Beyond Extreme Energy (BEX) is an organization that actively organizes protests against conventional energy and nuclear power, in support of environmentalist energy sources. They are best known for organizing a week long protest of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2014. [1]
BEX is a fiscally sponsored project of Earthworks, an environmentalist organization that advocates for strict environmental regulations. [2]
Background
Beyond Extreme Energy (BEX) actively organizes protests against fossil fuels and nuclear power, in support of wind and solar energy sources. They are best known for organizing a week long protest of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2014. [3] The group continues to protest again FERC, and their actions have included disrupting commission meetings, blocking FERC’s parking garage, and a stunt where two BEX activists scaled the awning of FERC’s headquarters in Washington, DC. [4]
Opposition to Nuclear Energy
Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. [5] An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. [6]
Beyond Extreme Energy was one of more than 100 co-signatories on a November 2020 letter to the U.S. Senate that expressed opposition to S. 4897, the “American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020.” The letter stated that nuclear power “amplifies and expands the dangers of climate change” and denounced it as an example of “false solutions to the climate crisis that perpetuate our reliance on dirty energy industries.” [7]
Funding
Beyond Extreme Energy is a fiscally sponsored project of Earthworks. [8]
The Park Foundation, a left-of-center group known for funding environmentalist organizations, granted $20,000 to Earthworks to be specifically used for operating expenses of BEX. [9]
Chorus Foundation contributed directly to BEX in 2015[10] and has contributed annually to Earthworks since 2013. [11] Chorus Foundation was established by left-wing activist Farhad Ebrahimi, and supports groups and movement organizations that are against fossil fuels and nuclear power. [12]
People
Melinda Tuhus is a longtime environmental activist and independent journalist. She is an organizer and protester with BEX. [13]
Ellen Barfield is a full time activist and a veteran protester with BEX. [14] She is the national vice president of Veterans for Peace. She sits on the boards of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the War Resisters League, and the School of the Americas Watch. [15]
Michael Bagdes-Canning has worked with BEX since 2015. He is a member of the Green Party and a long time activist against fossil fuels. [16]