What a blast! We had an amazing action at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this morning. You can read the whole story in our press release, which includes a link to loads more photos and videos, or watch a whole LONG livestream from outside with lots of speakers and blockades and more. But for now here’s a few highlights.
Oh and if you haven’t already, it’s not too late to sign our comment to FERC. They just re-opened the dockets on several of the projects that were struck down by the courts, and we have until early October to get those comments in.
Back to the recap:
We kicked things off at 6AM hanging large banners across from FERC.
At 7am, a crew of elders from Third Act DMV and Beyond Extreme Energy used rocking chairs to blockade the driveway to FERC’s garage.
At about 8am, while FPS officers were talking with the protestors, a FERC employee jumped the curb, ran over the leg of a rocking chair and knocked a protestors out of the way attempting to enter the driveway. But don’t worry, no one was injured.
After an hour and half of blockading, the cops were threatening to arrest the elders, so they moved onto the sidewalk. No arrests were made.
At 9 AM, dozens of adults and kids from Gulf Coast communities in Louisiana and Texas rallied outside FERC. We heard from several frontline leaders who demanded FERC stop approving LNG and other fossil fuel projects. And we heard from one relative with the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe of Texas that even though the courts struck down a local project, Rio Grande LNG, construction has continued on the project.
At 10 am the FERC meeting started with a disruption right at the end of the Pledge of Allegiance- demanding “Liberty and Justice for All.” This was the first meeting for three new FERC commissioners, and all told it was disrupted 15 times. We hope their first day on the job was truly awkward! Here’s a short clip of one of the disruptions, we’ll release more soon.
As we’ve said since the beginning of this action plan: With grass roots movements escalating against fossil fuels and federal courts finally validating our arguments and issuing real consequences for FERC’S failures, is this the beginning of the fall of FERC?
Stay tuned for more photos and videos of today’s action! And if you want to chip in to support our ongoing work to UnFrack FERC click here.