Tag Archives: United States Environmental Protection Agency

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Stop the big oil giveaway fueling our enemies


VoteVets.org

Right now, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering gutting one of the most important policies put in place to limit the amount of fossil fuels we burn and lower our dependence on foreign oil.

It’s called the Renewable Fuel Standard and it ensures a minimum number of renewable fuels are used for transportation in the United States.

As veterans, military family members, and VoteVets supporters, we have a unique understanding about the cost of our dependence on foreign oil. It’s not just measured in the price at the pump, or a changing climate, but also in the lives lost and changed through deployments to protect the flow of oil in the Middle East.

VoteVets is participating in the Environmental Protection Agency’s public comment period on this issue. It ends in a few weeks, and we’d love it if you added your name to ours before we submit. You can do that here:

http://action.votevets.org/save-the-rfs

This is an important issue and a very real chance for you to make a difference. The EPA traditionally takes these comments very seriously, but our voices are at risk of being drowned out by big oil interests running astroturf campaigns.

That’s why your petition signature is so important. I hope you’ll add your name to mine today.

All the best,

General (Ret.) Wesley Clark
Board Member, VoteVets.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Help the EPA … Stop the shutdown
Want to know who some of the biggest victims of the government shutdown are? The agencies that protect our environment, including the EPA!

Tell Congress to end the shutdown!

In addition to costing hundreds of thousands of people their jobs, the shutdown has prevented key agencies from serving the American people. The EPA is one of the hardest-hit. The agency has basically been shut down, and 94% of its employees have been sent home.

Employees who “ensure continued public health and safety, including safe use of food and drugs and safe us of hazardous materials” have been sent home. Workers who protect federal lands and research properties have been sent home, as have employees who provide disaster and emergency aid. 505 Superfund cleanup sites in 47 states have been closed. And staff who write and implement greenhouse gas regulations can no longer come to work.

Tell Congress to end the shutdown and let the EPA get back to work protecting our environment.

It gets worse. The national parks are closed to visitors, but open to oil and gas drilling. Just a few employees will stick around to monitor the drilling activities. The Forest Service had to cut its staff, too, right in the middle of peak forest fire season.

Meanwhile, the threats to our environment will not rest. We simply can’t afford to let this happen—there’s too much at stake. Tell Congress to end the shutdown immediately!

-The Earth Day Network Team
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

53 days


We can’t let West, Texas happen again.west TX chemical explosion

It’s time for the President to take action. Send a message to President Obama right now and urge the administration to adopt better safety standards for chemical plants!
take action today

greenpeaceRick  Hind, Greenpeace

A small town in Texas will never be the same after fifteen people lost  their lives when a fertilizer plant exploded back in April.

The explosion was so big it registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake and destroyed a 37-block area of West, Texas. The most tragic part of it all is that the explosion along with the death and destruction that followed didn’t have to happen.

There are safe, affordable alternatives to the dangerous chemicals like the  ones used in the Texas fertilizer plant available right now. But instead of making the switch, the chemical industry has chosen to spend its money lobbying Congress so that it can keep putting millions needlessly at risk. And up until now, that strategy was working.

Things are changing though. President Obama recently issued a directive to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop plans for new safety  measure at chemical plants by November. What happens next is up to us.  It’s your voice versus the chemical industry.

Send a message to President Obama and the EPA right now and urge them to  adopt safety standards that prevent chemical disasters.

You’re likely close enough to a facility that stores or uses deadly chemicals, like chlorine gas, to be at risk if something unexpected were to  happen. Most people in the U.S. are.

Chemical safety isn’t just an environmental issue — it impacts communities everywhere. That’s why we’ve been working closely with a diverse coalition of groups  including labor and environmental justice groups to send a clear message to the administration: the time to act is now.

President Obama has been outspoken on this issue in the past. In fact, back when  he was a Senator from Illinois he had this to say,: “We cannot allow  chemical industry lobbyists to dictate the terms of this debate. We  cannot allow our security to be hijacked by corporate interests.”

Take action and tell President Obama and the EPA that now’s the time to put  those words into action and prevent another disaster like the one in  West, Texas.

A decade ago the EPA proposed using the Clean Air Act to enforce commons  sense rules for chemical plants like the one in West, Texas. For a  decade Congress and two Presidents have been dragging their feet.

Legislation that would address this problem has completely stalled in Congress and  is going nowhere thanks to the deep pockets of the chemical lobby. It’s  up to the President to do the right thing and he needs our support to  make it happen.

If the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the nuclear disaster in  Fukushima and the West, Texas explosion have taught us anything in the  last couple of years, it’s that disasters happen. There’s no sense for  millions of Americans to remain needlessly at risk from dangerous  chemicals when safer alternatives exist.

Tell President Obama you support him using his authority to do what Congress won’t, and put the safety and health of American citizens ahead of  corporate interests.

Sincerely,

Rick Hind Greenpeace Legislative Director

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Consumer Unions : the EPA needs to hear from you


Cleaner Air:

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Let’s get this done!

Last month the Senate finally confirmed new EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, and she has a lot of important work to do. That includes a clean-car plan that is widely supported by health groups, cities, enviros – even the auto industry.

With some minor changes to new cars, and cleaner gasoline that would add about a penny per gallon, this plan would remove the equivalent of 33 million polluting cars from our roads!

But Big Oil is digging in against it. They don’t want to make changes in their refineries, and they want your family to live with the consequences – dirtier air, dirtier environment.

Let’s show the new EPA Administrator that Americans support this common-sense plan. Send a quick email of support now, and show Big Oil that they don’t run our country!

Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

EPA needs to hear from you, not Big Oil!If Americans speak out in support of a plan that will clean up our gasoline and our air, we can beat back Big Oil. But we have to get this done by the end of the year. Tell the EPA’s new boss to approve it now!Take action

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The clock is ticking on a clean-car plan that will dramatically slash pollution in our cities – the equivalent of taking 33 million cars off our roads!

The Environmental Protection Agency has only four months to finalize a plan that would clean up our gasoline so it doesn’t emit so much pollution when it’s burned. And with a new EPA administrator now on board, we have a great opportunity to get it moving!

Of course, Big Oil is out in force trying to kill it. They don’t want to make needed changes in their refineries, and they expect you to live with the consequences – tens of thousands of more respiratory problems in kids and adults, and the resulting environmental problems.

Tell new EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy you support the clean-car plan. She needs to hear from you, not just Big Oil.

While many of us would like a world without polluting cars, we’re just not there yet. But we can make a huge dent in pollution by cleaning up the gas our vehicles run on. The air near our roadways has high concentrations of particulates, ozone, carbon monoxide, lead and sulfur – over 50 percent of which come from vehicles.

This plan would add under a penny to a gallon of gas, and less than $150 to the cost of a new car in 2025. It’s widely backed by public health officials, cities, environmentalists – even the auto industry is on board.

But Big Oil is digging in! They’re hoping to run out the clock or get Congress to intervene and kill it. That’s why it’s so important EPA Administrator McCarthy finalizes the plan soon!

Send a quick email of support right now. It’s a common-sense way to clean our air and improve the environment.

If you have friends and family who would join you in action, please forward this email to them. Let’s show the new EPA director that Big Oil doesn’t run our country!

Sincerely, Shannon Baker-Branstetter, Consumers Union Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Congress … Bee a Champ!


Greenpeace
A new bill in Congress would ban pesticides responsible for poisoning millions of honeybees.
Save the honeybee!
Tell your representative to support the Save America’s Pollinators Act today!
take action today

Bees are dying by the millions all across America.
According to leading scientists, they’re being poisoned by a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids (also known as “neonics”). If we don’t stop using these chemicals soon, the bee population could be done for – and so could all the fruits and vegetables that rely on bees for pollination.
But there’s hope. A bill was just introduced in Congress that would impose a ban on neonics until a scientific review and field studies prove no harm will come to bee populations from their use. 
Passing this bill won’t be easy. Big Agriculture and chemical companies like Bayer are already lobbying hard to defeat it. Massive public support is the only chance the bees have. Over 100,000 Greenpeace supporters helped raise the profile of this issue last month. Together we now have a chance to save the bees before it is too late.
Write your congressperson today and urge them to support the Save America’s Pollinators Act and save the bees!
The stories are shocking. Some 50,000 bees dropped dead a few weeks ago in Oregon after being exposed to the deadly pesticides. And last winter  alone, 31% of beehives in the United States collapsed. Sobering stuff.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been dragging their feet on this issue for too long. EPA is currently conducting a study on neonics that they don’t expect to finish until sometime in 2018! At this rate, there may not be any bees left by that time.
By allowing toxic chemicals like neonics to weaken and kill bees, we  threaten our food and our environment. Every day these chemicals are allowed to be used is one day closer to disaster.
Now’s the time to act. Tell your congressperson to support the Save America’s Pollinators Act today.
The world is stepping up to take action and it’s time for the US to do the same.
Policymakers in Europe pulled three commonly used neonics off the market earlier this year, citing the growing body science showing their harms to pollinators. Just a few weeks ago, the EU added another bee-harming pesticide to their restricted list.
However, the Industrial Agriculture lobby has no intention of backing down and Congress is going to need all the support it can get. 
Write your Representative now and tell them to support this critical bill and save the bees.
Without immediate action to save bees, many of our favorite fruits, vegetables, and nuts could vanish from our shelves. Avocados, almonds, apples…the  list goes on. A world without bees.
A win for the bees here in the US is possible, but only if we keep the pressure up on Congress to do the right thing.
Thanks,
Mark Floegel Greenpeace Senior Investigator and Beekeeper
P.S. America’s bees are being poisoned. There’s a bill in Congress that would help save them. Write your representative today and tell them to support the Save America’s Pollinators Act today! Then forward this message to your friend and family.