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Advocacy group 350.org released a new guide Thursday to assess how likely President-elect Joe Biden's possible picks for top roles will be "to stand up to the fossil fuel industry to take on the climate crisis."
The "Cabinet Climate Test" was launched as Biden faces increasing pressure from progressive groups to reject a cabinet members with a track record of putting corporate interests above the public good and those not committed to a transition to a renewable energy-based economy.
The tool also comes as the climate crisis continues to deepen, with the coronavirus-triggered global economic slowdown barely budging CO2 emissions, and as U.S. workers face increasingly precarious economic conditions amid the ongoing pandemic.
Despite that backdrop, the fossil fuel industry has continued to take in direct federal relief since the public health crisis broke out, and that needs to change, says 350 Action associate policy director Natalie Mebane.
"For too long and in a time of deep crisis, federal officials have disavowed our interests by slipping US$15.2 billion a year into the pockets of fossil fuel executives that exploit, pollute, and destroy our communities and planet," she said in a statement.
Mebane pointed to Biden's stated "commitment to prioritize climate action, racial and economic justice, and pandemic response," and said, "Our stance is clear: we will accept no malarkey," invoking one of Biden's favored words.
The criteria set forth by the group states that potential nominees have:
:50.org 's criteria are that nominees who have not profited from fossil fuel money, either from campaign cash or from a previous role in the polluting industry; possess a record of supporting clean energy and climate justice; have taken clear action to "keep it in the ground"; have demonstrated support for corporate accountability including a committment to "a just transition to a workers-first, 100% clean energy economy"; and boast a track record of "advocating for policies at the intersection of climate and other social justice issues like racial, gender, class, and immigration justice."
According to the climate group, three individuals that appear to be in the running for Cabinet or top government roles meet such criteria: Mustafa Santiago Ali, a veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency with expertise in environmental justice, to be head of the EPA or Council on Environmental Quality; Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), a member of Pueblo of Laguna seen as a climate ally, to be U.S. Secretary of the Interior; and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who's been praised as an ally to food system workers, to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
\u201chttps://t.co/mDUH6NbuG9 is endorsing @RepDebHaaland, @repmarciafudge, and @EJinAction for Biden\u2019s cabinet. Here\u2019s why: https://t.co/xpgH3JjW8l\u201d— 350 dot org (@350 dot org) 1607019963
The guide also lists who 350.org "wholeheartedly" opposes for top posts, with one of the two being former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.
Calling Moniz "a blatant example of the wrong kind of energy policy," the new document cites his ties to major fossil fuel companies and his being a proponent of so-called "clean" coal.
The other possible candidate 350.org singles out for opposition is Heidi Heitkamp for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Among the criticisms listed are her "thousands of dollars in campaign donations from giant agribusiness companies" and the fact that Heitkamp "raised $633,000 from the fossil fuel industry--more than any other incumbent Senate Democrat during her two elections."
Worthy of further scorn is what the group frames as Heitkamp's pride in support for slashing $4 billion from SNAP in 2014, as well as her support for both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
Mebane, in her statement, applauded Haaland and Ali's backgrounds and referenced their "robust track record of prioritizing climate justice for BIPOC communities." She also praised Fudge for being "a strong climate advocate who has fought for workers' rights."
"Our lives are at stake," said Mebane. "We demand an executive branch ready to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and face the climate crisis at scale."
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Advocacy group 350.org released a new guide Thursday to assess how likely President-elect Joe Biden's possible picks for top roles will be "to stand up to the fossil fuel industry to take on the climate crisis."
The "Cabinet Climate Test" was launched as Biden faces increasing pressure from progressive groups to reject a cabinet members with a track record of putting corporate interests above the public good and those not committed to a transition to a renewable energy-based economy.
The tool also comes as the climate crisis continues to deepen, with the coronavirus-triggered global economic slowdown barely budging CO2 emissions, and as U.S. workers face increasingly precarious economic conditions amid the ongoing pandemic.
Despite that backdrop, the fossil fuel industry has continued to take in direct federal relief since the public health crisis broke out, and that needs to change, says 350 Action associate policy director Natalie Mebane.
"For too long and in a time of deep crisis, federal officials have disavowed our interests by slipping US$15.2 billion a year into the pockets of fossil fuel executives that exploit, pollute, and destroy our communities and planet," she said in a statement.
Mebane pointed to Biden's stated "commitment to prioritize climate action, racial and economic justice, and pandemic response," and said, "Our stance is clear: we will accept no malarkey," invoking one of Biden's favored words.
The criteria set forth by the group states that potential nominees have:
:50.org 's criteria are that nominees who have not profited from fossil fuel money, either from campaign cash or from a previous role in the polluting industry; possess a record of supporting clean energy and climate justice; have taken clear action to "keep it in the ground"; have demonstrated support for corporate accountability including a committment to "a just transition to a workers-first, 100% clean energy economy"; and boast a track record of "advocating for policies at the intersection of climate and other social justice issues like racial, gender, class, and immigration justice."
According to the climate group, three individuals that appear to be in the running for Cabinet or top government roles meet such criteria: Mustafa Santiago Ali, a veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency with expertise in environmental justice, to be head of the EPA or Council on Environmental Quality; Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), a member of Pueblo of Laguna seen as a climate ally, to be U.S. Secretary of the Interior; and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who's been praised as an ally to food system workers, to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
\u201chttps://t.co/mDUH6NbuG9 is endorsing @RepDebHaaland, @repmarciafudge, and @EJinAction for Biden\u2019s cabinet. Here\u2019s why: https://t.co/xpgH3JjW8l\u201d— 350 dot org (@350 dot org) 1607019963
The guide also lists who 350.org "wholeheartedly" opposes for top posts, with one of the two being former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.
Calling Moniz "a blatant example of the wrong kind of energy policy," the new document cites his ties to major fossil fuel companies and his being a proponent of so-called "clean" coal.
The other possible candidate 350.org singles out for opposition is Heidi Heitkamp for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Among the criticisms listed are her "thousands of dollars in campaign donations from giant agribusiness companies" and the fact that Heitkamp "raised $633,000 from the fossil fuel industry--more than any other incumbent Senate Democrat during her two elections."
Worthy of further scorn is what the group frames as Heitkamp's pride in support for slashing $4 billion from SNAP in 2014, as well as her support for both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
Mebane, in her statement, applauded Haaland and Ali's backgrounds and referenced their "robust track record of prioritizing climate justice for BIPOC communities." She also praised Fudge for being "a strong climate advocate who has fought for workers' rights."
"Our lives are at stake," said Mebane. "We demand an executive branch ready to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and face the climate crisis at scale."
Advocacy group 350.org released a new guide Thursday to assess how likely President-elect Joe Biden's possible picks for top roles will be "to stand up to the fossil fuel industry to take on the climate crisis."
The "Cabinet Climate Test" was launched as Biden faces increasing pressure from progressive groups to reject a cabinet members with a track record of putting corporate interests above the public good and those not committed to a transition to a renewable energy-based economy.
The tool also comes as the climate crisis continues to deepen, with the coronavirus-triggered global economic slowdown barely budging CO2 emissions, and as U.S. workers face increasingly precarious economic conditions amid the ongoing pandemic.
Despite that backdrop, the fossil fuel industry has continued to take in direct federal relief since the public health crisis broke out, and that needs to change, says 350 Action associate policy director Natalie Mebane.
"For too long and in a time of deep crisis, federal officials have disavowed our interests by slipping US$15.2 billion a year into the pockets of fossil fuel executives that exploit, pollute, and destroy our communities and planet," she said in a statement.
Mebane pointed to Biden's stated "commitment to prioritize climate action, racial and economic justice, and pandemic response," and said, "Our stance is clear: we will accept no malarkey," invoking one of Biden's favored words.
The criteria set forth by the group states that potential nominees have:
:50.org 's criteria are that nominees who have not profited from fossil fuel money, either from campaign cash or from a previous role in the polluting industry; possess a record of supporting clean energy and climate justice; have taken clear action to "keep it in the ground"; have demonstrated support for corporate accountability including a committment to "a just transition to a workers-first, 100% clean energy economy"; and boast a track record of "advocating for policies at the intersection of climate and other social justice issues like racial, gender, class, and immigration justice."
According to the climate group, three individuals that appear to be in the running for Cabinet or top government roles meet such criteria: Mustafa Santiago Ali, a veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency with expertise in environmental justice, to be head of the EPA or Council on Environmental Quality; Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), a member of Pueblo of Laguna seen as a climate ally, to be U.S. Secretary of the Interior; and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who's been praised as an ally to food system workers, to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
\u201chttps://t.co/mDUH6NbuG9 is endorsing @RepDebHaaland, @repmarciafudge, and @EJinAction for Biden\u2019s cabinet. Here\u2019s why: https://t.co/xpgH3JjW8l\u201d— 350 dot org (@350 dot org) 1607019963
The guide also lists who 350.org "wholeheartedly" opposes for top posts, with one of the two being former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.
Calling Moniz "a blatant example of the wrong kind of energy policy," the new document cites his ties to major fossil fuel companies and his being a proponent of so-called "clean" coal.
The other possible candidate 350.org singles out for opposition is Heidi Heitkamp for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Among the criticisms listed are her "thousands of dollars in campaign donations from giant agribusiness companies" and the fact that Heitkamp "raised $633,000 from the fossil fuel industry--more than any other incumbent Senate Democrat during her two elections."
Worthy of further scorn is what the group frames as Heitkamp's pride in support for slashing $4 billion from SNAP in 2014, as well as her support for both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
Mebane, in her statement, applauded Haaland and Ali's backgrounds and referenced their "robust track record of prioritizing climate justice for BIPOC communities." She also praised Fudge for being "a strong climate advocate who has fought for workers' rights."
"Our lives are at stake," said Mebane. "We demand an executive branch ready to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and face the climate crisis at scale."
"While this temporary cessation of fighting and bombing must be both respected and long-term, this is only the beginning of addressing the immense humanitarian, psychological, and medical needs in Gaza."
As Israel's military continued its 15-month assault that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and decimated the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that early Saturday the full Cabinet approved a recently announced cease-fire and hostage-release deal that is set to take effect at 8:30 am local time Sunday.
The 24-8 vote on the three-phase deal negotiated by Egypt, Qatar, and the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administrations came after the Security Cabinet endorsed it on Friday. Since negotiators announced the agreement on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed over 100 more Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health's figures.
Gaza health officials said Saturday that the Israeli assault has killed at least 46,899, with another 110,725 wounded since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. More than 10,000 people remain missing in the Palestinian region reduced to rubble, and experts warn the official death toll is likely a significant undercount.
"The temporary cease-fire agreement in Gaza is a relief, but it arrives more than 465 days and 46,000 lives too late," Doctors Without Borders said in a Saturday statement. "While this temporary cessation of fighting and bombing must be both respected and long-term, this is only the beginning of addressing the immense humanitarian, psychological, and medical needs in Gaza."
"Israel must immediately end its blockade of Gaza and ensure a massive scale-up of humanitarian aid into and across Gaza so that the hundreds of thousands of people in desperate conditions can begin their long road to recovery," added the group, also known by its French name Médecins Sans Frontières. "The toll of this hideous war includes the obliteration of homes, hospitals, and infrastructure; the displacement of millions of people that are now in desperate need of water, food, and shelter in the cold winter."
After reaching a cease-fire deal to stop Israel's assault on Lebanon late last year, the IDF was accused of violating it with continued strikes allegedly targeting the political and militant group Hezbollah.
According to Drop Site News: "Egyptian media reported the formation of a joint operations room in Cairo, with representatives from Egypt, Palestine, Qatar, the United States, and Israel, to oversee the Gaza cease-fire and 'ensure effective coordination and follow up on compliance with the terms of the agreement.'"
Israel—whose troops have been armed by the United States—faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on Gaza and the International Criminal Court in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
After the Israeli Security Cabinet's Friday decision, Kenneth Roth, the former director of Human Rights Watch, said: "Keep in mind that a cease-fire is NOT an amnesty. Senior Israeli officials must still be prosecuted for genocide and war crimes. Otherwise, governments could commit atrocities with impunity by simply agreeing to a ceasefire at the end."
"When comparing natural gas and renewables for energy security, renewables generally offer greater long-term energy security due to their local availability, reduced dependence on imports, and lower vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions."
As Republican President-elect Donald Trump prepares to further accelerate already near-record liquefied natural gas exports after taking office next week, a report published Friday details how soaring U.S. foreign LNG sales are "causing price volatility and environmental and safety risks for American families in addition to granting geopolitical advantages to the Chinese government."
The report, Strategic Implications of U.S. LNG Exports, was published by the American Security Project, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and offers a "comprehensive analysis of the impact of the natural gas export boom from the advent of fracking through the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and provides insight into how the tidal wave of U.S. exports in the global market is altering regional and domestic security environments."
According to a summary of the publication:
The United States is the world's leading producer of natural gas and largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Over the past decade, affordable U.S. LNG exports have facilitated a global shift from coal and mitigated the geopolitical risks of fossil fuel imports from Russia and the Middle East. Today, U.S. LNG plays a critical role in diversifying global energy supplies and reducing reliance on adversarial energy suppliers. However, rising global dependence on natural gas is creating new vulnerabilities, including pricing fluctuations, shipping route bottlenecks, and inherent health, safety, and environmental hazards. The U.S. also faces geopolitical challenges related to the LNG trade, including China's stockpiling and resale of cheap U.S. LNG exports to advance its renewable energy industry and expand its global influence.
"When comparing natural gas and renewables for energy security, renewables generally offer greater long-term energy security due to their local availability, reduced dependence on imports, and lower vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions," the report states.
American Security Project CEO Matthew Wallin said in a statement that "action needs to be taken to ensure Americans are insulated from global price shocks, the impacts of climate change, and new health and safety risks."
"Our country must also do more to protect its interests from geopolitical rivals like China that subsidize their growth and influence by reselling cheap U.S. LNG at higher spot prices," Wallin asserted. "U.S. LNG has often been depicted as a transition fuel, and our country must ensure that it continues working towards that transition to clean sources instead of becoming dependent on yet another vulnerable fuel source."
Critics have
warned that LNG actually hampers the transition to a green economy. LNG is mostly composed of methane, which has more than 80 times the planetary heating power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere.
Despite President Joe Biden's 2024 pause on LNG export permit applications, his administration has presided over what climate campaigners have called a "staggering" LNG expansion, including Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass 2 export terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana and more than a dozen other projects. Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy acknowledged that approving more LNG exports would raise domestic energy prices, increase pollution, and exacerbate the climate crisis.
In addition to promising to roll back Biden's recent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory, Trump—who has nominated a bevy of fossil fuel proponents for his Cabinet—is expected to further increase LNG production and exports.
A separate report published Friday by Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen examined 14 proposed LNG export terminals that the Trump administration is expected to fast-track, creating 510 million metric tons of climate pollution–"equivalent to the annual emissions of 135 new coal plants."
While campaigning for president, Trump vowed to "frack, frack, frack; and drill, baby, drill." This, as fossil fuel interests poured $75 million into his campaign coffers, according to The New York Times.
"This research reveals the disturbing reality of an LNG export boom under a second Trump term," Friends of the Earth senior energy campaigner Raena Garcia said in a statement referring to her group's new report. "This reality will cement higher energy prices for Americans and push the world into even more devastating climate disasters. The incoming administration is poised to haphazardly greenlight LNG exports that are clearly intended to put profit over people."
"Academics will make careers out of writing about past atrocities while ignoring the ones happening in real time," said one critic.
In what one observer decried as an "absolutely shameful" rebuff of American Historical Association members' overwhelming approval of a resolution condemning Israel's annihilation of education infrastructure in Gaza, the elected council of the nation's oldest learned society on Thursday vetoed the measure over a claimed technicality.
AHA members voted 428-88 earlier this month in favor of a resolution opposing Israeli scholasticide—defined by United Nations experts as the "systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention, or killing of teachers, students, and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure"—during the 15-month assault on the Gaza Strip.
However, the AHA's 16-member elected council voted 11-4 with one abstention to reject the measure, according to Inside Higher Ed, which noted that the panel "could have accepted the resolution or sent it to the organization's roughly 10,450 members for a vote."
While the council said in a statement that it "deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza," it determined that the resolution does not comply with the AHA's constitution and bylaws "because it lies outside the scope of the association's mission and purpose."
Council member and University of Oklahoma history professor Anne Hyde told Inside Higher Ed that she voted to veto the resolution "to protect the AHA's reputation as an unbiased historical actor," adding that the Gaza war "is not settled history, so we're not clear what happened or who to blame or when it began even, so it isn't something that a professional organization should be commenting on yet."
However, Van Gosse, a co-chair and founder of Historians for Peace and Democracy—the resolution's author—told the outlet that "we are extremely shocked by this decision," which "overturns the democratic decision" of members' "landslide vote."
Lake Forest College history professor Rudi Batzell said on social media: "Shame on the AHA leadership for vetoing the scholasticide in Gaza resolution. Members voted overwhelmingly to support, and the resolution was written so narrowly and so carefully to meet exactly this kind of procedural objection. Craven."
The AHA council's veto follows last week's move by the Modern Language Association executive council, as Common Dreams reported, to block members of the preeminent U.S. professional group for scholars of language and literature from voting on a resolution supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.