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Climate Campaigners Demand 'Action, Not Words' After Biden's 'Code Red' Comments
"If President Biden believes this is an actual 'code red' situation, he should treat it as such by declaring a climate emergency immediately through an executive order and stopping all fossil fuel projects."
Sep 09, 2021
Responding to U.S. President Joe Biden's recent comments calling the climate emergency a "code red" situation, environmental and Indigenous leaders representing a coalition of advocacy groups on Thursday implored the administration to act accordingly by declaring a climate emergency and stopping all fossil fuel projects.
"In the face of the climate crisis, we should not be expanding the fossil fuel industry and allowing the government to subsidize and hand off funds to the fossil fuel industry."
--Tara Houska, Giniw Collective
"President Biden has acknowledged that the climate crisis is here. In fact, to quote him, he said 'climate change poses an existential threat to our lives and our economy, and the threat is here,'" Jane Kleeb, president and founder of Bold Alliance and Bold Nebraska, said during a press call organized by the Build Back Fossil Free campaign.
Kleeb referenced Biden's Tuesday visit to the Tri-State Area in the wake of the deadly devastation wrought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, during which he said: "They all tell us this is code red. The nation and the world are in peril. And that's not hyperbole. That is a fact."
"Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, our economy, and the threat is here," the president added. "It's not going to get any better. The question is: Can it get worse?"
Kleeb replied that "all of us who work with frontline communities are here to answer President Biden's question: It can get worse--and with his administration's decisions--it is getting worse."
"President Biden has the full authority right now--without Congress--to hit a pause button on all proposed fossil fuel projects," she said. "If President Biden believes this is an actual 'code red' situation, he should treat it as such by declaring a climate emergency immediately through an executive order and stopping all fossil fuel projects."
While Biden delighted climate campaigners by rescinding the federal permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, the president has disappointed many activists by declining to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), as well as for defending a massive Trump-era drilling project in Alaska, and for so far refusing to cancel Enbridge's Line 3 project.
\u201cEvery single day, Indigenous activists in Minnesota are putting their lives and livelihoods on the line to Stop Line 3.\n\nPeople need to be paying attention to the work of @GiniwCollective. \n\nSolidarity means supporting and uplifting organizations on the ground.\u201d— Cori Bush (@Cori Bush) 1631221864
"Over 800 of us have been arrested fighting against the Line 3 tar sands expansion project," Giniw Collective founder Tara Houska said on the call. "To hear President Biden talk about the climate emergency as 'code red' yet knowing that he has said absolutely nothing about the brutalization that's occurred of water protectors, and the collaboration between state and private interests in this fight, is hypocrisy."
Underscoring the dissonance between Biden's often lofty rhetoric and his administration's actions in the face of a worsening emergency, climate campaigners on Thursday responded with alarm after the president tapped Willie L. Phillips--who Food & Water Watch policy director Mitch Jones said "spent his career working on the side of the oil and gas industry and electric utility giants"--to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
"In the face of the climate crisis, we should not be expanding the fossil fuel industry and allowing the government to subsidize and hand off funds to the fossil fuel industry," said Houska. "It'd be good to see action, not words."
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Indigenous, Climate Leaders Launch National Effort to Demand Biden 'Stop Trump Pipelines'
"Decision-makers in Washington, D.C. and across the country now have a choice—stand with the Trump pipelines that prop up big oil and gas profits and cronyism or the approach Biden established when he canceled KXL."
May 21, 2021
Indigenous and climate activists this week launched a national "Stop Trump Pipelines" campaign to pressure U.S. President Joe Biden and other key decision-makers to depart from the polluter-friendly positions of former President Donald Trump by blocking a pair of controversial fossil fuel pipelines.
"Do not be afraid to do the right thing, President Biden."
--Joye Braun, IEN
The effort--led by Bold Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), and partners from frontline communities--is kicking off with a six-figure television and digital campaign targeting Canada-based Enbridge Energy's Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines.
Moving forward, organizers said Friday, the campaign plans to "launch new efforts on the airwaves, online, and in communities across the country to keep the pressure up on policymakers and stop risky pipelines advanced by the Trump administration."
The day he took office in January, Biden revoked a permit that Trump granted for the Keystone XL pipeline in March 2019, citing the climate crisis and declaring that the project did not serve the U.S. national interest.
"Keystone XL was the first pipeline that President Biden rejected," says the new campaign website, "but it should not be the last."
Campaign organizers say that "decision-makers in Washington, D.C. and across the country now have a choice--stand with the Trump pipelines that prop up big oil and gas profits and cronyism or the approach Biden established when he canceled KXL."
"Stand for science, respect for treaty and property rights, racial justice, clean water, and solutions to the climate crisis," campaigners instruct Biden and other political leaders, "and stop the Trump pipelines."
\u201cRespect our communities. Listen to science. Protect the land & water. That's the standard @POTUS set in motion by stopping #KXL. Today we\u2019re launching our new campaign to #StopTrumpPipelines nationwide!\n\nFollow: @nomorepipelies \n\nLearn more: https://t.co/Bck0yJE4om\u201d— Indigenous Environmental Network (@Indigenous Environmental Network) 1621551345
"On Day One Biden canceled KXL, but this was never going to be a one and done, feel good decision to stop climate change," said Joye Braun, frontline community organizer with IEN, in a statement Friday. "We must stop all toxic pipeline projects from moving forward."
"Trump told lies to bolster corporate profit and rape of our lands and resources," Braun added. "Do not be afraid to do the right thing, President Biden."
Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska, said that "Biden showed tremendous strength in rejecting Keystone XL in favor of clean water, farmers' property rights, the sovereign rights of tribal nations, and clear action on climate change."
"We want to make sure with the climate goals that Biden has set forth, that it is understood we cannot keep building fossil fuel pipelines and reach those bold goals. Our communities deserve clean water and a future that respects the land," she said.
The Washington Postnoted Thursday that Republican politicians and the energy industry blamed gas prices on Biden's decision and claimed that the move hurt workers. Kleeb told the newspaper that "I think it was a failure of our community that we weren't ready with ads and arguments."
\u201cRespect our communities. Listen to science. Protect the land & water. That's the standard @POTUS set in motion by stopping #KXL. Today we\u2019re launching our new campaign to #StopTrumpPipelines nationwide. Read more by @daveweigel in the @washingtonpost: https://t.co/Kt3IGuZ4TO\u201d— Jane \u201cGo Vote\u201d Kleeb (@Jane \u201cGo Vote\u201d Kleeb) 1621551629
The campaign's new ad in Michigan argues against Line 5--a decades-old system that Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a key Biden ally, took action to shut down in November, highlighting its threat to the Great Lakes. Enbridge fought back, and the company and state are now engaged in court-ordered mediation talks.
"Gov. Whitmer heeded the call: Strong hearts to the front. It took courage and wisdom to stop the dangerous Enbridge Line 5 pipeline," the ad says. "Her actions are aligned with the Biden administration's commitment to protect clean water."
"Just like when President Biden rejected the KXL pipeline," the ad continues. "President Biden and Gov. Whitmer are strong of heart and are choosing our families over the interests of a foreign oil corporation. Protect our water. Protect our future. Stop Line 5."
After Biden won the November election but before Trump left office, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a key permit for Enbridge's Line 3, which is being built to replace an aging oil pipeline and crosses Anishinaabe treaty lands. Opponents have challenged it in court and on the ground, sometimes halting construction.
"Trump disrespected tribal nations, violated our rights, and lied about the impacts of oil pipelines on our health, water, and climate in order to rubber-stamp these risky projects across Indigenous lands," said Dawn Goodwin, an IEN member and co-founder the Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging (RISE) Coalition, which is fighting against Line 3 in Minnesota.
"By rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, President Biden signals that he wants to take science and Indigenous rights seriously," Goodwin said. "But the work to protect the land and water cannot stop with that one action. It is time for the president and state leaders to uphold their commitments to tribal sovereignty and racial justice by stopping these toxic pipelines and investing in a better future for the next seven generations of life."
\u201c\u2600\ufe0f June 5-8 \u2600\ufe0f\n\nHundreds of Indigenous leaders & allies across race, age, & region are gathering in northern MN \n\nTo honor our treaties, protect our water, & defend our climate\n\nThere's a role for EVERYONE, & together we will #StopLine3\n\nJoin us \ud83d\udc49\ud83c\udffd https://t.co/yIQpulWjlo\u201d— MN350 (@MN350) 1620750850
Indigenous leaders and climate activists plan to gather in Minnesota from June 5 to June 8 to peacefully disrupt Line 3 construction. Major events are scheduled for Monday, June 7.
"We need to protect all that we have left of the sacred gifts and land," declared Goodwin. "I said that I would do all that I could. And I have done all that I could in the legal system, thus far following that process. Now, they have failed us through regulatory capture and corporate financing. So now we need you."
Tara Houska, founder of the Giniw Collective and another key opponent of the project, said Friday that "we've elevated the national profile of Line 3 through people power."
"Biden hears our voices, but the wetlands and wild rice need action," she added. "We cannot mitigate climate crisis and we cannot stand idly by as [the Dakota Access pipeline] and Line 5 fossil fuels flow illegally, as young people chain themselves to Mountain Valley pipeline and Line 3. Stand up for what is right."
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The Fight's Not Over, Say Activists, as Nebraska Supreme Court Approves Keystone XL Route
"If history recalls Nebraska at all, it may remember this as its most regrettable decision."
Aug 23, 2019
Environmental and indigenous rights activists vowed Friday to continue fighting after Nebraska's supreme court ruled in favor of the state's proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline.
"From the tar sands region to the Gulf Coast," said the Indigenous Environmental Network in a tweet, "our resistance has shown that we will not give up, we will protect the sacred for the seven generations to come."
\u201cToday's #KXL ruling by the Nebraska Supreme Court isn't the end of the fight against this dirty tar sands pipeline. From the tar sands region to the gulf coast our resistance has shown that we will not give up, we will protect the sacred for the seven generations to come.\n#NoKXL\u201d— Indigenous Environmental Network (@Indigenous Environmental Network) 1566570490
"The fight to stop this pipeline is far from over."
--Ken Winston, Nebraska Sierra ClubIn the new ruling, the seven justices shot down landowner, environmental, and native groups' concerns over the 2017 approval for a proposed compromise route from the state's Public Service Commission.
"It's disappointing that the court ignored key concerns about property rights and irreparable damage to natural resources, including threats to the endangered whooping crane, but today's ruling does nothing to change the fact that Keystone XL faces overwhelming public opposition and ongoing legal challenges and simply never will be built," said Ken Winston, attorney for the Nebraska Sierra Club, in a statement. "The fight to stop this pipeline is far from over."
Domina Law Group, which represented the plaintiffs, warned, "If history recalls Nebraska at all, it may remember this as its most regrettable decision."
Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska, also expressed disappointment with the ruling. She called on the state legislature to "fix our broken state laws that give too much power to Big Oil."
"Our water is on the line here," said Kleeb, adding, "It's time for our elected officials to now step up and make it clear that pipelines are not in our public interest."
TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada and the company behind the pipeline project, welcomed the decision. In a statement, its CEO and president Russ Girling called the ruling "another important step as we advance towards building this vital energy infrastructure project."
Yet its future, as Sierra Club's Winston noted, is uncertain. There are ongoing legal battles over the Army Corps of Engineers' approval of the pipeline as well as President Donald Trump's executive memorandum advancing Keystone XL and another pipeline, the Dakota Access.
"Every day without it is a legal victory for tomorrow, for the people and creatures, and for the Earth itself," tweeted Domina Law. "There is no place, and now is not the time for a crude oil pipeline."
With that frame in mind, groups including Bold Nebraska and the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska are calling on the Democratic presidential candidates to sign the "No KXL Pledge."
The document asks the candidates "to take executive action on Day One to stop any construction on the Keystone XL pipeline--no matter what --and revoke the existing presidential permits issued unilaterally by President Trump for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, sending both projects back to relevant federal agencies to undergo legitimate environmental review and tribal consultations."
"The President of the United States," write the groups, "should stand with the sovereign rights of tribal nations, the property rights of farmers and ranchers in rural communities opposed to the pipeline, and everyday Americans who care about a livable planet for our grandchildren who have been fighting together to stop KXL for nearly ten years."
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