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For Immediate Release
July, 10 2017, 10:30am EDT
Contact:
Seth Gladstone – 347.778.2866, sgladstone@fwwatch.org
350+ Groups Oppose Dirty Senate Energy Bill that Would Promote Fossil Fuels, Pollute Air and Water, and Hasten Climate Chaos
Letter to Sen. Schumer Demands Dem. Opposition to Industry-Backed Bill
WASHINGTON
As the Senate considers a broad energy policy package that would encourage increased fossil fuel extraction and consumption, more than 350 national, statewide and local groups sent a letter to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today calling on him to lead opposition to the bill - S. 1460, the Energy and Natural Resources Act of 2017 - and ultimately prevent its passage.
The letter, organized by the advocacy group Food & Water Watch, states in part: "No energy legislation is better than bad energy legislation that serves to increase our dependence on dirty fossil fuel production instead of building on successful policies to expand clean energy sources... We find it astounding that any energy bill could contain a 'Renewables' subtitle but not include provisions on solar and wind energy."
The letter is signed by notable national organizations including: Food & Water Watch, League of Women Voters, Our Revolution, Progressive Democrats of America, CREDO, Working Families Party, Friends of the Earth and Center for Biological Diversity.
"This energy bill is long-term commitment pledge between America and the fossil fuel industry, and it will hasten our reckless advance toward climate chaos," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "The bill doesn't even mention solar or wind energy. It's simply a license to continue fracking, continue polluting, and continue cooking our planet. Senator Schumer must marshal resistance to this dangerous legislation immediately."
Among the many pro-fossil fuel provisions in the bill are: streamlining the approval process for liquid natural gas export terminals; expediting the review of new oil and gas drilling and fracking permits; granting new authority and deference to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a rubber-stamp approver of natural gas infrastructure projects; and expanding research and development for extracting methane hydrates.
"This is a dirty bill that makes it easier for polluters to contaminate our air and water, said Chris Carson, president of League of Women Voters. "Instead of pursuing harmful legislation that will destroy our precious natural resources and move our country backwards on our dependence on fossil fuels, Congress should be working to promote clean energy policies that put people before polluters."
"We've come to expect Donald Trump to put frackers and big oil above the American people. What makes no sense is that Senator Cantwell is helping him advance his extreme agenda by pushing a dirty energy bill," said Ben Schreiber, senior political strategist at Friends of the Earth. "Americans are in the streets rejecting not only Trump but also those in Congress who are enabling his extreme agenda."
"Given the Trump administration's blatant disregard for climate science, public health and the future of our planet, it's more imperative than ever that Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats stand firm and resist this legislation," said Dan Cantor, executive director of Working Families Party. "The bill would deepen our dependence on dirty fossil fuels and forestall the rapid transition to clean, renewable energy which we know is critical to avoiding climate catastrophe."
"This energy bill is, at its core, a bad bill that expands upon the billions of taxpayer dollars already given to the fossil fuel industry," said Bill Snape, senior counsel with the Center for Biological Diversity. "This special interest bonanza would take our country and our people in the wrong direction. It's about more fracking, more dangerous exploitation of public lands and waters, and more environmental rollbacks. With all the economic and ecological opportunities provided by renewable energy, why is this bill embracing such a dirty future?"
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500LATEST NEWS
Brazilian Judge Orders Slaughterhouses and Ranchers to Pay for Harming Amazon
"The invaders and their main business partners—loggers and meatpacking companies—make the profits their own while passing on to society the costs of environmental damage," notes one of numerous lawsuits.
Sep 06, 2024
A Brazilian judge on Thursday ordered two slaughterhouses and three ranchers to pay $764,000 in combined penalties for trading cattle raised in a protected area of the Amazon rainforest.
The decision by Judge Inês Moreira da Costa in Rondônia—the most severely deforested state in the Brazilian Amazon—came in response to a flurry of lawsuits filed by green groups seeking millions of dollars in damages from defendants including Distriboi and Frigon, two meat processing firms accused of trading cattle in the Jaci-Parana protected zone.
"When a slaughterhouse, whether by negligence or intent, buys and resells products from invaded and illegally deforested reserves, it is clear that it is directly benefiting from these illegal activities," the plaintiffs' complaint states. "In such cases, there is an undeniable connection between the company's actions and the environmental damage caused by the illegal exploitation."
The slaughterhouses and ranchers are but two of numerous parties being sued, including other ranchers and JBS, the Brazilian meat giant that bills itself as the world's largest protein producer.
According toThe Associated Press—whose reporting on the cattle trading documents prompted the lawsuits:
Brazilian law forbids commercial cattle inside a protected area, yet some 210,000 head are being grazed inside Jaci-Parana, according to the state animal division. With almost 80% of its forest destroyed, it ranks as the most ravaged conservation unit in the Brazilian Amazon. A court filing pegs damages in the reserve at some $1 billion.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuits are seeking to put a price on the destruction of old-growth rainforest, asserting that "the invaders and their main business partners—loggers and meatpacking companies—make the profits their own while passing on to society the costs of environmental damage."
The Amazon rainforest is one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and is a crucial carbon sink, meaning it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The world lost around 3.7 million hectares of primary tropical forests last year—a rate of approximately 10 soccer fields per minute, according to data from the University of Maryland's Global Land Analysis and Discover laboratory. While this marked a 9% reduction in deforestation compared with 2022, the overall deforestation rate is roughly the same as in 2019 and 2021. Felling trees released 2.4 metric gigatons of climate pollution into the atmosphere in 2023, or almost half of all annual U.S. emissions from burning fossil fuels.
In Brazil, the government of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has taken steps to combat deforestation, resulting in a more than one-third reduction in forest loss. Progress in reversing the rampant forest destruction wrought by the previous far-right administration of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—who was nicknamed "Captain Chainsaw"—were partially offset by a 43% spike in deforestation in the Cerrado region last year.
Earlier this year, Marcel Gomes—a Brazilian journalist who worked with colleagues at Repórter Brasil to coordinate "a complex, international campaign that directly linked beef from JBS... to illegal deforestation"—was one of seven winners of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.
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Jayapal Slams Israeli Government After US Activist Killed in West Bank
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, she said, "has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, often encouraged by right-wing ministers."
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U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal blasted Israel's government on Friday after Israeli forces reportedly killed American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi while the 26-year-old was protesting the expansion of settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank.
"My heart goes out to Aysenur's family, friends, and loved ones," Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement. "This is a terrible tragedy, and I extend my condolences to all those in mourning today. My office is actively working to gather more information on the events that led to her death."
Eygi, who had dual citizenship in the United States and Turkey, graduated from the University of Washington earlier this year.
"I am very troubled by the reports that she was killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers," said Jaypal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Citing witnesses, AJ+reported that Eygi was killed by a "deliberate shot to the head" in the town of Beita, near the settlement of Evyatar.
"The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region."
The congresswoman charged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government "has done nothing to stop settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank, often encouraged by right-wing ministers of the Netanyahu government."
"The killing of an American citizen is a terrible proof point in this senseless war of rising tensions in the region," added Jayapal, a critic of Israel's 11-month assault of the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 40,878 Palestinians and led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
The U.S. government has provided Israel with diplomatic support and billions of dollars in military assistance since it launched the assault on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas-led attack, in which more than 1,100 people were killed and over 240 others were taken hostage.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American in Congress and a fierce critic of the Israeli government, responded to Eygi's killing by calling out American diplomats in a series of posts on social media Friday.
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson at the U.S. State Department, said that "we are aware of the tragic death of an American citizen, Aysenur Eygi, today in the West Bank. We offer our deepest condolences to her family and loved ones. We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death, and will have more to say as we learn more. We have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens."
Noting his statement, Tlaib said: "Hey how'd they die, Matt? Was it magic? Who or what killed Aysenur? Asking on behalf of Americans who want to know."
The congresswoman slammed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his "complete and utter failure in keeping Americans safe," and urged him to "do something to save lives!"
Tlaib also reposted Zeteo News reporter Prem Thakker's list of Americans killed by Israeli forces. In addition to Eygi, they include teenagers Mohammad Khdour and Tawfic Abdel Jabbar; World Central Kitchen worker Jacob Flickinger; journalist Shireen Abu Akleh; and peace activist Rachel Corrie.
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UN Expert Fears 'Almost the Entire Population' of Gaza Exterminated If Israel Not Stopped
"The range of presumable direct and indirect deaths could be between 15 and 20% of the population already by the end of this year," said U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
Sep 06, 2024
Reviewing a global public health expert's analysis of the probable ultimate death toll in Gaza from Israel's relentless assault, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories said Friday that without a cease-fire, the Israel Defense Forces "could end up exterminating almost the entire population in Gaza over the next couple of years."
"The range of presumable direct and indirect deaths could be between 15% and 20% of the population already by the end of this year," said Francesca Albanese, citing research by Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.
Sridhar wrote in The Guardian about the difficulty of counting the dead on Thursday, days after the first of three planned pauses in fighting began to allow families to get to medical clinics for polio vaccines. Israel agreed to the pauses after one child was diagnosed with paralysis resulting from polio, which was detected in wastewater in Gaza in July, alarming public health experts.
"The discovery of polio in Gaza reminds us that it's becoming increasingly difficult to assess the true cost of the war," wrote Sridhar. "We don't have a sense of how widespread disease and starvation are—so-called 'indirect deaths'—and we are in the dark in terms of total number of deaths. Usually, data is collected from hospitals and morgues, which certify each death and notify the health ministry. Yet these civil registration systems have broken down in Gaza, meaning there is no accurate data on how many deaths have occurred."
As Common Dreamsreported on Wednesday, despite Israel's agreement to pauses in fighting to allow children to be vaccinated, bombings by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued this week, with some targeting "locations near the vaccination centers."
Human rights advocates have said since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza last October that along with the threat of bombings and shelling, Palestinians face the ever-growing threat of starvation and disease due to Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.
"If deaths continue at this rate—about 23,000 a month—there would be an additional 149,500 deaths by the end of the year, some six and half months from the initial mid-June estimate. Using the method, the total deaths since the conflict began would be estimated at about 335,500 in total."
In its regular report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Friday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israeli evacuation orders in addition to blockades caused daily meals provided to families to drop 35% in July and August.
"The food security situation in the Gaza Strip is deteriorating due to the critical shortages of aid commodities as well as ongoing hostilities, insecurity, damaged roads, access limitation and breakdown of law and order," said the agency, noting that more than 1 million people in southern and central Gaza received no food rations in August.
United Nations experts warned in July that Israel's "targeted starvation campaign" has "resulted in famine across all of Gaza," with at least 34 Palestinians dying of malnutrition as hundreds of aid delivery trucks were stranded in Egypt, unable to cross into the enclave.
The spread of disease is also a continued threat due to "the staggering increase in the cost of basic hygiene items" and attacks on health centers, said OCHA on Friday. The price of soap increased 1,177% in July, compared to July 2023.
"The lack of affordable hygiene items, combined with limited access to clean water and sanitation facilities, poses a growing risk of severe health impacts," said the agency. "This is especially true for families who have been displaced, as they face extreme difficulties maintaining basic hygiene in overcrowded shelters and displacement sites, while critical facilities—such as health centers, community kitchens, child-protection spaces, nutrition centers, and schools—lack the necessary tools to ensure safe and sanitary conditions. These conditions are all likely to deteriorate further during the winter."
Sridhar noted that while at least 40,878 people are confirmed dead in Gaza, "it is estimated that there are more than 10,000 bodies buried under rubble still (meaning they can't be counted), as well as a rising number of unidentifiable bodies."
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Sridhar's report came two months after public health experts estimated in The Lancet that even if a cease-fire were agreed to immediately, the true death toll in Gaza could ultimately reach roughly 186,000—nearly 8% of the population.
"If deaths continue at this rate—about 23,000 a month—there would be an additional 149,500 deaths by the end of the year, some six and half months from the initial mid-June estimate," wrote Sridhar. "Using the method, the total deaths since the conflict began would be estimated at about 335,500 in total."
Sridhar urged advocates to not "get lost in these numbers and forget the name and the face behind each one," and to continue pushing for a cease-fire and public health measures like the polio vaccination campaign that could save thousands of children from paralysis.
"Attempts to access the strip by the U.N., like the one resulting in humanitarian pauses for polio vaccinations, save lives," wrote Sridhar. "They make a difference to hundreds of thousands of families, even within the abject horror of war."
Albanese suggested that eventually, the world will have to face the potentially hundreds of thousands of deaths that powerful countries including the United States—the largest funder of Israel's military—allowed to happen.
"Once the dust settles, I can't imagine how the world will go on after having allowed that," said Albanese. "Again."
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