Tonight, Governor Kathy Hochul was elected to her first full term as Governor of New York, thanks in large part to progressive turnout from climate organizations like Food & Water Action. Her victory over Republican challenger Lee Zeldin, brought climate policy into stark focus: Zeldin relied on baseless industry talking points to call for renewed fracking in New York, while Hochul pledged to uphold the state’s fracking ban law, safeguarding public health, safety, water and climate.
Since day one, the climate movement has pushed Governor Hochul to stop the construction of two new fracked gas plants in the Hudson Valley and New York City, to deny key permits for a fossil fuel powered crypto-mining facility in the Finger Lakes, and to make real steps toward banning fossil fuels in new buildings statewide. Her budget, due in January, will be key for continuing this climate action.
Food & Water ActionNortheast Region Director Alex Beauchamp issued the following statement:
“In Governor Hochul’s first term, New York has taken serious strides to move off fossil fuels. With the strength of New York’s voting majority now behind her, she can finish what she started.
“Hochul’s first full term must be one of bold policies to break our state’s destructive reliance on fossil fuels. That should start with signing the fossil-fueled crypto-mining moratorium sitting on her desk, and the inclusion of the All Electric Building Act in her budget due next year.
“We were proud to send our members to the polls to vote for Hochul. Now, let’s get back to work moving New York off fossil fuels.”
We all remember how the 2008 financial crisis devastated workers and families. Homes were foreclosed, jobs evaporated, small businesses shuttered. Essentials like gasoline and food grew unaffordable for millions.
Back then, we knew exactly who to blame: Wall Street titans, who gambled our economic future on short-term get-rich-quick schemes. But in the aftermath of that crisis, Wall Street walked away with a slap on the wrist and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. In fact, markets have become less regulated since.
Now, in the midst of multiple crises at home and abroad, Wall Street speculators are diving into the chaos to make a quick buck. And once again, workers and families are bearing the brunt of their bets, in the form of higher prices.
Wall Street Speculation Raises The Cost of Living
The U.S. stock market is full of trading on commodities like copper, oil, grain, and other raw goods. Farmers and producers use financial tools like futures contracts to sell commodities to buyers. These contracts help producers and buyers to lock in stable prices in volatile markets.
But markets for commodities trading have become destinations for speculators, who trade for profit only, not for the commodities themselves. They now outnumber real producers and consumers in commodities markets.
Speculators buy and sell contracts that essentially bet on changes in the markets. For example, one could buy a contract that pegs next week’s oil price at $100 a barrel. The more the price rises over $100, the more the speculator profits off the contract.
But this creates perverse incentives. The more wildly commodity prices swing, the more money speculators can make.
Recently, speculation has fanned the flames of rising grocery and gasoline prices. For instance, in the oil market, Wall Street’s bets on oil far outnumber any real, physical trades on it. Speculators trade about 13 times the amount of oil that actually changes hands in real life.
Speculation’s growth massively affects prices. One economist estimates that in oil markets, speculation intensifies price changes rooted in market fundamentals (for example, supply and demand) ten-fold. It’s no coincidence that at a time of frenzied speculation, global food prices shot up 84% in two years and oil prices shot up 55% in just five months.
Wall Street Makes Billions Off Everyone Else’s Struggles
Under-regulated commodity trading has allowed a flurry of activity in the wake of recent global crises, which had already volatile markets swinging wildly. In early 2022, speculation on the rising prices of grains and oilseeds hit highs last seen in 2012. In January of this year, prices for fracked gas futures skyrocketed 46% in one day, the highest single-day gain on record.
The sharks of Wall Street had descended on the blood in the water.
As the invasion of Ukraine heightened energy anxieties, commodity traders pulled in record returns and commodity-trading hedge funds got their own boost. Meanwhile, banks trading commodities on Wall Street were propelled toward record profits — projected to total $18 billion by the end of the year.
Commodity trading is so lucrative that some of the biggest traders in commodity markets are corporations wrapped up in the commodities themselves. That includes meat and agricultural behemoth Cargill, oil refining and petrochemical giant Koch Industries, and many more megacorporations cashing in on today’s crises. Oil corporation Shell earns on average $4 billion a year from their trade activity.
Meanwhile, working families can barely get by.
We Can and Must Rein in Wall Street
Our recent gas and grocery prices have made it clearer than ever—the U.S. must do more to defend our economy and our families from Wall Street’s manipulation.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the federal government cracked down on speculators — but it wasn’t nearly enough. In particular, the biggest trading firms successfully lobbied against position limits (limits on the number of contracts held by a single trader and class of traders). In 2020, the Trump administration punted a new position limits rule.
Elected officials in office must take the threat of speculation seriously — and Democrats are doing just that. After years of deregulation, accelerated by the previous administration, Democrats plan to hold Wall Street accountable.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a member of the subcommittee that oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has made clear his worries about the role of speculation in our food and oil prices. Now, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) have asked CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam to investigate the role of commodity markets in today’s inflationary prices.
We can only continue this progress with more and better Democrats in office.
You can help us fight corporate speculation by getting out the vote. Chat with three friends about heading to the polls!
Food & Water Action is no stranger to fighting corporate greed. Our partner organization, Food & Water Watch, has been exposing corporate abuses for more than 15 years.
Greed and market power brings grievous harms to consumers, workers, and the environment. But with a convergence of crises — the COVID-19 pandemic, international strife, climate-fueled natural disasters — corporations are bringing it to a whole new level.
In the wake of these crises (many still ongoing), inflation is kicking people who are already struggling. And predictably, megacorporations are exploiting the moment to make even more money, while leaving everyday people in the dust.
To hold corporations accountable and bring relief to working families, we need a strong turnout in November’s midterm elections. Democrats may not be doing enough to tout their accomplishments, but they’ve taken the lead on reining in corporate greed and helping working families.
On the issues closest to voters — the same issues Food & Water Action has been mobilizing around — Democrats have a clear agenda. Their work can only continue if they hold onto their majority in Congress.
Our Energy Prices Are Rising at Every Turn
Fossil fuel corporations didn’t invent corporate greed, but they have perfected it. To keep their dying industry afloat, Big Oil has been cashing in on global instability to squeeze every last cent they can out of families.
We have blown the whistle on Big Oil’s outrageous maneuvers again and again. As important as our advocacy, though, Democrats in Congress have heeded our calls to action with policies that benefit consumers.
Look no further than the windfall profits tax introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The bill would claw back Big Oil’s ill-gotten gains and return them to struggling households. By maintaining and expanding the progressive majority, we can move bills like this forward for the benefit of working families.
More recently, U.S. consumers have faced climbing gasoline prices, while Big Oil sends scarce supplies abroad to the highest bidders. Food & Water Watch calculated that in 2021, the U.S. exported over 12 billion gallons of gasoline. That’s more than a month’s worth of our national gasoline consumption.
The trend continued in 2022: in the first six months of this year, the U.S. exported just over 6.4 billion gallons of gasoline -– a nearly 9% increase from 2021.
But again, Democrats in Congress listened to calls from Food & Water Action to ban gasoline exports. In October, Rep. Khanna introduced the Gasoline Export Ban Act to protect American consumers from Big Oil’s inflationary schemes.
Market Power Sends Grocery Bills Sky-High
While fossil fuel giants hurt consumers at the pump, their agribusiness counterparts squeeze us at the grocery store. Giant food corporations are using inflation and supply chain problems as cover to boost profits. In fact, net profit margins for the country’s four top food corporations are up over 300%.
We have long gone to bat against food corporations to help consumers. When food behemoth Smithfield lied to consumers about pandemic meat shortages, we sounded the alarm — and Democrats in Congress heard us.
Moreover, our research has meticulously exposed how the market power of a few megacorporations threatens our food, our families, workers, and the environment. Most recently, Food & Water Watch detailed how corporate speculation and the manipulation of commodity markets drives up food prices.
Both of the bills will help break the corporate stranglehold on our food system and level the playing field for farmers and consumers. Of course, the giant food monopolies profiting from consumer misery are fighting this legislation, as well as any common sense measures that curtail their power and benefit working families.
They’re using all of their power and influence to block the progressive agenda and elect more corporate shills in the midterm elections. But we’re fighting to stop them.
Democrats Will Fight Inflation by Fighting Corporate Greed
The November midterms will decide whether we can make common sense consumer protection a reality. Corporate profiteers are desperate to break the progressive majority. And if Republican corporate mouthpieces seize power, consumers will continue to suffer.
Food & Water Action is working tirelessly to mobilize voters in support of candidates who will serve them. We are striving toward a future where a few billionaires and corporations can no longer profit off our suffering; a future with a livable — affordable, accessible — future that we can all share.
Help us get out the vote! Sign up to ask three friends to vote for climate champions in this election.
This year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) marked the nation’s first-ever major piece of climate legislation. The Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden, was a tribute to the growing climate movement. But because of one Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), the Act was not nearly bold enough.
Worse, it was larded up with fossil fuel industry giveaways, including billions in subsidies for the climate scam carbon capture and storage. The Act also opens the Gulf of Mexico to more drilling and holds renewable development on public lands hostage to drilling permits.
Over the last two years, an even Senate split has given coal baron Joe Manchin final say over much of the Democratic agenda, slowing our transition off fossil fuels. But there is no reason Manchin should have so much power.
This November, we have a chance to make him irrelevant by voting in more Democratic senators and shifting the balance of power.
Manchin Heaps Gifts on Big Oil, Blocking Bold Climate Action
Over the last two years, Sen. Manchin has blocked Biden’s agenda and meaningful climate action. In doing this, he has consistently carried water for the fossil fuel industry.
First, Manchin held up Biden’s infrastructure agenda by cutting a deal with Republicans to create the bipartisan infrastructure bill, rather than just passing Biden’s Build Back Better proposal. In doing so, Manchin secured funding for industry pet projects like carbon capture, hydrogen, and fossil fuels, including specific fossil fuel projects.
Next, Manchin walked back his commitment to advance Biden’s agenda until he could pare down its scope and ambition significantly. The result was the Inflation Reduction Act. Again, Manchin made sure the legislation was filled with gifts to his fossil fuel patrons (the senator receives more donations from the fossil fuel industry than any of his colleagues).
But even with the IRA and its giveaways in hand, Manchin wasn’t done. He has since pushed a dirty side deal to fast track more fossil fuel projects under the guise of “permitting reform.” Thus far, thanks to organizing and an outcry of opposition, we shut down the deal for now.
Manchin Only Has Power in a 50-50 Senate
How can one Senator force through such a litany of pro-fossil fuel provisions, even as global warming continues to escalate? It has only been possible with an evenly divided senate.
With this split, a single senator can cast a tie-breaking vote. And by threatening to withhold that vote, that senator can single-handedly set the terms of the party’s agenda. And this is exactly what Manchin has done.
Democrats entered their current tripartite majority (President, Senate, and House) with big plans to fight climate change and help workers and families. But Manchin blocked support for climate measures, healthcare, and more. He nixed some of the most transformational measures in what would have been Build Back Better, and then in what became the Inflation Reduction Act.
If Democrats had a majority with only two more senators, Manchin and his sometime ally, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), would no longer have such powerful votes. The rest of the party could move forward without them — in essence, making Manchin irrelevant.
With Our Work, Democrats Can Take The Senate And Hold The House
This November, we have a chance to make Sen. Manchin irrelevant and advance a bolder and more progressive climate agenda. That depends, however, on Democrats expanding their majority in the Senate and holding the House. Simply put, we need more and better Democrats.
Food & Water Action is working to make this happen. In these midterms, we’re campaigning for progressives in tight races that could make or break the next few years of climate action.
For instance, strong progressive Jamie McLeod Skinner could win a swing district in Oregon. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, we’re supporting Chris DeLuzio and climate champion Summer Lee. These Pennsylvania districts are especially important, as increasing turnout will improve the odds that Democrat John Fetterman wins the state’s open Senate seat against right-wing, Trump-supported Mehmet Oz.
This election cycle, turnout is critical. Despite Manchin’s huge drag on the Democratic agenda, Democrats are the party in power and face major headwinds. It’s going to take an all-out effort, but winning is possible.
Together, we can expand Democratic control in the House and Senate and work over the next two years to advance a progressive food, water, and climate agenda.
Help us get out the vote — commit to asking friends and family to head to the polls!
In a political landscape cleaved more and more by division, one issue in Iowa has united folks from all walks of life: opposition to hazardous carbon pipelines.
Three corporations have planned to build thousands of miles of pipelines through Iowans’ backyards. And they’re not above doing so without landowners’ consent. If the state grants them eminent domain, Summit, Navigator and ADM/Wolf could build on private land without an easement (the landowner’s express permission).
These pipelines threaten the lives and livelihoods of Iowans across the state. And so, the movement against eminent domain has grown over the past several months. “No eminent domain for private gain” has become a rallying cry.
Now, as the midterm elections approach, we know where Iowans stand. And Food & Water Action is doing everything we can to make sure we’re heard at the polls.
Carbon Capture Brings Only Risks, No Rewards
The proposed network of pipelines are part of corporate profiteers’ newest scam, “carbon capture and storage.” The pipelines will transport hazardous carbon dioxide gas from ethanol and fertilizer facilities throughout Iowa and the Midwest to injection wells.
Pipeline companies claim that these sites safely sequester carbon deep underground, but in reality, they often leak. And besides, most captured carbon is injected into oil wells to extract even more fossil fuels.
These companies say carbon capture is crucial climate action. But we know they’re lying through their teeth. Carbon capture projects in the U.S. have actually increased emissions, when accounting for all the dirty energy needed to power them.
Not only does carbon capture threaten the climate — it also poses dire risks to those who live near it. In the case of a leak or rupture, high amounts of CO2 can asphyxiate people. This kind of dangerous infrastructure has no place in backyards.
In a sore loser move, Summit is now suing landowners in South Dakota and Iowa who have refused to grant easements. Texas-based Navigator has sued four other groups of Iowa landowners for refusing to grant the company access to their private properties.
It’s only a matter of time before these corporations ramp up their efforts. But it will be our elected officials and public institutions that cast the final vote in this debate. Ultimately, state legislators will decide whether carbon pipelines have the right to eminent domain.
This November, we can cast our vote for the candidates that stand with Iowans in opposing carbon pipelines.
It’s Not Just You — Carbon Pipelines Are Unpopular Among Iowa Voters
This year, Food & Water Action commissioned polling in Iowa by Change Research to see what Iowans really think of carbon pipelines.
We found that:
Only 35% of Iowa voters support the three carbon pipelines. 44% oppose them and 21% are unsure.
8 out of 10 Iowans oppose allowing private corporations to use eminent domain. This opposition crosses party lines.
This is also true amongst voters who are favorable toward current Governor Kim Reynolds. 8 out of 10 of those voters oppose granting eminent domain to pipelines.
Our polling also found that the pipeline fight will affect Iowans’ votes this November.
Nearly 3 out of 4 voters, Democrat and Republican alike, say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supported eminent domain for carbon pipelines.
7 voters out of 10 want their elected officials to prevent carbon pipeline companies from using eminent domain. This holds true across party lines.
So far, our leaders currently in office have ignored the widespread opposition to eminent domain for carbon pipelines. Governor Reynolds, Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, Senate President Jake Chapman and House Speaker Pat Grassley killed severalbills during the 2022 legislative session that would have taken eminent domain for carbon pipelines off the table.
By the end of the 2022 legislative session, leadership had squashed all attempts at protecting Iowans from corporate abuse of eminent domain. But there is still time to stop these dangerous pipeline schemes. In the upcoming legislative session, we need elected officials who will fight for Iowans, not corporations.
Representing Iowans Means Voting NO Against Carbon Pipelines
For more than a year, the movement opposing Iowa’s carbon pipelines has grown. Iowans from both sides of the aisle and from all walks of life have united to stop this threat. We have shown up to public meetings, called our representatives and even demonstrated at the governor’s mansion to make our opposition clear.
This November, we will make our voices heard at the polls. It’s time to vote in representatives who will take our demands seriously. To stop these hazardous carbon pipeline scams, we need a legislature ready to fight for us; a legislature that will end the abuse of eminent domain for private gain.
We’re getting out the vote for legislators who will fight for us.
Our Get-Out-The-Vote effort is in full swing! We are going door-to-door in key districts speaking directly with voters about how important the midterm elections will be in determining the health of our planet and our democracy for years to come.
These photos from the field feature our hard-working canvassing team engaging voters one knock at a time.
GET OUT THE VOTE
How Canvassing Works
Canvassing is a time-tested tactic to connect with voters who are likely to support the same candidates we do and to remind them how important their vote is. A team of committed people divide up a list of the voters in their area that they want to talk with, and pound the pavement to inspire as many voters as possible.
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Our canvassing team in Pennsylvania gets ready to knock some doors!
GET OUT THE VOTE
Our canvasser, Liv, is a seasoned pro when it comes to canvassing. She’s been involved in various environmental groups in her area, and thinks canvassing is crucial to get out the vote.
“There’s so much at stake this mid-term election… we should be concerned about everything from climate change to clean water and air…to supporting a woman’s right to choose.”
Liv Ross Perfetti
Liv has knocked on hundreds of doors in the hopes that residents will chat with her about the importance of this year’s election.
GET OUT THE VOTE
Because polluting corporations only care about their profits, canvassers put their time and energy into protecting the world we love.
“Given that the last election was really close, canvassers can really make a difference. I canvas for candidates like Chris DeLuzio because he’s willing to hold corporations accountable.”
— Pape Diop, a Food & Water Action canvasser in Pennsylvania
A beautiful view of Allegheny County during an afternoon spent knocking on doors. PHOTO: Liv Ross Perfetti
Will you join us in helping to elect climate champions?
Now more than ever, it’s critical to protect the progress we have made for a livable climate. We must elect climate champions and preserve the democratic majority in Washington – for us and future generations. There are many ways you can help to Get-Out-The-Vote. You can RSVP for events in your area, volunteer for our letter-writing team, texting team, or donate.
Fight for food we can trust, water we can drink, and air we can breathe. Not to mention, a democracy we can believe in!
