We know it’s a dark time of year and a lot of us are taking time to dream deeply and process the events of the last few months. But all year long we’ve taken action to fight fossil fuels, finance, and fascism.
Many thanks to all of you who’ve had our backs along the way with donations of time, money, and so, so many petition and letter signatures. If you’re in a position to make a year end donation, we’d be so grateful. But in the meanwhile here’s a quick recap of (some) of what we’ve done together this year:
Jan -March 2024
We kicked off this year fighting to end fossil gas, especially Liquefied natural Gas (LNG) exports. We were a part of a march and action in New Orleans in January, which led to the plan for a sit in at the USDOE in February, which was a big enough threat that Biden paused all new LNG export approvals and pledged to study the issue for a year.
We took a minute to celebrate, and then set about the work of trying to defend and expand the pause. We fought off repeated attempts by Joe Manchin and fossil fueled fascists in Congress to repeal the pause, and we tried to expend it to include agencies like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), as well as other policies – like domestic construction of new gas power plants in states like North Carolina.
April-June
As we moved into the spring, it became clear that Biden was not willing to expand or defend the LNG export pause more broadly. So we launched our “Unfrack FERC ” campaign with Beyond Extreme Energy, and tried to use the opportunity to get New FERC commissioners confirmed who would act on climate change.
We also fought a ton of domestic fossil fuel projects – from the MVP in Appalachia, to LNG in Texas, to DAPL in the plains, to fossil fuel “peaker” plants in New England – as well as various fossil fuel export projects like CP2, TX Gulflink, and SPOT.
July-Sept
Stymied by political inaction at public agencies like FERC, we took to the streets to fight private fossil fuel finance as one of a number of groups that helped organize and participate in the Summer of heat. With weekly actions from June-September, we shut down Citibank and other New York City-based fossil fuel corporations and financiers over and over. More than 5,000 people joined 40+ actions over the summer with more than 600 arrested in acts of nonviolent direct action – including me.
This summer was also when we amped up our work with the Boycott Chevron campaign – which connects the dots between fossil fuels, militarism, and colonialism – and our solidarity with the Palestinian people and the campaign to end Israel’s genocidal war.
Then, late in the summer/early in the fall, another break in the public campaign to end fossil fuels when a DC circuit court ordered FERC to re-asses the climate and cumulative impacts of fossil fuel projects. Initially reluctant to heed these new court orders, FERC did eventually pause some permits for CP2, which is welcome progress. And it got us back into motion with the “fall of FERC” actions later in the fall
October – record scratch moment and our complicated present
Obviously, this isn’t how we wanted or expected to end the year. Trump being re-elected is the worst possible outcome for US action to end fossil fuels and climate chaos. And that it was the outcome, and the man, specifically selected by a majority of our neighbors and relatives here in the so-called United States is both shocking, and disheartening. To quote the title and paraphrase the thesis of a new book I’m reading: “Panic now?” Yes – now is the time for panic, for resistance, and for a real assessment of where we’re at, and where we need to go, as a movement. More on that in our annual charts and graphs message next.
But it’s also worth noting a couple of last minute victories we’ve won right here in December, post-election, 2024:
- Biden finally produced an LNG export analysis that correctly finds LNG exports are bad for the climate, consumers, and our communities. That gives is some short term work to build on in January, and a lot more to fight about in 2025.
- Biden also finally produced a US “Nationally Determined Contribution” or NDC report as required by the Paris climate agreement. It’s not as good as we need, but it is a lot better than nothing – which is why we had been pushing Biden to issue the NDC in the first place.
- Governor Hochul finally signed the climate superfund law in New York, which we’d been working on all year. It’s only one more state (Vermont went first), but it’s a big state and it’s hoped that Hochul’s support – however long it took to get her there – will spur other Democratic states and Governors to take action soon (California is our next big target).
- Combined with a strong-ish NDC goal, which cities and states are free to keep working towards even if Trump backs out of the Paris climate agreement, This could indicate that our best avenue for 2025 climate action is at the state and local level.
Mostly, as we said at the top – we’re sending you this to remind you of all we’ve done this year, in the hopes that you will be moved to chip in and support our continued work in 2025. We can all agree that with Trump returning to power and fossil fueled fascists ascendant around the world, we’re going to need a lot more methods, tactics, and strategies for digitally supported non violent direct action to protect our climate and common home.