STATEMENT ON INFLATION REDUCTION BILL
July 31, 2022
Contact: xrnyc_press@unitedrebellion.com
The climate and ecological crisis is a global existential threat and it is here now, at home in the United States. In the last month alone, we have seen record flooding in Yellowstone, St. Louis and Appalachia. Over a third of Americans experienced heat waves under triple digit temperatures. Not only are homes being destroyed and lives lost, our food system and infrastructure are breaking down due to extreme weather. We are teetering on the edge of full-blown catastrophe, with mass extinction a distinct possibility.
The ‘Inflation Reduction’ bill unveiled by President Biden, Senator Schumer and Senator Manchin, is being heralded as a huge win for the climate movement. It is instead a gift to the fossil fuel industry, allowing them to extract and profit for as long as possible under the guise of climate change policy.
The United Nations climate panel has warned that we must both drastically cut emissions today, and draw down carbon if we have any chance of keeping temperatures in check. Yet, this Manchin bill requires new drilling leases on public lands and waters before any new renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind, can be approved — imposing a carbon ransom as the price for green energy.
It is simple, the first rule of carbon drawdown— no new fossil fuel production.
This bill is a death sentence for humanity and for the Earth. The burning of fossil fuels leads to increased carbon emissions, which is a leading factor in climate change. Requiring new fossil fuel extraction projects to move forward, especially as a prerequisite for renewable energy projects, is in direct contradiction to what needs to happen with carbon emission drawdown. President Biden decidedly pushed for the US to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, yet this bill will doom any possibility of capping warming under 1.5 degrees.
The government is gaslighting the public. We cannot stop, let alone reverse, climate change and mass extinctions, if policies such as the Inflation Reduction bill are passed off as viable solutions, codifying fossil fuel extraction into law. Any federal policy that continues to promote and expand fossil fuel production is not based on the reality and scale of what we are collectively facing. The financial viability of the fossil fuel industry cannot take precedence over a liveable planet.
Democracy is failing to tackle the crisis. President Biden must declare a climate emergency immediately, stop being held hostage by the oil and gas industry, and propose legislation that is not a smokescreen for continued fossil fuel extraction. Incentives for electric vehicles while opening up more lands to drilling won’t cut it. This is not true leadership. Rather, it is a public display of the inability of the federal government to overcome partisan politics and special interests, even in the face of a looming crisis. The people who have caused the climate crisis, the fossil fuel companies, cannot be looked to as the ones to save us. Yet our government continues to partner with them, as if they have any goals beyond continued profits for shareholders and CEOs.
We need new ways to address these crises. It is time to demand Citizens’ Assemblies on climate and ecological justice, as our current government structures are unable to address these crises adequately.
About Extinction Rebellion
Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate & ecological crisis, including the sixth mass extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices if rapid action is not taken.
Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.
Extinction Rebellion’s key demands are:
Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Government must commit to a just transition in order to maintain a livable, just planet for all.
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