Co-coordinator Jamie Henn gives an
update on where we stand, less than 90 days from the October 24 International Day of Climate Action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omSoXp8jES8
You all have registered action for the International Day of Climate Action on the 24th of October—that's less than three months away!
Chances are, when you first registered your action on 350.org you didn’t have all the information about the event you were planning. Chances are, you have some updates to make—and will have more to make between now and October. Well, we have some good news. Starting today, we have a BRAND NEW system for managing your local action web page on 350.org. You can now post updates to your action's description, add files, change the location, set a custom link to your action page, allow people who are interested in the event to contact you through the wesbite, and a lot more. Plus, we'll be building more functionality in the weeks ahead--like allowing users to RSVP to your action.
Below is the crucial information you’ll need--consider writing this down or storing it in a safe place:
Then, to EDIT your action web page, visit this site: http://www.350.org/node/3970/edit
PLEASE check out your current action listing, and make some updates to your action name and description. Make sure everything looks right--and even if you don’t have all the details just yet, try to put as much information as you have so that other people will want to join you. And as you’re updating your action, remember: the first step, if you haven't already done it, is to pick an iconic spot in your area where you'd like to have the event, and decide what kind of event you'd like to host. The possibilities are endless—just make sure at some point you gather for a group photo that displays the number '350' in it. Once
you snap that photo end send it to us, we’ll be able to send it all around the world and make it count! That’s it--if you have any questions, we'll be keeping an evolving "Frequently Asked Questions" section about online action management here: http://www.350.org/how
And if you have questions that aren't asnwered there, do write us at organizer@350.org.
http://www.burningthefuture.org/
Burning The Future: Coal in America - Trailer from Odessa Films on Vimeo.
Burning the Future: Coal in America - Preview
from Odessa Films on Vimeo
Burning the Future: Coal in America examines the explosive conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by emerging “clean coal” energy policies, local
activists watch a world blind to the devastation caused by coal's extraction. Faced with toxic ground water and the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, our heroes launch a valiant fight to arouse the nation's help in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life.
http://www.grist.org/article/the-climate-bill-shouldnt-give-coal-a-free-pass/
byBruce
Nilles
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Now that historic U.S. climate legislation the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), has passed the House of Representatives and the Senate is debating its version
of energy/climate legislation, lets talk about what must be fixed before it gets to the Presidents desk. 
Big Coal has long sought and enjoyed loopholes for their dirty industry anything to keep the money rolling in as they avoid cleaning up. And now, over objections of our clean energy champions,
this bill gives them another massive loophole that the Senate must correct.
Although coal-fired power plants account for roughly a third of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions (making them our single largest source of global warming pollution), the legislation
gives them a free pass to continue business as usual without making any serious reductions in heat-trapping CO2 for at least fifteen years, and bringing us increasingly closer to a climate crisis.
There is some modestly good news for new plants that dont yet have their construction
permit: no later than 2025, they will have to cut their carbon emissions in half. But the bad news is that the bill exempts a slug of plants permitted but not yet built, plus the huge fleet of Americas oldest and dirtiest coal
plants, from any requirement to clean up and cut their CO2 emissions.
This is a disaster in the making, because it threatens to block the way for the U.S. to transition rapidly
to a clean energy economy. These old dirty coal plants need to clean up or be retired. But the way the bill works right now, instead of encouraging investment in new industries and new plants that are subject to stringent standards, it leaves the door open to expand the old plants with no added safeguards.
By “grandfathering”
existing coal-fired capacity, which accounts for 44 percent of U.S. electricity generation, the bill repeats the mistakes of the 1977 Clean Air Act mistakes that we have been paying for in the form deadly air pollution ever since.
Three decades ago, Congress
exempted older plants from soot and smog limits that applied to new units, on the assumption (and promise by the industry) that they would soon be retired. Instead, the industry took full advantage of this loophole to refurbish old
plants and, in some cases, to expand their capacity and emit even more of the air pollution that causes tens of thousands of asthma attacks, hospitalizations, heart attacks, and premature deaths every year. We cant repeat that mistake.
While ACES does make some
good strides in reducing global warming pollution, Big Coal cannot be allowed to vent billions of tons of pollution without consequence.
To close this huge loophole
and level the playing field between coal and clean energy, the Senate must insist that the oldest, dirtiest plants will retire by a certain date or meet the same pollution standards as new plants. And, until they retire or clean up, existing plants must be prohibited from expanding their capacity and increasing carbon pollution. These measures would create an incentive for industry to use
cleaner technologies instead of continuing to lean on the dirty dinosaurs that generate too much of our electricity today. Finally, if Congress cannot muster the backbone to clean up the nations oldest and most dangerous coal plants,
it ought to restore the Environmental Protection Agencys authority to do so.
The stakes could not be greater. We cannot let Big Coal get away with another massive loophole to continue polluting at the same level as today for one or two more decades. Congress must close the coal loophole and make the coal industry slash its pollution. Our
future depends on it.
Bruce Nilles is the director of the Sierra Clubs Beyond Coal Campaign, the largest component of Sierra Clubs new Climate Recovery Partnerships. The Beyond
Coal Campaign is working to reduce Americas over reliance on coal, slash coals contribution to global warming and other pollution woes, end destructive mining, and secure massive investments in clean energy alternatives.
Bruce joined the Sierra
Club in 2002. He previously worked as a staff attorney for Earthjustices San Francisco office, and during the Clinton Administration as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justices Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington D.C. He received his J.D. and B.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin.
WHEN: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 
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