Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri rebuked energy company executives during a Thursday congressional hearing, claiming that they are peddling fossil fuels that kill millions of people.
The freshman lawmaker said that an oil refinery is more likely to be located in a black community than a white community and that the results of climate change are more likely to impact a black neighborhood first before a white neighborhood.
“For years you all have continued to promote fossil fuels despite knowing that promoting them means promoting environmental racism and violence in black and brown communities,” Bush declared.
She continued, saying that they persist in “promoting and selling fossil fuels that are killing millions of people. This is a striking example of white supremacy. Your profit-driven choices threaten my life, the lives of my family, my neighbors, and our communities every single day,” she said, noting that she has asthma.
Bush told the energy company executives that they should all resign.
“Developing fossil fuels now given the escalation of the climate crisis and its harm on black and brown communities is unconscionable. Given each of your roles in these attacks on our humanity, you all should resign,” Bush said.
Her comments during the hearing come as many on the left continue to claim that catastrophic consequences will befall humanity if drastic actions are not taken to combat climate change.
The United Nations Development Programme released a video earlier this week showcasing a talking computer-generated dinosaur urging humans to take action to prevent their impending extinction.
“You’re headed for a climate disaster. And yet every year governments spend hundreds of billions of public funds on fossil fuel subsidies,” the dinosaur, who is voiced in English by actor Jack Black, declares in the video.