January, 24 2017, 09:30am EDT
CREDO Staetment on KXL and DAPL Executive Orders
WASHINGTON
CREDO released the statement below in response to reports that Pres. Trump plans to sign executive orders to advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines:
"President Trump is showing that he's in the pocket of big corporations and foreign oil interests," said CREDO Deputy Political Director Josh Nelson. "Approving these dirty oil pipelines would poison American air and water, supercharge climate change and trample Native American rights," Nelson continued. "Fierce grassroots activism has stopped these pipelines over and over again," he added. "CREDO will do everything in its power to stop the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, and keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground where they belong."
CREDO has played a major role in the fights against the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. CREDO's work against the Keystone XL pipeline includes:
97,000 ACTIVISTS SIGNED THE KEYSTONE XL PLEDGE OF RESISTANCE: During the Obama administration, more than 97,000 people signed the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, committing to risk arrest in peaceful, dignified civil disobedience, if needed to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. As part of the Pledge of Resistance, thousands of activists have been trained to lead or participate in direct actions where they would risk arrest.
MORE THAN 4 MILLION PETITION SIGNATURES: CREDO Activists generated more than 4.3 million petition signatures in opposition to Keystone XL.
MORE THAN 500,000 PUBLIC COMMENTS: CREDO activists submitted 511,000 public comments to President Obama's state department in opposition to Keystone XL.
MORE THAN 40,000 PHONE CALLS IN OPPOSITION TO KEYSTONE XL: CREDO Activists made 42,804 phone calls to the White House, the State Department, the EPA, Members of Congress and others in opposition to Keystone XL.
283 PROTEST VIGILS ATTENDED BY MORE THAN 10,000 ACTIVISTS: Just 72 hours after the release of the State Department's final environmental impact statement, CREDO organized 283 protest vigils in 49 states, with more than 10,000 total participants. It was the biggest, rapid-response, on-the-ground demonstration of Obama's presidency to date.
CREDO's work against the Dakota Access pipeline includes:
400,000+ PETITION OBAMA TO REJECT PIPELINE: More than 418,000 CREDO members signed CREDO's petition demanding that President Obama intervene and stop the Dakota Access pipeline. Specifically, the petition calls on the president to "direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permits under 'Nationwide Permit 12' and stop the Dakota Access pipeline once and for all." The full petition can be found here:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/NoDAPL/
NEARLY 3,000 #NoDAPL CALLS TO THE WHITE HOUSE: CREDO members made more than 2,800 calls to the White House urging President Obama to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. View the current number of calls and call script here:https://act.credoaction.com/call/call_obama_dapl/
180,000+ PETITION OBAMA AND GOV. DALRYMPLE TO UPHOLD FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS: More than 189,000 CREDO members signed a petition urging Pres. Obama and North Dakota Gov. Dalrymple to "uphold the rights of Native Americans and their allies to peacefully resist the Dakota Access pipeline without threat of violence." The full petition can be found here:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/dapl_assault/
CREDO Action, part of CREDO Mobile, is a social change network of over five million activists, sending tens of millions of petition signatures and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to decision-makers each year. CREDO Action members also participate in meetings, protests and other direct action for progressive change.
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"Instead of fighting the rising cost of healthcare, gas, or groceries, this Congress prioritized rewarding the wealthy and well-connected military-industrial complex," said Defense Spending Reduction Caucus co-chairs.
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Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
The Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025, unveiled by congressional negotiators this past Saturday, still needs approval from the Senate, which is expected to vote next week. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday that he plans to vote no and spoke out against the military-industrial complex.
The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
"Instead of fighting the rising cost of healthcare, gas, or groceries, this Congress prioritized rewarding the wealthy and well-connected military-industrial complex with even more unaccountable funds," they continued. "After a seventh failed audit in a row, it's disappointing that our amendment to hold the Pentagon accountable by penalizing the DOD's budget by 0.5% for each failed audit was stripped out of the final bill. It's time Congress demanded accountability from the Pentagon."
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Several of the 124 House Democrats who voted against the NDAA cited those "culture war" policies, in addition to concerns about how the Pentagon spends massive amounts of money that could go toward improving lives across the country.
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Taking aim at the GOP's push to deny gender-affirming care through TRICARE, the congresswoman said that "I cannot support a bill that continues unnecessary military spending while also attacking the rights and healthcare of transgender youth, and for that reason, I voted NO."
As Omar, a leading critic of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, also pointed out: "The NDAA includes a provision that blocks the Pentagon from using data on casualties and deaths from the Gaza Ministry of Health or any sources relying on those statistics. This is an alarming erasure of the suffering of the Palestinian people, ignoring the human toll of ongoing violence."
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Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who voted against the NDAA, directed attention to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), set to be run by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who also opposed the NDAA, wrote in a Tuesday opinion piece for MSNBC that he looks forward to working with DOGE "to reduce waste and fraud at the Pentagon, while strongly opposing any cuts to programs likeSocial Security, Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."
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The Massachusetts Democrat introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, explaining that for much of U.S. history, corporations reinvested more than half of their profits back into their companies, working in the interest of employees, customers, business partners, and shareholders.
In the 1980s, said Warren corporations began placing the latter group above all, adopting "the belief that their only legitimate and legal purpose was 'maximizing shareholder value.'"
That view was further cemented in 1997 when the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group that represents chief executives across the country, declared that the "principal objective of a business enterprise is to generate economic returns to its owners."
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