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For Immediate Release
January, 17 2025, 08:30am EDT
Contact:
Email: info [at] priceofoil.org
Oil Change International Statement on Trump's Day One Assault on Climate Action
As Donald Trump prepares to take office as the 47th president, fossil fuel executives are expecting a return on the $75 million they spent to elect him. Trump's Day One executive orders represent a full-scale attack on climate progress and communities across the world.
In response, Oil Change International Executive Director Elizabeth Bast said:
"As Trump returns to office, we're witnessing the deadly price tag of fossil fuel industry control over our democracy. From the still-burning wildfires in Los Angeles to the destruction left by Hurricane Helene in Asheville, to the unprecedented droughts and floods devastating Southern Africa, the climate crisis is accelerating. These deadly disasters are driven by fossil fuel executives who put their profits ahead of our future.
“The fossil fuel industry invested $75 million to secure Trump's victory, and now they're expecting a return on that investment. By appointing fossil fuel CEOs to key Cabinet positions and planning to dismantle critical environmental protections, Trump is handing these companies a blank check to expand their operations at precisely the moment we need to end fossil fuel extraction.
“But the greed of fossil fuel billionaires and their political allies cannot overcome the power of our movements. In communities across America and around the world, we're standing up not just to toxic fossil fuel projects, but to the bigotry, hatred, and division that props up corporate power. Every pipeline we stop, every permit we block, and every community we protect brings us closer to the just, fossil-free future we know is possible. We've faced hostile administrations before, and we know that when we stand together, we win."
Trump's Day One Climate Destruction Package includes:
- Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
At COP28, governments committed to transition away from fossil fuels. Now, countries must submit national plans to end fossil fuel expansion and seize the economic opportunities of renewables that the United States is abandoning. Oil Change International research shows that wealthy countries can mobilize trillions of dollars for climate action by ending fossil fuel handouts, making big polluters pay, and changing unfair global financial rules to bring jobs, clean air, and lower energy bills. None of this requires the United States being a member of the Paris Agreement. Global momentum to address the climate crisis will not be stopped by one man.
- Lifting the pause on new liquified natural gas (LNG) exports.
The Department of Energy’s new studies on LNG adds to the overwhelming evidence that U.S. LNG exports mean higher energy bills, accelerated climate chaos, toxic pollution in frontline communities, and LNG expansion outpacing global demand. In lifting the current pause on new LNG exports, Trump is putting his fossil fuel donors over the economic realities of LNG expansion and prioritizing fossil fuel industry profits over the public’s interest in lowering energy bills, clean air, clean water, and safety from climate disasters.
- Declaring an energy emergency to supercharge fossil fuel production.
Instead of addressing the real emergency of the climate crisis, like the ongoing fires in California, Trump’s plan to declare an energy emergency is another attempt to boost the profits of his fossil fuel donors rather than help the American people. United States production of oil and gas is already at a record high, while American jobs in oil and gas have declined and global demand for fossil fuels is expected to peak in the next five years. Over 90% of United States’ counties experienced a federally declared climate disaster between 2011 and 2023. Instead of pandering to the fossil fuel industry, our government should be responding to the real crisis at hand by funding disaster response and halting fossil fuel expansion.
- Public Lands Drilling Expansion
Any expansion of fossil fuel production is out of line with the 1.5ºC target to curb the impacts of the climate crisis, according to the International Energy Agency. Expanding drilling on public lands will mean more fires, floods, and toxic pollution.
- Keystone XL Pipeline Revival Attempt
Despite any potential executive orders from the Trump administration, significant barriers prevent the revival of the Keystone XL pipeline. TC Energy has withdrawn from the project and no longer maintains the necessary land easements for construction. Whether Trump wants it or not, the global energy transition is happening and fossil fuels will be phased out. Renewable energy is cheaper, cleaner, and safer, and the transition has become unstoppable. Trump was powerless to stop the collapse of coal in the United States, and he won’t be able to stand in the way of renewable energy.
Oil Change International is a research, communications, and advocacy organization focused on exposing the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitating the ongoing transition to clean energy.
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Hailing Ozempic Price Negotiation Plan, Sanders Asks: 'Will Trump Back Down' to Big Pharma?
"We will soon find out," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Jan 17, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders welcomed news Friday that the Biden administration included the expensive and increasingly popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy on a slate of 15 medications that will soon be subject to price negotiations.
That is, if President-elect Donald Trump allows the Medicare price-negotiation program to continue.
"Will Trump make sure that all Americans—not just those on Medicare—pay no more than people in other countries for Ozempic and Wegovy?" Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), asked in a statement Friday, pointing to the president-elect's previous criticism of Big Pharma. "Or will Trump back down on his commitment and continue to allow the pharmaceutical industry to get away with murder by taking away the government's power to negotiate prices?"
"We will soon find out," said Sanders, who has publicly grilled pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk's CEO over the exorbitant prices of the obesity and diabetes drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
Reutersreported that shortly following the 2024 election, the pharmaceutical industry began pushing Trump's team to weaken the price negotiation program, which was put in place by the Inflation Reduction Act.
"Pharma expects to piggyback on Republican moves to scrap some of the energy and green subsidy provisions in the legislation," Reuters reported.
The drug industry is reportedly not lobbying senators to block the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee the price-negotiation program.
"The Trump administration could go in one of three directions with the Medicare negotiations program: stay the course, water it down, or repeal it altogether," KFF senior vice president Tricia Neuman wrote Friday. "There are potential tradeoffs with each, but the first would be most popular."
"We must keep pushing to expand the wildly popular Medicare negotiation program. Patients fought extremely hard for the passage of these reforms."
HHS said Friday that the 15 newly selected drugs—which add to the 10 medications that have already faced price negotiations—"accounted for about $41 billion in total gross covered prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D."
"When combined with the total gross covered prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D of the 10 drugs selected for the first cycle of negotiations over that same time period, this represents over a third of total gross covered prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D," the agency said.
If the Trump administration allows negotiations on the 15 drugs to proceed, the new prices would take effect in 2027.
"For the last twenty years, drug corporations have rigged the system in their favor—hiking prices at will and leaving millions of patients at their mercy," said Merith Basey, executive director of Patients for Affordable Drugs. "Thanks to the 2022 prescription drug law, last year Medicare negotiated a better deal on 10 of some of the most expensive and most commonly used drugs covered by the program."
"Today's announcement of 15 additional high-cost drugs builds on that historic progress and will lower costs for millions more patients in 2027," Basey added. "But let's be clear: We must keep pushing to expand the wildly popular Medicare negotiation program. Patients fought extremely hard for the passage of these reforms and they continue to vigorously defend them against pharma's attacks—because nobody should have to choose between life-saving drugs and their basic needs."
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Climate-Fueled Insurance Cost Hikes Putting American Dream 'Out of Reach'
"Policymakers across the country should see this data as a blaring warning that they can no longer ignore the alarm bells of a climate-driven financial crisis," said one advocate.
Jan 17, 2025
As communities across the Los Angeles area continued to grapple with catastrophic wildfires, the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday released the most far-reaching report ever on the climate emergency's impact on home insurance—shedding light on how disasters like the one devastating Southern California this month could increasingly push U.S. families toward financial ruin.
More than three years after President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing the Federal Insurance Office to assess "the potential for major disruptions of private insurance coverage in regions of the country particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts," the FIO released an analysis showing that homeowner insurance costs are rapidly rising across the U.S.—8.7% faster than the rate of inflation in 2018-22.
During that period, homeowners in the 20% of ZIP codes in coastal areas and other regions vulnerable to climate disasters faced insurance premiums that averaged $2,321—82% higher than people in the ZIP codes with the lowest risk.
"Climate change is already increasing our cost of living—and it's only going to get worse," said Steven Rattner, an investor and New York Times opinion writer.
For a growing number of homeowners, rising insurance costs have led to a cost-benefit analysis that puts them at risk for financial ruin, as they have given up on keeping current with their payments.
Analyzing 246 million insurance policies issued by 330 insurers nationwide from 2018-22, the FIO found that insurers canceled at least 10% of policies in 2022 due to nonpayment. Cancellation rates were highest in hurricane-prone areas such as Hilton Head, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as well as places that are vulnerable to increasingly fast-moving wildfires like California and Arizona.
During the time period analyzed, five wildfires in the Southwest caused more than $100 million in damages, with homeowners claiming an average of $27,000.
"While insurance companies will no doubt find ways to profit from the crisis, households across the country cannot sustain rising costs indefinitely."
"Treasury's analysis comes at a time of devastating tragedy, loss of life, and destruction from the wildfires in the Los Angeles area," said Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen. "While it's far from clear what the exact financial costs of this disaster will be, it is a stark reminder of the impacts of the growing magnitude of natural disasters on the U.S. economy."
"This report identifies alarming trends of rising costs of insurance—to consumers and insurers themselves—as well as lack of availability of insurance, all of which threaten the long-term prosperity of American families," Yellen added.
In other words, said Carly Fabian, senior insurance policy advocate with Public Citizen's Climate Program, the climate-fueled insurance crisis is helping to push the American Dream of home ownership "out of reach" for a growing number of families.
"This report shows exactly what we feared: Climate change is creating an insurance crisis for households across the country. For many Americans, home ownership is a key part of the American Dream," said Fabian. "While insurance companies will no doubt find ways to profit from the crisis, households across the country cannot sustain rising costs indefinitely."
In 2022, Public Citizen joined more than 75 consumer advocacy and environmental justice groups in calling on the Treasury Department to promptly follow Biden's executive order and collect data on how the climate emergency is affecting homeowners.
"While this report is an essential step, it is only a first window into the data necessary to monitor this crisis," said Fabian. "The fact that the Federal Insurance Office had to be the first to propose collecting and now publishing this data shows the utter failure of the fragmented state regulatory system to protect the public. In the aftermath of the fires in Los Angeles and the devastation in Asheville [from Hurricane Helene], policymakers across the country should see this data as a blaring warning that they can no longer ignore the alarm bells of a climate-driven financial crisis."
The Los Angeles fires this month could ultimately cost as much as $275 billion, AccuWeatherreported this week, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealed this month that from 2018-22, 84 billion-dollar climate disasters—excluding floods, which are typically not covered by home insurance—cost more than $609 billion. The costs of such events have continued rising since 2022.
Climate reporter Kate Aronoff of The New Republic likened the burgeoning home insurance crisis to the for-profit health insurance industry, in which corporate consolidation is also pushing premiums higher and contributing to medical debt that's owed by about 20 million people.
"Everyone gets sick. Dealing with that's a nightmare even if you have good coverage," said Aronoff. "Not everyone's house will burn down or flood but [there are] some real parallels in terms of human tragedy and suffering being mediated through an infuriating for-profit bureaucracy with haphazard public backing."
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ICC Prosecutor Says Israel Hasn't Tried to Probe Gaza War Crime Allegations
Prosecutor Karim Khan also said the threat of sanctions against the ICC "is a matter that should make all people of conscience be concerned."
Jan 17, 2025
After International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan brought allegations of war crimes against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel could have probed the accusations itself, Khan told Reuters in a Thursday interview—but it has made "no real effort" to do so.
The conversation took place a day after Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire and hostage deal that is expected to go into effect on Sunday, though Israeli airstrikes in the besieged Gaza strip have continued since the deal was announced.
Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the directing of attacks against civilians. The warrants were granted by ICC judges in November. Israel rejects the charges.
Khan also successfully sought an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri, who he accused of crimes against humanity including murder, extermination, torture, and rape.
Khan told Reuters that "we're here as a court of last resort and... as we speak right now, we haven't seen any real effort by the State of Israel to take action that would meet the established jurisprudence, which is investigations regarding the same suspects for the same conduct."
Khan added that an Israeli investigation could have led to the case being send to Israeli courts under what are called complementary principles. It's possible for Israel to demonstrate its willingness to investigate, even after warrants were issued, Khan told Reuters.
However, "the question is have those judges, have those prosecutors, have those legal instruments been used to properly scrutinize the allegations that we've seen in the occupied Palestinian territories, in the State of Palestine? And I think the answer to that was 'no'," he said.
Khan said he still felt firm in his decision regarding the arrest warrants despite the fact the U.S. House of Representatives last week voted to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) to protest the warrants.
The ICC is an international body with 125 member countries—a list that does not include the United States or Israel—that seeks to investigate and prosecute grave offenses such as war crimes and genocide.
The Republican-controlled House passed the "Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act," with the help of 45 Democrats, which would "impose sanctions with respect to the International Criminal Court (ICC) engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies," including Israel.
Passage in the House sets the bill up for likely enactment, given Republican support for the measure and GOP control of both the Senate and the White House.
Khan told Reuters that the threat of sanctions against the ICC “is a matter that should make all people of conscience be concerned.”
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