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For Immediate Release
May, 31 2019, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Lee Ziesche, lee@SaneEnergyProject.org, (954) 415-6228
Lindsay Meiman, lindsay@350.org, (347) 460-9082
As Stop Williams Pipeline Fight Reignites, New Yorkers Launch Statewide Direct Action Training Tour
After Promise to Protect training tour stop in NYC, “Sit, Stand, Sing” will travel to five communities across New York State fighting fracked gas projects
WASHINGTON
Sane Energy Project and 350.org are announcing the launch of the "Sit, Stand, Sing" tour, a statewide direct action training tour to five communities across New York featured on the You Are Here Map where communities are escalating fights to stop fracked gas infrastructure and build the renewable energy economy that science and justice deem necessary. The tour kicks-off this Sunday, June 2 with the first stop in Springville, New York supporting the fight to stop the Northern Access Pipeline.
"New York State cannot meet its climate goals and build out billions of dollars of fracked gas infrastructure at the same time," said Lee Ziesche, Community Engagement Coordinator for Sane Energy Project. "We're at a crossroads right now and while pipeline companies and big corporate utilities want our state to go in the wrong direction, communities are standing up and demanding an end to dangerous fracked projects that threaten our health and climate."
This comes following the New York City stop of the national Promise to Protect tour. "Sit, Stand, Sing" will stop in the following locations:
- June 2: Springville, NY - Northern Access Pipeline
- June 25: Elmira, NY - Cayuga Fracked Gas Power Plant
- June 29: Dutchess County, NY - Cricket Valley Fracked Gas Power Plant
- TBC: Westchester, NY - Expansion of Algonquin & Tennessee Pipelines, LNG
- TBD: Onenota, NY - Decompressor Plant
The announcement of this tour comes just weeks after a nearly three-year fight to stop the Williams NESE pipeline reached a climax, when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) denied key water quality permits on May 15. Just two days after the denial, Williams re-applied to the NYSDEC, and the Stop Williams coalition is ready and organized to shut it down again.
"While the Trump administration pushes energy dominance, and utilities and fossil fuel companies hold our energy needs hostage, New Yorkers are taking the fight for energy democracy into our own hands," said Cata Romo, Fossil Free New York Campaigner with 350.org. "New York has the opportunity to be a model for real climate leadership for the rest of the world. Now, we're coming together across our state to use every tool we have to stop the build out of reckless fracked gas, and to build real solutions to the climate crisis."
Despite banning fracked gas extraction five years ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is still allowing fracked gas pipelines and power plants to wreak havoc on communities. Now, New Yorkers are coming together to be trained in nonviolent direct action, committing to take creative resistance to usher in the end of the fossil fuel era while making New York a model for real climate action for the rest of the world.
The tour will begin in Western New York where communities are fighting to stop the proposed 97-mile Northern Access Pipeline, which would transport fracked gas from Pennsylvania to Elma, NY where most of it would then be exported to Canada. As the corridor between fracking wells in Pennsylvania and customers in Canada, New England and overseas, New York State has become an important battle ground to stop the fracking industry.
Just days ago, youth leaders from around the world, called for a general Climate Strike on September 20, 2019. This tour will help connect fights across New York State, and train people to escalate campaigns for that key moment.
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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Critics Decry Trump-GOP Tax Bill as 'Trickle-Down Economics on Steroids'
"I'll tell you what's coming: handouts for billionaires, healthcare cuts for the people," warned one Democratic lawmaker.
May 12, 2025
House Democrats and civil society groups led condemnation of legislation introduced Monday by congressional Republicans and backed by President Donald Trump that one lawmaker said is "about tax breaks for billionaires and kickbacks to corporate donors" at the expense of working class families.
The 389-page bill includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts that would disproportionately benefit the ultra-wealthy and corporations, largely by extending Trump's first-term reductions in taxation mainly for top earners derided as the "GOP tax scam." The proposal also broadens the estate tax exemption for the superrich and makes permanent a massive tax break on offshore corporate profits, a top wish-list item for Big Business.
The proposal would reduce government revenue by trillions of dollars and swell the national debt—currently a staggering $36.2 trillion, or the equivalent of 127% of U.S. gross domestic product—and cost over $5 trillion.
The bill partially offsets the revenue loss by sharply slashing social spending, including on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. The legislation would impose work and cost-sharing requirements on many Medicaid beneficiaries and increase eligibility checks. Critics warn that millions of people would lose their health insurance coverage if the bill is passed in its current form.
Former Democratic U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich called the proposed legislation "trickle-down economics on steroids."
The Trump-GOP tax bill proposal: -Extend 2017 cuts for top earners -Increase the "pass-through" loophole for big businesses -Expand the estate tax exemption for the ultra-rich -Make a huge tax break for offshore corporate profits permanent Trickle down economics on steroids.
— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 11:32 AM
On the positive side, the popular Child Tax Credit would grow for many households under the proposal. So would the standard deduction. There would also be temporary tax breaks for overtime pay, car-loan interest, and tips. The proposal also establishes a new tax-preferred savings account for children younger than 8 years old under which the government would contribute the first $1,000 for kids born between 2025-28.
However, critics noted that millions of families would receive no benefit from the Child Tax Credit increase, wealthy business partnerships would get an even bigger passthrough deduction than in an earlier draft of the bill, and taxes on many tips and overtime work remain.
"This bill isn't about balancing the budget—it's about tax breaks for billionaires and kickbacks to corporate donors and billionaires, while silencing public voices," said Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.). "We see the grift and we're calling it out."
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, noted that "Trump loves to call his budget the 'big, beautiful bill.'"
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House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) warned, "I'll tell you what's coming: handouts for billionaires, healthcare cuts for the people."
The GOP agenda: rip health care away from millions of Americans to pay for massive tax breaks for the ultra-rich. This is the moment to fight back with everything we’ve got.
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— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabeth-warren.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Civil society groups also sounded the alarm over the bill.
"Families across the country are struggling now more than ever to get food on the table, visit the doctor, and afford lifesaving medication," ParentsTogether Action executive director Ailen Arreaza said Monday. "But instead of finding ways to offer some relief, Republicans in Congress are racing to pass a bill to hand massive new tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy."
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David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement that "the House GOP has revealed in broad daylight that their tax bill is a clear scam—one that hands out massive giveaways to their billionaire and corporate donors off the backs of their constituents with a price tag of over $5 trillion."
"The plan's massive cuts to vital programs like Medicaid and SNAP will drive up healthcare and food prices for millions of workers and families, while billionaires pocket the money and the national debt soars," Kass added. "Working and middle-class families—and future generations—shouldn't have to pay higher prices simply to enrich billionaire elites and the politicians in their pocket."
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Critics are warning the proposal will harm regular Americans by seeking savings through a take back of funds from various programs in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the signature climate legislation signed into law under former U.S. President Joe Biden, and includes "giveaways" for oil and gas companies.
Congressional Republicans are pressing ahead with a spending and tax cuts bill that will primarily benefit the wealthy and would be paid for in part through steep cuts to Medicaid, despite widespread opposition. Those cuts were first fleshed out in a House budget blueprint earlier this year and are part of the budget bill from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the text of which was unveiled on Sunday. But Medicaid cuts are not the only aspect of the bill drawing scrutiny.
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Another provision would have companies applying to export or import natural gas pay a nonrefundable $1 million fee and in return have their project "deemed to be in the public interest."
"The idea that corporate polluters can pay a fee to freely pollute our communities is beyond the pale," said Mahyar Sorour, a director of the Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy at the Sierra Club, on Monday.
"While it slashes much-needed support for clean energy and climate resilience, it would allow fossil fuel companies to pay to get their project approved. That's not just wrong, it's un-American," said Alexandra Adams, chief policy advocacy officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
According to E&E News, the legislation aims to rescind "the unobligated balance" of IRA funds for multiple Department of Energy programs, such as money meant for the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program.
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He explained to his 1.5 million followers later that he had been stopped by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents "for additional questioning."
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Piker shares his commentary primarily on YouTube and the streaming platform Twitch, and detailed the ordeal for his followers on both platforms.
The questions over the two-hour period suggested that the Trump administration has been following Piker's commentary, which has recently included vehement criticism of U.S. support for Israel as it bombards and starves the people of Gaza.
"They straight up tried to get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently," Piker said. "[The agent] kept saying stuff like, do you like Hamas? Do you support Hamas? Do you think Hamas is a terror group or a resistance group?"
Piker shared his story as TikTok creator Savannah Pinder, who makes anti-Trump videos and clothing, said publicly that she had been detained at Miami International Airport after passing through Global Entry.
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ICE detains woman who runs anti-Trump TikTok—she is U.S. citizen born & raised.
She was detained for hours as agents searched phone & social media—even demanding financial statements on how much she earns on TikTok.
Her clothing brand is named "Trump For The Dump"—she donates… pic.twitter.com/FsaX2MTYhV
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻 (@LongTimeHistory) May 10, 2025
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali, whose work has been published in The Nation, The Intercept, and other publications, said he has had several experiences like the one described by Piker at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
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Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the incidents show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP "are the 'enemies domestic' that federal officials swear an oath to defend against."
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