It’s early on the morning after the Big Election of 2022. All of the results and projections by mainstream mass media are in agreement that the pre-election expected—by both Republican and Democratic, mainstream mass media pundits—“red wave” did not and will not be materializing. On CBS radio this am it was being described as more like a “red puddle,” and it could end up more like “much ado about nothing.”

Given the repeated, alarmist, liberal news stories about what they said was likely to happen yesterday, there is no way to describe what happened, whatever the final specifics as far as control of the House—potentially Democratic, if unlikely, still!—and Senate, as anything other than a victory for the Democrats.

US democracy has survived to fight future battles, including the battle for it to become more democratic, less dominated by white supremacist, oligarch money, and that is a reason for relieved hope.

It is very hopeful that young people, apparently, came out in significant numbers. If deeper analysis shows this to be true across the country, it is probably the most important political development of this historic night. Large numbers of young people acting together for positive social change has been absolutely decisive in the past when it comes to important social movements for progressive change. It can be, it has to be, that way in the immediate future if this country and the world are going to positively change in this time of climate/democracy/increasing-inequality emergency.

It is also hopeful that there was significant voter turnout by Black and Latino voters, probably also Indigenous and Asian/Pacific Islander voters. It is inconceivable that the Democrats could have done as well as they did without this being the case.

How did the “red wave” not happen? In addition to and in connection with the youth and people of color turnout, a decisive component was the voter education and turnout work done by many organizations which operated independent of the Democratic Party while supporting in the vast majority of cases Democratic candidates. This was a major factor in Trump’s defeat in 2020, and in 2022 it might have been even more decisive.

The conscious recognition of the reality of this “third force”—not a “third party”—and its increased interconnection and coherence going into 2024 and beyond is an absolute essential if we are to break the generally 50/50 national split between the center/left forces and the right/extreme rightist forces. We need a unified, organized, mass people’s movement which can impact the US body politic in ways that will never come to pass via the Democratic Party as presently constituted.

We’re still here, we’re still standing, we’re still fighting, and there’s still realistic hope that we can defeat the Trumpists and make this the decade of major social and political transformation that it can be, that it has to be.

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

Many years ago I discovered the website https://realclearpolitics.com It’s a website that every day reports on the latest electoral polls that have come out from a wide range of polling companies. It’s a good way to keep up with the shifting tides of political fortune for candidates running for President, Senate, House and Governor.

What I’ve learned through using RCP for over 10 years is that the most accurate way to understand what is happening as far as voter preferences, generally, is to average the latest polls, of which there are many during times like right now when there’s a major national election happening. There can be a wide disparity between polls based upon their having either a Republican or a Democratic lean, or just the methodology that is used. That’s why it is important to look at not one individual poll but at an average over the preceding week or the last several days.

Concerned about the current media coverage, and actual indications, that the Democrats are in definite trouble, I just looked at what the RCP polls are saying right now about the state of play when it comes to the US Senate, a battle where the Dems have a better chance of winning than the House. Here’s what the RCP average of polls is currently saying for what they consider to be the dozen “top Senate races:”

Five of them, in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Ohio, are toss-ups. No one is ahead by more than 2.1%, within the polling “margin of error.” So those are all races that the Democrats could win, dependent upon voter turnout between now and election day November 8.

In seven of them, in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Florida, Washington, Colorado and Connecticut, the leading candidate has at least a 3.3% advantage. The two closest are in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, where the leads are 3.3% and 3.4%. In the remaining five the leads are between 5% and 11%.

So in seven states, there is a distinct possibility the Trump-dominated Republican party could lose if enough people who get it as far as the danger it represents come out to vote.

The election is eight days away as I write. There’s still time for people to join up with the many organized phone calling and other get out the vote efforts being done by many groups. And there is still time for any of us in those seven states to personally reach out to friends, neighbors, co-workers, anyone we know to urge them to come out and vote on November 8.

History is made not by great leaders but by large numbers of people taking action together at a time of crisis. Now is such a time. Si, se puede!

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

Why do some of us stick with it, continue to organize and take action for a better world? The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve come to believe that for many of us, children are, at root, the primary reason.

Long-time peace and justice activist Daniel Berrigan concluded one of his most well-known poems, “Some,” with these words:

Why do you stand?” they were asked, and
“Why do you walk?”

“Because of the children,” they said, and
“Because of the heart, and
“Because of the bread,”

“Because the cause is
the heart’s beat, and
the children born, and
the risen bread.”

I remember how, about 15 years ago, the thought of my two nieces, at the time ages 1 and 4, Abby and Ellie, was what allowed me to overcome my fear of heights and to scale a ladder 25 feet up from the ground and sit on a narrow ledge for four hours as part of a 2006 climate protest. The last words of the poem I wrote after that action were: ”Abby and Ellie, children everywhere, future generations, need us now.”

And I remember reading, somewhere some time ago, about an African American young person asking a grandparent who had been active in the deep South fighting brutal Jim Crow segregation how they were able to take the risks which came with doing so. The grandparent’s answer: I kept thinking of you and the world you would be living in.

Last week, flying on a plane to California to baby-sit my grandson Rio for my son and daughter in law, independent filmmakers who needed me to do so while they did interviews for a future film, I wrote this poem:

Soon, very soon,
A couple of hours more,
At the airport,
Baggage claim,
As you and your parents
And me,
Your grandpa,
Reconnect,
In person,
Not for some minutes
Electronically,
As important as that is,
But touching,
And holding,
And loving face to face.

Days together
Before returning home
To keep at the work–
Even more important to me now–
Of helping,
Working with others,
Day after day,
Hour by hour,
As much as my body allows
For a New World
For you and all children.

I will do all I can, Rio,
I promise you.

And I love you so much.

There’s a song that has been around in the climate justice movement for many years that I’ve often sung and always liked. Sometimes while singing it with others as part of street actions I’ve choked up while doing so:

People gonna rise like the waters,
Gonna calm this crisis down.
I hear the voice of my great granddaughter saying
Keep it in the ground.

How can our people’s movement for justice, peace, democracy and a stable climate not lose our way as we work for those societal objectives? Putting children, grandchildren, the seventh generation at the center as we figure it all out is without a doubt an essential component.

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

It’s easy to forget that, as of several months ago, political pundits and prognosticators were sure that the Democrats were going to be wiped out in the Congressional elections happening in 25 days. Biden’s poll numbers were down in the high 30’s, Congressional Democrats were demoralized, and all the talk was about a wave election leading to Republican control, and by significant numbers at least in the House, of both houses of Congress.

Then came the Supreme Court’s Roe Vs. Wade decision, followed a month later by the introduction and then passage in the Senate and House of the Inflation Reduction Act. And the conventional political wisdom and the polls began to change. Today, Biden’s approval rating is in the mid-40’s, it is a definite possibility that the Democrats will retain control of the Senate, and the professional political analysts say the House will likely be won by Republicans but with a much narrower margin.

Or to put it another way: it is possible that November 8, election day, will turn out much better than anyone was expecting just four months ago.

It is so easy to get turned off and distracted by all of the election horse race sound and fury coming at us in our email and text inboxes, our tv’s, radios and elsewhere. But we can’t let that happen. All of us need to keep it up, step it up as we approach the end point of this historic election.

For me that has meant doing something I had to think hard about: making phone calls for a Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania who has supported the destructive fracking industry, John Fetterman. Why did I make those calls? Because it could well be that, if he wins, he could be the difference between the Trump Republicans winning control of the Senate and the Democrats holding onto it, or between the Democrats increasing their numbers such that Manchin and Sinema are neutralized, or not.

Those were the reasons why I determined that I should be willing to engage in a tactic that I’d prefer not to but which I determined was OK to do, important to do, given the particular political realities we are facing right now in the USA.

Principles, program, strategy and tactics: I wrote about all of these this summer right around the time that the Inflation Reduction Act was announced. In that column I said: “Right now, principles and strategy come into play when considering whether, in good faith, one can use the tactic of supporting opportunistic Congressional Democrats who have achieved political office and some power in part because of their too-often willingness to compromise. The need to defeat the Trumpist Republican alternative because of the danger of so many bad things coming about if there is a Republican takeover of the House and/or Senate on November 8 calls for all of us on the progressive Left to take this question seriously.”

I concluded that column saying this: “There continue to be polls and other indications that, despite Biden’s real political weakness and unpopularity, growing numbers of progressives, liberals and decent people see the importance of a massive turnout to the polls on November 8 as an essential, absolutely necessary, tactic for us over the next 100-plus days.”

Now there are 25 days left. Now, Biden is not so unpopular, which is helpful in terms of the key issue of voter turnout. Now, hopefully, all of us who appreciate the huge danger we face from the neo-fascist Trump Republicans will figure out how we can each do our part leading up to November 8.

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

Last evening I watched the October 1, “Save America,” Trump/Republican campaign rally, 108 minutes of it, in Warren, Michigan. I did so hoping to see the effect of the internal divisions within the Republican Party, some sign that Trump has been weakened by all that has been exposed about him since he was forced to leave the White House in disgrace.

If anything, Trump is worse than before. He’s not just a neo-fascist; he’s like a raving, rabid mad dog out for revenge on anyone who doesn’t fall in line to kiss his ring.

For the first 50 minutes of his Hitlerian performance, it was striking that he literally had only one good thing to say about his four years in the White House. About minute 41, after claiming that his was “the most successful administration in the history of the country,” he used as his only example that he took over an old post office building in DC and “made it into a work of art,” which he then sold for a nice profit.

I’m not exaggerating. This was the only example for the first 50 minutes, something that had nothing to do with the running of the country but that he had made a “nice profit” on.

Instead, he attacked and attacked and attacked, with zero regard for being truthful:

– “The radical left Democrats lie and steal.”
-“They have flooded the country with tens of millions more criminal, illegal aliens, giving them more than what people in the military get.”
-If the Republicans don’t win back power, “we will never have fair elections again.”
-“Dozens and dozens of political prisoners are locked up in horrible, dirty conditions” because of their participation in “peaceful protest” on January 6.
-There were “one million people on January 6.”
“The cities have become killing fields.”
“Each drug dealer kills an average of 500 American citizens.” His solution: “execute drug dealers.”

Throughout he equated the many and various investigations and indictments against him as attacks not just on him but on those who supported him, that he was suffering for them, fighting back against the radical left Democrats, the FBI, the drug dealers, all for them.

A hatefest, that’s what it was. Hatred, fear, constant lying and division on full display, with Mafioso Trump as the only person in the country who could make things right.

His conclusion, with music to accompany it, was: “We will never give in, never back down, the tyrants we’re fighting don’t stand a chance. The silent majority is back. There will be greatness for our country again. We are one people, one family, one glorious nation. We will make American powerful, make America wealthy, make America strong, make America safe, make America proud, make America great again.”

Were there any silver lining signs of hope at this disturbingly dystopian rally? Perhaps. A Newsweek story quoted Detroit Free Press reporter Paul Egan who suggested that “the event did not draw a capacity crowd, and that Trump’s speech at the rally may have driven some attendees away.  . . There’s been a steady stream of attendees heading for the exits since about the 15-minute mark of this now hour-long and ongoing speech.”

It is also possible, or likely, that the constant negativism and fear and hate that radiates from this nut case is turning off some of those who are with him on many of the issues.

Trump wasn’t like this the last time I watched him speak in June of 2020 for an hour and a half. Back then, I wrote about how he spent a quarter or more of his speech adlibbing about a speech he had made at West Point a week before “which he claimed went over spectacularly with the troops, of course, but instead, amazingly, astoundingly, a presentation about all that he had to endure up there with the West Point generals:  the sun in his eyes, the heat, having to salute ‘600 times,’ but most of all, the way in which the ‘fake news media’ fixated on how weak he looked walking down a short ramp from the stage to the ground. Trump went on and on about how, because he had ‘leather shoes,’ and because the ramp was like ‘an ice skating rink,’ he had to be very careful, with little steps, telling the general next to him who had the right kind of shoes that he should be ready in case Trump slipped.

“If Trump was a stand-up comic instead of a President, this trivial, self-pitying story might become known as one of the best, long, stand-up comic routines of the year.”

There was no sign of this side of Trump last night. None, zero.

Right now, polling indicates that there is a good possibility that the Trump-dominated Republican Party is going to take over control of the House. That looks less likely for the Senate, but it is not out of the question that they could win there too.

The thought of Trump enablers and fanatics like Kevin McCarthy and Margaret Taylor Greene leading the House for the next two years is not a happy one.

There is one month left until election day, November 8. There is no more important work over that month than work to mobilize all of the radical and progressive and liberal and decent-minded people of our country to come out and vote, send the strongest possible message that the USA, for all its faults, will not become a fascist nation, not now, not ever.

Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland. Past writings and other information, including about Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, two books published by him in 2020 and 2021, can be found at https://tedglick.com. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick

It was a hard-fought and, as a result, very sweet victory yesterday over Joe Manchin, coal baron, fossil fuel profiteer and sick, unapologetic corporatist. It was a huge victory against powerful enemies of the planet and its people.

The fact that it was ultimately sunk by the Republicans after about 85 House and Senate Democrats, under strong grassroots pressure from hundreds and hundreds of groups, came out publicly against it is a sign of how isolated and defeated Manchin is, right now. He’ll make every effort to make a comeback, and he can’t be counted out, but right now he’s down on the mat.

Our job is to make it very difficult for him and the fossil fuel industry he represents to recover from this defeat. He’s already made it clear in his defeat statement that he intends to keep at it. Of course he’d say that, what else is he going to say? On his deathbed he’ll probably say, I am so proud of my efforts to keep the fossil fuel industry alive. He is exhibit number one of what the term “climate criminal” means.

How do we keep the fossil fuelers as down as we can keep them? Most immediately, those of us who fought this two-month fight against the Manchin dirty side deal should be doing as much as we can to defeat Republicans running for the Senate. If the Dems have at least 52 Senators, Manchin’s (and Sinema’s) power will be lessened big-time.

And we should do the same as far as the House. Our consciously multi-racial people’s movement is in a better position to defend democracy and advance climate justice, racial and economic and gender justice, the rights of workers and more, when the Democrats control Congress. You can be a dedicated revolutionary who supports the need for a progressive alternative to both parties and appreciate this truth.

At the same time, I think we need to seriously look at the issue of electrical transmission. That is the argument used by Biden, Schumer, and many Democrats as to why they supported the Manchin dirty deal, that it’s OK to accept that deal because if passed it would have made it easier for the federal government to build long distance and other power lines to get electricity from solar and wind farms to homes and businesses.

I’m not clear in my own mind about this issue. My preference would be for the primary focus to be massive government support for locally-based and -controlled, distributed energy and battery storage, rather than massive, industrial scale wind and solar farms. Such an approach would, over time, decrease the need for long-distance transmission. It would also mean a much more resilient, secure and people powered electricity system. But I am not opposed to the big projects in general, given the urgency of the climate emergency.

I know I’m going to be personally researching and talking with others about this transmission issue. Strategically, this has to be on our agenda right now.

Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland. Past writings and other information, including about Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, two books published by him in 2020 and 2021, can be found at https://tedglick.com. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick

This morning, going through old email from way back, I found something from six years ago that I had saved, written by the late veteran organizer Hunter Gray. Re-reading it, I’m glad I did. In the email was a story he had written that everyone who is an activist for progressive social change should read and seriously consider. Here it is:

 A VERY IMPORTANT LESSON LEARNED LONG AGO BY ME — AND NEVER FORGOTTEN

I learned a very important lesson in 1964 in a hot and crowded church one night at Enfield, in Northeastern North Carolina. Our Movement was indeed moving quite well indeed.  But it was a very tough struggle against great odds and crises were many. Feelings in that church were high and strong, and when I, the organizer/speaker rose to the podium, I was fired up.  Somewhere in my call-to-arms, I began to talk about the County Attorney, Rom [Romeus] Parker, a key foe and, although not one of the thick-as-sand-fleas Klansmen, a very committed segregationist. He was a man of average build, seemed to wear the same dark business suit and tie, and his not-that-old a face was rather heavy and worn.

And one of his legs was badly crippled.

In that church, my focus on Rom Parker and his sins sharpened.  The eyes of people glistened.  I noted signs of movement, angry tension. Full agreement with my every hot-eyed word.

And then, I began to mimic Rom Parker’s crippled gait.  I jerked back and forth in front of the crowd — noting the considerable resonance this pantomime evoked.

The tempo of angry feeling in the church rose higher, and higher.

And then, suddenly, I stopped my act.  Cold turkey.

There was sudden silence.

I am not known for apologies — whether sparingly delivered or profuse.  But, in my own way, in that hot, tense church, I did just that.

Shaken, I told the people:  “I should never have done that — mocked another human being in such a cruel and thoughtless way.  We’re all committed to something much, much higher — vastly higher, vastly better.”

I finished, “Rom Parker is a human being.”

And heads began to nod. There were murmured “Amens.” Then there was silence for a few moments more — and then the minister led off with “Amazing Grace” and we all joined in.

I continued my talk and we continued our most successful Movement.

And I never did anything like that again.  Never.

Months later, spearheaded and pushed by our Movement, The Change began to come to that hard-core section — and others across the sweep of Dixie.  Under the eyes of Klansmen, angry white parents, state and some Federal officials, we had succeeded some time back in securing token school desegregation — Blacks and one Indian — into schools in two of the towns.  And now I and a few others were meeting at the county courthouse with school administrative officials to work out the integration / transfer of even more “minority” students.  It was a low-key meeting involving some discussion of new Federal guidelines, nothing dramatic.  Rom Parker was there as County Attorney.  Earlier, I had loaned my car to a colleague and, with the meeting adjourned, I suddenly realized as I approached the courthouse door that it was raining very hard outside.  My friend had not yet come back with my vehicle.

Most people had already left.  But, behind me, I heard someone coming down the stairway.  It was Rom Parker.  He and I looked at one another.  Then he said, “I’m heading back to Enfield.  Could you use a ride?”

I was almost tempted — but my car was coming.  “I’ve got someone bringing my car here,” I said.  “Or I would be happy to go with you.”

And then I added, “I greatly appreciate your offer.”

And we shook hands.

In my book, 21^st Century Revolution, I say at one point that “It is not enough to be concerned about the problems of the world. If a person trying to change the world treats other individuals she/he/they come into contact with on a day-to-day basis with disrespect or worse, it is a very big contradiction and, over time, this contradiction will undercut the efforts for social change.”

An Anishinabe prayer I came across many years ago makes this point very, very well:

Grandfather, look at our brokenness.
We know that in all creation
Only the human family has strayed from the Sacred Way,
And we know that we are the ones who must
Come back together to walk the Sacred Way.
Grandfather, Sacred One,
Teach us love, compassion and honor,
That we may heal the earth
And heal each other.

Amen.

 
Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland. Past writings and other information, including about Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, two books published by him in 2020 and 2021, can be found at https://tedglick.com. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

The human species is on a race to see which tipping point we reach first. One would come about if there is so much destructive disruption of the earth’s ecosystems because of the overheating of the atmosphere and oceans that life on earth will be a living hell for those who survive. It would take centuries or millennia before we return to the relatively stable climate we have experienced for thousands of years.

The other tipping point is a political tipping point, a sea change in how seriously humanity as a whole, worldwide, takes the climate emergency and takes action accordingly.

What happens in the USA has a great deal to do with which of these wins out. We are the world’s leading greenhouse gas emitter when it comes to cumulative emissions since the industrial revolution began 250 or so years ago. We are also a dominant nation in the world, if not as much as in the past, politically, economically and militarily.

So are we at or approaching such a political tipping point in the USA right now? Was the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by Congress, billed by most of the mass media as primarily a climate bill, a bill which will accelerate sufficiently the urgently needed shift from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy, while opening the way for the kind of progressive changes on a range of issues that will prevent a pro-dirty energy, counter-revolution?

I think it might be, despite its disturbing provisions supporting the fossil fuel industry, particularly oil and gas in the Gulf and Alaska, limited environmental justice provisions, limited support to mass transit, and other weaknesses. There was a lot in the bill which will advance solar and wind energy, electric cars, battery storage and electric heat pumps for heating and cooling. Without question, these are all sectors of the 21^st century economy which must grow as rapidly as possible if we are to avoid full out, escalating climate and societal breakdown. If the IRA becomes a down payment leading toward much stronger and much more consistent legislation at the scale of the crisis, it will have been a definite win.

It looks like the IRA’s passage has led the US mass media to be making the connections more frequently between extreme weather events and global heating. That is a big deal, if it continues, which it should if the climate justice and progressive movements keep building the visible and activist mass movements which, indeed, had much to do with the IRA becoming law.

It also looks right now, two months before the November 8 federal elections, that there is a decent chance that the Democrats are going to retain control of the Senate and probably gain at least two seats, neutralizing Manchin and Sinema’s poisonous effects that we’ve seen during the first two years of the Biden Presidency. Since the Supreme Court’s misogynist decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, there has been a decided political shift among potential voters which makes it possible that the Dems could end up controlling not just the Senate but the House.

These extremely important developments will only happen if there is extensive and determined organizing to bring out the progressive and justice vote all over the country. This needs to be done not just by the Democratic Party and its candidates but by others not controlled by the Dems who understand the critical nature of these next two months electorally.

But there is one more immediate fight which we must also win, and do so this month: the fight to defeat the Dirty Manchin Side Deal, beginning with preventing it being included as part of a “continuing resolution” to keep the government funded which has a  September 30 deadline.

Here’s how I described what this dirty side deal, supposedly agreed to by Democratic Party leaders, would do in a column I wrote a couple of weeks ago: “grease the wheels for the destructive Mountain Valley Pipeline to be built; severely undercut the National Environmental Policy Act; speed up the federal permitting process for proposed fossil fuel projects; undercut the power of the federal courts to make decisions that slow down approvals of fossil fuel pipelines and infrastructure; and more.”

Democratic Party leaders cannot, absolutely cannot, expect people to come out in the numbers needed on November 8 if they put Joe Manchin’s twisted priorities ahead of the priorities of those in environmental justice communities suffering from air, water and land pollution, the futures of our children and grandchildren, and the health of the planet. It would be nothing less than criminal to pass the already-compromised Inflation Reduction Act and then follow it up with an overt pro-fossil fuels bill that would have negative impacts for years to come.

Fortunately the climate justice movement and its allies have been in rapid response mobilizing mode on this issue for the last month. It has been very encouraging to see how many groups have moved quickly to take this issue up, not just climate groups but other groups. There is going to be a major demonstration this Thursday, September 8, in Washington, DC at 5 pm on Capitol Hill to #StopMVP and Manchin’s Dirty Deal. All who can do so should make every effort to come, and all of us need to keep up the pressure on House and Senate members until we win.

Yes, the needed political turning point is possible. It may, indeed, be happening as I write. Let’s make it so!

Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland. Past writings and other information, including about Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, two books published by him in 2020 and 2021, can be found at https://tedglick.com. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

Did Joe Manchin tell Chuck Schumer that the American Petroleum Institute was going to draft “must-pass” legislation, a pro-fossil fuels side deal, to go along with the Inflation Reduction Act?

On August 3, just a few days before the Senate passed, by a 51-50 vote, that IRA legislation, Bloomberg news released a story about the pro-fossil fuels side deal which should be finally released publicly any day now. Manchin said a month ago that there was a side deal agreement between him and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

This agreement will allegedly allow a vote in September on a yet-to-be-released piece of legislation that will do many bad things: grease the wheels for the destructive Mountain Valley Pipeline to be built; severely undercut the National Environmental Policy Act; speed up the federal permitting process for proposed fossil fuel projects; undercut the power of the federal courts to make decisions that slow down approvals of fossil fuel pipelines and infrastructure; and more.

The Bloomberg article on August 3 reported that “a July 19 draft bill text circulating among lobbyists and lawmakers doesn’t cite any specific, individual project by name. Rather, it is a broad framework aimed at streamlining the permitting process for pipelines and other energy projects under the National Environmental Policy Act. . . The document carries a “Draft – API” watermark. API could stand for the American Petroleum Institute, a powerful lobbying organization for the oil and gas industry. API has had discussions with Manchin staff about the permitting overhaul, and the July 19 date of the document lines up with those discussions, Frank J. Macchiarola, the organization’s senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, said in an interview. But API didn’t write or edit the document, Macchiarola said.”

Yeah, right. An API watermark isn’t proof of anything. There’s probably lots of people or organizations with the initials “API” who are experts on fossil fuels and are friendly with coal baron Joe Manchin. NOT!

The API crowd are Joe’s people. At an infamous hearing of the Manchin-chaired Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on March 4^th of this year, Manchin said, in the heat of a back-and-forth between him/the Republicans and the three Democrats who make up a majority of the five-person leadership group of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, “you are wearing people out,” in a clear reference to Manchin’s people, the coal, oil and gas CEO’s and those on their boards of directors. “There’s a policy by some of death by a thousand cuts on the fossil fuel industry;” and “I know these people, they’re not going to invest, they’re going to walk away.”

Manchin and the Republicans were upset because a couple of weeks before, by a 3-2 vote, FERC decided to change its decision-making policy when a methane gas pipeline company applies for a permit for an interstate gas pipeline and/or related infrastructure, like compressor stations, export terminals or storage terminals. Instead of a rubber stamp policy, which is literally what it has been for over 20 years at FERC, the Democrats in the majority voted for something different, like specifically taking environmental justice and climate change seriously into account.

The Manchin/Republicans gambit worked. A couple weeks after the March 4 hearing the FERC Democrats reversed course, and this new policy was put on hold, which is still the case five months later.

Will Manchin be successful in this latest effort to keep “these people” in the oil and gas industry happy, with Chuck Schumer using his power in the Senate to make it happen? You don’t need to do it Senator Schumer! You owe nothing to scheming Joe Manchin. Just say, “No Joe, I am not going to allow a vote on a bill drafted by the oil and gas industry, the American Petroleum Institute.”

Chuck Schumer and other Democrats in the Senate and House need to be bombarded for the next month by the people’s movement for climate and environmental justice movement and all people who get it on the urgent need to shift from fossil fuels to clean, jobs-creating, renewable energy. Just say no, Chuck!

Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland. Past writings and other information, including about Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, two books published by him in 2020 and 2021, can be found at https://tedglick.com. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.