As the participants in the Great March for Climate Action ended up in Washington, DC, on Nov. 1 after a six-month trek across the country, they joined with other environmental groups to launch a week of action under the banner Beyond Extreme Energy. The actions revolved around a series of blockades at the DC headquarters of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with more than 100 people arrested.
Nonviolent direct actions began on Monday with 25 protestors arrested outside FERC’s office while blockading the entrance with a giant sign depicting families impacted by fracking infrastructure greenlighted by FERC. Today was the final day of the actions intended to call attention to FERC’s approval of projects that endanger communities and drive climate change, and demand a more inclusive and open hearing process.
On Wednesday, 5o activists from across the country blockaded FERC’s offices, led by a group of students from Hampshire College in Massachusetts who came to D.C. specifically for the action, representing students and young people everywhere. Another 16 people were arrested.
“As students were in a particular position where our future is uncertain,” said Hampshire student Dineen O’Rourke, a student from Hampshire College. “We’re ready to come together to resist the injustice FERC is serving us to our future and to communities already facing the brunt of the climate crisis.”
“Yesterday’s election was a demonstration of what happens when voters are fed up with politicians who talk without action,” added Drew Hudson, director of Environmental Action. “On a night that otherwise favored conservative, anti-environment candidates, voter in the tiny community of Denton—in the heart of Texas oil country —chose to ban fracking. This movement that’s shutting down FERC, shutting down Cove Point, and resisting in countless communities from New York to California is coming for the pundits and politicians. They had better get ready for us.”