Progressive green groups thought they could have a nice quiet discussion about “leading the transition to clean energy” with two left-leaning state governors and a liberal billionaire — they thought wrong.
The Climate and Clean Energy: Why Young Americans Are Taking Notice and Taking Action event was promptly disrupted by anti-hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, activists who appear to be affiliated with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Food & Water Watch.
The Washington, D.C. ordeal was caught on camera with the activists chanting and holding signs identical to billboards purchased by CBD, while several of the environmentalists appear be employees from the D.C. office of Food & Water Watch. The activists were so disruptive the moderator had to end the event early.
The gathering was organized by a pair of progressive groups, the Center for American Progress and NextGen Climate, which are closely allied with the Obama administration. Two Democratic governors, Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf and Rhode Island’s Gina Raimondo, as well as liberal billionaire, huge Democratic donor and environmental activist Tom Steyer were in attendance. Steyer contributed almost $1.5 million to Wolf’s campaign.
The protesters specifically called out Wolf, repeatedly chanting “climate leaders don’t frack” — fracking has made Pennsylvania a huge producer of natural gas. The outburst from the anti-fracking activists shows a growing divide within the green movement between pragmatists and extremists.
CBD wants to ban all fracking because they believe “FRACKING THREATENS AMERICA’S AIR, WATER AND CLIMATE.” CBD has created billboards identical to the signs held by the activists that were used to attack another Democratic governor, Jerry Brown of California, for allowing fracking in his state.
CBD has a long history of opposing anything new, including new solar panels or wind-farms. The organization has pursued legal action to block the creation of one of the world’s largest solar-farms because they believed it would encroach upon the habitat of 32 endangered desert tortoises.
CBD also has a long history of using aggressive civil disobedience for political ends. Kieran Suckling, the executive director of CBD has been found guilty of criminal trespassing for political ends and even brags about being arrested.
The video of the activists can be seen below, and was posted to Food & Water Watch’s Youtube account — a group that also wants to ban fracking.
WATCH:
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