March, 03 2017, 11:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lindsay Meiman,Senior U.S. Communications Specialist,lindsay@350.org,us-comms@350.org,+1 347 460 9082,New York, USA
Trump's EPA Tells Big Oil & Gas: No Need to Report Methane Pollution
In response to the EPA's announcement that oil and gas companies will no longer be required to report how much methane their fracking wells and drill sites emit, 350.org Executive Director May Boeve gave the following statement:
BROOKLYN, N.Y.
In response to the EPA's announcement that oil and gas companies will no longer be required to report how much methane their fracking wells and drill sites emit, 350.org Executive Director May Boeve gave the following statement:
"This is exactly the kind of climate recklessness we can expect more of from Trump's EPA. After the Porter Ranch disaster shined a light on the dangerous impacts of methane pollution and fracking, communities nationwide demanded justice. Now the EPA's first steps to address the problem -- a request that the industry simply share information on pollution -- have been scrapped, making it clear that oil and gas executives have this agency in the palms of their hands.
"We can't expect this agency or this administration to ever take real action for the climate, but we've got to defend what we already won and take our future in our own hands. That's why we're taking the fight for climate justice to DC in April, to resist this corruption and fight for real change in our communities."
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.
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The interns sent a letter demanding that President Joe Biden support a permanent cease-fire.
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Dozens of White House interns sent a letter late Tuesday urging President Joe Biden to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, echoing the calls of a growing number of lawmakers, congressional staffers, administration officials, and ordinary Americans.
"We heed the voices of the American people and call on the administration to demand a permanent cease-fire," reads the letter, which is signed "40+ White House & [Executive Office of the President] Interns for Palestine."
"We are not the decision-makers of today, but we aspire to be the leaders of tomorrow, and we will never forget how the pleas of the American people have been heard and thus far, ignored," continues the letter, which was first reported by NBC News.
The interns' letter was made public hours after a Data for Progress survey showed that 61% of U.S. voters—including 76% of Democrats—want the Biden administration to call for a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which is facing a devastating humanitarian crisis as Israel continues its bombardment of the territory and expands its ground offensive to the south after decimating much of the north.
"The pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age."
While the Biden administration supported the temporary pause that ended last week, it has claimed that a permanent cease-fire would be a gift to Hamas, which carried out a deadly attack on southern Israel in early October.
Administration officials in recent days have pushed Israel to protect civilians in Gaza, but there's no evidence that the Israeli military has changed its indiscriminate approach. Early Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike reportedly hit a school housing displaced Gazans—killing at least 20 people—as Israeli forces invaded Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
"The pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age," Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Tuesday. "Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell."
The White House interns, who did not sign their names to the letter likely out of fear of retaliation, expressed their horror at both the "brutal October 7th Hamas attack on Israeli civilians" and "the brutal and genocidal response by the Israeli government, funded by our tax dollars."
An Amnesty International investigation released earlier Tuesday found that the Israeli military used U.S.-made munitions to carry out airstrikes on two homes in Gaza in October, killing more than 40 members of two families—including 19 children.
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Amid outrage from climate campaigners and senators, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil's proposed takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources, a regulatory filing revealed Tuesday.
Pioneer disclosed the FTC's request for more information about the pending merger, which Exxon announced in October.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Tuesday: "Last month, I and 22 other senators urged the FTC to investigate Exxon's $60 billion proposed blockbuster merger with Pioneer. And today—they heeded my warning."
"Americans care a great deal about gas prices," Schumer stressed, "and if this merger were to go through it would most certainly raise gas prices for families across the country."
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Alex Witt of Climate Power, an advocacy group founded by the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, League of Conservation Voters, and Sierra Club, also welcomed the FTC's inquiry in comments to The Associated Press.
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A CAP report highlighted Tuesday that in hopes of continuing to profit off of the destruction of the planet, the fossil fuel industry is "undermining democratic functions to stem the tide of climate action" around the world.
That report and the heightened scrutiny of the possible merger come during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), where attendees are considering scientists' warnings that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out to prevent more devastating global heating.
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As more people around the world demand an end to the fossil fuel era in the face of a worsening planetary emergency, Big Oil is "undermining democratic functions to stem the tide of climate action," a report published Tuesday revealed.
"Through a wide array of tactics, the multinational $4 trillion fossil fuel industry has not only corrupted citizens' understanding of the climate crisis but also contributed to the erosion of democracy around the world," the Center for American Progress (CAP) said in a new analysis.
CAP's Chris Martinez, Laura Kilbury, and Joel Martinez examined "what these tactics look like in practice and how they work against democratic systems to stifle climate action."
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The CAP analysis comes as a record 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists flood the floors of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP28, in Dubai, peddling influence and false climate solutions like so-called "abated" emissions, biofuels, and hydrogen.
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