This petition is to urge our local lawmakers to support twelve important bills required to regulate 'fracking' operations in Illinois. My interest stems from the fact that I live in Illinois, breathe the air, drink the water, and enjoy the natural beauty, pay taxes, and need protection from cleanup and liability if 'fracking' operations are inadequately regulated

Installing a low-flow toilet, riding your bike, and reusing grocery bags are worthwhile actions that save energy and inspire others to do the same. However, individual actions are not enough to have an effect on climate change. Yesterday the UN released the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. According to the report, greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 40-70% by 2050 to hold the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius. Cuts this large will require an international effort, but the US is the world's largest economy and we can and should be leaders on this issue. A carbon tax would be the quickest and most efficient way for the US to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon tax should be revenue-neutral, meaning that any revenue generated from the tax should be offset either by reductions in distortionary taxes (such as income tax) or government transfers.

This series provides stories of how climate disruption is already affecting people's lives. The science of it all is well-explained, verified. While Showtime is to be commended for airing the series, it really needs to be picked up by a network that more people are able to watch. An informed public is crucial to dealing with the crisis impacting our climate.

For years, activists and environmentalists have pushed to make GMO labeling the norm, letting Americans know about the genetically engineered crops and mutant products stocking their shelves. That dream came true when Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Peter DeFazio introduced the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act to require GMO labeling this April. But Rep. Mark Pompeo has other plans — including teaming up with Monsanto to drive food regulation back to the Dark Ages. Pompeo's bill has been nicknamed the DARK Act: Denying Americans the Right-to-Know. Backed by the "Big 6" chemical companies like Monsanto and Dow, Pompeo wants to block both states and the FDA from requiring GE labeling, allow "natural" foods to have genetically engineered ingredients, and label animal feeds non-GMO even if they're packed with them. Ninety-three percent of Americans want GMO foods labeled, and evidence is growing that the health and environmental risks of pesticide-coated fraken-crops are much more serious than the Big 6 told us.

Sunoco Pipeline LP petitioned PA PUC for public utility status, a move that would impact property owners and municipalities in the path of the Mariner East pipeline. As a public utility, Sunoco would have the power of eminent domain and would be exempt from local zoning requirements. A December 2013 PA Supreme Court ruling overruled Act 13’s evisceration of municipal zoning in gas operations and upheld our local government rights. We petition PA PUC to uphold the Pennsylvania Constitution and deny public utility status to the for profit entity, Sunoco.

Thanks to a state law passed in 2007, Colorado's for-profit utilities, like Xcel Energy, have eliminated energy waste equivalent to 210,000 households, reducing over a million tons of air pollution and saving millions of dollars. Now, however, Xcel wants to roll back their effective energy savings programs by a third, and they’re asking the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to let them do it. Stand up for Colorado energy efficiency: Tell the PUC to stop Xcel's energy savings rollback. Comments are due to the PUC by April 21st, so we need to act fast. And the PUC doesn't get a lot of public comments so trust me: your voice can make a difference. Sign the petition and we'll hand deliver it by the 21st.

I see mile-long Bakken oil trains⎯each carrying approximately 3 million gallons of volatile crude oil⎯roll through my small Skagit Valley community nearly every day. If all oil-by-rail permit requests are approved, many more potentially explosive oil trains will travel through Washington state every day. The dangers to the health and safety of our communities and our environment of transporting oil by rail, given the flammability of Bakken crude oil, the poor safety record of the tank cars currently carrying the oil, and the increased number of derailments as more trains transport oil, need to be studied and addressed before allowing more oil-by-rail trains to travel through Washington state.

We are drilling thousands of feet into the earth and injecting, on average, four and a half million gallons of pressurized sludge into cracks between subterranean rocks. Is it really surprising that this is leading to increased seismic activity?

The USDA is poised to approve the first genetically modified apple. If approved, these genetically engineered apples could end up everywhere from school lunches to grocery stores, posing risks to our health, our environment and apple farmers across the United States. Like other GMOs, it won’t be labeled and won’t have undergone independent safety testing -- regulators will rely on the company’s sole assessment that the apple is safe for human consumption. Worse yet, this GMO apple was genetically engineered via a new, virtually untested experimental technique called RNA interference, which many scientists are concerned may have negative, unintended impacts on human health and the environment. We need your help today, right now, to tell the USDA to say no to GMO apples.

The USDA is poised to approve the first genetically modified apple. If approved, these genetically engineered apples could end up everywhere from school lunches to grocery stores, posing risks to our health, our environment and apple farmers across the United States. Like other GMOs, it won’t be labeled and won’t have undergone independent safety testing -- regulators will rely on the company’s sole assessment that the apple is safe for human consumption. Worse yet, this GMO apple was genetically engineered via a new, virtually untested experimental technique called RNA interference, which many scientists are concerned may have negative, unintended impacts on human health and the environment. We need your help today, right now, to tell the USDA to say no to GMO apples.

The USDA is poised to approve the first genetically modified apple. If approved, these genetically engineered apples could end up everywhere from school lunches to grocery stores, posing risks to our health, our environment and apple farmers across the United States. Like other GMOs, it won’t be labeled and won’t have undergone independent safety testing -- regulators will rely on the company’s sole assessment that the apple is safe for human consumption. Worse yet, this GMO apple was genetically engineered via a new, virtually untested experimental technique called RNA interference, which many scientists are concerned may have negative, unintended impacts on human health and the environment. We need your help today, right now, to tell the USDA to say no to GMO apples.

Last summer, the levee board responsible for protecting metro New Orleans filed suit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies for their part in destroying Louisiana's coast. Instead of filling thousands of miles of abandoned access canals within 90 days after they stopped using them – as their permits required – and restoring land they damaged – as the law required – the industry simply left, allowing the channels to swell and engulf the sliced, fragile vegetation of our millennia-old marsh and wetlands. The destruction of this natural buffer against hurricane storm surge endangers all residents and property of south Louisiana. Our survival is literally at stake. In one lifetime, our coast has lost nearly 2000 square miles of land, an area the size of Delaware. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was a symptom of that loss, and we continue to lose land at the rate of one football field every 45 minutes. Legislation backed by Governor Jindal and Big Oil to retroactively declare the levee authority’s lawsuit null and void is moving quickly through both chambers of the state legislature. If adopted, the oil and gas industry – the most profitable in world history – will enjoy virtual legal immunity in Louisiana. It will be above the law, and it will leave the taxpayers in one of America’s poorest states with the impossible task of raising the $50 billion minimum required to rebuild our coast.