January, 19 2022, 09:56am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, (801) 300-2414, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, (575) 613-4197, eriksg@westernlaw.org
Brittany Miller, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0746, bmiller@foe.org
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.
Lori Harrison, Waterkeeper Alliance, (703) 216-8565, lharrison@waterkeeper.org
Dan Ritzman, Sierra Club, (206) 573-5451, dan.ritzman@sierraclub.org
Legal Petition Calls On Biden to Phase Out Federal Oil, Gas by 2035
More than 360 climate, tribal, religious and conservation groups
WASHINGTON
More than 360 climate, tribal, religious and conservation groups petitioned the Biden administration today to use its executive authority to phase out oil and gas production on public lands and oceans.
The petition provides a framework to manage a decline of oil and gas production to near zero by 2035 through rulemaking, using long-dormant provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act, Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the National Emergencies Act. Without such action, it will become increasingly difficult for the United States to meet its pledge to help avoid 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and its unprecedented social, environmental and economic damage.
The petition offers a way to correct the Biden administration's collapse of climate leadership, including a failing legislative agenda and Biden's broken campaign promise to end new oil and gas leasing and drilling on public lands and oceans.
Several analyses show that climate pollution from the world's already-producing fossil fuel developments, if fully developed, would push warming past 1.5 degrees Celsius, and that avoiding such warming requires ending new investment in fossil fuel projects.
At November's COP26 summit in Glasgow, Biden called climate change "an existential threat to human existence" and pledged to cut U.S. emissions by up to 51% over the next nine years. Days later the administration offered 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing, and it plans to offer more than 300,000 acres of public lands leases in March.
The Department of the Interior's review of the federal oil and gas programs effectively ignored climate, calling instead for adjustments to royalties, bids and bonding.
Meanwhile, the administration has continued to approve drilling permits onshore at a rate that outpaces the Trump administration, with more than 3,500 permits approved since taking office.
Federal fossil fuel production causes nearly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution, worsening the climate and extinction crises and disproportionately harming Black, Brown, Indigenous and low-wealth communities.
Quotes from Petitioners
"This petition offers a lifeline for our planet and a course correction for the Biden administration's catastrophic failure of climate leadership," said Taylor McKinnon with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The natural place to start phasing out climate-destroying oil and gas production is on our public lands and oceans, and Biden has the authority to do so. If the U.S. leads, the world will follow. Biden must keep his promise to end federal oil and gas extraction."
"It's time to open new doors to a thriving, resilient future for our Western U.S. public lands and communities," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center. "This petition does just that by winding down a cause of the climate crisis: a federal public lands fossil fuels program that serves the interests of oil and gas CEOs and investors, not the public good. We urge the Biden administration to accept the petition and move forward with swift action to protect the climate and public lands."
"At this time in history, according to Anishinaabe prophecies, people have a choice between a well-worn, scorched path and one that is new and green," said Winona LaDuke, executive director for Honor the Earth. "By all measures of science, spirit and humanity, it is incumbent upon you, President Biden and Secretary Haaland, to deliver on your promises to forge that safer path, ending fossil production on public lands and waters. We worked hard to help you gain office, and you abandoned us on Line 3; here is another significant opportunity to do the right thing. Here at White Earth we are celebrating the end of the fossil era, practicing our sustainable traditions and building the new green economy. We welcome you to come see how it's done."
"Last year over 132 million Americans experienced a climate-related disaster, with extreme weather costing over $145 billion in damage and leading to more than 688 lives lost," said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager at Friends of the Earth. "We cannot fight climate change while ignoring the fact that nearly a quarter of U.S. climate emissions come from fossil fuel extraction on public lands. It's time for President Biden to become the climate leader he claims to be and phase out fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters."
"This petition simply calls on President Biden to exercise the climate leadership he's already promised this country," said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians. "We can't confront the climate crisis unless and until we start keeping fossil fuels in the ground; it's time for the president to acknowledge and take action on this reality."
"Fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters must end or it will only intensify the already devastating impacts to our climate and waterways," said Marc Yaggi, executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance. "Indigenous and underserved communities disproportionately bear the brunt of these impacts that result from long-standing federal policies that have favored industry over public interest. It's time the Biden administration keeps its promises and uses its position of power to be a climate leader that stems the tide of fossil fuel dependence."
"Oil and gas extraction is an environmental justice issue, continuing centuries' old exploitation and assaults on our Appalachian Ohio communities while greatly contributing to the climate crisis," said Roxanne Groff of Athens County's Future Action Network. "Our region is ripe for new technologies and innovative, cost-effective clean energy to protect our air, water, forests, and climate and improve public health and our quality of life. Appalachian Ohio's Wayne National Forest can play a huge role in protecting climate. Drilling and logging it do not serve the public good and must cease. This proposed phase-out is the least the Biden administration can do toward that end."
"Right now, fossil fuel extraction on public lands and waters make up a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions -- at a time scientists are saying we must move urgently to cut emissions by at least half," said Dan Ritzman, director of Sierra Club's Lands, Water, Wildlife program. "Not only does it devastate our planet, it's a handout to Big Oil at the expense of average Americans, who will bear the brunt of its societal, health, and financial ramifications. We urge the Biden Administration to take advantage of this historic opportunity to make good on campaign promises, fulfill a global commitment to acting on climate, and serve American communities by accepting this petition and phasing out oil and gas production on public lands and oceans."
List of Petitioners
Center for Biological Diversity, A Community Voice, Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE), Alaska's Big Village Network, Alianza Americas, Allamakee County Protectors - Education Campaign, Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, Animals Are Sentient Beings, Inc., Animas Valley Institute, Anthropocene Alliance, Athens County's Future Action Network, Austin Climate Coalition, Baltimore, MD Phil Berrigan Memorial Chapter Veterans For Peace, Battle Creek Alliance & Defiance Canyon Raptor Rescue, Bay Area-System Change not Climate Change, Berks Gas Truth, Better Path Coalition, Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE), Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Bold Alliance, Breathe Project, Brian Setzler CPA Firm LLC, Bronx Climate Justice North, Bronx Jews for Climate Action, Bucks Environmental Action, CA Businesses for a Livable Climate, Cahaba Riverkeeper, California Democratic Party Environmental Caucus, California Nurses Association, Californians for Western Wilderness, Canton Residents for a Sustain, Canton Residents for a Sustainable, Equitable Future, Cape Downwinders, Carolina Biodiesel, LLC, Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Catholic Network US, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Center For Ecological Living and Learning (CELL), Center for Environmental Health, Center for International Environmental Law, Central California Environmental Justice Network, Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War, CERBAT: Center for Environmentally Recycled Building Alternatives, Chaco Alliance, Christians For The Mountains, Church women United in New York State, Citizens Climate Lobby, LA West Chapter, Citizens for a Healthy Community, Citizens' Climate Lobby, Columbia County Chapter, Ciudadanos Del Karso, Clean Energy Action, CLEO Institute, Cleveland Owns, Climable.org, Climate Action Now Western Mass., Climate Action Rhode Island - 350, Climate Crisis Policy, Climate Defense Project, Climate Finance Action, Climate First!, Inc., Climate Hawks Vote, Climate Justice Alliance, Climate Reality Project, New Orleans Chapter, ClimateMama, Coalition Against Death Alley, Coalition Against Pilgrim Pipeline - NJ, Coalition for Outreach, Policy and Education, Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, Common Ground Community Trust, Communities for a Better Environment, Community Church of New York, Community for Sustainable Energy, Community Health, Concerned Health Professionals of New York, Conejo Climate Coalition, Conservation Council For Hawaii, Cooperative Energy Futures, Corvallis Climate Action Alliance, Corvallis Interfaith Climate Justice Committee, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, DC Environmental Network, Divest LA, Don't Gas the Meadowlands Coalition, Don't Waste Arizona, Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition, Earth Action, Inc., Earth Day Initiative, Earth Ethics, Inc., EARTHDAY.ORG. Earthworks, Eco-Eating, Eco-Justice Collaborative, EcoEquity, Elders Climate Action, Electrify Corvallis, Empower our Future - Colorado, End Climate Silence, Endangered Habitats League, Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, Environmental Justice Ministry, Extinction Rebellion Boston, Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area, Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition, First Wednesdays San Leandro, FLOW (For Love of Water), Food & Water Watch, Fossil Free California, Frac Sand Sentinel: Project Outreach, FrackBusters NY, FracTracker Alliance, Franciscan Action Network, FreshWater Accountability Project, Fridays for Future U.S., Friends For Environmental Justice, Friends of the Bitterroot, Friends of the Earth, Fund for Wild Nature, Gas Free Seneca, George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, Georgia Conservation Voters, Global Warming Education Network (GWEN), Global Witness, Golden Egg Permaculture, Grassroots Coalition, Grassroots Environmental Education, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Grays Harbor Audubon Society, Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition, Green America, Green New Deal Virginia, Green Newton Inc., Green River Action Network, Greenbelt Climate Action Network, GreenFaith, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, Heal the Bay, HealthyPlanet, Heartwood, Heirs To Our Oceans, High Country Conservation Advocates, Hilton Head for Peace, Honor the Earth, Howling For Wolves, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, I-70 Citizens Advisory Group, In the Shadow of the Wolf, Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, Indigenous Environmental Network, Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend, Indivisible Ambassadors, Indivisible San Jose, inNative - Business Management Consulting, Inspiration of Sedona, Institute for Policy Studies Climate Policy Program, Interfaith EarthKeepers, Interfaith Earthkeepers Eugene/Springfield Oregon, International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute, Jewish Climate Action Network, Justice & Beyond Louisiana, Karankawa Kadla, Kentucky Conservation Committee, Klamath Forest Alliance, KyotoUSA, LaPlaca and Associates LLC, L'eau Est La Vie Camp, Let There Be Light International, Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution. Living Rivers & Colorado Riverkeeper, LLCv, Long Beach Alliance for Clean Energy, Los Padres ForestWatch, Louisiana League of Conscious Voters, Love Wild Horses(r) 501c3, Lutherans Restoring Creation, Malach Consulting. Maryland Ornithological Society, Mass Peace Action, Massachusetts Forest Watch, Media Alliance, Michigan Interfaith Power & Light, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Mission Blue, Montana Environmental Information Center, Montbello Neighborhood Improvement Association, Mountain Progressives Frazier Park CA, Movement Rights, Movement Training Network, Nature Coast Conservation, Inc., NC Climate Justice, Ndn Bayou Food Forest, New Energy Economy, New Mexico Climate Justice, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, NJ State Industrial Union Council, North American Climate, Conservation and Environment, North Bronx Racial Justice, North Carolina Council of Churches, North County Earth Action, North Range Concerned Citizens, Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council, NY4WHALES, NYC Friends of Clearwater, Oasis Earth, Occupy Bergen County (New Jersey), Ocean Conservation Research, Oceanic Preservation Society, Ogeechee Riverkeeper, Oil and Gas Action Network, Oil Change International, Operation HomeCare, Inc., Our Revolution, Our Revolution Massachusetts (ORMA), Partnership for Policy Integrity, PeaceWorks of Greater Brunswick, Peak Plastic Foundation, Pelican Media, People for a Healthy Environment, People's Justice Council/Alabama Interfaith Power and Light, Peoples Climate Movement - NY, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility Arizona, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, PlasticFreeRestaurants.org, Port Arthur Community Action Network, Presente.org, Preserve Giles County, Preserve Montgomery County VA, Progressive Democrats of America, Project Coyote, Protect Our Water AZ, Public Citizen, Public Lands Project, Rachel Carson Council, Raptors Are The Solution, RATT Pack, RE Sources, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Renewable Energy Long Island, Resource Renewal Institute, Rio Grande International Study Center, RootsAction, Samuel Lawrence Foundation, San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sane Energy Project, Santa Barbara Standing Rock Coalition, Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council, Santa Cruz Climate Action Network, Santa Fe Forest Coalition, Save Our Illinois Land, Save The Colorado, SAVE THE FROGS!, Save the Pine Bush, SD350, Seaside Sustainability.org, SEE-LA (Social Eco Education-LA), Seeding Sovereignty, Seneca Lake Guardian, Sequoia ForestKeeper(r), Sevier Citizens for Clean Air & Water Inc., Sierra Club, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team, Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, SoCal 350 Climate Action, Social Justice Commission (Episcopal Diocese of Western MA), Society of Fearless Grandmothers-Santa Barbara, Solar Wind Works, SOMA Action, South Asian Fund For Education Scholarship and Training Inc (SAFEST), South Dakota Chapter of the Sierra Club, South Florida Wildlands Association, Southwest Native Cultures, Spottswoode Winery, Inc., Stand.earth, Stop SPOT & Gulflink, Sunflower Alliance, Sunrise LA, Susanne Moser Research & Consulting, Syracuse Cultural Workers, System Change Not Climate Change, Tennessee Riverkeeper, Terra Advocati, The Climate Mobilization North Jersey, The Consoria, The Earth Bill Network, The Enviro Show, The Green House Connection Center, The Oakland Institute, The People's Justice Council, The Quantum Institute, The Rewilding Institute, The River Project, To Nizhoni Ani, Transition Sebastopol, Tualatin Riverkeepers, Turtle Island Restoration Network, Unitarian Universalist Association, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community, Unite North Metro Denver, United for Action, United For Clean Energy, United University Professions, Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition, Upper West Side Recycling, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, UU Fellowship of Corvallis Climate Action Team, V & T Ventures, LLC, Vanderbilt dba Greenvest, Vegan Flag, Verdedenver, Vermont Yankee, Decommissioning Alliance, Veterans For Climate Justice, Volusia Climate Action, Vote Climate, Wall of Women, Wasatch Clean Air Coalition, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, WATCH, INC., Watchdogs of Southeastern PA (WaSEPA), Waterkeeper Alliance, WESPAC Foundation, Inc., West 80s Neighborhood Association, West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs, West Dryden Residents Against the Pipeline, Western Environmental Law Center, Western Nebraska Resources Council, White Rabbit Grove RDNA, Wild Nature Institute, Wild Watershed, WildEarth Guardians, Wilderness Workshop, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, Women's March Santa Barbara, Womxn from the Mountain, SafeEnergyAnalyst.org, Zero Hour, 198 Methods, 1st United Methodist Church Corvallis OR Environmental Care Team, 350 Butte County, 350 Chicago, 350 Colorado, 350 Conejo / San Fernando Valley, 350 Hawaii, 350 Humboldt, 350 Kishwaukee, 350 Marin, 350 New Hampshire, 350 New Orleans, 350 Pensacola, 350 Seattle, 350 Silicon Valley, 350 Tacoma, 350 Triangle, 7 Directions of Service
Background
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 the industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential climate pollution; those already leased to industry contain up to 43 billion tons.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
Americans Take to the Streets for 1,000+ 'Workers Over Billionaires' Labor Day Rallies
"Workers are fighting for a society where public schools take precedence over private profits, healthcare is prioritized over hedge funds, and affordable housing is valued more than homelessness," said May Day Strong.
Sep 01, 2025
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates.
Americans turned out across the United States on Monday for more than 1,000 demonstrations against President Donald Trump and other oligarchs "to reclaim worker power against billionaires who hoard unprecedented wealth and power."
The "Workers Over Billionaires" protests are being led by the May Day Strong Coalition, which is made up of dozens of organizations including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, National Union of Healthcare Workers, and advocacy groups like Americans for Tax Fairness, Indivisible, Our Revolution, and Public Citizen.
Demonstrations took place or are set to happen in big cities, small towns, and communities in between all across the nation. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) spoke at a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, where Sanders—whose "Fight Oligarchy Tour" has been drawing huge crowds across the country—vowed that "together, we will create an economy and government that work for all, not just the 1%."
Khanna said that "today on Labor Day, we must recognize the workers across the country who build our economy and strengthen our nation. We need to fight for a living wage and stronger unions as we work to reindustrialize America."
Sanders took his Fighting Oligarchy Tour to Portland, Maine on Monday, where he was joined by guests including Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who is running to unseat five-term Republican US Sen. Susan Collins.
In a video posted on the social media site Bluesky before the rally, Platner said he "could not think of a better day to be a pro-labor candidate."
"Organized labor is the basis of the movement that we are going to have to build to retake this country for working people," Platner added.
May Day Strong said Monday's mobilizations aim "to build collective action against billionaires taking over the US government."
"Building upon momentum from May Day, Good Trouble Lives On, No Kings, and key impromptu actions in the streets and the workplace, Workers Over Billionaires will reach communities nationwide, tapping rural and city workers to stop the billionaire agenda that continues to burden everyone," the coalition said. "As the federal government continues to enable the ultrarich, working people are stepping onto pavement to stop their greed and protect their families."
"Working families want to live in a country that puts workers over billionaires," the coalition added. "Workers are fighting for a society where public schools take precedence over private profits, healthcare is prioritized over hedge funds, and affordable housing is valued more than homelessness."
In New York, actions included a rally outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, where demonstrators demanded a $30 an hour minimum wage. Members of groups including One Fair Wage (OFW) staged a "Restaurant in the Street" demonstration "designed to highlight the struggle of working people and launch the New York Living Wage for All campaign."
"The action coincides with the release of a new OFW report, Making America Affordable Now: The Case for a Living Wage for All, which finds that nearly half of US workers—67 million people—earn less than $25 an hour," One Fair Wage said. "In New York, 41% of workers fall below that threshold."
OFW said that the demand for a living wage is the "next generation of the Fight for $15," warning that "past wage gains have been erased by historic inflation, skyrocketing rents, and cuts to Medicaid and SNAP," the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
"It also highlights how gimmicks like Trump's 'No Tax on Tips' proposal do little to address workers' needs, since two-thirds of tipped workers earn too little to benefit," OFW added.
In Chicago, at least hundreds of people from dozens of groups including the Chicago Teachers Union, Teamsters, and healthcare and hospitality workers rallied against Trump's Project 2025-inspired evisceration of federal agencies and the social safety net.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson denounced Trump's threat to send federal forces into the Windy City in a similar occupation to the one underway in Washington, DC, leading chants of "No troops in Chicago! No troops in Chicago! Invest in Chicago!"
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten told Chicago protesters that "what has happened in this country is that the billionaires don't understand this country was created in protest and resistance to fight off a king, not to recreate a king."
Chicago protester Mark Petersen told NBC Chicago: "I think solidarity among workers is probably the most important thing we can do right now. We're looking at our country get disassembled from the top down, and the best thing we can do is unite from the bottom up."
Hotel workers at the Hilton Americas-Houston downtown went on strike before dawn Monday, demanding a $23 hourly minimum wage. They kicked off their planned nine-day strike with a protest at 6:00 am, during which workers chanted, "Aquí estamos, y no nos vamos"—"We are here, and we won't leave."
"The workers are feeling this need urgently," Franchesca Caraballo, president of Unite Here Local 23's Texas chapter. "We have to take it up several notches here to turn up the pressure on this company."
In Indianapolis, marchers chanted, "No fascists, support unions, support workers."
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said ahead of the protests: "Every single thing working people have won for ourselves in this country's history—it's not because we asked those in power. It's not because they were handed to us. It's because we fought for them relentlessly."
Saqib Bhatti, executive director of Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), told USA Today that "it's important to show that there is opposition to the Trump-billionaire agenda in every community, big and small; it's not just cities that are united against what's happening... it's all towns, it's small towns that voted overwhelmingly for Trump."
Monday also saw the launch of the Department of Class Solidarity (DOCS), "a permanent national war room tracking nearly 1,000 US billionaires, their wealth, corporate holdings, and political contributions."
"This Labor Day weekend, we are not resting," DOCS said on social media. "The oligarchs are snatching away our healthcare, our livelihoods, and our rights. Now is the time to act."
DOCS and allied groups rallied for a "Hamptons Billionaire Shutdown" on Long Island.
🔥 March on Billionaires Lane in the Hamptons — one of the densest concentrations of billionaires in the world.Oligarchs are hiding in their mansions as they bankroll attacks on us with fortunes they plundered from us.The working class is rising. ✊ #PeopleOverBillionaires #FightOligarchy
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— Our Revolution (@our-revolution.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 1:33 PM
"The Hamptons is where right-wing billionaires like Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb plot and plan in their hundred-million-dollar mansions, ensconced from the workers they exploit," DOCS said. "Time to give them a taste of their own medicine."
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Trump Admin Circulating Plan to Transform Depopulated Gaza Into High-Tech Cash Cow
Under the proposal, the US would take control after "voluntary" relocation of Palestinians from the strip, where proposed projects include an Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone and Gaza Trump Riviera & Islands.
Sep 01, 2025
The White House is "circulating" a plan to transform a substantially depopulated Gaza into US President Donald Trump's vision of a high-tech "Riviera of the Middle East" brimming with private investment and replete with artificial intelligence-powered "smart cities."
That's according a 38-page prospectus for a proposed Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration, and Transformation (GREAT) Trust obtained by The Washington Post and published in a report on Sunday. Parts of the proposal were previously reported by the Financial Times.
"Gaza can transform into a Mediterranean hub for manufacturing, trade, data, and tourism, benefiting from its strategic location, access to markets... resources, and a young workforce all supported by Israeli tech and [Gulf Cooperation Council] investments," the prospectus states.
However, to journalist Hala Jaber, the plan amounts to "genocide packaged as real estate."
Here comes the Gaza Network State.A plan to turn Gaza into a privately-developed “gleaming tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub” with “AI-powered smart cities” and “Trump Riviera” resortgift link:wapo.st/4g2eATo
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— Gil Durán (@gilduran.com) August 31, 2025 at 10:18 AM
The GREAT Trust was drafted by some of the same Israelis behind the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose aid distribution points in Gaza have been the sites of deliberate massacres and other incidents in which thousands of aid-seeking Palestinians have been killed or wounded.
According to the Post, financial modeling for the GREAT Trust proposal "was done by a team working at the time for the Boston Consulting Group"—which played a key role in creating GHF. BCG told the Post that the firm did not approve work on the trust plan, and that two senior partners who led the financial modeling were subsequently terminated.
The GREAT Trust envisions "a US-led multirlateral custodianship" lasting a decade or longer and leading to "a reformed Palestinian self-governance after Gaza is "demilitarized and de-radicalized."
Josh Paul—a former US State Department official who resigned in October 2023 over the Biden administration's decision to sell more arms to Israel as it waged a war on Gaza increasingly viewed by experts as genocidal—told Democracy Now! last week that Trump's plan for Gaza is "essentially a new form of colonialism, a transition from Israeli colonialism to corporate" colonialism.
The GREAT Trust contains two proposals for Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians. Under one plan, approximately 75% of Gaza's population would remain in the strip during its transformation. The second proposal involves up to 500,000 Gazans relocating to third countries, 75% of them permanently.
The prospectus does not say how many Palestinians would leave Gaza under the relocation option. Those who choose to permanently relocate to other unspecified countries would each receive $5,000 plus four years of subsidized rent and subsidized food for a year.
The GREAT Trust allocates $6 billion for temporary housing for Palestinians who remain in Gaza and $5 billion for those who relocate.
The proposal projects huge profits for investors—nearly four times the return on investment and annual revenue of $4.5 billion within a decade. The project would be a boon for companies ranging from builders including Saudi bin Laden Group, infrastructure specialists like IKEA, the mercenary firm Academi (formerly Blackwater), US military contractor CACI—which last year was found liable for torturing Iraqis at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison—electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, tech firms such as Amazon, and hoteliers Mandarin Oriental and IHG Hotels and Resorts.
Central to the plan are 10 "megaprojects," including half a dozen "smart cities," a regional logistics hub to be build over the ruins of the southern city of Rafah, a central highway named after Saudi Crown Prime Mohammed bin Salman—Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states feature prominently in the proposal as investors—large-scale solar and desalinization plants, a US data safe haven, an "Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone," and "Gaza Trump Riviera & Islands" similar to the Palm Islands in Dubai.
In addition to "massive" financial gains for private US investors, the GREAT Trust lists strategic benefits for the United States that would enable it to "strengthen" its "hold in the east Mediterranean and secure US industry access to $1.3 trillion of rare-earth minerals from the Gulf."
Earlier this year, Trump said the US would "take over" Gaza, American real estate developers would "level it out" and build the "Riviera of the Middle East" atop its ruins after Palestinians—"all of them"—leave Palestine's coastal exclave. The president called for the "voluntary" transfer of Gazans to Egypt and Jordan, both of whose leaders vehemently rejected the plan.
"Voluntary emigration" is widely considered a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, given Palestinians' general unwillingness to leave their homeland.
According to a May survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, nearly half of Gazans expressed a willingness to apply for Israeli assistance to relocate to other countries. However, many Gazans say they would never leave the strip, where most inhabitants are descendants of survivors of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948. Some are actual Nakba survivors.
"I'm staying in a partially destroyed house in Khan Younis now," one Gazan man told the Post. "But we could renovate. I refuse to be made to go to another country, Muslim or not. This is my homeland."
The Post report follows a meeting last Wednesday at the White House, where Trump, senior administration officials, and invited guests including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, investor and real estate developer Jared Kushner—who is also the president's son-in-law—and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer discussed Gaza's future.
While Dermer reportedly claimed that Israel does not seek to permanently occupy Gaza, Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder and forced starvation in Gaza—have said they will conquer the entire strip and keep at least large parts of it.
"We conquer, cleanse, and stay until Hamas is destroyed," Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently said. "On the way, we annihilate everything that still remains."
The Israel Knesset also recently hosted a conference called "The Gaza Riviera–from vision to reality" where participants openly discussed the occupation and ethnic cleansing of the strip.
The publication of the GREAT Trust comes as Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza City amid a growing engineered famine that has killed at least hundreds of Palestinians and is starving hundreds of thousands of more. Israel's 696-day assault and siege on Gaza has left at least 233,200 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—whose casualty figures are seen as a likely undercount by experts.
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'Endangering Every American's Health': 9 Former CDC Chiefs Sound Alarm on RFK Jr.
Their "astonishing, powerful op-ed," said one professor, "drives home what we are losing and what's already been lost."
Sep 01, 2025
Nearly every living former director or acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from the past half-century took to the pages of The New York Times on Monday to jointly argue that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "is endangering every American's health."
"Collectively, we spent more than 100 years working at the CDC, the world's preeminent public health agency. We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations," Drs. William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle Walensky, and Mandy Cohen highlighted.
What RFK Jr. "has done to the CDC and to our nation's public health system over the past several months—culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as CDC director days ago—is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced," the nine former agency leaders wrote.
Known for spreading misinformation about vaccines and a series of scandals, Kennedy was a controversial figure long before President Donald Trump chose him to lead HHS—a decision that Senate Republicans affirmed in February. However, in the wake of Monarez's ouster, fresh calls for him to resign or be fired have mounted.
This is powerful. Nine former CDC leaders just came together to defend SCIENCE.Maybe it’s time we LISTEN TO THEM—not the loud voices spreading MISINFORMATION.Science saves lives. Lies cost themwww.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...
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— Krutika Kuppalli, MD FIDSA (@krutikakuppalli.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 10:35 AM
As the ex-directors detailed:
Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence, and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he's focused on unproven "treatments" while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill-prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of US support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez—which led to the resignations of top CDC officials—adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.
Monarez was nominated by Trump, and was confirmed by Senate Republicans in late July. As the op-ed authors noted, she was forced out by RFK Jr. just weeks later, after she reportedly refused "to rubber-stamp his dangerous and unfounded vaccine recommendations or heed his demand to fire senior CDC staff members."
"These are not typical requests from a health secretary to a CDC director," they wrote. "Not even close. None of us would have agreed to the secretary's demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities."
After Monarez's exit, Trump tapped Jim O'Neill, an RFK Jr. aide and biotech investor, as the CDC's interim director. Critics including Robert Steinbrook, director of Public Citizen's health research group, warn that "unlike Susan Monarez, O'Neill is likely to rubber-stamp dangerous vaccine recommendations from HHS Secretary Kennedy's handpicked appointees to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and obey orders to fire CDC public health experts with scientific integrity."
The agency's former directors didn't address O'Neill, but they wrote: "To those on the CDC staff who continue to perform their jobs heroically in the face of the excruciating circumstances, we offer our sincere thanks and appreciation. Their ongoing dedication is a model for all of us. But it's clear that the agency is hurting badly."
"We have a message for the rest of the nation as well: This is a time to rally to protect the health of every American," they continued. The experts called on Congress to "exercise its oversight authority over HHS," and state and local governments to "fill funding gaps where they can." They also urged philanthropy, the private sector, medical groups, and physicians to boost investments, "continue to stand up for science and truth," and support patients "with sound guidance and empathy."
Doctors, researchers, journalists, and others called their "must-read" piece "extraordinary" and "important."
"Just an astonishing, powerful op-ed that drives home what we are losing and what's already been lost," said University of Michigan Law School professor Leah Litman. "We are so incredibly fortunate to live with the advances [of] modern medicine and health science. Destroying and stymying it is just unforgivable."
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