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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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** 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. 

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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. 

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