A long write up is coming along with our annual round up of charts and graphs, but since that -and your holiday card – probably wont get to you before Christmas, I wanted to send this quick recap now.
If you made a donation of any kind this year, we’ll send you a holiday card and a sticker (as usual) to say thanks. If you’d like a sticker (or a card) just make a donation before Jan 1 2024 and we’ll add you to the “nice” list 😉
The cards look like this
and the stickers are based on our recent popular meme about FERC and CP2 – more than 350,000 messages and signatures have been sent to the White House, DOE, and/or FERC in the last few weeks as a result of those action!
And a nice long recap on the year is below – and of course, if you haven’t already, please consider making a year-end donation to support our work – chip in $1.98, $19.80, $198 or whatever you can afford and we’ll send you a sticker and a card!
But as usual the best way to keep up with all our news and updates is through our social media accounts: give us a follow wherever you’re online, and happy holidays to you and yours:
January – March
January – We started the year like we have each of the last 2 years with a call to ban fossil fuel fascists from office. It’s a nice way to start this recap since the Colorado Supreme court just agreed with us (at last!) that Trump’s actions on Jan 6 2021 disqualify him from holding office again. Later in the month Manuel “Tortuguita” Páez Terán, was murdered by police while occupying a stretch of the Weelaunee Forest in Atlanta. They were there to stop “Cop City” a massive, privately funded, police training and militarization compound, and that kicked off a massive new phase in the campaign (us included) to stop cop City.
February – The dark themes of the year continued as President Biden betrayed his previous promises, and common sense, and approved the Willow Arctic Oil project, followed quickly by the Alaska LNG export terminal despite our massive outpouring of opposition. This was also about the time we launched our “stop Manchin’s FERC” campaign to combat Manchin’s (still) total control over US energy policy, and the month we started to really zero in on state level utility work as a challenge and an opportunity.
March – Was a huge month and turning point – it was the launch (after a lot of work) of the new Third Act campaign targeting banks; It was also the re-introduction of the EJ for All Act and (one of) the launches of the new group Climate Defiance, who we teamed up with to plan a big protest at the White House Corespondents Dinner
April-June
April – The betrayal on Alaska LNG set up a string of fights over fossil fuel exports; The Introduction of HR1 – the MAGA bill that was all about putting polluters over people; and the release of the annual Banking on Climate Chaos Report all happened this month. But the big deal was the protest on April 29 at the White House Corespondents dinner – that set up a whole new season of direct confrontation with the Biden Administration over fossil fuels and their lack of leadership on climate change.
May – saw a new round of protest at FERC over their lack of a strong policy on Environmental Justice, a new wave of congressional action to end fossil fuels, and, unfortunately – a new round of the Manchin’s Dirty deal which we, sadly, did not win.
June – Biden’s next betrayal was to sign a deal with Manchin and fossil fueled fascists in the US House over the debt ceiling. This was when the Mountain Valley Pipeline was approved over the objections of local elected officials, the courts and a huge number of Americans. It was also when the climate crisis got really real for a lot of people this year as massive wildfires burned across Canada and painted the sky orange and brown in cities from Seattle to New York and Washington DC. We helped organize a ‘day of rage’ protest at the White House under choking air pollution. And as the war in Ukraine churned on and drove a lot of US energy policy, we ramped up our work to end both war and global warming by expanding on last year’s successful campaign to get President Biden to use the Defense Production Act to build an arsenal of clean energy. We also leaned into solutions by pushing for “permitting reform done right.”
July-September
July – New indictments brought new chances for us to block Trump and fossil fuel fascists from re-taking control of our government. More historic floods, fires and disasters continued all summer – making this the most climate-chaotic summer in thousands of years for the northern hemisphere. And that amplified pressure on President Biden, until he had to respond -practically speaking – to our demands that he declare a climate emergency.
August – We continued pressure on Biden to declare a climate emergency, and set a deadline of September for an end to fossil fuels in line with a big UN Summit on climate Ambition. This became a massive undertaking that called in hundreds of thousands of activists from all over the country. We also got a much needed shot of good news when the Montana courts found in favor of young plaintiffs suing for the right to a safe, stable climate future, although a similar federal trial remains unresolved.
September – New York, New York was the place to be in September of 2023. We took action for a full week challenging Banks, regulators, the United Nations and most-especially President Biden. The march to end fossil fuels was the largest in-the-streets US climate demonstration since the pandemic lock-downs, and the media coverage and response from world leaders set the tone for the rest of the year and the annual COP talks a few months later. But the digital action doesn’t stop at the end of the rally and protest – so we also plugged away on our campaigns to end war and warming, reform environmental justice rules and laws, and stop Cop City by any means possible (including totally legal ones like voting).
October- Today
October – Brought big solidarity, and eventually big wins, with the United Auto Workers – showing that the potential of a Green New Deal is more than possible. And despite President Biden rarely missing a chance to do the wrong thing on fossil fuels and climate change – don’t get mad at me for saying it, even Pope Francis agrees! – we kept holding him accountable. Most of October was spent planning for the Asia Pacific Economic Forum in San Francisco, which turned into another big show-down like New York over the gap between President Biden’s climate ambitions, and the fossil-fueled climate chaos that is our reality.
October also saw the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, which launched a major war between Israel and Gaza, with millions of innocent women, children and civilians caught in the middle. We joined a global chorus calling for ceasefire now, which has dominated all news and conversation ever since.
November – We Launched out last big drive of the year aimed getting the Biden Administration to deny the permits for the massive fossil fuel export terminal known as CP2, and to do it specifically because of the climate and environmental justice impacts of the project. As soon as we launched the campaign, a slew of new reports and evidence came out all affirming what we’ve been saying all year (seriously scroll back up to February!) – that fossil fuel exports, especially LNG, are wrecking our climate progress and Biden’s standing as a climate President. We also went back to Atlanta for another chance to Block Cop City and got another opportunity to tell Congress and the Biden Administration that it’s way past time to reform federal disaster relief to match this moment of climate chaos.
December – In many ways you could say that the year ended a lot like it started: Donald Trump’s fossil fueled fascism is back in the news; A war is messing with international fossil fuel markets and making it clear that peace and climate action go hand in hand; And our biggest and most hopeful campaign is to get the Biden Administration to end fossil fuel exports.
We scored a delay, but not a decision, in our favor just this month at FERC!
But at the end of 2023 we’ve gathered a much bigger and more powerful crowd of supporters: Millions have marched in the streets including tens of thousands in San Francisco and New York just this past fall. Members of Congress, celebrities and others are flocking to our banner and calling on the Biden Administration to do more, faster. But all that work is threatened by the rise of fossil fascists here in the US (Joe Manchin, the MAGA House) and abroad (the failed COP28 talks, the rise of fossil fascists around the world).
Thanks again for all your support of our work this year. Please consider making a year-end donation of $1.98, $19.80, $198 or whatever you can afford to keep us fighting!
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