“175 Years of Climate Chaos”: Extinction Rebellion DC Throws Washington Gas a Party to Remember

Rebels take over WGL’s lobby to tell the truth about Washington Gas’ legacy


Photo by Lisa Finn

Washington, DC – Today, Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC) helped Washington Gas celebrate 175 years as a leader of climate chaos. While rebels threw a party in Benjamin Banneker park, other rebels swarmed the lobby of WGL’s offices and dropped a massive banner reading, “175 YEARS OF CLIMATE CHAOS - NO MORE BIRTHDAYS ON A DEAD PLANET.”

Rebels in the lobby stayed for almost half an hour until they were forced out. The party in the park featured additional banners, a cake spewing smoke, a potluck, and speakers who told the truth about Washington Gas’ polluted legacy and demanded an end to Project Pipes, Washington Gas’ $4.5 billion pipeline replacement project that locks DC into decades more of fossil fuel emissions and poor health outcomes. 

The event follows three weeks where rebels challenged Washington Gas to an escalating series of competitions, from a debate to chess to jousting. Each time, Washington Gas failed to show, unable to defend themselves in the face of the truth.

“Since 1848, Washington Gas has been pumping poisonous, climate-warming gas throughout the city and into resident’s homes, pursuing profit at the expense of our community. Washington Gas has attempted to conceal this legacy by planting a single tree – as if one tree will compensate for the copious amounts of methane gas WGL pumps into the air every day,” said Jade Olson, Press Spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion DC. “Washington Gas has no future in DC. Their 175th birthday just may be their last.”

In order for DC to meet its climate goals, it must end its reliance on methane gas. The world is already feeling the impacts of a warming climate, from DC’s awful air quality to flash floods in New York to record-breaking heat across the world. Any investment in the fossil fuel infrastructure driving this crisis, apart from repairing the worst leaks here in DC, is already obsolete. The DC Council and Public Service Commission must stop Project Pipes.

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Photo by William Dickson

Note to Editors:

  1. For more information about Washington Gas' toxic pipeline project and XRDC's campaign to stop it visit https://www.xrdc.org/gas

  1. Methane is the gas piped into your home to cook your food and heat your house. DC has some of the oldest underground methane gas pipes in the country, and these pipes are leaking large amounts of methane throughout the city. There are more than 3,000 leaks in the District – and over 70% of the leaks in 2021 were at hazardous levels, posing a severe and immediate threat to the city’s residents.

  1. Methane gas kills. It severely harms the health of DC’s residents, especially the most vulnerable — children, the elderly, and people experiencing homelessness. When you light your stove, it sends nitrogen dioxide into your home. That can cause cardiovascular problems, respiratory disease, and premature death.

  2. A gas stove also releases chemicals that can cause cancer and birth defects.

  3. A lit gas stove also produces a poisonous cocktail of other chemicals and gasses like formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide. Children in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to have asthma than children whose families use electric stoves, a similar rate to children living with cigarette smokers. Stoves continue to leak methane into your home even when they’re turned off.

  4. Washington Gas will tell you methane gas is “renewable,” “clean,” “natural,” “responsible,” and “green.” In fact, greenhouse gas emissions from the use of methane gas now exceed coal emissions in the United States — and methane heats the planet up to 80 times faster than carbon dioxide.

  5. Methane concentrations in the atmosphere are so high that they’re now responsible for 30-50% of the global rise in temperatures. Leaking gas pipes, like those in DC, are a major source of US methane emissions. The amount of methane the fossil fuel industry releases is far worse than regulators think. And gas stoves in the United States release the same amount of greenhouse gas as 500,000 cars.

  6. DC has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2045. Washington Gas’ plans make this goal impossible to achieve. The Department of Energy and Environment calls Washington Gas’ business plan “technically deficient with significant errors.”

  7. This is part of Washington Gas’ coordinated, greenwashed PR campaign. They have sponsored Petworth’s street festival, a community food drive for Thanksgiving, and are an official media partner with WUSA9, which provides an easy outlet for their greenwashed PR. All of this is smoke and mirrors so Washington Gas can go through with their deadly Project Pipes.

About Extinction Rebellion

Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate & ecological crisis, including the sixth mass extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices if rapid action is not taken.

Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.

What Emergency? |This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook |FAQs

Abby Shepard2023