Good News, the Sierra Club has come out with a strong endorsement of Barack Obama for President!
"We believe Senator Obama is the change our nation needs – he is the change we need, the leader who will put America on the path to a clean energy economy that will create and keep millions of jobs, spur innovation and opportunity, make us a more secure nation, and help us solve global warming," said Carl Pope, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club's members and supporters are more than 1.3 million strong. It is America's oldest, largest and arguably most influential grassroots environmental organization. See further remarks by Carl Pope at the link below.
6/20/2008 -- Sierra Club Endorses Obama for President
With gas prices continuing to hit record highs, Americans are feeling the pinch.
While regular American families are struggling to figure out how they'll afford to pick up the kids and drive to work, the oil industry has been celebrating billions of dollars in profit. As gas prices empty the wallets of American families and Big Oil companies rack up billions in record profits, Bush, McCain and Republican legislators continue to subsidize Big Oil and promote failed policies of the past.
What can we do to relieve the pain at the pump? The honest answer to our addition to fossil fuels is to use less of them, and that means better fuel economy, a serious commitment to renewable energy, and dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. Just as an emergency room doctor knows his first objective is to stop the bleeding and ease the pain, Democrats want to provide relief to help those that are hurting the most. But we also know that curing the disease will take some time and require a change in the way we do business.
The Sierra Club compares Obama's plan for relief and long term solution with McCain/GOP policies that got us to the problem in the first place. See the press release below. It is a very interesting read.
Are you tired of politicians telling us what we'd like to hear without offering any real solutions? Sure, I'd like to stop the bleeding and ease the pain. But I also want a plan to cure the disease. The GOP call for offshore drilling does neither. It is about scoring political points rather than solving the problem. The Sierra Club debunks the Grand Oil Party Charade in the commentary below.
7/14/2008 -- Bush, McCain, Grand Oil Party Play Politics Over Drilling
I've looked at some of the US Energy Information Agency data and posted my commentary, The Offshore Oil Charade on Obama's website. One further observation, the oil future's market did not even blink when Saudi Arabia announced increased production several weeks ago; but the price as begun to settle on news that America is using less oil. Anecdotal evidence to be sure, but I suspect we have more leverage on the demand side than on the supply side.
But, you say, just complaining about failed policy is not enough. You need a plan to move ahead. Can we wean ourselves off of oil on to sustainable low pollution energy sources? I say yes. Think about it, extractive industries are the modern day equivalent of hunter-gatherers of the past. If our ancestors had not learned to till the soil and make better uses of the resources at hand, we'd still be back in the Stone Age. The Stone Age didn't end for lack of stones. We don't have to wait till we run our of oil to move on to something better. Can we do it? I say yes we can! More about how in later issues.
When it comes to promoting sustainable pollution-free energy, protecting public health and safety, and promoting efficent use non-renewable resources, congressional Democrats have a positive record that stands in stark contrast
to Republicans.
Prior to the 2006 election, I analyzed data from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) environmental scorecard for 2005. The scorecard does not tally the votes by party. So I copied the scores into a spreadsheet where I sorted them by party affiliation and calculated the averages for each party for both the House and the Senate.
As a group, the Republicans had extremely low scores and the Democrats had very high scores. Furthermore, the leadership (as defined by LCV) was below average for Republicans and above average for Democrats. The results are as follows:
LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION SCORES 2005
( Separated by party affiliation )
Senate Republicans Senate Democrats
- overall average 15% - overall average 82%
- leadership average 5% - leadership average 93%
House Republicans House Democrats
- overall average 11% - overall average 82%
- leadership average 6% - leadership average 92%
As many of you may know, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a non-partisan organization that is devoted to "shaping a pro-environment Congress and White House". As part of this effort they publish a "National Environmental Scorecard" and "Presidential Report Card" which provide an "authoritative record of how members of Congress and the Administration handle the most important environmental issues before them." The scorecard is available in pdf form on the LCV website, http://www.lcv.org
Its no accident that Carl Pope of the Sierra club announced the Club's endorsement of Barack Obama in conjunction with the president of the United Steelworkers Union. Ultimately a healthy economy depends on a healthy environment. A serious program to improve energy efficiency and develop alternative sources of energy will create more and better jobs than the polluting technologies that are replaced.
"The Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers are standing together in support of Barack Obama because we all share the common goal of putting America back to work by building a clean energy economy," said Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers.
The recently passed legislation to increase CAFE standards from 25 mpg to 35 mpg, if fully implemented, will create an estimated 22,300 new jobs across the nation. The Sierra Club calls this the " Single Biggest Step " in the fight to reduce our addiction to oil.
Transitioning electric power generation to renewable energy sources is another area that would help revitalize the economey and create new jobs. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a standard requiring 20 percent renewable energy production by 2020 would create over 185,000 new jobs from renewable energy development, save over $10.5 billion on energy bills, and provide over $67 billion in new capital investments across the country.
Cashing in on Clean Energy
Unfortunately, Congress failed to pass Renewable Electricity Standard legislation last year due to roadblock Republican politics. When the comprehensive House Energy bill came before the Senate, a small minority, including Texas Senator Cornyn, managed to block a move for cloture. The vote was 59 to 40, so Senator Cornyn's vote in the plus column would definitely have made a difference. The house and senate reached a compromise and the president signed it into law. Unfortunately, the bill did not contain the provision that would have promoted a national renewable electricity standard and benefited Texas wind farms. See Dallas Morning News article
DMN - Bill benefiting Texas wind farms ...
Communities all over America are responding to the threat of global warming with smart energy solutions. Over 300 mayors, representing 50 million Americans in 46 states have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, pledging to reduce global warming pollution in their cities to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
These “Cool Cities” are working to meet this goal with practical and innovative energy solutions that reduce energy waste and pollution. Through energy efficiency and clean renewable energy technologies, cities are saving millions of taxpayer dollars every year and curbing global warming emissions. These savings enable communities to turn around and invest more on schools, job creation, essential services and new infrastructure.
See the
Cool Cities, Cool Cash Report for some examples of money saving projects.
Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens, different goals, common solution.
Last week, Al Gore challenged our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources within 10 years. [
Meet the Press transcript for July 20, 2008 ]
Mr. Pickens is financing a $50 million advertising campaign aimed at reducing oil imports by building massive wind farms and using natural gas to fuel cars. His goal, shift the $700 billion America spends on importing foriegn oil to car's running on domestic gas within 10 years. [
DMN - Pickens, Democrats agree in calling for alternative fuels ] Mr Pickens says he talked with Al Gore and the two agreed on "95 percent of what we talked about"
Although Mr Pickens was involved in financing "swift boat" ads against John Kerry in 2004, Democrats seem willing to at least listen to what he has to say.
Best regards
Bob Fusinato
[Send questions, comments, or suggestions to BobFusinato@tx.rr.com]
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