Oil Change International
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Collin Rees, collin@priceofoil.org (U.S. east coast)
Laurie Van der Burg, laurie@priceofoil.org (Belgium)
Oil Change International response to Leaders Climate Summit
Today, world leaders have gathered virtually at a so-called “Leaders Summit on Climate” hosted by the Biden administration. These leaders provided statements and commitments to increase ambition on global climate action. With a few notable exceptions, however, largely absent from the discussions were commitments to a managed ramp-down of fossil fuel production, though some progress was made on shifting public finance out of fossil fuels and into clean. In response, Oil Change International experts provided the following statements:
Oil Change International
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
As part of its announced during today’s Leaders Summit on Climate, the Biden Administration committed to “end international investments in and support for carbon-intensive fossil fuel-based energy projects” at multilateral and bilateral finance agencies such as the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and U.S. Export-Import Bank.
While welcome, the announcement fell short of other recent commitments by other institutions and countries. In response to the announcement,
Collin Rees, Senior Campaigner at Oil Change International made the following statement:
“Today’s announcement by President Biden on international finance for fossil fuels is a welcome step, but the lack of firm commitments falls short of what’s needed. This is a missed opportunity to end a harmful U.S. climate legacy abroad and add to the growing momentum of other institutions ruling out all public finance for fossil fuels.
(Office of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)) Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) together with Sen. Merkley (D-Ore.), Sen. Markey (D- Mass.) and Rep. Barragan (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to close tax loopholes and eliminate other federal subsidies for the oil, gas, and coal industries.
Right now, American taxpayers are on the hook for about $15 billion in direct federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. In 2019 alone, the oil, gas, and coal companies that receive these handouts spent $190 million lobbying Congress – for an over 11,000 percent return on investment. At a time when climate change is already causing devastating harm around the world, it makes no sense for Congress to continue giving away taxpayer money to the hugely profitable and highly polluting fossil fuel industry.
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Biden kicks things off today by hosting lawmakers from both parties at the White House. Hearings later in the week will give us a sense if Republicans are prepared to engage on Democratic ideas, or plan to stick with their argument that the infrastructure discussion should be confined mostly to roads and bridges.