SOTU: Sierra Club Joins Obama's Call to Rescue, Restore, Rebuild w/

[Kolesar]

Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:14 (CST)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 27, 2010
CONTACT: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384 (w), 202.679.7570 (m)

State of the Union:
President Obama Caps Off Year of Achievements with
Renewed Call for Congressional Action on Energy, Climate

Washington, D.C.--During his first State of the Union address to the
Congress, President Obama tonight renewed his call for Congressional
action on comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation in
order to rescue, restore, and rebuild the American economy and the
middle class.

"And yes, it means passing a comprehensive
energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean
energy the profitable kind of energy in America.

"I am grateful to the House for passing such a bill last year. This
year, I am eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate. I
know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in
a tough economy; and I know that there are those who disagree with the
overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But even if
you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and
clean energy are the right thing to do for our future; because
the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that
leads the global economy. And America must be that nation."

-President Barack Obama, State of the Union address, 1/27/10

The Sierra Club offered the following comments in response to the
president's remarks.

Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director

"Over the past year President Obama has made the state of our union
much stronger, even in face of a raft of inherited problems and other
unforeseen calamities. The president is working very hard to
rescue, restore, and rebuild the American economy and the middle
class--but he can't do it alone. While his administration has
done more on clean energy and climate change than any other in
history, much hangs in the balance until Congress acts. We join
the president in making a renewed and urgent call for Congress to
finalize bipartisan, comprehensive energy reform legislation this
year.

"All eyes remain tightly focused on the United States Senate.
With millions of Americans still out of work, it's time for the Senate
to get serious about passing bipartisan, comprehensive clean energy
and climate legislation. In addition to slashing our dangerous
dependence on oil and creating millions of new jobs, clean energy
legislation will restore American industry, rebuild
the middle class, and rescue our economy by putting it back
on a path to long-term, sustained prosperity.

"In the year ahead, Congress faces a stark choice: build a clean
energy economy that puts America back to work and makes us more
secure, or bail out Big Oil and other polluters and maintain a dirty
energy status quo that we can quite literally no longer afford.

"Just this week, Brazil, India, China, South Africa and other
countries reconfirmed the commitments they made last month in
Copenhagen. These commitments were made as a direct result of
President Obama's personal leadership and Congress now needs to do its
part to show that America is ready to lead. Unless Congress acts
soon, we risk falling further behind in the ongoing global race to
build the clean energy industries that will fuel the world's economies
in the 21st century.

"We thank the president for his personal leadership on these vital
issues. We will redouble our own efforts in the year ahead to
help build a prosperous and more secure America fueled by homegrown
clean energy."

Major Energy & Environment Accomplishments of President
Obama's First Year

* American Recovery & Reinvestment Act's approximately $90
billion in green spending to get our economy back on track and
create millions of new clean energy jobs.
* The President's FY 2009 Budget plan that made clean energy and
closing the carbon loophole a top priority, while also fully
funding energy and environmental programs across the federal
government.
* Declaring carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases a threat to
public health and welfare and finally beginning the process of
regulating the carbon pollution that causes global warming
* Appointing an energy and environment team composed of the best
and brightest minds available, including Carol Browner (White
House), Nancy Sutley (CEQ), Lisa Jackson (EPA), Steven Chu
(Energy), Ken Salazar (Interior), Hilda Solis (Labor), Tom
Vilsack (Agriculture) and many other overwhelmingly qualified
candidates.
* Granting the California clean cars waiver and outlining plans
for a strong, economically and environmentally sustainable
domestic auto industry, including unprecedented investments in
advanced automotive technology and electric vehicles
* Prioritizing mass transit and investing billions in high-speed
rail projects across the country to help cut oil dependence
* Protecting over 2 million acres of wilderness, rivers, and parks
* Canceling the Bush administration's last minute sale of oil and
gas leases on important public lands near national parks
* Cleaning up a corrupt and scandal-plagued Department of Interior
* Scrapping the Bush administration's disastrous and destructive
oil shale plans
* Affirming that science and the rule of law will once again lead
* Putting the U.S. back at the center of international climate
negotiations, with President Obama personally negotiating the
Copenhagen Accord
* Putting the disastrous Bush administration offshore drilling
plan on hold
* Enhancing the role of EPA in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and
holding states who fail to do their part accountable
* Devoting considerable resources to a more concerted effort to
restore the Great Lakes
* Making environmental justice and a more inclusive environmental
movement top priorities at EPA
* Abandoning the Bush administration’s misguided mercury
rule in favor of strict standards that will significantly reduce
this toxic poison at power plants nationwide
* Making renewable energy priority number one at the Department of
the Interior
* Halted the Bush administration's last-minute assault on the
Endangered Species Act
* Instituting major, common-sense reforms that will bring balance
to the Bureau of Land Management’s onshore oil and gas
leasing program
* Introducing a science-based standard for smog-forming Ozone and
other air pollutants that will protect the public’s
health and welfare
* Making clean energy the cornerstone of the
administration’s ongoing job creation and economic
recovery efforts
* Directing cooperation between agencies for optimal siting of
clean energy projects
* Putting a hold on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon
* Establishing a new office dedicated to getting kids outside, the
Office of Youth in Natural Resources
* Declaring that the National Environmental Policy Act requires
federal agencies to consider climate change impacts when
conducting environmental reviews
* Providing more than $150 million in grants to help train lower
income workers for clean energy jobs
* Proposing the first-ever one-hour standard for NOx, which will
protect children, the sick, and the elderly--particularly those
that live, work, or play near highways--from short-term spikes
in this dangerous pollutant
* Launched a "21st century conservation dialogue" to convince
Americans of the need to preserve open space and to expand land
conservation to a grander scale

For more on the Obama administration's first year in office, see
recent blog posts by Carl Pope at www.sierraclub.org/CarlPope.