During part of his address, President Obama spoke about investing in wind and solar power (yay!) while also mentioning off-shore oil drilling and fracking (boo!). He took many strong stances on so many other issues during his address that I was hoping he would take a strong stance to support renewable energy fully and NOT mention investment in dirty energy sources or processes of removing energy sources (i.e. fracking). But he did and of course, these are not things to cheer about.
Any environmentalist should regard fossil fuels and and natural gas as dirty energy sources that should be phased out to get us to the transition to green energy sources. Sure, I understand that we're far from ready to be on 100% renewable energy but we have to work now towards moving beyond oil and coal and not later. Each day, corporate polluters put people's health and our nation's future at risk, polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink with toxic chemicals. All the while, they are also polluting our political system and working to roll back lifesaving public health protections. We need to clean up the fossil fuel industry by ensuring strong safeguards like protections from toxic mercury and natural gas safegurads that go much further than what the President suggested.
I'm well aware everyone is worried about the economy -- I just graduated from a great university and can't even find a job that pays minimum wage -- but this problem is too big to shove aside. We need the President's leadership to push for a clean energy revolution that creates jobs and protects our communities.
So what can you do, you might be asking yourself. Well, I will tell you what I did. I wrote him an email and told him how important I believe it is for our country to shift its focus to renewable energy sources. If you feel the same way, you should contact him too. Also, if you watched the speech, I'd like to hear your thoughts and opinions on it. If you didn't, here's a great summary of the energy portion, complete with a video clip. It starts after the part about fracking and offshore drilling, though, so the impression I get from the clip is much more positive than it was in context. Regardless, President Obama needs to know that clean, sustainable energy is important to us. Just say NO...to fossil fuels.
Posted by Sierra Club Intern Liz Bizer
Thank YOU. I was horrified at that statement, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking that this all starts with us. That the first step is each of us cutting back and staying close to home. Much of the fossil fuel problem probably could have been managed previously by those who care first cutting our own use, then allowing that to spread through our example. There are millions of us and we'd take a real swipe at total CO2 output AND the feasibility of continuing to produce the nation's energy through drilling and mining and fracking with our cutback. And we stand in solidarity with those being fracked and mountaintop-removed and polluted when we turn stuff down, when we get stuff on power strips (buy a little watt meter and see how much coal gets burned in your house when you're asleep), when we vacation here instead of to places that need plane travel (the most polluting, climate-changing way to travel).
If we don't want the fossil fuels, let's take the rock-bottom step that'll reduce their use: reducing OUR use.