Earth Day kicks off D.C. campaign to end new fossil fuel infrastructure
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2022
Press team: xrdc_press@unitedrebellion.com
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Earth Day kicks off D.C. campaign to end new fossil fuel infrastructure
(Washington, D.C. April 22nd 2022) — D.C. residents with Extinction Rebellion blockaded the entrance to city hall with a huge banner on Earth Day, kicking off a sustained campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to demand an end to all new fossil fuel infrastructure in the nation’s capital. Police arrested Erica Madrid, who climbed the building to unfurl the banner.
The banner, which read “NO NEW FOSSIL FUELS,” was dropped as part of a global wave of rebellion launched by Extinction Rebellion, one of the largest climate movements in the world. Rebels drummed, chanted and danced as huge puppets representing Mother Earth and her helpers performed in front of the John Wilson Building, the capital's city hall.
Today’s Earth Day action marked the start of Extinction Rebellion D.C.'s campaign to get fossil fuel filth out of the city. The campaign aims to end the local government's support for Washington Gas, which plans to spend $4.5 billion on replacing the city’s toxic, climate-destroying methane gas infrastructure.
Washington Gas’s death project will lock in planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions for decades, setting us further along the path to climate hell and societal collapse. The nation’s capital will fail to meet its own climate targets and methane gas will continue to poison the city’s residents, exposing people to a cocktail of toxins and pollutants that cause severe illness and early death.
The D.C. government must tell the truth to D.C. residents, who have been lied to by the fossil fuel industry for decades. And the council must direct the Public Service Commission to end Washington Gas’s pipe replacement project, other than emergency repairs needed to protect the health and safety of residents.
XRDC spokesperson Reilly Polka said: “Fossil fuels are choking humanity. They are a dead end for humanity. Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness. Washington Gas cannot be allowed to get away with this death project. We’re demanding the D.C. government end the fossil fuel filth that’s poisoning and polluting the city’s residents. Washington Gas is destroying our health and our children’s future — and the DC Government is letting them get away with it.”
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.