February, 05 2019, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Martin Hayden, Earthjustice - mhayden@earthjustice.org, (202) 667-4500
First Climate Hearings of 116th Congress Show Climate Change Isn't a Hoax in the U.S. House Anymore
Legislators in the House hold their first hearings of the new Congress on climate change, featuring affected communities, experts
WASHINGTON
Today, two key committees with jurisdiction over federal climate change policy held their first hearings of the 116th Congress. The Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing entitled "Time for Action: Addressing the Environmental and Economic Effects of Climate Change." The House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on "Climate Change: the Need to Act."
The following is a statement from Marty Hayden, Vice President of Policy and Legislation at Earthjustice:
"Climate change is no longer a hoax in the House of Representatives. We applaud the leadership of the House Natural Resources and Energy and Commerce committees for starting off the 116th Congress with hearings to focus on the existential threat climate change poses to our families, communities, lands and wildlife, and our nation. This is an about face from the 115th Congress, where climate denial and unquestioning loyalty to big corporations dominated the halls of the House."
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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Elon Musk's Net Worth Surges by Over $16 Billion After Trump Win
Tesla's stock price jumped by as much as 15% following the former president's victory in the 2024 election.
Nov 06, 2024
Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election sent shares of Tesla surging as much as 15% Wednesday, propelled by CEO Elon Musk's prominent role in the Republican's White House campaign and expectations that the company will benefit from proposed tax cuts and a deregulatory blitz.
Trump name-checked Musk, the world's richest man, during his victory speech Wednesday morning, calling him a "super genius." Campaign finance records show that Musk—who's expected to receive a position in the president-elect's administration, despite massive conflicts of interest—pumped more than $100 million into the 2024 race in support of Trump's bid for a second term.
According to Forbes' real-time tracker, Musk's net worth—the bulk of which is tied up in Tesla stock—rose by over $16 billion on Wednesday.
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to clients Wednesday morning that while he believes a Trump presidency "would be an overall negative" for the electric vehicle industry given the Republican's pledge to assail the Inflation Reduction Act—a law that includes EV tax credits—"for Tesla we see this as a huge positive," estimating Trump's victory could help push Tesla's market share above $1 trillion.
Tesla was far from the only company whose stock price surged in the wake of Trump's win.
S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each soared to new all-time highs Wednesday as the former president appeared on track to defeat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in every swing state, securing a decisive Electoral College victory.
Wall Street behemoths Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase saw their shares jump by nearly 12% and 9% respectively, while the stock prices of oil companies such as Exxon Mobil also climbed, anticipating an aggressively pro-fossil fuel Trump administration.
Harold Hamm, billionaire founder of the oil and gas company Continental Resources, hailed Trump's victory over Harris as a "monumental win" for the fossil fuel sector—the primary driver of the global climate emergency.
The Financial Timesreported Wednesday morning that JPMorgan analysts expect shares of the biggest U.S. corporations "to rally over the coming weeks" in the aftermath of Trump's win.
"Trump's proposal to cut the corporate rate from 21% to 15% would prove particularly supportive for wireless carriers Verizon and AT&T, payment networks Visa and Mastercard, and media groups Fox and Warner Bros, analysts at America's biggest bank said in a note to clients on Wednesday," the newspaper observed.
An analysis released earlier this year estimated that Trump's proposal to slash the statutory corporate tax rate would deliver an annual tax cut of $48 billion to the 100 largest publicly traded U.S. companies—a sum bigger than the Education Department's K-12 budget.
During the campaign, Trump expressed support for eliminating the Department of Education entirely.
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Global Fears for the Future as Fascist Donald Trump Wins Second Term
"The world is a more dangerous place this morning."
Nov 06, 2024
This is a developing news story... Check back for possible updates...
Donald Trump, a former president with openly authoritarian ambitions, defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris less than four years after sparking a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat.
Trump's 2024 victory over Harris, the U.S. vice president, was decisive: If current projections hold, Trump will sweep the seven battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. One outlet described the election results as "a stunning wipeout" for the Democratic Party.
In a speech in Florida, Trump said his win comes with an "unprecedented and powerful mandate"—a signal that he intends to try to follow through with his pledges to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, prosecute and deploy the military against his political opponents, gut rules constraining climate-polluting fossil fuel companies, and further slash taxes for the rich and large corporations.
"I will govern by a simple model," said Trump, whose campaign was bankrolled in part by the world's richest man. "Promises made, promises kept."
Trump's ability to implement a legislative program was bolstered by the Republican Party's capture of the U.S. Senate, with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) losing to luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice easily picking up the seat left open by Sen. Joe Manchin's retirement, and Sen. Jon Tester falling to his GOP opponent in Montana.
Control of the U.S. House remains up for grabs as of this writing, according to The Associated Press, with more than 100 races yet to be called.
"Should Republicans take full control of Capitol Hill, there will be scant check on Trump's executive authority," notedFinancial Times columnist Edward Luce. "The U.S. Supreme Court already wrote Trump the equivalent of a judicial blank check when it ruled in July that he had sweeping immunity for his actions as president."
"America has turned a decisive corner," Luce added. "It would be foolhardy to suppose that Trump did not mean what he said when he vowed to come after his enemies. It would also be delusional to think that he will in any way feel constrained by his country's 50-50 split. Trump has a mandate to overhaul the U.S. in unimaginably disruptive ways. There will be no going back from the seismic outcome of America's 2024 election."
Fears about what a Trump victory could mean reached well beyond the confines of the United States, as Israel's far-right—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—gleefully welcomed the imminent return to power of a billionaire whom leading historians have dubbed a fascist.
"Congratulations on history's greatest comeback!" wrote Netanyahu, who has spearheaded Israel's catastrophic assault on the Gaza Strip—a genocidal war that Trump backed during the 2024 campaign. "Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America."
The Peace & Justice Project, a United Kingdom-based advocacy organization, wrote Wednesday that "the world is a more dangerous place this morning."
"Trump's victory is a grave concern for the planet, marginalized communities, refugees, and Palestinians trying to survive Israel's genocide," the group continued. "We must organize globally and stand in solidarity with those targeted by the awful politics of fear and division—and build an alternative of hope and unity."
Sophie Bolt, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, similarly warned that "the world will be far more dangerous with Trump's thumb on the nuclear button."
"The risks of nuclear flashpoints are already high—over Ukraine, across the Middle East, and in the Asia-Pacific," said Bolt. "This will only intensify under his presidency."
In a statement, Human Rights Watch said that a second Trump presidency "poses a grave threat to human rights in the United States and the world."
"Donald Trump has made no secret of his intent to violate the human rights of millions of people in the United States," said Tirana Hassan, HRW's executive director. "Independent institutions and civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch, will need to do all we can to hold him and his administration accountable for abuses."
Harris, who became the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the race in July, has yet to address the nation.
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37 Groups Demand Foreign Secretary Clarify UK Definition of 'Genocide'
David Lammy's recent comment to Parliament, the coalition said, "at best, has injected a deeply troubling ambiguity in respect of these pivotal issues in light of the mass atrocities perpetrated against civilians in Gaza."
Nov 05, 2024
Fallout over remarks that David Lammy, the U.K.'s secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth, and development affairs, recently made to the House of Commons about the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip continued on Tuesday with a letter from 37 rights organizations.
"We call on the foreign secretary, as a matter of urgency, to make a statement clarifying the government's understanding of i) genocide in international law; ii) the scope of the U.K.'s international obligations pursuant to the Genocide Convention and Rome Statute; and iii) what steps must be taken to fulfill such obligations," the coalition wrote.
The groups pointed to an exchange between Lammy, of the Labour Party, and Conservative Member of Parliament Nick Timothy on October 28, when the foreign secretary said that the way words like genocide are being used now "undermines the seriousness of that term."
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its 13-month assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 43,391 Palestinians and wounded another 102,347, according to officials in the Hamas-governed enclave. The ICJ initially ordered Israel to "take all measures within its power" to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention in January.
Lammy's response to Timothy last week, "at best, has injected a deeply troubling ambiguity in respect of these pivotal issues in light of the mass atrocities perpetrated against civilians in Gaza," the coalition argued Tuesday. He "chose to undermine international law and answer in opposition to the International Court of Justice."
"If Labour is indeed the party of international law, Foreign Secretary David Lammy must align with, rather than undermine, the courts."
Despite Lammy's suggestion, the Genocide Convention contains no numerical threshold and "is clear that the crime of genocide is not only perpetrated through mass killing," the groups noted, highlighting Israeli attacks on food production, water infrastructure, healthcare facilities, and civilian housing, shelters, and camps.
In northern Gaza, "Palestinian civilians are being killed through starvation and dehydration, disease, deprivation of lifesaving medical intervention, and constant bombardment and targeting by weaponized drones," they wrote. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres "has warned of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza by Israel while the U.N. Commission of Inquiry has concluded that the Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination of part of the civilian population in Gaza through direct and indirect means."
"These assessments raise the specter of genocide and support the findings of other experts who have long concluded that genocide is taking place," the coalition continued. "This makes it imperative for the foreign secretary to revisit his comments and to clarify the government's understanding of the crime of genocide."
Amichai Stein, a correspondent for state-owned Israeli broadcaster Kan, said on social media Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced "the division of the northern Gaza Strip into two parts has been completed, and we getting closer to the complete evacuation of the northern part from civilians and terrorists: 'This time there is no intention to allow the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes and that humanitarian aid will regularly enter the southern Gaza Strip.'"
In other words, as Drop Site News' Ryan Grim put it, "Israeli media reporting that the IDF is declaring northern Gaza effectively ethnically cleansed, not even a hint of pretense now that it's Election Day" in the United States.
While the U.S. has repeatedly faced global condemnation for arming Israel over the past year, the rights coalition on Tuesday focused on the U.K. government, emphasizing that "to the extent that the ICJ has already ordered provisional measures, the U.K. is on notice that a plausible risk of genocide exists, triggering third-state responsibility."
Signatories to the letter include ActionAid U.K., Christain Aid, Council for Arab-British Understanding, Democracy for the Arab World Now, Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), Global Justice Now, Jewish Network for Palestine, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Quakers in Britain, and War on Want.
GAPS director Eva Tabbasam toldMiddle East Eye that the language used to describe the war in Gaza "is essential to recognize the suffering of Palestinians and consider all possible actions the U.K. has to contribute to stopping what is a plausible risk of genocide."
"If Labour is indeed the party of international law, Foreign Secretary David Lammy must align with, rather than undermine, the courts," Tabbasam said. "He should have already done so months ago when the court first published this language, but the second best time is right now."
Separately, War on Want on Tuesday published an analysis detailing how "Israel is committing genocide of the Palestinian people" and arguing that "the U.K. government is failing to uphold international law, and is complicit in Israel's crimes, as it continues to export weapons and technology used by Israel against the Palestinian people."
"Palestinians have long struggled for their rights and for justice. During the 1947-8 ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine—the Nakba (Arabic for 'catastrophe')—around 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and lands by armed groups, to live under Israel's system of apartheid," the group noted. "Israel has carried out its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, unlawful occupation, apartheid, and blockade of Gaza—the ongoing Nakba—with impunity and has now escalated its actions into genocide."
The London-based organization is also circulating a petition in response to the foreign secretary's remarks from last week, which says in part: "David Lammy is misleading parliament and the U.K. public. He must tell the truth—that this is genocide—and immediately take action to stop the genocide, and the U.K.'s complicity."
Other responses to Lammy's comments have included public criticism from What Is Genocide? author Martin Shaw and dozens of public figures in the Arab British community demanding an apology.
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