Dozens of protesters gathered in front of Sempra Energy headquarters in downtown San Diego on Monday armed with chalk to “Raise the Alarm” and leave a message for the energy company.
For about an hour, protesters, mostly young students, blocked the street in front of the building for a chalk drawing with the message, "Sempra/SDG&E kills for it's (sic) fracked gas empire and we get the bill."
Chanting, "Climate change is not a lie, do not let our planet die," protesters want Sempra to divest from fossil fuels and President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.
Sempra is the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Company.
“This should not be controversial in any shape or form,” said Scott Kelley, director of Raise the Alarm.
Kelley is also a biology professor at San Diego State University. He said declaring a climate emergency is stating the obvious.
“We had Phoenix having record temperature 11 days in a row of 111 degrees," he said. "No one's ever seen this before. We had seven days of heat that exceeded the records that were set 125,000 years ago. We have hot tub-like temperatures in Florida that are killing the coral reefs.”
He said instead of declaring a climate emergency, Biden is expanding oil and gas drilling because of lobbying from the fossil fuels industry, such as Sempra. In March, the Biden administration approved a controversial oil drilling project in Alaska over the objection of environmentalists.
The Willow oil drilling project would take place inside the single largest expanse of pristine land in the country.
“They need to stop listening to these guys and start the immediate energy transition to green energy and to renewable energy,” Kelley said.
Monday's protest was disruptive — intentionally so. Kelley said the point is to get people to take the climate emergency seriously. But not everyone was a fan of this type of protest.
Richard Keeley, who lives in the building across from Sempra headquarters, confronted the protesters and was seen yelling at some of them.
“People live here. This isn’t just some big building,” he said.
Afterward, speaking with reporters, Keeley said he was tired of activists showing up every few months for a protest.
"They have the right to have whatever message they want, but trying to do it in the manner in which they do without any care at all for anybody that lives in the area," he said. "Yeah, I think that's pretty rude."
In response to the protest, Sempra said in a statement that it has a deep respect for environmental stewardship.
"(We) believe there are many paths to a sustainable future for all," the statement said. "To that end, Sempra is investing billions in safe, reliable and resilient networks to connect consumers to increasingly cleaner energy.”
