[NukeNet] Act now to fight for clean energy: contact Pelosi, Obey, & your Rep

Thu Jul 24 17:48:59 EDT 2008

CALL SPEAKER PELOSI, CHAIRMAN OBEY, AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE

FIGHT FOR CLEAN ENERGY BY DEMANDING A "CLEAN" CONTINUING RESOLUTION: NO
NEW NUCLEAR LOAN GUARANTEES OR TIME EXTENSIONS AND NO OFFSHORE OIL
DRILLING

July 24, 2008

Dear Friends,

All indications are that Congress will not pass any annual
appropriations bills to cover government spending for the fiscal year
that begins October 1, 2008. Instead, early this Fall Congress will pass
a Continuing Resolution that will keep government spending at current
levels until sometime early in the next Congress and new administration.

At least, that's what a Continuing Resolution is supposed to do: keep
things as they are until Congress and the new administration can come
back with their new priorities and views.

But the upcoming Continuing Resolution will also provide an opportunity
for mischief by nuclear power and fossil fuel backers. For example, we
have heard that some will seek to change existing law and extend the
time for the Department of Energy to give out $18.5 billion in loan
guarantees for new nuclear reactor construction. Currently that program
is scheduled to end in September 2009-before any money can be given out.
Similarly, nuclear backers may seek to increase the loan guarantee
amount to $50 billion or more. And some Congressmembers want to use the
Continuing Resolution to allow offshore oil drilling in a misguided,
ineffective, and dangerously polluting response to high gasoline prices
(see below for some talking points on offshore drilling).

There is an easy way to prevent these types of actions: Congress should
pass a "clean" Continuing Resolution, meaning no changes whatsoever in
current law. And indeed, Continuing Resolutions should, by their very
nature, not be used to change existing law or spending decisions; they
are merely a tool to ensure the government keeps operating while
Congress and the new administration decide on their new priorities.

ACTION TO TAKE: We urge you to contact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey and demand that they
allow only a clean Continuing Resolution to be considered by the House.
We believe your calls will find a sympathetic ear-especially if you
combine both nuclear loan guarantees and offshore drilling in your
comments-and will help boost their ability to obtain a clean bill. Then,
contact your own Representative with the same message.

In our visits to House offices, we continually hear that Congressmembers
are not hearing enough from their constituents about opposition to
nuclear loan guarantees-many offices mistakenly think that the public
and environmental groups support such guarantees! It is vital for your
Congressmembers to hear from you-especially in an election year!

Contact information:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: 202-225-4965 (San Francisco office,
515-556-4862), sf.nancy at mail.house.gov

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey: 202-225-3365 (Wausau
office, 715-842-5606). No public e-mail address, can e-mail through
http://www.obey.house.gov <http://www.obey.house.gov/> 

For other members: House Switchboard: 202-225-3121. 

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Here are some talking points on offshore drilling and gasoline prices,
prepared by our friends at Environment America:

Drilling for oil off our coasts and in our last protected places is a
destructive policy that will put our beaches and wild places at risk
while doing nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil or the costs
to consumers at the pump. We are in this mess because of years of doing
the wrong thing; it's time for a change.

We need to use less oil by: increasing fuel economy, increasing funding
for public transportation and better transportation planning. We need a
new energy future with more renewables and better buildings that will
help reduce electricity prices and move us away from dirty sources like
fossil fuels and nuclear.

Offshore Drilling is Bad for the Environment:  Offshore drilling
proposals threaten sensitive coasts, beaches and beloved parks with
chronic pollution from oil and gas production and catastrophic spills
from platforms and pipelines or tankers and barges that bring oil
onshore.  At each stage of testing, exploration, and production, the oil
and gas business produces contaminated water, uses toxic drilling muds,
and periodically spills oil and toxic liquids into the ocean.
Pollutants like mercury and persistent hydrocarbons contaminate fish and
sea life near platforms and massive spills kill seabirds, sea turtles,
fish and marine mammals. At stake are Virginia's Chincoteague Island,
Cape Cod National Seashore, Sandy Hook in New Jersey, the Outer Banks of
North Carolina, Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, and Pt. Reyes in
California, to name just a few. 

Most spills are from the more vulnerable infrastructure like pipelines
and tankers/barges that has to be used to get the oil onshore from the
platforms. One small spill of around 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) like
the one from the cargo freighter in San Francisco Bay in the fall of
2007 took several months to clean up, cost $60-70 million to clean up
and killed sea birds and fish tens of miles away. It closed down several
fisheries on the West Coast for weeks.  And this was a relatively small
spill in relatively good weather.  Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed
over 100 drilling rigs and platforms and over 450 pipelines. The
Minerals Management Service estimated almost one million gallons spilled
during the hurricane from offshore facilities; the Coast Guard
documented estimated nine million gallons from onshore and offshore oil
facilities were spilled.  

Offshore Drilling will Increase Our Oil Independence: We simply cannot
drill our way to energy independence.  We use approximately 25% of the
world's oil but have less than 2 percent of the world's known oil
reserves.  We can't achieve energy independence by drilling for more
oil; we must switch to renewables and use our energy more efficiently to
move towards energy independence. 

Offshore Drilling will do Nothing to Reduce Gas Prices: More offshore
drilling will do nothing to reduce the price of gasoline now, or in the
short term, or even in the long term. If we removed the offshore
moratorium tomorrow, the first leases would be sold in 2012 and oil and
natural gas might start to flow in 2017 according to the Energy
Information Agency (EIA).  Even at peak production according to the EIA,
the added oil would have an insignificant impact on US price of gasoline
because oil prices are determined by an international market and this
production would be a tiny increment.

Increasing Our Use of Renewable Energy Sources Will Bring Down Energy
Costs and Make it Unnecessary for Us To Rely on Dirty Energy Sources
Such as Nuclear: Increasing our use of clean, renewable energy like
wind, solar, biomass and geothermal will not only help protect our
environment and combat global warming, it will also save consumers money
by reducing the demand on finite fossil fuel reserves and it will create
new green jobs. We need to put the full weight of the federal government
into promoting these promising energy sources. Unfortunately President
Bush and the Republican minority in the Senate are blocking tax
incentives that are vital for the continued expansion of the renewables
industry because they wanted to continue tax giveaways to oil and gas
companies that are seeing record profits. The renewable industries are
already seeing investors pull out of projects because they fear that
Congress will not extend these credits. 

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