San Jose, CA – On May 22, the Sustainability Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the county divest from Chevron and all fossil fuels. Community organizers joined the commission meeting to give public comments, exposing Chevron’s environmental crimes and urging the county to divest.

Santa Clara County currently has $15 million in Chevron bonds that will be maturing this August. A coalition of local organizations launched the divestment campaign earlier this month with a petition that has gathered over a hundred signatures and over a dozen organizational endorsements.

“Chevron spilled millions of gallons of crude oil and polluted wastewater in the Amazon rainforest, causing cancer, miscarriages and skin conditions in indigenous people and poor farmers,” Drusie Kazanova of San Jose Against War stated during the public comment section of the meeting.

Kazanova continued, “Here at home in the Bay Area, in 2021, Chevron’s Richmond refinery spilled 600 gallons of oil into the Bay, creating conditions where people had to stay inside because the oil spill made it unsafe to breathe. This is in addition to many refinery fires over the past several decades which have created unsafe air conditions for Richmond residents, and in particular for the children of Richmond.”

Nassim Nouri of the Santa Clara County Green Party emphasized the importance of taking action in light of right-wing attacks on environmental protections, saying, “Just today, we saw that the U.S. House of Representatives rolled back hard-fought environmental regulations. This assault on our communities and the environment is the direct result of this industry's undue influence in shaping our policies.”

Notably, Chevron has direct involvement in Israel's genocide against Palestine, providing fuel to Israeli military bases and Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank. Chevron also provides hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from royalties to Israel’s government every year through its extraction projects co-ownership of Tamar and Leviathan, Israel’s largest active gas fields.

After hearing public comments and after some debate between commissioners, the Sustainability Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the county divest from Chevron and all fossil fuels.

This vote is an important initial victory for the campaign and represents the first stage for divestment in the county system. Next, the commission's recommendation will go to the county's Housing, Land Use, Environment, and Transportation Committee, before finally heading to the board of supervisors. Organizers plan on mobilizing the community to show up and give public comment at these future meetings as well.

#SanJoseCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Divestment #Chevron

Plano, TX – Dozens of community members gathered north of Dallas on Sunday, February 2, for a protest against Chevron’s complicity in the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. This protest marked the launching of a local campaign against the oil and gas company by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – North Texas Chapter.

Speakers highlighted the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestine, which are used to provide energy to Israeli military and prison facilities. They also called out the theft of indigenous land and resources around the world and Chevron’s central role in the global climate catastrophe.

During a speech, Sean Byrne of DSA North Texas called on participants to boycott Chevron gas, stating that Israel “is a laboratory for how the nations of the imperialist world will deal with the waves of human beings displaced by the very climate catastrophe that they themselves have sown, with corporations like Chevron being among the worst culprits of this capitalism-driven environmental and social crisis.” Byrne condemned comments by Chevron CEO Mike Wirth during a shareholder call the previous Friday, where he called for peace while simultaneously uplifting energy extraction projects that have helped enable the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.

A member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Dallas-Fort Worth, William Josef, called out the “energy apartheid” practices of the Israel Electric Corporation, which bans many Palestinians from accessing the electrical grid and charges higher prices for electrical services to Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank than to the illegal Israeli settlements nearby.

Speaking in solidarity with the local campaign launch, Jumana Saadeh of the Dallas-Fort Worth Anti-War Committee (DAWC) and Code Pink Dallas said, “Today, we say ‘no’ and stand against one of the many companies supporting and aiding in the oppression and genocide of the Palestinian people. Chevron has supplied and continues to supply energy and millions of dollars of tax revenue to a genocidal, apartheid racist state.”

During the protest, hundreds of cars passed by with many honking and waving in support. Simultaneously, many members of the organizations present, including the DFW Anti-War Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation were assisting with a large protest in downtown Dallas against the Trump administration’s attacks against immigrants.

#PlanoTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Chevron #DSA #DFWAWC #JVP #CodePink