April, 27 2016, 04:15pm EDT
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For Immediate Release
Contact:
Expert contact: Marissa Knodel, (202) 222-0729, mknodel@foe.orgÂ
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell@foe.org
Offshore Drilling Opponents Rally Outside D.C. Hearing
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) appeared yesterday with a crowd of concerned citizens from around the country at a rally in Washington to oppose offshore drilling. The gathering took place outside a public meeting hosted by the Obama Administration collecting public input on its 2017-2022 oil and gas leasing program.
The Administration's plan excludes the Atlantic Ocean from leasing for the next five years - a significant development. However, it leaves the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico vulnerable to future oil and gas drilling.
WASHINGTON
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) appeared yesterday with a crowd of concerned citizens from around the country at a rally in Washington to oppose offshore drilling. The gathering took place outside a public meeting hosted by the Obama Administration collecting public input on its 2017-2022 oil and gas leasing program.
The Administration's plan excludes the Atlantic Ocean from leasing for the next five years - a significant development. However, it leaves the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico vulnerable to future oil and gas drilling.
The group gathered outside the public meeting to celebrate the recent victory over Big Oil in the Atlantic Ocean and called on President Obama to use his authority to permanently protect the pristine Arctic and Atlantic oceans by removing them from not just this 5-year program but all future oil and gas leasing, and to initiate a plan to transition the Gulf of Mexico away from fossil fuels and onto a clean energy economy.
The movement to stop offshore drilling has mobilized millions of Americans across the country calling on President Obama to protect the climate and coastal communities by ending offshore drilling and keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
Also addressing the rally were representatives from frontline Arctic and Atlantic coast communities, as well as Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune and Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus. The event was organized by a coalition of groups including 350.org, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters, Alaska Wilderness League, Hip Hop Caucus, Center for Biological Diversity, Environment America, Friends of the Earth U.S., Indigenous Environmental Network, Oil Change International, Greenpeace USA, Rainforest Action Network, Redoil, and Bold Alliance.
Franz Matzner, Director, Beyond Oil Initiative, Natural Resources Defense Council: "This is a profound opportunity for President Obama to change the way we think about drilling and climate change. With the stroke of a pen, he can chart the course for our children and grandchildren for all time, by removing the Arctic and Atlantic from future oil and gas leasing altogether, not just in five year increments."
Marissa Knodel, Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth: "President Obama cannot allow his climate legacy to be five more years of dangerous offshore drilling. He must stop handing our public waters to the highest corporate bidder to pad their profits. The Gulf of Mexico and Arctic Ocean deserve permanent protection, not to be treated as energy sacrifice zones. President Obama must end leases and keep fossil fuels in the ground."
Leah Donahey, Arctic Ocean Campaign Director, Alaska Wilderness League: "Opening up the Arctic Ocean in the offshore program takes us in the wrong direction for our climate. This action could hinder the goals set in Paris and reverse our course towards protecting the Arctic and our nation from the impacts of climate change. Instead of opening the Arctic to potential new drilling, the president should be working to protect it by taking any new Arctic leasing off the table for good."
Bernadette Demientieff, Acting Executive Director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee: "Our children deserve to see the world as it was in the beginning, and not just when we are done using it. I traveled here from Fairbanks Alaska to share the same message I gave to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) there: we must not allow new drilling in the Arctic Ocean. We can't think just about the present day, we have to think about our climate and the future generations who will need Mother Earth. Our ancestors took care of the Earth for us, and now it is our responsibility to take care of her. Allowing more Arctic Ocean drilling is not a way to respect our earth and take care of her for the future."
Besse Odom, Anchorage NAACP Youth Council Vice President: "Where one is suffering , it is only natural to be sympathetic but we must take this response a tad bit further and put action with it. Sympathy is not enough without an action to follow through with it. So when our brothers and sisters from the Gwich'in nation are crying out for help because their way of life could be jeopardized by the presence of big oil companies - we must aid them, not only with our sympathy, but we must aid them with our actions."
Cherri Foytlin, Bold Louisiana: "For decades the oil industry has been given a free pass to commit violence against our communities in the form of pollution, ecological damages and devastating health effects. By ending the leasing of Gulf public waters, and instead providing for and encouraging investment in a healthy, clean and just transition away from fossil fuels, this administration can break the Big Oil cycle of abuse that we are experiencing to this day."
Rachel Richardson, Environment America: "More drilling and spilling would worsen the climate crisis; threaten the fragile Arctic; and further harm the Gulf, which is still suffering after the devastation of the BP disaster. President Obama has done right by the Atlantic. Now he should do right by the Gulf, the Arctic, and our kids' future by dropping plans for new drilling, and keeping all fossil fuels in the ground."
David Turnbull, Campaigns Director at Oil Change International: "Offshore drilling is simply inappropriate, if not disastrous, if we have any hope of living up to the Paris climate agreement and tackling the climate crisis. President Obama desperately needs to align our energy policy with the climate imperatives, and when he does he will see that offshore drilling clearly fails the climate test."
Alex Taurel, Deputy Legislative Director, League of Conservation Voters: "Offshore drilling is a dirty and dangerous business that threatens our beaches, our communities, and our climate. We commend President Obama for removing the Atlantic leases from his five-year offshore drilling plan after listening to the voices of east coast communities, businesses, and elected officials concerned about drilling's risks to their beaches and coastal economies. Now we hope he will seize this opportunity to expand his climate leadership by permanently protecting the pristine Arctic and Atlantic Oceans from drilling and by initiating a transition in the Gulf of Mexico toward 100 percent clean energy. The fact is that our public lands and waters, such as these oceans, ought to be managed in the public's best interest, which means not issuing permits to drill and burn oil that will make climate change worse and divert our focus away from our transition to clean energy."
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access
One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
Jul 26, 2024
The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it's registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.
Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group's CEO, said that "since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history," with more than 7.8 million people registered.
After dropping out, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to face former Republican President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the November election. The new presumptive Democratic candidate has already earned endorsements from many Democrats in Congress and groups advocating on issues including climate, labor, and reproductive rights.
Vote.org's success comes as Republicans at the federal level are proposing and passing legislation creating obstacles to the ballot box.
Earlier this month, U.S. House Republicans passed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas)
Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of American citizenship to vote in federal elections. Republicans claim the bill is meant to fix the virtually nonexistent "problem" of noncitizen voter fraud.
However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
slammed the bill as a "xenophobic attack" meant to silence "Black voices, brown voices, LBGTQIA+ voices, [and] young voices."
Lee said the SAVE Act underscores the need to pass her recently introduced Right to Vote Act, "which would establish the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee, ensuring every citizen may exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot."
Earlier this year, U.S. Senate Democrats also reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation its sponsors say will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
Meanwhile, Republican-controlled state legislatures and red-state governors are enacting laws imposing tough restrictions on voter registration, with violations punishable by stiff fines that critics say are meant to dissuade people from registration drives and similar efforts.
Again under the guise of preventing fraud, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed legislation limiting voter registration drives, with fines of up to $250,000 for violators.
"These draconian laws and rules are like taking a sledgehammer to hit a flea," Cecile Scoon, an attorney and president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters,
toldThe New York Times in an article published Friday.
Three years after Kansas passed a law making "false representation" of an election official a crime, campaigners say it's become extremely difficult to sign up new voters.
"In 2020, even with the pandemic, we had registered nearly 10,000 Kansans to vote. Now, we haven't been able to register anyone," Davis Hammet, president of the youth voter mobilization group Loud Light, told the Times.
In Louisiana, Republican state lawmakers quietly passed legislation making it easier for election officials to toss out absentee ballots with missing details, limiting how people can mail in other voters' ballots, and restricting the ability to assist people with disabilities with their ballots.
"What we've found is that these measures have a disproportionate impact on voters with disabilities, both Black and white," NAACP Legal Defense Fund senior policy counsel Jared Evans
toldNola.com earlier this week.
"It's clear that their goal is to make it harder to vote, harder for specific communities to vote especially," Evans added. "What they don't realize is that these laws hurt white voters, too."
In Nebraska, Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen last week
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"We refuse to accept thousands of Nebraskans having their voting rights stripped away," ACLU of Nebraska legal and policy fellow Jane Seu said in a statement. "We are confident in the constitutionality of these laws, and we are exploring every option to ensure that Nebraskans who have done their time can vote."
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"You thought Project 2025 was just a threat after the election? It's actually happening *right now,*" said one climate campaigner.
Jul 26, 2024
Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that campaigners linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Common Dreamsreported Monday that Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Barrasso (R-Wyo.)—respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee—introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted that although the proposal "includes several positive reforms for the accelerated development of transmission projects," it also advocates "limiting opportunities for communities to challenge projects, loosening oversight for drilling and mining projects, extending drilling permits and fast-tracking [liquified natural gas] permits, and several other provisions friendly to fossil fuel giants."
"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
While Manchin has been trying—and failing—to pass fossil fuel-friendly permitting reform legislation for years, Brett Hartl, director of public affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that his "Frankenstein legislation is taken straight from Project 2025, and it's the biggest giveaway in decades to the fossil fuel industry."
Hartl said the bill "deprives communities of the power to defend themselves and gives that power to Big Oil by making it harder for communities to challenge polluting projects in court," and "prioritizes the profits of coal barons over public health."
"And it mandates oil and gas extraction in our oceans," he continued. "The insignificant crumbs thrown at renewable energy do nothing to address the climate emergency."
"Monday was the hottest day in recorded history," Hartl noted. "It's shocking that as the climate emergency continues to break records around us, the Senate continues to fast-track the fossil fuel expansion that is killing us. This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
Manchin—who has said this will be his last term in office—has been a steadfast supporter of the fossil fuel industry, partly because his family owns a coal company. The senator says his permitting reform bill "will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader."
However, Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International's U.S. manager, warned Thursday that "this bill is yet another dangerous attempt by Sen. Manchin to line the pockets of his fossil fuel donors, sacrificing communities and our climate along the way."
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else," she continued. "It would unleash more drilling on federal lands and waters, unnecessarily rush the review of proposed oil and gas export projects, and lift the Biden administration's pause on new LNG exports."
"We urge Congress to reject this proposal and commit to action that protects frontline communities from the impacts of fossil fuel development and the climate crisis," Rosenbluth added.
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else."
NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
"We cannot afford to roll back so many of our bedrock environmental and community legal protections and offer a blank check to the oil and gas industry," she stressed. "We need new solutions for permitting if we are going to meet our clean energy potential and address the climate challenge. But this is not it."
"This bill would altogether be a leap backward on climate, health, and justice if passed into law," Adams added. "The Senate should reject it and look toward alternative solutions already being considered."
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Both parties in Sudan's civil war are to blame for a looming mass famine, experts say, and the military's blocking of U.N. aid at a border crossing with Chad exacerbates the problem.
Jul 26, 2024
Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
The border city of Adré in eastern Chad is the main international crossing into the Darfur region of Sudan, but the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, which is engaged in a civil war with a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has refused to issue permits for U.N. trucks to enter there, as it's an RSF-controlled area.
U.S. and international officials have issued increasingly alarmed calls for steady aid access to help feed the millions of severely malnourished people in Darfur and other areas of Sudan.
Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
The Sudanese who've made it out of the country and into Adré reported dire and unsafe conditions in their home country.
"We had nothing to eat," Bahja Muhakar, a Sudenese mother of three, told the Times after she crossed into Chad, following a harrowing six-day journey from Al-Fashir, a major city in Darfur. She said the family often had to live off of one shared pancake per day.
Another mother, Dahabaya Ibet, said that her 20-month-old boy had to bear witness to his grandfather being shot and killed in front of his eyes when the family home in Darfur was attacked by gunmen late last year.
Now the mothers and their families are refugees in Adré, where 200,000 Sudanese are living in an overcrowded, under-resourced transit camp.
In addition to those that have made it out of the country, there are 11 million people internally displaced within Sudan, most of whom have become displaced since the civil war began in April 2023.
An unnamed senior American official told the Times that the looming famine in Sudan could be as bad as the 2011 famine in Somalia or even the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
In April, Reutersreported that people in Sudan were eating soil and leaves to survive, and The Washington Postcalled it a nation in "chaos," reporting that World Food Program trucks had been "blocked, hijacked, attacked, looted, and detained."
In late June, a coalition of U.N. agencies, aid groups, and governments warned that 755,000 people in Sudan faced famine in the coming months.
The U.S. last week announced $203 million in additional aid to Sudan—part of a $2.1 billion pledge that world leaders made in April, which some countries have not yet delivered on.
Some officials including Thomas-Greenfield, who has dubbed the situation in Sudan "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world," have called for the U.N. Security Council to allow aid delivery into the country even in the absence of SAF approval; it's believed that Russia would veto such a measure.
Sudan's civil war has seen a great deal of international interference. Amnesty International on Thursday published an investigatory briefing showing that weapons from Russia, China, Serbia, Turkey, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been identified in the country. And The Guardian on Friday reported that the passports of Emirati citizens had been found among wreckage in Sudan, indicating the UAE may have troops or intelligence officers on the ground, though the UAE denied the accusation.
The International Service for Human Rights on Friday warned that both the SAF and RSF were engaged in wrongful killings and arrests, especially targeted at lawyers, doctors, and activists. The group called for an immediate cease-fire.
The SAF and Sudanese government figures have cast doubt on international experts' claims about famine in the country.
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