September, 07 2021, 04:41pm EDT
Climate Activists Rally Outside President Biden's Queens Visit
New Yorkers picketed the President demanding a halt to fossil fuel projects.
WASHINGTON
This afternoon, President Biden visited areas of Queens ravaged by Hurricane Ida's flash flooding and heavy rainfall. President Biden's trip comes as climate groups are pushing his administration for more aggressive action to stop fossil fuel projects and to live up to his campaign pledge to end leasing federal land for fossil fuel extraction - a pledge he has failed to fulfill. Activists representing Food & Water Watch, New York Communities for Change and other environmental groups, held up signs and chanted loudly, picketing the President's appearance in the storm ravaged neighborhood.
As Queens and the broader region struggle to recover from yet another extreme weather event supercharged by climate change, which is caused by emissions from fossil fuels, New Yorkers rallied outside President Biden's appearance in Queens to send a strong message that he must reject, not continue to approve, fossil fuel projects.
In response, Food & Water Watch Northeast Region Director Alex Beauchamp issued the following statement:
"Fossil fuels are destroying our climate with direct impacts in our own backyard. It's time President Biden doubled down on his campaign commitments to end our reliance on fossil fuels by stopping the leasing of public lands for fossil fuel extraction and halting the construction of fossil fuel infrastructure projects.
In New York, Governor Hochul must do her part to end the fossil fuel projects like the NRG Astoria plant moving forward mere blocks from Biden's visit today, to ensure New York doesn't bring any more disastrous fossil fuel projects onto the grid. The fossil fuel age is over -- our leaders must commit real action to moving us into an era of clean energy."
For photos of the event, please visit this Google folder.
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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"State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and President Biden has an opportunity and an obligation to save lives," Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley said earlier this week.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
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According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
In a statement on Thursday, Biden said that he has "the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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