Climate protesters shout 'no more drilling' in blockade outside White House Correspondents' Dinner
Climate Defiance staged their blockade outside the Washington Hilton Saturday night, successfully turning away one government-issued SUV. Credit: Collin Rees via Twitter
Young voters and climate activists are angry with the President Biden's recent moves in support of the fossil fuel industry and argue that it was "not the climate presidency" he promised on the campaign trail.
Climate Defiance, a group that blockaded the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday, said the President was committing "ecocide" by approving the Willow Project in Alaska.
"We came of age amidst superstorms and fires and crumbling ice shelves," the group tweeted. "We trusted our President – but he sold us out to fossil fuel CEOs."
"We have only a few years left. Our very lives are at stake. And yet our political leaders wine and dine and laugh as though everything is ok," the group said in a tweet thread. "So we will take matters into our own hands. In two days we will march on the White House Correspondents Dinner. And we will blockade it."
Environmental activists have criticized President Biden over his administration's recent support of fossil fuel projects. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
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Lukas Ross, a program manager at Friends of the earth, also criticized Biden for having quietly approved a massive Alaska natural gas pipeline and export project in April.
"This is not the climate presidency that Joe Biden promised," Ross told The Hill. "Does the administration intend to rubber-stamp a carbon bomb every month?"
The Department of Energy recently came out in support of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, which would connect fracking fields in West Virginia to central Virginia.
A North Carolina based environmental group, Appalachian Voices, called Energy Secretary Granholm's letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission supporting the project "unnecessary."
NUIQSUT, AK - MAY 28: Oil pipelines stretch across the landscape outside Nuiqsut, AK where ConocoPhillips operates the Alpine Field on May 28, 2019. (Photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images) (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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"The Department of Energy’s decision to insert itself into the FERC process for Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that has repeatedly failed to meet environmental standards, fails to appreciate the consequences for the environmental justice communities along the path of the pipeline, and for all communities suffering the harms of a rapidly warming planet," the group's director, Tom Cormons, said in a statement.
Young voters have also expressed frustration over the president's approval of the Willow Project, a massive oil drilling project in Alaska.
Alex Haraus, 25, who has been vocal on social media about opposing the Willow project, said he was "mad and frustrated and disappointed," according to the New York Times.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm hosts a U.S. Department of Energy news conference in Washington, U.S., December 13, 2022. (REUTERS/Mary F. Calver/File Photo)
"I don’t think any of those things encourage people to forgive the Biden administration for projects like Willow," Haraus told the outlet. "Young voters see our future getting thrown out the window. We need Biden to take on the industry, otherwise there’s not much for us to hope for."
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Progressive members of Congress have criticized Biden's approval of the project as well.
"He takes one step forward with the I.R.A., and two steps back with the Willow project," Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said.