing at an amazing clip all around the country. We're excited to hear from the White House in response to this petition, because we know that if they are serious about tackling climate change, they will heed this call," said David Turnbull, Campaigns Director at Oil Change International. "Allowing for continued extraction of fossil fuels on our public lands endangers communities and fails the climate test. We need to stop digging and drilling away our future, and our public lands are a great place to start moving in a new direction."
"Thousands from all across the country are united behind the call to keep all fossil fuels in the ground. This growing movement is providing support for President Obama to secure his climate legacy. We are united behind a clear demand: protect our communities, our environment and our climate from those who have placed profit over people. The President should listen and act," said Vicky Wyatt, Climate Campaigner at Greenpeace USA.
The petition milestone comes amidst a series of escalating protests at federal fossil fuel lease sales in recent months, including a recent sale at the Superdome in New Orleans which saw hundreds of protesters disrupting the sale proceedings and expected activity at hearings across the country regarding the Obama administration's most recent draft offshore drilling plan.
The full petition can be found at https://ObamaClimateLegacy.us or on the White House's official "We the People" petition site at https://1.usa.gov/1RoeB3N.
"Extreme oil, coal and fracked gas are over," said Ross Hammond, US campaigns director, Stand. "We need to leave fossil fuels in the ground and anyone who is paying any attention to justice, safety, and the environment knows exactly why. President Obama understands the imperative and the urgency. The time to act is now."
"The current practice of selling off America's precious public lands and waters for pennies on the dollar to some of world's dirtiest and wealthiest corporations must stop now," said Ruth Breech, senior climate and energy campaigner with Rainforest Action Network. "This outdated corporate giveaway no longer serves our communities, our climate or our children's future and ending it is the single most important action on the climate Obama can take in his remaining months in office."
"Public lands belong to the American people," said Dr. Gabriela Lemus, President of Progressive Congress. "Current leasing practices damage the land while leaving Americans to suffer the consequences. As more oil companies go bankrupt, oil wells are abandoned and orphaned, requiring extensive clean-up and creating serious health hazards. President Obama has set climate objectives and pledged to reduce our nation's dependence on fossil fuels to hasten our departure from dirty energy. This is a great opportunity for him to live up to those promises: leave fossil fuels untouched underground and protect the land for future generations to enjoy."
"President Obama speaks eloquently about the threat of climate change, but while in office he has enabled a dramatic increase in domestic oil and gas production, especially on our treasured public lands," said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. "We are quickly approaching climate crisis and must reject fossil fuels now. President Obama should use his remaining time in office to ban fracking, keep fossil fuels in the ground by halting leases on federal lands, and lead us on a path to a 100% renewable energy future."
"President Obama can use his executive authority to get us on the right track," said Mara Schechter, Campaign Director of Daily Kos. "He doesn't need to deal with an obstructionist Congress, or the oil and gas industry. He alone can put millions of tons of carbon off limits."
"For all the President's talk on climate change these last seven years, the harsh reality is it's business as usual when it comes to him selling more than 30 million acres of public lands and waters for fracking for oil and gas," said Tim Ream, WildEarth Guardians Climate and Energy Campaign Director. "Worse still, climate impacts from not one of these sales have ever even been studied. Our climate and our future demand nothing less than this President keep it in the ground."
"President Obama made a promise in Paris to cap global warming well below catastrophic levels of 2 degrees Celsius," said Drew Hudson, director of Environmental Action. "If he's serious about keeping that promise he's got to stop permitting new fossil fuel drilling and infrastructure. And that's the message he's been hearing all month from the New Orleans superdome to the pancakes not pipelines protest at FERC and in many other places. The call to keep it in the ground is only getting louder this spring and it's time for the president to listen up.
"The reign of Fossil Fuel Empires is coming to an end. The Keep It in the Ground movement gains strength and momentum every time the federal government mismanages our public lands and waters and tries to sell off publicly owned fossil fuels to the highest bidder. President Obama's climate legacy depends on keeping fossil fuels in the ground to protect communities and our planet and justly transition to a clean energy economy," said Marissa Knodel, Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth.
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
(202) 518-9029LATEST NEWS
Insulted by Trump's Threats, Iranian Negotiators Walk Out of Peace Talks
"Don’t they think that if their threats had worked, they wouldn’t have ended up in today’s desperate situation?" said Iran's chief negotiator.
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US President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy Iran and send US forces to occupy the country on Sunday appear to have derailed peace negotiations in Switzerland, with the Iranian delegation reportedly walking out and demanding an apology.
Following Iran’s announcement that it was closing the Strait of Hormuz again after Israel intensified its assault on Lebanon, Trump went on a tirade Sunday in which he threatened to assassinate negotiators and said Iran “won’t have a country” if access to the critical waterway was shut off, while also threatening to “take over” Iran with a full US invasion.
But after Trump’s threats—which broke the first clause of the memorandum of understanding—Iran’s negotiators filed a complaint with the Pakistani and Qatari mediators and stormed out of the mountain resort where talks were being held, according to several outlets.
While Trump clearly sought to project strength, Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said his team “do not take American threats seriously.”
In previous months, as Trump sought to squeeze concessions from the Iranians, he issued escalatory threats to wipe out their “whole civilization” and “blow up” the whole country. However, he did not act on those threats, even as Iran refused to budge from its negotiating posture.
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While the Iranian delegation left the venue, talks are reportedly continuing via mediators. However, according to the Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen, the delegation said it will not return until Trump apologizes for his threats and Israel fully withdraws from Lebanon.
According to senior Israeli officials cited by Channel 12, Israel is reportedly considering “limited withdrawals” from Lebanon, including in areas within its so-called “buffer zone.” Despite Iranian claims, the officials said the US has not requested Israel’s withdrawal from the country.
Previous peace talks have been derailed by Trump’s threats to commit indiscriminate war crimes in Iran. But this past week has seen perhaps the most violent swing yet in his approach toward Iran.
Where earlier this week, Trump acknowledged Iran's right to enrich uranium and maintain a nuclear energy program like that of other nations, his outburst Sunday appeared to have been prompted by a statement by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who said the US would be "forced to accept" its right to enrichment.
And while Trump has raged against Israel’s actions in Lebanon while privately claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to sabotage peace, he has not taken concrete action to force Israel to comply with the memorandum’s terms.
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One expert said Israel's continued assault on Lebanon, which led Iran to announce its closure of the strait, posed an "existential threat" to the ceasefire.
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Rather than force Israel to halt its occupation in Lebanon in accordance with the memorandum of understanding, President Donald Trump on Sunday responded to Iran's announcement that it was closing the Strait of Hormuz with a new litany of psychotic threats—claiming that if the waterway were closed, he would blow up the country, launch a full ground invasion to take it over, and assassinate Iranian negotiators.
According to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst, Trump told the Iranian negotiators overnight that if they close the strait, which Iran claimed to have shuttered once again on Saturday, “you won’t have a country,” adding that they “won’t even make it back to their f***ing country,” in what appeared to be a threat to assassinate the negotiators, as happened during the initial phase of the war.
Responding to statements by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who said Iran would not give up its “right to enrich uranium” and that the US “will be forced to accept it,” Trump reportedly said Pezeshkian had better “watch his mouth” and “shape up,” or the US “will take over the rest of the country.”
It’s yet another sharp reversal from Trump, who—after months of claiming Iran must agree to “zero enrichment”—suddenly acknowledged this week that it was “common sense” for the nation to be allowed to have a nuclear energy program as other countries do.
Trump’s renewed threats against Iran, which mirror his genocidal threats earlier in the war to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” and “blow up” the entire country, also appear to violate the first clause of the memorandum of understanding, which calls on signatories to “refrain from the threat or use of force against each other.”
The threat to fully occupy Iran, which Trump made publicly for the first time on Sunday, stands in sharp contrast to his comments that continuing the war for much longer would cause “economic catastrophe” and that even limited ground operations, such as one he had proposed to seize Iran’s uranium, would be too big an effort to be worth it.
The war with Iran is already deeply unpopular among the American public, even without US boots on the ground. Polls have shown that even a majority of Republicans would be opposed to Trump escalating the war by deploying ground troops, and military officials have shelved planned operations to occupy certain strategic locations, including Kharg Island, fearing a large number of American casualties.
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Iran announced that it would close the strait again on Saturday after Israel deepened its occupation and escalated its bombing of southern Lebanon, despite the MOU’s ceasefire agreement covering all fronts.
Iranian negotiators have described an end to Israel’s Lebanon occupation, which has killed more than 4,000 people and forced more than 1.2 million Lebanese civilians from their homes in the south, as a red line for negotiating peace.
Behind the scenes, Trump has acknowledged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using Lebanon to sabotage the ceasefire and drag the US back into a full-scale war.
In the phone call with Yingst, Trump once again said he was “disappointed Israel can’t put Hezbollah away,” adding that Israel “can’t do anything without knocking buildings down.” He also said he was close to allowing Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa—the former leader of al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate—to take over the operation against Hezbollah.
While this is yet another instance of Trump using harsher rhetoric toward Israel—which Vice President JD Vance has also done in recent days—there is no indication yet that he is willing to take the next step of forcing Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire agreement by imposing material consequences, such as suspending military aid.
Even as Israel’s attacks continued unabated and threatened to derail the deal entirely, Vance did not indicate that he thought the US needed to exert more pressure.
“I think Trump and the US have done more to stop the conflict in Lebanon than any government anywhere in the world,” he said at a press conference in Switzerland on Sunday.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, described Israel’s continued escalations as “an existential threat” to the peace process between the US and Iran.
He told ABC News on Saturday that Iran’s threat to close the strait just before a meeting in Geneva this weekend was meant to be “part of a background of how serious they are” about ensuring that the US understands the stakes if Israel refuses to withdraw.
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The immediate trigger for Starmer's reported resignation was Burnham's victory in Thursday's Makerfield by-election, which marked the former mayor of Greater Manchester's return to Westminster. Burnham comfortably defeated a Reform UK candidate, and The Guardian reported that he was expected to have support from about 200 Labour MPs in a leadership challenge against Starmer.
Burnham emphasized during a victory rally that it was "a last chance to change" Labour as it heads for electoral oblivion.
Responding to what he said were requests from constituents to "do something to make life more affordable," Burnham called for an end to "trickle down economics," with government interventions to bring down utility bills and rail fares, public procurement of businesses, pushes for reindustrialization, and job guarantees for people ages 16 to 18.
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Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, who led the Labour Party from 2015-20, said that while he personally likes Burnham, "his basic economic strategy and views... seem to me to be accepting too much of the austerity that we've had imposed upon us."
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