Compass

Flag Day - Freedom from Oil! UPDATED with more Photos

UPDATED - here are some more photos of the 10,000 flags on the Mall. And Getty Images took some great photos from above as well - Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5, and Photo 6. Scroll down to the original entry from this morning - these photos are from our Beyond Oil event where 10,000 flags spelling out "Freedom from Oil" were planted on the Mall in Washington, DC.

Above - Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune (left) and banner holders look back at President Obama's helicopter flies nearby during the press conference.

George Kohl, Senior Director of the Communications Workers of America, speaks at today's Beyond Oil rally.

Iraq War veteran and Truman Security Project CEO Jonathan Powers speaks at today's Beyond Oil rally.

All photos above by Javier Sierra. All photos below by Heather Moyer.

---End of Update - The original Post is Below --

It's not officially Flag Day (that was June 14th), but on the National Mall in Washington, DC, today is a sort of an unofficial flag day.

We've got our Beyond Oil action up and flowing in the wind on the Mall - 10,000 flags that spell out "Freedom from Oil," that volunteers worked late in the night on Tuesday to stake into the ground.

These 10,000 flags represent the more than 50,000 people who took action on our Beyond Oil website asking President Obama to move our country beyond oil.

Glen Besa of the Sierra Club in Virginia took a great video of the flag planting last night, so take a look. (Sorry, the humidity got to our flipcam)

And if you want to see more of Glen's photos (all of the photos in this entry were taken by Glen), click here to see his online photo album.

The "Freedom from Oil" flag event continues today with a 11am ET press conference and all-day tabling to inform people about our country's oil addiction and asking them to join us in calling for a plan to get off oil.

We hope to have video of today's press conference later on.

Tar Sands Poised to Become the Next Fossil Fuels Disaster

This entry is by Sarah Hodgdon, Conservation Director for the Sierra Club. It was cross-posted on the Treehugger blog. Be sure to join the Say No to Tar Sands group on Climate Crossroads.

If we could go back in time before the BP Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, what would we learn? What steps would have helped avert what is now the nation's worst environmental disaster? Could this hindsight help us prevent similar catastrophes in the future? Would our political leaders have the moral compass to "get it right" this time around?

A ready-made test case for such an exercise exists in the form of TransCanada's push for a pipeline to transport toxic tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, through the American Heartland down to Houston.

In an effort to cut costs, the company is requesting a special safety waiver to use thinner pipes and pump oil at pressures that exceed the normal limits allowed by current pipeline safety regulations. They lack a public emergency plan in the event of a leak and have not demonstrated that emergency responders have been identified, contracted or trained.

These are the same type of cost-cutting and corner-cutting methods that got us into the BP mess. It's hard to believe that, knowing what we know today, we would tolerate another rubber stamp approval for the oil industry whose safety assurances have rung hollow and wreaked havoc.

Not heard much about the reckless expansion of tar sands? Our new report "Tar Sands Invasion" (PDF) is a good primer on tar sands, and the National Wildlife Federation also just released a report on the subject.

It's actually an ongoing disaster coupled with a series of potential disasters, with different risks and concerns as the landscape is annihilated during extraction and the pipelines and refineries wind 2,000 miles across six states.

But the best way to wrap your head around the tar sands issue is to hear from the people who have been and would be impacted in Canada and across the U.S.

In Nebraska, residents are worried about the threats to the Ogallala aquifer. David Kromm, an expert on groundwater management, has written, "the future economy of the High Plains depends heavily on the Ogallala Aquifer, the main source of water for all uses. The Ogallala will continue to be the lifeblood of the region only if it is managed properly to limit both depletion and contamination."

In Kansas, where TransCanada has already been involved with tar sands construction, landowners like Harry Bennett have borne witness to the "pennywise and pound foolish" approach of the company. In his eyes the Department of Transportation's Office of Pipeline Safety is in the same class as the much-maligned Minerals Management Service—the cozy relationship with the oil industry and propensity to cut corners is "the same song, second verse" of what we've seen unfold in the Gulf. When it comes to the tar sands pipeline, which will skirt his property, "these pipelines go together with very little oversight."

In Detroit, the Marathon oil refinery would have to be expanded to process the heavy tar sands oil. It's heartbreaking to hear Theresa Landrum talk about their situation:

"When we found out Marathon was bringing in nasty tar sands from Canada, with more emissions at an expanded refinery, we started doing research into what kinds of chemicals would be emitted into the air. We found terrible things like benzene, which affects the nervous system, carbon monoxide, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone, which is hazardous to human health at any level, and other carcinogens.

"My mom had four different cancers and passed away from the last one. My dad died of lung cancer, and I was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. On my block alone, ten people have died of cancer over the last decade. These companies put dollars above human life. Are we not what we eat, drink, and breathe? What are we to do? Where can we go? We're an economically stressed community without resources for health care, or for people to move out. Are we just sitting here waiting to die?"

Oil spills have moved beyond mere threat in Minnesota, according to Elizabeth Sherman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe:

"The Enbridge pipeline runs through the Leech Lake Reservation, and there have been several spills right outside our town that Enbridge hasn't been able to clean up. We're close to Itasca State Park, the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and the oil from these spills has gotten down into one of our two aquifers and contaminated the water in the top aquifer. The oil is still there, the water is still contaminated, and the damage is still being done. Tribal residents' wells are being contaminated, and now there's a restriction on how much fish we can eat per week because of mercury pollution."

Despite all of these concerns, tar sands oil is poised to blaze a toxic path through America's pipelines and refineries and into our cars and air. The final public hearing on the Keystone XL toxic tar sands pipeline is set for Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and the comment period gives everyone an opportunity to weigh in until July 2.

Make your voice heard by filing a comment and, if you live in the area, joining us at the DC hearing.

Let the Obama Administration know that you heard loud and clear these words from his Oval Office speech:

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we've talked and talked about the need to end America's century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires...We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.

Report: Coal Industry Harms TN and WV More Than It Helps

This is the weekly blog post from Bruce Nilles, Director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. Be sure to join the Beyond Coal Group on Climate Crossroads.

Two reports released this week reveal that when it comes to the bottom line of state budgets, the coal industry costs Tennessee and West Virginia more than it provides.

These reports are among the first to examine actual revenues and expenditures related to coal industry employment, taxes and subsidies in Tennessee and West Virginia. Downstream Strategies produced the reports.

For Tennessee (PDF), the report found that the coal industry contributed just over $1 million to the state budget - less than one-tenth of one percent of the state's total revenue in 2009. That benefit was overwhelmed by the costs imposed by the industry, including state subsidies, regulation, road repair and mine reclamation costs. The bottom line was an approximate net economic loss of $3 million for the people of Tennessee in 2009.

Though coal brings in a bigger percentage of state revenues in West Virginia (PDF), the end result matches that of Tennessee; the $600.7 million in total revenues coal brought to West Virginia was about $97.5 million less than it cost the state to support the industry.

"It should be no surprise - coal is not king in the West Virginia economy, even though our decision makers act as if it is," said Jim Sconyers, chair of the West Virginia Sierra Club. "It is a total outrage that the long-suffering West Virginia taxpayer is forced to pay millions of dollars so the filthy rich coal companies can destroy our roads, mountains and communities."

And so we learn that even beyond the human and environmental health damage the coal industry does, the economic damage is there as well. More reports like these are coming, and one has already been done on Kentucky. (PDF)

We know Tennessee and West Virginia, and all the other states where Big Coal is trying to be king, can do better with clean energy. We don't need to sacrifice our health, our economy and our environment to power our nation.

Other Global Warming & Energy News of Note

Time again to update folks on other news that is not BP oil disaster related.

Let's start with coal. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally published its proposed coal ash rules in the Federal Register (PDF), meaning they're now taking public comments on the rules. Coal ash is the toxic by-product of burning coal for power, and right now it's not subject to any federal safeguards. Sounds pretty crazy to me to not have safeguards for a substance that contains mercury, selenium, arsenic, lead and many more heavy metals that can harm humans and the environment.

Here's the Little Blue Run Coal Ash Pond that sprawls across the border of West Virginia and Pennsylvania near the Ohio River. Oh yeah, that looks real normal right there. (Photo is courtesy of Google Maps satellite).

So, let us help you send in your public comments to EPA telling them to enact strong federal safeguards on coal ash - take action right here.

Meanwhile, also related to coal, last week the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it was suspending nationwide permits for mountaintop removal coal mining:

This announcement comes more than a year after a March 2009 U.S. District Court decision ruled these permits illegal.

The nationwide permits, created in 1982, gave a blanket authorization to mountaintop removal coal mines to dump their mining waste in streams and waterways. The District Court ruled that this overly generalized permitting process could not guarantee compliance with the Clean Water Act and that mining companies must apply for individual permits in order to be able to fill streams with mining waste.

Duke University just published some of its research on mountaintop removal coal mining that came from its January 2010 study that showed mountaintop removal site reclamation barely makes a difference. It's pretty eye-opening, so take a look.

And if you like important energy-related research, the U.S. Green Building Council just teamed up with Harvard University to release the 2010 "State of the Nation's Housing." (PDF) The report "studied the affordability, energy and location efficiency within the existing U.S. housing stock."

Next up, related to our post yesterday talking up the new documentary "Gasland" about natural gas "fracking," EPA announced a series of four public meetings on this controversial process:

• July 8 in Fort Worth, Texas
• July 13 in Denver, Colo.
• July 22 in Canonsburg, Pa.
• August 12 in Binghamton, N.Y.

More details are in the EPA news release.

In environmental justice news, we just had two of our fantastic EJ organizers get major news hits. In Detroit, our own Rhonda Anderson got this very nice spread in the Detroit Free-Press about impact of excessive industrial pollution on certain neighborhoods in Detroit: Article 1, article 2, and video here.

Our EJ organizer in Texas, Mariana Chew, was profiled in this Latino Magazine piece on the EJ issues in her community.

Finally, in global warming news, we've got two hits for you. First is the news out on the latest study about whether there is a scientific consensus on human-caused global warming - of course there is! Read about this latest study in the NY Times' Green Blog.

And then we've got this Discover magazine blog piece on a melting glacier that may not be melting because of global warming. Science!

Watch "Gasland" Tonight, Take Action for Clean Water Now

If you've got HBO, check out the debut of the new documentary "Gasland" tonight at 9pm ET. The documentary - which won awards at the Sundance Film Festival - is about the environmental hazards of natural gas drilling, including a process known as hydraulic fracturing ("fracking.")

Check out the trailer:



You can take action right now asking your Congressional reps to support clean water and pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, which would subject natural gas production to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Host a Beyond Oil House Party

A guest blog by Edward Hill, Global Warming and Energy Program Intern. 

The OilSpill that began on April 20^th has taken a devastating toll on our nation’s gulf coast; the images displayed by the media every day are shocking and horrendous, and it seems that things will only be getting worse. The only saving grace of all of this, and perhaps the only thing more remarkable than the spill itself, is the selflessness of Americans, across the nation, whom have responded to the disaster with a fire in their hearts and a willingness to engage in aiding the gulf’s recovery.

Thousands of our nation’s service men and women from the Coast Guard, National Guard, National Fish & Wildlife Service, and other departments have been dispatched to help along the coast and are fighting tirelessly to keep our coastlines safe. Meanwhile, many volunteers, even those who have been turned away because of their lack of training and experience, have taken on an array of avenues to aid in cleaning up the gulf. Throughout the disaster, a key effort of the Sierra Club has been to channel these worthy intentions into action. By specifically tailoring volunteer opportunities to individual’s locations and skills, Sierra Club has been putting volunteers to work.

The week of June 28^th offers another opportunity to take action. That week hundreds of house parties will be thrown all over the country, bringing people together to learn how we can help the Gulf Coast and move our nation beyond oil. Sierra Club is asking its members and citizens across the country to Help Out by Hosting a Beyond Oil House Party! The Sierra Club is partnering with Brave New Films and award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald - producer of Outfoxed and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price - to produce and make available for house party screenings a short documentary about the true effects that the BP oil disaster is having on the Gulf Coast, and why we need to end our addiction to oil. The film offers a way to bring people together to pay homage to the gulf, to honor those who have served in this fight, and to inspire action.

For those Americans unable to take direct action, this disaster has been especially frustrating. That is why we are reminding folks that, just by showing solidarity and support for those affected, it is possible to take part in cleaning up the current spill and preventing future spills like it.

Demand No More Coal, No More Oil This Independence Day

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

No surprise here, on the heels of President Obama's Tuesday night speech, the coal industry front group -- American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity -- released a statement saying they agree with his call for a clean energy future:

"The president also renewed his call for bolder action to create a clean energy future. We share the President's commitment, and recognize the steps we take as a nation must balance America's environmental, economic, and energy goals."

As we said in a post a few weeks ago, the coal industry is working harder to convince you that to address our oil problem, we should mine and burn more coal.

Wrong. 19th Century energy sources have no place in a clean energy economy. Coal belongs in the same category as oil - too dirty and dangerous and energy sources we must phase out as soon as possible.

The President got it right when he said, "The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic."

We must restore the Gulf and push President Obama to put the weight of his office behind treating the cause of the epidemic, our reliance on oil. We must end our dependence on oil and coal.

So leading up to July 4th, we want you to join us for one the largest visual displays in Sierra Club's history as we call for Freedom From Oil this Independence Day.

Head to our Beyond Oil website to plant a flag and demand our freedom from our oil addiction and a commitment to a clean energy economy.
 
Plant a 'virtual flag' on our website and, if we get 50,000 people to do so, we'll recreate the scene in real life in front of the Washington Monument right before July 4th where Congress and the White House are sure to notice.

If we don't want to repeat the BP Oil Disaster, we must do better than using coal and oil to power our country. Let's stand up to these powerful interests and build a clean energy future.

On Thursday, Dump the Pump with Public Transit

We're guessing that you all are just like us here at the Sierra Club - you feel frustrated and helpless looking at all these terrible BP oil disaster photos.

Well tomorrow, June 17th, is an event that can be a good start in getting our country to end its oil dependence. It's "Dump the Pump" day, sponsored by the American Public Transit Association (APTA) and heartily backed by the Sierra Club, on which you should leave your car at home and take public transportation whenever you can.

Here's more from the APTA press release:

The 5th Annual National Dump the Pump Day on Thursday, June 17, will give people the chance to make a statement in support of public transit and its ability to help our country reduce its reliance on oil...(T)he National Dump the Pump Day is a public awareness day that highlights the benefits of public transportation.

Public transportation is part of the solution for our country attaining energy independence as U.S. public transit ridership saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline annually. By using public transportation on June 17, people will be able to show their support for public transportation and also for our nation's goal of energy independence.

In addition, riding public transportation can help people save money. The most recent APTA Transit Savings Report showed that on the average, an individual can save can more than $9,000 a year by taking public transportation instead of driving a car.

More than 100 public transportation systems are participating in National Dump the Pump Day activities this year.

So how about you, will you be taking public transportation tomorrow?

Cross-posted on the Climate Crossroads Green Transportation Group.

Two Big Oil Industry Hearings Tuesday and Thursday

Tomorrow and Thursday there are two big oil industry hearings in the Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

Tuesday's hearing starts at 9:30am and features reps from five major oil companies:

• Rex Tillerson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ExxonMobil
• John Watson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chevron Corporation
• James Mulva, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ConocoPhillips
• Lamar McKay, President and Chairman, BP America, Inc.
• Marvin Odum, President, Shell Oil Company

The hearing, titled "Drilling Down on America's Energy Future: Safety, Security, and Clean Energy," will have the executives "testify regarding the impacts of the nation’s dependence on oil, the safety of drilling operations and the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and actions to develop and promote the use of renewable and alternative energy sources that can reduce our overall dependence on oil."

Then on Thursday we get to see BP CEO Tony Heyward alone in front of the same committee in a hearing titled "The Role of BP in the Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill." The committee's members will grill Heyward on "what caused the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the oil spill that continues to spread across the Gulf of Mexico."

We'll be paying close attention to both of these hearings and give you details on what went down. And you can stay up to date on our BP oil disaster response on our Beyond Oil website and in our BP Oil Disaster Group on Climate Crossroads.

Beyond Oil

A guest blog by Global Warming and Energy Program Intern, Edward Hill. 

More than 50 days into the BP Oil Spill Disaster, with thousands of gallons of oil pouring into the Gulf every day, the nation has no concrete solutions in sight. The spill that began on April 20, 2010 is not the first of its kind. Since 1976 the United States has been victim to thirteen major oil spills, some of which even bear striking similarities to the current crisis. In response to nearly every spill the response has been the same, officials and politicians – on the left and on the right – have sworn to prevent such disasters from ever reoccurring; however, time after time, those promises have been broken.

Regulation has not been the answer. As oil resources grow scarce and worldwide demand increases, oil companies can be expected to take greater risks and extract dirtier fuels to meet that demand, endangering ecosystems and the livelihood of millions. Without action, this spill may be just the first in a new chapter of risky resource extraction.

A disaster such as this is made even more tragic by the fact that the tools are available to move beyond oil. Currently, the U.S. consumes 19.42 million barrels of oil a day. Efforts to improve vehicle efficiency, pursue alternative fuels, and offer transportation alternatives to driving could easily reduce the nation’s dependence on oil while ensuring a cleaner and safer future. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and other members of Congress have shown leadership on the issue by presenting the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010 which would put 700,000 plug-in electric cars on the road within five years. This bill could be the first step to a future free from oil.

During the nation’s most recent oil disaster Americans often have been stricken by shock and disbelief, but here at Sierra Club we are looking beyond that anguish, we are looking for an answer, and a way to truly say "never again." It is time to move beyond oil.