Compass

Shame on You! Fraudulent Letters Hearing

By: Julian Carmona, Intern for the Global Warming and Energy Team

Yesterday the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (EIGW) held their (previously postponed) hearing on fraudulent letters sent to Congressmen by supposed “grassroots” organizations opposing the Waxman-Markey House climate bill (H.R.2454 American Clean Energy and Security Act). The fraudulent letters were supposedly from grassroots organizations representing the elderly, veterans and ethnic minorities, some of which included the NAACP and the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The letters were exposed as fraudulent by the Charlottesville Daily Progress out of Charlottesville, VA. The source of the letters was Bonner and Associates, a grassroots firm that was hired by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).

The hearing was called by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), who is the chair of the House committee. The original hearing was scheduled for October 15th, but ranking member Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) asked for postponement in order to review the witnesses’ testimonies, as they had not submitted them in time.

The hearing on Thursday included a recounting of the events leading up the discovery of the fraudulent letters, and a verbal excoriation by Markey and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) of witnesses from Bonner and ACCCE. The witnesses on the panel included Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA), Jack Bonner of Bonner and Associates, Steve Miller of ACCCE, Lisa Maatz of AAUW and Hillary Shelton of the NAACP. While Rep. Sensenbrenner and Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) spoke during introductions, the panel was dominated by Markey and Inslee, who were the only representatives present when it came down to questioning the witnesses.

The True Impact of Coal Mining

This is the weekly post from Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign.

We learned with sadness this week that blasting has begun on Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, site of a long battle between Massey Energy and local residents who want the mountain to be a site for 200 wind turbines instead of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Massey has ignored these pleas, despite research showing that a wind farm would bring more jobs and economic stability to the area – and certainly less environmental destruction.

And while we frequently talk about the impact of mountaintop removal coal mining, a Sierra Club Beyond Coal activity from our northwest region last week brings to the forefront the reality of coal mining in the western U.S. as well. The northwest “Dirty Little Secret” regional tour showed residents in Washington and Oregon the tour’s namesake: that the region is hooked on coal power, and its use and mining devastate many communities.

Part of the tour included speeches from Wyoming rancher LJ Turner and Northern Cheyenne Tribe members Otto and Barbara Braided Hair from southeast Montana. All three have seen the impacts of coal mining in the Powder River Basin up close, and they shared their experiences with the crowds along the tour's stops.

Sunday, Nov. 1: Last Day for "Coal Country" Party Host Sign-Up!

There are only two days left to sign up to host a Coal Country House Party and receive a sneak peek at the acclaimed "Coal Country" documentary.

That's right, Sunday, Nov. 1st, is the last day to sign up to host a party. Sierra Club has over 750 "Coal Country" House Parties planned nationwide to watch the movie and help end mountaintop removal coal mining. You're invited! You can join this national movement by hosting or attending a viewing party in your area. (You can sign up any time to attend a party near you.)

Sign up at our site: www.sierraclub.org/coalcountry

Can't host a party? Visit the site and click on "attend an event" to find a party in your region!

You can learn more about the film in this column from Sierra Club beyond Coal Campaign Director Bruce Nilles, on the "Coal Country" website, and on the Climate Crossroads page.

Wrap-Up - Senate Clean Energy Jobs Hearings, Day 3

This post is from Justin Guay, Apprentice with the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Team

The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) committee wrapped up its three days of hearings on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act today with one last full day of testimony from multiple panels. Despite genuine pleas for bi-partisanship throughout the past few days, a number of senators have demonstrated that their only interest is obstruction. Senator Alexander refuses to discuss the issues at hand, taking any chance he can to push his fanatically pro-nuclear policies. Sadly, he is really a side show to the scare mongering on job losses and consumer costs led by Senator Voinovich and backed up by Senators Inhofe, Barrasso, and Bond.

Miss the hearings? You can read our archived liveblog here.

Luckily, Senator Boxer stood firm throughout the three days of hearings, genuinely listening to opposition concerns and pledging to work together in a spirit of bi-partisanship. She had strong support from Senators Whitehouse, Tom Udall, Merkley, Klobuchar, Gillibrand, Sanders, Cardin, and Lautenberg, who are clearly committed to the issue of climate leadership (any of these your Senators? You can send them a thank you below!). The message coming from these climate heroes was clear: Our children will ask us where were we when the world was burning.

From John Kerry’s impassioned 26 minute speech, to Vice Admiral Mcginn’s convincing testimony concerning the need for American leadership, the EPW hearings demonstrated that legislative action on climate is needed and the time to act is now.

Let your Senator know that you were watching, and thank them for supporting a clean energy future:

Sen. Specter (D-PA):

Sen. Gillibrand (D-NY)

Sen. Sanders (D-VT) 

Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN)

Sen. Kerry (D-MA)

Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI)

From Ohio?  Tell Senator Voinovich not to stand in the way of progress

Day 3 of the Senate EPW Hearings on Clean Energy Jobs Bill

Day 3 of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee hearings on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. Witness list here. Away we go! (Today is also the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing investigating the forged letters from coal lobbying firm Bonner & Associates, who were hired by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. Follow @NoNewCoal and #nocoal for tweets from that hearing!)

Broken Record: Senate EPW Climate Hearings Day 2

Did you see the whoppers yesterday? Click here for a recap - and follow along below for today's liveblog - a lot of witnesses on the books today, so it should be good.

Where Were We When the World Was Burning?

We had a few folks in today's Senate Environment and Public Works hearing on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. Our own Justin Guay and Julian Carmona were some of the ones responsible for that great "live-tweeting" you saw keeping you up to date on just who was saying what.

Justin and Julian sent me their thoughts on today's hearing and I wanted to share them with you:

Today the clean energy revolution took a significant step forward with the debate of the chairman's mark of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act in the Environment and Public Works Committee. We are working hard to strengthen and protect the bill during this process to ensure that it cleans up dirty sources of pollution and provides clean energy jobs.

• Senator Baucus only spoke for about three minutes, but he said he did not like the target or Clean Air Act authority though he made a point to say that "we must pass common sense legislation, the key word being pass."

• Senator Voinovich began to attack retaining Clean Air Act authority as creating "uncertainty" for business if the bill were to pass because the Environmental Protection Agency could come back and make further changes to the regulatory environment. Senator Voinovich also attacked the bill's targets, saying we couldn't technically achieve them.

• Senator Specter then followed up on the Clean Air Act authority attack and challenged that the Clean Air Act authority was something that may needed to be compromised. Boxer replied to Specter afterwards telling him that she would "work with him on his concerns".

• At the end of the hearing Senator Whitehouse stood up for Clean Air Act authority, saying he firmly believed in it along with many of his colleagues.

• Senator Klobuchar made clear her strong support of a renewable electricity standard and investment in renewable energy.

• Senators Kerry, Sanders, Lautenberg and Cardin all delivered "thundering" speeches to the effect that our children will ask what we were doing when the world was burning.

• We really liked Senator Cardin's line that our kids will ask us where we were when the world was burning. A number of senators gave "thundering speeches." Kerry especially. It was honestly really good especially for a hearing - very positive. Overall, the Democrats laid the smack down on the tired excuses of the past.

Stay tuned - we'll be tweeting and live-blogging again from tomorrow's hearing!

Weatherizing for the 21st Century

By: Alda Chan, Trade, Labor and Worker's Rights Apprentice

Last week, the Obama Administration released “Recovery through Retrofit,” a report showing that existing energy efficiency techniques and technologies can reduce a home's energy use by up to 40 percent, cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 160 million metric tons a year and save Americans as much as $21 billion in annual energy bills. The report outlines steps five agencies - DOE, CEQ, HUD, EPA, DOL - will take to retrofit our nation's vastly inefficient residential and commercial buildings to create jobs, deliver energy savings to households and curb global warming pollution. 

The report release comes at a critical time; winter is right around the corner and this Friday, October 30^th, is National Weatherization Day, an opportunity to celebrate the economic and environmental benefits of the retrofit industry. On this date, the Sierra Club's Clean Energy Solutions Campaign, Cool Cities Program and communities across the country will work to urge local, state and federal government to act now to address global warming. Sierra Club, labor and community partners are releasing reports, organizing house parties and community canvasses, and hosting home weatherization tours in the following cities: Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; Denver, CO; Detroit, MI; Kansas City, KS; Las Vegas/Las Cruces, NM; Las Vegas, NV; New York, NY; Long Beach, NY and Washington, DC.

The movement to weatherize doesn’t stop there; many of these cities will be competing for a "Retrofit Ramp-Up" grant opportunity recently announced by DOE. These grants will empower communities to build upon neighborhood-scale retrofit models. In addition, Blue Green Alliance partners like the Laborers International Union of North America are training workers across the country to address the challenge of rapidly and effectively ramping up an emerging weatherization industry.

Help us spread the word about energy efficiency by writing a letter to your local newspaper. Also, check out our trick-or-treat efficiency flyer and learn more about National Weatherization Day at www.sierraclub.org/weatherize.

Broken Record: Senate EPW Climate Hearings #1

The hearings have started - you can participate yourself with the hashtags #brokenrecord #cejapa Or comment below!

Global Warming Now: Climate Change Refugees

By: Julian Carmona, Intern for the Global Warming and Energy Team

Somalia has been fighting an 18-year civil war, leading to the displacement of large swaths of its population to refugee camps. Genocide in Darfur has produced millions of refugees and strained the resources that international peacekeeping forces can offer. If you turn on your television, open up a newspaper or read media online, there is a very good chance you will see a story about refugees in Africa displaced by warfare and conflict. The Geneva Convention in 1951 defined refugees as someone who has a “well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, nationality, membership in a particular group or political opinion.”

But, a different type of displacement has been occurring that necessitates an update in the Geneva refugee definition. Farmers in rural Africa have been pouring into cities and refugee camps after losing their livestock and crops to the effects of climate change. Thousands of people in Africa, displaced by drought, famine and loss of livestock are moving into refugee camps, and straining the already tightened supply of basic necessities. Without legal recognition, climate refugees do not receive funding, and end up in disease-infested slums or camps that are not designed to accommodate them.