--- Sierra Club Alerts <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Date: Monday 6 November 2000 16:19:32 -0700
> From: "Sierra Club Alerts" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: The Truth About America's Energy Needs
> Reply-to: "Membership Services"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Sierra Club Members <[log in to unmask]>
>
> FORWARD this email to friends and family!
> ***************
> SIGN and SEND the petition below to:
> [log in to unmask]
> ***************
> or GO TO THE WEB to send this petition:
>
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.
>
> ***********
> PETITIONER (full name):
> ***********
> RESIDING IN (city, state):
> ***********
>
> -----------
> To remove yourself from this list, email
> [log in to unmask], and include
> your name and address. Thank you.
>
>


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