Josh Fox
director of How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change, which premiered here at the Sundance Film Festival and will air on HBO this summer. His former films include Gasland, the documentary which first exposed the harms of the fracking industry. It was nominated for an Academy Award. He also made Gasland 2, which aired on HBO.

Aria Doe
co-founder and executive director of the Action Center for Education and Community Development in Far Rockaway, Queens, in New York City.

Tim DeChristopher
climate activist and founder of the Climate Disobedience Center. He spent 21 months in federal custody for posing as a bidder in 2008 to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land in his home state of Utah. He is the subject of the documentary Bidder 70.

Two activists featured in Josh Fox’s new documentary, “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change,” join us to discuss the role of direct action in fighting global warming. Aria Doe is co-founder and executive director of the Action Center for Education and Community Development in Far Rockaway, Queens, in New York City, and Tim DeChristopher founded the Climate Disobedience Center after spending 21 months in federal custody for posing as a bidder in 2008 to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land in his home state of Utah. We also speak with Fox about his plans to take the film on the road and distribute it for free as a tool in the climate justice movement.

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AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting live from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, as we return to our conversation about Josh Fox’s new film, How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change. 

Josh Fox is the director of the Academy Award-nominated film Gasland, which exposed the dangers of fracking. He’s joining us here in Park City along with two of his subjects in his film, who are activists around the country. 

Aria Doe is co-founder and executive director of the Action Center for Education and Community Development in Far Rockaway, Queens, in New York City. 

Tim DeChristopher is a climate activist and founder of the Climate Disobedience Center. He spent 21 months in prison for posing as a bidder in 2008 to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land in his home state of Utah. He was charged under the Bush administration, but he was sentenced and tried under the Obama administration.

So, we welcome you all to Democracy Now! 

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/26/act_now_cry_later_tim_dechristopher

FERC’s outrageous behavior and the broad and growing movement against it are prompting senators, congress people, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to speak out and take action:

• Bernie Sanders has come out against the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline.

• Hillary Clinton, at a town hall meeting in Keene, New Hampshire last October, said, “If we’re going to have a national commitment to do something about climate change, FERC needs to be part of that commitment. It’s not just the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that needs to be focused on combating climate change, every part of the federal government needs to be focused.”

• Congressman Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) wrote about FERC in September to the Department of Energy Inspector General, leading to an audit of the FERC permitting process, currently underway.

• In late November five Congress people from New England wrote to FERC calling upon them to review all proposed energy projects across the region in tandem to determine how New England’s energy markets will best be served and to prevent any potential overbuild.

• In late October four members of the Georgia Congressional delegation “sent a letter to FERC asking the commission to change the route of a 516-mile natural gas pipeline slated to run through impoverished communities in Georgia.” (Politico’s Morning Energy, October 27, 2015)

• On November 18, 2015 Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey published a study which concluded that there is no need for increased gas capacity to meet the state’s electric reliability needs for at least 15 years to come.

• Also in Massachusetts, State Senate President Stanley Rosenberg wrote to FERC Chairman Norman Bay, writing that federal regulators “should consider the interest of the Massachusetts citizens in establishing an energy sector based substantially on reduced emissions and clean and renewable energy as an initial test for determining whether any proposed project is in the public interest.”

• And then there is President Obama, a big booster of fracking throughout his Presidency, not mentioning fracking or natural gas or all-of-the-above during his final State of the Union speech. When added to other developments over the past year, it is clear that the White House is at least having doubts about its strong support for fracking all these past years, a process which needs to deepen and accelerate this year.

There is more:

• On January 14th a letter signed by 165 organizations was sent to Senators Sanders and Elizabeth Warren asking them, in their role as members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to formally request a U.S. Government Accountability Office investigation of FERC. The groups said that “the request for an investigation notes that FERC is entirely funded by the industry it regulates, resulting in a demonstrable bias in favor of the energy industry’s agenda over community and environmental concerns.”