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For Immediate Release
January, 20 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Shiloh Hernandez, Western Environmental Law Center, 406-204-4861, hernandez@westernlaw.org
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, 303-437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org
Barbara Gottlieb, Physicians for Social Responsibility, 301-806-6826, bgottlieb@psr.org
Daniel Timmons, WildEarth Guardians, 505-570-7014, dtimmons@wildearthguardians.org
As President Biden Takes Office, Groups Double Down on Legal Push to End Fracking on Public Lands
As Joe Biden prepared to assume the presidency this week, a coalition filed a lawsuit to overturn the Trump administration's sale of more than 1 million acres of public lands in the American West for fracki
WASHINGTON
As Joe Biden prepared to assume the presidency this week, a coalition filed a lawsuit to overturn the Trump administration's sale of more than 1 million acres of public lands in the American West for fracking.
Filed in federal court by WildEarth Guardians, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Western Environmental Law Center, the lawsuit targets the Trump administration's failure to address the climate and public health consequences of leasing public lands to the oil and gas industry for drilling and extraction. The case targets the sale of public lands across Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
"While the Trump administration attempted to illegally cede our public lands and climate to the oil and gas industry and recklessly ignore climate science, we've been there to challenge them in court at every step of the way," said Shiloh Hernandez, Staff Attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center. "The time has come for BLM to take stock of the monumental danger caused by its entire oil and gas program."
President Joe Biden has pledged to end the sale of public lands to the oil and gas industry, and the lawsuit aims to ensure the new administration follows through with bold climate and health action to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
"It's critical for President Biden to take swift action to not only end the sale of public lands for fracking, but undo the damage done by the Trump administration," said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. "The federal oil and gas program is nothing but an injustice, President Biden needs to put public lands to work for people and the climate, not for the fossil fuel industry."
"Stopping oil and gas leasing on public lands will help our nation address the climate crisis, which harms the health of people across the country and around the globe," said Barbara Gottlieb, director of Environment & Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility. "At the same time it will protect our public lands, their air and their water supplies from dangerous, toxic pollution. A win in this lawsuit is a win for public health."
The lawsuit is also the latest in a series of legal actions challenging the Trump administration for selling public lands for fracking in violation of federal environmental laws.
This week, on behalf of a coalition of plaintiffs, the Western Environmental Law Center filed an amended lawsuit to overturn the sale of nearly 45,000 acres of public lands in New Mexico's Greater Chaco region.
Last week, WildEarth Guardians and the Western Environmental Law Center filed suit to overturn the sale of nearly 60,000 acres of public lands in Montana. And earlier this month, WildEarth Guardians called on a federal appeals court to block the sale of nearly 70,000 acres of public lands in New Mexico.
The lawsuits come on the heels of numerous court wins that have rejected the Trump administration's attempts to sell off millions of acres of public lands to the oil and gas industry without analyzing the cumulative effects drilling and burning enormous quantities of fossil fuels would have in worsening the climate crisis.
- In March 2019, a federal court rejected the Bureau of Land Management's sale of more than 300,000 acres in Wyoming.
- In early 2020, an Idaho judge overturned the sale of nearly 1 million acres in Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.
- In May 2020, a federal court reversed the sale of nearly 150,000 acres of public lands for fracking in Montana.
- In October, the Trump administration voluntarily asked a court to reject the sale of more than 1.8 million acres of public lands for fracking in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
- In November 2020, a federal court again rejected the sale of public lands for fracking in Wyoming.
- In December 2020, a court also rejected the sale of 60,000 acres of public lands for fracking in Utah.
"Just like with the election, the Trump administration proved that it is best at losing," said Daniel Timmons, staff attorney for WildEarth Guardians. "Thankfully, Trump's losses have been big wins for our climate and clean energy future and now present major opportunities for the Biden administration to get things right."
Science supports winding down and ultimately phasing out fossil fuel production as an essential strategy to confronting the climate crisis.
A 2018 U.S. Geological Survey report found that oil and gas produced from public lands and waters contributes 10% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. And a 2018 report by the Stockholm Environmental Institute confirmed that ending public lands fossil fuel production could significantly reduce nationwide greenhouse gases.
Ending the sale of public lands for fracking would also yield enormous health benefits. A report in June 2019 released by Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York confirmed extensive health risks associated with oil and gas extraction, including cancer, asthma, pre-term birth, and more.
The Western Environmental Law Center uses the power of the law to safeguard the public lands, wildlife, and communities of the American West in the face of a changing climate. We envision a thriving, resilient West, abundant with protected public lands and wildlife, powered by clean energy, and defended by communities rooted in an ethic of conservation.
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Third Death Tied to Texas Abortion Ban as 'Stigma and Fear' Disrupt Miscarriage Care
"The only reason she is not with us is because of Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, and every single Republican politician who helped put Texas' abortion ban in place," said one advocacy group.
Nov 26, 2024
Friends and family of Porsha Ngumezi, a 35-year-old mother of two in Houston, were stunned last year to learn that she had died in a hospital after suffering a miscarriage when she was 11 weeks pregnant—and medical experts who spoke to the investigative outlet ProPublicaon Monday had the same reaction.
"All she needed was a [dilation and curettage]," one friend told Ngumezi's grieving husband, Hope Ngumezi, referring to a standard procedure which is often given to pregnant patients who have first-trimester miscarriages. Commonly called a D&C, it is also diagnose or treat other health conditions and provide abortion care.
Dr. Daniel Grossman, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at University of California, San Francisco, toldProPublica that "at every point" of Ngumezi's visit to Houston Methodist Sugar Land, a hospital outside Houston, medical providers' response to her case was "kind of shocking."
"She is having significant blood loss and the physician didn't move toward aspiration," Grossman told ProPublica.
Like at least two other Texas women—Nevaeh Crain and Josseli Barnica—Ngumezi's death in June 2023 was the result of the abortion ban that went into effect in Texas in 2022, according to medical experts who reviewed her case.
Ngumezi arrived at the hospital on June 11, 2023 after experiencing heavy bleeding 11 weeks into her pregnancy with her third child. Doctors noted that Ngumezi had a blood-clotting disorder and that she was experiencing "significant bleeding" with large clots.
"Doctors assume that a D&C is not standard in Texas anymore, even in cases where it should be recommended. People are afraid: They see D&C as abortion and abortion as illegal."
An ultrasound showed a "sac-like structure," but no fetus or cardiac activity were detected, indicating that she was having a miscarriage.
But instead of providing a D&C, in which a small tube is inserted into the uterus to gently remove any remaining fetal tissue, doctors took a "wait-and-see approach [that] has become more common under abortion bans," according to the medical experts who spoke to ProPublica.
Dr. Gabrielle Taper, who has worked as an OB-GYN in Austin, told ProPublica that since Texas' abortion ban went into effect in 2022—two months after the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade—there has been "much more hesitation [among doctors] about: When can we intervene, do we have enough evidence to say this is a miscarriage, how long are we going to wait, what will we use to feel definitive?"
For Ngumezi, that hesitation meant that Dr. Andrew Ryan Davis, the obstetrician on duty, prescribed misoprostol to help Ngumezi pass the fetal tissue without a D&C.
Dr. Alison Goulding, another OB-GYN in Houston, told ProPublica that because misoprostol can also be used for women in labor or to treat postpartum bleeding, under Texas' abortion ban, "stigma and fear are there for D&Cs in a way that they are not for misoprostol."
"Doctors assume that a D&C is not standard in Texas anymore, even in cases where it should be recommended," Goulding said. "People are afraid: They see D&C as abortion and abortion as illegal."
But more than a dozen doctors told ProPublica that considering Ngumezi's blood-clotting disorder, doctors should have provided a D&C.
"Misoprostol," reported ProPublica, "is an effective method to complete low-risk miscarriages but is not recommended when a patient is unstable."
Some critics who support abortion bans have dismissed Ngumezi's case—and that of other women who have died because of the laws—as the result of medical malpractice that had nothing to do with recently passed state laws. They claim Texas' law protects women who have miscarriages.
But ProPublica noted that Ngumezi had a similar case to one described on social media by podcast host Ryan Hamilton earlier this year. Hamilton's wife experienced bleeding while miscarrying at 13 weeks, and was prescribed misoprostol and sent home after an ultrasound at Surepoint Emergency Center Stephenville showed no fetal cardiac activity. The bleeding got worse, but an emergency doctor told the couple they couldn't provide a D&C because of "the current stance" in Texas.
Greer Donley, a law professor at University of Pittsburgh, said that "the antiabortion movement wants us to blame the doctors and sometimes that is warranted. But abortion bans are the ultimate cause of this harm."
"When life in prison is the penalty for violating a ban, doctors will understandably be risk averse. And that chill in care will cause death," said Donley.
ProPublica reported that "performing a D&C attracts more attention from colleagues, creating a higher barrier in a state where abortion is illegal."
Doctors, added Goulding, "have to convince everyone that it is legal and won't put them at risk [of prosecution]."
In Ngumezi's case, the bleeding continued after she took misoprostol, and her heart stopped three hours later—a "preventable" death, according to the experts.
"The only reason" Ngumezi died, said Reproductive Justice for All, is that Republican politicians including President-elect Donald Trump helped put Texas' abortion ban in place.
"We are heartbroken and enraged by the tragic, preventable death of Porsha Ngumezi," said Planned Parenthood Texas Votes. "This nightmare reality, where political agendas outweigh patients' lives, has left another family shattered."
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The Israeli military said one round of strikes hit 20 targets in Beirut's southern suburbs within two minutes.
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Israeli strikes rained down on Beirut Tuesday, despite the possibility that the Israeli government and Hezbollah may achieve a diplomatic breakthrough imminently. The wave of strikes came just before the Israeli security cabinet began a meeting to debate a cease-fire deal that would temporarily end fighting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has indicated openness to a cease-fire deal with Hezbollah, according to New York Timesreporting from Monday.
Multiple media reports detail that the latest Israeli barrage in Lebanon included strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. Reuters and The Times of Israel report that the Israeli military said one round of strikes hit 20 targets in the densely populated city within two minutes.
Israel issued multiple evacuation orders for different parts of Lebanon Tuesday, perThe New York Times' live updates.
"Residents of Lebanon, in the coming hours, we will inform the residents of buildings used by Hezbollah of the need to evacuate them for your safety according to the maps that will be published," Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X roughly an hour ago, according to Al Jazeera.
Heavy airstrikes have also been reported in southern Lebanon, including in the town of Naqoura where the U.N. peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, is based.
Citing an unnamed senior U.S. official, Axiosreported Monday that "Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the terms of a cease-fire agreement to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict."
Yesterday, the Financial Timesreported that the deal on the table would call for an initial two-month cease-fire—citing two Lebanese officials—"during which the Israeli military would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would move its weapons north of the Litani river, which runs 30km from the U.N.-drawn border."
Israel's large-scale bombardment of Lebanon—which began some two months ago and was soon followed by a ground invasion—has killed more than 3,000 people. Hezbollah rocket fire has killed more than 40 civilians in Israel, according toThe Associated Press yesterday, and dozens of Israeli soldiers have been killed on the ground in Lebanon.
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'By and For the Ultra-Wealthy': Here Are the Billionaires Set to Run Trump's Administration
"Trump paid plenty of lip service to working-class Americans, but as president-elect, he's moved quickly to stack his administration with billionaires that share his vision of a rigged economy that only works for people like them."
Nov 26, 2024
Since winning the presidential election earlier this month, Donald Trump has wasted no time working to fill his incoming administration with billionaires and other ultra-rich individuals who are poised to benefit from the GOP agenda of tax cuts for the wealthy and large-scale deregulation.
In separate analyses published this week, Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and Accountable.US offered overviews of the president-elect's key nominations and their potential conflicts of interest as Trump prepares to retake power in January.
So far, Trump has announced plans to nominate billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to head the Treasury Department, WWE billionaire Linda McMahon to head the Education Department, billionaire crypto banker Howard Lutnick to head the Commerce Department, and billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the Department of Government Efficiency—an outside advisory commission tasked with slashing federal spending and regulations.
"These appointments clearly show the incoming administration will be run by and for the ultra-wealthy," said David Kass, ATF's executive director. "They've already announced plans to spend trillions of dollars to renew the Trump tax bill, to further enrich large corporations and wealthy elites like themselves while advocating for cuts to vital programs that working and middle-class Americans depend on."
ATF's analysis, released Monday, shows that the combined wealth of Trump's richest nominees and transition team members—including the president-elect and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the vice president-elect—is over $313 billion. By comparison, the combined net worth of President Joe Biden's Cabinet is an estimated $118 million.
"Even excluding Elon Musk—the world's richest man and Trump's co-director of the Department of Government Efficiency—the average net worth of Trump, his vice president, and top appointees is $616 million," ATF observed. "This figure is over 616 times higher than the mean average wealth of the typical American household, which is a little more than $1 million."
ATF and Accountable.US also highlighted other ultra-rich individuals nominated for key roles in the incoming administration, including drilling enthusiast Doug Burgum, worth an estimated $100 million; Mehmet Oz, worth up to $315 million; and Chris Wright, who as of earlier this month held nearly $47 million worth of stock in his fracking company, Liberty Energy.
Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, said in a statement Tuesday that "Donald Trump paid plenty of lip service to working-class Americans" during the 2024 campaign, "but as president-elect, he's moved quickly to stack his administration with billionaires that share his vision of a rigged economy that only works for people like them."
"Should the Senate rubber stamp these nominations," Carrk added, "Trump's department heads will be among the biggest beneficiaries of another promised tax giveaway for big corporations and the top 1%, paid for with deep cuts for seniors, veterans, and everyday workers."
Billionaires have already gotten significantly richer since Trump's election victory, according to research published last week by ATF. In roughly the week after Trump's win, the combined net worth of the nation's 815 billionaires jumped by around $280 billion—with Musk's wealth surge accounting for 20% of that gain.
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