US Department of Interior No. 2 Tommy Beaudreau resigns after being targeted by climate protesters for his approval of the disastrous Willow Project

In March 2023, the Biden Administration made a devastating decision to approve the Willow Project in Alaska, which will result 260 million tons of carbon emissions over its 30 year lifespan and disrupt thousands of acres of pristine wilderness habitat. At a time when experts are calling for a halt on all new fossil fuel expansion, the Biden Administration chose to move in the exact opposite direction.

The Department of Interior bureaucrat who signed off on that decision was Tommy Beaudreau. On September 21, 2023, CEF grantee Climate Defiance tracked him down in New York City and led five disruptive protests against him in two hours. Just fifteen days later, Beaudreau announced that he was stepping down from the Department of Interior.

Climate Defiance is building an impressive track record of forcing climate criminals to give up positions of power in the face of disruptive protest. As Climate Defiance co-founder Michael Greenberg said, “It shows that there’s no place in polite society for people who commit climate crimes.”

These resignations are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the massive pressure being applied to the elites enabling continuing climate catastrophe. Our grantees are building toward an imminent future when a majority of Americans view any support for fossil fuel expansion as morally unjust, which will have transformational impacts on elections and environmental policy in the US.