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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
Tuesday, May 25, 2005
"To show that his energy bill is about more than drilling for oil in Alaska... This week President Bush visited a plant in Virginia that turned soy beans into a clean burning diesel fuel which the president hopes one day will be used to fuel oil drilling machines in Alaska." - Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update
(1) EVENT: Songs to Save the Seashore
(2) GLOBAL WARMING: Mayors Hot on Solutions
(3) TAKE ACTION: Americans Deserve an Innovative Energy Bill
(4) TAKE ACTION: Patch Me If You Can
1. EVENT: Songs to Save the Seashore
Padre Island National Seashore off the Texas coast is the world's longest undeveloped barrier island, a home to several endangered species, and a popular destination for millions of beach lovers. Unfortunately, BNP Petroleum is threatening this paradise with an aggressive gas- drilling operation. Next month, Sierra Club is hosting a benefit in Austin to fight the drilling on Padre Island. The benefit features some of the best singer/songwriters in Texas and abroad including Grammy nominee Eliza Gilkyson, Austin Music Awards Hall of Famer Dale Watson, and singer Sarah Lee Guthrie, daughter of the legendary Arlo Guthrie.
Find out how to get tickets for the June 8th benefit concert: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,d0o3,o7l,3g93,ifly,dazy,eylb
2. GLOBAL WARMING: Mayors Hot on Solutions
Federal inaction is forcing local governments to step up to the plate to set their own environmental standards and implement their own solutions to global warming. In an effort to reduce our nation's carbon dioxide emissions, more than 130 mayors representing more than 30 million people are applying the Kyoto global warming pact in their cities. The mayors involved pledge to meet or beat Kyoto targets. Seattle, for example, aims to meet its 7 percent commitment in part by encouraging cruise lines to turn off their diesel engines when they dock at its port and hook up to the city's electrical power grid.
Read more in the San Jose Mercury News: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,d0o3,o7l,68zj,mcoq,dazy,eylb
3. TAKE ACTION: Americans Deserve an Innovative Energy Bill
While the Senate averted a nuclear showdown over judges, the energy bill is still glowing brightly with billions of dollars in subsidies for the nuclear industry and other polluting energy companies. As the Senate prepares to vote on a final energy bill within the next month, tell your Senators that America deserves an energy policy that puts innovation to work to curb global warming, cut America's oil dependence, and protect our coastlines and other precious national treasures.
Tell your Senator that America deserves an innovative energy policy: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,d0o3,o7l,4g42,isv1,dazy,eylb
4. TAKE ACTION: Patch Me If You Can
A Sierra Club Contest to Find and Fix America's Worst Roads and Bridges
Is your drive to work an obstacle course of potholes, cracked roads, and crumbling bridges? Tired of waiting for the government to fix the problem while your tax dollars pay for some Congressman's pet pork project? Then get off your asphalt and play Patch Me if You Can -- a contest to find and fix America's worst roads and bridges. It's quick and easy. Submit your rocky road or rickety bridge with our simple online form. (Photos are encouraged.) We'll pick the worst of the worst and then tell Congress to fix them first!
To submit your entry, visit: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,d0o3,o7l,6kkp,6994,dazy,eylb
Find out how Congress is wasting your tax dollars on pork projects rather than fixing existing roads and bridges: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,d0o3,o7l,g7gt,83yx,dazy,eylb
"In his biggest decision ever in the environment, President Bush has moved to open up 1/3 of all remote national forest lands to road building, logging, and other adventures. This is part of the no tree left behind. In fact, if you would like to see one of our Redwoods they will be at Home Depot next week." - Jay Leno on the "Tonight Show"
(1) COMMUNITY: Organic Street Style
(2) PEOPLE: Pump 'Em Up Girl
(3) TAKE ACTION: Vote to Protect Clean Water and Forests
(4) TAKE ACTION: Fix It First
1. COMMUNITY: Organic Street Style
Brahm Ahmadi and Malaika Edwards have found a unique way to get organic produce into the hands of West Oakland residents -- the mobile market they are calling "The People's Grocery." With a biodiesel truck covered in artistic graffiti, a bumping soundtrack, and bins full of colorful produce, their mission is to bring fresh and healthy foods at an affordable price to a community where fast-food used to be the only alternative. With 70% of residents living below the poverty line, West Oakland has more than a dozen liquor stores, and only one supermarket. Now, residents have alternatives that are better for their wallets, better for their health, and better for the environment.
Read more: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cvuv,km3,hkh1,6d0d,irqz,5w4u
2. PEOPLE: Pump 'Em Up Girl
Armed with a tire gauge and a desire to protect our lands from oil drilling, sixth-grader Savannah Walters is leading the fight to encourage drivers to conserve fuel. Savannah started her website -- PUMP 'EM UP! -- in 2001 when she became concerned by proposals to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She found out that the U.S. could save as much oil as would be produced by Arctic drilling if drivers simply pumped up their car tires to proper inflation levels. In 1995, the Energy Department said that underinflated tires waste an estimated 4 million gallons of gas daily in America.
Read more about Pump 'Em Up: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cvuv,km3,879u,d8e4,irqz,5w4u
Read "Rising call: Cut US oil imports" in the Christian Science Monitor: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cvuv,km3,kpit,ev4c,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Vote to Protect Clean Water and Forests
In the next few days Congress will be voting on two important amendments to protect clean water and forests. The Anti-Sewage Dumping amendment would prevent the EPA from finalizing its policy that would allow routine discharges of inadequately treated sewage into our waters. The Tongass Subsidy amendment will ensure that taxpayers are not forced to subsidize the construction of new logging roads in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. At a time of huge federal deficits, the Forest Service wasted $48 million taxpayer dollars last year to subsidize the timber industry's clear-cutting old growth forests in the Tongass.
Contact your Representatives and say "vote YES on the Anti-Sewage Dumping amendment and the Tongass Subsidy amendment to the FY 06 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill that will be before Congress later this week:" https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cvuv,km3,lrw0,c4s6,irqz,5w4u
4. TAKE ACTION: Fix It First
One in four bridges and one in six interstate miles nationwide are in need of repair. Instead of fixing what we have, Congress is expected to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on expensive pork projects we don't need. That includes $315 million on a bridge in Ketchikan, Alaska that will serve an island of only 50 people, and $2.3 billion on another massive bridge from Anchorage to a sparsely populated area of Alaska! This week, the Senate will take up a six-year transportation spending bill.
Tell your Senators to spend tax dollars wisely by putting potholes we have before the pork we don't need: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cvuv,km3,je35,iccx,irqz,5w4u
Learn more about Fix It First: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cvuv,km3,94wz,ggqs,irqz,5w4u
"The Bush administration's efforts to capitalize on the recent discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker were bizarre. Gale Norton, the interior secretary, announced a $10 million program to enlarge the bird's habitat, proclaiming that 'second chances to save wildlife once thought to be extinct are rare.' But what about first chances? The woodpecker, if it indeed has returned, is as much warning as gift. President Bush's policies suggest that he not only has failed to learn from past mistakes, but is determined to repeat them on a more destructive scale." - From the New York Times editorial "Nature at Bay"
(1) TOXICS: Got Mercury? Get Tested
(2) GLOBAL WARMING: Spring's Hot New Trend
(3) TAKE ACTION: Stupak/Shaw Stop Sewage Dumping Amendment
(4) TAKE ACTION: Preserve Checks and Balances
1. TOXICS: Got Mercury? Get Tested
How much mercury do you have in your body? Mercury affects the health of everyone, especially women and young children. One in six women of childbearing age in this country has enough mercury in her body to put her baby at risk. The Sierra Club is cosponsoring a project to raise awareness about the dangers of mercury pollution. For a small fee, you can order a test kit to find out how much mercury you have in your body. Just snip a small sample of hair and send it to an academic laboratory at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, which will process your results.
Order your own test kit: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cqil,km3,dt8n,3gpu,irqz,5w4u
New Hampshire state legislators took the test. Read about it in the Concord Monitor: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cqil,km3,62f8,fqqs,irqz,5w4u
2. GLOBAL WARMING: Spring's Hot New Trend
Last week, the Governor of Washington signed a bill bringing California's landmark Low Emission Vehicle Standards to the state. The standards will take effect in 2009, and by 2016 all new cars, SUVs and light trucks sold in the state will have to comply. Eight states have now adopted California's stricter standards, bringing the percentage of new cars sold in the United States and Canada that must meet the nation's strongest pollution standards to over 30% - and pushing the auto industry a big step closer to making all of their cars clean vehicles.
Read "Gregoire signs bill requiring cleaner vehicles" in the Seattle Post Intelligencer: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cqil,km3,bc3m,c9gj,irqz,5w4u
Learn about the Sierra Club's Clean Car campaign: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cqil,km3,lfk,c4o1,irqz,5w4u
3. TAKE ACTION: Stupak/Shaw Stop Sewage Dumping Amendment
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a policy that will allow sewage treatment plants to routinely discharge inadequately treated sewage into our lakes, rivers, streams and coastal waters. Exposure to sewage makes people sick, contaminates shellfish, kills fish, and closes beaches. Every year, millions of Americans get sick from contact with inadequately treated sewage that ends up in water that we swim in or drink. We need less sewage in our waters, not more.
Call or write your representative and ask him or her to vote FOR the Stop Sewage Dumping Amendment sponsored by Congressmen Clay Shaw and Bart Stupak. This amendment to the EPA's budget would prohibit spending any funds to finalize its proposed policy allowing more sewage pollution: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cqil,km3,7l95,2x2m,irqz,5w4u
Sign our sewage petition: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cqil,km3,kvjk,c9kl,irqz,5w4u
4. TAKE ACTION: Preserve Checks and Balances
In an effort to rush through judicial nominees who could put our rights and protections at risk, the majority leadership in the U.S. Senate is trying to change the rules in the middle of the game by limiting debate and silencing the voice of the minority. This move, dubbed the "nuclear option" by Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.), could have a devastating impact on our democracy and threaten the 200-year-old system of checks and balances on which our government in based. It is an unprecedented power grab intended to deny the Senate's longstanding right to withhold approval of judicial nominees. The nuclear option trigger could be pulled any day.
Tell Majority Leader Frist and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Specter to reject the "nuclear option" and preserve democracy in the Senate: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cqil,km3,g74w,13ev,irqz,5w4u
"President Bush said today that Social Security could be going bankrupt. He said the good news is that it won't happen for at least 50 years and by that time you won't even have to worry about Social Security because the temperature of the Earth will be 158 degrees." -Jay Leno on the Tonight Show
(1) TRADE: Road Trippin' for Responsible Trade
(2) ARCTIC: It's Not Over Till It's Over
(3) TAKE ACTION: Reject the Polluting Energy Bill
(4) TAKE ACTION: Fix It First
1. TRADE: Road Trippin' for Responsible Trade
The Sierra Club and the United Steel Workers are partnering up on a road trip through the Northwest to educate citizens about how trade agreements - especially the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) being debated in Congress - can impact workers, the environment, and local communities. Larry Fahn, Sierra Club President, and Dave Foster, District 11 Director for the United Steel Workers, are making the road trip together representing the blue-green alliance that has formed to stop CAFTA, an agreement that would expand the privileges of global corporations at the expense of working families and the environment.
Click here to read Larry Fahn's online travelogue and view trip photos: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cl52,km3,1gkx,7ixc,irqz,5w4u
2. ARCTIC: It's Not Over Till It's Over
Last week, Congress narrowly passed a budget resolution - by a 214-211 vote in the House and a 52- 47 vote in the Senate - that could pave the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, the budget process is far from over. Budget reconciliation will continue throughout the summer, and as promised, we'll fight every step of the way to ensure that Congress ultimately listens to the American people. We lost some tough votes last week, but we're fired up and looking to every member of Congress to keep supporting a wild Arctic and a clean budget.
Read the Sierra Club's statement on the passing of the budget resolution conference report: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cl52,km3,c9a4,hark,irqz,5w4u 04-29.asp
Read Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope's blog on the Budget vote: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cl52,km3,67rb,glh,irqz,5w4u biting-on-arctic.asp
3. TAKE ACTION: Reject the Polluting Energy Bill
With rising gas prices hammering his approval ratings, President Bush appeared on prime time TV last week to lay out his plan to the country. Instead of calling for real energy solutions that will increase the miles per gallon American cars get and investing in renewable energy sources, the President called on the Senate to pass his deeply flawed and polluting energy bill -- a bill that even his own Department of Energy has said will do nothing to lower gas prices or cut oil imports.
Tell your Senators to reject the backwards Bush energy bill and start over with the kind of cleaner, safer and cheaper energy policy that America needs: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cl52,km3,asen,gl5i,irqz,5w4u
4. TAKE ACTION: Fix It First
One in four bridges and one in six interstate miles nationwide are in need of repair. Instead of fixing what we have, Congress is expected to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on expensive pork projects we don't need. That includes $315 million on a bridge in Ketchikan, Alaska that will serve an island of only 50 people, and $2.3 billion on another massive bridge from Anchorage to a sparsely populated area of Alaska! This week, the Senate will take up a six-year transportation spending bill.
Tell your Senators to spend tax dollars wisely by putting potholes we have before the pork we don't need: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cl52,km3,je35,iccx,irqz,5w4u
Learn more about Fix It First: https://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,cl52,km3,bxxy,a5td,irqz,5w4u
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