People Vs Fossil Fuels

Frontline and climate justice groups with People vs. Fossil Fuels have helped lead the national fight against Manchin’s Dirty Deal

(Washington, D.C) – People vs. Fossil Fuels, a national coalition of over 1,200 frontline, climate justice, and progressive organizations, celebrated yet another defeat for Manchin’s Dirty Deal this evening, as the Senate failed to advance the Senator’s attempt to attach his permitting legislation to the National Defense Authorization Act.

People vs. Fossil Fuels groups organized in-district actions, D.C. rallies, letters to the editor, press calls, and events with Members of Congress in Washington to oppose the plan. The coalition also drove thousands of phone calls to Congress urging members to oppose the deal. As attention shifts to President Biden’s authority to confront the climate crisis in 2023, the coalition will continue escalating pressure for him to use his power as president to stop fossil fuel expansion and declare a climate emergency.

In response, People vs. Fossil Fuels released the following statement: 

“The people have triumphed over the polluters once again. Senator Manchin’s Dirty Deal was a direct assault on frontline communities and the environmental laws that protect our air, water, climate and public health. But we know this fight isn’t over: the fossil fuel industry and the politicians in their pocket will continue to try and rubber stamp more dangerous fossil fuel projects. Wherever they go, we’ll be there to stop them.

The dirty deal directly contradicts President Biden’s climate plan and his rhetoric about environmental justice. President Biden needs to listen to communities, not Big Oil CEOs and use his power to reject all fossil fuel projects and declare a climate emergency, and we will continue to demand that he protects our public interest and follows through.”

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People vs. Fossil Fuels continues to rally communities across the country after generating thousands of calls to Congress to stop this round of the Dirty Deal

(Washington, D.C) – People vs. Fossil Fuels, a national coalition of over 1,200 frontline, climate justice, and progressive organizations, mobilized this week to stop Senator Joe Manchin’s latest attempt to pass his Dirty Deal by attaching it to the National Defense Authorizations Act, or NDAA. Manchin’s deadly permitting bill was not included in the NDAA draft text released Tuesday night. Despite this, Senator Manchin released the full text of his bill Building American Energy Security Act of 2022 this morning, continuing to urge his colleagues to ignore calls from frontline communities and amend the defense bill to include his dirty deal that weakens environmental protections and fast-tracks the Mountain Valley Pipeline. 

The coalition drove thousands of phone calls to Congress, with a particular focus on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, who held sway in whether the dirty deal will be attached to the must-pass defense bill. Groups also organized in-district actions, letters to the editor, and press calls and events with Members of Congress in Washington to oppose the plan. 

Despite the groups’ success in removing the deal from a continuing resolution in September and fighting to keep the language from being added on to the defense bill ll,they warn that Manchin will likely attempt  to attach this Dirty Deal to the government spending bill at the end of the year and will continue to fight until the permitting language is no longer pushed anywhere. 

In response, People vs. Fossil Fuels released the following statement: 

“This fight is not over. We stopped this dirty deal twice, we will make sure it’s stopped again, and we will keep fighting Manchin if he tries squeezing it into the government spending package at the end of the year. We need leaders in Congress to continue to show communities that they stand with them and reject this dirty deal once and for all. They must also join communities across the country calling on Biden to use his power as president to stop fossil fuel expansion and declare a climate emergency.”

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Environmental justice promises and pledges around fossil fuels remain unmet; executive actions necessary to meet Biden’s own climate targets 

(Washington, D.C) – No matter the outcome of the midterm elections on Tuesday night, President Biden will need to follow through on a bold course of executive actions in order to meet his own climate commitments and fulfill unmet promises on environmental justice and limiting fossil fuel development. 

“During his first two years in office, President Biden failed to use his full executive powers to address the climate crisis and protect our communities from the ravages of fossil fuels,” said People Vs. Fossil Fuels, a coalition of over 1,200 grassroots, frontline and national organizations in a statement released ahead of Tuesday’s election. “It’s past time for President Biden to declare a climate emergency and block the federal approval of all new fossil fuel projects that are threatening our climate and communities.” 

Since before President Biden took office, People vs. Fossil Fuels has been pushing him to use his extensive executive powers to address the climate crisis and fossil fuel pollution that is poisoning people across the country, especially working families and Black, Brown, Indigenous, people of the global majority. 

While the Biden Administration has taken actions to boost the growth of clean energy, they have done little to directly address the production, export, and burning of fossil fuels, the most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and a significant source of local pollution. If anything, the administration has gone backwards: failing to fulfill a promise to ban fossil fuel development on public lands, failing to stop controversial projects like the Line 3 pipeline, encouraging the growth of fossil fuel exports, and allowing for massive industry handouts in the Inflation Reduction Act that passed through Congress. 

“Environmental Justice communities have experienced a long history of health disparities for generations stemming from the disproportionate burden of fossil fuel pollution and polluting infrastructure. Not only do fossil fuels cause land, water, and air damage but they also create a health and safety hazard in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities where they are overwhelmingly sited and the workers who maintain them. Enough is enough. Our elected officials have failed us time after time by continually saying yes to industry. It’s time we take our power back. It’s time we get folks in office who care about people,” said Roishetta Ozane, Organizing Director, Healthy Gulf.

These failures on fossil fuels aren’t just a policy concern: they’re costing lives. Last year, a study from Harvard University and others concluded that 1 in 5 deaths worldwide are caused by fossil fuel air pollution. This includes nearly 350,000 Americans every year, with the impacts concentrated in low-income and Black, Brown, Indigenous, people of the global majority communities. 

Many environmental justice, frontline, and Indigenous organizations have been frustrated not only by the administration’s lack of action, but their willingness to even meet with the communities most impacted by climate change, fossil fuels, and their own policy decisions. 

In October 2021, People vs. Fossil Fuels mobilized over a thousand people from frontline communities across the United States to come to Washington, D.C. and engage in civil disobedience to pressure President Biden to act. In September 2022, the coalition mobilized again to successfully stop Senator Manchin’s dirty deal which would have fast tracked dangerous fossil fuel projects, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline.  

Below are additional quotes from leading climate and environmental justice organizations within People vs. Fossil Fuels:

“As I fight alongside frontline organizers across the country to stop all new fossil fuel projects and ensure a livable future, it’s clear to me how strong we are when we are united. President Biden should take note of this and join us. He can start by declaring a climate emergency,” Russell Chisholm, Mountain Valley Watch Coordinator.

“For 500 years, Indigenous people of the Americas have been ignored about the ongoing genocide and ecocide we have allowed to be committed by our world leaders. Biden and his administration has been anything but ‘bold’ in our climate crisis — meanwhile, sacrifice zones of millions of Americans have been the ones to pay for his cowardice. Stick to your promises President Biden, or a new age of Indigenous leadership will remind you yet again who’s land you are on.” Tasina Sapa Win, Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective

“The Arctic is warming at an estimated 4 to 5 times faster than the rest of the world, which is exponentially faster than previously predicted, making it ground zero for climate change. Alaska Natives experience the impacts of catastrophic climate change first hand, along with many other Black and Indigenous people worldwide. President Biden and world leaders have a responsibility to keep our people safe and ensure a healthy world for future generations. The time is now to declare a climate emergency, stop all fossil fuel extraction, and allow for a just transition into renewable energy. Stop the Willow Project and all fossil fuel projects.” Sonia Ahkivgak, Social Outreach Coordinator, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic 

“Indigenous communities turned out to vote for Biden because we needed immediate climate action and he has failed to offer any meaningful leadership. Instead he has allowed big oil to continue to make windfall profits and make Indigenous communities sacrifice zones and ignored our sovereignty to give oil and gas access to destroy the water, land and air quality in our communities. We have passed the point of keeping warming to 1.5C and we will see much heartache and devastation from climate chaos in the years ahead. No matter how the elections turnout, he has the executive power to take immediate action and we will keep pushing him to put politics aside and do what’s right for all of humanity.” Ikiya Collective 

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WASHINGTON, DC — More than 650 climate, environmental justice, public health, youth, and progressive organizations sent a letter to Congressional leadership today to oppose the fossil fuel expansion deal proposed by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to Democratic leadership in exchange for his support of the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The letter was signed by a broad range of environmental and climate groups, including Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch, Indigenous Environmental Network, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, Oil Change International, Oxfam America, Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, and WE ACT for Environmental Justice, along with progressive political organizations Center for Popular Democracy, Indivisible, MoveOn, NAACP, Our Revolution, People’s Action, and Public Citizen. The letter was also officially endorsed by the Climate Justice Alliance, Green New Deal Network, and the People vs Fossil Fuels Coalition steering committee. 

According to a leaked draft, the proposed dirty infrastructure bill would fast-track fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and undercut basic environmental protections. 

“This fossil fuel wish list is a cruel and direct attack on environmental justice communities and the climate,” the group’s letter said. “This legislation would truncate and hollow-out the environmental review process, weaken Tribal consultations, and make it far harder for frontline communities to have their voices heard by gutting bedrock protections in the National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act.” 

The proposal also requires the president to create a list of at least 25 projects deemed to be of “strategic national importance”; at least five of the priority items “shall be projects to produce, process, transport, or store fossil fuel products, or biofuels, including projects to export or import those products.” The United States must reject new fossil fuel projects to meet President Biden’s emissions reduction goals and comply with what science says is necessary to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

The Mountain Valley Pipeline alone would lead to annual emissions equivalent to over 89 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to analysis by Oil Change International. This is equal to the emissions from 26 coal plants or 19 million passenger vehicles per year. 

“Prolonging the fossil fuel era perpetuates environmental racism, is wildly out of step with climate science, and hamstrings our nation’s ability to avert a climate disaster,” the letter highlights. “Supporting this legislation would represent a profound betrayal of frontline communities and constituents across the country who have called on you to prevent the multitude of harms of fossil fuels and advance a just, renewable energy future.” 

Reports indicate that Congressional leadership plan to introduce the legislation in September with the hope of a final vote before the end of the month. But some Democratic leaders, including House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Raul Grijalva, have spoken out against the deal and called for it not to be included in the federal spending resolution, which also must pass before the end of September. 

Full Text of Letter: https://peoplevsfossilfuels.org/dirty-deal-letter

Quotes

“Appalachia is home to many people, but more specifically, the home of my ancestors of the Occaneechee, Monacan and Saponi and many other Indigenous peoples. This is a dirty deal made at the expense of us,” said Dr. Crystal Cavalier of 7 Directions of Service. “It is an erasure of my people and ancestors again, with no regard for the water, nature and people. We refuse to be a sacrifice.” 

“Here in Appalachia, on the frontline of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, we refuse to be sacrificed for Senator Manchin’s political gain and to prop up the dying fossil fuel industry,” said Russell Chisholm, Mountain Valley Watch Coordinator. “We stand in solidarity with all frontlines to say ‘no’ to this dirty deal that puts our communities in more danger.” 

“In Michigan, no matter our race or zip code, we all want clean and healthy neighborhoods where our families can thrive. But Senators Manchin and Schumer, and the American Petroleum Institute are threatening our rights to clean air and clean water with their ‘side-deal,’” said Juan Jhong-Chung, Climate Justice Director at Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition. “This bill would fast track toxic projects in Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor communities. We should not be forced to host more oil pipelines or dirty infrastructure for false solutions like carbon capture, hydrogen, and nuclear power. We demand that our elected officials stop sacrificing our people for the financial gain of polluters.” 

“I have more than five years of experience in the solar industry and I am passionate about helping people reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. People’s lives will change as our world embraces renewables. That is my dream. I am grateful I discovered a passion and purpose in life so our future children may live in a clean and green world,” said Serina Morena, a member of the Green Workers Alliance. “Taking away environmental reviews of pipelines and other fossil fuels projects is a terrible idea. Instead we need more renewable energy and the jobs they create.” 

“It’s atrocious that Congress is even considering dismantling bedrock environmental protections just to please one senator,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Democrats must expose this measure for what it is — a total giveaway to the fossil fuel industry. This backroom deal would sacrifice frontline communities, ensure decades’ more toxic extraction and turn up the fossil-fueled broiler that’s heating the whole planet. This poisonous plan must be stopped.”

“The proposal from Senator Manchin is nothing more than a wish list from Big Oil, whose only goal is more profit at the expense of people and the planet,” said Thomas Meyer, national organizing manager at Food & Water Watch. “Members of Congress who fought for clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act must now speak up strongly and swiftly against this massive rollback of public health and environmental protections that will fast track fossil fuel projects.” 

“This dirty side deal is nothing short of a wholesale giveaway to the fossil fuel industry to the detriment of frontline communities, Tribal nations, and Mother Earth,” said Joye Braun, National Pipelines Organizer of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “The world is on fire and negotiating the amount of fuel for those flames is not acceptable. Congress needs to understand that there is no compromise when it comes to protecting the next seven generations of life and beyond.”

Climate justice and frontline groups call out the “poison pills” in the climate deal and Machin’s dirty side deal; demands President Biden declare a climate emergency and pursue other executive actions to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure.

• Cass DiPaola, Fossil Free Media, cassidy@fossilfree.media, 401-441-7196
• Gracie Aragon, Pueblo Action Alliance, graciemarie27@gmail.com, 505-414-4515
• John Beard Jr., Port Arthur Community Action Network, john.beard901456@outlook.com, 409-626-1179
• Ashley Engle, ikiyA collective, springstarwoman@gmail.com, 405-617-4150
• Sharon Lavigne, Rise St. James, sharonclavigne@gmail.com, 225-206-0900
• Cesar Aguirre, Central California Environmental Justice Network, cesar.aguirre@ccejn.org, 661-979-2721
• Russell Chisholm, Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR), russell@powhr.org, 540-404-2727
• Siqiñiq Maupin, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, siqiniq@silainuat.org, 907-884-1859,
• Juan Mancias, Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, onebigjuan@gmail.com, 830-391-7992

Washington, D.C. – In response to the House passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) earlier today, People vs. Fossil Fuels, a national coalition of over 1,200 organizations from all 50 states, issued a joint statement denouncing the fossil fuel handouts included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well as the legislation proposed by Senator Manchin to expedite permitting and approvals of fossil fuel projects. 

“The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has come at a tremendously high price that will be disproportionately paid by Black, Indigenous, family farming, people of the global majority and working-class communities. With fires and flooding taking a toll on families around the country, we simply cannot afford additional giveaways to the fossil fuel industry in a deal that Democratic Leaders negotiated with Senator Manchin.

“Investments in renewable energy, which are the result of years of organizing by communities most impacted by fossil fuel pollution and the climate crisis, cannot alone prevent climate chaos without simultaneously ending the era of fossil fuels. Yet Congress is poised to push through devastating permitting reforms that shorten review of toxic carbon, oil and gas projects and approve dozens of massive fossil fuel infrastructure projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

“We will not allow our relatives in Appalachia, the Gulf Coast, Alaska, the Midwest and Southwest, along with other frontline communities to be sacrificed at the altar of corporate greed. We strongly oppose the legislation proposed by Senator Manchin, and will continue to fight for the clean air, water, and future that every community deserves. As Congress has failed to pass meaningful climate legislation, it’s more important than ever that President Biden use every tool at his disposal, including declaring a climate emergency, to stop the expansion of fossil fuels.” 

Interviews with members of Appalachia, Gulf Coast, Alaska, Midwest, Southwest, and other frontline communities that are being offered up as sacrifice zones are available.

Made up of local, regional, and national organizations, People vs. Fossil Fuels helped organize distributed actions in over 19 cities across the U.S. earlier this month. The actions urged President Biden to address the out of control fossil fuel industry destroying our communities by declaring a national climate emergency, taking executive action, and rejecting permits for fossil fuel projects. The coalition is also calling for Senator Schumer to kill the permitting reform deal. The deal, which was labeled “Draft – API”, is another attempt by the fossil fuel industry to fast track dangerous and polluting projects with no regard for the health and safety of frontline communities.

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