Hands Across the Sand: Ordinary People Unite Against Dirty Fuels

Hands Across the Sand participants in Staten Island. Photo Credit: Hands Across the Sand

In a nation (and world) where Big Oil,Gas, and Coal are constantly pushing the government and citizens to expand drilling; where they seek to build huge pipelines with little regard for the safety of the people and environment around them; where they irreparably damage our landscape and water through mountaintop coal mining; where offshore oil spills wreak widespread havoc on coastal communities dependent on clean, safe shores for their livelihoods and health -- people are fighting back.

At 100 events in 18 states and 9 countries, thousands of participants joined hands to protest the expansion of dirty and dangerous offshore drilling and other dirty fuel development. May 18, 2013 marked the fourth annual “Hands Across the Sand/Land” event, where people drew a line in the sand to protect our marine environment, our air, our water, and coastal economies everywhere.

“In the Southeast, the economics of offshore drilling just don’t make sense.  Coastal tourism and fishing generate billions of dollars every year and employ hundreds of thousands of people in our region.  Jeopardizing those industries for high-risk offshore drilling would be a grave mistake.  Offshore wind energy, on the other hand, could create thousands of jobs without the huge risks of drilling,” said Chris Carnevale, Coastal Climate and Energy Coordinator for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

In Florida 10,000 Floridians representing 60 towns and cities and over 90 beaches joined hands to protest the efforts to lift the ban on oil drilling off the shores of Florida.  Other concerned Americans came out to beaches from Hawaii to New York to show leaders like President Obama the breadth of opposition to new fossil fuel exploitation and support for a clean energy economy rooted in energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy solutions, such as wind, solar and geothermal.

 

Hapuna Beach, Hawaii. Photo Credit: Hands Across the Sand

Begun in 2010, Hands Across the Sand expanded nationally and globally in response to the April 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon offshore rig explosion and spill, the largest marine oil spill in history (at 210 million gallons). The gathering in response to this catastrophe became the largest of its kind, with events in all 50 states and in 42 countries worldwide.

 According to Hands Across the Sand:

 “This movement is not about politics — it is about the protection of our coastal economies, oceans, marine wildlife and fisheries.  It’s about preserving our precious drinking water, air and food.  The damage that continues to happen in offshore oil drilling accidents, the dangerous process of hydraulic fracturing, the tragedy of the Alberta tar sands mining, mountain top removal mining and the continuing proliferation of coal fired power plants are a threat to all of the above.”

Hands Across The Sand/Land is endorsed by national environmental organizations including Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, Florida Wildlife Federation, Defenders of Wildlife, Alaska Wilderness League, Friends of the Earth, Conservation Law Foundation, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Gulf Restoration Network, Urban Paradise Guild and All Things Healing.

 --By Claire Price, Lands Team Intern

Celebrating 40 Years of Protecting Endangered Species

Photo courtesy USFWS

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. Widely regarded as one of our country's strongest conservation laws, the Act has brought back 99 percent of the species it protects from the brink of extinction-- including the protection and recovery of the American bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, and the American alligator.

Keeping our nation's wildlife protected is good for the environment, but also good for our economy. Wildlife areas are a key part of our nation's multi-billion dollar outdoor recreation economy and the people it employs. Think of all the tourists who flock to Florida to see manatees, or to Yellowstone to see wolves and bears

Later this week America will celebrate the Endangered Species Act and its success with Endangered Species Day. We hope you'll join in the celebrations. You can find an Endangered Species Day event near you here. 

We have a responsibility to protect wildlife and wild places and leave a better world for future generations. The natural legacy we leave our children and grandchildren depends on the steps we take today as stewards of America’s wild places and wildlife. Even as we get ready to celebrate the successes so far, we continue to work to protect other endangered species at risk.

 

Sequestration Irony

We’ve written before in this blog about how sequestration, or the mandatory budget cuts required by Congress this year, would put more stress on an already thinly-stretched environmental budget, as well as have untold ripple effects harmful to our land, water, air, and people’s jobs. The 8.2 percent cut across the board leaves very little discretion to agencies to trim where the least harm would be done, and we’re now beginning to see the real, on-the-ground effects of these cuts.

However, we’ll be the first to admit that there may be some unseen upsides to sequestration; namely, the delay of oil and gas leases in California.

A Jewell of a Morning

Secretary Jewell talks about the outdoors

It was a beautiful sunny spring morning yesterday at the 15,000 acre Prince William Forest Park. Debbie Sease and I, along with a diverse array of over 50 outdoors and conservation leaders, joined Secretary of the Interior  Sally Jewell and National Parks Superintendent Jon Jarvis to discuss how to connect American families with nature and our special places.

Secretary Jewell clearly and passionately understands that connecting kids and families outdoors is absolutely critical for the future of our communities, public lands and wildlife.  She spoke eloquently of the power of private and public sector partnerships, and her great optimism that working smartly together we can collectively make a big difference.

Debbie and I highlighted the Sierra Club's growing outdoors programs  that get over 250,000 kids and adults outdoors--from inner city kids to military families-- as well as our own Jackie Ostfeld's leadership in the Outdoors Alliance for Kids  where she pushes for policies and funding to get kids outdoors.  We got some great kudos from Sheri, with Blue Star Families, about a recent Sierra Club grant to help them get their military families to an outing in the Park.

Secretary Jewell ended her comments by highlighting the need to consolidate all the mapping data out there to better identify lands of high value for wildlife and recreation, cultural and historical values, as well as those of high energy development value.  She urged all of us to be active and smart as we work together to create a healthy future for our children and our public lands.  We're looking forward to what is in store.

--Dan Chu, Sr. Campaign Director, Our Wild America

 

A Landmark Lands Victory in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla holds the law protecting the Northeast Ecological Corridor after signing it on April 13 (Photo: Francisco Floyd Claudio-Morales)

Puerto Rico's Northeast Ecological Corridor, which contains nesting grounds for the endangered leatherback sea turtle (the world's largest turtle species), is at long last protected.

Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed a law permanently protecting more than 3,000 acres of land critical to the turtles before 12,000 members of the public on April 13 at the celebration of this year's Leatherback Turtle Festival in Luquillo, a town adjacent to the Corridor. The area -- the second most important leatherback turtle nesting beach in U.S. jurisdiction -- had been threatened by overdevelopment from golf courses and megaresorts.

The Sierra Club's Puerto Rico chapter, along with the Coalition for the Northeast Ecological Corridor, is already planning for the future of the new nature reserve. The group is working on making the Corridor a complementary destination to El Yunque National Forest (the only rain forest in Forest Service jurisdiction).

"The protection of the Corridor represents a victory in a 15-year battle, with ups and downs. We protected the area in 2008, and then the new governor eliminated protection for the Corridor.  Now the area is fully and finally protect by law," says Environmental Justice organizer Camilla Feibelman.

Puerto Rico's Department of Natural and Environmental Resources will now be responsible for managing the area. The Puerto Rico chapter has worked hard to ensure that Puerto Rico's lush, green environment will sustain not only the leatherback turtle but also the other uncountable, diverse species that live there and the citizens who have the opportunity to enjoy this wild place for generations to come.   

This year's Leatherback Turtle Festival will be difficult to top, with such a victory for the community, the forest, and the animals that live there. After 15 years of on-the-ground organizing and action, though, the Puerto Rico chapter has earned a victory it can build on for years to come.

--Sierra Club Media Team Intern Kristen Elmore

 

From Valdez to BP: Sandy Delivers Another Devastating Blow

Across America, oil spills have wrought havoc on our land, wildlife, and the health of our families and communities. March 24 and April 20 represent the anniversaries of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, the Exxon Valdez and the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, respectively. Together, these events dumped more than 5.65 million barrels of dirty oil in U.S. waters.

In light of this toxic anniversary, the Sierra Club presents a three-week look at oil companies' poisonous legacy across our nation.

                              Oil sheen on the waters of Arthur Kill on the border of NJ and NY in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.                                      Photo credit: NOAA.

A less-noticed byproduct of destructive hurricanes, oil and other hazardous material spills pose a huge public health and environmental threat. The 540 spills resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, totalling an estimated 11 million gallons, was comparable in size to the notorious Exxon Valdez spill.

Superstorm Sandy's dangerous weather conditions spewed oil, hazardous materials, and other debris across waterways along the Mid Atlantic in 2012. The largest spill resulting from Sandy occurred when a tank ruptured at a storage facility owned by a joint venture of Shell and Saudi Refining Inc, spilling 350,000 gallons of diesel into the Arthur Kill, a narrow waterway separating New Jersey and Staten Island.

Sensitive salt marsh habitats in the Arthur Kill waterway are highly productive and important wildlife habitat and nursery areas. According to NOAA, "though thin sheens contain little oil, wind and high water levels after the storm could push the diesel deep into the marsh, where it could persist and contaminate sediments... In addition, diesel spills can kill the many small invertebrates at the base of the food chain which live in tidal flats and salt marshes if they are exposed to a high enough concentration."

--By Claire Price, Lands Team Intern

Sierra Club Arctic Advocates Speak Out in Washington

Record temperatures, record storms, record droughts, record wildfires -- and record profits for big oil and gas companies. With extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis affecting the lives of more than 230 million Americans since 2007, calls for action are ranging from the White House to the kitchen tables of the 77% of the country that believe climate action should be a priority for our government. Meanwhile, well-financed fossil fuel interests are pushing projects like the Keystone XL pipeline and drilling in America's Arctic that would only double down on climate-disrupting dirty fuels.

This morning, The Sierra Club hosted a briefing entitled “Protect Our Earth: Keep Dirty Fuels Underneath It” for Congressional staff  to discuss the choices Congress faces for our nation’s energy future, the costs of dirty fuels, and the potential for an American clean energy economy that creates new jobs while securing a safer future for our planet and our families. Speakers included Oil Change International founder Steve Kretzmann, who discussed the dirty and dangerous Keystone XL pipeline, and Lindsey Hajduk, an Anchorage-based Sierra Club organizer fighting to protect America’s Arctic. Here’s what she had to say today:

Hi my name is Lindsey Hajduk and I’m the Sierra Club’s Associate Regional Representative from Anchorage, Alaska.  I have the pleasure of working with Alaskans throughout the state, and also with Americans all across the country that care about protecting the Arctic. 

And I’m happy to say that just last week we shared a great sense of relief to hear that ConocoPhillips will not pursue oil exploration in the Arctic Ocean next year.  We’re relieved, but that’s not enough.  Alaskans don’t want to go through another summer like we had with Shell Oil last year.  We were lucky that Shell’s drill rig, the Kulluk, grounding was the only major disaster in Alaska, but that proved you can’t drill safely in the Arctic.

The Arctic is a fragile environment on the front lines of climate change.  2012 had the lowest sea ice cover on record.  When most people think about ice they think about it crushed in their soda, but the Arctic sea ice is much more than that.  It is its own ecosystem thriving with Arctic cod, seals, walrus, polar bears, and more.  However, it’s safe to say that in the last twenty years half of the Arctic ice cap has melted.  If we think about losing half of the Amazon rainforest there would be alarm all over the world.  We need to be alarmed about the loss in Arctic sea ice. 

The effects of climate change are already having profound impacts on Alaskan’s everyday lives.  Permafrost is melting and shifting building foundations and roads.  Wildlife migration patterns are changing, which can mean hunters must travel further and take longer to feed their families.   

Unless you look out onto the land and ocean with an Inupiat elder you may not realize what is at stake, but it is their livelihoods.  You would see the lichen the caribou thrive off of, the bear scat that is a sign of what’s to come or has already been, or the spray from a bowhead whale announcing its arrival.  There is a delicate balance keeping Alaska Native communities strong, and already we may be tipping the scale.

The Arctic is changing twice as fast as the rest of the country, and its specialized wildlife are struggling to keep up. This, in addition to burning more fossil fuels drilled in the Arctic would be a double-whammy that we just cannot afford.  

President Obama has to prove his commitment to fight climate change by keeping as much as 15.8 billion tons of CO2 in the ground.  That’s how much greenhouse gases we’re talking about.  If we keep that oil under the Arctic Ocean, we’d be keeping the equivalent of 13 year’s worth of US cars and light trucks off the road.  And, we’d also be saving ourselves from disastrous drilling operations too.

Just a few months ago Alaskans and the world watched Shell Oil’s rollercoaster 2012 program.  The list of Shell’s failed track record is extensive, including losing control of its ship at harbor, damage to its oil spill containment dome, violating the clean air act, illegal discharges, its rig ran aground, and both drill rigs are under criminal investigation.  It was a whirlwind of problems Shell still tries to gloss over, but Shell took all the risks and left all the consequences on the shoulders of Alaskans and the federal government.

Rather than opening the Arctic for more drilling, the Obama administration should cancel offshore leases, buy them back, and put the areas off-limits to oil and gas exploration.  It’s not as crazy as it sounds.

Drilling in the Arctic Ocean is a bad idea, and I’m not the only one saying it.  The investment company Lloyd’s of London, the bank WestLB, the British Parliamentary Committee, and even the oil company Total SA have all stated the risks of drilling in the Arctic Ocean are too great and they will not support offshore drilling operations.  Now, President Obama should do the same.

But that’s not all.  We need to be sure to protect special areas throughout the Arctic landscape.  Politics are pushing to drill where no companies have drilled before, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  We have been disappointed in Senator Lisa Murkowski, my senator, for introducing bills to open the Arctic Refuge for oil drilling.  This is the only 5% of our Arctic coastline currently not open for oil and gas, and critical for a caribou herd that communities depend on in Alaska and Canada.  We need common sense energy policies to reign, not politics.

Congress needs to lead the way for renewable energy policies that give us the energy independence we need, not put Americans at more risk from climate change. President Obama needs to make protecting America’s Arctic the cornerstone of his climate legacy beginning with declaring the Arctic Ocean and coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off-limits to dangerous drilling.

Thank you.

###

From Valdez to BP: A Spill on Yellowstone's Doorstep

Across America, oil spills have wrought havoc on our land, wildlife, and the health of our families and communities. March 24 and April 20 represent the anniversaries of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, the Exxon Valdez and the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, respectively. Together, these events dumped more than 5.65 million barrels of dirty oil in U.S. waters.

In light of this toxic anniversary, the Sierra Club presents a three-week look at oil companies' poisonous legacy across our nation.

                         Photo Credit: EPA

Our favorite safety award winners, Exxon Mobil, are back once again with a 63,000-gallon spill right in the backyard of one of America's greatest treasures: Yellowstone National Park.

During severe flooding along the Yellowstone River, Exxon's Silvertip pipeline ruptured, fouling dozens of miles of riverbank and farmland. The July 1, 2011 spill was likely caused by erosion of the riverbed due to flooding, which exposed the pipeline to the rushing river and the debris moving along it. Exxon Mobil spent $135 million in cleanup fees and involved 1,000 workers at its peak. 

From Valdez to BP: Louisianans Kicked While They're Down

Across America, oil spills have wrought havoc on our land, wildlife, and the health of our families and communities. March 24 and April 20 represent the anniversaries of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, the Exxon Valdez and the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, respectively. Together, these events dumped more than 5.65 million barrels of dirty oil in U.S. waters.

In light of this toxic anniversary, the Sierra Club presents a three-week look at oil companies' poisonous legacy across our nation.

                          Oil slick in Breton Sound, Louisiana. Photo credit: NOAA

In a further blow to an area already dealing with its share of hardships from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 540 separate oil spills were found to have occurred, totalling approximately eleven million gallons. The spillage came from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast Louisiana.

Working for nearly three weeks at search and rescue operations following the destruction of Katrina, the Coast Guard and other agencies were unable to respond for some time to environmental problems. The spilled oil, mixing with overflowed sewage, chemicals, and other pollutants created an environmental and health disaster right in the middle of residents' already devastated communities.

Five years later, the region continued to deal with the hurricane-related spills and assessing damage to natural resources, wildlife, public health, and tourism, when the BP Deepwater Horizon exploded, releasing 206 million gallons of oil into the still-recovering Gulf.

 

--By Claire Price, Lands Team Intern

From Valdez to BP: The Red Butte Creek Spill

Across America, oil spills have wrought havoc on our land, wildlife, and the health of our families and communities. March 24 and April 20 represent the anniversaries of the worst oil spills in U.S. history, the Exxon Valdez and the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, respectively. Together, these events dumped more than 5.65 million barrels of dirty oil in U.S. waters.

In light of this toxic anniversary, the Sierra Club presents a three-week look at oil companies' poisonous legacy across our nation.

                                                Photo Credit: Utah Department of Health

Since new spills have ostensibly taken a break (but we continue to clean them up), we resume our look back at some of the most damaging oil spills in the U.S.

On June 12, 2010, an underground Chevron pipeline flowing from Colorado to Salt Lake City sent nearly 500 barrels of oil spewing into Red Butte Creek before crews capped the leak site. Nearly 50 gallons of crude oil per minute initially had spilled into the creek, which leads into the Great Salt Lake.  The leaking pipeline coated hundreds of geese and ducks with oil and caused a local park closing.

In March 2012, a group of 66 residents of a Salt Lake City neighborhood sued Chevron for damage caused by the Red Butte Creek spill and a smaller spill in December 2011.

--By Claire Price, Sierra Club Lands Team