Bakken shale oil has proven to be volatile, explosive, and toxic. There have been 7 accidents in the past 9 months, with the Philadelphia derailment being the only one not to result in a fireball and released volatile compounds like the carcinogenic Benzene into the air. In Lac Mégantic, Canada 47 people died and 15 acres of downtown burned. In Casselton, ND on December 30, 2013 everyone in 5 mile radius had to be evacuated. The only difference between the other 6 accidents and the one in Philadelphia was the use of a DOT-101 train. Had the faulty and inadequate DOT-111 trains been used, we would likely still be dealing with the aftereffects. The Department of Transportation has agreed to slow down the trains by 10 mph and look into track safety; however, more investigation is needed into the root cause of the derailments. We need to be clear whether the fault is with infrastructure or cargo before putting forth solutions. What would an accident look like for Philadelphia, where the train line runs right through the heart of the city, passing schools, hospitals, homes, parks, on a path adjacent to our vital water supply? The lives of Philadelphia's residents need to be put first. We had a near miss disaster during the early morning hours on MLK Day that could have shaken the nation. This complete disregard for the lives of Philadelphians needs to end, and the Bakken Shale oil and gas transport by rail needs to be stopped.

It's a proven fact that Fracking pollutes underground water supplies, Nevada's prime source of drinking water.

One in six West Virginians were affected by the Freedom Industry Chemical spill and Governor Tomblin has failed the citizens of West Virginia by cow towing to the extraction industries once again.

Peabody Energy developed the Prairie State Energy Campus as a way to burn some low-grade coal reserves in Illinois that it couldn't sell. But because Peabody got Midwestern cities to foot the bill, Columbia is now in debt for a strip mine, power plant, and coal ash landfill that are more than $2 billion over-budget, and we have to keep making payments no matter how poorly the plant runs. We want to continue to see more renewable energy powering our city; we don't want to see our electric rates and tax dollars funding a project that ties Columbia to dirty energy for decades.

To protect the integrity of our wild places, to conserve our forests and the creatures that call them home and to establish Virginia as an enviro-friendly, forward thinking leader of ecologically sound practices.

The recent State Department environmental impact statement for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline was widely interpreted as signaling a greater likelihood that the pipeline would be approved by the Obama administration later this year. The proposed pipeline would facilitate the mass extraction and use of oil from Canada's tar sands, harming the climate much more than the same amount of conventional oil. As development economist Jeffrey Sachs has noted [1], if we don’t keep some of the world's oil, gas, and coal reserves under the ground, we’re going to wreck the planet. The State Department’s environmental review didn’t even consider how helping to exploit Canada’s tar sands could fit inside a plan for limiting the extraction and use of fossil fuels to a level that doesn’t cause catastrophic climate change. [2] It just assumed that the Canadian tar sands are going to be fully exploited no matter what. We have a key strategic opportunity now to turn this around. Because it is widely assumed that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for President in 2016, if she comes out against approval of the Keystone XL pipeline now, it will galvanize opposition to the pipeline among Democrats, and make it much less likely that President Obama will approve it. Urge Hillary to join Jeff Sachs in lobbying President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline by signing our petition. References: 1. "Keystone: The Pipeline to Disaster," Jeffrey Sachs, Huffington Post, February 3, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/keystone-the-pipeline-to_b_4716229.html 2. "Kerry’s State Department Ignored Obama’s Climate Action Plan," Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International, February 17, 2014, http://priceofoil.org/2014/02/17/kerrys-state-department-ignored-obamas-climate-action-plan/

The coal ash spill along the Dan River is a tragedy that is still getting worse. Almost three weeks after the spill started, contaminated groundwater continues to leak into the river. This is yet another example of the problems with fossil fuels. Gov. McCrory should clean up all these toxic waste sites immediately, and move the state of North Carolina towards a clean energy future, using sources like wind and solar that don't pollute our environment.

Our middle school students want to reduce the number of throw away cups we use every day. Please use refillable bottles for water and a mug for coffee.

We need to preserve Florida's Environment and protect its natural resources and water supplies for future Floridians to enjoy.

The State Department has issued their final biased report on the Keystone XL pipeline, and now John Kerry has to make his final recommendation to President Obama. We need to use this time to come together and say once and for all: "NO to Keystone XL!"

Great news! Shell Oil announced it will NOT drill for oil in America's Arctic in 2014! The decision by Shell comes on the heels of a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stating that the Department of the Interior (DOI) violated the law when it sold offshore oil and gas leases in the Alaska's Chukchi Sea. The Alaskan Arctic is home polar bears, beluga whales, seals and other wildlife. Drilling puts these animals at risk -- endangered by potential oil spills and stores of carbon pollution that could dramatically alter our climate if released. Even though Shell won't be drilling this summer we know Shell won't walk away from its Arctic drilling plans in future years without more pressure! Tell President Obama to terminate all current drilling leases and urge him to cancel all future drilling lease sales in America's Arctic Ocean.

California is facing a future of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and sea level rise; all the while, big oil is planning a massive increase in fracking on the Monterey Shale formation and is also investing in rail terminals to ship in tar sands bitumen for refining. Not to mention, Southern California is the home to the worst air quality in the country which lends to negative human health effects including cancer, asthma, premature death and cardio-respiratory diseases. On March 1st, SoCal 350, over 100 regional partners, and almost 1,000 people helped launch the Great March for Climate Action in the Port of L.A. Hundreds continued the march eastward, eventually covering 3,000 miles to Washington D.C. to deliver the message that we need immediate legislative and executive action to solve the climate crisis. See http://www.wilderutopia.com/?p=8110 To demonstrate the political will for a healthy planet, we prioritize these urgent climate-change-focused requests of local, state and global level elected decision makers: - We demand that you, our representative, set a goal of a carbon-free economy based on clean, renewable energy, without fossil fuels in utility-provided energy and transportation, and set a date and timeline to accomplish it with minimum social disruption. - We demand that you, our representative, establish a more ambitious program for energy efficiency and conservation, reducing overall energy consumption by 20% by 2020, at the same time expanding our renewable energy portfolio to 40% by 2020. In addition, the LA Department of Water and Power should be required to achieve 1,200 MW of local solar power by 2020. - We demand that you, our representative, ensure the next scoping plan for California’s AB-32 [Global Warming Solutions Act] is strong, with attention toward environmental justice concerns, and that it fulfills the intentions of the legislation. - We demand that you, our representative, institute rising fees on all use of dirty fuels to offset the significant costs incurred to our health, our climate, and our ecosystems. - We demand that you, our representative, impose an immediate moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing, acidization, and gravel packing in oil and gas development, and the cessation of tar sands transportation and refining to protect public health, water supplies, air quality, agriculture, and private properties in California. - We demand that you, our representative, reject multinational trade agreements that weaken environmental and public interest protections. We must support trade that prioritizes equal protection for the poor, people of color, and indigenous communities.