1/ Is @POTUS breaking his promise to honor environmental justice and is instead positioning the U.S. as one of the world’s largest fossil fuel dealers? 🤔
🧵A thread on the cracks in Biden’s climate and environmental justice ambitions: 🧵
2/ Biden’s @EPA, @StateDept & @USACEGALVESTON say that Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT), a massive offshore oil export port, pipeline, and tank farm proposed through neighborhoods in Surfside, TX and in the Gulf Coast, would not impact low-income communities and communities of color.
3/ If approved, the SPOT project would emit 300 MILLION tons of greenhouse gasses each year, poisoning the air of Brazoria County where residents already live alongside a number of high-pollution facilities and experience serious challenges to their health and higher cancer rates
4/ Despite knowing the state of Texas has failed to keep Brazoria residents safe from unhealthy air pollution for decades, Biden’s @EPA recommended @DOTMARAD approve a project that will continue to put the community’s health at risk from toxic air pollution.
5/ The @EPA recognized the SPOT project as an environmental injustice, saying “more emphasis is needed to ensure that environmental justice and climate change considerations are included in the project for the protection of overburdened communities."
7/ The companies behind SPOT, Enbridge and Enterprise, are not only responsible for the climate crisis but have appalling safety records: 360 pipeline incidents, the most reported incidents by any pipeline operator between 2010 and 2016. fractracker.org/2016/11/update…
8/ Indigenous, climate, youth & community groups have been calling on @POTUS to #StopFossilFuelExports, but it looks like he is siding w/ fossil fuel interests to globally lock us into decades of dirty emissions, when he could be a climate leader and #declareaclimateemergency
9/ @POTUS, the agencies led by Secretaries YOU nominated – @EPA, @buttigeig, @DOTMARAD – are allowing the fossil fuel industry to continue sacrificing the Gulf Coast so oil profiteers can get richer. Listen to #environmentaljustice leaders and the local community: STOP SPOT.
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~THREAD~ For nearly a decade @TXsharon and our field team have captured proof that #oilandgas is polluting more methane than they admit. Check the receipts below vvvv earthworks.org/the-power-of-b…
Methane is a GHG 86x more potent than CO2 and it is polluted at every step of the oil and gas extraction process. But science shows that poor reporting (and the forces of vested interests) keep much of this pollution (as much as half) unreported /2 nature.com/articles/s4146…
In some states we find that companies are routinely polluting methane without permits - completely off the books - while agencies turn a blind eye /3 earthworks.org/publications/f…
~THREAD~ The @oversightdems hearing on #BigOilLies fueling the #ClimateCrisis brought in leading climate scientists and researchers in to discuss the ways #BigOil spread disinformation that delay climate action & what that delay costs us. Here is a 🧵 of some of the big moments:
2/ Big Takeaway - We have zero time left to wait yet a small handful of the largest #oilandgas companies are undertaking a new effort to keep fossil fuels burning: Climate Commitments
3/ Climate commitments can be a good thing if commitments are based on science & goals are inline with the #ParisAgreement. And of course commitments only work if companies meet them. Thus far @chevron@exxonmobil@shell@bpplc & others haven't met any of these requirements
THREAD: Polluters (and their trade groups) are running a full fledged misinformation campaign to convince @POTUS and his @EPA to adopt new methane rules that would allow millions of wells to go unregulated. Here’s the scoop:
3) According to @EPAMichaelRegan these rules will be the "most stringent" rules to #cutmethane from oil and gas. And that apparently has the #oilandgas lobby scrambling…
Metals #mining is the leading industrial toxic polluter in the US per @EPA reporting & @UNEP says it contributes 10% of global carbon emissions. We must transition to #cleanenergy AND reduce dependence on new mining. earthworks.org/publications/r…
Current technology allows us to recover over 90% of battery metals, IF policy makers get behind it. @UTSISF research shows recycling can meet up to 55% of copper, nickel, lithium & cobalt demand. We can also improve battery design for disassembly & repair. #MakeCleanEnergyClean
TODAY @RollingStone & @JustinNobel expose two new damning instances in which the #oilandgas industry continues to contaminate communities across the US w/ radioactive waste--adding to a case against #frack waste made previously by @Earthworks.
@RollingStone@JustinNobel First, while many contaminants in #oilandgas waste have not yet been identified and the risks of others are only partially understood. Radioactive elements are indisputably present in shale formations and are brought to the surface during development, such as in wastewater.
@RollingStone@JustinNobel The #fracking process is water intensive. Wastewater from #oilandgas can total 10X more than oil and gas taken from a well. This is problem for workers who handle wastewater like those who contracted cancer in Louisiana, case @cdc confirmed were caused by radioactivity on the job