Above photo: Protesters from Occupy Biden hold a protest near the president’s residence in Delaware. Echo Alford.
Reject Campaign Funds from Fossil Fuel Interests A Green Constitutional Amendment.
Dover, DE – A coalition of progressives and environmental groups are challenging lawmakers to sign on to a set of green New Year’s resolutions to kick off the 2022 session. Says participant Phillip Bannowsky, “this is a way to separate the committed from the compromised.”
The activists claim in their text that confronting the climate crisis “has been impeded by the short-sighted interests of powerful economic players.” Specifically, they call for a Green Amendment to the Delaware Constitution and support current legislation in the pipeline, including HB 259, requiring an emergency alert system to inform citizens when disasters like Croda’s November 25, 2018, toxic leak erupted, which injured workers at their Atlas Point plant as well as neighbors and motorists on the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
They further demand that cumulative impacts of proposed developments and aggregated effects be assessed, especially as they affect the poor and working class. They want to increase Open Space funding, disallow Emission Reduction Credits in overburdened communities, ensure compliance monitoring of state agencies, and ensure equitable, effective and transparent management of PFAS settlement funds. Finally, they call on legislators to “Reject campaign contributions from fossil fuel interests, including banks that fund fossil fuel projects.”
The coalition is sending out the New Year’s Resolutions to lawmakers at the opening of the legislative session January 11 and initiating a campaign of personal contacts and meetings to secure commitments.
The resolutions are not meant to be an all-inclusive list. Delawareans need the adoption of HB22, the Right to Repair Bill, and SB134 to reduce Styrofoam, as well as movement toward a zero-waste future and conversion to renewable energy and clean transportation. “However limited our list,” says Bannowsky, “we’ll see who affix their John Hancocks and who serve the fossil kings.”
Endorsers: Delaware Working Families Party, Sunrise Newark, Delaware DSA, Delaware Call, Extinction Rebellion, Network Delaware, Delaware Food & Water Watch, and Green New Deal Network.
Green New Year’s Resolutions
Whereas the people of Delaware have elected us, their legislators, to place the interests of their well-being and that of the planet at the forefront of our actions, and
Whereas confronting the climate crisis, an existential threat to humanity, has been impeded by the short-sighted interests of powerful economic players, and
Whereas the New Year is traditionally a time to take stock and recommit ourselves to the environment and the home of our constituents and ourselves,
Therefore, we members of the Delaware General Assembly do solemnly affirm and commit ourselves to the following Green New Year’s Resolutions:
- Support a Green Amendment to the Delaware Constitution, which would grant all people, including future generations, the right to clean air and water, a stable climate, and a healthy environment.
- Support House Bill 259, requiring use of the emergency alert system to inform people of catastrophic releases of toxic pollutants.
- Support legislation requiring agencies to assess the potential cumulative impacts on proposed industrial and development action and to mitigate the aggregated effects of environmental and human health hazards on Delawareans, especially the poor, the working class, and others most affected due to geographic location.
- Support increased funding for Open Space programs and Farmland Preservation.
- Support legislation to disallow Emission Reduction Credits in overburdened communities
- Support robust compliance monitoring of state agencies with either an Inspector General or State Environmental Justice Board
- Ensure that PFAS settlement funds are managed equitably, effectively, and transparently.
- Reject campaign contributions from fossil fuel interests, including banks that fund fossil fuel projects.