COP26 Pressure Builds: New Advertisement Urges Biden to Reject All New Gas Exports Following Announcement of Methane Regulations and All New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

This week, U.S. environmental and climate justice groups launched a new print ad in The Herald, Scotland's largest daily newspaper, calling on President Biden and the United States delegation to reject 23 liquefied natural gas terminals and pipelines sitting on their desks for approval.

Collectively, these new fossil fuel projects would unleash greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 399 new coal plants -- in effect, doubling the number of existing coal-fired power plants in the U.S., according to a new report by Oil Change International. The ad was produced by Frack Action in collaboration with People vs. Fossil Fuels, Food & Water Watch, and Oil Change International, which are members of the Build Back Fossil Free coalition.

The ad follows the Biden Administration's Tuesday announcement of new regulations to limit methane leaks from roughly one million existing oil and gas rigs across the United States. President Biden called the new rules a "game-changing commitment." However, the U.S. is still on track to become the largest exporter of methane, or liquefied natural gas, which has 87 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.

"At a critical time when we need to rapidly phase out fossil fuel production and wind down our emissions, allowing even one of these fossil fuel infrastructure projects to move forward would undermine our global climate goals. The fact that dozens of LNG and pipeline projects are being seriously considered for approval by the Biden Administration is deeply alarming, and this should put the United States on the hotseat in Glasgow during the rest of COP26," said Collin Rees, U.S. Program Manager at Oil Change International.

"The new methane regulations put a bandaid on the problem. Even if we're leaking less methane in the U.S., we're still pulling it out of the ground, transporting it around the country, and then leaking or burning it overseas. To limit global warming to 1.5oC, the U.S. must ultimately stop building new export terminals and pipelines that prop up this dangerous fossil fuel worldwide," said Julia Walsh, Director at Frack Action.

"No world leader could credibly claim to be a climate champion without tackling fossil fuel development head-on. This includes cutting dangerous greenhouse gas emissions off at the source by halting new drilling and fracking, and canceling new oil and gas infrastructure projects. President Biden has a stark choice: to lead by acting decisively against fossil fuels, or to continue down the current path to irrevocable climate chaos," said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director at Food & Water Watch.

Recently, the United Nations Environment Program and leading think-tanks released the latest Production Gap report, which shows that the United States' and other countries' current oil, gas and coal production is far too high to keep global warming below the 1.5oC target ratified in the Paris Agreement. According to the report, countries are on track to produce 240% more coal, 57% more oil, and 71% more gas than the world can burn without breaching those targets.

Dozens of representatives of the Build Back Fossil Free coalition are currently in Glasgow for COP26 to make clear that the only way for the administration to meet its climate commitments is to act decisively on fossil fuels. This pressure follows the coalition's historic People vs. Fossil Fuels week of action last month in Washington, D.C., where thousands of people marched to the White House and over 650 people were arrested while urging the Administration to exercise executive authority to stop new fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency.

Click here to see the new advertisement in Scotland's The Herald.