Unsubscribe [1]

View in your browser [2]

For Immediate Release
Contact: [email protected], 301-613-4767

DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP MUST NOT RELY ON THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY TO SOLVE
THE ECONOMIC & CLIMATE CRISES

CJA Calls on Schumer & Manchin to Stop Sacrificing Frontline Communities;
Prioritize Community Controlled Renewables Instead

-------------------------

JULY 28, 2022 - While the just released language for the Inflation
Reduction Act of 2022 includes benefits for some frontline and
environmental justice communities, sadly, the harms far outweigh the
benefits. By relying on polluting industry to solve the economic crisis
through ramped up fossil fuel relationships and production, Democrats are
ensuring future generations of frontline communities will be sacrificed to
subsidize this dying and outdated industry.

With the inclusion of funding to develop and expand harmful, unproven
techno-fixes that purport to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but actually
increase pollution in Black, Indigenous and other frontline communities, we
are missing an opportunity for bold action to support clean and effective
climate solutions. Instead, we can ensure economic recovery and jobs
through an increased support of local, community-controlled renewables that
truly foster a Just Transition for all communities, especially those most
impacted by the climate crisis today.

Although the plan lays out ways to “invest in communities and
environmental justice” it does so without real measures to track and
ensure harm is actually reduced and not continued in Indigenous and
frontline communities as a whole. Additionally, it encourages and expands
fossil fuel exploration and production through tax credits and other
measures. IF THE DEMOCRATS REALLY WANT TO STOP THE CLIMATE CRISIS THEY MUST
STOP SUBSIDIZING THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY AND KEEP FOSSIL FUELS IN THE
GROUND. Moreover, President Biden should immediately DECLARE A CLIMATE
EMERGENCY UNDER THE NATIONAL EMERGENCIES ACT; this will unlock special
powers to fast track renewable projects that will benefit us all.

BINESHI ALBERT, CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CJA expanded, “Legislation that
supports measures to address the health of polluted communities on one the
hand, while ramping up projects that increase pollution and unsafe
practices on the lands of other frontline communities on the other, such as
carbon capture and storage, is wrong. Hard fought measures for
Environmental Justice that support our communities are now being positioned
alongside things that harm us, essentially holding us hostage to the needs
of the fossil fuel industry. This will only harm us in the future.”

BASAV SEN, CLIMATE POLICY DIRECTOR AT THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES went
on, “This bill continues the flawed logic of “net zero” - net zero
emissions, net zero harm. It rests on the premise that some increases in
greenhouse gas emissions are fine as long as the “net effect” is a 40
percent reduction by 2030, if the claims by the White House are to be
believed. And it sacrifices the health of frontline communities who will be
harmed by more oil and gas extraction, carbon capture, hydrogen, and
nuclear energy on the premise that this harm is somehow offset by
improvements in energy efficiency and building heating decarbonization
somewhere else. This logic is fundamentally flawed. True justice means that
no community is turned into a sacrifice zone.”

TOM BK GOLDTOOTH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL
NETWORK said, “The Inflation Reduction Act exacerbates a pathway of
climate and environmental injustice to Indigenous, Black and People of
Color communities. This Act is more of the same climate false solutions we
have seen previously from this Administration. But it goes further with a
quid pro quo guaranteeing offshore oil leases in exchange for renewable
energy. From agriculture, soils and forests pushed into the voluntary
carbon markets to aviation biofuels as offsets, to the expansion of carbon
capture and storage (CCS) technologies and CO2 pipelines, this
administration locks in the violence of the climate crisis and consequences
to Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous nations and frontline communities for
decades to come. The Act does not provide climate nor energy security and
will not cut emissions at source at the level that is needed to address
this climate emergency.”

ELIZABETH YEAMPIERRE, CJA BOARD CO-CHAIR AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF UPROSE,
Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, elaborated on
climate priorities for frontline communities in New York. “As an
organization committed to community led solutions, we know
community-controlled renewable energy ensures clean and safe energy in our
neighborhoods. While this bill supports these types of community led
projects, it also backhands our communities by incentivizing continued
development of harmful and unhealthy fossil fuels. We applaud the effort to
address frontline and environmental justice communities in this new bill
but we need to do that by promoting energy security for all of us, not just
the extractive industry. By pairing renewable energy expansion with massive
oil and gas lease sales we are hindering a truly Just Transition. I know
our elected officials want to and can do better.”

JUAN JHONG-CHUNG, CLIMATE JUSTICE DIRECTOR OF THE MICHIGAN ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE COALITION shared, “The environmental and climate justice
movements have fought bravely and tirelessly to finally get Congress to act
on climate. But this bill is not what we asked for. Our communities in
Michigan are dealing with heat waves, flooding, air pollution, lead in
drinking water, and the legacies of racism and political
disenfranchisement. We cannot afford half-baked proposals when our planet
is burning. Hundreds of billions are set aside for harmful and unproven
technologies like nuclear energy, carbon capture, and hydrogen. At a
critical time when we need to be phasing out fossil fuels, this bill
increases dirty and polluting developments in federal lands, and leaves the
door open for more pipelines. The small amount of Environmental Justice
investments in this deal feels like window dressing. They will never offset
all the harms that many of our people in Michigan and around the country
will suffer from our elected leaders caving in to the fossil fuel agenda.
As it stands, this bill will prolong unjust harms in Black, Indigenous, and
People of Color communities. We deserve to thrive! ”

"Clean" Hydrogen, tax credits for various forms of Carbon Capture and
Storage, Nuclear energy, Biofuels, Aviation Sustainable Fuels, a 45Q tax
credit for enhanced oil recovery, just to name a few, continue to sacrifice
the most impacted communities so that fossil fuel CEOs can make record
profits. These false corporate schemes only fuel the climate crisis; they
don’t fix it. If we truly want to safeguard the economy and our
communities this plan must invest deeply in clean and safe renewables, as
defined by local communities.

                                          
        ###

_Climate Justice Alliance is a member-led organization of 84 urban and
rural frontline communities, organizations and support networks in the
climate justice movement. We work to build real solutions to the climate
crisis through building local, living, regenerative economies while pushing
back against false promises from corporate controlled interests._

Climate Justice Alliance

1960A University Ave
Berkeley, CA, 94704
United States


Unsubscribe [3] | Opt out of all bulk emails [4]

[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]



Links:
------
[1] /[link removed]
[2] /[link removed]
[3] [link removed]
[4] [link removed]
[5] [link removed]
[6] [link removed]
[7] [link removed]
[8] [link removed]
[9] [link removed]
[10] [link removed]