Letter to Sen. Reid No Dirty Energy in a Clean Energy Standard

Mar 1, 2011

February 24, 2011

Dear Majority Leader Reid, On behalf of our members and activists we urge the Senate not to take up a so-called “clean energy standard” such as that proposed in the President’s State of the Union Address that includes dirty technologies such as nuclear reactors, coal, natural gas and biomass.

A standard that includes nuclear reactors, coal, natural gas or biomass is really a “dirty energy standard” and will jeopardize our ability to achieve the long term greenhouse gas emissions needed to avoid the worst effects on our climate and our terrestrial and marine sources of food. Since toxic power facilities are disproportionately located in low income communities and communities of color, legislation that mandates or incentivizes dirty energy will exacerbate health problems in these communities across the United States. A dirty energy standard will destroy our environment, imperil public health and exacerbate our climate crisis. Some of the dirty energy sources that have no place in any “clean energy standard” include: Nuclear Reactors: Nuclear energy is not clean and it is not a viable solution to climate change. Nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel cycle facilities emit toxic radiation into our air and water on a routine basis at every stage of the process. By poisoning our air and water, nuclear energy endangers public health and the lives and wellbeing of future generations. After more than 60 years of searching we still have not found a viable solution for dealing with radioactive nuclear waste and most of it is sitting in pools at reactor sites across the country. Any long term disposition will require high level radioactive waste to be shipped across the country, creating immense risk of accidents and incidents all the while moving and not “solving” the waste problem. Despite billions in government subsidies at every stage of the fuel cycle, nuclear reactors remain too expensive to compete with cheaper and cleaner renewable alternatives on the open market, and thus new reactors remain dependent on government financing for any chance of completion. Taken together with the safety and proliferation risks implicit to nuclear power, nuclear reactors are clearly a failed technology of the past and not the clean, renewable energy source we need in the future.

Coal: Despite the claims of the coal industry, there is no such thing as “clean coal.” Mining coal poisons local communities’ air, pollutes local water ways, and destroys natural ecosystems. Over 2,000 miles of streams and headwaters that provide drinking water for millions of Americans have been permanently buried and destroyed by mountain top removal to get coal. Burning coal for electricity produces over 1/3 of the greenhouse gas pollution in the United States and releases harmful toxic pollution into our air and water. The over 50 toxic air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, that result from burning coal are primary causes of health impacts including lung disease, cancer and asthma. The second largest waste stream in the United States is coal ash, a dangerous byproduct of burning coal that is currently polluting over 600 sites across the country. Currently we produce 131 million additional tons of coal ash each year. Expensive technologies that are supposed to capture and sequester global warming emissions from coal are unproven and they cannot guarantee that these gases actually stay in the ground over the long term. Even if capture and sequester of carbon is successful it will do nothing to reduce the other environmental and public health impacts that result from mining and burning coal or the waste that results.

Natural Gas: Natural gas may burn “cleaner” than coal on the short term, but it is still a significant source of global warming emissions that also releases harmful air pollutants. Natural gas should not be supported with government mandates. In the long term, just like coal, natural gas is unsustainable and damaging to the climate and the environment. Burning natural gas results in the release of harmful air pollutants including particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide. Extracting natural gas can be extremely damaging to the environment and local communities, particularly when methods such as hydraulic fracturing are used. Hydraulic fracturing requires vast quantities of water, releases dangerous chemicals into the soil as part the process and can lead to water contamination and pollution. Additionally, wells that are hydraulically fractured are exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, putting millions of people’s drinking water at risk. Meeting our energy needs with natural gas in the long term will require increasingly harmful extraction processes, as it has with oil exploration, and inevitably it will require the importation of foreign sourced gas—which will require consumption of fossil fuels for transport and will keep the United States at risk of foreign pressure and manipulation for its energy needs. Finally, natural gas is a mature technology that is able to compete on its own and should not be supported with a government mandate.

Biomass: Combusting materials to make electricity is inherently polluting, and burning biomass is no exception. Burning biomass (including wood, grasses, garbage, manure, and other materials) for electricity causes significant air pollution, including particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, and lead. Emissions of some of these pollutants from biomass can be even higher than from coal combustion and are harmful to local populations because they can cause respiratory impairment, cancer and other health impacts. Science shows that burning biomass can emit almost 1.5 times as much global warming pollution per unit of energy as coal. Converting land from natural forests to monoculture tree plantations for bioenergy production greatly reduces the carbon sequestering capacity found in natural and undisturbed forests. Additional global warming pollution is associated with the harvest and transport of biomass. In spite of these concerns, EPA has recently agreed to exempt all biomass facilities from regulation for greenhouse gas emissions pending a three year study of the global warming impacts of burning biomass. Energy mandates and incentives that include biomass and do not include protections for natural ecosystems from biomass harvesting could result in widespread forest destruction and soil degradation. Clean energy does not come out of a smokestack: biomass burning for electricity is dirty energy.

We urge you not to bring any legislation that includes a dirty energy standard to the floor. Dirty and dangerous technologies such as nuclear reactors, coal, natural gas or biomass should not be supported with a government mandate.

Sincerely,

Alabama Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Citizens Task Force Wild South Alaska Pacific Environment

Arizona Black Mesa Water Coalition Bean Tree Farm Don’t Waste Arizona GE Stockholders Alliance SafeEnergyAnalyst.org

Arkansas Arkansans for Gas Drilling Accountability Citizens Against Resource Exploitation (CARE)Dogwood Alliance

California Battle Creek Alliance Californians for Western Wilderness Chico Peace & Justice Center Citizens Coalition for a Safe Community Environmental Defense Center Environmental Priorities Network Free Soil Party Klamath Forest Alliance Local Clean Energy Alliance No LNG Community Alliance Occidental Arts and Ecology Center Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment Pacific Environment Redwood Alliance San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace Sequoia ForestKeeper Stewards of the Earth Sustainable Economic Solutions Terra Foundation Toiyabe Chapter, Sierra Club Turtle Island Restoration Network Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs)

Colorado Animas Valley Institute Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste, Inc. The Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War Green Peace Corps Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center Wilderness Workshop

Connecticut Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone People’s Action for Clean Energy, Inc. (PACE)

Delaware Green Delaware

Florida Citizens for Sanility.Com, Inc. Conroy Services Ecology Party of Florida Environmental Alliance of North Florida Gainesville Citizens CARE - for Clean, Affordable, Renewable Energy (Stop GREC Campaign) Green Party of Florida Florida Health Freedom Coalition The Florida League of Conservation Voters (FLCV) Floridians Against Incinerators In Disguise Pax Christi Northeast Florida

Georgia Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) Foundation for Global Community Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions Pebblebrook High School's National Honors Society Pebblebrook High School's Earth Tomorrow Club Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP Wild South Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy

Idaho Citizens Protecting Resources Snake River Alliance Illinois Little Village Environmental Justice Organization No New Nukes Nuclear Energy Information Service Peoria families Against Toxic Waste Stand Up/Save Lives Campaign Indiana Independent Environmental Conservation & Activism Network Valley Watch, Inc.

Iowa Earth Care, Inc.

Kansas Physicians for Social Responsibility Greater Kansas Chapter

Kentucky Kentucky Heartwood Kentucky Resources Council, Inc.

Maine Cheaper, Safer Power Midcoast Health Research Group RESTORE: The North Woods

Massachusetts Arise for Social Justice Bennington Berkshire Citizens Coalition Biomass Accountability Project C-10 Research & Education Foundation Concerned Citizens of Franklin County Concerned Citizens of Russell Concord Climate Action Network (ConcordCAN) Lexington Global Warming Action Coalition Massachusetts Environmental Energy Alliance Massachusetts Forest Watch Nuclear Free Future Coalition of Western Massachusetts Stop Spewing Carbon Campaign

Maryland Chesapeake Climate Action Network Maryland Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Michigan Citizens Resistance at Fermi Two Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lake Don't Waste Michigan International Science Oversight Board North Country Greens, Green Party of Marquette

Minnesota Save Lake Superior Association Mankato Area Environmentalists (MAE) Minnesota Peace Group Neighbors Against the Burner North American Water Office St. Paul Green Party West Metro Global Warming Action Group

Missouri Columbia Climate Change Coalition Concerned Citizens of Perryville Missouri Coalition for the Environment Missourians for Safe Energy Ozark Riverkeepers Network

Montana Friends of the Wild Swan Swan View Coalition WildWest Institute

Nebraska Western Nebraska Resources Council

New Jersey Cosine, Inc. Damascus Citizens for Sustainability Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety Wit’s End United for Action

New Mexico Agua es Vida Action Team (AVAT) Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety Drilling Mora County Loretto Community Los Alamos Study Group Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment New Mexico Environmental Law Center Nuclear Watch New Mexico Partnerships for Earth Spirituality St. Joseph Church in Laguna

New York American Environmental Health Studies Project Citizens' Environmental Coalition City Solar Consumers Health Freedom Coalition Delaware Action Group (DAG) New York Climate Action Group New Yorkers for Sustainable Energy Solutions Statewide Nuclear Age Peace Foundation NYH2O Pax Christi Metro New York Peace Action of Central New York Physicians For Life Stony Creek Farm United for Action

Nevada Nevada Desert Experience Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force Toiyabe Chapter, Sierra Club

North Carolina Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Citizen's Alliance for a Clean Healthy Economy Dogwood Alliance The Forest Foundation Green Press Initiative Long Branch Environmental Education Center North Carolina Research Group North Carolina Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (NC WARN) Physicians for Global Survival Sustain Charlotte Wild South

Ohio Buckeye Forest Council The Concerned Citizens Network Earth Day Coalition Footprints for Peace Ohio Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment (CARE)

Oklahoma Carrie Dickerson Foundation Citizens Action for Safe Energy

Oregon Center for Energy Research Northwest Environmental Advocates Oregon Toxics Alliance Progressive Action Community Team (PACT)

Pennsylvania Citizen Power, Inc Concerned Citizens for SNEC (Saxton Nuclear Experimental Corporation) Safety Damascus Citizens for Sustainability Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Air and Water United for Action

Rhode Island Westerly Peak Oil Task Force

South Carolina Hilton Head for Peace South Carolina Chapter, Sierra Club Wild South

South Dakota The Clean Water Alliance South Dakota Democracy In Action

Tennessee Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Citizens to End Nuclear Dumping in Tennessee Cumberland Countians for Peace & Justice Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility, United Church of Christ Wild South

Texas Argyle-Bartonville Communities Alliance Citizen's for Environmental Clean-Up (CEC) Downwinders at Risk Energia Mia Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling FWCanDo, Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Operations Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary National Alliance for Drilling Reform The Peace Farm Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition Texas Campaign for the Environment Wise County Alliance for Responsible Drilling (WiseCARD)

Utah HEAL Utah Peaceful Uprising Uranium Watch Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment

Vermont Bennington Berkshire Citizens Coalition

Virginia Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Chesapeake Climate Action Network Dogwood Alliance Wild South

Washington Green Party of Seattle Green Party of Washington State Institute for Environmental Research and Education Olympic Environmental Council Olympic Forest Coalition PT (Port Townsend) AirWatchers S.H.A.W.L. Society (Sovereignty, Health, Air, Water, Land) Waste Action Project World Temperate Rainforest Network

Wisconsin Kickapoo Peace Circle Nukewatch Pipe Organs/Golden Ponds Farm Saving Our Air Resource Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

Wyoming Biodiversity Conservation Alliance

National 350.org Beyond Nuclear Center for Biological Diversity Center for Health, Environment & Justice, National Center for Food Safety Citizens Climate Lobby Corporate Ethics International DAMS International Environmental Health Group Earth Day Network Earthworks EcoEquity Energy Justice Network Friends Committee on National Legislation Friends of the Earth Food Not Bombs The Fund for Wild Nature Greenpeace Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives Global Justice Ecology Project Global Warming Education Network Heartwood The Helen Caldicott Foundation for a Nuclear Free Future Indigenous Environmental Network Institute for Social Ecology International Center for Technology Assessment Kyoto USA Labor Network for Sustainability Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns Native Forest Council Nuclear Information and Resource Service Oil Change International Pesticides Action Network, North America Public Citizen Save America’s Forests SmartMeme Sustainable Energy & Economy Network, Institute for Policy Studies The Story of Stuff Project Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth Voices for a Sustainable Future Wild Nature Institute