The "Take Action" page has been updated (8/29)! Find out about a FREE forum on the environment and the November Election! Click here to go to the 'take action' page!
Dear Candidates for the Connecticut General Assembly, Sierra members, and the voting public
Here is the CT Sierra Club questionnaire for State office. The questionnaire on the left is in Word format so candidates can click on it to download, fill out, and email back to us (email address is in the document).
If you would like to browse the questionnaire to see what the CT Sierra Club has in focus for the next legislative session, please click on the questionnaire on the right to download a PDF version.
The third document (on the right) is the Sierra Club legislative report for the 2008 session. Click on this PDF if
you wish to see what happened on the environmental front during the last legislative session.
Shoreline Group (formerly the New
Haven Group)
Wednesday, September 17 - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Learn Energy Saving Tips! The Shoreline Group of the Sierra Club will hold its monthly meeting on Wednesday, September 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the First Congregational Church on the green in Branford.
Join us for an energy audit training! Learn how to button up the home and save energy!
Jon Gorham,Chairman of the Town of Woodbridge, CT’s Clean Energy Task Force, has over 30 years experience in the environmental and energy industries. Materials will be distributed about home energy savings.
NegaWatts not MegaWatts
The most cost-effective energy investment is in conservation. Jon Gorham will speak abouthowhomeowners can save energy and money by doing 20 simple conservation actions. Homeowners can get a 100 times return on their investments (100x ROI) and the environment is better off. Gorham will talkabout energy savings in the residential, industrial and transportation sectors. Gorham is a co-founder of a cellulosic ethanol company that makes clean fuel from non-food industrial wastes. See: www.sunethanol.com. He has been working in the energy conservation and renewable energy fields for over thirty years.
Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Jennifer at (860) 349-1059.
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This expansion of drilling areas off our coasts is getting out of hand. If you are checking this page for oil information it may be you are already in the "choir" and are looking for facts. If not the "choir" I hope you find new information that will help you go beyond the 8 second sound bite.
OIL BY THE NUMBERS
The major reasons (there are many) for gas/oil prices to climb as they have been are: (in no particular order)
- Supply and demand (more details below)
- Speculators (the credit crisis, the mortgage crisis, the stock market; all these point to investments elsewhere and the energy sector is a good place. A few years ago speculators were allowed to bid on oil contracts even though they have no intention of taking delivery of the oil and making petroleum products.)
- Drop in the US dollar (the value of the US dollar against the Yen, Canadian Dollar, and the Euro has gone down over the last year)
- Price of oil is controlled on the world market and not the oil companies nor the US.
At Present: (this energy crisis has been forming for over 100 years, especially the last 30)
86,900,000 = barrels of oil the world uses every day (source: OPEC 7/10/08)
113,000,000 = barrels of oil the world will use every day by 2030 (OPEC 7/10/08)
1,500,000 = increase in barrels of oil demand worldwide every day (IEA, World Watch, OPEC)
1,059,400,000,000 = Known oil reserves of the top 15 oil rich countries * (at current rates of consumption this equals less than 28 years)
(* = There was a “bump” of 300 million barrels in some OPEC country reports in 1987 with no new oil fields discovered so it’s difficult to say if there is even this much left.)
American oil imports: 1970 24% 1990 42% 2008 70%
(We receive foreign oil from 15 different countries. The percentages vary over time but the basics are the same.)
Cost: $700,000,000,000 (billion per year)
750 out of 1000 Americans own a car
44 out of 1000 Chinese own a car**
7 out of 1000 Indians own a car (11 out of 1000 by 2010) (BBC)
** 80,000,000 = number of cars added to the Chinese driving public in the next generation
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that the amount of oil that might be available in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would reduce the cost of gas by a few pennies per gallon in 2027.
Estimates of how much oil might be available offshore vary, but one thing is sure: offshore oil exploration is slow and costly. The EIA estimated last year that opening the coasts to offshore drilling would have no significant impact on oil prices before 2030.
Oil companies already have access to roughly 6,000 offshore drilling leases they aren't even currently using.
Solutions (here are but a few)
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A “Revolution between the ears.” We must change the way we think of our place in nature. A culture that depends on consuming the planet is not sustainable.
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Sustainability must be available for everyone. If 2% of the world’s population is living sustainably, it’s not sustainable.
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A MAJOR shift in spending priorities in our national budget. Currently, between 47 and 51% of our national budget goes to the military…not including wars. (top 3 expenditures: Healthcare, military, interest on the national debt which stands at 9.4 TRILLION)
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MAJOR change in campaign financing. If the money continues to flow as it does, under the guise of ‘free speech,’ it will be very difficult if not impossible to make the necessary changes until it’s too late.
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A new generation of cars getting 50-100 mpg, with electricity coming from renewable sources, and liquid fuels from sustainable, cellulosic biofuels from native prairies, grown in places where they don't need fertilizer and pesticides.
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High performance, carbon neutral new homes and offices, and aggressive retrofitting plans for existing structures
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Low carbon electricity sources like solar, wind, geothermal
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Smart growth communities where we get much of our transportation energy from our legs and don't need to travel so far to work or play
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We do think it is important to break the monopoly of the oil industry at the service station and to offer drivers freedom of choice -- it shouldn't just be gasoline, the oil industry ought to have to provide distribution support for compressed natural gas and biofuels as well. Without choice, oil has everyone by the neck.
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Instead of $30 billion in subsidies for big oil this year, we could help poor and middle-class Americans with a rebate to help cover the cost of gasoline. What Americans need is help, not having their coastlines and wilderness ripped off while they go bankrupt.
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The transportation sector contributes about a third of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. However, buildings contribute to nearly half (43%) of all U.S. carbon emissions. Improving their energy efficiency lowers energy bills, eliminates the need for new power plants, increases our energy independence, reduces air and water pollution and cuts the carbon emissions that cause global warming.
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Even small efficiency improvements add up. For example, if every household in the United States switched to Energy Star light fixtures, we could prevent 50 million tons of global warming pollution per year, the equivalent of taking 10 million cars off the road.
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California’s aggressive efforts to improve the efficiency of things like air conditioners and refrigerators have helped hold its electric demand steady for three decades. By contrast, electricity consumption has grown by 50 percent for the U.S. as a whole in that same time period.
Please call and/or email your Congressional Representative NOW! The phone numbers to the local district and DC offices are below. Contact them through email (preferred by them because it gets into the system faster) can be done through their websites listed here.
TELL THEM TO KEEP THE MORATORIUM ON OFFSHORE DRILLING!!
