ALEC’s Polluter Agenda

ALEC’s Polluter Agenda

On American Legislative Exchange Council task forces, corporate lobbyists and special interests vote as equals with elected representatives on templates to change our laws, behind closed doors with no press or public allowed to see the votes or deliberations. ALEC legislation benefits corporate profits at the expense of our environment and our health by making it easier for polluters to spoil our water and our air and by pushing climate change denial. ALEC proposals would destroy environmental regulations and health safeguards, eliminate clean energy competition, allow drilling on protected lands, and curtail recycling.

Repealing Pollution Protections

·         ALEC’s “Resolution in Opposition to EPA’s Regulation of Greenhouse Gases from Mobile Sources” opposes a Supreme Court decision that allowed the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases as pollutants. The resolution dismisses climate change concerns through misleading rhetoric.

·         ALEC’s “Resolution in Support of the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act” supports the REINS Act, legislation that would give Congress the authority to block the enforcement of numerous federal protections, including clean air and water laws, safeguards for mine workers, rules that prohibit the sale of tobacco to children, and even protection from discrimination.

·         ALEC’s “State Withdrawal from Regional Climate Initiatives” would pull states out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or the Western Climate Initiative, programs to cut greenhouse gases and carbon-dioxide emissions.  It also uses language that denies that climate change is occurring.

·         ALEC’s “Climate Accountability Act” creates hurdles for state agencies attempting to regulate carbon gases by imposing cost assessments on carbon regulation, without any parallel accounting required of corporations whose actions are contributing to the climate changes underway.

·         ALEC’s “Resolution in Opposition of Carbon Dioxide Emission Standards” opposes environmental protections on carbon dioxide emissions.

·         ALEC’s “Conditioning Regulation of Non-Pollutant Emissions on Science Act” would impose new burdens on state regulatory efforts by creating a complex process the state must go through before passing new environmental protection regulations. The act would keep a state from responding quickly to public health issues.

·         ALEC’s “Intrastate Coal and Use Act” would prevent the EPA from overruling state permits for coal mining and prevent federal regulation of dirty coal products, like coal ash, if all the coal operations are conducted within the borders of a single state.

·         ALEC’s “Electricity Freedom Act” is an attack on states with plans requiring companies to get a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources, undermining support for cleaner energy development.

Opposing Public Health Safeguards

·         ALEC’s “Voluntary Childhood Lead Exposure Control Act” gives legal protection to corporations against victims of lead poisoning.

·         ALEC’s “Environmental Priorities Act” requires that state environmental protections be approved by a corporate-backed panel where there is no representative from a public interest environmental group.

·         ALEC’s “Resolution Supporting the Private Ownership of Property” expresses opposition to public interest regulations that protect public health or the environment such as pollution emission limits.

·         ALEC’s “Environmental Services Public-Private Partnership Act” privatizes public water and sewage services and would prohibit local governments from requiring contractors to meet labor standards.

·         ALEC’s “Resolution on Packaging and the Municipal Solid Waste Stream” expresses opposition to waste reduction and mandated recycling laws.

·         ALEC’s “Resolution to Retain State Authority over Coal Ash as Non-Hazardous Waste” opposes federal regulation of coal combustion waste (known as coal ash) as hazardous, although coal ash contains large quantities of toxic metals, including mercury and arsenic, that can get in our water.

Blocking Conservation

·         ALEC’s “Eminent Domain Authority for Federal Lands Act” would authorize state governments to open federal public land -- such as national parks and protected wilderness areas -- for oil, gas, and coal exploration.  It would reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s constitutional interpretation that Congress has broader power to enact laws to manage federal land than states in Kleppe v. New Mexico (1976).

·         ALEC’s “Regulatory Costs Fairness Act” and “The Private Property Protection Act” make taxpayers liable to land owners, including corporations, that claim their property value is diminished by government regulations, including laws that protect neighbors from polluters.

Criminalizing Environmental Protection

·         ALEC’s “Environmental Corrupt Organizations - Preventative Legislation and Neutralization (ECO-PLAN) Act” criminalizes environmental activism and gives the government the power to defund and shut down alleged “eco-terrorist” activities, but does not provide a definition of “animal and ecological terrorism.” This bill potentially gives law enforcement broad discretion to silence critics of environmentally hazardous corporate activities and business practices.

Gas Price Bill Could Come With High Costs Away From The Pump

Public News Service-PA
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26495-1

(05/17/12) HARRISBURG, Penn. - Supporters say it could save Pennsylvanians money at the pump, but health advocates are waving a red flag. They caution that a gas-price bill scheduled to be debated by a U.S. House committee today comes with a far higher price tag: human health.

The Gasoline Regulations Act(H.B. 4471) would put a panel in place that could reduce Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on greenhouse gas and sulfur emissions from refineries. Ultimately, it could lower air-quality standards for ozone.

Peter Iwanowicz, head of the American Lung Association Healthy Air Campaign, says his group surveyed likely voters in Pennsylvania about the issue.

"We specifically asked whether the EPA should tighten standards to provide cleaner-burning gasoline, and 60 percent of likely voters want stronger standards there."

Iwanowicz says oil producers see the legislation as another chance to increase production and record high profits.

"Big oil has been looking for over two decades to inject the feasibility and cost test into this process. They've been turned back by EPA; they've been turned back by Congress; they've been turned back, in fact, by a Supreme Court decision."

Factors to consider rise above a cheaper gallon of gas, he adds.

"Air pollution makes people sick; it cuts lives short. The last thing we need right now, particularly in Pennsylvania, is a roll-back in clean air protection or blocking of EPA setting new standards to protect public health."

Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield, a co-sponsor of the bill, calls it a reality check on the impact federal regulations can have at the pump. Iwanowicz says a more accurate description of the measure is "a wish list for Big Oil."

GOP Member of Congress apologizes TO British Petroleum

This morning a Republican Member of Congress apologized to BP. Yes, you heard it right. Congressman Joe Barton (R, TX) apologized to British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward because the White House got BP to create a $20 billion escrow account to pay for the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

I’m astonished. Rep. Barton and his Republican colleagues are more upset that President Obama is forcing BP to pay for its devastation than they are at BP for pouring hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.

Not one Republican Member of Congress from PA has said they disagree with Barton. So we’re going to give every Senator and Representative to answer this simple question: Whose side are you on? BP or the American people?

Click here to send your Senators and Representative an email asking them to take a stand: http://www.keystoneprogress.org/page/speakout/pabarton

Barton is the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He should be overseeing BP and other drillers, but instead of holding them accountable, he’s apologizing to them. Perhaps it’s because of the millions in contributions flowing from the oil companies into their campaign coffers.

Here’s exactly what Barton said this morning:

“I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown -- in this case a $20 billion shakedown -- with the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that's unprecedented in our nation's history, which has no legal standing, which I think sets a terrible precedent for our nation's future.

"I'm only speaking for myself. I'm not speaking for anyone else, but I apologize," Barton added. "I do not want to live in a county where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, [it is] subject to some sort of political pressure that, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown."

I’m angry at Barton. But I’m also angry that not one Republican Member of Congress has repudiated what Barton said. Email Congress NOW: http://www.keystoneprogress.org/page/speakout/pabarton

Michael Morrill
for the Keystone Progress Team
www.twitter.com/keystoneprogres

Major drilling accident in NW PA. Cameras, media banned from site

An explosion at a natural gas well in northwest Pennsylvania resulted in a spill of at least a million gallons of oil and chemicals mixed with water. According to the AP report, there was a shower of gas and chemical-laden water shooting 75 feet into the air. The leak continued for at least 16 hours. The accident was so severe that the area was evacuated and the Federal Aviation Administration prohibited flights in the area.

When I heard of the accident on Friday afternoon, I immediately left the meeting I was attending in Washington, DC and headed for the site with my trusty Flip Camera in hand.

So where are the photos and video showing the extent of the pollution?

They don’t exist, because EOG Resources, the owner of the wells, won’t allow anyone on the site, especially with a camera. When I tried to shoot some video, they not only wouldn’t let me on the site, they told me I might be shot for being on their property and then sent thugs to chase me and threaten me.

I arrived around 7:30 PM and drove around the area trying to find the site. I asked a number of locals if they knew the site of the explosion. No one knew what I was talking about, so it wasn’t until about 9:00 that I finally stumbled upon the site. It’s about 5 ½ miles from the entrance to S.B. Elliott State Park in Clearfield County.

As I approached the site a man got out of a pickup truck and told me I would have to leave. I told him I just wanted to get some video of the cleanup. He said he couldn’t allow me on the grounds and I didn’t leave right away I would be arrested for trespassing.

In the morning I tried again and got the same answer from another man in a pickup truck.

I could see through the forest that there was work going on in the distance, but my little flip Camera couldn’t get anything but trees. I decided that maybe a hike through the woods was in order, so I drove a few miles to a point on the other side of the spill site. I chose an entrance point that was not marked as private property and hiked toward the site.

Along the way I saw still and flowing water with oily residue. Some of it may be from the spill, but most of it was uphill from the accident site. That means the water in this area is likely contaminated from the numerous gas wells being drilled.

I found a road on a ridge that appeared to head close to the accident site and walked about a half mile on that road when I was stopped by two men in a Gator. They asked me what I was doing out there and I said I was just taking a hike. They told me that I was on property owned by the Punxsutawney Hunt Club and the members didn’t appreciate trespassers. They told me, in a veiled threat, that I should leave now and as long as I was heading out I would probably not get shot.

I’m not one to back down easily, but I wasn’t ready to take a bullet for a grainy video of the spill site. I wished them a good day and turned back to my car, a couple of miles and bridgeless brook away. As I crossed the brook barefoot I noticed another pickup truck parking on the opposite hill, blocking the path. When I approached the truck two men got out. The older man got in front of me and said “Show me some ID.”

I asked him who he was and he grabbed my arm and told me I was on private property. I shook his hand off and continued walking. Without looking back, I told him there was nothing posted that indicated the land I was on was private property. He yelled to me, “We know where your car is. We called the police. You’ll be arrested when you get back to your car.” He then added, “We know you’re taking water samples.”

The truth is, I had filled up some drinking water bottles with samples of water from various sites along my hike. I’m not sure what use they will be, but I thought it was important to at least get something that could be independently tested.

When I got a few hundred yards from my car I could hear the last two men who confronted me. As I approached my car the older man took out an old disposable film camera and took my picture. I tried to get my Flip Camera to take some video of them, but the battery was dead and I only got a few seconds.

They tried to get me to stay and wait for the police to come, but I wasn’t about to test the fairness of the local criminal justice system. I told them to back off or be charged with assault, and susprisingly they complied.

As a parting shot the younger one said,” Don’t come back.” I replied, childishly, “I’ll do what I want.” He said, “If you come back you won’t leave.”

I got in my car and started to leave the way I came in. They passed me and I drove a safe distance behind them. Then I realized that I may be driving into a trap. When they turned a corner toward the spill site, I stopped and turned around. I drove a few miles in the wrong direction, but eventually found a connection to Route 153. And then home.

I have some video that I’ll be posting later today and tomorrow. It’s not very expository, but it’s all I could get. I’ll also be trying to find an independent lab that can identify the chemicals and oily residue in the water samples I took. I’ll post the results of those tests as I get them.

In the meantime, it’s important for the public to know what’s really going on at the spill site.

There has been very little news coverage of this major accident and part of the reason is the lack of access to the site. It’s hard to report when you have no information. It’s harder when the perpetrators are in full control of what little information has been released. “Nothing to see here,” EOG Resources assures us. “It was only a million gallons and we took care of it.”

If that’s the truth, it’s a huge accident that threatens local waterways that flow into the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay. But what if it’s worse than that? We don’t know because there are no independent eyes and ears on the site. Haven’t we learned yet that we should never rely on the word of the people who caused the problem?

I’m calling on Governor Ed Rendell and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger to use their offices to grant access to the spill site to the media, environmental organizations and the local population. It’s probably too late to see anything damning, but it will at least give us a picture of where the accident occurred so we can begin to ask the right questions and make sure any investigations are accurate and complete.

How are progressive organizations responding to Palin? Sierra Club

McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy

Washington, DC: Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope issues the following statement in reaction to Senator McCain's pick of Governor Sarah Palin for Vice President:

"With the pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for his running mate, John McCain's race towards the Bush administration's failed energy policy is now complete."

"John McCain was once willing to stand up to his own party, but now that he is running for President, he supports the same Bush policies and powerful special interests that put us in the grip of the oil companies. One of the last remaining independent policies putting him at odds with Bush was his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, yet he has now picked a running mate who has opposed holding Big Oil accountable and been dismissive of alternative energy while focusing her work on more oil drilling in a wildlife refuge and off of our coasts."

"Palin herself told Roll Call earlier this week, 'When I look every day, the big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry.'" (Roll Call, 8/25/08)

"No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governo Palin. Along with her support for drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts, she also opposes a windfall profit tax on the richest oil companies. Under her leadership, Alaska has sued the federal governent for considering listing the Polar Bear as a threatened species even though global warming threatens its very existence.

She has been dismissive of alternative energy, saying "alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop" (The Post and Courier Charleston, SC, 8/16/08), when in reality it is the oil she would like to drill that would take a decade to bring to market."

"Senator McCain has lost any chance of having a balanced or moderate ticket with this choice and has instead opted for the same, business-as-usual reliance on the outdated oil companies that has been the hallmark of the Bush-Cheney administration. On the third anniversay of the hurricane that knocked loose oil rigs and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf Coast that is bracing for another hit, McCain is sending a terribly indifferent message by selecting a candidate who only repeats Big Oil's talking points."

"Senators Obama and Biden share the common goals of putting America back to work by building a balanced clean energy economy, taking on Big Oil and meeting the challenge of global warming. Under their leadership, our economy can become stronger, and our world cleaner and safer."

Paid for by the Sierra Club Political Committee, http://www.sierraclub.org/, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

How are progressive organizations responding to Palin? League of Conservation Voters

Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), which works to turn environmental values into national priorities, today expressed its deep disappointment with John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“Unfortunately, with her support for drilling in the Arctic Refuge and off our coasts, Governor Palin will simply continue the failed policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration and their Big Oil friends – policies that could make us even more dependent on foreign oil," LCV President Gene Karpinski said.

Governor Palin characterizes McCain’s flip-flop on drilling offshore as a positive step in his transformation from maverick to Big Oil's best friend.

She has implored McCain to change his position against drilling in the Arctic – something she will have plenty of opportunities to pursue as his running mate.

In addition to supporting backward-looking energy policies, Governor Palin has also opposed a crucial clean water initiative, sued the federal government for listing polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and opposed other important wildlife protection measures.

This ticket now stands in even starker contrast to the visionary energy plan laid out by Senator Obama last night, which will create millions of new jobs, improve our national security, and reduce global warming pollution.

“Now more than ever, America is in need of real vision and leadership to bring us a new clean energy future, and the McCain-Palin ticket offers nothing of the sort.”

How to Stop a Tire Burning Plant in PA

HOW TO STOP A TIRE BURNING PLANT IN PENNSYLVANIA

What does an urban community do when it is assaulted by plans to build the world largest dedicated tire-burning plant in a downtown residential neighborhood?

It gets PISSED!

Erie Renewable Energy, LLC think it knows a rust-belt sucker when it sees one. A miniscule 60 jobs on a KOZ brown-field are proposed for the site in order to place itself as an electricity provider when the PA electricity rate-caps come off in 2010. (Can you say windfall profits?)

A grass-roots organization named K.E.E.P (Keep Erie’s Environment Protected) formed in Erie in the summer of 2007 to fight this proposed environmental monstrosity in the face of a community revolt and (expected) local governmental inertia.

Environmental expert Mike Ewall, in conjunction with the local Green Party in Erie, has assisted in part with the formation of a grassroots organization that has taken the town by storm.
Here’s what the folks in Erie are saying:

'If this project is developed as planned, we will be faced with potentially having to move our processing plant and likely our distribution plant south of Erie and possibly Erie County for the sake of maintaining food safety and product integrity.”

This quote comes from Bruce Kern, a food processing company owner near the proposed tire-to-toxic-death plant. K.E.E.P. has now to date 29 letters from local business in clear opposition to the construction of the proposed tire-burning plant.

The proposed tire-burning plant filed for its air-quality permit, a signal important hurdle in being granted a go-ahead by the PA DEP in December of 2007. In its application, Erie Renewable Energy (since when are tires renewable?) said its operation would be officially listed as a “major source of hazardous air pollutants” (HAP). The application goes on to reveal that it is designated as a Title V polluter which will produce an estimated (on a good day) over 1,500 tons of pollution each year in the Erie community, translating into just over 4 tons of gas and particulate matter per day. This is in conjunction with two other Title V polluters in the Erie city limits already in operation.

Does the Erie community need this kind of “business investment?”

'It's my home. It's my neighborhood. It's my city. I think I need better assurances than they have given so far,' said Dzuricky, an East Sixth Street resident.

'We are not going away,' Dzuricky said. 'We are still mobilizing. We are in this for the long haul.'

Tim Reim, representative of the local Green Party, and other K.E.E.P. officials also challenged the contention that the type and volume of pollutants the plant would emit would not represent a health threat.

Reim stated, 'How do you dump 229 tons of particulate matter containing things like dioxins in the air and tell the community it is not going to have an effect?'

'Erie must be in the forefront of good environmental standards,' he said. 'This is not an anti-business resolution. This is a pro-environment resolution. Are we willing to jeopardize future businesses, and most importantly are we willing to jeopardize our own citizens for 60 jobs? I'm interested in the health, safety and welfare of residents,' Cappabianca said. 'I want to protect the air in Erie.'

These are the words of our courageous City Councilperson, Pat Cappabianca, backed by a second Erie Councilperson, Jessica Horan-Kunco, in response to a Continuous Emissions Monitoring System Ordinance (CEMS) crafted by Mike Ewall to address the environmental needs of the citizens of Erie.

Six separate surrounding local township governments have publicly stated their opposition to the construction of the tire-burning plant.

And yet the corporate criminals who place profit over people persist in its plans to build the plant in Erie. Its original cost projection has sky-rocketed from an estimated $90 million to now $350 million, while shedding possibly 30 of its projected 60 long-term jobs.

Concerns about possible tire fires, rail and truck traffic issues, local ammonia on-site storage and local tourism, along with regional grape-growers concerns continue to beleaguer the plans of the proposed tire-burning plant’s local construction and out-of-town investors.

K.E.E.P. has had enormous success in garnering support among its many aroused citizenry. Community inspired raffles, fundraisers and anonymous donors have given a growing group of dedicated activists the incentive to continue the fight.

A recent Erie City zoning hearing board ruling which found against a preliminary approval of ERE’s plans has further enhanced K.E.E.P.’s standing in the community as a viable force against the forces of environmental degradation.

In addition, the Erie County Medical Society released a statement this last month which read in part: “…the Erie County Medical Society is concerned that simply meeting DEP standards will not adequately define the health risk to our citizens over time. It is our position that an independent health impact assessment be obtained to further delineate the burning facility.
In other words, an independent health impact assessment study of the data should be conducted before the PA DEP rules to give ERE, LLC its valued air-quality permit.

What can we do to help K.E.E.P. in Erie? Go to: http://www.stopburningtires.com/
Or contact Tim Reim , 2708 W. 33rd Street, Erie, PA 16506(814) 838-1193, (814) 572-6653 – cell, Deaconb60@Hotmail.com

McCain: Not Comfortable With Nuclear Waste Through Arizona, But Just Fine for Pennsylvania

www.sierraclub.org
McCain Nuclear Plan Would Bring At Least 6,349 Casks of Dangerous, Highly Radioactive Nuclear Waste Through Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—As John McCain is paying a visit today to the Enrico Fermi nuclear generating station in Monroe, Michigan he can be expected to tout his costly plan to build 45 new nuclear plants by 2030 and 55 more after that. This plan would effectively double the number of nuclear reactors and the amount of dangerous high-level nuclear waste that would need to be transported across the country.

The Sierra Club is today calling attention to the YouTube video that surfaced earlier this year which shows John McCain clearly saying—while shaking his head ‘no’—that he would not be comfortable with nuclear waste traveling through his own home state of Arizona on its way to the unsafe and unproven Yucca Mountain site—something for which John McCain has been one of the Senate’s biggest proponents.

The video can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPlaHQCKc34

Transcript (beginning at 1:14): Interviewer: What about the transportation? Would you be comfortable with nuclear waste coming through Arizona on its way, you know going through Phoenix, on its way to uh Yucca Mountain? McCain (Shaking Head): “No, I would not. No, I would not.”

“Why does John McCain think its okay for hundreds of tons of dangerous nuclear waste to go through Pennsylvania but yet too dangerous to go through his own state?” said Hillary Bright, Sierra Club. “John McCain simply can’t have it both ways when it comes to the nuclear waste issue. Right now he supports running hundreds of shipments of dangerous nuclear waste through Pennsylvania and sticking Nevadans with 77,000 tons of it forever, while at the same time saying he’s uncomfortable with it going through his own backyard for even a day.”

The Sierra Club also pointed out that the very nuclear plant that Senator McCain is visiting today once suffered a partial meltdown. Indeed, a book about the incident is entitled “We Almost Lost Detroit.”

John McCain supports the Bush administration’s plan to store our nation’s nuclear waste at the unsafe and unproven Yucca mountain site—a white elephant that has wasted two decades and billions of taxpayer dollars. A plan to transport the waste released by the State of Nevada based on Department of Energy plans details the likely rail, truck, and barge routes that high-level waste would take on its way to Yucca Mountain. Approximately 6,349 casks of waste would travel through Pennsylvania. Each cask would transport between 2 and 15 tons of high-level waste. In total, the dangerous waste would travel through more than 703 counties in 45 states. More than 123 million people live along the proposed truck routes alone. And more than 10 million people live within a half-mile of the proposed routes.

See link for Proposed Pennsylvania Routes: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/maps2002/roadrail/pa.htm

“John McCain is asking both Pennsylvanians and Nevadans to gamble with our safety, yet it’s not even a bet he’s willing to take for Arizona,” said Hillary Bright, Sierra Club. “Just like with subsidies—he’s against them, except when it comes to nuclear power and so-called ‘clean coal’—John McCain wants to have his cake and eat it too on the nuclear waste issue. He’s all for moving thousands of tons highly radioactive waste through communities across the country, except when it comes to his home state of Arizona.”

In addition to being dangerous, John McCain’s nuclear plan is a costly distraction from the real solutions to global warming. Based on cost estimates for new nuclear power plants put forth by utilities like Florida Power and Light, McCain’s plan for 100 new nuclear plants could cost more than $1 TRILLION.

Over the years McCain has cast vote after vote in favor of Yucca Mountain and billions in subsidies for the nuclear industry, yet he has consistently voted against renewable energy and has refused to support extending key clean energy incentives that are in danger of expiring at the end of this year. While twice trying to extend these incentives in recent months, they failed by just a single vote. Every other Senator voted on these clean energy incentives, but McCain was nowhere to be found. Failing to extend these incentives could throw 116,000 people out of work in the wind and solar industries alone and sacrifice billions in lost economic growth.

Barack Obama, by contrast, opposes storing nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain site. With regards to the role of nuclear power in general, Obama’s energy plan released yesterday states:

“Before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation.”

Declare Your Independence From Big Oil

From our friends at Clean Water Action

Declare Your Independence From Big Oil
Eight years of increased oil production has done nothing to reduce gas prices. Instead we are faced with high gas prices for consumers and fat profits for the Big Oil companies.
The only way to free ourselves from expensive oil is to get off oil.
Read more or sign our petition and add your voice to thousands of others who oppose drilling off our most pristine coasts and in our Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

New Sierra club ad running in Carney's district.

From the Sierra Club Website:

New ad running in Chris Carney's PA district.
"Rolling In It."
The ad urges Members to keep standing strong against Big Oil and calls on Congress to break Big Oil’s stranglehold on America by cracking down on price-gouging, ending the billions in giveaways to the oil industry, investing in renewable energy to give consumers more clean energy options, and by offering consumers real relief at the pump.

Listen to it here.

Al Gore's Call for All-Renewables by 2008

Seems to be the time for ten-year energy plans:


http://www.wecansolveit.org/

The Pickens Plan

T. Boone Pickens has decided to put part of his oil-derived billions into finding energy solutions. What's he talking about doing? Massive solar and wind investment, using natural gas for vehicles and virtually eliminating gasoline. And all by 2018!

If an uber-capitalist like Pickens is suggesting these solutions, it's possible that we might see some serious changes in energy production. Of course, he also wants to use nuclear and coal, so it's not as if Pickens has suddenly joined the Green Party.

Let's reserve judgment until the entire plan comes out. In the meantime, here's the Pickens video:



http://www.pickensplan.com/