Linda Rosch / MoveOn.org Petitions & CREDO Petitions – 2013-06-26 02:21:55
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/power-the-united-states-1
Power the USA with Clean/Renewable Energy Within 5 to 10 Years
Linda Rosch / MoveOn.org Petitions
To be delivered to: President Barack Obama
Petition Statement
We respectfully state:
There is no way to justify allowing the United States of America to be pushed short-sightedly and extremely-dangerously — by corporate, business, and investment-banking interests — into further financing and development of any of the following: oil-transport pipelines (including but not limited to the Keystone-XL Pipeline), nuclear power plants (we cannot properly dispose of the nuclear waste from our power plants now), or hydraulic-fracking of shale-gas desposits.
Overwhelming evidence confirms the grievous dangers to the American public from ongoing, rapidly accelerating pursuit of these “enterprises.” Selecting one significant reference resource from multitudes, we refer you to the work of a Nobel Laureate, Dr. Helen Caldicott. (See her video: “What We Learned from Fukushima,” including her discussion of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Cape Cod, USA. [at 23:53 minutes on the video track]. The video is widely available on the Internet.)
DO THE RIGHT THING: Do not heed multi-million-dollar public relations campaigns promulgated by corporations and investment-banking interests. It is impossible to convince a generation of savvy Americans who watched men walk on the Moon, astronauts live in an international space station and a remotely-controlled land-rover scuttle across the surface of Mars — THAT SOLAR-ENERGY-BATTERY STORAGE CANNOT BE CONQUERED FOR ANOTHER 50 YEARS.
It is impossible to convince all the citizens of the US who have seen video/film images of homeowners’ kitchen tapwater igniting into sheets of flame — after fracking ensued on or close to their personal property — that fracking is benign. FRACKING IS CLEARLY NOT BENIGN. A SIMPLE BOOK-MATCH SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SET ONE’S KITCHEN-SINK TAPWATER ON FIRE IF THAT WATER IS SAFE TO DRINK.
Furthermore, the oil/gas industries do a terrible job of regulating themselves and in no circumstances should their self-regulation or monitoring of pipeline or fracking projects be deemed adequate.
And finally, with federal and local-government budgets cut to the bone, it is IMPOSSIBLE for government to adequately monitor all the sites of oil-pipeline construction and fracking across the United States. Any argument to the contrary is specious and is also “self-serving” for the oil/gas industry, as research will easily ‘bear out.’
WE KNOW a clean-energy transition in the US is possible within 10 years. We need ONLY LOOK BACK AT THE MANHATTAN PROJECT AND THE CITY OF OAKRIDGE, TENNESSEE to confirm that: When the government, financial, manufacturing and military sectors of the United States emergently commit to creation of a technology, no expense is spared and no needed resource unprocured (no matter how difficult to obtain).
Develop, synergize and incorporate all forms of clean-energy technologies into a “smart-grid.” Design a plan. Fund the plan. Provide all needed human and material resources (including academic and research support). Bring the blueprint to material fruition and implement it.
As we live in a state of global environmental emergency with extreme weather, extreme drought and increasing food shortages; as we watch our fellow Americans (Pennsylvania/Colorado) develop neuropathies/brain tumors from fracking-polluted-waste-water, and their livestock and pets sicken, wasting and becoming bald; as we watch our friends, the Indigenous Peoples on our continent, suffer extreme degradation of their food and water systems from tar-sands mining:
IN 2013, WE URGENTLY AND EMERGENTLY NEED A NATIONAL PROJECT FOR CLEAN-ENERGY IMPLEMENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES — “MANHATTAN-2 FOR CLEAN ENERGY.”
We call on you to act appropriately and to spend our tax money properly — to safeguard our wellbeing. At the same time you will save the US economy and begin an entirely new era of American enterprise; and the US will unequivocally regain its status of world leadership by doing the right thing.
Petition Background
Citizens of the United States are at serious risk of widespread contamination of their drinking-water aquifers and water wells from fracking and the leaking of oil-pipelines. Our environmental situation is so precarious, I find it difficult to think about anything else!
Climate change and extreme weather pose a greater and more immediate threat to the US than any terrorist organization. Damage from hurricanes, floods, droughts and firestorms are now commonplace and often occurring simultaneously.
Thousands of homes are being destroyed, entire cities face evacuation (Calgary in Canada; Miami in the US) and the costs are mounting by billions of dollars.
Thank President Obama for Taking
Major Steps Forward against Climate Change
CREDO
Add your name thanking President Obama:
“Thank you for doing two of the biggest things you could do today to help the United States lead the world in the fight against climate change: moving forward on rules to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants, and committing to reject Keystone XL if it increases carbon pollution — which it does.”
The Keystone XL fight is now, officially, on our terms.
In a surprise announcement, in his first major address on climate change in four-and-a-half years as President, Barack Obama said that he would not approve Keystone XL if it significantly increased carbon emissions.1
This is huge. It is a huge sign that the pressure we have put on the administration is working. More than 62,000 people have pledged to engage in civil disobedience if necessary to stop Keystone XL, precisely because it will lead to “game over for the climate†by lighting the fuse to detonate the carbon bomb of the Alberta tar sands into our atmosphere.
It is also a huge sign that we must keep our pressure on. After all, the State Department’s first sham environmental evaluation found that Keystone XL would not substantially increase climate emissions – flying in the face of the EPA,2 climate scientists,3 and the economists and oil industry executives who know that Keystone XL will speed development of the tar sands.
Deciding Keystone XL based on its climate impacts is a fight we can win – but only if we keep fighting.
Also in today’s speech was the President’s announcement that his administration was moving forward on a rule to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants. This too is huge news, and something that CREDO and our activists have been pushing the President to do since before the failure of the climate bill in 2009.
Taken together, setting the terms for rejecting Keystone XL and moving forward on limiting carbon pollution from existing power plants, were the two most important things President Obama could have done today. More than anything else, we are grateful for this leadership.
We know the President will be facing ferocious opposition and attacks from the fossil fuel industry, and the science-denying Republican obstructionists who serve them. So while we have a lot of work to do, today is an important day to thank the President for his leadership.
Sign the petition thanking President Obama for leading on climate change. Click here to automatically add your name.
Of course, the speech wasn’t perfect – far from it. In addition to disappointing calls to expand natural gas development, the steps laid out today simply weren’t enough to solve our climate change problem on their own.
But this is a significant step forward from an administration that for years was afraid to even say the word “climate,†and today gave a full-throated endorsement of the need for our action, and for global leadership to fulfill our moral obligation to protect people all around the world from the damage that has already begun.
This is a testament to your pressure and your activism. And it only affirms our commitment to redoubling all of our efforts, including the Pledge of Resistance, to oppose Keystone XL and fight climate change.
There’s a lot more to do, but mostly today, we are shocked by this surprise announcement, and grateful that the president is finally leading in the fight against climate change. Click the link below to sign the petition thanking President Obama:
http://act.credoaction.com/go/1005?t=5&akid=8237.1576591.53vJs6
Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Sign the petition
Learn more about this campaign
1. “In climate speech, Obama sets carbon limits on Keystone project,” The Hill, 6/25/13
2. “How much does EPA’s objection to Keystone XL matter? A lot.” Washington Post, 4/25/13
3. “Scientists: Key Parts of State Dept Keystone Review Are ‘Without Merit’,” Inside Climate, 6/4/12
