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They're back! Our friends at Beyond Extreme Energy just started a “Fast For No New Permits.” Inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical, “Laudato Si,” they will refuse all food and drink except water until the Pope addresses the UN, or Federal Energy Regulatory Commision (FERC) stops issuing new climate-killing permits for fracked gas projects. Sign here to support them.
Friend,
In his encyclical addressing climate change, Pope Francis wrote: “There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy.”
Inspired by the Pope's call for climate action, and called to act by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) continued rubber-stamping of fracked gas projects, the Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) fast is in the great tradition of Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, Dave Dellinger and Bobby Sands. It's a way to show that we can live without food (for a little while), but we can't live with climate chaos. BXE fasters will visit FERC every day and refuse any food or drink except water until September 25th, the day the Pope speaks at the United Nations in New York City, or FERC stops issuing new permits -- whichever comes first.
These brave climate warriors are risking their health, comfort and safety to stop any of our towns and communities from being sacrificed to fracked gas infrastructure. Can you can stand with them by signing on in solidarity and telling everyone you know?
Fasting—also described as hunger striking—is usually undertaken after less drastic and more traditional forms of action such as leafleting, petitioning, meetings, vigils and demonstrations have failed to move the person or institution being targeted. It's a way to dramatize the urgency of our demands and to draw attention to the intransigence of FERC.
For years citizens' groups have utilized FERC’s procedures to try to prevent the dramatic expansion of gas pipelines, compressor stations, storage terminals and export terminals.
- We have signed up to be official “intervenors” in proposed gas infrastructure expansion proposals.
- We have submitted well-reasoned comments to the FERC website.
- We have signed petitions on specific projects, in some cases submitting hundreds of thousands of signatures opposed to the expansion of fracking. Most recently, more than 100,000 people -- including many Environmental Action members -- signed a petition calling upon FERC to change in the winter of 2014.
- We have mobilized hundreds of people to attend FERC's public meetings.
- We have met three times with the Chair of FERC to present our demands.
- More than 100 people have submitted to arrest in nonviolent actions in front of FERC’s D.C. headquarters. Twice in the last year Beyond Extreme Energy has organized week-long, nonviolent blockades of the entrances to FERC, disrupting FERC’s operations and reaching out to FERC employees urging them to speak up about FERC’s corruption by the gas industry.
- For eight straight months we have attended the monthly meetings of the five FERC Commissioners to raise our concerns. But too often those expressing concerns are simply removed from the meetings and now are being banned from them despite a court order that public meetings should remain public.
But the permits to expand fracked gas infrastructure just keep coming. Sign here to show your solidarity with the BXE fast for no new permits
Fracking is a threat to people and the planet. The process of fracking contaminates water, air and land; and even leads to earthquakes. It generates significant methane emissions which as a greenhouse gas is at least 85 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. In the last year we've seen dramatic examples of fracked gas infrastructure exploding, leaking or catching fire; a clear threat to the health and safety of those living or working nearby.
Pope Francis said, “It is no longer enough, then, simply to state that we should be concerned for future generations. We need to see that what is at stake is our own dignity. Leaving an inhabitable planet to future generations is, first and foremost, up to us… Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.”
Sign here to support the Fast for No New Permits at FERC, and be counted among those who have the reverence, resolve and joy to stop the expansion of fracked gas.
Thanks,
Drew and the FERC Fast Support Team at Environmental Action
PS - Want to meet the fasters or learn more about what they're doing? Click here to see the whole story at Beyond Extreme Energy's website and sign up to fast from home. |
