February, 06 2019, 11:00pm EDT
National and Grassroots Groups: Any Green New Deal Must Directly Address Fossil Fuels
The "Green New Deal" resolution introduced in Congress today by Senator Edward Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does not include any language that would stop the expansion of fracking, drilling, pipelines, and other fossil fuel projects and infrastructure. In fact, the resolution nowhere mentions the terms "oil," "natural gas" or "fossil fuels."
WASHINGTON
The "Green New Deal" resolution introduced in Congress today by Senator Edward Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez does not include any language that would stop the expansion of fracking, drilling, pipelines, and other fossil fuel projects and infrastructure. In fact, the resolution nowhere mentions the terms "oil," "natural gas" or "fossil fuels."
Last month more than 600 organizations joined in a letter calling for any Green New Deal to include an immediate fossil fuel phase-out, a halt to leasing of federal lands for fossil fuel production, and an end to the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure. Last year 47 members of Congress co-sponsored bold legislation that paired the need for a quick and just transition to 100% renewable energy with a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects.
In response, a number of national and grassroots organizations fighting current and proposed fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure development across the country released the following statements:
"We urgently need a bold and ambitious Green New Deal that tackles fossil fuels head-on," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "We support the ambition and scale of this resolution, and we are heartened by its recognition that climate change poses a grave threat to healthy food and clean water, but any legislation that does not explicitly address the urgent need to keep fossil fuels in the ground is insufficient. A Green New Deal must ban fracking and stop the buildout of dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure that poses a direct threat to public health and safety right now.We look forward to fully supporting legislation that moves us to 100% renewable energy while also initiating the immediate phaseout of fossil fuels that science tells us must occur in order to adequately tackle the climate crisis."
"In just three months, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and youth-led climate groups have transformed the national conversation around what must be done to address the climate emergency. We are at a historic inflection point, requiring us to look the threat of climate breakdown straight on and rise to meet it. It is the Progressive Democrats of America's position that any 10-year Green New Deal plan must explicitly prioritize a rapid, just transition off of fossil fuels and fossil fuel infrastructure. There is no carbon budget left to safely burn. PDA is committed to standing for that truth; to holding the line," said Russell Greene, senior strategic adviser at Progressive Democrats of America.
"For years Democrats have been saying they are acting on climate, but continue to put forth fossil fuel compromised energy policy. A real Green New Deal must be defined by climate science and that means stopping the construction of new fossil fuel projects and replacing current fossil fuel infrastructure with renewables. We are deeply grateful to Sunrise and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for putting the Green New Deal front and center in the national conversation and look forward to working with them and frontline communities to continue that conversation about how we transform our economy and energy systems to be more just, equitable and renewable," said Lee Ziesche, community engagement coordinator at Sane Energy Project.
"We appreciate Sen. Markey and Rep. Ocasio Cortez's ambitious proposal for an expeditious transition to 100% renewables by 2030," said Tabitha Tripp, founder of Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment (SAFE). "However, for frontline communities here in southern Illinois, electric cars and geo thermal heat pumps are not an option when the environment around them is polluted and degraded as a result of oil and gas drilling. We need a ban on fracking and other dangerous fossil fuels, hold corporations accountable for their emissions, and an equitable transition for rural and impoverished communities who have and will continue to suffer the brunt of climate change."
"The dangerous Mariner East pipeline system would endanger my community and lock in years of greenhouse gas emissions. I support the policy of getting to 100% renewable energy by 2030, with green jobs as a centerpiece to that, but hope that leaders come forward with a plan that tackles all the obstacles necessary to solve climate change," said Caroline Hughes of Goshen United for Public Safety.
"I live in Playa del Rey, Los Angeles, between a leaky methane storage facility and a gas power plant," said Tudor Popescu, organizer with Protect Playa Now. "While I welcome news of a 'Green New Deal,' it needs to include a hard deadline for phasing out all fossil fuels. I grew up in this neighborhood with oily mist covering my neighbors' homes. My heart breaks when I think what climate change has in store for my four-month-old son. We owe him a fossil free 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
As Screwworm Disaster Widens, Trump USDA Denounced for Firing, Relocating Career Agency Staffers
Trump administration officials "did not act quickly on recommendations of career USDA staffers who sought to convey the seriousness" of a screwworm outbreak, according to a Wednesday report in Politico.
Jun 17, 2026
As the screwworm parasite spreads beyond initial contamination zones in Texas and New Mexico, some former US Department of Agriculture employees are pointing fingers at the Trump administration for exacerbating the crisis.
In a Politico report published Wednesday, three former USDA officials said that the administration's federal spending reviews have significantly hindered government efforts to contain the screwworm outbreak.
"USDA reviews held up funding for the construction of one facility that is crucial to slowing the flesh-eating pests threat to the US cattle supply," Politico reported, adding that "a $100 million research initiative designed to create new tools to slow the screwworm's advance was also delayed."
Two of Politico's sources also said the Trump White House "did not act quickly on recommendations of career USDA staffers who sought to convey the seriousness of a potential outbreak."
Politico's Rachel Shin also broke news on Wednesday that the Trump administration is plowing ahead with plans to carry out what she described as a "sweeping reorganization" of USDA that "will move thousands of employees out of the DC region," while "making clear workers must relocate if ordered or forfeit their jobs."
This report drew an angry reaction from Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who accused the administration of ignoring the serious threat the screwworm outbreak poses to American farmers' livelihoods.
"As screwworm continues to spread," Beyer wrote in a social media post, "Trump's USDA is prioritizing firing and relocating the public servants responsible for containing this outbreak instead of investing in the infrastructure needed to control it and prevent it from happening again."
Spending reviews and staff reorganizations aren't the only actions taken by the Trump administration that have hindered the screwworm outbreak response.
In the early days of the Trump administration, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) axed a screwworm-monitoring program that only cost an estimated $15 million per year to maintain.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Tuesday called DOGE’s slashing of the monitoring program an example of its "peak incompetence."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Putting 'Americans at Risk,' 1-in-4 Trump Commerce Department Officials Have Glaring Conflicts of Interest: Analysis
"These seeming conflicts raise serious questions about whether these federal employees are beholden to the American people or to the interests of private for-profit corporations," said one of the authors.
Jun 17, 2026
More than 1-in-4 senior appointees in President Donald Trump’s Department of Commerce have significant “conflicts of interest,” according to a report published on Wednesday, pointing to the same sort of corporate capture that is rampant across the administration.
The watchdog group Public Citizen reviewed financial disclosure forms for 112 senior officials in the department, which is dedicated to overseeing industry and economic growth. It found that at least 30 of them have substantial ties to the very industries that the department is tasked with regulating.
It’s a pattern seen across the Trump administration, where fossil fuel lobbyists and insiders dominate the Energy and Interior departments, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.
But as the new report, written by journalist Zach Everson and researcher Douglas S. Pasternak, explains, the Commerce Department is “unique in its active engagement in the economy to benefit particular companies, including those for whom its current officials once worked.”
“The conflicts of interest identified in this report put Americans at risk,” said Pasternak, the research director for Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project.
The entanglements start at the top, with the billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has ties to more than 800 different businesses from his decades as the CEO of the Wall Street financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, with interests spanning finance, real estate, crypto, AI, tech, satellites, energy, and gaming—many of which could be affected by Commerce policy.
While Lutnick promised to sell his business interests within 90 days of being confirmed at the department, he missed that deadline by more than four months. And instead of putting his financial stake into a blind trust, he sold his interest in the fund to trusts benefiting his four children.
As Commerce Secretary, Lutnick has engaged in actions that the report says "have a clear conflict with his family’s financial interests and appear to violate ethical norms for government employees."
In particular, it highlights his role in pushing for the dramatic expansion of artificial intelligence data centers across the US, and pressured other governments, including that of the United Arab Emirates, to invest in them.
At the same time, his former company, Newmark, where his son now sits on the board of directors, has facilitated more than $25 billion in AI-data center deals.
Similarly, Commerce invested over $1.6 billion in the mineral company USA Rare Earth Inc. while Cantor was leading the company's private fundraising.
Lutnick has also been at the center of the Trump administration's efforts to promote cryptocurrency and develop regulatory policy around it. This could impact the blockchain platform Tether, which hosts the world's largest stablecoin, for which Cantor acts as the primary custodian for more than $180 billion worth of reserves.
Beyond Lutnick, the department is crawling with ex-industry employees, lobbyists, and corporate lawyers now embedded in the regulation of their former clients.
Joyce Meyer, formerly a top lobbyist for the life insurance industry, now serves as undersecretary for economic affairs, where she oversees the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the US Census Bureau, which produce economic reports that shape federal tax, interest, and spending policy.
The current undersecretary for industry and security, Jeffrey Kessler—who oversees export controls on technology, software, commodities, and other equipment—previously worked as an attorney for the law firm WilmerHale, where he represented dozens of clients across industries he now regulates, including Boeing, Meta, and Eli Lilly.
One of the people in charge of regulating the sale of defense technology abroad, Joe Bartlett, who serves as deputy undersecretary at the Bureau of Industry and Security, came from one of the US military’s biggest drone makers, Skydio, which is subject to BIS export controls.
The report also identifies multiple other employees who have worked for weather data companies that have pushed to privatize forecasts now provided for free by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"It is unclear if these officials are serving the American public as their positions require or attempting to enrich their former employers or potential future employers, and ultimately themselves," Pasternak said. "These seeming conflicts raise serious questions about whether these federal employees are beholden to the American people or to the interests of private for-profit corporations.”
Everson added that the department "is meant to work in the interest of the people, not in the interest of a few select billionaires.”
He said, "Political appointees within the Trump administration need to be subject to standards of ethical and financial conduct which prevent them from using their positions of power to skim off the top.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Another Trump-Authorized Murder': 1 Dead, 2 Survivors Reported After Latest US Boat Bombing
More than 200 people have been killed in US strikes targeting boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean that the Trump administration claimed—without providing evidence—were smuggling drugs.
Jun 17, 2026
The US military said Tuesday that one person was killed and two others survived the latest attack on a boat that the Trump administration claimed—again without providing concrete evidence—was involved in smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
"On June 16, at the direction of the commander of US Southern Command Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations," SOUTHCOM said in a statement.
"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the statement continued. "One male narco-terrorist was killed during this action, and there were two male survivors."
SOUTHCOM added that it "immediately notified [the] US Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivors."
It is not known whether the survivors were saved.
The attack—in which no US forces were harmed—was one of more than 60 that have occurred in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since US President Donald Trump launched the campaign early last September. More than 200 people have been killed.
Relatives of people killed in some of the boat strikes, as well as officials in Venezuela and Colombia, say that at least some of the victims were fishers who were not part of the illicit drug trade.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused the US of “murder." Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was abducted during a US invasion in January and imprisoned in the United States on dubious narco-terrorism charges.
In January, relatives of two Trinidadian fishers killed in the strikes filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit in Massachusetts.
Experts argue that the strikes are illegal. Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America previously said that even in cases of vessels that were involved in drug trafficking, the bombings were illegal and “the equivalent of straight-up massacring 16-year-old drug dealers on US street corners.”
Just Security editor-in-chief and New York University School of Law professor Ryan Goodman said last month that the “overwhelming consensus of experts, myself included, assess these to be murder because no armed conflict” is occurring, adding that they would be a “war crime if it were armed conflict"—and possibly even a "crime against humanity."
Responding to Tuesday's strike, former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth lamented what he called "another Trump-authorized murder" and act of "blatant criminality."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular