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Civil disobedience by directors of national and community environmental groups comes the day after the text of Manchin’s bill is released

Washington DC, Sept. 22, 2022 – A group of 11 environmental and community leaders were arrested today calling on the Senate to reject Senator Manchin’s proposal to undermine environmental and community review and fast-track oil, gas, coal and mining projects. Those participating in civil disobedience are all directors of prominent organizations, including national and regional environmental groups, community organizations, and labor unions. 

Photos and videos will be made available here as soon as they are uploaded:
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The protest came one day after Manchin formally released his Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022, which had been first announced in July. Since the bill’s released late Wednesday, it has been widely criticized by civil rights and environmental justice advocates, and members of Congress.

Organizations participating in the protest include Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Popular Democracy, Earthworks, Familias Unidas por La Justicia, Food & Water Watch, Greenpeace USA, Indigenous Environmental Network, Just Transition Alliance, New York Communities for Change, Oil Change International, Step Up Louisiana, Sunrise Movement, Climate Justice Alliance, and United Steelworkers Local 675.

Directors from each organization released the following statements: 

Kierán Suckling, Executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity:

“Sen. Manchin’s proposal is a fossil-fueled travesty, and those who stand with it are setting their climate credibility on fire. We won’t tolerate the sacrifice of more communities and precious wildlife to line the pockets of fossil fuel profiteers. And we won’t relent in our efforts to stop this legislative disaster, which will only benefit fossil fuel companies, not renewable energy.”

DaMareo Cooper, Co-Executive Director of the Center For Popular Democracy Action:

“Today we call on Majority Leader Charles Schumer, the Senate and the White House to reject Senator Joe Manchin’s dirty deal. Climate change is the preeminent issue of our time and we’ve seen the drastic effects the lack of action from our leadership on this issue is having throughout our nation and the world — most recently in Puerto Rico with hurricane Fiona. This deal will do nothing but exacerbate the problem and lead to further death and destruction for countless communities. When the government puts the interests and profits of the American Petroleum Institute before the health of human beings and the ability of the planet to sustain life, it is nothing short of political corruption. It’s time that Congress prioritizes the needs of people over the interests of corporations, especially those whose entire business model depends on endangering communities.”

Jennifer Krill, Executive Director of Earthworks: 

“We are here today calling on Senator Schumer to stand in solidarity with Indigenous and frontline leaders and stop Senator Manchin’s dirty permitting bill. Prioritizing the climate crisis means prioritizing environmental justice. Legislation that leads to more drilling and mining is precisely the kind of political side-dealing that has set us back from meeting our urgent climate goals.  It’s time for  Congressional Leadership  and the White House to  take the necessary actions to stop the exploitation of frontline communities, reform our mining policies and stand up to the fossil fuel industry. Congress has sacrificed people for corporate profits for far too long.” 

Edgar Franks, Political Director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia (Independent Farmworker Union):

“We as a farmworker union want to stand on the side of environmental justice. We are one of the communities that are bearing the brunt of climate change and also some of the most disenfranchised politically. The IRA is filled with mechanisms that further widen the divide where we will be continued to be sacrificed for profits to the fossil fuel industry. We look for the time where we will not have to pit environment over jobs. As unions we need to be present and demand real solutions that are led by affected communities.” 

Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch:

“Senator Manchin’s bill is little more than a shameless handout to the fossil fuel industry — a green light for oil and gas companies to keep on digging, drilling, fracking and polluting. At a time when frontline communities and the entire planet are crying out for climate action and clean energy, this dirty backroom deal would drive us deeper into fossil fuel dependence for decades to come. For the sake of countless communities suffering air and water pollution today, and a livable climate for generations to come, this dirty permitting deal must be stopped.”

Ebony Twilley Martin, Co-Executive Director of Greenpeace USA: 

“Sens. Manchin and Schumer’s dirty deal is a disaster. Congress should protect people, not the polluters responsible for climate destruction. This is not permitting reform. This is a giveaway that benefits the oil and gas industry that lines its pockets at the expense of those affected by ongoing climate disasters and extreme weather. This dirty deal sacrifices communities of color that are already carrying the burden from decades of environmental injustice while driving all of us even further into climate devastation. Schumer and Manchin’s efforts to push this through while Congressional committees are investigating Big Oil’s tactics to delay climate action is an attempt to silence those of us who want to protect our communities from drilling in Black and Brown neighborhoods. We will not be silenced. We refuse to be silenced. This deal must be stopped.”

Tom BK Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network:

“Manchin’s permitting reform bill, the Energy Independence and Security Act is a direct threat against the inherent sovereignty and jurisdictional authority of our Indigenous nations and its peoples to protect ourselves from this accelerating climate crisis. The content of the bill strips critical NEPA provisions that Indigenous and other environmental justice communities need in order to take action on destructive projects like pipelines. Pipelines like the Mountain Valley Pipeline will be built with impunity under this bill. This dirty deal will set a precedent for more destructive projects to be implemented without review. We must uplift and protect our Mother Earth, not repeal the minimal provisions that do exist. We must continue to fight against climate greenwashing and false solutions. We must take real action to keep fossil fuels in the ground.” 

José Bravo, Executive Director of Just Transition Alliance: 

“Contrary to all of its environmental justice components, the Inflation Reduction Act sets out to burn billions of public dollars on dangerous and harmful technologies like carbon capture sequestration, nuclear power and bioenergy. Not only will these corporate techno-fixes fail to create additional jobs, they will expand the operations, market control and profits of the world’s largest polluters with massive subsidies that will keep critical investments from going to proven solutions such as local, distributed energy and zero waste. This plan will only increase toxic burdens and financial risk for communities of color and Indigenous communities — communities who were excluded from policy conversations that led to the Act’s arrival and who were once again sold out by racist and greedy politicians.”

Olivia Leirer, Co-Executive Director of New York Communities for Change: 

“This deal is not theoretical for us. It has real life consequences for our communities. Ten years ago during Hurricane Sandy, we saw the devastation and displacement it caused in our members’ lives and how they are still impacted today. This deal must be stopped. The planet and our communities cannot afford it.” 

Elizabeth Bast, Executive Director of Oil Change International: 

“We cannot protect our climate without ending our reliance on fossil fuels and phasing out extraction. The data is clear on this. What’s more, frontline and Indigenous communities have been clear for decades that fossil fuels are not clean, not safe, and not needed. Manchin’s dirty deal would set us back on climate action and directly threaten the health and wellbeing of communities in the path of oil and gas projects.”

Maria Harmon, Co-Executive Director of Step Up Louisiana: 

“Our communities have been suffering for far too long from the impact of harmful pollution from petro-chemical, and gas and oil companies. I have family members who have died from rare forms of cancer and other terminal diseases by way of chemical exposure! Our lives have value and we deserve to live in healthy environments that provide us with opportunities to thrive! We cannot allow political deals to continue to sacrifice our lives and communities.” 

Lauren Maunus, Advocacy Director for Sunrise Movement: 

“I’m angry and frustrated that this is how we have to spend our time after the Inflation Reduction Act — less than 50 days before the midterms — when we could and should be devoting our full attention to helping Democrats expand the majority and fight fascism. But instead, we are forced to pressure our leaders to stop a dangerous permitting deal that will impose suffering on the people and places we love. Stop the permitting deal now.”

Leaders from the People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition, which organized a major rally in D.C. against the Dirty Deal, respond to Manchin’s latest draft.

(Washington, D.C) – Grassroots and frontline climate justice leaders with People vs. Fossil Fuels, a coalition of over 1,200 groups working to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure, slammed the draft permitting legislation that Senator Manchin released today as a “dirty deal” that would directly harm communities, undermine environmental justice, and worsen the climate emergency. 

Over 650 organizations have signed a letter calling on Congress to oppose Manchin’s side deal. On September 8, People vs. Fossil Fuels, the Stop MVP coalition, and Protect Our Water Heritage and Rights organized a major protest in DC against the dirty deal and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Despite Senator Manchin’s claims, the pipeline will not alleviate energy woes and does not match the anticipated drop in demand. 

Responses to Manchin’s permitting legislation released today:  

“Manchin’s deal equals a climate catastrophe for Appalachia, Coastal communities and the World! We will NOT be sacrificed! We call on the House AND Senate to give America a clean “Manchin free” bill. Strengthen NEPA, and let pollution overburdened communities be heard, and heeded!” – John Beard, Executive Director of the Port Arthur Community Action Network.

“Senator Manchin has shown a continued lack of respect for Frontline communities. The climate crisis has reached a point where it is a global issue for everyone, the federal government ignored the most impacted communities when we tried to warn about the real impacts of dangerous polluters like the oil industry. We can no longer afford to ignore our most vulnerable neighbors and this dirty deal puts me and my community in danger. Our lives are not to be used for political leverage.” – Cesar Aguirre, Central California Environmental Justice Network 

“Black, Indigenous, communities of the global majority, and poor communities are not sacrifice zones for corrupt politicians like Manchin and Schumer who benefit from big oil’s windfall profits. Our communities have already lost so much from environmental racism but there is so much to save. The science is clear about the worsening climate crisis, we have no time to waste on dirty side deals. We will fight for healthy futures for future generations.” – Jennifer K. Falcon, Ikiya Collective

​​”For eight years we have tirelessly fought the Mountain Valley Pipeline and other fossil fuel projects in West Virginia and Virginia,” said Russell Chisholm, Mountain Valley Watch Coordinator. “Nearly a decade of our lives and our health has been shaped by fighting these unnecessary projects as the climate crisis escalates and pummels our homes with intensified storms and floods. Manchin’s dirty pipeline deal is an insult to his constituents and furthers a fossil-fueled death sentence to many people and the planet. We demand more public input and a livable future. That is why we are mobilizing to stop this bill.”

“This deal is nothing short of a criminal act, a giveaway to Big Oil and Gas at the expense of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and economically challenged communities. It violates a core tenet of Environmental Justice – that our voices matter, that our community input is needed on projects that impact our lives, water, air and bodies. Sen. Manchin and Democrat leadership are proving once again that they are not for the people, but only for profit. This dirty deal must not pass.” said Joye Braun, National Pipelines Organizer, Indigenous Environmental Network,  Cheyenne River Sioux member.

“Sen Machin’s Dirty Deal will do nothing more than continue to crutch the already dying fossil fuel industry,” said Pueblo Action Alliance, a Pueblo Indigenous and frontline organization in the Southwest. “In the wake of what is currently happening to our relatives in Alaska and Puerto Rico, the US is deciding to further fund a fossil fuel industry that is directly responsible for these climate disasters in the first place. This is a HUGE and DEVASTATING blow to our communities on the frontlines of climate chaos who deserve REAL SOLUTIONS right now. No more funding for the criminal fossil fuel industry. No more leasing! We deserve a fair and just transition to renewable energies NOW! Stop the Dirty Deal!” 

“Farmers and ranchers have, for the past decade, stood with allies to protect the land and water from risky fossil fuel projects. Sen. Manchin wants to take away property rights and side with pipelines over people.” – Jane Kleeb, Founder, Bold Alliance.

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Members of People vs. Fossil Fuels, ShutDown DC and Extinction Rebellion interrupt Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act celebration, citing blatant display of environmental racism

(Washington, D.C) – Today, frontline and climate activists disrupted President Biden’s celebration of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a piece of legislation that includes a racist, dirty side deal that will push through new deadly fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline and cause irreparable harm to marginalized communities across the country. Their main message: A celebration of the Inflation Reduction Act is a celebration of environmental racism. 

The group convened both inside and outside of the event, with organizers outside holding banners and handing out literature to attendees upon their arrival to educate them about the dirty energy side deal and the harm it will cause to frontline communities. Inside the White House, activists stripped off their blazers and business clothes to reveal t-shirts that donned the statement “Racist Dirty Energy Deal” with a strike through it. 

The IRA and the side permitting deal that Senator Manchin and Senator Schumer struck up behind closed doors are symbiotic. If passed, the side deal will severely weaken the governmental safeguards in place to prevent community and environmental harm from many types of energy projects. By no surprise, the demographics of the majority of the people at the White House celebrating the IRA as a “climate deal” does not match the demographics of those most impacted by the climate crisis. 

Last week, more than 600 people convened for a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol to call on Congress to end the dirty side deal and stop the sacrificing of frontline and BIPOC communities. Members of the group spent the day lobbying Congress members – including Manchin himself – asking them to oppose the deal and fulfill other demands of their respective communities.

A vote is expected by September 30, 2022 and tensions continue to mount in Congress, as leaders like Sen. Sanders and Rep. Grijalva speak out against the bill, warning, “permitting provisions [in this bill] will significantly and disproportionately impact low-income communities, indigenous communities, and communities of color.”

Below are quotes from attendees from today’s action at the White House:

“If Republicans passed a piece of legislation that included opening up 600 million acres of oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, dedicated billions of dollars to unproven, notional technologies like carbon capture and sequestration, extended the life of aging nuclear power plants, allowed for increased mining of uranium, and tied it to a commitment to ratify a separate, rubber stamped American Petroleum Institute side deal that would deregulate landmark environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, as well as the Clean Water Act, which have both acted as vanguards for historically marginalized environmental justice communities, would Democrats and historically white-led groups still be celebrating?” asked Anthony Rogers-Wright, Director of Environmental Justice with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. He added, “The fact that the demographics of those celebrating this as a “climate victory” don’t match the demographics of those most impacted by the climate crisis, along with the fact that Big Oil cartels are also celebrating passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and its associated Schumer/Manchin side deal should tell you everything you need to know and make you question the true intentions and values of many historically white-led environmental organizations.”

“It is unconscionable that Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have agreed to a corrupt, industry-backed deal in a secretive process that excluded public participation, and especially the voices of the Indigenous, Black, Brown, and poor communities most impacted by dirty energy infrastructure and by climate disasters,” said Basav Sen, Climate Policy Director at the Institute for Policy Studies. “This is a textbook example of high-level government corruption, and it exposes U.S. claims of being a “climate leader” as self-serving propaganda.”

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(San Francisco, CA) – Yesterday, over 50 protestors gathered at Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) office to protest the dirty pipeline deal negotiated by House and Senate leadership that would fast-track fossil fuel projects. Activists staged a sit-in inside the building to demand that Senator Feinstein, Speaker Pelosi, and all Members of Congress commit to stopping this dirty deal written by and for the fossil fuel industry that will perpetuate environmental racism and throw frontline communities under the bus. Six activists were arrested while awaiting commitment from the Senator to oppose any legislation that fast-tracks fossil fuel projects or stripped away environmental protections. 

Over 50 climate activists with 350 Bay Area, Ikiya Collective, Extinction Rebellion SF Bay Area, Oil & Gas Action Network, Sunrise Bay Area, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, Food & Water Watch, and the People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition demonstrated with banners, posters, and oil tanks to symbolize the destruction that would be caused if this dirty deal is introduced and allowed to pass in Congress. 

“Time and again our elected leaders cut deals that affect land and life for generations without any input from the people they represent,” said Nik Evasco, 350 Bay Area, one of the activists who participated in the sit-in. “Reclaiming public space to demand a clear answer from Senator Feinstein on whether or not she opposes the policy written by fossil fuel lobbyists should not be the only option we have to speak to our representative. Unfortunately, that’s what it has come to and we’re prepared to continue this strategy until our demands are heard.”

As part of his price to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) negotiated for a separate piece of legislation that would fast-track permit approvals for fossil fuel projects. While the official legislation has not been introduced, the one-page summary of the provisions of the deal that Manchin released guts bedrock environmental protections, endangers public health, fast-tracks fossil fuel expansion projects, and rubber stamps Manchin’s pet project–the Mountain Valley Pipeline–a failing fracked gas project with devastating climate and public health impacts. The draft legislative text that has been circulating bears a watermark from the American Petroleum Institute.

“While it is absolutely vital that Congress take action on the climate crisis, we must not allow legislation that guts crucial aspects of NEPA and the Clean Water Act, furthers fossil fuel expansion, or sacrifices frontline communities — no community is disposable!” said Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), who spoke at the rally. “Members of Congress must stop the Inflation Reduction Act’s dirty side deal from going any further. To avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis, we need transformative policies that end dependence on fossil fuels and the perpetuation of environmental racism, Indigenous rights violations, and sacrificed communities. With the escalation of climate-induced fires, floods and heat waves globally, business as usual must not and cannot continue — we need bold climate action, which includes President Biden declaring a Climate Emergency, stopping all new fossil fuel expansion, and investing in an immediate, just, and equitable energy transition. We will not give up on a thriving and healthy future for all generations, and that means ending the tyranny of the fossil fuel industry, listening to frontline leadership, and claiming a Climate Emergency now.”

This rally builds on mounting grassroots resistance and protests across the country targeting Democratic leadership in opposition to this dirty deal. Over 650+ organizations from across the country have called on House and Senate leaders to stop this deal and end fossil fuel handouts. 

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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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