WEST VIRGINIA (WOAY) – Climate activists across the United States plan to make their way to Washington D.C Thursday to attend the annual Congressional Baseball Game.
Not only will they be attending the game, but they plan to lead peaceful acts of civil disobedience to show opposition to climate legislation.
It’s a response to Senator Joe Manchin and his Republican allies impeding the historical federal legislation.
“There was the Build Back Better plan which had $550 billion allocated to climate change,” says an organizer of the peaceful protest, Alex Gallo. “We think that this is a really critical time not to sit on the sidelines and watch while our planet continues to burn.”
The protesters’ goal is to convince President Biden to step up to the plate before they see it as game over for the future.
They want the president and his Democratic colleagues to declare a climate emergency, use their authority to get climate investments passed in Congress, and immediately put a stop to fossil fuel projects that are affecting not only the environment but low-income communities.
If they don’t get heard at Thursday’s game, however, they plan for the fight to only continue.
“We just hope that we can make a bold statement to our congressional delegation that this is important and that we are not going away until these bold investments are made,” Gallo says.
While most can agree that the U.S needs to make a better effort toward renewable and more efficient energy production, here in the Mountain State fossil fuels still reign supreme.
According to the U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA), West Virginia was the second largest coal producer in the country behind Wyoming, and the fifth in the nation in natural gas production.
The climate activists plan to rally at National Stadium at 6 p.m, to peacefully fight for bold investment in climate funding at a historical baseball game that has been taking place since 1909.
But, the new and unexpected announcement from Senator Manchin about his ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ and its measures to support cleaner climate policies may be a game-changer for the activist’s plans. However, that remains to be seen.
