  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 14, 2013
Contact:
Eitan Bencuya, eitan.bencuya@sierraclub.org,
202-495-3047
Oliver Bernstein, oliver.bernstein@sierraclub.org,
512-289-8618
Sierra Club Launches New Campaign: Obama Climate Legacy
Kicks off 100 Days of Action for climate solutions and clean energy
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today the Sierra Club launched a new
campaign demanding that President Obama make the fight against climate
disruption a priority in his second term. The “Obama
Climate and Clean Energy Legacy Campaign” will bring the
organization’s 2.1 million members and supporters together to push the Obama
administration to tackle the most serious environmental crisis of our age.
“President Obama’s
second term will be a pivotal four years in the fight against climate
disruption,” said Michael Brune,
executive director of the Sierra Club. “In his victory speech, the
President invited a national climate conversation, but we also need swift,
decisive action to prevent more erratic weather, superstorms and wildfires.”
“As we make critical decisions about how we power our nation
and what kind of place we’ll leave for our children and grandchildren, the
Sierra Club will push President Obama to define his legacy with bold climate
solutions and clean energy innovation,” said Brune. “Climate disruption
is the singular issue of our time for anyone who cares about clean air, clean
water and a safe future for our families.”
To demonstrate the urgency of its demands, the Sierra Club
launched “100 Days of Action on Climate,” a series of local and national
actions focused on bringing climate disruption to the forefront of the national
conversation and pressing the President to be a leader in the climate fight.
During this period -- spanning the President’s Inauguration through Earth Day
-- allies and activists from around the country will host events ranging from
inauguration watch parties in New Mexico, to a national climate rally on
Presidents Day weekend in DC, to town hall meetings across the nation, highlighting
the broad support from Americans for fighting the climate crisis.
The Sierra Club outlined five key actions that the Obama
administration must take to curb the country’s carbon emissions and address
climate disruption. The actions include:
1. Hold fossil fuel corporations
accountable for their pollution
- Adopt and enforce coal pollution protections for
carbon, soot, smog, sulfur, water toxics and coal ash, and set water pollution
standards that will end mountaintop removal mining.
- Enact standards and close loopholes to protect water,
air, and climate from fracking and other forms of oil and gas production.
- Finalize Tier 3 clean fuel standards, finalize
emissions standards for refineries, and establish strong mileage standard for
medium and heavy-duty vehicles.
2. Reject proposals to import dirty fuels and stop the
rush of fossil fuel exports
- Stop Keystone XL and other tar sands infrastructure.
- Halt expansion of fossil fuel exports, including
liquefied natural gas export facilities, new coal export terminals, and
increased oil exports.
- Increase US-backed international finance of renewable
energy and energy efficiency, and phase out fossil fuel lending.
3. Double down on clean energy
- Open innovative financing and investment avenues for
energy efficiency and renewable energy.
- Facilitate environmentally responsible leasing and
deployment of clean energy generation and technologies on public lands and
waters and within federal agencies.
4. Protect communities from future
climate disasters and readying a robust and just response
- Release equal and just national climate resilience
plans that help create strong and sustainable communities, infrastructure and
ecosystems.
- Hold EPA and FEMA accountable for ensuring equal,
appropriate and just federal emergency and disaster response, including better
equipping state and local officials to develop and support climate resilient
communities.
5. Protect America's lands, air,
water and wildlife from fossil fuel development
- Stop the rush to expand oil and gas drilling, coal
mining, and dirty fuels development on our public lands and the Outer
Continental Shelf, reform the Department of Interior coal leasing program, and
protect the Arctic Refuge and national parks from fossil fuel development.
- Ensure that lands and wildlife can adapt to climate
disruption by protecting large scale landscapes that connect wildlife habitat,
and ensure that every national forest addresses the impacts of climate
disruption and protects carbon-storing old growth forests as part of their
management plan.
“When our children and grandchildren look back at the
climate crisis, what will President Obama’s legacy be?” asked Brune.
“The American people recognize the impact of extreme weather on their
communities and the ever-greater threat climate disruption poses to their
children’s future. President Obama deserves credit for improving vehicle
efficiency standards, creating incentives for clean energy, and passing
historic clean air protections. We are, as a nation, slowly beginning to
succeed against climate disruption, and we must do everything we can to ensure
that President Obama and the federal agencies he leads roll up their sleeves
and increase the momentum. We cannot afford to lose a minute in this fight.
It’s time that we finally establish our American climate legacy.”
Visit www.sierraclub.org/climatelegacy to learn more
about the campaign.
### 
Connect with the Sierra Club:
|
|
Sierra Club
