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US Bank broke its promise – Defund Pipelines

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If you’re one of the nearly 200,000 people who signed a petition calling on the biggest Wall Street Banks to stop financing the Dakota Access Pipeline, and all fossil fuel infrastructure, you need to see this. US Bank, which had promised to stop funding DAPL and similar pipeline projects, just made millions of dollars guaranteeing a massive credit deal with Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the company behind DAPL, the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, and dozens of other dirty pipelines across America. Will you sign this petition to US Bank CEO Andrew Cecere to keep his promise to end financial support to oil and gas pipelines with our allies at Climate Truth? If you sign today, they and activists in US Bank’s home town of Minneapolis, MN, will deliver it this week. Last April, a ton of us praised US Bank when they agreed to demands from Indigenous and climate activists (like us) to stop financing major oil and gas pipelines like DAPL. We warned at the time that US Bank was hedging its bets and hadn’t promised to Divest, yet. But in the …

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Trump’s first SOTU

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Donald Trump gives his first official State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 30, at 9pm Eastern | 6pm Pacific. Even if you hate the guy (and you should), somebody needs to listed to make sure he doesn’t announce any stupid new ideas (like drilling for oil on the moon, or requiring every citizen to genuflect and donate $5 every time the pass an Exxon station). Our team will be listening in (and providing live color-commentary via twitter). And you can tune in with us! RSVP here and/or come back just before the speech starts Tuesday night and we’ll host a live stream of the speech, with running commentary from our team and a range of climate journalists, activists Climate Justice Warriors and more.  Live Blog State of the Union hate Watching party Trouble viewing the RSVP/Iframe? Click Here What to watch for: the Pre Game. Here’s some links and hot-takes before the big speech to give you an idea what to listen for. The Washington Posts pre-speech “what to listen for” isn’t bad The NPR politics podcast is a …

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Get up, get down, get local to keep fossil fuels in the ground

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One of the best places to make progress for our climate and our communities is at the local level. Already Mayors and city councils from Seattle, WA, to Columbia, SC, where I live are stepping up and taking action by calling for a switch to 100% clean energy, divesting from Exxon and other Big Oil baddies, or refusing to do business with the big banks that fund pipelines. Next Wednesday, January 31st, the day after Trump’s first State of the Union, our friends at 350.org are throwing a party with partner organizations, movement leaders and community organizers in Washington D.C. They’ve got a plan for howe we can ALL win at the local level, and I think you should give it a listen. If you’re interested, click here to tune in & watch Fossil Free Fast: The Climate Resistance via livestream on January 31st in your town or city — join a watch party near you or sign up to host one. The list of speakers includes Senator Bernie Sanders, Bill McKibben, Rev. Lennox Yearwood from Hip Hop Caucus, Jacqueline …

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Democrats cave on Dreamers, here’s why it’s bad for the climate.

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Yesterday Chuck Schumer led Senate Democrats to abandon their bargaining position and re-open the government. For their vote, those Democrats got absolutely zero protections for Dreamers and only a verbal contract (worth the paper it’s printed on) that he’d allow a vote to protect Dreamers before February 8. Let’s be clear: Schumer made a BAD deal. Voters, especially young people and independents, already blamed Trump and the Republicans for the shutdown. And as we explained in our last post, huge majorities of people favor action on DACA (just like they do on climate). Also, as we explained last time, this was a critical litmus test vote for climate change. If we can’t trust Democrats and a handful of Republicans who ​say​ they back a wildly popular policy — in this case protecting nearly 800,000 young people from deportation, but the parallel​ to climate action are clear — ​to stand up and vote that way when given a chance, then we just can’t trust them. And unfortunately that mushy middle where most politicians live has collapsed again. All but 16 hard-line …

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Shut. It. Down. Dream Act Now.

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There’s a principle in direct action called “shutting things down to open them up.” The basic idea is that since we know “power concedes nothing without a demand,” sometimes you have to shut something down in order to open up a conversation about the moral harm it creates. This week, there’s a critical opportunity to demand Congress take action – or else shut down the whole government. And we need your help: Click here to host or join a #NoDreamNoDeal rally near you this week. OR Click here or call 202-224-3121 and tell your Senators and Representative not to vote for ANY spending bill UNLESS it includes a clean Dream Act (the free click to call tool is sponsored by our allies at United We Dream). Congress has until Friday to pass a spending bill that will keep the government open — including the rogue deportation department called ICE — and we’re working in solidarity with a team that is demanding they say #NoDreamNoDeal and include a clean Dream Act. Anything less is a vote to fund the deportation of hundreds …

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Break the internet in order to save it

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This Thursday, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could destroy the open internet. Big cable and phone companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T have been lobbying for years to end net neutrality so they charge us extra fees, throttle the speed of content they don’t like or outright censor speech critical of corporations or the political elite. There’s no two ways about it, without an open internet, the Resistance is in trouble. But Congress can put a stop to all of this by demanding the FCC uphold the principle of net neutrality. Net neutrality is a basic concept: your internet provider cannot slow down your browsing on certain pages, block websites, or charge apps and sites extra fees to reach an audience. All legal content is treated the same. It’s been crucial to new movements around the world because it ensures activists can share news and ideas at the same speed as corporations and governments. If you streamed a video from Standing Rock, shared a photo of that Greenpeace RESIST banner over the white house, or just shared an online petition with …

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Taking action while waiting for Keystone.

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I hate waiting for news. And this morning, we were waiting on a doozy of an update: A few days after a massive oil spill on the keystone 1 pipeline, the the Nebraska Public Service Commissions (PSC) was to decide whether or not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline route. (See this post if you want to catch up on the spill.) They did, with a really important caveat. And now I’m thinking about what’s next. But as fortune would have it, I wasn’t stuck home alone, worrying about the vote; Or out at work trying to stay busy while clicking the refresh button on my news feed every few minutes. I was in Pittsburgh at the People Vs Oil & Gas conference, surrounded by pipeline fighters from British Columbia, Canada, South Texas, New York, California and everywhere in between. So when a couple friends from the local Rising Tide chapter asked me to pitch in (and do what 198 methods does — digital communications support for direct action campaigns), I said yes in a heartbeat; Even if it meant …

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The Keystone spill and what comes after

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By now, I expect you’ve heard about the massive oil spill in Keystone 1 – the older tar sands Pipeline that Keystone XL is meant to expand and replace.1 More than 200,000 gallons of oil are still on the ground just miles from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate reservation.2 This is all happening at a critical moment. On Monday, the Nebraska Public Service Commission will decide a crucial local permit for Keystone XL. A denial of that permit, or even a decision to permit it with significant restrictions or re-routing could make the Pipeline too expensive to build, or create years of additional delay we can exploit to protest, organize, and eventually stop this disastrous project. I don’t know what will happen on Monday. But I’ve spent the whole weekend with an amazing coalition of frontline activists and pipeline fighters, fossil fuel export exterminators and other fabulous people at the #PeoplevsOilGas summit. It’s given me hope and made me believe that together we can stop these pipelines — all of them. From the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines (and others) in the East; …

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This Monday, confront fossil fuel HQs near Pittsburgh

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On Monday, November 20 hundreds of people from in and around Pittsburgh will join the People vs. Oil and Gas Summit and travel together to Southpointe – a commercial park about an hour outside the city that houses the headquarters and local offices of several dirty energy companies destroying our climate and communities. There will be a family-friendly rally and march between several offices featuring the voices of impacted front line communities across North America, and some of us will take action against to call out the dirty energy companies behind fracking, bomb trains, pipelines and pollution across North America Can you join us? RSVP here to reserve your spot on the bus from downtown Pittsburgh departing at 8:00AM. Or meet us in Southpointe at 9:00. Here are the final details: What: Rally and Action in Southpointe When: Monday, November 20, 8AM bus departure, return to Pittsburgh ~11:30AM Where: Buses depart from Omni William Penn Hotel (530 William Penn Pl, Pittsburgh, PA 15219) RSVP here to reserve your seat on the bus. Around the country, people are fighting the greed …

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Equator Banks Acted

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First of all, thanks so much for taking action with us and our partners as part of the Equator Banks Act campaign. Over 110,000 people (including many of you) signed a petition calling on the biggest banks in the world to stop financing climate disasters and respect Indigenous rights. Even better, hundreds of you showed up at more than 50 #DivestTheGlobe actions in cities and towns around the world. Some of the highlights: Seattle activists visited or shut down over 100 branches of the big banks in 3 days of action. Nearly 100 faith and ethics groups joined the call to action, demanding that Bank of America, TD Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and other big banks stop funding fossil fuel projects. There were amazing, beautiful actions in cities all over the world including Columbia, South Carolina; Lausanne, Switzerland; New Haven, CT; Oakland, California; and many many more. Check out the feed below from Mazaska Talks which was made live on the first day of action. Even, better (and worth waiting for) — I’ve got breaking news to share from the actual Equator …

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