Tag: Fossil fuel

John McDonnell has called on Labour members to join Momentum on its first direct action campaign, as a senior organiser for the group called it a move from party politics to movement politics. Forty local Momentum groups across England and Wales, from Exeter to Redcar, will take action outside branches of Barclays on Saturday to raise awareness of the bank’s financing of fossil fuel companies. Last week, a report by BankTrack revealed that Barclays provides more funding for fossil fuel projects than any other bank in Europe, lending $85bn to companies involved in fossil fuels between 2016 and 2018. Parker said that while the campaign was a new tactic for Momentum, it was “completely consistent with the way that we’ve said that we want to do politics, which is finding interesting ways of engaging people directly with issues”. UK environmentalists target Barclays in fossil fuels campaign Read more She said: “This is the way forward, this is the massive difference between the Labour party and any other political party in Britain. The Tories couldn’t do this if they spent the next 12 months trying to organise it. “This is too big to be left to narrow party politics. But there is a massive role for the Labour party to play as the biggest progressive political force probably not just in the UK, but really in western Europe.” The action is inspired by a wave of environmental campaigning over the past few months, most recently the school climate strikes, which brought thousands of young people on to the streets. It is likely to be less provocative than Extinction Rebellion protests, when dozens were arrested for spraypainting government departments and locking themselves together to block streets, Parker insisted. “We are a pro-worker, pro-union organisation so the one thing I’m absolutely certain about is that everybody is going to be totally respectful of all the staff that work in the banks – these are our comrades,” she said.

AOC and Chris Hayes talk about the political feasibility of the Green New Deal. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc MSNBC delivers breaking news and in-depth analysis of the headlines, as well as informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from…

It was not hard for Beto O’Rourke to seem like a champion of green issues during his eye-catching Senate campaign in America’s 2018 midterm elections – after all, he was up against Ted Cruz, a climate change denier. Now, as the former US congressman vies to be the Democratic candidate to run against Donald Trump in the 2020 race for the White House, he faces much closer scrutiny on the subject. Environmental advocates and experts wait to see if – as O’Rourke pivots from an election in a conservative-led oil state to a national primary race heavily influenced by left-leaning Democratic candidates – he will have more latitude and desire to put progressive green policies at the heart of his strategy. “He’s going to have to take a pretty strong stand.” The seeds of a decisive and urgent approach were visible in his first campaign visits to Iowa in March, when O’Rourke praised the radical climate change-led proposals in the Green New Deal, citing his home state’s struggles with extreme weather such as droughts and hurricanes. “Already, five declared presidential candidates have officially signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, meaning more than a third of declared Democratic candidates have done so,” said David Turnbull, strategic communications director of Oil Change US, a group that urges politicians to commit to clean energy. “We look forward to the sixth candidate signing the full No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, and we’re hopeful that Beto might be that candidate.” O’Rourke’s campaign did not respond to questions about whether he plans to sign the pledge or how his qualified support for natural gas is compatible with the Green New Deal. “We have seen the result, which is an emergency of booming fossil fuel production here in the United States at precisely the time we need to be urgently moving away from those dirty fuels,” Turnbull said. “Similarly problematic, Beto has pointed to fracked natural gas as a potential part of the solution to the climate crisis when the reality is that there is simply no room for new fossil fuel development of any sort, including fracked gas. Like with his support for the removal of the crude export ban, we hope that when Beto lays out his full climate policies it will reflect the fact that we can’t afford any new fossil fuels of any sort, including gas.” Given Texas’s critical importance to the environmental and economic future of the country, a Texas presidential candidate can deliver a powerful green narrative, said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, an advocacy group. “I think Texas has a real interesting story to tell in terms of our both being number one in the country for global warming pollution but also being number one for renewable energy,” he said.

Democrats call to end fossil fuel industry, push 'Green New Deal.' #Tucker #FoxNews FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network in…

A Trump administration presentation extolling the virtues of fossil fuels at the UN climate talks in Poland has been met with guffaws of laughter and chants of “Shame on you”. Monday’s protest came during a panel discussion by the official US delegation, which used its only public appearance to promote the “unapologetic utilisation” of coal, oil and gas. Although these industries are the main source of the carbon emissions that are causing global warming, the speakers boasted the US would expand production for the sake of global energy security and planned a new fleet of coal plants with technology it hoped to export to other countries. The event featured prominent cheerleaders for fossil fuels and nuclear power, including Wells Griffith, Donald Trump’s adviser on global energy and climate, Steve Winberg, the assistant secretary for fossil energy at the energy department, and Rich Powell, the executive director of the ClearPath Foundation, a non-profit organisation focused on “conservative clean energy”. The only non-American was Patrick Suckling, the ambassador for the environment in Australia’s coal-enthusiast government. None of the US participants mentioned climate change or global warming, focusing instead of “innovation and entrepreneurship” in the technological development of nuclear power, “clean coal” and carbon capture and storage. Coal is deadly from the beginning to the end. This was the second consecutive year that the Trump team was heckled after promoting fossil fuels and nuclear power at the climate talks, underscoring how the US position has shifted since the president took power in 2017. In fact, scientists say their forecasts about climate impacts have been too conservative, while economists say the shift to renewables has resulted in cheaper energy for many users. Winberg said the US government was planning to support a new fleet of small, modular coal plants that he claimed would be energy-efficient and have near-zero emissions if combined with carbon capture technology.

A big problem is messaging requires lying. He spoke of a Republican Party that didn’t exist. They're also working hard on superdelegate reforms, specifically ways of making the primary more democratic, but keeping the delegates in reserve in case of emergency: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who failed to get the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, has campaigned to end the voting power of most superdelegates, keeping the issue alive. McGovern only won one state, Nixon took the other 49. Superdelegates were instituted as a way of preventing the party from nominating candidates that can't win the Presidency, at least in theory. Of course we all know how that turned out: She lost the primary despite her superdelegate advantage, and Barack Obama went on to win the Presidency. As a Democrat I don't know, practically, what changing the the way superdelegates work will accomplish. Historically superdelegates have always voted with the candidate that won the most votes, and there's not a lot of hard evidence to suggest that the perception of an advantage is enough to help one candidate or hurt another. If we'd made super-delegates vote with the delegate winners of their state, in straight proportion, the outcome wouldn't have changed. No matter how you sliced it, Sanders got fewer votes, and thus a lot fewer delegates.

Environmental and climate activists, including cities pursuing climate lawsuits against oil companies, almost never acknowledge those benefits, which are far-reaching and indisputable. First coal, then oil, then natural gas paved the way, providing the fuels for transportation, communication, refrigeration, electricity and other incredible technologies that improve, enhance, safeguard and save lives. A billion and a half are still without electricity, two billion still exist on a few dollars a day, and millions still die every year from insect-borne, lung and intestinal diseases – largely because they still burn wood and dung, instead of fossil fuels. Imagine what today’s 8.6 million NYC residents would require and emit. All these vehicles (internal combustion and electric) exist because of, are fueled by – and travel on roadways made with fossil fuels: asphalt from oil, metal and concrete manufactured using fossil fuels. Even electric cars require oil, gas and coal for manufacturing and recharging. Every bit of metal, plastic, concrete, wood, fabric and food we see results from fossil fuels. High-rise office and residential buildings made possible by steel and concrete allow our cities to grow upward, instead of just outward, preserving millions of acres of wildlife habitats and scenic areas. Then there’s electricity. Electrification will be increasingly important in the 21st century, and world electricity consumption is forecast to double within four decades, as electricity supplies an increasing share of the world’s ever-increasing energy demand.