Photo: Wildcat River, Jackson, NH Lois Barber
2021 ACTION REPORT
on Monthly Actions
January 2021: President Trump Must Not Attack Iran! Fortunately, he didn’t.
February 2021: A New Sheriff in Town—A New Beginning With Pres. Biden in office, we urged him to undo the Trumpian withdrawals from existing nuclear agreements. There were three:
a) The Open Skies Agreement provides stability by allowing U.S. and Russian flights over the U.S., Russia, and Europe. Pres. Trump pulled out, then Russia also, effective Dec. 2021. Talks between the U.S. and Russia are ongoing.
b) The New START Treaty limits U.S. and Russian deployment of strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 each, with extensive verification. Pres. Trump pulled out of the Treaty, but Pres. Biden and Putin reinstated it on Feb. 3, weeks after Biden's inauguration.
c) The Iran Deal, to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Again, Pres. Trump pulled out, but in recent days, Iran has announced that it is willing to negotiate and talks are now scheduled to resume in Vienna on November 29th, 2021.
March 2021: Support the National Climate Emergency Act H.R. 794, the National Climate Emergency Act of 2021, called on the President to declare a climate national emergency under the National Emergency Act of 1976, to mobilize resources for large-scale climate mitigation and resiliency projects. The bill has 50 co-sponsors but has not been voted on. However, some of these provisions were approved in the Infrastructure Bill in early November.
April 2021: Iran Window of Opportunity In the 2015 "Iran Deal", Iran gave up 90% of its partly enriched uranium, in return for the lifting of sanctions which had been imposed to prevent it from making a nuclear bomb. Pres. Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018, re-imposing sanctions. After a year, Iran restarted enriching uranium. In April 2021 we encouraged Pres. Biden's efforts to bring back the Iran Deal. Recently, Iran announced its willingness to continue negotiations and talks are scheduled to begin in Vienna on November 29th, 2021.
May 2021: Eliminate Human Caused Emissions of Methane Two bills were introduced in the Congress S.645 & HR 7435, to require the Secretary of the Treasury to levy a fee on methane emissions from oil and natural gas facilities, and from other sources. The goal was to charge $1,500 for each metric ton of methane emitted above thresholds. Later a provision of the Build Back Better budget proposal would charge oil and gas operators if they release methane above a certain limit and offer $775 million to help reduce and monitor this greenhouse gas. Recently, the U.S. announced it will join a Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030.
In Glasgow at the UN Climate Conference, China and the U.S. pledged to enhance emission control in the fossil fuel, waste, and agriculture sectors. They will meet in early 2022 to agree on standards and measurements.
June 2021: No-First Use HR 921 is a bill that would establish a U.S. policy to not use nuclear weapons first. Although this bill has enjoyed a fair number of sponsors (52, all Democrats) and has been introduced twice, in 2017 and 2019, it has not yet been put to a vote. S272 in the Senate, with a similar purpose, has 7 co-sponsors (6 Democrats, 1 Independent). It was introduced in 2019 and 2021 but has not yet received a vote.
July 2021: Infrastructure Act and Water Act The infrastructure Act has passed both the Senate and House and was signed by the President. The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 202 provides funding for several programs related to controlling water pollution or protecting drinking water. Although this act was never voted on, some of its goals will be achieved in the Infrastructure Act which dedicates approximately $82.5 billion for a wide range of critical water investments including improvements in safe drinking water and sanitation.
August 2021: Last Exit off the Highway to Nuclear Catastrophe? We urged Pres. Biden to make the necessary arrangements to "negotiate in good faith" with the goal of worldwide nuclear disarmament. The press has mentioned no such efforts or arrangements. But our chances for negotiations may improve: China has recently demonstrated its hypersonic, steerable, radar-evading missile, against which our missile defense is useless because it is not steerable. Consequently, the U.S. may develop an interest in beginning negotiations toward nuclear disarmament.
September 2021: End US Fossil Fuel Subsidies Here and Abroad We asked that members of Congress act to eliminate all US fossil fuel subsidies within the US and for overseas projects. However, the Infrastructure Bill that Biden has just signed into law included additional $billions in support for fossil fuels, including subsidies for hydrogen made from fossil fuels, a $25 billion loan guarantee for a new liquified natural gas facility in Alaska, and an exemption from environmental review for new gas and oil pipelines across federal lands. The Build Back Better reconciliation bill, expected to be voted on before the end of the year, also includes an estimated $35 billion worth of domestic fossil fuel subsidies. President Biden had identified these for removal but the House has not eliminated them.
The agreement that has just been finalized by all nations the COP26 includes the request that countries phase out "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies." No firm dates have been set however for the U.S. to do this.
October 2021: Global Warming-The Most Certain Threat to our National Security The Pocan (D-WI) Amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act called for a reduction of 10% in military spending, which would free up funds to address climate change, the most certain threat to our national security. In a rush of hundreds of votes in the House, dubbed the vote-a-rama, it was voted on, but lost.
November 2021: Stop Adding Fuel to the Fire We urged Pres. Biden, while he attended the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, to ask all countries to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. He was only partly successful. Upon returning home, on, Nov. 17th, his administration complied with a Louisiana judge’s ruling that ended an earlier Biden Executive Order to stop new oil and gas drilling that was permitted by former Pres. Trump. This opens more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and in Western lands to oil and gas drilling leases on public lands. The US Department of Justice is appealing the Louisiana decision. Stay tuned.
We also asked Pres. Biden to call on all nations to regulate banks to no longer loan money for fossil fuel development. He directed all US agencies to seek to end all US and international investments by multilateral development banks in overseas fossil fuel development, and to invest in renewables instead. This does not address domestic fossil fuel development.
In addition, we asked Pres. Biden to call on wealthier countries to increase (and meet) their commitments to support the efforts of poorer countries hard hit by climate disasters. The document, called the Glasgow Climate Pact, urges the developed countries to meet their joint $100 billion annual pledge, and in fact calls for at least doubling it. There is no list of countries that agreed to do this.
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