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New Opportunities with the Obama Presidency
Looking at the challenges facing President Obama, it is clear that he needs to do far more than rectify the devastation of the Bush actions and policies over the last 8 years, for that would merely return our nation to the environmentally unacceptable and unhealthy position we were in at the turn of the new millennium.
Given the collapse of the global economy, timid changes and tinkering at the edges are not going to be sufficient to change the direction of human civilization. Bold leadership in the mold of Franklin Roosevelt is needed to rectify the economic and environmental injustice that is damaging so much of our world today. Our life depends on it.
We have an extraordinary opportunity with President Obama to make the kind of change he preached about during the Presidential campaign.
Friends of the Earth Action represents the change you can believe in, the change that can transform the current unsustainable economic system into a different model, a model that encourages a flourishing of all life on the earth.
Budget Victory
The budget proposal released February 26, 2009, by the Obama administration would slash taxpayer giveaways to the oil and gas industries by tens of billions of dollars. The days of Big Oil earning record profits while feeding at the taxpayer trough are coming to an end. President Obama’s decision to put an end to these giveaways is a huge victory for taxpayers and the planet.
The Obama budget proposal includes:
- A tax on oil and gas companies that are failing to pay oil royalties on Gulf of Mexico leases issued between 1996 and 2000.
- The repeal of former Representative Tom Delay's Sugarland deepwater oil and gas research program.
- Repeal of eight land standing oil and natural gas tax breaks some of which date back to the creation of the tax code.
Take action now to encourage Congress to support Obama's proposal.
Friends of the Earth Action Fights False Choices in Effort to Combat Global Climate Destabilization
Friends of the Earth Action is blowing the whistle to stop waste of tax dollars on approaches that will actually set the United States further behind in fight on climate change. The reason is that spending the same amount of money on ready-to-go clean energy options will result in dramatically greater reduction of greenhouse gas pollution. Here is our list of the leading false choices:
Nuclear Reactors
Building new nuclear reactors will create more radioactive waste and subject communities all over our nation to shipments of radioactive waste headed to disposal sites—if any can be found.
Ethanol from Corn
If all the US cropland that feeds our population of 300 million were devoted to the production of corn for ethanol, we would not even displace 15% of our current gasoline consumption.
Biofuels: Palm Oil, Soy and Sugar Cane
Major palm oil plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia have decimated tropical rainforests either directly through clearance of the forest or indirectly by taking over existing cropland and forcing agricultural production to go onto forest lands.
Dirty Coal
Coal is inherently dirty, from the mining process, to the combustion at a power plant, to the disposal of the combustion waste from the power plant. No amount of advertising or technology can make coal anything resembling a clean fuel. It is devastating to our air, land, water and wildlife, and poisonous to human health.
Carbon Capture and Sequestration
In an attempt to rescue dirty coal, some are pushing for sequestration of the carbon dioxide deep underground. No one knows whether such sequestration can be accomplished on a major industrial scale.
