July, 25 2016, 02:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Blake Kopcho, Center for Biological Diversity, (805) 708-3435, bkopcho@biologicaldiversity.org
Cherri Foytlin, Bridge the Gulf, (334) 462-4484, foytlinfam@cox.net
Virali Modi-Parekh, Rainforest Action Network, (510) 747-8476, virali@ran.org
Moving Gulf Fossil Fuel Lease Sales Online Won't Halt Public's Growing Opposition to Offshore Drilling
Gulf Coast community groups and their allies in national environmental organizations today criticized the Obama administration's decision to hold a lease sale for nearly 24 million acres of offshore fossil fuels on Aug. 24 behind closed doors -- a step clearly designed to limit public pressure that's been mounting against leases in the Gulf of Mexico and around the nation. The groups vowed to continue demonstrations and protests against the Aug. 24 lease sale and future lease offerings.
NEW ORLEANS
Gulf Coast community groups and their allies in national environmental organizations today criticized the Obama administration's decision to hold a lease sale for nearly 24 million acres of offshore fossil fuels on Aug. 24 behind closed doors -- a step clearly designed to limit public pressure that's been mounting against leases in the Gulf of Mexico and around the nation. The groups vowed to continue demonstrations and protests against the Aug. 24 lease sale and future lease offerings.
The coalition that held a massive demonstration against the March 23 lease sale at the Superdome in New Orleans was actively organizing around the upcoming sale when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced the new plan on Friday.
"The administration can't silence the movement to protect the Gulf and our climate. This new plan was clearly designed to stifle public opposition and it shows they're worried about the growing resistance to new offshore leases," said Cherri Foytlin of Bridge the Gulf. "The Obama administration needs to take a strong stance on climate change and end all new offshore leases in the Gulf and waters off Alaska, rather than trying to hide from public scrutiny."
BOEM Director Abigail Hopper claimed the new online system was about "efficiency" as she announced the lease offering of 23.8 million acres in the western Gulf, which could produce up to 200 million barrels of oil and 938 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Burning those fossil fuels would send more than 137 million metric tons of carbon-equivalent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, roughly the same as operating 40 coal-fired power plants for a year.
"Streamlining the process of turning public waters into sacrifice zones for the fossil fuel industry isn't the way to address the climate crisis or decades of environmental injustice in the Gulf," said Blake Kopcho, an organizer with Center for Biological Diversity who has been working with Gulf groups. "This plan is an insult to everyone concerned about climate change and the frontline communities that are most heavily impacted by it."
"If they think that this action is going to quiet us, they're wrong. Their action has only made us stronger and more united than ever before," said Mary Gutierrez, executive director of Earth Ethics, Inc. "We will not be silenced. Our voices will be heard. No new leases!"
"If 'efficiency' was really Hopper's prime concern, she wouldn't be peddling offshore leases. She would be advocating weatherization of homes and installation of rooftop solar power systems," said David Underhill with Mobile Bay Sierra Club.
"Instead of heeding the people's call across the country to end this dysfunctional system, Obama is subverting the democratic process even further with this move," said Ruth Breech, senior campaigner with Rainforest Action Network. "President Obama, don't make it easier for corporations to plunder public waters and lands. End these destructive leases and keep it in the ground for people and the planet."
"There is actually a silver lining to this travesty and omission of transparency, and that is our movement, our coalition -- led by the amazing organizing and activism of the Gulf South community, who are literally fighting for their lives -- is cutting through," said Anthony Rogers-Wright, policy director with Environmental Action. "The fossil fuel empire has always been surreptitious and back-handed. We can now add 'craven' to the list of characterizations for these climate killers. The Gulf South will not be silenced, and the resistance will not be intimidated."
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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The Wall Street Journalreported Thursday that members of Trump's transition team and the new Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have asked nominees under consideration to head the FDIC and OCC if the bank watchdogs could be eliminated and have their functions absorbed by the Treasury Department, which is set to be run by a billionaire hedge fund manager and crypto enthusiast.
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"The next recession starts here," tech journalist Jacob Silverman warned in response to the Journal's reporting.
Eric Rauchway, a historian of the New Deal, wrote that "even Milton Friedman appreciated the FDIC," underscoring the extreme nature of the incoming Trump administration's deregulatory ambitions.
Musk, the world's wealthiest man, is also pushing for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
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The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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