Dear friends,
We read some disappointing news this morning–and you probably did too.
President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar announced a significant expansion of offshore drilling. According to the New York Times, this move is in part a concession to oil companies.
From the New York Times: “The new plan now grants one of the biggest items on the oil industry’s wish list – access to vast areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling.” 1This isn’t what coastal residents want–more drilling threatens health, wildlife, and decades of community struggles to keep our coastal areas safe. Not only that–more drilling means more Carbon pumping into the atmosphere, when what we really need to do is rapidly move away from fossil fuels.
This is a step backward, there’s no question about it, and it doesn’t even need to happen.
Will you take immediate action to urge President Obama and your elected officials to scale back their offshore drilling ambitions?
My home state, California, has seen incredible damage from oil spills–the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969 helped to spark the very first Earth Day–and I’m not willing to sit quietly and see even more areas opened for drilling.
Expanded offshore drilling was one of Obama’s campaign promises, so in some ways this news isn’t surprising. What about other campaign promises like 100% auctioning of pollution permits, or five million new green jobs? 2 These are the real steps forward toward 350 ppm–not more drilling.
We can and must do better. We still have time to choose a path to clean energy that doesn’t rely on even more fossil fuels, and even more handouts to oil companies. This year, we’ll be getting to work locally, modeling the clean energy future in our own communities. But today, we need to speak up.
Please contact President Obama today, urging wiser action on offshore drilling: http://www.350.org/dont-drill
Many thanks,
May Boeve
U.S. coordinator, 350.org
PS: Minutes after today’s news broke, we created this Facebook page: “1,000,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling.” Will you join me & show the kind of groundswell of anger this news inspires–by inviting many of your friends to join too? Thanks for getting the word out, here’s the link.
1. “Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time”: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?hp
2. Obama’s Energy Factsheet from the Campaign:
http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/factsheet_energy_speech_080308.pdf
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