To: President Donald Trump
POWER THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WITH CLEAN/RENEWABLE ENERGY WITHIN 5 TO 10 YEARS
We respectfully state: There is no way to justify allowing the United States of America to be pushed short-sightedly and extremely-dangerously -- by corporate, business, and investment-banking interests -- into further financing and development of any of the following: oil-transport pipelines (including but not limited to the Keystone-XL Pipeline), nuclear power plants (we cannot properly dispose of the nuclear waste from our power plants now), or hydraulic-fracking of shale-gas desposits. Overwhelming evidence confirms the grievous dangers to the American public from ongoing, rapidly accelerating pursuit of these "enterprises." Selecting ONE SIGNIFICANT REFERENCE RESOURCE FROM MULTITUDES, we refer you to the work of a Nobel Laureate, Dr. Helen Caldicott. (See her video: "What We Learned from Fukushima," including her discussion of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Cape Cod, U.S.A. [at 23:53 minutes on the video track]. The video is widely available on the internet.)
DO THE RIGHT THING: Do not heed multi-million-dollar public relations campaigns promulgated by corporations and investment-banking interests. It is impossible to convince a generation of savvy Americans who watched men walk on the Moon, astronauts live in an international space station and a remotely-controlled land-rover scuttle across the surface of Mars -- THAT SOLAR-ENERGY-BATTERY STORAGE CANNOT BE CONQUERED FOR ANOTHER 50 YEARS. It is impossible to convince all the citizens of the U.S. who have seen video/film images of HOMEOWNERS' KITCHEN TAPWATER IGNITING INTO SHEETS OF FLAME -- after FRACKING ensued on or close to their personal property -- that fracking is benign. FRACKING IS CLEARLY NOT BENIGN. A SIMPLE BOOK-MATCH SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SET ONE'S KITCHEN-SINK TAPWATER ON FIRE IF THAT WATER IS SAFE TO DRINK. Furthermore, the oil/gas industries do a TERRIBLE JOB OF REGULATING THEMSELVES and in NO CIRCUMSTANCES should their self-regulation or monitoring of pipeline or fracking projects be deemed adequate. And finally, with federal and local-government budgets cut to the bone, it is IMPOSSIBLE for government to adequately monitor all the sites of oil-pipeline construction and fracking across the United States. Any argument to the contrary is specious and is also "self-serving" for the oil/gas industry, as research will easily 'bear out.'
WE KNOW a clean-energy transition in the U.S. is possible within 10 years. We need ONLY LOOK BACK AT THE MANHATTAN PROJECT AND THE CITY OF OAKRIDGE, TENNESSEE to confirm that: When the government, financial, manufacturing and military sectors of the United States emergently commit to creation of a technology, no expense is spared and no needed resource unprocured (no matter how difficult to obtain).
Develop, synergize and incorporate all forms of clean-energy technologies into a "smart-grid." Design a plan. Fund the plan. Provide all needed human and material resources (including academic and research support). Bring the blueprint to material fruition and implement it.
As we live in a state of global environmental emergency with extreme weather, extreme drought and increasing food shortages; as we watch our fellow Americans (Pennsylvania/Colorado) develop neuropathies/brain tumors from fracking-polluted-waste-water, and their livestock and pets sicken, wasting and becoming bald; as we watch our friends, the Indigenous Peoples on our continent, suffer extreme degradation of their food and water systems from tar-sands mining:
IN 2013, WE URGENTLY AND EMERGENTLY NEED A NATIONAL PROJECT FOR CLEAN-ENERGY IMPLEMENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES -- "MANHATTAN-2 FOR CLEAN ENERGY."
We call on you to act appropriately and to spend our tax money properly -- to safeguard our wellbeing. At the same time you will save the U.S. economy and begin an entirely new era of American enterprise; AND, the U.S. will unequivocally regain its status of world leadership BY DOING THE RIGHT THING.
DO THE RIGHT THING: Do not heed multi-million-dollar public relations campaigns promulgated by corporations and investment-banking interests. It is impossible to convince a generation of savvy Americans who watched men walk on the Moon, astronauts live in an international space station and a remotely-controlled land-rover scuttle across the surface of Mars -- THAT SOLAR-ENERGY-BATTERY STORAGE CANNOT BE CONQUERED FOR ANOTHER 50 YEARS. It is impossible to convince all the citizens of the U.S. who have seen video/film images of HOMEOWNERS' KITCHEN TAPWATER IGNITING INTO SHEETS OF FLAME -- after FRACKING ensued on or close to their personal property -- that fracking is benign. FRACKING IS CLEARLY NOT BENIGN. A SIMPLE BOOK-MATCH SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SET ONE'S KITCHEN-SINK TAPWATER ON FIRE IF THAT WATER IS SAFE TO DRINK. Furthermore, the oil/gas industries do a TERRIBLE JOB OF REGULATING THEMSELVES and in NO CIRCUMSTANCES should their self-regulation or monitoring of pipeline or fracking projects be deemed adequate. And finally, with federal and local-government budgets cut to the bone, it is IMPOSSIBLE for government to adequately monitor all the sites of oil-pipeline construction and fracking across the United States. Any argument to the contrary is specious and is also "self-serving" for the oil/gas industry, as research will easily 'bear out.'
WE KNOW a clean-energy transition in the U.S. is possible within 10 years. We need ONLY LOOK BACK AT THE MANHATTAN PROJECT AND THE CITY OF OAKRIDGE, TENNESSEE to confirm that: When the government, financial, manufacturing and military sectors of the United States emergently commit to creation of a technology, no expense is spared and no needed resource unprocured (no matter how difficult to obtain).
Develop, synergize and incorporate all forms of clean-energy technologies into a "smart-grid." Design a plan. Fund the plan. Provide all needed human and material resources (including academic and research support). Bring the blueprint to material fruition and implement it.
As we live in a state of global environmental emergency with extreme weather, extreme drought and increasing food shortages; as we watch our fellow Americans (Pennsylvania/Colorado) develop neuropathies/brain tumors from fracking-polluted-waste-water, and their livestock and pets sicken, wasting and becoming bald; as we watch our friends, the Indigenous Peoples on our continent, suffer extreme degradation of their food and water systems from tar-sands mining:
IN 2013, WE URGENTLY AND EMERGENTLY NEED A NATIONAL PROJECT FOR CLEAN-ENERGY IMPLEMENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES -- "MANHATTAN-2 FOR CLEAN ENERGY."
We call on you to act appropriately and to spend our tax money properly -- to safeguard our wellbeing. At the same time you will save the U.S. economy and begin an entirely new era of American enterprise; AND, the U.S. will unequivocally regain its status of world leadership BY DOING THE RIGHT THING.
Why is this important?
Citizens of the United States are at serious risk of widespread contamination of their drinking-water aquifers and water wells from fracking and the leaking of oil-pipelines. Our environmental situation is so precarious, I find it difficult to think about anything else!