Actors and activists including Last Chance Alliance, Norman Lear, Annie Leonard, Rainn Wilson, Cesar Aguirre, and others demand leaders address the climate crisis

Actors and activists including Last Chance Alliance, Norman Lear, Annie Leonard, Rainn Wilson, Cesar Aguirre, and others demand leaders address the climate crisis

Los Angeles, CA (February 7, 2020)  — After four months of iconic protests to demand leaders act to address the climate crisis in Washington D.C Jane Fonda, Greenpeace USA, Last Chance Alliance, Joaquin Phoenix, and others have brought Fire Drill Fridays to California. This morning at City Hall in downtown L.A., Fonda and Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard launched the next phase of Fire Drill Friday rallies. Once again, Fonda was joined by friends, actors, activists, youth, Indigenous leaders, climate experts, and representatives from impacted and underrepresented communities. Last Chance Alliance, representing over 700 environmental, health, justice, faith, labor, community, parent, and consumer organizations, is calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to:

  1. STOP new fossil fuel projects: Lead by issuing no new permits for oil and gas extraction, fossil fuel infrastructure, or petrochemical projects in California.

  2. DROP existing production: Set a national and global precedent by becoming the first oil- producing state to announce a phase-out of existing production in line with the Paris climate goals, with a just and equitable transition that protects workers, communities, and economies.

  3. ROLL out setback limits: Begin by first phasing out oil production in places that are suffering most from the impacts of fossil fuel extraction—by creating a 2500-foot public health and safety buffer zone between fossil-fuel infrastructure and homes, schools, and other sensitive sites.

After over a thousand people gathered at City Hall for the first Fire Drill Fridays rally in Los Angeles, the crowd marched nearly a mile to Maverick Natural Resources, which operates a large number of oil and gas wells in Southern California and the Central Valley. Activists have occupied the lobby of the building to send a message to Governor Newsom and California leaders.

Photos here, when available: 

https://www.media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJ8G3Q4V

https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceusa09/albums/72157713004633626

Currently dozens are partaking in an act of civil disobedience and risking arrest. Jane Fonda and Norman Lear are among the many gathered to support those risking arrest today, including:

Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA

Aileen Getty, Philanthropist, Climate Emergency Fund

Rory Kennedy, Philanthropist, Climate Emergency Fund

Nithya Raman, Candidate for LA City Council District 4

Susie Tompkins Buell, Philanthropist, Climate Emergency Fund

Josh Pence, Actor

Kassie Siegel, Climate Law Institute Director, Center for Biological Diversity

Alex Nagy, California Director of Food and Water Watch 

Quote from Jane Fonda:

“We are here to send a message to California leadership that we need to choose our communities over fossil fuel companies like Maverick. I stand in solidarity with those risking arrest right now. California is already a leader in promoting renewable energy, and that is an important part of the solution — but it is only half of the picture. If we allow fossil fuel companies to keep drilling, it will cancel out the benefits of all that good clean renewable energy we are building. So we have to do both: stop fossil fuels and promote a healthy, clean energy future.”

Quote from Annie Leonard, Greenpeace USA:

“We’re here to demand California’s leaders put a stop to fossil fuel expansion. We have the solutions to climate change right now — a Green New Deal, no new fossil fuels, and a just transition to 100% renewables — we just need leaders with the political will to enact them. Our house is on fire. It’s time our leaders started acting like it.”

Greenpeace USA and Fire Drill Fridays partnered with environmental justice coalition STAND-L.A. to co-organize this first Friday Drill Friday in Los Angeles, home to the largest urban oil field in the nation. A coalition of frontline communities impacted by urban oil drilling and public health and environmental justice organizations, STAND-L.A.’s campaign urges the Los Angeles City Council to establish a 2,500-foot health and safety buffer separating oil extraction from homes, schools, parks, and other sensitive land uses. In the South Coast Air Basin, over 620,000 people — primarily low-income communities and communities of color — live within a half mile of an active oil well, exposed to health risks such as asthma and other respiratory illness.

“This Fire Drill Friday should come as a red alert to the Los Angeles City Council and our Governor: we will keep speaking our truth to power until you act. My own health has been sacrificed too many times to stay quiet. My neighbors have been sacrificed too many times to stay quiet. The oil industry has sacrificed our climate future for too long to stay quiet. We need our City and State leaders to stop staying quiet when it comes to public health and our future,” said Nalleli Cobo, 19, who has been an advocate with STAND-L.A. since age nine, when she was sent to the hospital with health complications from exposure to emissions from the oil wells operating near her home. 

“The oil industry has no place in our neighborhoods — and no place in Los Angeles’ future.”

As Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti positions Los Angeles as an international climate leader, STAND-L.A.’s advocates and frontline leaders joined Fire Drill Fridays to emphasize that phasing out oil drilling in communities is a critical component of climate leadership.

“In Wilmington, the oil industry has its death grip on everything. All day, people live with the constant noise and fumes from heavy-duty trucks, oil derricks, and refineries operating right outside people’s bedroom windows and school yards. We need a health and safety buffer to separate families from the toxic chemicals and emissions that the industry spews — and that means we also need the Los Angeles City Council to bravely side with the community and reimagine our local economy so every worker thrives in a healthy, family-supporting job. So far, we haven’t seen that bravery or that vision,” said Alicia Rivera, community organizer with STAND-L.A. member organization Communities for a Better Environment. 

“We hope this Fire Drill Friday will push them and show them the power of our voices.”

Contact: Travis Nichols 206.802.8498