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Sierra Club Grassroots Email Express

June 14, 2005

Volume 3  No. 13

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Take Action: Protect Maine's Coast - Oppose the Energy Bill

 

THE ISSUE

ACT now!  We need your help to protect Maine's coast by asking Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to oppose the Energy Bill.

 

From Acadia to Old Orchard Beach, Maine's coasts define our way of life, our economy and our identity.   For over 20 years, Congress has protected Maine’s coasts from oil drilling and exploration.  Unfortunately, the Energy Bill currently before the Senate would weaken these protections and put Maine’s precious and fragile coastlines and beaches at risk to oil and gas drilling.  Instead of using innovative, 21st-century solutions to cut America's oil dependence and curb global warming, the Energy Bill promotes the same old polluting energy sources of the past and puts Maine’s unique coastal legacy in jeopardy.

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Please contact Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and ask them to save Maine’s unique coastal legacy and OPPOSE THE ENERGY BILL:

 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Senator Olympia Snowe

Telephone # (202) 224-5344

Toll free in Maine # 1-800-432-1599

Fax # (202) 224-1946

E-mail: olympia@snowe.senate.gov

 

Senator Susan Collins

Telephone # (202) 224-2523

Fax # (202) 224-2693

Visit Senator Collins' website to send an e-mail at:

http://collins.senate.gov/low/contactemail.htm

 

* To see what Senators Snowe and Collins have said about the Energy Bill, read a recent article in the Portland Press Herald by Bart Jansen titled, "Energy bill raises Mainers' concerns" by clicking on the following link:

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/insight/jansen/050612bartcolumn.shtml

 

 

BACKGROUND

• America deserves a safer, cleaner, and more secure energy future. The energy bill before Congress fails on all counts.   

 

• We have the solutions today to move forward with a smarter, cleaner, and safer energy policy.  Instead its backwards energy bill, Congress should focus on real solutions like requiring utilities to produce 20 percent of their electricity with renewable energy sources – such as wind and solar power - by 2020; increase the average fuel economy of all new vehicles to 40 miles per gallon within ten years; and invest in energy efficiency, stronger appliance standards, and other energy efficiency measures.  Taking these steps would protect the environment, create new jobs, lower consumer energy bills, and cut America's dangerous dependence on oil.

 

• Instead of giving America a cleaner, cheaper, and safer energy bill, Congress has once again introduced an energy bill that is nearly identical to the flawed energy bills that have failed to pass over the past four years.  This energy bill was hatched in the backrooms of the secret Cheney Energy Task Force and is an energy bill written by and for the energy industry.

 

• The energy bill puts our public lands and wilderness areas at risk to destructive drilling and mining operations, and would allow new oil and gas exploration along our coastlines - threatening sea life and environmentally sensitive areas.

 

• The energy bill fails to lower gas prices and protect consumers.  Even the Bush administration's own Department of Energy has stated that this bill would do nothing to lower gas prices and would actually increase America's dependence on foreign oil. 

 

• The energy bill fails to protect America's national security by cutting our dependence on oil.  Instead, it funnels billions of dollars to the oil industry at a time when they are making record profits, and it weakens existing fuel economy standards.  

 

• The energy bill also undermines key environmental protections, such as the National Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act - putting the health of our communities at risk.

  

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information, contact the Maine Sierra Club at maine.chapter@sierraclub.org or (207) 761-5616

Maine Chapter Sierra Club

One Pleasant Street

Portland ME 04101

phone: (207) 761-5616

fax: (207) 773-6690

email: Maine.chapter@sierraclub.org

web: http://maine.sierraclub.org