Tag: fracking

  • Oil Change U.S. responds to Vice Presidential debate

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    October 1, 2024

    Contact:
    Rebecca Stoner, rebecca.stoner@priceofoil.org
    Valentina Stackl, valentina@priceofoil.org

    Oil Change U.S. responds to Vice Presidential debate

    In response to tonight’s vice presidential debate, Collin Rees, Campaign Manager at Oil Change U.S., released the following statement: 

    “Tim Walz and JD Vance debated while communities across the South reel from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest and costliest storms in U.S. history. Over 160 are dead, hundreds are missing, and millions remain in dire need of food, water, and power — yet Vance brazenly dismissed established climate science, while Walz touted a deadly ‘all-of-the-above’ energy policy incompatible with the urgent climate action we know is necessary. 

    “Disasters like Helene are driven and turbo-charged by fossil fuels. We can’t solar-panel our way out of this crisis while continuing to drill and frack. Today’s catastrophes demand bold, uncompromising leadership. Tim Walz and Kamala Harris must step up to halt fossil fuel expansion, champion clean energy, and advance a just phaseout of oil, gas, and coal to protect our communities from escalating climate impacts. 

    “Tonight’s debate took place in the context of escalating regional war in the Middle East. Both candidates bragged about their support of Israel and its brutal wars against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. This must end. The last thing the American people need is for billions in public money to be spent bombing residential neighborhoods, killing civilians, and displacing millions. Hurricane Helene shows us even more clearly that our leaders must invest instead in preventing climate disasters and rebuilding communities when they strike.”

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  • Oil Change U.S. Response to Presidential Debate

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    September 10, 2024

    Contact:
    Rebecca Stoner, rebecca.stoner@priceofoil.org
    Allie Rosenbluth, allie@priceofoil.org

    Oil Change U.S. Response to Presidential Debate

    In response to tonight’s presidential debate, Allie Rosenbluth, Campaign Manager at Oil Change U.S., released the following statement: 

    “Tonight, both candidates bragged about their support for fracking and record fossil fuel production — dangerous positions that will keep us on the path towards catastrophic climate impacts and continue exposing frontline communities to deadly levels of fossil fuel pollution. The science is clear that the only way to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is to phase out fossil fuels. 

    “We expect this from Donald Trump, a walking oil spill who openly promised fossil fuel CEOs he would shred all environmental protections in exchange for $1 billion in campaign donations. If elected, Trump would sell our future to fossil fuel barons, threaten our democracy, demonize immigrants and LGTBQ+ people, and further erode reproductive rights.

    “Kamala Harris promised to turn the page and chart a better future. That means taking decisive action to end fossil fuels and ensuring a just transition to renewable energy. We need a climate president — one who will invest in clean energy, end fossil fuel subsidies, and phase out fossil fuels to protect the communities most exposed to oil and gas pollution and the climate crisis. It’s time for Harris to show she can be that president.”

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  • National Groups Announce Endorsement of State Sen. Antoinette Sedillo López in NM-01

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    March 25, 2021

    Contact:
    Collin Rees, Oil Change U.S., collin [at] priceofoil.org
    Brett Hartl, Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund,     bretthartl [at] centeractionfund.org
    Sam Bernhardt, Food & Water Action, sbernhardt [at] fwwatch.org
    Alan Minsky, Progressive Democrats of America, alan [at] pdamerica.org
    Zanagee Artis, Zero Hour, zanagee [at] thisiszerohour.org

    National Groups Announce Endorsement of State Sen. Antoinette Sedillo López in NM-01

    WASHINGTON, DC — Today, five national environmental and progressive groups representing tens of thousands of New Mexico voters announced their endorsement of State Senator Antoinette Sedillo López for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional district. The groups announcing their endorsement of Sedillo López include the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Food & Water Action, Oil Change U.S., Progressive Democrats of America, and Zero Hour. 

    Brett Hart, political director at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, said: 

    “Antoinette shares Deb Haaland’s environmental vision, one that puts people and our environment first. She will be a champion for wildlife, a champion for clean air and water, and a tireless advocate to save our climate from the ravages caused by the fossil fuel industry.” 

    Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Action, said: 

    “Senator Sedillo López has demonstrated time and again a fierce advocacy for environmental justice issues and a bold willingness to stand up to the fossil fuel industry. She will bring the same tenacity and concern for her constituents in Congress as she has done for her district as a New Mexico state senator. New Mexicans need a fighter on their side who will stand up for what is right, and they’ve found a champion in Antoinette Sedillo López.”

    Collin Rees, Senior Campaigner at Oil Change U.S., said: 

    “We need Antoinette Sedillo López’s visionary leadership in Congress. As a state senator she’s been a tireless advocate for communities impacted by the fossil fuel industry’s greed, rejecting industry money and working for an equitable transition beyond oil and gas. Senator Sedillo López will be a worthy successor to Secretary Deb Haaland, carrying on the mantle of progressive and environmental leadership for New Mexicans.”

    Alan Minsky, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, said: 

    “As she proved in the New Mexico State Senate, Antoinette Sedillo López is an unwavering advocate for the people and the planet. Her policy positions — rooted in years of advocacy work in her community, and grounded by a deep commitment to economic, environmental, and social justice — are a template for the transformative politics we need in the 21st century. Sedillo López will be an excellent successor to Deb Haaland in Congress.”

    Zanagee Artis, Policy Director of Zero Hour, said: 

    “Zero Hour knows that Senator Sedillo López will carry forward a bold vision of nationwide renewable energy and an end to fossil fuel reliance as a member of Congress. Antoinette Sedillo López will be a champion for young people in pushing forward the Green New Deal that New Mexicans and youth across the nation need for a livable future. Young people need her in the halls of the U.S. Congress.”

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    The Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund is a national nonprofit organization that advocates for legislation and legislators that will advance a progressive environmental agenda. The Action Fund is the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Center for Biological Diversity, but these organizations’ names are not interchangeable. This news release is from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, not the Center for Biological Diversity.

    Food & Water Action mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

    Oil Change U.S. is dedicated to supporting real climate leadership, exposing the true costs of fossil fuels, and building a just, equitable, and renewable energy future in the United States. 

    Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) is a national grassroots organization operating both inside and outside of the Democratic Party advocating for peace, social justice, and policies that seriously address the climate emergency. 

    Zero Hour is a youth-led movement creating entry points, training, and resources for new young activists and organizers (and adults who support our vision) wanting to take concrete action around climate change. Together, we are a movement of unstoppable youth organizing to protect our rights and access to the natural resources and a clean, safe, and healthy environment that will ensure a livable future where we not just survive, but flourish.

  • Very Little in the Permian Basin Makes Sense

    Originally posted from Oil Change International at priceofoil.org.

    Day one of a three day tour of the Permian Basin. We’re in the south east corner of New Mexico, close to the boomtown of Carlsbad. The first area we looked at, north east of the city, is an area of public state and federal land that was first drilled decades ago in the previous boom. Today, new wells are being drilled and fracked, and old ones are being worked over to stimulate more production.

    Pump jacks are everywhere. I mean literally everywhere, sometimes just a few tens of feet apart. The tanks containing oil and produced water stand close by. Many of these are in bad condition. Oil stains the sides of the tanks and the surrounding ground. Some of them are not operating anymore, and they just stand there rusting away. 

    We’re traveling with Sharon Wilson, also known as #TexasSharon and Nathalie Eddy, both with Earthworks. Sharon is a veteran of the fracking fight going back to the early days of the Barnett Shale boom. She’s a trained expert with a gas imaging camera, which she points at the tanks and flares to see the invisible gases, methane and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pouring out. Pretty much all of them are leaking. Some of this is routine and allowable under the permits. Some are leaking way beyond the permit. The air is thick with sulfurous fumes.

    This is mostly public land. Resource extraction is part of the public lands mandate, so is grazing, recreation and wilderness protection. But there’s really only one thing going on here. In this area, it’s been going on for decades. Any pretense that this will be cleaned up and restored appears abandoned, like the pump jacks and tanks that are strewn around. This is public land, and it has been used and abused. No doubt profits were made and perhaps royalties paid. But the side of the bargain that is supposed to preserve the land for future generations, and the integrity of the ecosystem, is not being kept. Make no mention of our climate, of course.

    In the afternoon, we travel south of Carlsbad to see sites that have been recently drilled and fracked. Very close to the city limits we come across large industrial complexes. A maze of tanks, pipes and flares. These are gas processing plants that separate methane gas from the gas liquids such as ethane, propane and butane, which feed the petrochemical complexes and the plastics plants. These are all relatively new. Yet here again, tanks are leaking, flares are poorly lit, and methane and VOCs are clearly visible in the gas imaging camera, flowing into the atmosphere. We see three separate plants, all leaking to some extent.

    flows of methane and VOCs, invisible to the eye, can be seen on the screen of the gas imaging camera

    As we head back to town, we’re drawn toward a number of flares, more visible now as the sky darkens. One is particularly large, a huge ball of flame jumping and dancing erratically into the air. Nathalie is looking for the home of Penny Aucoin, one of the few local residents to have dared raise a voice against the industry that has taken over Carlsbad and the surrounding county. Penny’s home has been inundated with drilling rigs and flares that have sickened her and her family. Nathalie is confused though. She can’t find the house. Have we driven past it?

    We come to the end of the road and there’s a house on the corner. Across the road from the house is the site with the huge gas flare. We get out of the car to take some pictures, the roar of the flare can be heard above the truck traffic, we’re literally in someone’s front yard. Nathalie realizes we passed Penny’s house just a few hundred feet back. The reason is the flare that was directly across the road from Penny’s house the last time Nathalie and Sharon were here has gone, and this one has come up. 

    Later in town, we pull up in the parking lot of a busy brewery and pizza joint. When we get out of the car, we can still see the flare lighting the night sky from several miles away. I check my phone and see a news story in my email. Permian Basin gas flaring has reached record levels, again. Over 750 million cubic feet per day flared in the past 3 months. A second story tells how the CEO of one of the biggest Permian companies is calling on his peers to cut flaring. He says companies should not drill until the infrastructure to take the gas away is in place.

    But here, just on the edge of a major city, with gas processing plants dotting the above ground landscape, and gas pipelines crisscrossing the subterranean landscape, is a newly fracked site flaring enough gas to light the sky for miles. You can literally see the gas processing plants from the site.

    So it’s not about a lack of infrastructure. If it was that site could have been connected the day the gas first flowed. The problem is there’s so much drilling that the gas, which is merely a byproduct of the oil that drillers are targeting, is worthless. The price of gas around here is not worth the investment to connect it to the network. Even though that cost is likely trivial given the proximity of the infrastructure. And there are no regulations that force producers to connect it up.

    It seems pretty clear to me, this stopped making sense a long time ago.

  • Oil Change U.S. Response: Trump’s Speech at Fracking Conference Was a Dumpster Fire

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    October 23, 2019

    Contact:
    David Turnbull, david [at] priceofoil [dot] org
    Collin Rees, collin [at] priceofoil [dot] org

    Oil Change U.S. Response: Trump’s Speech at Fracking Conference Was a Dumpster Fire

    Today, President Donald Trump spoke to a fracking industry conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In response to the president’s speech, David Turnbull, Strategic Communications Director at Oil Change U.S., released the following statement:

    “From the hearty handshakes between the president and fossil fuel industry executives, to the toxic masculinity exuding from the president as he heckled protesters, to Trump’s rambling description of catastrophic deregulation at the expense of our climate and communities, this speech was a classic Trump dumpster fire.

    “While Trump’s descriptions of his administration’s actions were largely overblown or inaccurate, the reality is Trump’s oil-soaked administration has paved the way for the U.S. oil and gas industry to run roughshod on communities at the frontlines and to drill and frack our climate to the brink.

    “Our next president must do precisely the opposite. We need a president who will not shake hands with industry executives, but will instead take them to court for their crimes. We need a president who gets serious about a just transition away from fossil fuel production, not one attempting to bring back the past and resurrect a dirty industry.

    “Thankfully, what we’re seeing from Democratic presidential candidates is a newfound willingness to directly confront the fossil fuel industry. All of the top candidates have signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, most agree we must end new fossil fuel production on federal lands, and many want to stop fracking entirely. This is the kind of leadership our country needs. What was on display in Pittsburgh today was a disaster in every sense of the word.”

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  • A Big Week for Real Climate Leadership in the 2020 Primary

    It’s been a big week for advancing the climate discussion in the 2020 presidential primaries and our collective efforts to raise the bar for real climate leadership.

    On Monday, Senator Elizabeth Warren released her plan for the U.S.’s public lands, which includes an important commitment to sign a moratorium on new fossil fuel leases on public lands and public waters on Day One of her presidency. The plan also includes important elements such as heavy investments in green jobs and respect for Indigenous sovereignty, including exploring co-management and the return of resources to Indigenous protection wherever possible.

    Later on Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders joined in by releasing an updated climate platform from his campaign to “Combat Climate Change and Passing a Green New Deal.” The platform focuses on Sanders’ plans to create millions of high-quality jobs, transition to 100% sustainable energy, ban fracking and all new fossil fuel infrastructure, and ban fossil fuel leases on public lands, end exports of coal, natural gas, and crude oil, and more.

    And today, the New York Times released the results of a “climate policy survey” sent to all 18 major presidential campaigns, asking contenders a variety of questions regarding their plans to confront the climate crisis. It’s worth noting that not all candidates responded to all questions on the survey, and that Senator Sanders declined to go on the record with official statements in many cases. But, caveats aside, these new survey results provide an interesting window into how candidates are planning to confront the fossil fuel industry and the climate crisis, and specifically into how they’re willing to discuss these issues in a public forum.

    Expressing vague support for the Paris Agreement and renewable energy is good, but it’s far from sufficient in a time of rapidly mounting climate impacts and new reports on a weekly basis showing what a deep hole the world is in on climate. Even as candidates are talking more about climate change than the past elections, we’ve yet to see most of them lay out detailed plans to deal with it. That’s why we’ve joined the push for a Democratic primary debate focused solely on climate crisis and candidates’ specific plans to phase out fossil fuel extraction and accelerate the clean energy transition.

    Real climate leadership in 2019 means being willing to stand up and vocally oppose the fossil fuel industry, and to talk about how to stop the industry’s expansion and carefully phase-out fossil fuel production in a way that protects impacted communities and workers. As Republicans and their fossil fuel industry sponsors continue to obscure and deny the reality of the climate crisis, it’s more important than ever for Democrats to put forth and proudly tout bold visions for how to stop the buildout of deadly fossil fuel infrastructure and implement an aggressive transition to a new economy that protects the dignity of workers and communities.

    With that in mind, this week has seen some critically important public statements from candidates about their plans to constrain Big Oil, Gas, and Coal’s expansion and implemented a controlled wind-down of fossil fuel production that addresses environmental injustices and strengthens labor protections. Here’s a quick run-down of what candidates have been saying this week to advance real climate leadership via the NYT survey or other public statements:

    Implementing a “Climate Test” on Energy Projects

    Gov. Jay Inslee (from NYT survey): “One of the first important steps that must be taken […] is to reinstate crucial Obama-era federal climate policies, and strengthen them. This includes […] how federal agencies consider the climate impacts of major energy projects in their environmental review processes.”

    Andrew Yang (from NYT survey): “I will direct the EPA to include CO2 in its review of standards, and specifically with respect to oil refineries.”

    Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren (from NYT survey): “I oppose subsidies for fossil fuel companies and have spoken out repeatedly against the influence that Big Oil and carbon-based industries wield in Washington.”

    Gov. Jay Inslee (from NYT survey): “In our state efforts […] we have found the vast amount of carbon savings came from investments, and there are many ways to fund those, including rolling back the Trump tax cuts and ending subsidies for fossil-fuel companies.”

    Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (from NYT survey): “I would take on the fossil-fuel industry by ending the $26 billion per year the American people are currently paying in subsidies and invest that in our green [energy] economy.”

    Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (from NYT survey): “Details on how to achieve 100 percent renewable energy goals by 2035 include […] ending fossil-fuel subsidies.”

    Marianne Williamson (from NYT survey): “I would end all subsidies for dirty energy and transfer them to subsidies for clean energy.”

    Banning Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

    Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (from NYT survey): “Details on how to achieve 100 percent renewable energy goals by 2035 include […] a moratorium on new major fossil-fuel projects and banning fracking.”

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren (from public lands plan released Monday): “On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that says no more drilling — a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases, including for drilling offshore and on public lands.”

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (from climate platform released Monday): “Ban fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure and keep oil, gas, and coal in the ground by banning fossil fuel leases on public lands.”

    Banning Exports of Dirty Energy

    Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (from NYT survey): “Details on how to achieve 100 percent renewable energy goals by 2035 include […] a ban on crude oil and LNG exports.”

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (from climate platform released Monday): “End exports of coal, natural gas, and crude oil.”

    None of these positions alone will be sufficient, but they’re all important contributions to what a Green New Deal or any other comprehensive climate policy framework should look like. We’ll be on the lookout in the coming weeks and months for candidates to keep fleshing out their climate plans with specific policies and plans to meet the transformational scale of action needed to pass a Green New Deal that phases out the fossil fuel industry and phases in a new era of prosperity for all.

    It’s no mere coincidence that every single contender listed above has taken the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge to reject contributions from fossil fuel industry PACs, lobbyists, and executives – refusing the industry’s political influence is a key step toward being willing to take bold stances like the ones below to address the climate crisis. We look forward to seeing other candidates rise to meet the new bar for climate leadership and continue to raise it by signing the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge and outlining bold policy visions like these.

     

     

    PAID FOR BY OIL CHANGE U.S., WWW.OILCHANGEUS.ORG, NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE, CANDIDATE’S AUTHORIZED POLITICAL COMMITTEE, OR CANDIDATE’S AGENTS.