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For Immediate Release
February, 13 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Cassady Craighill, ccraighill@greenpeace.org, 828-817-3328
Amazon Responds to Greenpeace Stating Commitment to "Achieving 100% Renewable Energy"
Report finds Amazon web services relying on fossil fuels to power its Virginia cloud
WASHINGTON
Responding to Greenpeace USA's Clicking Clean Virginia - The Dirty Energy Powering Data Center Alley report that found Amazon Web Services breaking its commitment to power its cloud with 100 percent renewable energy, a spokesperson said, "AWS remains firmly committed to achieving 100% renewable energy across our global network, achieving 50% renewable energy in 2018." The AWS spokesperson issued a full response to Windpower Engineering & Development.
Greenpeace USA stands behind the projections of AWS's energy footprint in our Clicking Clean Virginia report, which are based on permits its subsidiary, Vadata, filed with the Commonwealth of Virginia and Greenpeace obtained via information requests filed with relevant agencies.
Greenpeace USA Senior Corporate Campaigner Elizabeth Jardim said,
"Amazon Web Services and Amazon have consistently refused to report their energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions leaving the public in the dark about their carbon footprint. Unlike other leading internet companies, who have steadily improved their transparency and environmental reporting since Greenpeace began our evaluations of internet companies in 2010, both AWS and Amazon have unfortunately steadfastly refused to make public even the most basic data on the energy and environmental footprint of its operations, in stark contrast to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook."
"While both AWS and its parent have indeed signed a number of renewable energy deals, you can't begin to evaluate their significance collectively or individually without the underlying context of their energy demand. To prepare our analysis of AWS energy demand in Virginia, we used data filed by AWS with relevant Virginia environmental agencies. Amazon Web Services has added 23 new data centers in Northern Virginia since 2016, but added zero new renewable projects to match the pace of the company's energy demand. Proper transparency is core to any sustainability effort, yet Amazon remains the largest publicly traded company that does not submit data to CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), earning them an "F" for consecutive years from the organization who gathers environmental data from companies and grades them on their transparency. We're glad to see Amazon Web Services reaffirming its commitment to 100 percent renewable energy, but to hold the company accountable for its progress, it has to be transparent."
Thursday morning Greenpeace USA rebranded National Landing, the future home to Amazon's HQ2, with a human-sized Alexa, lamppost signs and street posters highlighting the company's stalled progress towards its commitment to power its cloud with 100% renewable energy.
TWEETS:
https://twitter.com/greenpeaceusa/status/1096033826407632897
PHOTOS:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceusa09/sets/72157703359490252
Morning commuters could "ask Alexa" questions about why Amazon's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services, still powers its data centers in Virginia with dirty energy despite its public 2014 commitment to use 100 percent renewable energy.
"We asked Alexa if she thought Amazon would be a good neighbor to Virginians and she replied, 'that depends how much you like breathing clean air,'" said Jardim, also a Northern Virginia resident. "Amazon's cloud including Alexa is powered largely from Northern Virginia, where it uses 88 percent dirty energy - meaning every question to Alexa is driving carbon emissions."
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
+31 20 718 2000LATEST NEWS
US Counterterrorism Chief Joe Kent Quits, Says Israel Duped Trump Into Iran War
"I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people," the far-right former Army Ranger and CIA officer said.
Mar 17, 2026
National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent announced his resignation Tuesday, accusing President Donald Trump of being manipulated by Israel into launching a war on Iran.
"I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby," Kent—a former Army Ranger and CIA paramilitary officer often described as a white nationalist and conspiracy theorist—wrote in his resignation letter to Trump.
"Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage war with Iran," Kent continued. "This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory."
"This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq War that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women," he claimed.
While there is no solid evidence that Israel "drew" the US under then-President George W. Bush into invading Iraq and toppling longtime dictator and erstwhile US ally Saddam Hussein, then-Israeli opposition leader Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2008 that the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States—which Iraq had nothing to do with—were "benefiting" Israel. He also said two years later that "America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction."
Kent, whose first wife, Navy intelligence officer Shannon Smith, was killed in a 2019 bombing targeting US forces invading Syria, said that "I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives," said
"I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for," he told the president.
Kent—who has been a staunch Trump loyalist—is the most prominent US official to resign as the president, who infamously campaigned for reelection on a promise of no new wars, has attacked seven countries since returning to the White House and 10 over the course of his two terms.
In contrast to his vehement opposition to waging war on Iran, Kent led an effort to rewrite intelligence so that it did not clash with Trump's dubious claim that the government of Venezuela was involved with the Tren de Aragua drug trafficking gang ahead of the recent US invasion of the South American country and kidnapping of its president, Nicolás Maduro.
While Kent's resignation drew praise from many opponents of Trump and the illegal US-Israeli war of choice in Iran, others focused on his troubling record and associations.
Iran war was a bad idea from start. But Joe Kent is not the right messenger on this. See his alleged associations with Nick Fuentes and live streamer who said Hitler was “a complicated historical figure which many people misunderstand” @splcenter.org @westernstatescenter.org 2025 letter:
[image or embed]
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 7:25 AM
"Joe Kent isn't suddenly a good guy," former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said on X. "He's a straight-up white nationalist. But there are fissures in the MAGA base."
MeidasTouch News CEO Ron Filipowski also took to social media, writing, "Just for the record, I'm glad Joe Kent resigned but he is still a POS."
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Trump Is Dismantling US Democracy at a Speed 'Unprecedented in Modern History': Watchdog
"Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we're seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country."
Mar 17, 2026
A report released on Tuesday by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has found that President Donald Trump and his administration are dismantling democracy in the US at a speed that "is unprecedented in modern history."
In its report, V-Dem categorizes the first year of Trump's second term as "a rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency."
In fact, V-Dem says that the Trump administration has accomplished in just one year what most budding autocracies take a decade to achieve, adding that "the speed of decline is comparable to some coups d´état."
Of particular concern is the failure of the legislative branch of the US government to apply any kind of oversight or check upon the executive branch, the report explains.
"The Republican-controlled Congress seems to have abdicated its constitutional role in favor of the executive branch, ceding significant legislative, fiscal, and oversight powers during 2025," the report says. "The Trump administration has de facto repeatedly taken over the Congressional 'power of the purse'—enshrined in the Constitution and in the 1974 Impoundment Control Act—unilaterally cancelling or reallocating federal funding."
The report also points fingers at the US Senate for repeatedly rolling over and confirming unqualified Trump nominees, which it says is tantamount to letting the White House “sideline” the upper chamber’s authority altogether.
V-Dem goes on to document the administration's repeated assaults on the judicial branch and the rule of law in general during his second term, starting when Trump issued a mass pardon to more than 1,500 alleged or convicted criminals who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Since then, the administration has waged a pressure campaign against judges who rule against it consisting of "impeachment resolutions and misconduct complaints," while also using executive orders to punish major law firms simply for representing the president's political enemies in court.
The lone bright spot in US democracy, says V-Dem, is that the administration has not yet been able to attack states' powers to administer their own elections, although not for lack of effort.
"Actions taken in 2025 raise concerns regarding the integrity of the 2026 midterms," the report warns. "This primarily concerns attempts to assert federal control over election processes, which must be decentralized and state-run, according to the Constitution."
The report notes that Trump has issued an executive order that attempts to override states' election laws by restricting mail-in voting and mandating voter IDs at polling places nationwide, but adds that "many provisions of this order have been blocked and others are still being challenged in federal court."
In an interview with The Guardian, V-Dem founder Staffan Lindberg used historical context to explain why Trump's assault on US democracy is truly without precedent.
"Our data on the USA goes back to 1789," he said. "What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country."
He also said that other authoritarian leaders have taken much more time in ripping down their states' democratic institutions than Trump has.
"For Orbán in Hungary, it took about four years," Lindberg said, "for Vučić in Serbia, it took eight years, and for Erdoğan in Turkey and Modi in India, it took about 10 years to accomplish the suppression of democratic institutions that Trump has achieved in only one year."
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US-Israeli War on Iran Could Push 45 Million More Into Hunger, World Food Program Warns
"If this conflict continues, it will send shockwaves across the globe, and families who already cannot afford their next meal will be hit the hardest."
Mar 17, 2026
The United Nations World Food Program warned Tuesday that the US-Israeli war on Iran and its cascading impacts on the global economy could push 45 million more people into acute hunger this year.
WFP said in a statement that while the war "involves a global energy hub and not a breadbasket region, the potential impact is similar because energy and food markets are tightly correlated." The organization pointed to Iran's retaliatory closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a key factor in rising energy and fertilizer costs, which can drive up food prices.
Carl Skau, WFP's deputy executive director and chief operating officer, said that "if this conflict continues, it will send shockwaves across the globe, and families who already cannot afford their next meal will be hit the hardest."
"Without an adequately funded humanitarian response," Skau added, "it could spell catastrophe for millions already on the edge."
WFP provided a breakdown of where and how much acute hunger is expected to rise if the war—now in its third week—does not end by the middle of 2026:
- Asia: 10 countries analyzed; 9.1 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity, which is a 24% increase;
- East and Southern Africa: 16 countries analyzed; 17.7 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity, which is a 17.7% increase;
- Latin America and the Caribbean: 3 countries analyzed; 2.2 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity, which is a 16% increase;
- Middle East and North Africa: 12 countries analyzed; 5.2 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity, which is a 14% increase; and
- West and Central Africa: 12 countries analyzed; 10.4 million people could be pushed into acute food insecurity, which is a 21% increase.
The illegal US-Israeli assault on Iran has already displaced more than 3 million Iranians, sparking fears of a massive refugee crisis. Hundreds of thousands have also been displaced in Lebanon, where Israel is expanding its aggressive aerial and ground attacks.
Aline Kamakian, a member of the World Central Kitchen Chef Corps who is leading the group's response to the escalating humanitarian disaster in Lebanon, said in a statement that "the official figures likely don’t capture the full scale of displacement."
“My biggest concern now is how long this conflict will last," said Kamakian. "Every day, more families arrive in Beirut, but there is already a shortage of housing and basic infrastructure to support so many people. Many have lost their homes and don’t know where they will go next. At the same time, the economy is collapsing—restaurants are empty, businesses are struggling, and next week is normally a period when tourists arrive and the city comes alive."
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