Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet
"After almost three decades at Massey it is time for me to move on."
-- Massey CEO Don Blankenship, who will retire at the end of December
In this issue:
1) Take Action: Extend Clean Energy Tax and Grant Provisions!
2) Take Action: Protect Oregon's Old Growth Forests
3) Video: Babies of the Arctic
4) Global Warming: Fighting Back
5) Superfund: Happy 30th Birthday!
-- Massey CEO Don Blankenship, who will retire at the end of December
In this issue:
1) Take Action: Extend Clean Energy Tax and Grant Provisions!
2) Take Action: Protect Oregon's Old Growth Forests
3) Video: Babies of the Arctic
4) Global Warming: Fighting Back
5) Superfund: Happy 30th Birthday!
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1) Take Action: Extend Clean Energy Tax and Grant Provisions! The House and Senate must act before the end of the year to extend expiring tax benefits for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Congress must also renew the federal grant program for renewable energy begun in the stimulus bill to allow wind and solar industries to get those benefits even when they don't have tax liability. Making our homes and offices more efficient, while increasingly using clean energy sources are essential ways to create jobs, improve our quality of life, and fight global warming. Please urge the tax committees to include these important provisions in any tax agreement that is reached. | |
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2) Take Action: Protect Oregon's Old Growth Forests The US Fish and Wildlife Service is taking comment until December 15 on its draft northern spotted owl recovery plan. The continued declining health of the threatened northern spotted owl is related to the logging of our last remaining stands of mature and old growth forest. This long-awaited plan will determine the level of protection across the spotted owl's Pacific Northwest range, specifically in the old growth forests of western and southern Oregon. Unfortunately, the draft plan leaves significant owl habitat vulnerable to logging! Send a comment letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service today! | |
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3) Video: Babies of the Arctic Yesterday marked the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To celebrate we've put together what is quite possibly the cutest video ever, featuring baby animals of the arctic. Take a look and get your daily dose of warm fuzzies. | |
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4) Superfund: Happy 30th Birthday! Superfund, the nation's landmark toxic waste cleanup program, turns 30 this month. Much has happened in the 30 years since Lois Gibbs forced the government to confront the leaking toxic waste site in her community of Love Canal. Cleanup projects are well advanced at most of the 1,280 sites on the high-priority cleanup list, but health risks or potential risks still exist at hundreds of sites, according to a 2010 General Accountability Office report. The Superfund's polluter-pays funding system lapsed in 1995, and funding shortfalls leave communities at risk. The Obama administration has made a strong push to reinstate polluter-pays taxes, which could speed cleanups, but Congress has failed to act. |