October, 01 2021, 03:03pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Melissa Hornbein, Western Environmental Law Center, (406) 471-3173, hornbein@westernlaw.org
Michael Saul, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 915-8309, msaul@biologicaldiversity.org
Michael Saul, Center for Biological Diversity, (303) 915-8309, msaul@biologicaldiversity.org
Adam Carlesco, Food and Water Watch, (202) 683-4925, acarlesco@fwwatch.org
Brittany Miller, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0746, bmiller@foe.org
Anne Hedges, Montana Environmental Information Center, (406) 443-2520, ahedges@meic.org
Brittany Miller, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0746, bmiller@foe.org
Anne Hedges, Montana Environmental Information Center, (406) 443-2520, ahedges@meic.org
Conservation Groups' Objections Target Biden's Oil Leasing Plan Amid Climate "Code Red"
Conservation groups filed formal objections today to the Biden administration's plans to offer 734,000 acres of
WASHINGTON
Conservation groups filed formal objections today to the Biden administration's plans to offer 734,000 acres of public lands for oil and gas leasing amid what the president himself has called a climate "code red." Oil and gas in the proposed leases contain up to 246 million tons of climate pollution, as much as 62 coal-fired power plants emit in one year.
Today's filing with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says public land is off limits for leasing because of the government's ongoing failure under multiple laws to assess and avoid harm from the federal fossil fuel program's climate pollution. That includes harm to land, water, communities and endangered species.
"The government is playing a dangerous game of Russian roulette with our future," said Melissa Hornbein, senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center. "The science is clear: In order to maintain an even chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, approximately 60% of global oil and gas must be left in the ground. I think we can all agree that a 50% chance of success isn't great odds when it comes to our planet's ability to support life, yet the government is doubling down on fossil fuel extraction precisely when it should be hitting the brakes. The announcement of these sales is particularly bewildering in light of President Biden's executive actions on climate and the Bureau of Land Management's clear legal discretion when it comes to leasing."
"It's appalling that the Interior Department plans to allow more climate-destroying oil and gas extraction when it has broad legal authority not to lease these public lands," said Michael Saul, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Judges in several recent court decisions have agreed that it's illegal to allow any new leasing without looking at the potential harm to the climate, wildlife habitat and groundwater. Any analysis of the dangers of fracking and drilling will make undeniably clear that the federal fossil fuel program needs to end now."
In January the Biden administration paused new oil and gas leasing pending a review of the program. The renewed leasing plans, primarily in Wyoming and Colorado, follow a June court order that lifted the leasing pause but retained the administration's authority over federal oil and gas.
Despite the leasing pause, the administration has approved more than 2,800 new permits to drill. That rate of 351 per month outpaces the Trump administration's 300 permits per month in fiscal years 2018-2020.
Biden's approval of drilling permits comes despite renewed IPCC warnings and several analyses showing that climate pollution from the world's already-producing oil, gas and coal developments would push warming past 1.5 degrees Celsius. Those analyses, including by the International Energy Agency, show that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius requires no new investment in fossil fuel projects.
In January, 574 climate, conservation, Indigenous, religious and business groups sent then-President-elect Biden text for a proposed executive order to use the full force of the law to ban new fossil fuel leasing and permitting on federal public lands and waters.
In April, more than 200 groups filed comments with the administration calling for a formal climate review of the federal fossil fuel programs under the National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Lands Policy Management Act, Endangered Species Act and other laws.
"Federal lands and minerals are supposed to be managed in trust for the benefit of the public," said Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project. "Addressing the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis are very clearly top public priorities, and keeping federal lands and mineral deposits off the oil and gas auction block is a key step in solving both problems."
"It is unconscionable that the Biden administration is moving forward with over 700,000 acres of new oil and gas lease sales while communities are being devastated by worsening storms, flooding and wildfires," said Raena Garcia, fossil fuels and public lands campaigner at Friends of the Earth. "A full accounting of the climate impacts of the leasing program would show what we all know: New leasing is incompatible with Biden's climate commitments."
"We can't confront the climate crisis if we can't keep fossil fuels in the ground," said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians' climate and energy program director. "Selling more public lands for fracking is nothing short of a massively unjust broken promise by President Biden to put climate first."
"Protecting river flows across the West, which face overwhelming challenges from increased demand and reduced supply, is inextricably linked to management decisions on public lands," said Kate Hudson, western U.S. advocacy coordinator with Waterkeeper Alliance. "Opening more than 700,000 acres in six Western states, including within the headwaters of the Colorado River -- the water supply for 40 million people -- to oil and gas extraction, and the inevitable impacts to our climate and rivers, heads us in exactly the wrong direction. It will only hasten the collapse of both."
"These lease sales directly threaten water quality and the health of watersheds in Montana and for those living downstream who rely on clean waters," said Anne Hedges, director of policy for the Montana Environmental Information Center. "It's maddening to know that the administration understands the dangers these lease sales present to our waters and climate but is moving forward anyway. After a summer of smoke-filled skies across Montana and the West, it is deplorable to move forward with the very thing that will increase the harm. The wildfires and drought will only get worse if the administration only gives the climate crisis lip service."
Background
Fossil fuel production on public lands causes about a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. Peer-reviewed science estimates that a nationwide federal fossil fuel leasing ban would reduce carbon emissions by 280 million tons per year, ranking it among the most ambitious federal climate policy proposals in recent years.
Oil, gas and coal extraction uses mines, well pads, gas lines, roads and other infrastructure that destroys habitat for wildlife, including threatened and endangered species. Oil spills and other harms from offshore drilling have done immense damage to ocean wildlife and coastal communities. Fracking and mining also pollute watersheds and waterways that provide drinking water to millions of people.
Federal fossil fuels that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential climate pollution; those already leased to industry contain up to 43 billion tons. Pollution from the world's already producing oil and gas fields, if fully developed, would push global warming well past 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Western Environmental Law Center uses the power of the law to safeguard the public lands, wildlife, and communities of the American West in the face of a changing climate. We envision a thriving, resilient West, abundant with protected public lands and wildlife, powered by clean energy, and defended by communities rooted in an ethic of conservation.
(541) 485-2471LATEST NEWS
'Authoritarian Bullying': Journalist Arrested at Texas Campus Protest Faces Felony Charge
"Violently arresting journalists and then charging them with felonies is unacceptable," said Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Apr 30, 2024
A photojournalist who was violently arrested while covering a pro-Palestine student protest at the University of Texas at Austin last week is reportedly being charged with felony assault on an officer, a charge that press freedom advocates condemned as an obvious attempt to intimidate reporters.
Citing court documents, a local NBC affiliate reported Monday that FOX 7 journalist Carlos Sanchez "faces a charge of assault on a peace officer, a second-degree felony."
"The affidavit said Sanchez lunged toward a Texas Highway Patrol officer, who was on campus assisting the university's police department during its response to the protest, striking him with his camera," according to KXAN. Sanchez was initially taken into custody on criminal trespass charges, which were later dropped.
Videos of Sanchez's arrest and the chaotic moments preceding it went viral on social media last week, with the footage showing Texas state troopers hurling the journalist to the ground with his camera after he appeared to collide with the back of an officer as police attempted to move a group of demonstrators.
Sanchez denied intentionally hitting an officer. The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) said in a statement Monday that "contrary to the police affidavit in support of the arrest, video of the incident does not show Sanchez intentionally hitting an officer with his camera, and there is no reason why a FOX 7 journalist, who was there to cover the protests, not participate in them, would strike an officer."
FPF said Texas authorities should drop the assault charge immediately.
Guy with camera gets rko’d by police at Palestine protest. #ut #palestine #protest pic.twitter.com/5HI2SU8VKs
— Christopher Kuhlman (@Chris_Kuhlman00) April 24, 2024
Seth Stern, FPF's director of advocacy, said in a statement late Monday that "violently arresting journalists and then charging them with felonies is unacceptable, authoritarian bullying."
"It's doubly bad when police were there to shut down free speech in the first place," said Stern. "Even after law enforcement assaults of journalists covering protests in 2020 resulted in millions in settlement payments, many officers clearly haven't learned their lesson. As even the U.S. Department of Justice has acknowledged, protests are newsworthy, and journalists need to be allowed to cover them and their aftermath, even when protestors are dispersed."
"It's important to keep in mind that none of this would have happened if American universities weren't inviting militarized police forces onto campuses to break up student protests," Stern added. "The police response to the protests—against journalists and students alike—has been far more violent than the protests ever were."
Sanchez's arrest drew swift condemnation from press freedom organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists, which said last week that it was "very concerned by the violent arrest of a FOX 7 Austin journalist who was simply doing his job and covering matters of public interest."
Ashanti Blaize, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said the felony charge against Sanchez is "intimidation and retaliation" by Texas authorities, who violently arrested student protesters again on Monday at the University of Texas at Austin campus.
"There will undoubtedly be a chilling effect on journalists who will cover this developing story, not just in Austin, but across TX," Blaize wrote on social media. "The public has a right to know what's happening on the ground, which means journos must be allowed to do their First Amendment-protected jobs without fear of law enforcement interference or threats of arrest and detainment."
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Police Violently Arrest University of Texas Students Protesting Genocide in Gaza
"After 205 days of genocide and almost 40,000 Palestinian martyrs, it is shameful that UT continues to invest in mass murder and resorts to brutal intimidation tactics to try to silence its own students," said one protester.
Apr 29, 2024
Around 40 peaceful pro-Palestine protesters were arrested Monday on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin as police once again violently cracked down on student-led demonstrations against their school and country's complicity in Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza.
UT students and allies are calling for not only an end to the Gaza genocide but also a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel and the university's divestment from Israeli investments. Protesters chanted slogans including "We are being peaceful, you are being violent!", "There is no riot here, why are you wearing riot gear?", and "Let them go!" as state troopers aided by local and campus cops dragged, hauled, and even wheeled targeted individuals into custody.
"Our main goal is to get the University of Texas to divest."
Organizers said police used so-called "less-lethal" weapons including flash-bang grenades, mace, and "other chemical munitions" against protesters. National Lawyers' Guild volunteers attempted to collect information from arrestees and inform them of their rights.
"After 205 days of genocide and almost 40,000 Palestinian martyrs, it is shameful that UT continues to invest in mass murder and resorts to brutal intimidation tactics to try to silence its own students, who are bravely taking a stand against genocide," said Lenna Nasr of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
"We demand that UT divest from the Zionist state of Israel and from all institutions and companies that are enabling the current genocide in Gaza," Nasr added. "And, we demand the resignation of [UT president Jay] Hartzell for greenlighting the militarized repression of peaceful student protestors on their own campus."
Mustafa Yowell, a UT engineering student whose father is from Texas and mother is from the occupied West Bank, toldAl Jazeera: "Our main goal is to get the University of Texas to divest. Stop sending money to Israel and divest from companies that profit off of war like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. It has nothing to do with antisemitism, or Islam, or being Arab. It's about human rights, conflict, and oppression that people face."
Police commanders eventually ordered officers to retreat from the UT campus, sparking a tremendous cheer from demonstrators, who followed and tried to block a bus loaded with arrested protesters.
Arrested students have reported mistreatment in police custody, including incidents of Islamophobia. One young Muslim woman told Al Jazeera that she was denied period products and was forced to wear blood-soiled clothing.
Some students said they did not plan on protesting but felt compelled after witnessing how police treated the nonviolent demonstrators.
"We weren't planning on doing anything like this until we saw students' heads getting smashed into the ground up the road," Joseph Ely, a graduate student and president of the Palestine Solidarity Committee at Texas State University in San Marcos, about 30 miles southwest of Austin, toldKUT News. "It was really the police at the University of Texas that provoked us to do this."
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott weighed in on the arrests in a social media post declaring that "no encampments will be allowed."
In response, Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) accused Abbott of "escalating the situation at UT Austin and putting Texas students and journalists in danger."
Monday's arrests follow last week's violent raid on pro-Palestine protesters at UT, during which dozens of people were arrested and at least one journalist and professor were brutalized along with numerous student protesters. Monday's action also came amid a growing wave of nationwide campus demonstrations against the Gaza genocide and complicity by the U.S. government and universities.
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Poor People's Campaign Plans June 29 Mass Assembly, March in DC
"This is a crisis moment for our democracy," said one campaigner. "We need for our political leaders to become moral leaders and take seriously the needs and priorities of the millions of people struggling simply to survive."
Apr 29, 2024
Leaders of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival on Monday announced plans for the Mass Poor People & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly & Moral March in Washington, D.C. on June 29, just over four months before the U.S. elections.
The aim of the assembly and march is to "mobilize the one-third of the U.S. electorate who are poor and low-wage infrequent voters" as well as to pressure political leaders to embrace a 17-point agenda during the 2024 election cycle and beyond.
"It does not stand to reason—morally, economically, or politically—that in the richest nation in the history of the world, 800 people die every day from poverty and low wealth," declared Bishop William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach. "Politicians then made the conscious choice to increase poverty to where it was before—an unconscionable reminder that mass poverty is a political choice, not an inevitable law of nature."
"We are here to say we must restore the moral conscience of this nation, and elect leaders across the country who will make different choices—not to raise poverty, but to lower it; not to give out tax breaks to wealthy corporations, but to those who are struggling to make ends meet," he continued. "These are the priorities of one-third of the U.S. electorate, and any candidate interested in activating these voters must speak to our issues and our values."
The agenda, revealed during the campaign's Monday press conference, is:
- Abolishing poverty as the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S.
- A living minimum wage of at least $15+/hour (indexed for inflation)
- Full and expanded voting rights
- No more voter suppression
- Guaranteed workers' rights and labor rights
- Healthcare for all
- Affordable, adequate housing
- Strong social welfare and safety net programs
- An end to gun violence, profit, and proliferation
- Fully protected women's rights
- Environmental justice that secures clean air and water
- Justice for all Indigenous nations
- Fully funded public education
- Just immigration laws
- Addressing militarism and the war economy
- Standing for peace not war; an immediate cease-fire in Gaza that allows humanitarian relief, the release of all hostages, and peace with justice to be pursued; and an end to genocide around the world
- An end to hate, division, and the extremist political agenda
"We are a resurrection of the unheard voices in this democracy, not an insurrection," said Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice. "After years of historic union drives and grassroots organizing, we are demonstrating our power at the polls in 2024. We will elect leaders with the courage to abolish poverty, raise wages, safeguard voting rights, and meet the basic needs of struggling families."
In addition to Theoharis and Barber's groups, supporters of the assembly and march include the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Christian Church Disciples of Christ, Common Cause, Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, Good Trouble, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Make It Plain, National Council of Churches, National Council of Jewish Women, Service Employees International Union, and Union of Southern Service Workers.
"Workers' rights, civil rights, and human rights are on the ballot this election. American voters will decide: Do we want to stay the course and keep on this path toward a more compassionate government or revert back to this morally bankrupt nation?" said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. "The American labor movement is committed to registering and mobilizing union members and union families around the mass mobilization on June 29. We're going to elect lawmakers who will advocate for workers and poor people to elect leaders who will put people over profits, protect our democracy, and advance worker and civil and human rights."
In addition to choosing between Democratic President Joe Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump, U.S. voters in November will decide which party controls each house of Congress. There will also be various consequential local and state elections, including ballot measures to protect key rights such as access to abortion care.
"This is a crisis moment for our democracy," stressed Rosalyn Pelles, a senior advisor to the Poor People's Campaign. "In order for our nation not to continue down the path of autocracy, we need for our political leaders to become moral leaders and take seriously the needs and priorities of the millions of people struggling simply to survive."
"Congress must lead, by bringing forward comprehensive legislation to restore the child tax credit and raise the minimum wage," Pelles argued. "The media must do more, by covering the experiences of people struggling to get by, not just the words and whims of the wealthy and powerful. And the White House must treat poverty like the crisis it is, if this administration is serious about saving our democracy. We all must act, and that is what June 29th is all about."
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