Liberal Hollywood celebrities, who are known private jet flyers, demanding Biden kill Dakota Access Pipeline
Canceling the Keystone XL pipeline was one of President Joe Biden's first actions after taking office, which reportedly cost at least 11,000 jobs thus far. Now, a group of Hollywood celebrities is demanding President Joe Biden kill the Dakota Access Pipeline.
However, many in the anti-pipeline coalition of liberal celebrities are famous for globetrotting around the world in carbon-spewing private jets.
A group of celebrities wrote a letter to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to permanently shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline, also known as the Bakken pipeline.
"We urge you to remedy this historic injustice and direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to immediately shut down the illegal Dakota Access Pipeline while the Environmental Impact Statement process is conducted, consistent with the D.C. District Court's decision and order," the letter states. "Additionally, the U.S. Army Corps must ensure a robust environmental review with significant tribal consultation, tribal consent, and a thorough risk analysis."
On Jan. 26, a federal appeals court upheld a district judge's order for a full environmental impact review of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Though the DAPL is under review, the pipeline may continue to operate.
"We respectfully urge you to reverse another harmful Trump Administration decision and immediately shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) during its court-ordered environmental review," the letter from a "broad coalition of Native-led groups, environmental organizations, and influencers" says.
"With your leadership, we have a momentous opportunity to protect our water and respect our environmental laws and the rights of Indigenous people," the letter concludes. "This is our moment."
The letter is signed by liberal celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Don Cheadle, Chris Hemsworth, Alyssa Milano, Cher, Amy Schumer, Ed Helms, Jane Fonda, Chelsea Handler, Joaquin Phoenix, Marisa Tomei, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Connelly, Orlando Bloom, Rooney Mara, Sarah Silverman, and Shailene Woodley.
Ironically, the so-called environmentalists calling for an end to the oil pipeline are also well-to-do celebrities who have a record of flying private planes instead of commercial planes to decrease their carbon footprint. Many of the virtue-signaling celebrities prefer to fly on private planes, which burn 40 times as much carbon per passenger as regular commercial flights, according to one report.
Fox News compiled a list of celebrities who say they are fighting against climate change, but also brag that they travel on private jets.
While boasting about his Marvel-licensed T-shirt "promoting climate justice and clean energy resources around the world," Chris Evans was also flying in a private jet.
@BridgetPhetasy This is my favorite: @ChrisEvans sporting a @100isNow #climatechange shirt from @MarkRuffalo... on… https://t.co/qlQTuPJICk— Douglas Karr (@Douglas Karr)1564158962.0
Fellow Marvel actor Mark Ruffalo was branded as a "hypocrite" by National Review in 2016 for lecturing people about fracking before flying in a private plane from New York to London for a British movie awards show.
According to a 2014 Daily Mail article, "DiCaprio took at least 20 trips across the nation and around the world this year alone - including numerous flights from New York to Los Angeles and back, a ski vacation to the French Alps, another vacation to the French Riviera, flights to London and Tokyo to promote his film Wolf of Wall Street, two trips to Miami and trip to Brazil to watch the World Cup."
The article states that if DiCaprio had taken a commercial airliner for all of those flights, he could have saved 44 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from going into the atmosphere.
Jane Fonda, Scarlett Johansson, and Cher have all used private jets in the past.
Comedian Chelsea Handler and Amy Schumer bragged that they flew their dogs on luxury private jets.
Grow America's Infrastructure Now claims that shutting down the Dakota Access Pipeline would result in the loss of 3,000 direct upstream jobs, 4,900 indirect jobs, and 7,400 lost jobs due to the lack of money coming into the region. The report finds that North Dakota and Montana would lose out on $912 million in taxes.
The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile DAPL stretches near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. The tribe fears pollution or oil spills in the nearby Missouri River.
Recently, John Kerry was named as President Joe Biden's new climate czar, which set off a wave of criticism for his hypocrisy for the time that he used a private jet to travel to accept an environmental award in 2019.