LandRightsNFarming: Fwd: The State of Our Union's Energy Future

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Brune, Sierra Club <membership.services@sierraclub.org>
Date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:13 PM
Subject: The State of Our Union's Energy Future
To: landrightsnfarming.seamom89@gmail.com

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Dear Melissa,

Lose the Bad and the Ugly.

Tell Congress to Improve the State of the Union, and Invest in Clean, Renewable Energy.

Last night's State of the Union address and Republican responses brought us the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good: President Obama doubled down on clean energy like wind and solar -- and on creating incentives for clean energy growth and job creation. We've got our bets on those horses too.

"I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here. We've subsidized oil companies for a century. That's long enough."

The Bad: During Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels' Republican response, he did not see eye-to-eye with us on the Keystone XL pipeline. Perhaps he hasn't seen the oil and gas industry's track record on spills from tar sands pipelines and the impacts on water and public health. Despite the Governor's bad feelings, the Obama Administration has already done the right thing and nixed the wrong-headed project. It was a big victory thanks to activists like you.

The Ugly: Speaking of Keystone XL, guess who Speaker of the House John Boehner invited to be his special guests at the State of the Union? The oil executives who would profit from the pipeline¹!

An investigation by Media Matters² found, in addition to taking large contributions from oil companies with states in the pipeline, House Speaker Boehner has hundreds of thousands in personal financial investment in companies that would benefit directly from the building of the pipeline.

We agree with the President -- there is no good reason for continuing century-old tax cuts to wealthy oil companies while stalling a clean energy standard that would create a market for innovation and American jobs. It's out with the bad and ugly and in with the good. Tell Congress that we are going to keep pushing for big victories this year, and they should get on board.

Join us in using the words of the President's State of the Union to inspire real action in Congress. Will you tell Congress it is time to invest in a clean energy future?

Thanks for all that you do,

Michael Brune
Executive Director
Sierra Club

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