Obama Says "Drill Baby Drill?!?!" and that's a good thing?

Just because you read it in the paper doesn’t mean it’s true.  I’m tired of the papers pretending to represent the views of all Virginians when, in fact, they’re filled with global warming skepticism and a drill-baby-drill mentality. That is why I’m happy to introduce CCAN’s newest feature, “Virginia Climate Clips,” bringing you recent climate news compiled from papers all across Virginia. I’m contacting concerned climate activists weekly to get our voices heard! There’s a big hole in the news right now. Every day I read about how how climate change isn’t real, wind farms are the next Armageddon and, if you picked up today’s paper, EVEN President Obama’s misguided decision to open up our shores to offshore drilling sounds like a good idea
 
These papers aren’t reporting the whole story and it’s time to get our voices heard.  I will send out “Climate Clips” every Thursday, which will include tips, a sample letter, and articles to respond to.  Hopefully these stories will inspire you to submit a letter to the editor reacting to any of the articles I’ve pasted in these emails. 

Feel free to circulate this far and wide.

If you are interested in not getting these emails please just reply and I will remove you from this hand selected list of Climate Activists.  If you are receiving this as a forward and would like to subscribe please email Lauren@chesapeakeclimate.org with Climate Clips in the subject.

PS- If you want an extra set of eyes to look over your letter please don’t hesitate to call me (804) 335-0915  or send it my way.  Also if you could forward me any letters you do submit so I can keep track that would be great!

CLIMATE CLIPS: Issue 1: April 1, 2010
1. Tips on Submitting Letters
2. Sample Letter
3. This week’s “Climate Clips”

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Truth Squad: Offshore Wind, Not Drilling

There was good news and very bad news from Capitol Hill yesterday. On the one hand House lawmakers finally voted to renew tax credits that are vital to the growth of our renewable energy industry. On the other hand they handed big oil a big victory by voting to overturn a 30 year ban on offshore drilling. As you all know such drilling would have no effect on gas prices, threaten our nation’s shorelines, prolong our addiction to oil, and worsen the climate crisis.

But, thankfully, the fight against offshore drilling isn’t over. The Senate has yet to vote on the issue, which leaves us with time to shed some light on this murky federal energy debate with some illuminating LTEs. Over the next few days while the topic is still hot, let’s shoot of some letters to the editor reminding our senators that oil and renewable just don’t mix, and that we shouldn’t hold the clean energy economy hostage to the dirty agenda of big oil.

Read more about this legislation on grist: “Where there’s a drill, there’s a way.”
Talking Points:
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Would Orville Wright Drill Offshore?

See below for an Op-Ed published today in the Baltimore Sun by CCAN Director Mike Tidwell. Enjoy.

Let’s make history again

By Mike Tidwell
July 23, 2008
Baltimore Sun

I recently stood on the windy coast of North Carolina where Orville and Wilbur Wright made their maiden flight in 1903. That motorized glider, constructed with bicycle parts, lifted off and flew nearly 900 feet in 59 seconds. Americans, astonishingly, were walking on the moon 66 years later.

The miracle of U.S. air and space travel, achieved in an eye blink, is something we should keep in mind as we once again turn to our coastlines for answers. The same windy Atlantic shore that gave rise to human flight now offers a new fork in the road with two profoundly different technological and moral visions awaiting our national decision.

One vision involves turning thousands of miles of our shoreline – on both coasts – into new havens for oil drilling. Never mind rapid global warming. Never mind our reckless addiction to oil. Never mind federal government data showing it would do little for gas prices. The new drumbeat, even among many Democrats, is, “We gotta get more – offshore, onshore, wherever.”

That’s certainly one vision for our coastlines for the 21st century.

Thankfully, there’s another, entirely different, vision out there. It embraces the pioneering spirit of the Wright brothers. It promises positive, transformative, sky’s-the-limit change. It’s a vision that says: Let’s build along our coastlines, but instead of oil platforms, let’s put up wind farms. And let’s tap the power of ocean waves and ocean tides for energy, rather than climate-wrecking crude oil. In the process, let’s make history so that schoolchildren remember 2008 they way they now remember 1903. Continue reading