Saving tropical forests is key to slowing the climate emergency, to protecting biodiversity, and to preventing abuses of human rights throughout the tropics. This bill will put New York State at the forefront of global efforts to end the crisis of deforestation in tropical regions by ensuring that entities contracting to provide goods or services to our state government do not drive deforestation through their supply chains. The bill has a provision to support small, medium, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses in greening their supply chains and meeting compliance requirements. It mandates creation of a diverse, multi-stakeholder body to advise implementation. And importantly, it requires subcontractors who produce tropical forest risk commodities to obtain the free prior and informed consent of any tropical Indigenous communities impacted by their operations, in line with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This New York bill practical, is doable, and is a critical step in using U.S. laws to protect tropical forests.

NYU has not divested from fossil fuels… the reason: a ceo from one of the largest fossil fuel investors sits on the board. NYU says they will divest by 2040, we know that is too little too late. We also know this cannot happen with Laurence fink, CEO of Black Rock, one of the biggest fossil fuel investors in the world, sitting on the board of trustees.

Tenants have rights! If they won’t hear us separately they will have no choice but to hear us all together. Our safety and quality of living matter. We need resolutions and not excuses! From plumbing issues to loitering. We deserve better!

Bring Rep. Ciscomani to Tucson for a live town hall with his new constituents. We deserve to question our representative to Congress.

The Willow Project would impact Alaska communities, their wildlife, and our global climate. It will produce 600 million barrels of oil over 30 years—generating over 278 million metric tons of carbon emissions. The Arctic is already suffering from climate change, warming at four times faster than the rest of the world. If this project moves forward, it will increase temperatures in a region already at risk and harm communities with the potential of methane leaks and industrial pollution. President Biden has an opportunity to be a climate hero by listening to climate activists and local leaders and doing what’s right for our planet. Tell the Biden Administration and the Bureau of Land Management not to side with the fossil fuel industry and to stop the Willow Project now! Photo credit: Liz Ruskin/Alaska Public Media

As Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) recently said: "It shouldn’t take a massive railroad disaster for elected officials to put partisanship aside and work together for the people we serve — not corporations like Norfolk Southern.” Now, a bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Brown has introduced legislation aimed at preventing rail disasters like the one that devastated East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said recently on the Senate floor that he would do "whatever I can" to pass the bill. If we're going to put an end to toxic train derailments, we need Speaker Kevin McCarthy to step up and ensure that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passes The Railway Safety Act of 2023.

It's going to destroy the article. It's going to destroy the world, our world. It's going to destroy future generations, It's going to destroy everything we need more people to sign it we are going to die we need to take action the isn't much time left please just listen to me, Listen to us all. Please I beg, Spread awareness, Do everything you can please I don't want to die I'm just a kid I don't want to lose everything my home, Please help.

In 2018, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule, which had required rail companies to upgrade brake systems on trains carrying certain hazardous materials. Norfolk Southern was among a group of rail carriers who opposed this regulation and that contributed more than $6 million to Republican lawmakers in the 2016 election -- the most contributed by the rail industry to one party in over two decades. But that’s not all! Norfolk Southern has spent nearly $80 million on lobbying efforts over the last 25 years, including opposing two-person crew requirements on every train -- a safety measure that workers say is vital to limiting train derailments and that the Trump administration again rejected. In allowing the industry to regulate itself, the Trump administration said “that no regulation of train crew staffing is necessary or appropriate for railroad operations to be conducted safely at this time” and said separately, “the expected costs of requiring ECP brakes would be significantly higher than the expected benefits of the requirement.” It’s up to us to hold greedy corporations accountable to workers and to communities across the country.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and President Biden are being petitioned by the public to stop the authorization of the bulk transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in rail cars on the nation’s railways. Based on public safety and health concerns, in 2021 DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) proposed federal rulemaking (the “Suspension Rule” RIN 2137–AF55)[1] to suspend the Trump Administration’s 2020 federal rule that lifted the long-standing ban on LNG transport by rail. Public comments and technical submissions to PHMSA during the public comment period provide broad and compelling support for the Suspension Rule and explain why the Trump era LNG rule endangers millions of Americans. The petition calls on PHMSA to first, immediately adopt the Suspension Rule and second, that PHMSA reinstate the permanent ban through federal rulemaking. Lastly, the petition insists that Special Permits for LNG rail transport be denied, including Special Permit DOT-SP 20534 for the proposed Gibbstown/Wyalusing LNG Export Project.[2] Prior to the Trump Rule, a Special Permit (Special Permit DOT-SP 20534), was issued in December 2019 for transport of LNG by rail car from Wyalusing, PA to Gibbstown, NJ for a proposed LNG export terminal on the Delaware River. It expired but PHMSA is currently considering an application for its extension. This is the first and only use in the nation of DOT 113C120W tank cars to transport LNG, which were designed 50 years ago and never used for LNG and it is the only permit to allow daily “unit-train” volumes of LNG over enormous distances (approximately 200 miles). The trains cut through many communities of color and low-income populations already overburdened with environmental injustices, including Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Reading, Allentown, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Camden and other southern municipalities in New Jersey. Transporting LNG in rail cars poses unique hazards. If there is a container breach, such as in a derailment, the super-cooled (-260 degrees F) liquid methane is released as a vapor cloud that is 600-620 times greater than the volume of the contained liquid, causing freeze burns and robbing oxygen from the air for those in proximity, which can be deadly[3]. The vapor cloud can travel miles very quickly. PHMSA’s Environmental Assessment[4] issued in 2019 describes the response to a broken cryogenic tank car as very difficult for first responders and fire companies and risks catastrophe due to the great potential for explosions and large fires. If the highly flammable gas is ignited, it burns so hot the fire cannot be extinguished and must be allowed to burn out, requiring emergency evacuations for up to two miles. A bomb-like explosion known as a BLEVE or Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion can occur with catastrophic impacts. These dangers are amplified in densely populated communities where high-speed and complete evacuation is practically impossible. These public safety hazards are the foundation for the longstanding ban on LNG transport by rail car. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Transportation Research Board (“TRB”), the agency that is charged with conducting LNG by rail research, advises that “quantitative risk analyses” have not been done and need to be performed, and that, prior to any LNG by rail activities, a safety assurance initiative be put in place and further investigation be conducted of the safety performance of the railcars that are proposed to be used (DOT-113C120W9.16). Clearly, there is no assurance that adding LNG to our railways is, by any equitable measure, safe or warranted. The recent push to increase the export of LNG by rail due to the Ukraine crisis has heightened community concerns that the desires of the gas and oil industry will overwhelm government’s responsibility to protect the public and replace dirty fracked gas with truly clean, renewable energy. Public safety and environmental health must come first. LNG is liquefied methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas (GHG) 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in heating the atmosphere on a 20-year time scale and 104 times more powerful over a 10-year period, the periods of time when scientists say we must reduce GHG emissions to address the climate crisis. Methane leaks and/or is vented in all phases of the LNG production process, including processing, storage, transport, transloading and use. In light of the high global warming potential of methane, the Biden administration has pledged to slash methane emissions. Pushing LNG onto train tracks, enabling LNG production, and stepping up gas extraction and transportation will exacerbate climate change and undercut our collective climate goals to prevent the earth’s warming. LNG transport by railcar recklessly endangers the public and risks catastrophe such as the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio in February. The public health and environmental impacts from the resulting inextinguishable fires and release of vinyl chloride and other highly toxic chemicals to the air, water, and soil will not be fully calculated for some time. However, the resulting state of emergency requiring evacuation of the community, the raging fires and plumes of polluted smoke, the fish kills, and the exposure of people to hazardous pollutants is testimony that high hazard derailments do occur and the consequences can be tragic. We don’t need to add more flammable hazardous materials to the dangers our communities and environment already face from high-risk rail car transport.

Following Executive Order 14072, Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities, and Local Economies, we are calling on the Biden Administration to enact a strong, lasting rule across federal public lands that protects mature and old-growth trees and forests from logging, allowing the recovery of old-growth forests that have been lost. These forests are essential to removing and storing carbon from the atmosphere, safeguarding wildlife, and providing clean drinking water for our communities. We are working to build grassroots pressure across the United States to ensure strong, lasting protections for our climate forests — and we need your help! Moving forward, we need to convince the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to take the threat logging poses to climate change and wildlife loss seriously. We must ensure our climate solutions match the scale of the threats we face today, and conserving and recovering our mature and old-growth forests represents one of the simplest, most cost-effective actions we can take. Please join us in calling on the agencies to fulfill the promise of President Biden's Earth Day Executive Order on forests by beginning a rulemaking process immediately to ensure our climate forests remain standing for future generations.

Residents in Ohio and Pennsylvania have been repeatedly told that they are “safe” after a Norfolk Southern train derailment caused a huge release of hazardous chemicals into the air, land, and water. Meanwhile, residents are continuing to report that they are experiencing health issues - from rashes to difficulty breathing - and are expected to navigate the emergency response and healthcare systems on their own. This needs to change. “Safe” means people can vacuum their homes without worrying about kicking up toxic pollution. “Safe” means having independent test results that examine every necessary parameter and indicate there’s no harm. “Safe” means being able to be in your home without the risk that health problems will develop months or years from now. State officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania must take transparent, proactive steps to ensure that residents are able to access the information and support that they need. We, the undersigned, call on them to immediately do the following: Provide medical monitoring. The states must monitor and track health concerns from this incident, and they must provide mobile clinics so that residents and first responders – anyone in the area who was exposed to the pollution – can access critical information about their health. Support independent environmental testing. The state must provide funds for independent environmental testing. Residents are understandably skeptical that tests being paid for by Norfolk Southern are reliable and trustworthy. Access to independent water and soil testing should not be limited to people who can afford to cover the high costs. Meet with residents regularly, in-person, on an ongoing basis. Information about this incident is complex, and more information comes out - whether accurate or not - by the hour. Residents deserve a space to have conversations with officials, to raise concerns, and to ask questions, and be given answers. Governors from both states must work immediately with the environmental and health agencies to facilitate these actions in coordination with key stakeholders within impacted communities. [This petition was originated by our allies at the People Over Petro Coalition (POPCO) and its partner organizations on the ground in Eastern OH and Western PA.] Photo credit: Ted Auch, Fractracker Alliance

ExxonMobil just crushed the record for the most profitable year in the history of the ENTIRE western oil industry. They netted $56 billion in profit in 2022!1 The fact that this happened the same year gas prices went through the roof makes it very clear what exactly was going on. The White House has now twice called out the oil industry for price gouging consumers2,3 and it’s time for Congress to respond by passing the Windfall Tax. Sign the petition: We need a Windfall Profits Tax! In 2022, ExxonMobil set a new record for the most profitable year in the history of the western oil industry. ExxonMobil isn’t the only one exploiting consumers, fossil fuel companies across the industry saw historically massive profit margins. The combined industry profit this year is almost $200 billion!4 Instead of investing these massive profits into lowering prices, corporations have been sending it to their shareholders in the form of stock buybacks. This is all a result of disgusting greed and exploitation. The oil industry took advantage of the war in Ukraine and public anxiety around inflation to jack up gas prices. CEOs at ExxonMobil and Shell are drenched in obscene profits while regular working people have been crushed by soaring prices. Congress must pass the Windfall Profits Tax. Sign the petition: We need the Windfall Profits Tax! Big oil corporations have price gouged and profiteered off the War in Ukraine and inflation anxiety. Now they are swimming in record-breaking profits. Windfall Profits Tax, NOW! Sources: 1. Reuters, “Exxon smashes Western oil majors' profits with $56 billion in 2022,” January 31, 2023. 2. The Guardian, “Biden accuses oil companies of ‘war profiteering’ and threatens windfall tax,” October 31, 2022. 3. Reuters, “White House blasts Exxon over historical $56 bln annual profit,” February 1, 2023. 4. Reuters, “Exxon smashes Western oil majors' profits with $56 billion in 2022,” January 31, 2023.