February, 19 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Over 570 Groups Endorse Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez Fracking Ban Bills
Broad support for path-breaking climate bill.
WASHINGTON
Over 570 national, regional, and local grassroots groups from across the country have signed a letter supporting the Fracking Ban Act, the first-ever federal legislation that would ban fracking and all related infrastructure projects.
The legislation was introduced this year by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Darren Soto (D-FL).
The letter, which urges members Congress to co-sponsor the legislation, was organized by the advocacy group Food & Water Action, which in 2011 was the first national organization to call for a ban on fracking.
In addition to hundreds of local groups, the letter was also signed by leading environmental and progressive organizations, including Climate Justice Alliance, Democracy for America, Indigenous Environmental Network, MoveOn, People's Action, Progressive Democrats of America, Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
The Fracking Ban Act would immediately halt all new federal permits for fracking and fracking infrastructure, ban fracking within 2,500 feet of homes and schools, and ban fracking everywhere by 2025.
"The path to a Green New Deal starts with bold action to restrict the supply of fossil fuels, and that is precisely why a ban on fracking is an absolute necessity," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Action and Food & Water Watch. "We have seen the toll fracking has taken on the health and safety of frontline communities. We know that it has stymied the growth of clean renewable alternatives. And we know that emissions from fracking are fueling the climate crisis. There is no time to waste: A ban on fracking is essential and urgent climate action."
The urgent calls to ban fracking are especially important in areas of the country that have been impacted by drilling. "Our clean air and water are being lost to fracking, toxic wastewater, and the associated petrochemical and plastics industry. Because of the lack of regulation and oversight of fracking from start to finish, we will have a real mess to clean up, if cleaning it up is even possible, once the fracking boom turns to bust," said Leatra Harper, Managing Director of Freshwater Accountability Project in Ohio. "A national ban on fracking and fracked gas infrastructure is a bold and necessary step that needs to be taken now, and we applaud the courage of those committed to doing the right thing!"
"The Fracking Ban Act couldn't be more timely or necessary," said Karen Feridun, Co-founder of the Better Path Coalition. "In Pennsylvania, we are seeing a shift towards a second generation of fracking to support the production of plastics. Communities still reeling from fracking's impacts of the past 16 years are being hit again as they find themselves in the path of the metastasizing infrastructure-- and it's all happening with the blessing of elected officials on both sides of the aisle."
"Northwest Florida has been subjected to the extraction of oil for decades, and we can expect that these wells will reach a point where the once plentiful resources are no longer easy to obtain. This would certainly allow for the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract whatever might be left," said Mary Gutierrez, Executive Director of Earth Ethics, a grassroots group based in Pensacola, Florida. "It is time for us to move away from the use of fossil fuels to renewable energy sources."
"The permanent contamination of drinking water sources for millions is not an energy renaissance. It is the Dark Ages for public health and the future of our resources," said Matt Pakucko of the group Save Porter Ranch. "The massive gas blowout at Aliso Canyon Gas Storage Facility caused only pain, sickness and suffering in northern Los Angeles. The only way to stop this madness is to shut down the fossil fuel projects that are fueling these crises."
Food & Water Watch's new report, Fracking's Bridge to Climate Chaos: Exposing the Fossil Fuel Industry's Deadly Spin, documents the dangers of fracking, and presents new research showing that the switch from coal to gas-fired electricity has not proven to be an effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The report also documents the extent to which fossil fuel infrastructure that is either planned or under construction is geared towards plastics manufacturing or gas exports.
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.
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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