FW: The Truth About America's Energy Needs

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http://whistler.sierraclub.org:8080/takeaction/energy/index.jsp

 

 

A PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT AND U.S. ENERGY SECRETARY

 

1) Tell the truth -- about California's and America's energy needs.

 

Telling Americans that we have to drill for oil in pristine natural areas

so that we can be “energy independent“ is tremendously irresponsible, and

simply not true.

 

The United States uses 25% of the world's oil supply. Yet we have less than

5% percent of the world's oil reserves.

 

The truth is there is no way we can meet our demand by drilling for oil in

the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, or anywhere else domestically. Drilling the

Arctic is a distraction, not a solution.

 

2) Tell the truth -- about new power plants.

 

When new power plants were proposed in California as early as 1995 the

Sierra Club supported them. The proposed plants would have been ten times

less polluting, and twice as fuel efficient as older, outmoded natural

gas-fired plants.

 

The plants were opposed and successfully blocked by Southern

California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric, which claimed they

wouldn't need new power plants until 2005 (and didn't want to spend the

money to build them.)

 

The Metcalf Energy Center, a proposed new power plant in the San Jose,

California area, has been opposed by Internet giant, Cisco Systems, and

supported by the Sierra Club.

 

3) Tell the truth -- about energy efficiency and conservation.

 

It is far faster, cheaper, and more cost effective to solve our energy

needs by working to increase our energy efficiency as quickly as possible.

We gain far greater energy independence, faster, cheaper and more cost

effectively.

 

California could save enough electricity for one million homes -- 1000

megawatts of electricity -- just by replacing outmoded air conditioners

with modern efficient ones.

 

Replacing old refrigerators would save another 1000 megawatts, and make

power available for another million homes.

 

Truth is that if auto companies were required to install the best

technology and increase the fuel economy of new cars and light trucks to 40

miles per gallon, Americans would save three million barrels of oil every

day -- more than the Arctic, Persian Gulf imports, and off-shore California

combined.

 

If tire companies were required to sell replacement tires as fuel efficient

as the tires installed on new cars America would save 5.4 billion barrels

of oil -- more than geologists expect to find in the Arctic.

 

4) Tell the truth -- about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

 

Oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge wouldn't even “come on line“

for nearly a decade, then would only meet America's current demand for

about six months.

 

Drilling the Arctic Wildlife Refuge won't solve our energy needs in either

the short-term or long-term. But the damage that drilling would inflict to

this fragile and extreme environment -- 50 million cubic yards of gravel

scoured from nearby ponds and rivers, hundreds of miles of pipelines and

roads, massive production facilities -- this damage assuredly will be

long-term.

 

5) Tell the truth -- about the utilities and generators.

 

Weakening clean air standards, and letting old power plants continue to

pollute more, won't add to our energy supply. Efficiency and modernizing

power plants will.

 

The truth is, utility companies and generators -- in California and

nationwide -- have been more worried about their bottom line than rolling

black-outs. The owners want to hold onto their old, dirty, and wasteful

facilities.

 

The truth is energy efficiency would lower demand, increase supply, and

reduce prices. But when prices are lower, profits for utilities and

generators are lower. Maybe that's why they're not telling us that if we

build state-of-the-art power plants, tap efficiency, and use renewables, we

can turn on the lights, reduce energy prices, and breathe cleaner air.

 

President Bush and Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, all these facts

about our nation's energy choices are well documented at,

http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/ads/index.asp

 

We don't have to sacrifice our environment to meet our energy needs at a

price that's fair -- if we make wise energy choices, for our families, for

our future.

 

I urge you to pursue real solutions to our energy needs, such as making our

cars go farther on a gallon of gas, and improving efficiency so that more

people get electricity from fewer, less polluting power plants.

 

Don't destroy our coasts or the Arctic Wildlife Refuge because drilling

can't provide either a quick fix, or a long-term solution, to our energy

needs.

 

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PETITIONER (full name):

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RESIDING IN (city, state):

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" I wish no living thing to suffer pain. "

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

 

 

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