Climate activists score major win in campaign to electrify DC

This article Climate activists score major win in campaign to electrify DC was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Last month, Extinction Rebellion D.C. scored a major victory for the End Methane, Electrify D.C. campaign: the D.C. Public Service Commission dismissed corporate utility provider Washington Gas’ application for the third phase of their $12 billion fossil fuel pipeline replacement project dubbed Project Pipes. The commission also partially approved a petition to investigate Washington Gas’ leak reduction practices. 

This victory is a major milestone in the fight to shut down a fossil fuel project that would lock D.C. into decades of planet-warming emissions while poisoning the city’s residents, especially the communities that are most marginalized and underserved.

The fight to stop Project Pipes is not over, but last month’s victory marks a major shift in the Public Service Commission’s approach to the regulation of utilities in D.C. and their alignment with D.C.’s climate goals. 

While this was the work of many groups across D.C., Extinction Rebellion D.C. played a crucial role through our core strategy of nonviolent direct action, or NVDA. 

Demand the truth

Two years ago, we launched the End Methane, Electrify D.C. campaign at the Wilson Building, which houses the mayor’s and D.C. Council offices, unfurling a large banner over the entrance that read, “NO NEW FOSSIL FUELS.” It was the beginning of our sustained campaign to get fossil fuel filth out of the city and demand the D.C. Council tell the truth to D.C. residents about the harms of Washington Gas’ methane product. 

By launching this campaign, XRDC filled a strategic gap in the fight to stop Project Pipes: we brought NVDA into the picture. NVDA is part of Extinction Rebellion’s DNA, and it is a method of resistance that has been used throughout history to create much-needed systemic change. When we started this campaign, the D.C. Council hadn’t said a word about Project Pipes, the Public Service Commision, or PSC, was an obscure entity with no plans to move toward electrification, and Washington Gas was seen as a “local,” “family-friendly” utility at best and as a necessary evil at worst. Methane gas was also viewed by many as “green.” Two years down the road and many direct actions later, these perspectives have shifted.

After our launch at the Wilson Building, we delivered our demands to the D.C. Council in hazmat suits, disrupted multiple Council meetings and political candidate forums, and wheat-pasted campaign posters across the city raising the alarm about methane gas. We made our presence undeniably known in the community, and thus the issue was too. Councilmembers could no longer claim ignorance or innocence. 

“As a result of the Stop Project Pipes campaign, XRDC and our partner organizations made the PSC accountable to the public for the first time. We also forced the D.C. Council to take an active role in stopping the PSC from moving forward with this project, which given their respective mandates and politics of staying in their respective ‘lanes,’ was also a first,” explains Phil J, an XRDC activist. “All of this is a large reversal of business as usual and demonstrates what can be achieved when direct action is used to shine a spotlight on money-making climate injustices.” (The sources quoted in this story were not comfortable using their full names for security reasons.)

Targeting the villains

The D.C. Council wasn’t the only culprit in this issue. Washington Gas is the clear villain, and we worked to taint the company’s’ image. We used a yacht to shut down Washington Gas’ headquarters, passed out mock flyers at the greenwashed Recycle Day that the company sponsored, and hacked bus stops with ads telling the truth about its legacy. These actions exposed Washington Gas for the multinational, greedy, profit-driven corporation it is and the extensive greenwashing it invests in to cover up its dirty deeds.

And, of course, we have the Public Service Commission, or what we refer to as the Department of Climate Chaos. There are few opportunities for the public to engage with the PSC despite the massive impact it has on our lives and the District’s ability to meet its climate goals. 

The beauty of NVDA is that it isn’t constrained by what is considered acceptable methods of public engagement. Rather, NVDA breaks norms out of a recognition that the norms — defined by business-as-usual — are at the heart of the catastrophe we are facing. NVDA opens up a whole other level of creativity to shape the future we deserve. So, we rebels got creative. We threw a paint party outside the PSC office and showed up unrelentingly in coalition at PSC open meetings.

“Our NVDA actions certainly made the PSC very uncomfortable to suddenly become a target, to feel that a group out there in the public was watching them closely,” said Stefanie S., an activist with XRDC. “It really is only then, when people feel watched, that they start really thinking about their responsibility to the public. If no one cares, if no one is watching, they can do whatever they want.  And it helps that those who are watching can make a lot of noise.”

Escalation to victory

In 2023, one year into the End Methane, Electrify D.C. campaign, it was clear that NVDA was helping move the needle. D.C. residents began to know about Washington Gas’ deadly project and even got connected to the campaign because of the posters pasted all over town. And the press started to take notice. 

Year two was about escalating pressure in the face of a PSC decision that was supposed to come at the end of that year. Activists chained themselves to the doors of the Wilson Building, an action that led to two arrests and coverage of the campaign in the Washington Post. As wildfire smoke filled D.C. skies, we turned up the heat on Washington Gas, challenging them to debates and honoring its 175 years of polluting the greater D.C. area. That fall, in the face of the D.C. Council’s failure to protect its citizens, we shut down a Washington Gas Project Pipes construction site.

“It took several hours for our reds [in NVDA, ‘red’ roles are designated for high risk of arrest] to get arrested,” Stefanie S. explained. “That gave us a powerful visible presence in the neighborhood during that time and the support of the people walking by during that whole day was so encouraging. People learned about Project Pipes, people witnessed the level of organization that was put into our effort, and were inspired by it. That is how collective power grows.”

Fellow XRDC activist Forrest Cinelli points out another important feature of participation in NVDA: reclaiming agency and hope. “It’s really common for Americans, myself included, to feel powerless to stop a corporation from doing destructive and immoral things,” he said. “I’ve never felt as empowered and hopeful about climate change as I did that day, when I was supporting those brave rebels who faced arrest in order to stop Project Pipes.”

Sustained, escalated pressure began to turn the tide. Early this year, in a surprise turn of events, 11 D.C. Councilmembers signed a letter to the PSC urging them to stop Project Pipes. Their explanation named that the project is in direct opposition to D.C.’s climate goals and is costing residents an absurd amount of money. Weeks ago, the PSC dismissed Washington Gas’ application for phase three of Project Pipes, signaling a major breakthrough.

This was heralded by the campaign’s organizers as an indicator of success and as a motivation to continue. “This [PSC] decision [to deny phase three of Project Pipes] means to me that NVDA works. It has made me feel incredibly powerful. It makes me want to continue and double the efforts,” Stefanie S. said. “And I think it is really a huge win for the city. The D.C. government now knows that it cannot just put some nice climate goals on paper and forget about it. They know that if they don’t act responsibly now, that we won’t let them get away with it.” 

Taking it to the boss

Two years into the campaign, it was clear there was a notable presence missing from the conversation: Mayor Muriel Bowser. Her FY2025 budget cut millions from key climate action programs, and her actions never live up to her rhetoric on the climate crisis. As the person who appoints commissioners to the PSC, it was crucial to demand that she speak on the issue that is endangering her constituents by blowing up buildings and making them sick. So activists have publicly invited her into the conversation, and we will continue to do so with increasing pressure until she speaks up.

To mark the two year anniversary of the campaign, XRDC threw an Earth Day Gala in front of the mayor’s office and invited her to be their guest of honor. The event featured speeches from organizers of different local groups, a puppet show by theater students from Towson University, a large red carpet, and a banner that read “Bowser: Be a true climate leader.” 

Participants called for Mayor Bowser to join, offering her a chair and an enlarged version of their demands to sign. In her absence, the puppets performed a skit outlining Washington Gas’ deceitful tactics and the power of collective action. Representatives from other local organizations gave speeches about what a livable future looks like to them. 

Mayor Bowser’s empty chair was spotlighted throughout the event as representative of her empty climate promises and of what will continue to be unrelenting pressure for her to meet XRDC’s demands:

1. Make a public statement that D.C. must phase out methane gas in order to meet its goals to combat the climate crisis, as outlined in your Carbon Free D.C. plan, and that Washington Gas’ plans to replace all of D.C.’s methane gas infrastructure through Project Pipes will make these goals impossible to meet.
2. Commit to immediately begin work on aligning the agencies in your administration on supporting a managed, just transition off methane gas that prioritizes D.C.’s most marginalized people and ends the city’s reliance on gas by 2032.

Debriefs and building on wins

While other groups worked the political system, XRDC disrupted business as usual in politics and everyday life to push a faster timeline and bring the issue to audiences who would have otherwise been kept in the dark. We pushed the issue to the media, brought it into the streets, and ultimately kept up pressure that helped motivate our leaders to take action. 

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“We would not be where we are today, celebrating this milestone in the fight against toxic methane infrastructure, had we not added NVDA into the equation,” said XRDC activist Claire H. “Our creative and disruptive tactics have been critical in getting this issue on the map in D.C., meaning the PSC could no longer quietly rubber-stamp Washington Gas’ requests unnoticed. We showed how serious this community is about the fight for a livable future, [by] putting our bodies on the line to physically stop Project Pipes from being built.”

At a deeper level, XRDC’s focus on NVDA is a recognition that the system isn’t going to save us. Our leaders have failed to take action at the speed and scale necessary. They have been bought out by corporations like Washington Gas to push for corporate profits over the needs of their own constituents. NVDA can certainly help pressure our leaders to step up, and NVDA is also about putting power back in the hands of the people. 

When we act together, when we disrupt the systems of violence that are killing us, we are harnessing our power to direct our community to the regenerative, thriving, fossil-fuel-free future we deserve. And along the way, we are building a community rooted in liberatory values, embodying a way of being that is life-giving rather than life-taking — that unlearns the harmful cultural conditioning from oppressive systems and relearns embodied, grounded, loving ways of relating and being together. 

We have come a long way in these last two and a half years, and we still have a long way to go. Washington Gas CEOs, and the politicians they pay for, will do everything in their power to keep D.C. hooked on methane gas forever. It is up to us to keep up the pressure on the PSC, the mayor and the D.C. Council to ensure we move closer and closer to the all-electric, livable future we need and deserve. That’s why this fall, we will be organizing a People’s Assembly, a chance for people from across D.C. to come together and determine for ourselves what we want a methane-free future to look like. We have told the truth and taken action, and now it is time to restore direct democracy in D.C.

This article co-published by ZNetwork.org

This article Climate activists score major win in campaign to electrify DC was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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