Sierra Club

Climate Change Hits Home  

Ten days ago, for the first time since Hurricane Sandy hit, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune visited the beachfront community in New Jersey where he grew up. The damage was so extensive that the area is closed off and there is still no power or clean water. Brune’s family and their neighbors were allowed to enter the barrier island for just seven hours.

Visit our new website, Climate Comes Home, to read what he and others had to say and see the devastation.

Photo: Julie Dermansky

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Huge Victory for Our MountainsOne can only imagine what John Muir would have thought of mountaintop removal coal mining. But he’d certainly have celebrated this month’s announcement that the Patriot Coal Corporation has entered into an agreement with the Sierra Cluband other environmental groups to end its involvement in this destructive practice. But other coal companies are moving forward with plans to blow the tops off mountains and bury streams all across Appalachia.Send a message to the EPA, letting them know that protecting Appalachia from destructive coal mining should be a top priority for the next Obama administration.

Rainforest Action Network

 

		This December 1st, our friends EQAT will be visiting PNC Banks all over the region with samples of drinking water taken directly from a contaminated well in Eunice, West Virginia. This is an opportunity to challenge PNC on its record as a ‘Green Bank’ with a tangible example of the consequences of mountaintop removal affecting thousands of families in Appalachia, and to emphasize that our work isn’t just about the environment, it’s about human rights. EQAT has a group of action organizers ready to lead demonstrations in over 10 different locations. The only question now is: Will you join them, or will you be leading an action of your own? Go here to get more info on how you can get involved and to view a full list of actions. EQAT is an organization committed to building a movement to stop climate change. Anyone who cares about the future of this planet should stand up on December 1st and take action in their area to send PNC a message—the people of Appalachia are more important than a corporate bottom line. Participants are bringing samples of contaminated water to branch managers, holding fake ‘taste tests’ outside of the bank to educate passersby, taking nonviolent direct action inside and outside of bank branches, and closing their accounts to protest PNC’s investments. What type of action is right for you? Maybe you and 2 friends want to visit your local PNC on December 1st. Maybe it’s you and your whole community. Either way, if you’d like to hold an action at a PNC in your area (and hook up with EQAT for support and resources to make it easier), or just want to find an action to attend, let them know by emailing eqateam@gmail.com. For the mountains, Amanda Starbuck Energy & Finance campaign

Congressional Budget Office

Offsetting Costs of a Carbon Tax on Low-Income Households

Senior Advisor Terry M. Dinan’s presentation at the Conference on the Economics of Carbon Taxes

See more presentations from the Congressional Budget Office

Patriot Coal’s Hobet MTR mine.

		Tell BofA not to bail out Patriot Coal’s MTR coal mines Patriot Coal’s Hobet MTR mine. Photo by Vivian Stockman / SouthWings.org Big news this week in the coal industry: Patriot Coal, the third-largest mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining company, is filing for bankruptcy. Bank of America is among the banks providing bankruptcy filing services for Patriot. This is a real opportunity for BofA to use its influence and environmental ambition to work with Patriot and forward-thinking politicians like West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller to close and clean up those MTR mines and transition the Appalachia region into a producer of clean, renewable energy. Can you email Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan right now and tell him not to bail out Patriot Coal’s MTR coal mines?

Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining …

The idea of blowing the top off a mountain to get what you want inside is just so outlandish, selfish and downright ridiculous that it almost seems unreal.

But at Alpha Natural Resources, that’s just business as usual. Take a stand against Mountaintop Removal Mining (MTR) »

MTR is a common practice at coal companies, which use equipment the size of buildings to literally change the face of a mountain range and get at coal buried deep within the Appalachians.

But MTR is a dangerous and irresponsible business practice. Not only does it ruin the landscape, but it destroys wildlife habitat and poisons water supplies with chemicals like mercury, lead and arsenic. Worst of all, more MTR means more coal polluting our air and warming our planet.

Tell energy giant Alpha Natural Resources to stop mountaintop removing mining to protect the environment and our health »

Thanks for taking action!Emily V. Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

Emergency call to Save Blair Mountain …Amanda Starbuck, Rainforest Action Network

		Tell Arch Coal To Stop Mining Blair Mountain Mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying the mountains and threatening the health and lives of communities across Appalachia. But people in Appalachia are standing up and today they need your support. Residents of Blair, West Virginia have noticed increased activity from mining company Arch Coal around Blair Mountain — site of the largest labor uprising in American history. Residents are becoming increasingly concerned about Arch’s activities and fear they will move forward with plans to mine the historic location. Take action today – call Arch Coal to save Blair Mountain. Arch Coal has four planned operations on Blair Mountain, some of which intrude onto the battlefield. Today, this multi-billion dollar company will announce its profits from the fourth quarter of last year. Whatever those earnings are, the company has a responsibility to the community in which it operates. Folks in Appalachia won’t stand for Arch Coal’s plan to destroy their community and our nation’s history just so the coal company can increase its profit margin, and we shouldn’t either. Call Arch CEO, Steven Leer, today and tell him that Appalachian communities should not fall victim to pad his profit margin. Call Arch’s St. Louis headquarters: (314) 994-2700 Call Arch’s Charleston, WV headquarters: (304) 760-2400 To allow Arch Coal to destroy Blair Mountain would be to tear out a crucial page of American labor history and burn it. But even more important than the history are the lives of the people living at the foot of this mountain today. For the mountains and for healthy communities, Amanda Starbuck Energy & Finance Program Director Twitter: @DirtyEnergy

Who’s America’s biggest funder of dirty coal?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve told you about toxic aging coal plants in Chicago, mountaintop removal mining threatening Kentucky’s highest peak, and coal export terminals proposed in the Pacific Northwest.

What do you think all these destructive coal projects have in common?

Follow the money—deep into Appalachia’s majestic mountains, through neighborhoods crowned with filthy smokestacks, and into homes of people affected by skyrocketing asthma rates—and you’ll land at the doorstep of America’s largest financier of coal: Bank of America.

No more dollars for dirty energy

Bank of America provided over $3.9 billion in financing to the coal industry in 2010, despite the fact that coal is responsible for polluting our air, damaging our climate, and seriously threatening our health.

Bank of America has a responsibility to end its support for the ultimate subprime investment: coal. BofA wreaked havoc on America’s housing market, and its prolific financing of carbon-heavy coal is a continuation of this reckless, shortsighted behavior.

No more dollars for dirty energy

We cannot grow the clean energy economy essential to healthy communities and climate if the country’s leading financial institutions continue to bankroll the coal sector.

We are going to need your outrage, your voice and your passion. No more dollars for dirty energy

It will take all of us, but this is a fight we can and must win.

		For a clean energy future,
		Amanda Starbuck Energy & Finance Program Director Twitter: @DirtyEnergy

 

Save Black Mountain …Amanda Starbuck, Rainforest Action Network

Everyone reading this email knows that we need to switch to a clean energy economy. It will create jobs, protect vulnerable communities, and save our ailing climate.

This obvious logic is an abomination for coal corporations like Massey Energy. Though Massey was bought earlier this year by Alpha Natural Resources, Massey’s corporate charter still exists. This means business as usual for Appalachia‘s most notorious mountain destroyer

Nestled at the base of Eastern Kentucky‘s rugged Black Mountain are two historic mining towns working hard to define a future beyond coal. Local residents of Lynch and Benham are in the midst of reinventing their towns as historic tourist destinations of Appalachia.

Much to their dismay, the coal barons at Massey Energy have other plans for Black Mountain. The same company whose negligence contaminated countless Appalachian waterways and took the lives of 29 coal miners just last year is one of several companies attempting to mine coal on Black Mountain.

Putting a coal mine on Black Mountain means putting the health and culture of local communities on the line.

Local Lynch city councilmember Bennie Massey explains, “The biggest thing is our water resource. Our water is really good now. You’re not just taking out the coal, you’re destroying generations of people who could live here and raise their families here.”

For a clean energy future,

 
Amanda Starbuck
            Energy & Finance Program Director

Twitter: @DirtyEnergy

Wake up banks, mountains are at stake …Amanda Starbuck, Rainforest Action Network

With your help over the last year, six of the largest banks in the world have cut their financing of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR).

http://www.ran.org/mtr

Sadly, a RAN report released today shows that Citi, PNC, Deutsche Bank and UBS are still asleep as mountains across Appalachia are destroyed forever.

So we’re going BIG and we’re getting louder. We’ve partnered with actress Susan Sarandon to issue a major wake up call about the tragedy of mountaintop removal. Watch this incredible video and send it to bank CEOs today.

Our mountains, our forests and the health of Appalachian communities are being sacrificed. It’s time for banks to stop financing MTR completely.

Send this important video to bank CEOs and tell them to stop funding the destruction of America’s mountains.    http://www.ran.org/mtr

As Ms. Sarandon says, “Families across Appalachia need our help. Mountaintop removal is an American tragedy…an unnecessary, outdated practice with no place in our clean energy future.”

Show these banks what’s really at stake when they choose to do business with MTR coal companies.   http://www.ran.org/mtr

Thanks for taking action with us. We couldn’t do it without you.

For the mountains,

Amanda Starbuck

Energy Finance Campaign

Dear Citi, You screwed up big time

In 2009, you helped push Citi to announce a “robust MTR Environmental Due Diligence Process,” giving hope that the bank would reduce its financial backing for mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining.

We’ve now discovered Citi’s mountaintop removal “due diligence process” is not worth the paper it’s printed on!

Join us in calling on Citi to stop funding mountaintop removal.  212 559 1000

MTR is a crime against America’s environment and people. Every day MTR coal corporations literally blow the tops off Appalachia‘s mountains: clear-cutting forests, wiping out natural habitats and poisoning rivers and drinking water. Not only are these mountains lost forever, but also the heritage and the health of families across the region are being sacrificed.

Last weekend, mountaintop removal mining company Alpha Natural Resources announced that it was purchasing Massey Energy, formerly the largest and most nefarious mountaintop removal company in Appalachia. Together, Massey and Alpha are responsible for more than 26 percent of all mountaintop mining in Central Appalachia. Citi is responsible for funding this toxic merger.

Join us in calling on Citi to stop funding mountaintop mining all together. 212 559 1000

Thanks for all that you do.

For the mountains,

Amanda Starbuck, Annie Sartor and Scott Parkin

Global Finance Campaign Team