Major Green Groups Offer Plan to Obama
Share and save this post:
AlterNet Social Networks:
Belief:
What if People Actually Treated Religion as Just a Metaphor (Like Trekkies and Secular Jews)?
Greta Christina
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
Labor Against the War Shifting Sights to Afghanistan Occupation
Jane Slaughter
DrugReporter:
The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not
Jim Hightower
Environment:
20 Weird, Crazy Ideas for Helping the Earth
Food:
10 Tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving
Sarah Newman
Health and Wellness:
Is the House's Health Bill Really Worse than Nothing?
Joshua Holland
Immigration:
What Denying Unauthorized Immigrants Health Insurance Will Cost You
Media and Technology:
The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete ... If It Weren't for Archives
Mark Ames
Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler
Politics:
Just When You Thought It Was Safe: 3 Potential Obstacles to Health-Care Reform
Adele M. Stan
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
Vanessa Richmond
Rights and Liberties:
Feeling Nervous? 3,000 Behavior Detection Officers Will Be Watching You at the Airport This Thanksgiving
Liliana Segura
Sex and Relationships:
Hot Mormon Muffins and Models for Jesus: What's With All the Sexy Christians?
Liz Langley
Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders
Water:
Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?
Peter Gleick
World:
Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan Revealed
Jeremy Scahill
For more environmental news and humor, sign up for Grist's e-mail list.
Twenty-nine of the country's biggest green groups rolled out a comprehensive list of actions and policies they'd like President-elect Barack Obama to adopt after he takes office Jan. 20. In it, the groups stress the need for an approach that unites environment, energy, and economic policies. "We need to dig ourselves out of the financial hole we're in with a green shovel," said National Wildlife Federation President Larry Schweiger during a conference call with reporters.
The groups' 391-page document [PDF], which was delivered to Obama's transition team on Nov. 24, emphasizes the need for green investment to achieve economic growth. It calls for the creation of jobs in the renewable energy sector, building weatherization, a retooled auto industry, investment in infrastructure like public transportation, and major improvements to the electrical grid. The guidelines also detail what can be done in every executive branch agency, department, and office on a number of other environmental issues.
"The entire federal government has a critical role to play in unleashing these innovative solutions, but it is the president who will set the tone," write the groups. "President-elect Obama has an opportunity to galvanize the nation -- to announce bold measures that will channel America's ingenuity into solving the entwined economic, climate, and environmental crises. "
The report is notable for its breadth, as well as the fact that it unites 29 different groups representing a range of issues and positions on the political spectrum. The endorsers include groups that focus primarily on wildlife and public lands, transit groups, and environmental health advocates. Also included are groups that have publicly sparred over climate legislation in the past.
On the intersecting issues of climate and energy, the groups call for Congress to pass legislation in 2009 to cut emissions 35 percent below currently levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by midcentury. They also call for movement toward 100 percent clean electricity through "energy efficiency, modernizing the grid, and greatly expanding power generation from renewable energy resources."
The groups urge Obama to grant California's request for waiver to allow the state to enforce tougher standards for cutting emissions from vehicles, and that he use the Clean Air Act "to declare that global warming pollution endangers public health and welfare and to set standards for power plants, vehicles, and fuels." Other recommendations include a call for tougher fuel economy and appliance efficiency standards,and a mandate that government agencies take into account and plan for climate change in all of their actions regarding energy use and natural resources. The groups also urge Obama to reengage in international climate negotiations.
The leaders participating in the press call on Tuesday seemed confident that Obama's rhetoric on the environment is sincere. "This is an incoming president that on the campaign trail articulated a farsighted agenda," said Union of Concerned Scientists president Kevin Knobloch, noting that the agenda combines economic vitality, clean energy, and climate solutions. "Those of us in the environmental community share a lot of the priorities he laid out."
League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski said he hopes Obama or a high-level appointee will take the lead on climate and energy. While he didn't exactly call for the appointment of a "czar" to head the effort, he said, "We want to make sure the White House creates a very clear authority in the White House to coordinate the work going on in the different agencies ... coordinating all the action we believe needs to occur on energy and global warming."
The groups involved were:
See more stories tagged with: environment, obama
Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »
You've chosen to turn comments off for the entire site. Would you like to turn them back on?
Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
EMAIL
PRINT
21 COMMENTS
