The Caucus also celebrates the tireless efforts of frontline groups to push the Administration to stop exports

WASHINGTON — Today, Hip Hop Caucus President and CEO Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. issued the following statement in response to the Biden Administration’s announcement to pause Liquid Methane (“Natural”) Gas exports:

“This is a momentous decision and a win for the people of planet Earth, aka Turtle Island. The decision to pause and review the economic and environmental impacts of new projects is an acknowledgement of the cries of those first and worst impacted and those hoping for a better future. The intersecting power of young people, frontline groups, and beltway advocates came together to finally show that organized people can make a difference. Delaying and possibly denying further construction of projects like CP2, which would have been one of the largest LNG terminals on the planet, further eroding the Louisiana Gulf coast, is by no means a small thing. So this is a moment for a collective sigh of relief, for celebration and for reflection. We commend the Administration for recognizing the environmental and health harms these projects have imposed on Black and other BIPOC communities for decades. 

However, we can’t rest here. While our collective sit-in at the Department of Energy may be called off for now, Big Oil and their puppets are already gearing up for fights in the media and hearings on Capitol Hill. They’ll say this is just the climate lobby and not the will of the people. They’ll say jobs are being killed and our geopolitical power is being diluted, despite the US already being the largest exporter of LNG by far. So today, we celebrate. And tomorrow, we are ready to fight again. All power to the people.”

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