“Our tax dollars must be used for a people’s bailout, not to bailout corporate polluters that have time and again put profit before people. They do not need it. The folks I represent do, who were already struggling to breathe because they live in some of the most polluted zip codes in the country and now face the threat of a virus that further threatens their respiratory systems. Getting them the aid they need is long overdue. This report illustrates exactly what folks on the ground fighting this fight have been saying for a long time: environmental racism has cost and continues to cost Black and Brown lives. Enough is enough."

“The industry’s targeting of polluting facilities in Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities is inextricably linked to why the virus is killing people in these communities at higher rates. Now the industry is exploiting the pandemic to gain environmental rollbacks that will further endanger our communities, while lobbying for another multi-billion dollar bailout. Congress should immediately prioritize stimulus funding and initiate a plan for the industry and government to pay environmental reparations to Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities who have been hit hardest by the pandemic and this extractive industry.”

“Our government leaders need to step up and immediately release a stimulus package that centers Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people who have been sacrificing their lives on the frontline since the outset of this pandemic. It is so clear the connections between COVID illness and death rates in BIPOC communities and fossil fuel operations that when our legislators continue to subsidize and bailout the fossil fuel industry, they are essentially prioritizing the profits of the industry over the health and lives of BIPOC communities.”

"There are a clear set of culprits behind the toxic carbon and chemical pollution that disproportionately impacts communities of color: Wall Street and the fossil fuel corporations it finances. These corporate actors need to be held to account - not bailed out - for their role in driving environmental racism and its connection to higher death rates from the virus in these communities."

"The COVID-19 pandemic is already hitting communities of color the hardest, often due to air pollution from nearby fossil fuel facilities. Using the pandemic to justify rolling back environmental protections or propping up corporate polluters would compound these existing problems and put already-vulnerable communities at even greater risk."

"This new report makes it plain: we're not just in a climate emergency, but also a social one. We simply cannot use the same old tricks to "fix" the pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. Our democracy now depends on bold, new tools to move to reinvest in the public good. We must invest in BIPOC-led local projects, mandate corporate transparency, divest from polluters, establish public banks, make corporations pay their fair share, and end fossil fuel finance and environmental racism."

“Fueling the Fire exposes an imperative truth-we have to stop bailouts for the fossil fuel industry. We are in a triple pandemic: a health emergency with COVID19, racial injustice and climate change. Communities of color have been and continue to bear the brunt of impacts and harm of each of these emergencies. This has to stop. The banks, asset managers and insurance companies have an opportunity to put a down payment on a regenerative economy. Communities of color deserve an economy that values health, equity, the dignity of work and humanity and prioritizes community governance and ownership of work and resources,”

“The fossil fuel industry's extractive business model is founded on exploitation, from wellhead to smokestack. This critical new report shows how devastating this business model has been for BIPOC communities made vulnerable by systemic oppression. If massive public bailouts continue to flow to the CEOs, corporations, and financial institutions that are driving the climate crisis and perpetuating racism, we'll never break this cycle. We must end financing for fossil fuels, confront environmental racism head-on, and invest in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities."

“The fossil fuel industry destroys BIPOC communities not only in the US, but all over the world. The same global financial firms that keep oil refineries running in northern California bankroll oil operations harming Indigenous communities throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon. To stop this cycle of environmental racism, we demand that financiers like BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase divest from fossil fuels, invest in communities of color, and prioritize human rights and environmental sustainability."

“As highlighted in the important new report, Fueling the Fire, the fossil fuel industry has used the COVID-19 pandemic as cover to garner billions in bailouts. This is furthering the same extractive economic model that exacerbates the climate crisis and fosters environmental racism, which is severely impacting Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. Covid-19 relief funds should be allocated not to a polluting industry that was already in a deadly tailspin before the pandemic, but to the people. This is a time for investment in BIPOC communities who have been treated as expendable in sacrifice zones. Enough is enough — it is time for action for a new time with Black, Brown and Indigenous communities leading the way."

“Around the world marginalized communities bear the brunt of fossil fuel production, and the US is no exception. This landmark new report traces the responsibility for this US crisis not only to the big polluters but also their financial backers, including big financial institutions as well as politicians who continue to hand out bailouts and subsidies that enrich fossil fuel executives and investors at the expense of workers and communities. It is time to turn off those spigots, and redirect resources to expanding public health services, energy efficiency and renewable energy, ensuring they benefit communities of color who need them the most.“

"Fueling the Fire highlights what communities of color have long-known: the fossil fuel industry is responsible for the theft and exploitation of the lives, livelihoods, and labor of Black people, Indigenous Peoples, communities of color, and workers. The report highlights how we must enact a Just Recovery now through direct community relief, mutual aid, public power and community-determined solutions for mitigating the impacts of climate change, long-term health and a regenerative economy."