June, 15 2023, 12:08pm EDT
![Oil Change International](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012638/origin.png)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Valentina Stackl, Oil Change International, valentina@priceofoil.org
500+ International Groups: Biden Must Stop Fossil Fuel Expansion Ahead of September Climate Summit
Letter demands world’s top polluter take urgent action to phase out fossil fuel production, slow global climate catastrophe.
More than 500 groups from six continents and 63 countries sent a letter to President Biden today demanding he stop fossil fuel expansion ahead of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s Climate Ambition Summit this September.
The letter comes as climate and environmental justice movements announce a global End Fossil Fuels wave of action, culminating in the March to End Fossil Fuels on Sept. 17 and the UN Secretary General’s Summit in New York City on Sept. 20. The global actions are in solidarity with a recent national week of action held by climate advocates and frontline leaders across the United States.
Guterres has said the ticket to entry for the United States and other wealthy oil producing nations is ending fossil fuel expansion and beginning a phase out of existing fossil fuel production. The actions and march demand that Biden and other top polluters meet this threshold by immediately stopping new fossil fuel project approvals and leading a fast, just, fair, and equitable fossil fuel phaseout. Tonight, actor and activist Jane Fonda will join community leaders at a virtual kickoff to announce the mobilization.
The Biden Administration has approved major fossil fuel projects and ensured the U.S. remains the world’s top oil and gas producer and a top exporter. In 2023 alone, the administration greenlit the Alaska Willow Project; approved multiple Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export facilities in Alaska and along the Gulf Coast; held a massive oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico; and fast-tracked the Mountain Valley Pipeline. More U.S. onshore and offshore oil and gas lease sales are planned this year.
Groups across Asia, Africa, Oceania, South America, North America, and Europe are demanding the Biden Administration take immediate and bold action, including:
- Declare a climate emergency and reinstate the crude oil export ban, accelerate the shift off fossil fuels, boost just and resilient renewables, and advance justice;
- Reject federal permits for new fossil fuel projects and revoke illegally granted permits;
- Phase out fossil fuel production on federal public lands and waters;
- Limit gas and fossil fuel exports to the full extent allowed by law.
As the world’s biggest historic polluter, the United States under Biden’s leadership has an outsized responsibility to lead a global and just transition away from fossil fuels and avert further climate disaster. This includes providing the necessary resources for the countries most harmed and least responsible for the climate crisis, especially those in the Global South.
Statements:
“President Biden’s approach to the climate crisis is nothing short of hypocritical. While the president’s rhetoric aligns with global climate promises, the United States is the world’s top oil and gas producer and exporter, and is planning the largest expansion in oil and gas production over the next decade. Every new fossil fuel project is incompatible with a livable future.” said Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. Program Co-Manager at Oil Change International. “As the world’s biggest historic polluter, the U.S. has a responsibility to lead a global and just transition away from fossil fuels. Voters are not going to ignore Biden’s disastrous climate record unless he starts keeping his climate promises and paves the way for a sustainable future to avert further climate disaster.”
“We were all shocked to see what the extensive activation of oil and gas reserves can lead to, namely to the Russian war against Ukraine: destruction and terror, no morning without bloody attacks, killing innocent people,”said Svitlana Romanko, Executive Director of Razom We Stand. “It doesn’t matter whose gas it is, Russian or American, as long as it enables the fueling of autocratic political regimes and delaying the moment of solving the all-encompassing climate crisis, it’s a weapon of mass destruction and a source of geopolitical and energy insecurity. This is not leadership that the U.S, the democratic powerhouse of the world, wants to show amidst the climate crisis and crisis of peace. It’s a high time to choose between democracy and petrostate ambitions.”
“President Biden must stop green-lighting fossil fuel projects for his imagined political gain. His hypocrisy is insulting to our communities and embarrassing on the global stage,” said Russell Chisholm, managing director for the Protect Our Water Heritage Rights Coalition. “Despite his climate promises, he has deemed Appalachia a sacrifice zone yet again by backing the Mountain Valley Pipeline – an unwanted, unnecessary, and unfinished fracked gas pipeline. Biden must use his executive power to back us as we ensure the just and livable future we deserve.”
“Reasons millions of Indigenous, BIPOC, and frontline communities casted their votes for Biden in 2020 was because of his campaign promises to address climate and environmental injustices,” said Tom BK Goldtooth, Executive Director of The Indigenous Environmental Network. “Three years in, we see he has broken those promises. The ugly reality is that Biden and his administration shamelessly promote climate false solutions that not only increase extraction, exploitation, pollution, and commodification of our lands, waters, and air– but his lack of real action and failure to reduce emissions at source is accelerating the climate crisis. We all have a collective responsibility to ensure a sustainable planet and climate for our future generations, and politicians like Biden need to do their part.”
“Mr. President, the people along the Gulf Coast are dying,” said Roishetta Ozane, Director of The Vessel Project of Louisiana and Gulf Fossil Finance Coordinator for Texas Campaign for the Environment. “It’s time to declare a climate emergency and stop any new fossil fuel project approvals. The impact of climate change is not a distant future, it’s happening now. We cannot afford to wait any longer. With the help of big banks and the rubber stamping of industry under your administration, our children won’t be able to raise their children in the place that we all love. Use your executive power to propel us towards a more renewable future.”
“From approving Willow to auctioning off our public land and water to oil and gas, President Biden is on a dangerous backslide from the climate ambitions he outlined as a candidate and early in his presidency,” said Anusha Narayanan, Global Project Lead at Greenpeace USA. “The gas industry – producers and operators – have used the crisis in Ukraine to spin U.S. and European priorities away from climate goals under the guise of energy security. A recent analysis of the boom in U.S. LNG exports to the EU in 2022 found that the gas industry’s propaganda has resulted in a long-term build-out of new infrastructure and the lock-in of decades-long gas contracts. If built, the approved projects alone could more than double U.S. export capacity to 15,500 bcf – with annual lifecycle emissions equivalent to 393 million cars. Many of us voted for President Biden because he promised transformative climate action. He has yet to come anywhere near meeting these promises. It’s time for him to lead in the climate fight, not be puppeteered by gas operators who sacrifice the health and safety of communities to boost their profits.”
“Regardless of how the White House spins President Biden’s actions, he cannot be a climate leader while continuing to expand fossil fuels,” said Nicole Ghio, Senior Fossil Fuels Program Manager at Friends of the Earth. “The world desperately needs Biden to start living up to his rhetoric and address the root cause of the climate crisis. There should be no place for him at the Climate Ambition Summit until he does.”
“The US has a historic responsibility to halt expansion of coal, oil and gas that undermine global efforts to meet the 1.5C climate target,” said Alex Rafalowicz, Executive-Director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. “President Biden has a moral obligation to stop fueling the crisis they helped create, and to provide financial support so that fossil fuel dependent nations can make the energy transition they want and deserve. Pacific nations and other countries in the Global South are taking the lead, calling on all governments to develop a new global mechanism to manage an equitable phase out of fossil fuels. It’s time for the US to match the size of its rhetoric of ‘climate leadership’ with actions the size of the problem. The world’s test is simple: no new fossil fuel projects anywhere under President Biden’s watch.”
“It’s past time for President Biden to put the brakes on the reckless oil and gas expansion that threatens all of us,” said Jean Su, Energy Justice program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Instead of condemning people and wildlife to worse suffering, Biden can lead the world’s biggest oil and gas producer in ending the fossil fuel era. Nobody has more power, or greater responsibility, than this president to stop fueling climate destruction. This is the moment for Biden to break the cycle of harm and heartbreak, stop approving disastrous projects like Willow and the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and lead us into a safe and healthy future.”
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
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House GOP Accused of Injecting 'MAGA Project 2025 Agenda' Into Funding Bills
"We can see the fingerprints of Project 2025 across each of the majority's appropriations bills," said Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
Jul 25, 2024
A leading House Democrat on Wednesday accused her Republican colleagues of hijacking the government funding process to pursue a "MAGA Project 2025 Agenda" that aims to further roll back abortion rights, cut education programs, and attack workers and the planet.
"House Republicans are unable and unwilling to govern," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. "House Democrats are at the table ready to negotiate. The quicker House Republicans realize their extremist agenda cannot become law, the quicker we can get down to the business of the American people."
"This year should have been easier than last. We began the 2025 process—weeks after successfully passing the final 2024 bills—with a top line in place, yet Republicans reneged on it," DeLauro continued. "They wrote partisan bills to further their Trump MAGA Project 2025 Agenda instead of working with Democrats to pass bills that could become law. At every turn, the Republicans are making abortion illegal, eliminating federal support for public education, undermining workers, and disarming America in the face of the climate crisis."
In recent weeks, House Republicans have put forth government funding bills for fiscal year 2025 that would slash the Education Department's budget by $11 billion, curb funding for the understaffed Social Security Administration, and assail climate agencies while boosting offshore drilling and other destructive practices—all of which is consistent with the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025 agenda.
"Project 2025 advocates for climate and environmental arson. And we can see exactly where the majority has taken its cues from the climate catastrophe manifesto in this bill."
At least 140 people who worked in the administration of former President Donald Trump, the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee, helped craft Project 2025, according toCNN.
The House GOP's appropriations bills stand no chance of becoming law with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House, but they have offered a preview of what the right-wing party is likely to do if it wins control of Congress and Trump secures another term in November.
Currently, Republicans "find themselves in a stalemate of their own doing," The Washington Postreported Thursday, "even after House SpeakerMike Johnson (R-La.) pledged to pass all 12 bills before their monthlong break from Washington in August." So far, the House has only passed five of the 12 bills.
On Tuesday, following hours of debate, House Republicans abruptly pulled a federal energy and water funding bill from the floor and the party's leadership decided to begin August recess a week early, starting on Thursday. Politicoreported that the withdrawn bill would have revoked the Energy Department's pause on new permit approvals for liquefied natural gas exports and "cut funding for efficiency and renewable energy programs."
House Republicans were able to pass funding legislation for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday. Just one Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), voted for the bill, which is dead on arrival in the Senate.
As E&E Newsreported:
The legislation's $38.5 billion top line is about $72 million below the fiscal 2024 level. EPA's budget would shrink by $1.8 billion, with significant cuts to agency programs focused on science and technology, environmental justice, and chemical risk reviews. The Superfund cleanup program and the Diesel Emissions Reduction Program would see higher budget lines.
Interior funding would drop by $42 million, in part because of cuts to offices such as the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the National Park Service.
In a floor speech earlier this week opposing the legislation, DeLauro said that "rather than making sound investments to protect our air and water, preserve our National Parks, and ensure the environment we all share and live in remains clean and protected, the majority's bill benefits the most egregious polluters and climate science deniers, jeopardizes public health and safety, hinders our responses to the climate crisis, and endangers rural and low-income communities."
"This disastrous proposal did not come out of nowhere," she continued. "This is explicitly where the majority wants to take the country. Project 2025 is the Trump MAGA Republican agenda to take over the government and destroy our rights and freedoms. But it is not just a document on a website—we can see the fingerprints of Project 2025 across each of the majority's appropriations bills."
"In short, Project 2025 advocates for climate and environmental arson," DeLauro added. "And we can see exactly where the majority has taken its cues from the climate catastrophe manifesto in this bill."
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'Disgusting': Global 1% Captured $42 Trillion in New Wealth Over Past Decade
"The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
Jul 25, 2024
The richest sliver of the global population hauled in more than $40 trillion in new wealth over the past decade as countries around the world cut taxes for those at the very top, supercharging inequality that poses a dire threat to democracy and the planet.
An Oxfam analysis released Thursday ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers estimated that over the past 10 years, the global 1% has accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth. That's "nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50% of the world's population," the group observed.
"That is disgusting," Michael Taylor, founder of the Australian Independent Media Network, wrote in response to the new figures.
The analysis comes amid a growing push by current and former world leaders for rich countries to enact a global tax on billionaire wealth that would begin to reverse the damage done by decades of regressive policy. Oxfam found in a separate analysis released earlier this year that economic and political elites' global "war on fair taxation" has slashed taxes for the rich by 32% since 1980.
Oxfam said Thursday that global billionaires "have been paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth."
"Inequality has reached obscene levels, and until now governments have failed to protect people and planet from its catastrophic effects," Max Lawson, Oxfam's head of inequality policy, said in a statement Thursday. "The richest 1% of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs."
"Momentum to increase taxes on the super-rich is undeniable, and this week is the first real litmus test for G20 governments," Lawson added. "Do they have the political will to strike a global standard that puts the needs of the many before the greed of an elite few?"
A recent report by renowned economist Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley outlined how nations could go about implementing a 2% minimum tax on the wealth of global billionaires—a policy change that he shows would raise up to $250 billion in annual revenue that could be used to support a range of priorities, from climate investments to education and healthcare programs.
"Thanks to recent progress in international tax cooperation, a common taxation standard for billionaires has become technically possible," said Zucman. "Implementing it is a question of political will."
The economist's report was commissioned by the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has championed a global billionaire tax in the face of resistance from powerful nations, including the United States—which has more billionaires than any other country. In 2018, U.S. billionaires paid a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.
But reporting indicates that the leaders of G20 nations—which are home to roughly 80% of the world's billionaires—are likely to rebuff Lula's push for billionaire wealth tax, opting instead to pursue what Bloombergdescribed as "research on taxation and inequality that could take years to deliver results."
Reuters similarly reported Wednesday that G20 finance ministers meeting in Brazil "are preparing a joint statement for Thursday in support of progressive taxation that will stop short of endorsing the hosts' proposal for a global 'billionaire tax.'"
The global billionaire wealth surge comes in the context of growing misery for large swaths of the world's population. A report released Wednesday by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that one out of 11 people around the world—or up to 757 million people—"may have faced hunger" last year.
"The world's poorest people are paying the highest price of hunger," Eric Munoz, Oxfam's food policy expert, said in response to the FAO report. "We need deeper, structural policy and social change to address all of the drivers of hunger, including economic injustice, climate change, and conflict."
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Groups Demand Probe of Israeli Influence Operations Targeting Americans
"The administration must work to defend our democracy fully, and ensure that no foreign state has a green light to inappropriately target American citizens or manipulate our democratic process."
Jul 24, 2024
Over two dozen organizations on Wednesday demanded that the Biden administration launch a multi-agency investigation into recent reporting that "the Israeli government is engaging in illicit social media influence operations targeting U.S. elected officials and U.S. civil society."
Pointing to June reports by The New York Times, Haaretz, and The Guardian, the groups—including the Center for International Policy, CodePink, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), National Iranian American Council (NIAC), U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) Action, and Win Without War—wrote to President Joe Biden and the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State.
As Israel began waging war on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attack, the country's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs "allocated about $2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out," the Times reported June 5, citing related documents and unnamed Israeli officials.
"Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg."
Although the Israeli ministry denied involvement in the campaign and Stoic didn't respond to requests for comment, the newspaper noted that "at its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook, and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats."
As The Guardian reported on June 24, "That effort is only one of many such campaigns coordinated by the ministry."
The newspaper detailed "a sprawling relaunch of a controversial Israeli government program initially known as Kela Shlomo, designed to carry out what Israel called 'mass consciousness activities' targeted largely at the U.S. and Europe."
"Concert, now known as Voices of Israel, previouslyworked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called 'anti-BDS' state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other nonviolent protests of Israel," The Guardian explained, referring to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
"Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations, and other voices of dissent," according to the newspaper. "Voices' latestactivities were conducted through nonprofits and other entities that often do not disclose donor information."
The coalition calling on Biden to launch an investigation wrote that "it is incumbent on our government to protect its citizens from efforts by foreign governments to inappropriately interfere in our democratic process by spreading disinformation, targeting U.S. elected officials, and seeking to intimidate members of U.S. civil society."
Highlighting previous action "to punish and deter such nefarious behavior" by Russian firms, the groups argued that "as an administration that has defined itself as defenders of American democracy against threats from both domestic and foreign state actors, the news of the Israeli government's attacks on our democracy must be addressed."
NIAC president Jamal Abdi said, "What this letter asks for is very simple: that President Biden and his administration treat reports of inappropriate Israeli influence operations with the same seriousness that it has allegations of Russian and Iranian influence campaigns."
"Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg," he continued. "The administration must work to defend our democracy fully, and ensure that no foreign state has a green light to inappropriately target American citizens or manipulate our democratic process."
The U.S. government has provided weapons and diplomatic support for Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed at least 39,145 Palestinians and injured another 90,257, according to local officials, and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
"The United States has failed to protect Palestinian communities, putting them at risk of harm to continue emboldening Israel," USCPR Action policy manager Mohammed Khader said Wednesday. "As the Israeli government and its foreign agents attempt to undermine our collective efforts on Palestinian rights, we strongly urge for the federal government to impose sanctions to hold Israeli officials and institutions accountable for violating the law."
In addition to the reported covert operations, there have been overt actions by Israel's leaders. As Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Wednesday endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump for the November election, saying that he believes the Republican "will receive the backing to act against Iran," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to address a joint session of Congress, despite protests from American lawmakers.
Trump, Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris—now the presumed Democratic nominee for the November election—are all set to separately meet with Netanyahu while he is visiting the United States.
"It's time for the Biden administration to end its policy of exceptionalism towards Israel and hold all nations to the same standards," declared DAWN advocacy director Raed Jarrar. "The administration must take decisive action to protect our democracy from all forms of foreign interference."
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