People Vs Fossil Fuels

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 

###

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.

###

** Listen to Today’s Call HERE **

(Washington, DC) – Today, as President Biden traveled to Massachusetts to announce new executive action on climate change, long-time advocates urged the Administration to declare a national climate emergency. 

“We need bold, decisive action. Fortune favors the bold. We look to our President to provide the leadership, and be the climate president he said that he was going to be, to be the environmental president that he said he was going to be. Put people over politics, and put people ahead of fossil fuels. We’re demanding that he declare a climate emergency,” said John Beard, Founder of the Port Arthur Community Action Network. 

“The United Nations came out with a statement this week saying that we are on the path of humanitarian suicide. I choose to fight against that. I choose to fight for my people. I choose to fight for all people. What world are we leaving for our children? We have to think of the next generations. We must declare a climate emergency,” said Joye Braun, National Pipelines Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network.

“The danger of inaction is very real, and it’s immediate. The danger of inaction is what we are facing here from this President. We know about scorching heat waves, mud slides, fires, catastrophic storms, and we’re seeing all of that in our communities. These are devastating events that people are barely able to recover from before the next disaster strikes. That’s important for the president and all of his advisors to remember while they delay, and delay, and delay taking action such as declaring a climate emergency,” said Russell Chisholm, Co-Chair of Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights.

“In Oklahoma, we are the epicenter of the nation’s heatwave. It was 110 where I live. Oklahomans are suffering now. We need Joe Biden to follow through on his climate promises to stop fossil fuel projects, usher in a just transition, and use his executive authority to declare a climate emergency now,” said Ashley Engle with the Ikiya Collective.

“Biden actually ran on an aggressive climate platform, and it’s a big part of why young people turned out in record numbers to elect Democrats in 2020. As we stare now into the face of an existential midterm election, this declaration will either show young people the Biden gives a damn about our futures or be a further slap in the face to our generation that is feeling utter despair and frustration at the failure of democratic leadership,” said Lauren Manus, Advocacy Director for the Sunrise Movement. 

“As the second largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. must act now if we’re going to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. President Biden has no more excuses. He must start using his executive powers to full effect if we’re going to make any progress in preventing the worst disasters in our country,” said Anusha Narayanan, Climate Campaign Director for Greenpeace US.

“We need President Biden to declare a climate emergency. We need that rallying directive in this vacuum of climate leadership that we’re seeing right now. If he declares a climate emergency, it will not only unleash his ability to use all of his executive orders right now, but also send a signal around the world and to this country that he is finally serious about making and meeting his campaign commitments to combat the climate chaos,” said Jean Su, Energy Justice Director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

For over a year, People vs. Fossil Fuels, a coalition of over 1,100 organizations across the United States, has been pushing the President to declare a climate emergency and use his executive authorities to stop the federal approval of all new fossil fuel projects and scale up the rapid deployment of renewable energy. Declaring a climate emergency is a vitally important first step, given ongoing and record-setting droughts, heat waves, and floods across the country. 

###

Attention Producers & Reporters: : Long-time Advocates for Climate Emergency Declaration are Available for Interview to Discuss Biden’s Opportunity for Rapid Climate Progress 

Washington, DC – According to reporting in the Washington Post, President Biden is considering declaring a climate emergency as early as this week. This key step forward is in line with the long-standing demands of frontline communities in the People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition and would give the Administration powerful new tools to tackle the climate crisis in the absence of Congressional action.

For over a year, People vs. Fossil Fuels, a coalition of over 1,100 organizations across the United States, has been pushing the President to take exactly this step by declaring a climate emergency and using his executive authorities to stop the federal approval of all new fossil fuel projects and scale up the rapid deployment of renewable energy. 

Last October, the coalition organized a week-long mobilization in Washington, D.C. that included a series of sit-ins at the White House designed to pressure Biden to declare a climate emergency. Since then, groups have kept pressure up with additional protests, petitions, sign-on letters, online campaigns, and more. 

Declaring a climate emergency is a vitally important first step, given ongoing and record-setting droughts, heat waves, and floods across the country. However, in order for a Climate Emergency declaration to be effective, the Administration must use its authority under this executive action to directly target and reduce the use of fossil fuels. By declaring a climate emergency, President Biden could unlock a series of executive authorities that could have a major impact on driving down emissions and protecting communities from the impacts of fossil fuel development and climate disasters. These include: 

• Banning fossil fuel exports
• Banning new federal fossil fuel leasing on public lands and waters (including refusing to issue any new permits in the next five year offshore plan)
• Unlock further use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to spur clean energy development, and more. 
  • The People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition had been calling on President Biden to invoke the DPA for months – and in early June, the President finally heeded our calls. But now the President must step up and increase funding to spur domestic renewable energy production and slow the climate crisis. 

A longer list of potential executive actions under a climate emergency, and their legal justification, are explained in the Climate President Action Plan that the People v. Fossil Fuels coalition has been promoting for months. 

This action by the Administration creates a path forward to make real climate progress by stopping the approval of pending fossil fuel projects that threaten to make the climate crisis exponentially worse. Analysis from Oil Change International indicates that if the Biden Administration moves ahead with 20 major fossil fuel infrastructure projects that are currently under federal review, it would be the emissions equivalent of adding 403 million metric tons of climate-disrupting greenhouse gas emissions annually. Adding three pipelines already approved by the Administration increases that total to 750 million metric tons per year. This total is equal to the average annual emissions from 404 U.S. coal-fired power plants, larger than all 294 coal plants operating in the continental United States. Allowing more oil and gas development in Alaska, as the Administration has indicated it is inclined to do, would result in even more dangerous emissions. 

###

We are a movement of people power fighting for our futures.

(Washington, D.C) Today, the Build Back Fossil Free coalition has announced that they are officially changing the coalition name to People Vs. Fossil Fuels. With the Biden Administration abandoning its “Build Back Better” slogan and much of the agenda that it stood for, it was time to center what really drives social change– people power!

A diverse coalition of over 1,200 has kept up pressure on the Biden Administration and supported our coalition members in their fights to stop major new fossil fuel projects, from the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia to LNG export facilities in the Gulf. Increasingly, this work has taken place under the banner of “People vs. Fossil Fuels,” a slogan that has been picked up from coast-to-coast and online, where it acts as the name of our coalition social media accounts.

Last October, Build Back Fossil Free organized a week of direct action at the White House in October 2021. Following Indigenous and frontline leadership, “People vs. Fossil Fuels” mobilization brought together fossil fuel fighters from across the country to sit-in at the White House and organize other acts of civil disobedience around the Capitol. Thousands of people took part in the mobilization and more than 650 were arrested. 

Since then, we’ve kept up pressure on the Biden Administration and supported our coalition members in their fights to stop major new fossil fuel projects, from the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia to LNG export facilities in the Gulf. Increasingly, this work has taken place under the banner of “People vs. Fossil Fuels,” a slogan that has been picked up from coast-to-coast and online, where it acts as the name of our coalition social media accounts.

Although our name has changed, our priorities remain the same: supporting frontline fights against the fossil fuel industry; building a multi-racial, multi-generational, cross-class movement to end the era of fossil fuels; and winning major victories from the Biden administration toward ending the era of fossil fuels through executive action. People vs. Fossil Fuels reflects a coalition of people across the country fighting to maintain a safe, vibrant, liveable planet for generations to come. 

The following is an official statement from the People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition: 

“We believe that people power and direct action are key to mitigating climate change. And we know that by building strong coalitions centering the voices of Black, Indigenous, poor and communities of the global majority, we are stronger than the status quo which allows the fossil fuel industry to continue destroying our planet and future. We need Biden to act as Big Oil is making obscene profits during a time of global crisis while families are struggling to hold on. The power of the people will stop the fossil fuel industry and that is why we are changing our name to reflect that.”

###