REBELS DISRUPT DC COUNCIL SESSION WITH LOUDSPEAKERS TO DEMAND AN END TO NEW FOSSIL FUEL PROJECTS IN THE CITY
June 7th, 2020, Washington DC - Rebels wearing hazmat suits and gas masks disrupted a legislative session of the city council today to demand the council stops the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure in the city.
Washington Gas plans to spend $4.5 billion on new methane gas pipes in the district. This new fossil fuel infrastructure would lock in decades of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions while continuing to poison and endanger DC residents.
As council members met for the session on June 7th, rebels used loudspeakers to blast a speech in which United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres says that averting climate catastrophe requires an immediate stop to all new fossil fuel projects. The UN chief also calls governments that are allowing more fossil fuel projects "dangerous radicals".
“The council's failure to act is pushing us further towards climate catastrophe. It is also exposing residents to deadly danger, severe illness and early death,” said Reilly Polka, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC), the local chapter of the global climate movement.
“The council is ignoring our demands and the warnings of dozens of health experts, scientists, and energy advocates. We will continue to disrupt politics-as-usual until the council acts to protect the people it is supposed to serve.”
Methane gas, which is piped into people’s homes for cooking and heating, is a fossil fuel that heats the planet 20 times faster than carbon dioxide. Washington Gas' death project will make the district's climate goals impossible to achieve. Methane is also a toxic pollutant that causes early death and asthma, especially in children.
There are more than 6,000 methane leaks in the city, far higher than the national average. Around a dozen are so dangerous that they could explode at any minute. The health and safety risks of methane are concentrated in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor communities.
In April, XRDC launched a sustained campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to end the city’s reliance on toxic methane gas. It has sent a letter to the council, delivered letters to councillors in person and disrupted political forums featuring candidates in upcoming local elections. On Earth Day one rebel climbed the Wilson Building and unfurled a giant banner that read “NO NEW FOSSIL FUELS.”
NOTE TO EDITORS:
For more information about XRDC's campaign and its demands visit https://www.xrdc.org/gas
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 6,000 leaks in the district — more than twice the average US city. Some of these leaks are so dangerous that they could explode at any moment, posing a severe and immediate threat to the city’s residents.
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.
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.
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.
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 release the same amount of greenhouse gas as 500,000 cars.
In December 2017, DC pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. Washington Gas’ plans make this goal impossible to achieve.
WHO: Extinction Rebellion (XR) is an international movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse. Along with branches and chapters in 70 countries and 350+ cities, XR Washington DC is in open rebellion against the world's governments for their criminal inaction on the climate and ecological crisis.