Category: Environment

  • Sen. Joe Manchin Takes Advantage of GOP Extremism Despite Community Opposition

    Sen. Joe Manchin Takes Advantage of GOP Extremism Despite Community Opposition

    Pipeline
    Pixaby

    Joe Manchin’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Is Poised to Wreak Havoc

    “The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), touted as the most extended and largest-capacity new gas pipeline in the eastern United States, is an environmentally destructive project that threatens the well-being of Appalachian communities in West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. We must stop it.

    Community opposition had successfully blocked the 300-mile pipeline, but in the recent debt ceiling negotiations, Sen. Joe Manchin took advantage of GOP extremism to extract promises to fast-track the construction of the MVP. This pipeline is poised to wreak havoc on West Virginia and southwest Virginia’s low-wealth, Black, and indigenous communities and plunge us further into the climate crisis. As a veterans organization, we know that climate change is an existential threat facing our country and communities, and building more pipelines only worsens the problem.

    The resilient Appalachian communities refuse to be silenced or overlooked. However, disheartening reports have exposed a troubling “side deal” that prioritizes the fossil fuel industry’s interests over the well-being of the communities it purports to serve.

    Joe Manchin’s debt deal only serves to solidify the status of Appalachian communities as sacrifice zones, their voices stifled and their concerns ignored.” 1

    “It’s time to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline system, aka MVP, and its dangerous attempts to transport dirty fracked gas across Appalachia. This massive dirty energy project makes no more sense today than when it was first proposed more than five years ago. It would keep communities dependent on dirty fossil fuels for generations while jeopardizing sensitive rivers and streams, drinking water sources, the climate, and local communities.” 2

  • Republicans Love the Fossil Fuel Industry

    Republicans Love the Fossil Fuel Industry

    It Is Where Most of Their Money Comes From

    Fossil Fuel
    Pixabal

    “Led by the oil and gas industry, this sector regularly pumps the vast majority of its campaign contributions into Republican coffers. Even as other traditionally GOP-inclined industries have shifted somewhat to the left, this sector has remained rock-solid red. Since the 1990 election cycle, more than two-thirds of this sector’s contributions to candidates and party committees has gone to Republicans. Besides oil and gas, the electric utilities industry is another big donor in this sector. Less generous, but even more partisan, is the mining industry.” 3

    “Aramco is the latest in a string of oil giants to publish record profits this year. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led countries to look for alternatives to Russian gas, including turning to other oil rich nations – such as Saudi Arabia. This increased demand has seen oil prices soar. Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser confirmed this in a statement, adding: “We expect oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade despite downward economic pressures on short-term global forecasts.”” 4

    Infographic: Saudi Aramco's Profits Soar Amid High Oil Prices & Demand | Statista You will find more infographics at Statista
  • Is Climate Change Affecting Plate Tectonics?

    Is Climate Change Affecting Plate Tectonics?

    Earthquake
    Pixabay.com

    “On February 6 and 7, the Southeast of Turkey and the Northwest of Syria have been hit by devastating earthquakes. In addition to the main tremor that reached a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, more than 20 aftershocks with magnitudes between 5.0 and 7.5 were registered in the earthquake-ravished region around Gaziantep.” 5

    “The twin magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 earthquakes that struck the Ridgecrest area in California’s Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles on July 4 and 5, respectively, were felt by up to 30 million people in California, Nevada, Arizona and Baja California, resulting in loss of life, injuries, billions in damage and lots of frazzled nerves.” 6

    Infographic: Earth's Moving Plates | Statista You will find more infographics at Statista

  • Arizona’s Water is Growing Alfalfa to Ship to Saudi Arabia

    Arizona’s Water is Growing Alfalfa to Ship to Saudi Arabia

    Water
    Pixabay.com

    Arizona is Almost Giving its Water Away During Drought Conditions

    The Arizona Republican Legislators are Giving Your Water Resources Away

    “So when Arizonans are forced to cut back and a foreign company gets to pump however much water they want for cows in Saudi Arabia, it gets me fired up.” Kris Mayes 7

    “Arizona is leasing farmland to a Saudi water company, straining aquifers, and threatening future water supply in Phoenix. Fondomonte, a Saudi company, exports the alfalfa to feed its cows in the Middle East. The country has practically exhausted its own underground aquifers there. In Arizona, Fondomonte can pump as much water as it wants at no cost. Groundwater is unregulated in most rural areas of the state. Fondomonte pays only $25 per acre annually. The State Land Department says the market rate is $50 dollars per acre and it provides a 50% discount because it doesn’t pay for improvements. But the $25 per acre price is about one-sixth of the market price for unimproved farmland with flood irrigation today, according to Charlie Havranek, a Realtor at Southwest Land Associates.” 8

    “Four hours east of Los Angeles, in a drought-stricken area of a drought-afflicted state, is a small town called Blythe where alfalfa is king. More than half of the town’s 94,000 acres are bushy blue-green fields growing the crop. Massive industrial storehouses line the southern end of town, packed with thousands upon thousands of stacks of alfalfa bales ready to be fed to dairy cows – but not cows in California’s Central Valley or Montana’s rangelands. Instead, the alfalfa will be fed to cows in Saudi Arabia.” 9

    “How much does unlimited pumping of groundwater in the Butler Valley, a desert west of Phoenix, Ariz, cost? Nothing, at least for Saudi corporation, Fondomonte, who has been growing alfalfa for export to Saudi Arabia over the last seven years.” 10

  • Why Do the Republicans Want to Destroy the Climate?

    Why Do the Republicans Want to Destroy the Climate?

    Pollution
    Pixabay.com

    As this infographic using Rapid Energy Policy Evaluation and Analysis Toolkit (REPEAT) estimates shows, while annual net greenhouse gas emissions are forecast to be significantly lower by 2030 than they would be if the country’s current policies were maintained, the target is still well out of reach. REPEAT expects emissions to come closer to the desired level by 2035.

    Infographic: How the Inflation Reduction Act Will Affect U.S. Emissions | Statista You will find more infographics at Statista

    “Not a single Republican in Congress stepped up to support my climate plan. Not one,” Biden said, speaking at a coal turned wind power plant in Massachusetts on Wednesday. “So let me be clear: climate change is an emergency.” 11

    “Senate Democrats steeled themselves on Saturday night for a long slog of GOP sabotage attempts as they plodded toward passage of their signature health care, climate and tax bill.” 12