If you think elections don't make a difference, just scroll down to see what we have been able to accomplish since electing Obama!
There's a lot at stake on November 2, and we need to support these
accomplishments by working hard for our good environmental candidates.
Click here to see the list of Club-endorsed candidates.
Then, please find the time to help them out, including volunteering for their campaigns, writing LTE's, mentioning them in your personal blogs, etc. -- to make sure we can continue to make progress and not go backward! :-)
Obama Delivers on Environmental Change
We voted for change in 2008, and the Obama administration has delivered it at a breathtaking pace since taking office. President Obama has shown bold leadership on a wide range of issues, from promoting clean energy, to
protecting our wildlife and public lands, to enacting safeguards for our
waterways, to cleaning our air, to making us less dependent on foreign oil and taking strides to cut our country's global warming pollution.
The Obama Administration's accomplishments in the past two years:
(Listed earliest to most recent)
1. American Recovery & Reinvestment Act's approximately $90 billion in
green spending to get our economy back on track and create millions of new clean energy jobs.
2. The President's FY 2009 Budget plan that made clean energy and closing
the carbon loophole a top priority, while also fully funding energy and
environmental programs across the federal government.
3. Declaring carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases a threat to public
health and welfare and finally beginning the process of regulating the
carbon pollution that causes global warming.
4. Appointing an energy and environment team composed of the best and
brightest minds available, including Carol Browner (White House), Nancy
Sutley (CEQ), Lisa Jackson (EPA), Steven Chu (Energy), Ken Salazar (Interior), Hilda Solis (Labor), Tom Vilsack (Agriculture) and many other overwhelmingly qualified candidates.
5. Granting the California clean cars waiver and outlining plans for a
strong, economically and environmentally sustainable domestic auto
industry, including unprecedented investments in advanced automotive technology and electric vehicles.
6. Prioritizing mass transit and investing billions in high-speed rail
projects across the country to help cut oil dependence.
7. Protecting more than two million acres of wilderness, rivers, and parks.
8. Canceling the Bush administration's last minute sale of oil and gas
leases on important public lands near national parks.
9. Cleaning up a corrupt and scandal-plagued Department of Interior.
10. Scrapping the Bush administration's disastrous and destructive oil
shale plans.
11. Affirming that science and the rule of law will once again lead.
12. Putting the U.S. back at the center of international climate
negotiations, with President Obama personally negotiating the Copenhagen
Accord.
13. Putting the disastrous Bush administration offshore drilling plan on
hold.
14. Enhancing the role of EPA in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and holding states who fail to do their part accountable.
15. Devoting considerable resources to a more concerted effort to restore
the Great Lakes.
16. Making environmental justice and a more inclusive environmental
movement top priorities at EPA.
17. Abandoning the Bush administration's misguided mercury rule in favor of strict standards that will significantly reduce this toxic poison at power
plants nationwide.
18. Making renewable energy priority number one at the Department of the
Interior.
19. Halted the Bush administration's last-minute assault on the Endangered
Species Act.
20. Instituting major, common-sense reforms that will bring balance to the
Bureau of Land Management's onshore oil and gas leasing program.
21. Introducing a science-based standard for smog-forming Ozone and other air pollutants that will protect the public's health and welfare.
22. Making clean energy the cornerstone of the administration's ongoing job
creation and economic recovery efforts.
23. Directing cooperation between agencies for optimal siting of clean
energy projects.
24. Putting a hold on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon.
25. Establishing a new office dedicated to getting kids outside, the Office
of Youth in Natural Resources.
26. Declaring that the National Environmental Policy Act requires federal
agencies to consider climate change impacts when conducting environmental reviews.
27. Providing more than $150 million in grants to help train lower income
workers for clean energy jobs.
28. Proposing the first-ever one-hour standard for NOx, which will protect
children, the sick, and the elderly--particularly those that live, work, or
play near highways--from short-term spikes in this dangerous pollutant.
29. Launching a "21st century conservation dialogue" to convince Americans of the need to preserve open space and to expand land conservation to a grander scale.
30. Announcing $8 billion in funding for high-speed rail projects across
the country.
31. Launching an initiative in which the federal government will reduce its
own global warming emissions 28 percent by 2020.
32. First Lady Michelle Obama announcing the "Let's Move" campaign, which encourages children and young adults to eat better and get more exercise — which followed U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's rollout of the "Youth in the Great Outdoors" initiative, through the Department of the Interior's Office of Youth in Natural Resources.
33. Adapting the National Environmental Policy Act to help it better
address the greatest environmental challenge of today--climate change.
34. Launching the "America's Great Outdoors" initiative aimed at engaging
the American public in identifying new strategies to protect public lands,
wildlife, and the communities and local economies that depend on them.
35. Finalizing new combined global warming emissions and fuel economy
standards for autos for the years 2012-2016, bringing fuel economy to 35.5
miles per gallon. The efficiency gains in the autos sold under these standards will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
36. Setting tough guidance for mining near streams, which will severely
limit mountaintop removal coal mining.
37. Awarding $452 million dollars in federal grants to twenty-five cities
and states across the country for innovative new "Retrofit Ramp-Up"
programs that create clean energy jobs while helping families and businesses save energy and money. The effort is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included more than $80 billion in investment in clean energy.
38. Approving the 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore wind farm near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which will provide clean, renewable energy capable of
replacing 2.5 million barrels of oil per year.
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