A group of climate protesters on Thursday disrupted an event featuring Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Activists belonging to Climate Defiance rushed the stage at the Economic Club of New York in Manhattan before Powell took to the podium to discuss the economy, unfurled a banner that read “Fed is burning: money, futures, planet” and chanted slogans in an act of protest, footage posted to social media shows. After disrupting the event, the protesters were cleared from the venue and Powell delivered his planned remarks.
Security appears to have physically removed the protesters from the event space, dragging one protester to the exit and carrying another, the footage shows. Some members of the audience did not seem to take kindly to the protest, with one attendee throwing a drink at the activists and others barking at the disruptors to “get out of here.” (RELATED: ‘I’m Speaking’: Kamala Harris Laughs As Climate Protester Yells At Her About Hawaii)
Breaking: today we chased Fed Chair Jerome Powell off the stage at an elite economics forum in Manhattan.
Powell chooses every day to torch the planet. He could end fossil finance tomorrow, but refuses. We’re on the brink. We could lose everything.
So we did what we had to do. pic.twitter.com/hpIAmaa3Iz
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) October 19, 2023
“Powell could institute a 1:1 rule, requiring banks set aside a dollar of collateral for every dollar of fossil fuel financing they provide,” the group said in its post detailing the protest on X, formerly Twitter. “Jerome Powell, it is time to meet the moment. Do your job. Time is up.”
Thursday’s protest marked the third time in as many months that activists affiliated with Climate Defiance targeted the Federal Reserve with their protests. In August, protesters were forcibly removed after disrupting the Federal Reserve’s annual summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and numerous Climate Defiance activists joined a protest blocking the entrances to the Federal Reserve building in New York City in September.
The group has made headlines for numerous other protests designed to goad officials into addressing climate change, which the group considers to be “an existential crisis that threatens every fiber of every being in every corner of the world,” according to its website. The group also crashed a House office building in July, shouted down Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and targeted Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in protest.
Climate Defiance is one of numerous confrontational eco-activism groups that receives funding from Climate Emergency Fund (CEF), a nonprofit which receives tax-deductible donations from many wealthy American liberals, such as Hollywood writer Adam McKay, “Succession” star Jeremy Strong and failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s Onward Together organization, according to CEF’s 2022 annual report.
A representative for the Federal Reserve declined to comment, and Climate Defiance did not respond immediately to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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