Category: News & Opinion

How We’re Changing The Game On Climate From Inside NY’s Assembly

Categories

ClimateDemocracyNews & Opinion

by Santosh Nandabalan

Eight years ago, New York banned fracking — yet the state is still stalling measures to end its addiction to fracked gas. Despite the Democratic supermajority in our State Senate and Assembly, New York has repeatedly ignored the bills needed to meet state renewable energy goals. It is not mandating all-electric buildings, building public renewable energy or funding a just transition to a clean energy economy. Instead, year after year, our state government sides with real estate developers, private utilities and the fossil fuel industry. 

NY State Assembly Blocks Climate Action

This year, the real obstacle to climate action was the New York State Assembly. For example, the All-Electric Building Act would have moved new buildings off dirty fossil fuels. Additionally, the Build Public Renewables Act would ramp up our renewable energy capacity. These bills are crucial to enforce our state’s climate law and make a dent in the oncoming climate crisis. The bills gained momentum and support in the State legislature, but failed to pass in the Assembly. Despite plenty of support from the public and from elected officials, neither bill reached Governor Hochul’s desk for signature.

As a result of this continued inaction, New Yorkers will suffer more pollution and face greater climate change risks. And it’s all because Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie refused to bring these bills to the floor for a vote. If our assembly members couldn’t get these bills passed this year, it’s not because they aren’t hearing from us — it’s because they’re not listening.

Climate Can’t Wait And Neither Can Our Legislators

This past year, Food & Water Watch built support for climate bills by lobbying elected officials to co-sponsor them. We targeted key leaders, like Governor Hochul, through mass constituent calls and repeated rallies outside offices and at public events. When New York prepared to finalize its annual budget, we had Senate and Governor support for the All-Electric Building Act’s goals. However, the Assembly stood in the way of passing it. The same goes for the Build Public Renewables Act — though it passed the Senate, the Assembly refused to touch it.

It became clear that so long as the same business-as-usual politicians had power in the Assembly, we could not win the bills we needed. Entrenched assembly members like Kevin Cahill in the Hudson Valley dodged meetings with us. He refused to stand up for these bills while delivering empty rhetoric on climate change. But his constituents weren’t having any of it.

When this year’s legislative session ended, we were ready to pivot. For months, we prepared to replace the dead weight in Albany with real climate activists. If we could get another one of us into office, they could organize from within the Assembly to ensure that climate bills pass.

When Our Politicians Can’t Get The Job Done, We Elect New Ones 

This is where Food & Water Action’s electoral work comes into play. By endorsing and joining statewide campaigns to elect climate champions, we can uplift new candidates. We get out the vote, canvas door-to-door, phone bank and more.

In the Hudson Valley, climate activists Sarahana Shrestha and Vanessa Agudelo led the successful fight against the Danskammer fracked gas plant. Both advocated for Public Power and a Gas-Free New York on the campaign trail. In New York City, Illapa Sairitupac, a longtime activist fighting fossil fuel infrastructure, ran to do the same. The cards were stacked against all three candidates. They challenged both well-funded, Democratic establishment picks and right-wing interests that spent enormous sums of money on false smear campaigns.

In the waning months of the legislative session, current assembly members dithered and delayed climate action bills. Meanwhile, Food & Water Action joined these candidates’ campaigns to get them into office — one door, one phone call and one conversation at a time.

A Big Win For Climate In The Hudson Valley

Once the dust had settled on election night, a lot of status quo Democrats trotted easily into office again. The climate movement, however, was hyper-focused on the New York Assembly. We knew we had to show Speaker Carl Heastie there were consequences for climate inaction and get another fighter on our side in Albany. Of our three endorsed candidates, Shrestha emerged victorious. She toppled sitting assembly member Kevin Cahill, a 26-year incumbent backed by corporate interests and the Democratic Party machine. And perhaps more importantly, she won a district with significant rural areas that hadn’t seen strong climate leadership until now.

With Shrestha’s victory in the Hudson Valley, we can win tangible, concrete climate measures this upcoming session. That includes the vital Build Public Renewables and All-Electric Building Acts. But these bills are just the beginning. We must keep electing the right people who will get the job done for New Yorkers and all of us nationwide.

Many large environmental groups don’t do this kind of electoral work, especially during the primaries. But to win a clean energy future, we need to reach out to more voters, primary more status-quo candidates and demand real climate action, now. Food & Water Action will continue the fight to move off fossil fuels. We will always work to elect politicians who will meet this moment and organize for the future we deserve.

Next up: the general election.

To build this momentum in the midterms, we need your support.

donate now!

Carbon Pipelines Promise Midterm Battleground

Categories

ClimateNews & Opinion

by Phoebe Galt and Emma Schmit

If Iowa’s 2022 General Assembly did anything well, it was ignoring the interests of Iowans. Division marred this year’s legislative session — between parties, between chambers, between elected officials and their constituents. Governing has given way to petty drama. While legislators squabble, the people of Iowa lose.

A key issue elevated during the session was the use of eminent domain for three hazardous carbon pipelines. Summit Carbon Solutions, Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions have each proposed carbon capture projects through Iowa. Their schemes are ludicrous and dangerous. Each company plans to convert the polluting carbon dioxide emitted from ethanol facilities into hazardous liquefied CO2. Then, they plan to transport that CO2 via a network of high-pressure pipelines, across thousands of miles and five state lines. Why? To make a quick buck off the plentiful federal subsidies available for these projects.

Any one of these projects would be the largest carbon pipeline ever built. Each is a fool’s errand. Altogether, they would span nearly 2,000 miles across Iowa, posing serious risks to our land, our livelihoods and our future.

Carbon Pipeline Opposition Reaches Fever Pitch

On the ground, Iowans have united against these pipeline scams and the threat of eminent domain to build them. Earlier this year, more than 150 people flooded the Capitol Rotunda in Des Moines demanding that lawmakers stop eminent domain for these projects. Opposition has crossed parties, geography, class and more to form a strong, passionate coalition devoted to stopping any carbon pipeline. Recent Food & Water Action polling conducted by Change Research confirms this. We found that 80% of Iowans oppose the use of eminent domain for the proposed pipeline projects. Additionally, 73% are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports the pipelines. These voters cut evenly across the political spectrum, indicating that this will be a decisive electoral issue.

The movement to stop these pipelines is reaching a fever pitch; and the silence of Iowa’s leaders is deafening.

Iowans Refuse to Fund Dangerous Pipelines

Our state has opened its arms to corporate control for too long. The carbon pipelines may very well break the camel’s back. We might be “Iowa Nice,” but we will not be railroaded. We deserve better than to carry the risks for Wall Street’s reward; and the risks are many. They include:

These pipeline corporations expect Iowans to not only accept these risks, but to fund them with our land and our tax dollars. But we aren’t having it. In spite of dishonest, unscrupulous harassment tactics, Iowans are refusing to sign over their land to these greedy corporations. We have much better ideas about where our tax dollars can go. Instead of pouring more than $20 billion into these pipelines, why not invest in our communities? Iowa’s infrastructure is failing, social safety nets are being slashed, schools are consolidating and our emergency services rely on volunteers. We clearly have better uses for our public money than  to line billionaire’s pockets. 

Midterm Elections Offer Promise Against Pipelines

Iowans have made our demand clear: Stop the proposed carbon pipeline scams. The pipelines have faced immense pushback from local governments, landowners, schools, community organizations and activists. Despite this, few of Iowa’s elected officials have taken meaningful action to address the concerns of their constituents.

With the close of the 2022 General Assembly session, we look ahead to the midterms. It’s time our elected officials remember that our votes must be earned. Iowans deserve leaders that will fight for us, not cower to corporate interests. When we vote this fall, we vote for our land and our lives. Elected officials must know — we will not be sold out.

In June, the Iowa Democratic Party unanimously ratified a grassroots-led platform, becoming the first state party to formally oppose carbon capture. Now, more than half a dozen midterm candidates are running campaigns on anti-pipeline platforms. Grassroots Democrats and Iowa voters alike want action from state elected officials to stop these carbon pipelines. With our votes this fall, we’ll ensure that not a single project breaks ground. 

Help us elect leaders who’ll keep pipelines out of Iowa!

Donate here

Pandemic Profiteering: How Corporations Are Capitalizing on the Crisis

Categories

ClimateFoodNews & Opinion

by Peter Hart and Mia DiFelice

From the beginning of the COVID crisis, corporate oligarchs manipulated markets to maximize profits. The giants that control the meat industry stoked bogus fears of a shortage to jack up prices on consumers — with lies so egregious that we filed suit against one of the worst offenders, pork giant Smithfield.

Of course, the problems mounted. Inflation spiked across the economy. Shops swung between long waits and huge shortages. Big companies blamed supply chain shocks and increasing production costs, which were certainly part of it.

But when a handful of corporations control markets, they can essentially name their price — and shovel obscene profits to CEOs and Wall Street speculators.

Oil Companies Are Winning

The squeeze on working families intensified with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Suddenly, global dependence on fossil fuels reached a breaking point. U.S. gasoline prices soared while gas supplies to Europe plunged into chaos. 

In response, politicians and their media enablers demanded a dramatic increase in fracking. But energy giants quietly rebuffed these drilling demands. Not for any new concern for the environment — but rather because they are pulling in billions in record profits. Twisted market logic meant that limiting supply would pay off for their Wall Street investors.

From January to March this year, CEOs of eight fossil fuel corporations saw their share values grow by nearly $100 million. Windfall profits have not resulted in lower prices or better conditions for workers. Instead, these CEOs sold their shares for millions of personal profit.

The horror in Ukraine has created a new global energy crisis. Unfortunately, too many political leaders are clinging to the wrong solution. They want to “fix” a fossil fuel crisis by pushing more fossil fuels. That political support has given frackers a license to spring for long-term gas export terminals. American company EQT even called their mega-polluting gas export scheme “the Largest Green Initiative On the Planet.”

As a result, 25 new LNG projects are currently underway in our country. Fossil fuel companies are not only profiteering from today’s misery — they’re locking us into decades of pollution and emissions. We can’t let this continue. The International Energy Agency warned just last year that fossil fuel production must stop growing immediately if we’re to avoid the worst effects of climate change. 

Cornering The Market At The Supermarket

At the start of the pandemic, broadcasts and news feeds were fixated on one recurring image: empty grocery store shelves. Periodic shortages kept some consumers on our toes, while many were simply forced to go without.

As with oil and gas, we face giant corporations that would rather gobble profits than prioritize the needs of families. Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen the cost of meat rise while small farmers’ and ranchers’ profits fell. While COVID ran rampant, we saw corporations limit hazard pay for workers, while investing in stock buybacks to line the pockets of executives.

The meat industry is one of the core players in this problem. A mere four corporations process 85% of all beef and 70% of pork in the U.S. This extreme concentration gives these companies the power to control supply chains, prices and wages. Experts suspect they’re using inflation and supply chain problems as a cover to boost profits. In fact, net profit margins for those top four companies are up over 300%.

Plus, lean supply chains in any industry are dangerous for crises. With one disaster, a few broken links send huge ripples throughout a system without the backups and resilience to recover. For example, a COVID outbreak in a single Smithfield hog plant took out 5 percent of the nation’s hog processing capacity. 

Corporations Are Selling Us Misery

It’s never been clearer: When the essentials for life itself are controlled by corporate cartels, the future of our communities, our families and our planet are at their mercy. For decades, corporate America has told us that bigger is better, that consolidation would lower prices and eliminate inefficiencies. 

We know this is a lie. 

The latest heartbreaking example: the wealthiest nation on Earth is running out of baby formula because of problems at a single factory, thanks to a market controlled by four corporations.

At Food & Water Action, we know that these problems have solutions. That’s why we’re fighting to break up the grocery cartels and stop corporate water profiteers. It’s why we’re demanding an end to the polluting factory farms that harm communities and farmers. Why we fight on the ground across the country to stop the fossil fuel projects driving the climate emergency. In an era of compounding crises, we must fight to transform the present and protect the future.

We can’t fight Corporate America without you.

Donate here

Victory in Santa Barbara, Eight Years In the Making

Categories

ClimateNews & Opinion

by Mark Schlosberg

In March the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors voted to block a massive Exxonmobil trucking proposal on a 3-2 vote. The proposal would have resulted in the reopening of three offshore drilling platforms, which have been closed since 2015. This major win represents a shifted political dynamic in a county Food & Water Watch has worked in for the past eight years. 

Food & Water Watch’s Mark Schlosberg sat down with Tomás Rebecchi, Central Coast Organizing Manager, to chat about the win. They discussed why this is major, how  the county changed its approach to oil and gas since FWW first got involved and what’s up next.

Food & Water Watch’s Mark Schlosberg sat down with Tomás Rebecchi.

Growing a Movement to Ban Fracking and Stop Onshore Drilling in Santa Barbara County

Mark: In 2014, Food & Water Watch started getting involved in the county. What was work on oil and gas issues like before then, and what did we bring to the fight to move off fossil fuels?

Tomás: There’s always been onshore and offshore oil extraction in Santa Barbara and for the longest time, most of the effort was focused on stopping offshore drilling, especially since the major oil spill in 1969, which is viewed as the birthplace of the environmental movement. There was less focus on onshore drilling, which was going on in the northern parts of the county. These are areas with farmland and with significant communities of color. Food & Water Watch helped focus attention on these onshore issues and worked with our partners to build a strong coalition focusing on onshore drilling. We also brought attention to fracking and cyclic steam and other types of extreme extraction methods that are being used in the county. We helped organize a ballot measure in 2014 — Measure P — which would have banned fracking in the county. Though it failed at the ballot, it helped galvanize attention on these issues and support for stronger action. The movement against fossil fuels in the county is now stronger and more diverse. 

Mark: More specifically, what did we do on the ground to engage people and build a more powerful movement? 

Tomás: For about two or three years, we ran an effort that focused mostly on North County and Santa Maria. We would go door to door collecting petition signatures and handing out information about proposed drilling projects in Spanish, English and Mixteco. We collected people’s information and reached out to them to mobilize them to show up when their voices were needed — at planning commission meetings and board of supervisor hearings. We also fought for and won translation services so that these meetings would be accessible to the local impacted community. We helped organize house parties and other community events. We did this work for years in the fight to stop the over 700 proposed wells in Cat Canyon.

Changing Politics Results in Majority Political Power and Significant Victories

Mark: How have the politics around oil and gas changed in the county in the past eight years?

Tomás: Back in 2014, we did not have a solid majority on the Board of Supervisors against expanded oil drilling and fossil fuel infrastructure. The dynamics in the county have changed significantly since then. Food & Water Action, our political and lobbying arm, helped elect Joan Hartmann to the Board of Supervisors on a climate justice platform. Her getting elected has provided a critical third vote against fossil fuel projects. Getting her elected was critical. And this trucking proposal was the first significant vote on a fossil fuel project that tested this majority. It was great to see the majority come through for the community and stop this project. 

Mark: Can you talk a little about the defeat of the trucking proposal and the significance of it?

Tomás: It was a long process and there were multiple hearings. We first won at the planning commission, and then it was sent to the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation in our favor. During the last big push, Food & Water Watch and our coalition partners submitted hundreds of letters and turned out speakers. The oil industry bussed in people to try to drown out the community voices, but we also had lots of people on our side call in, write letters and show up. It came down to one vote — it was a 3-2 decision. On a policy level, it was an important vote against a dangerous proposal that would have led to more oil extraction. Politically, the result showed the impact of years of organizing by Food & Water Watch and our many allies across the country. 

Moving Towards A Renewable Energy Future

Mark: Lastly, can you share what’s next for Santa Barbara? What are your hopes, dreams and vision? 

Tomás: We need to continue to roll back fossil fuels in the county, and also look to a renewable energy future. We’re inspired by the work happening in Ventura County to stop oil extraction and the work in Los Angeles to move to 100% renewable energy. We need to move beyond playing wack-a-mole when projects are proposed and move forward with a comprehensive plan to rapidly move off fossil fuels and to 100% renewable energy. We don’t have time to waste!  

We can’t win without
supporters like you.

DONATE HERE

Food, Water, And Climate Are Under Attack. We Must Protect Them.

Categories

ClimateNews & Opinion

by Mark Schlosberg and Peter Hart

With the Western United States engulfed in megadrought and climate change supercharged weather disasters increasing everywhere, the future can seem bleak. This is especially true given that our dysfunctional Congress has failed to pass any meaningful climate legislation. 

But now isn’t the time to surrender. It’s time to double down to advance a bold food, water, and climate agenda. This moment calls for visionary plans that will inspire people across the country and meet the challenges we face.

We need to organize around the real solutions that will address our food, water, and climate problems. 

A Proven Theory To Address Climate Change And Resource Problems

At Food & Water Action and our affiliated organization, Food & Water Watch, we’ve never backed down from a fight. Our theory of change – how we believe real change happens – is two-fold. First, we propose bold policies that will solve real problems that people face. And just as importantly, we organize around those solutions, even when others say they are politically unreasonable. 

It’s how we’ve:

  • Changed the national debate on fracking and won a ban in New York, Maryland and communities nationwide. 
  • Blocked water privatization attempts in dozens of communities.
  • Begun changing the debate around factory farms. 

At the federal level, we cannot afford to waste time on industry schemes like carbon capture and so-called ‘renewable’ biogas. These are delay tactics that will lock us into decades of fossil fuels, incentivize the spread of factory farms and subsequently pollute our water. We need to advance legislation that takes on the fossil fuel industry, big agribusiness, and water privatizers. That’s exactly what we’re doing. 

Climate Change Is Inseparably Connected With Food And Water Concerns

The issues of food, water and climate are deeply connected. The historically punishing drought in the West, for example, is driven by climate change. Climate change, in turn, is being fueled by greenhouse gasses from factory farms and fracking and drilling. Industrial agriculture is also a massive water user and polluter in dry western states, as is the fossil fuel industry.

So we have a reckless cycle: 

  • Fracking and factory farms use and pollute water. 
  • The greenhouse emissions they create drive climate change. 
  • Climate change leads to drought and less water, which also affects food supply. 

All the while, a small number of giant corporations and wealthy titans profit while ordinary people suffer.

This Climate Change Cycle Can Only Be Broken Through Systemic Shifts In Policy

We need to break this cycle. And that’s what we aim to do with three landmark pieces of legislation in Congress. Passing the Future Generations Protection Act, the Farm System Reform Act, and the WATER act will not happen in the current weak Congress. But laying the groundwork now is critical. Real federal solutions are essential to avoid worsening climate chaos, depleted water systems, and a further consolidated food system that hurts everyone, including family farmers. 

THREE LANDMARK BILLS

The Farm System Reform Act (FSRA) will make our food system safe, healthy, and sustainable. This critical legislation will ban the construction of new factory farms and the expansion of existing ones. The FSRA will phase out existing factory farms by 2040. It will also ensure we’re enforcing environmental laws on existing factory farms, including holding Big Ag companies responsible for their pollution. 

Our aging water systems are crumbling. Meanwhile, giant corporations are scrambling to privatize public water systems to profit from the basic human right to water. The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act will provide a long-term, comprehensive solution to the current water-funding gap. It will achieve this by rolling back a small portion of the Trump’s administration’s corporate income tax cuts. The WATER Act will significantly fund the protection of our drinking water and create almost one million jobs. Ultimately, the WATER Act will help renew our commitment to public water, ensuring everyone has access to affordable water service.

The Future Generations Protection Act (FGPA) is groundbreaking legislation that would move us toward the fossil-fuel-free future we need. The FGPA will: 

  • Ban greenhouse gas emissions from all new power plants
  • Ban fracking
  • Ban crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids exports 

It’s the only bill in Congress that would ban fracking nationally – a critical step to ending climate chaos.

Your Support Is Needed In The Fight To Preserve Our Resources

The first step is having the right solutions to the problems that face our generation. Now that we have those, we need your support at all levels to build the power over the long-term to enact them. Will you add your name to show Congress the power these solutions have?

Urge Congress to support the Future Generations Protection Act!

ADD YOUR NAME

3 Ways Access To Safe Water Is Threatened In The U.S.

Categories

News & OpinionWater

by Romain Coetmellec

In the U.S, the promise that everyone should be able to access safe water is being threatened on a daily basis.

World Water Day is a day dedicated to ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation for everyone. Assessing conditions here and around the globe, we are reminded that the fight for safe water is far from over.

Increased Privatization = Decreased Access to Safe Water

Water privatization is when private corporations buy or operate public water utilities. It’s often suggested as a solution to municipal budget challenges and aging infrastructure and water systems. Unfortunately, this more often backfires, leaving communities with higher rates, worse service, job losses and more:

  • Loss of control: water privatization reduces local control and public rights. Nowadays, 35 million Americans receive their water from privately owned for-profit utilities. Because the bottom line of a corporation is to turn profits, providing quality water and service at a fair price takes a back seat, leaving communities to suffer the consequences and financial burden. 
  • High Rates: for the typical household, privately owned water utility service costs 59% more than public water service — about $185 per year. Many communities can’t afford this.
  • Quality of service: privatization can worsen the service. There is ample evidence that maintenance backlogs, wasted water, sewage spills, and worse service often follow privatization.
  • Job loss: privatization often leads to a loss of one in three water jobs.
  • Infrastructure risks: because 70 to 80% of water and sewer assets are underground, a municipality can’t easily monitor a contractor’s performance.

Fracking + PFAS = Water Contamination

Over the past decade, Big Oil & Gas corporations with drilling and fracking operations have pumped “forever chemicals” into the ground. Over time these break into toxic substances known as PFAS.

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are toxic, lab-made chemicals. Long term exposure to these PFAS has been associated with health problems including:

  • Thyroid disease 
  • Weakened immunity
  • Cancer

Today, PFAS are everywhere — in our drinking water, our pots and pans, and even our bodies. They simply don’t break down in the environment. Ever.

The EPA has long promised to set safety standards and address the widespread water contamination caused by PFAS. In 2021, they took a step in the right direction, announcing they would start to regulate certain types of these forever chemicals by 2023.

We need strong regulations, comprehensive limits on the full class of PFAS chemicals and adequate funding to help public water providers fully implement critical new PFAS standards. This is how we can make sure everyone has clean, safe water.

Factory Farming = Polluted Waterways

One of the nation’s most serious and persistent threats to clean drinking water is pollution from factory farm runoff.  

The agricultural sector is the greatest source of nutrient pollution to global freshwater supplies. Big Ag and meat facilities use water for everything, from animal feed and production to animal slaughtering and processing.  

Industrial livestock operations produce 1 billion tons of phosphorus and nitrogen-rich waste annually in the U.S. alone. In the U.S., this negatively impacts the water quality of:

  • 145,000 miles of rivers and streams 
  • Nearly 1 million acres of lakes, reservoirs and ponds
  • More than 3000 square miles of bays and estuaries 

How Can We — As Individuals — Help Ensure Safe Water For Everyone?

Every single one of us can play a part! 

Getting ourselves educated about the issues, informing our elected officials, voting and advocating for safe water are all within reach.

Then finally, everyone should support organizations like Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action.

We were among the first to advocate against water shutoffs when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Our work has so far helped protect millions of people.

We fight every day to make sure water remains a right and not a luxury, at the federal, state and local levels.

Are you ready to join the fight for safe water?

Urge your members of Congress to support the WATER Act!

SEND A NOTE