January, 27 2023, 01:47pm EDT
MAGA Majority Passes Oil Industry-Friendly Bill, Prioritizing Political Stunts Over Helping Amer
Today, the MAGA majority in the House passed a bill that would obstruct one of President Biden’s primary tools for fighting Big Oil’s price gouging. At the same time, the plans makes it easier to give away control of public lands to their industry allies. The Strategic Production Response Act, H.R. 21, passed on a vote 221 to 205 and has little chance of passing the Senate and faces a veto promised by President Biden.
"American consumers pay more for energy so Big Oil can get richer under Kevin McCarthy’s plan. Big Oil CEOs have given the MAGA majority big bucks while the rest of us simply pay our taxes so it’s no surprise they come out ahead."Jordan Schreiber, Director of Energy and Environment at Accountable.US
H.R. 21 is just the latest example in a long pattern of Congressional Republicans wasting public resources passing legislation for big oil. Last year, right-wing members of Congress tried to obstruct President Biden from taking even relatively modest measures to address the skyrocketing price of gas for American consumers. Biden’s SPR release helped drop oil prices by $1.69 per gallon since their peak.
The bill’s passage is only the latest extension of this fight, which is sure to continue through the next two years. In response, Accountable.US released the following statement and analysis debunking the new majority’s erroneous justifications for passing the bill.
Debunking Strategic Production Response Act Lies:
Accountable.US is a nonpartisan watchdog that exposes corruption in public life and holds government officials and corporate special interests accountable by bringing their influence and misconduct to light. In doing so, we make way for policies that advance the interests of all Americans, not just the rich and powerful.
LATEST NEWS
Rapidly Melting Glaciers Threaten Collapse of Crucial Ocean Circulation Systems: Study
"It's way faster than we thought these circulations could slow down," said one researcher. "We are talking about the possible long-term extinction of an iconic water mass."
Mar 30, 2023
Scientists from the United States and Australia on Wednesday warned in a new study that the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting rapid melting of Antarctic glaciers is placing a vital deep ocean current "on a trajectory that looks headed towards collapse" in the coming decades.
As Common Dreams has reported, Antarctic ice is melting at an unprecedented rate, and the melting is causing fresh water to enter the ocean—reducing the salinity and density which is needed to drive the "overturning circulation" of water deep in the world's oceans.
Normally, dense water flows toward the ocean floor and helps transport heat and and vital nutrients through the planet's oceans. The circulation helps support marine ecosystems and the stability of ice shelves.
With carbon emissions continuing to rise despite clear warnings from energy and climate experts about the urgent need to draw down emissions, the deep ocean current is projected to slow by 40% by 2050, according to the study, which was published in Nature.
The current slowdown would "profoundly alter the ocean overturning of heat, fresh water, oxygen, carbon, and nutrients, with impacts felt throughout the global ocean for centuries to come," according to the study.
The researchers, who study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Australian National University, and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), examined models and simulations over two years to determine how fast the deep ocean current more than 13,000 feet below the surface is expected to slow down as fresh water rapidly enters the ocean.
Circulation deep in the ocean could weaken twice as fast as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which carries warm water from the tropics to the North Atlantic Ocean. The collapse of the AMOC has previously been identified as "one of the planet's main potential tipping points," as Common Dreams reported in 2021, but the Antarctic overturning circulation has been less studied until now.
The deep ocean current allows nutrients to rise from the bottom of the ocean, supporting about three-quarters of phytoplankton production and forming the basis of the global food chain.
"If we slow the sinking near Antarctica, we slow down the whole circulation and so we also reduce the amount of nutrients that get returned from the deep ocean back up to the surface," Stephen Rintoul, a fellow at CSIRO and co-author of the study, told Al Jazeera.
The ocean would also be left with a limited ability to absorb carbon dioxide due to the stratification of its upper layers, and warm water could increasingly intrude on the western Antarctic ice shelf, creating a feedback loop and even more melting of glaciers.
The study is "actually kind of conservative" in that it doesn't go into detail regarding that "disaster [scenario]," Alan Mix, a co-author of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report who was not involved in Wednesday's study, toldAl Jazeera.
Matthew England, another co-author of the study, toldThe Guardian that deep ocean circulations have "have taken more than 1,000 years or so to change, but this is happening over just a few decades."
"It's way faster than we thought these circulations could slow down," England added. "We are talking about the possible long-term extinction of an iconic water mass."
The study is the latest sign that action to reduce planet-heating fossil fuel emissions is happening far too slowly, said climate scientist Bill McGuire.
\u201cMore absolutely horrendous news on the global heating front.\n\nOur climate is falling apart in front of our eyes.\n\nNet zero in 2050 is nowhere near enough and far, far, too late.\n\nhttps://t.co/BvjXqX9cft\u201d— Bill McGuire (@Bill McGuire) 1680123140
"It seems almost certain that continuing on a high greenhouse gas emission pathway will lead to even more profound effects on the ocean and the climate system," John Church, an emeritus professor at University of New South Wales in Australia, told Al Jazeera. "The world urgently needs to drastically reduce our emissions to get off the high-emission pathway we are currently following."
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DeVos-Tied PAC Spends $60,000 in Support of Chicago School Privatizer Paul Vallas
"Chicago voters should know that DeVos supports Vallas' candidacy, and that there is no daylight between DeVos and Vallas' education agendas," said Illinois Families for Public Schools.
Mar 30, 2023
A super PAC with close ties to former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—one of the nation's most fervent supporters of school privatization—has taken an interest in Chicago's April 4 mayoral runoff, spending nearly $60,000 in support of notorious school privatizer Paul Vallas as the contest heads into its final stretch.
Vallas, a right-wing Democrat who previously served as the head of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), is taking on Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, a longtime educator and public school champion whose campaign has been endorsed by prominent national progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The Illinois Federation for Children PAC, which is bankrolled by the DeVos-backed American Federation for Children Action Fund, recently spent $59,385 on digital media supporting Vallas, according to new campaign finance disclosures.
The Illinois super PAC's bare-bones website states that "families should have the choice to enroll their children in the best school to meet their needs, whether it’s a district-assigned public school, homeschool, public charter, private, virtual, or blended-learning school," adding that "this election cycle will be one of the most important in the history of Illinois' school choice movement."
The group has received $465,000 from the American Federation for Children Action Fund, including a recent donation of $65,000. (The American Federation for Children Action Fund is an affiliate of the DeVos-founded American Federation for Children.)
Spotlighting the super PAC's outlay in Chicago's mayoral race, the advocacy group Illinois Families for Public Schools (IFPS) said in a statement that while "DeVos has not endorsed Vallas, Vallas' education plans for Chicago's school system are directly aligned with the DeVos agenda of school privatization, one she supported as secretary of education and promotes through her national network of advocacy organizations and PACs: defunding and dismantling public school systems and redirecting public funds via programs like vouchers to private schools."
"Vallas voices his support for 'a reconstituted system in which parents get to direct the per-pupil public dollars to the school (or education model) of their choosing'... The education platform on Vallas' website calls for 'dismantling the central administration' of CPS," the group continued. "These are exactly the policy goals that DeVos and American Federation for Children are advocating for: 'fund students not systems' and 'dollars must follow students.'"
"As secretary of education, DeVos' education policies were harmful to public schools on a national scale," IFPS added. "Chicago voters should know that DeVos supports Vallas' candidacy, and that there is no daylight between DeVos and Vallas' education agendas."
Johnson, by contrast, has pledged to strengthen Chicago's underfunded public schools. The progressive candidate's top donors are the Chicago Teachers Union PAC and the American Federation of Teachers' Committee on Political Education.
\u201cAnd just like that...\n\nWe find out the truth about #PaulVallas. \n\nToday, Vallas received an almost $60,000 contribution from Trump's former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's Super PAC. \n\nDon't believe the hype, a "lifelong Democrat" would never take $$ from DeVos.\u201d— Chicago Teachers Union (@Chicago Teachers Union) 1680135527
The Illinois Federation for Children PAC's intervention in Chicago's mayoral race is part of a broader assault on public education financed in part by DeVos, a billionaire who has used her fortune to erode public education in her home state of Michigan and nationwide.
NBC Newsreported Thursday that DeVos' American Federation for Children "poured about $9 million into state elections last year, backing nearly 200 candidates."
"Now, some of those candidates are pushing a wave of legislation boosting DeVos' longtime goal: subsidizing private schools with public dollars," the outlet continued. "Using at least $2.5 million from DeVos and her husband, the American Federation for Children has played a pivotal role in getting what supporters call 'school choice' policies passed into law in at least three states and introduced in several more."
The American Federation for Children's board includes infamous political figures such as former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), both of whom are outspoken supporters of school privatization.
Lieberman—a former Democrat-turned-Independent who is widely reviled by progressives for his role in tanking the prospects of a public option in healthcare more than a decade ago—introduced DeVos at her Senate confirmation hearing in 2017, praising the Trump nominee as a "purpose-driven team builder."
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Evacuations in Minnesota After Fiery Derailment of Train Carrying Ethanol
The train was operated by BNSF, which has lobbied aggressively against safety regulations in recent years.
Mar 30, 2023
This is a developing news story... Check back for possible updates...
A BNSF train carrying ethanol derailed and caught fire early Thursday morning in Raymond, Minnesota, forcing residents living near the crash site to evacuate.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has faced backlash for responding inadequately to the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, said the Federal Railroad Administration is "on the ground' in Raymond following the derailment.
"At present no injuries or fatalities have been reported," said Buttigieg. "We are tracking closely as more details emerge."
\u201cSome video coming out of a firery train derailment that occured in Raymond, Minnesota about 1:00 am this morning. \n\nSeveral tankers were carrying a form of ethanol & corn syrup that caught fire and has caused a 1/2 mile evacuation to the surrounding area.\n\nVideo by Ashely Lucas\u201d— Rebecca Brannon (@Rebecca Brannon) 1680170887
BNSF, which is controlled by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has lobbied aggressively against enhanced rail safety regulations at the state and federal levels in recent years.
An OpenSecrets analysis published earlier this month found that BNSF has spent nearly $13 million on state-level lobbying since 2003. BNSF's parent company is also among the rail industry's top federal lobbying spenders over the past two decades, according to federal disclosures.
BNSF said in a statement that more than 20 train cars "carrying mixed freight including ethanol and corn syrup" derailed in Raymond on Thursday.
The wreck and resulting blaze forced local authorities to issue evacuation orders for people living within a half-mile of the site. The Minnesota Department of Transportation said a nearby highway was also closed due to the fire.
The local sheriff's department said in a press release that "no travel is advised to the city of Raymond" as emergency workers attempt to contain the fire.
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