People Vs. Fossil Fuels

In October 2021 the group organized acts of “mass civil disobedience” outside of government offices in Washington, D.C., that turned violent and caused the hospitalization of a police officer when protestors unlawfully attempted to enter the U.S. Department of Interior. ^{1 4 5}

People vs. Fossil Fuels is a project of the left-of-center Build Back Fossil Free coalition, a left-of-center Native American and environmentalist activist organization which is itself a project of the left-of-center Sustainable Markets Foundation. ⁶

History and Leadership

People vs. Fossil Fuels was formed in 2021 to demand far-left climate policy action from the Biden Administration. The group’s demands include a ban on all conventional energy infrastructure, leasing, and drilling projects on federal lands and a prohibition of the export of crude oil. ² Its coalition is made from roughly 1,200 organizations and non-profit groups dealing in topics including climate and social justice as well as progressive and environmental advocacy. ⁷

People vs. Fossil fuels is organized by a “Steering Committee” of 18 environmentalist organizations. ⁷ They include:

• Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE)
• Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)
• Earthworks
• Friends of the Earth
• Greenpeace
• Greenfaith
• Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN)
• Oil Change International
• Sierra Club

Activities and Funding

People vs. Fossil Fuels demands the Biden Administration enact left-of-center environmentalist and Native American activist policies including declaring climate change a “national emergency,” banning all fossil fuel infrastructure, leasing, and drilling projects on federal lands, prohibiting the export of crude oil, the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs within the U.S. Department of Interior, and the transfer of over 110 million acres of federal lands to tribal authorities. ^{1 2 8}

In October 2021, People vs. Fossil Fuel organized for five days of planned “mass civil disobedience” in Washington, D.C.  On its official recruitment page, the group asked registrants if they were willing to “risk arrest” and asked them to bring $50 cash to post and forfeit if they were arrested as a part of their attendance. ^{1 9} Promotional videos for the event featured speakers from the left-of-center center Sunrise Movement and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). ^{10 11}

During the five-day period, protesters vandalized the statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park outside of the White House with red paint, sprayed fake oil onto the U.S Chamber of Commerce Building, and unlawfully attempted to enter and occupy the U.S. Department of Interior ^{12 5}

This resulted in multiple security personal being injured as well as one officer being taken to a hospital for treatment, according to Interior spokeswoman Melisa Schwartz. ¹³ Roughly 55 protestors were arrested at the Department of the Interior, with roughly 655 arrested overall during the week of protests. ^{13 4}

Additional left-of-center groups which helped promote or supported the protests include the National Lawyers Guild and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, while environmentalist organization Oil Change International acted as one of protests’ largest contributors and coordinators. ^{1 14} Sierra Club President Ramon Cruz participated in the protests while some participants carried signs promoting the Land Back Campaign, a project of the Native American Advocacy group NDN Collective. ^{15 16}

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

There were 650 signatories on an August 2022 letter organized by People vs Fossil Fuels that was addressed to the “Democratic Leadership” in Congress. The letter was titled: “Opposition to Fossil Fuel Project Approvals and Permitting Reforms Conditioned on the Inflation Reduction Act.” ³

The letter portrayed as “false solutions” carbon sequestration, carbon-free nuclear energy and all sources of energy not approved as “renewable” by the signatories: “Relying only on large scale investments in renewable energy and environmental justice alone will not stave off climate disaster if Congress simultaneously puts its legislative foot on the gas to expand fossil fuel production and false solutions like carbon capture, hydrogen, biomass, biofuels, factory farm gas, and nuclear power.” ³

Signatories included Church World Service, California Environmental Justice Alliance, Oxfam America, CASA, NDN Collective, Center for Climate Integrity, Bend the Arc, the Clean Air Council, and New York Lawyers for Public Interest.

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. ¹⁷ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ¹⁸

Funding

People vs. Fossil Fuels is a project of the left-of-center Build Back Fossil Free coalition, a left-of-center environmentalist and Native American activist organization which is itself a project of the left-of-center Sustainable Markets Foundation. ⁶