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For Immediate Release
December, 18 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Peter Hart, phart@fwwwatch.org, 732-839-0871
FERC Order Props Up Fossil Fuels, Dooms Climate Efforts
WASHINGTON
Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a long-awaited decision regarding how electricity prices are determined at capacity auction for the PJM regional transmission system.
In response, Food & Water Action Climate & Energy Director Mitch Jones released the following statement:
"This order will hurt wind and solar, while propping up failing and flailing coal and gas plants. It is a terrible decision by a reckless regulator that will help to doom us all to an unlivable planet. And it shows even more why we need a Congress and a president that are willing to take the bold and decisive actions we need to stave off the worsening effects of our climate crisis: Ban fracking, stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure, and make a fair and just transition to 100 percent renewable energy."
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
Dem Establishment Accused of ‘Putting Thumb on the Scale’ Against Progressive Candidate
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee decided to boost conservative candidate Jasmeet Bains instead of progressive Randy Villegas.
May 04, 2026
The Democratic Party's congressional campaign arm faced backlash on Monday for boosting the more conservative candidate in California's 22nd District, where two Democrats are vying to unseat GOP Rep. David Valadao.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has added Jasmeet Bains, a California State Assembly member, to its "Red to Blue" program, which gives chosen candidates fundraising and organizational support as they seek to flip Republican seats. The DCCC's decision to elevate Bains over Randy Villegas, an educator and political newcomer endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and major unions such as the United Auto Workers, was seen as the latest example of Democratic leaders seeking to thwart a progressive candidate with genuine grassroots momentum.
"Just like they did in Maine and Michigan, the Democratic establishment is again putting its thumb on the scale—not to support the stronger candidate, but the candidate who will bend to party leadership and its corporate donors," said Ravi Mangla, national press secretary for the Working Families Party (WFP), which has backed Villegas.
“Randy Villegas is the top Democratic fundraiser in the race, despite not taking a penny from corporate interests," said Mangla. "He’s racked up more key endorsements than his opponent. And he’s the only candidate with the energy and momentum to beat David Valadao in November."
California primaries are nonpartisan, so the incumbent Valadao will face Bains and Villegas in the June 2 contest. The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election.
The American Prospect's Emma Janssen reported last week that Bains and Villegas "represent two opposing approaches that Democrats across the country have articulated as the key to beating Republicans."
"Bains is running a more conservative campaign—what some, including Villegas, have called 'Republican Lite,'" Janssen noted. "Villegas, on the other hand, is running to the left and has been endorsed by progressive leaders."
Villegas has accused Bains of "flip-flopping on a variety of issues," including Medicare for All and whether Israel's assault on Gaza rises to the level of genocide. Villegas has joined human rights organizations, legal experts, and many others in answering the latter in the affirmative.
Bains, who is endorsed by Democratic Majority for Israel, previously said she believes Israel has committed genocide in Gaza before reversing herself.
“It’s clear that Assemblymember Bains is willing to change her answers or sell her answers to the highest bidder and the highest donor, and that she doesn’t actually stand for anything but whatever her corporate donors tell her to do,” Villegas told the Prospect. “Her flip-flopping on all these issues is disappointing, but it’s also not surprising from somebody who has failed to actually stand up for our communities in Sacramento.”
In its endorsement of Villegas published on Sunday, McClatchy Media’s California editorial board wrote that "Bains and Valadao represent a status quo shaped by complacency," whereas Villegas "is the embodiment of the Central Valley’s values."
"At 30, Villegas reflects a growing generational divide within the Democratic Party. Like many young progressives, he is frustrated by the party’s lack of action on crucial issues such as universal healthcare and the war in Gaza," the editorial continued. "There is room for Villegas to deepen his expertise on certain policy issues, but he brings a fresh perspective. He believes in hard work and family. He has far more in common with his district than his opponents."
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Trump's Strait of Hormuz Ploy Aims to Manufacture 'Pretext for Escalation,' Iran Warns
"Any American interference in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire," said a member of the Iranian Parliament.
May 04, 2026
Iranian officials warned Sunday that US President Donald Trump's newly announced plan to help "guide" stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz is an attempted provocation aimed at justifying additional military action against the Middle Eastern country.
An unnamed senior Iranian official told Drop Site that Trump's plan, announced on Truth Social and confirmed by the US military, "is primarily intended to provoke Iran into taking an initial step toward confrontation, thereby creating a pretext for escalation and enabling him to justify further military action in response to an Iranian initiative."
The official added that "our definitive position is that any commercial vessel attempting to transit through designated restricted routes without prior coordination will be promptly intercepted by Iranian forces."
"Should US military vessels respond, such actions would be met with an immediate and corresponding response from Iran," the official continued. "The US military vessels are far from the corridor area. If commercial vessels attempt to move, they would be engaged well before reaching any American ships," the official added. "Trump has effectively turned them into bargaining tools in his political game."
Ebrahim Azizi, who heads the national security commission of the Iranian Parliament, warned in response to Trump's plan that "any American interference in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire" that took effect in early April.
"The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf would not be managed by Trump's delusional posts," Azizi added.
Trump wrote on his social media platform on Sunday that his administration has told countries with vessels stranded in the vital strait that "we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business." Iran closed the strait—through which around 25% of the world's seaborne oil trade and a third of global fertilizer trade flows each year—in response to the US-Israeli war as well as the Trump administration's naval blockade against Iran.
The US president characterized his plan, which is titled Project Freedom and set to take effect on Monday, as a "humanitarian gesture on behalf of the United States," but provided few details on how it would work.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Sunday that military support for Project Freedom would "include guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms, and 15,000 servicemembers."
"Last week, the U.S. Department of State announced a new initiative, in partnership with the Department of War, to enhance coordination and information sharing among international partners in support of maritime security in the strait," CENTCOM said. "The Maritime Freedom Construct aims to combine diplomatic action with military coordination, which will be critical during Project Freedom."
Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, wrote that CENTCOM's statement makes the president's plan "sound like information-sharing backed by a vague threat of military action."
The president's scheme drew immediate support from one of the most vocal boosters of the Iran war, US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who said he "totally" agrees with Trump's decision to launch Project Freedom.
"I hope this conflict can end diplomatically," said Graham, "but it is now time to regain freedom of navigation and forcefully respond to Iran if they insist on terrorizing the world."
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'We Are Focused on Ending the War,' Says Iranian Foreign Ministry After Trump Threatens More Suffering
“We are currently concentrated on ending the war in the region, including in Lebanon,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, who added that "no nuclear negotiations” are happening at this stage.
May 03, 2026
A spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday said the Iranian leadership is reviewing the response issued by the US government over the weekend following a 14-point plan offered by Tehran to bring the unpopular war started by President Donald Trump—now in its third month—to an end.
“The Americans have given their answer to Iran’s 14-point plan to the Pakistani side, and we are currently reviewing it,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in an interview with Iranian television.
Baghaei said that the offered framework is strictly focused on ending the immediate hostilities and that the plan contains "absolutely no details regarding the country’s nuclear issues," which he suggested could be discussed at a later time.
“We are not currently engaged in any negotiations over the nuclear issue, and decisions about the future will be made in due course,” he said, even though Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have continued to claim the preventing the Iranians from having a nuclear weapons program—which Tehran denies having and US intelligence assessments have shown does not exist in the manner that US officials describe it—is central to their war aims.
“I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us," Trump said in a social media post on Saturday, "but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity and the World, over the last 47 years."
Despite some reporting examining what's purportedly in the Iranian proposal, the exact details of the 14-point plan remain murky or contentious, depending on who you ask. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, gave his assessment of the current situation on Sunday by saying:
Overall, the Iranians appear to be pursuing a grand bargain—without labeling it as such. This is not merely a proposal aimed at securing a ceasefire, or even a formal end to the current conflict, but rather an attempt to resolve the broader US-Iran antagonism that has persisted for the past 47 years. Implicit in this approach is an expectation that both sides would also restrain their respective regional partners and proxies (Israel, Hezbollah, etc.). In many respects, framing the proposal in this way may align more effectively with Trump’s instincts and psychology.
Meanwhile, a poll out Friday showed that 61% of Americans believe Trump's launching of the war was a mistake, and an even higher number (66%) disapprove of how he's handling the conflict. The same ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll also showed that Trump is now facing the lowest approval ratings of his presidency.
Speaking with Al-Jazeera over the weekend, Parsi explained that Trump's maximalist demands, including the blockade that it has tried to impose on Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, have made negotiations much more difficult:
Trump had time on his side during the ceasefire - until he imposed the blockade per the recommendation of FDD, Israel, and Lindsey Graham. Though the blockade is hurting Iran, it has ended up hurting Trump more, with oil prices now exceeding where they were even during the war… pic.twitter.com/wNSbvjtwSz
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) May 3, 2026
Over the weekend, archival footage from the 1990s shared online by journalist Séamus Malekafzali showed former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein Salami, who was killed by US-Israeli forces last year, talking to the IRGC's staff college about the country's strategy of "asymmetric warfare" if and when it ever faced an opponent that was perceived to have military superiority over it.
Fascinating footage released by the IRGC of a class at the org's staff college in the 90s, where future IRGC leader Hossein Salami teaches a course on asymmetric warfare, teaching officers how to drag out a war with the US by driving up economic costs and political turmoil. pic.twitter.com/et5ZVFIEMi
— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) May 2, 2026
"The chance of conflict with American forces is very possible," Salami says in the video, according to the English subtitles provided, but the "possibility of victory really exists" if Iranians are able to move the conflict toward "the area of our capabilities into the area of America's weaknesses."
That strategy, as Malekafzali paraphrases it, is "to drag out a war with the US by driving up economic costs and political turmoil," thereby draining the US and sapping its power by inflicting economic pain and political pressure.
As many foreign policy observers have pointed out since Trump launched the war, the strategy of Iran to inflict pain on US allies in the region and economic pain at a global level—such as has been achieved by the closing of the Strait of Hormuz—is very much what Salami describes.
As geopolitical analyst Misbah Qasemi explained, Salami's point was basically this: "Don't match their strength (air power, technology). Attack their weaknesses (economic endurance, political will, domestic opinion). Drag them into your terrain—maritime, cyber, proxy networks—where their advantages neutralize themselves."
This point was made explicitly by Harrison Mann, a fellow with the advocacy group Win Without War, during a Sunday appearance on CNN, where he explained how this plays out in practical terms.
Told @brikeilarcnn: The "good news" is Iran won't become another quagmire because, unlike other countries the US has picked on in the region, Iran can actually inflict pain back on the US. In this case via economic warfare, which is not sustainable for Trump in the long run. pic.twitter.com/lwySB2BLca
— Harrison Mann (@Harrison_J_Mann) May 3, 2026
"Iran can actually inflict pain back on the US," said Mann. "In this case, via economic warfare, which is not sustainable for Trump in the long run."
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