Florida's groundwater is our most precious
resource, but chemical, gas and oil companies are working to weaken
the clean up standards that protect our groundwater.
Please take a moment to ask your state senator to oppose any bills
that will weaken drinking water laws. Follow the link below to go to
a web page where you can e-mail your state senator. After you take
action, please forward this e-mail to a friend.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=68&id4=ES
Two bills are gaining support in the state Senate that will weaken
clean up standards for water contamination in Florida. These bills,
SB 2726 by Nancy Argenziano (Crystal River) and SB 2784 by J.D.
Alexander (Winter Haven), implement a new clean-up process known as
"Global RBCA."
"RBCA" stands for "risk-based corrective action." Under this
process, contamination is cleaned up or exposure to contamination is
controlled to achieve an "acceptable" risk to human health and the
environment. Examples include placing clean topsoil over
contaminated soil and deed restrictions that prohibit the use of
contaminated groundwater. Right now this process is only applied to
some of the most toxic sites in the state, like petroleum and
dry-cleaning contaminated sites or brownfields. This bill would
establish the same standards for all contaminated sites, even where
there are currently laws that require stronger clean up.
Global RBCA will allow more contamination of Florida's waters.
Presently, Florida law requires that contaminated ground and surface
waters be restored to meet applicable water quality standards unless
the sites fall under the petroleum, dry cleaning or brownfields
programs. Under Global RBCA, contaminated ground and surface waters
only have to achieve an "acceptable" level of risk to human health.
In many cases, this will allow contamination to remain in the
environment that would have to be removed under current law.
Global RBCA is a step backward from existing law. Please take a
moment to ask your state senator to oppose Global RBCA and any bills
that will weaken our drinking water laws. Follow the link below to
go to a web page where you can e-mail your state senator.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=68&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Mark Ferrulo Florida PIRG Director MarkF@floridapirg.org http://www.FloridaPIRG.org
P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this
e-mail with your family and friends.
top
The majority of Americans stand united behind
strong protections for our environment, but Congress is set to pass
an energy bill that will not produce the clean, safe energy policy
that Americans deserve.
The House and Senate-passed energy bills rely too
much on outmoded and dirty technologies at the expense of a wide
range of energy efficiency and renewable energy policies. The
current energy bills being considered include a large number of tax
breaks for polluters, weaken public lands protections, roll back
consumer protections from electric companies, and weaken energy
efficiency standards.
Please take a moment to ask your members of Congress
to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better energy
plan. Follow the link below to go to a web page where you can
e-mail your members of Congress.
BACKGROUND
Earlier this year, the House and Senate each
passed energy bills that rely too much on the outmoded technologies
and ideas of the past instead of producing the clean, safe energy
policy that Americans deserve.
Instead of passing an energy bill now, Congress
should go back to the drawing board and develop an energy policy to
advance America's energy security and curtail our dependence on
dirty and unreliable energy sources. This means tapping our
vast potential for clean renewable energy and dramatically
increasing energy efficiency. It also means increased
investment in research and development for clean and efficient
energy.
Congress should oppose any energy bill that does
not:
 | Reduce consumption of oil by at least one
million barrels a day. A National Academy of Sciences
report demonstrates that each automaker could produce a fleet
of cars and light trucks that meets a fuel economy standard of
37 miles per gallon (mpg) within 10-15 years.
|
| Guarantee that at least 10 percent of
electricity supplies come from new clean renewable energy.
America can set national standards that require an increasing
amount of electricity to come from clean, renewable resources
like solar, wind, and geothermal energy.
|
| Cut subsidies to polluting energy sources.
The current structure of tax incentives for energy productions
skews the economics benefits of energy towards dirty fossil
fuels and nuclear power.
|
| Ensure a reliable and consumer-friendly
electric system. Consumers should receive reliable
electricity at fair prices. Increasing local control and
accountability, as well as diversifying into renewable energy,
can lessen impacts on consumers and the environment.
|
| Reduce pollution to our air, land and water.
Continued reliance on traditional sources of energy increases
pollution to our air, land and water.
|
| Safeguard the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
and other wild places. Some places are too wild to be open to
any type of industrial development, and those that are deserve
strong protections and careful consideration.
|
Drilling in the Arctic Refuge would destroy this
pristine and unique ecosystem in pursuit of less than six months
worth of oil.
We need an energy policy that leads us towards a
smarter cleaner energy future. Please take a moment to ask
your members of Congress to oppose any energy plan that falls short
of these guidelines, opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and
other pristine public lands to oil and gas drilling, rolls back
current environmental protections or increases taxpayer subsidies to
polluters. Please support increased funding for renewable
energy and energy efficiency. Follow the link below to go to a
web page where you can e-mail your members of Congress.
top
Subj: State PIRGs update -
New Energy Future
Date: 8/6/01 3:50:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: sperez@pirg.org
Hi,
I want to thank you for your support for efforts to save the Arctic
and
shift toward a new energy future.
Unfortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives knuckled under to
pressure from the oil and auto industries. Last Wednesday night,
the
House rejected amendments to the Bush Energy Plan that would have
protected the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling and
increased auto fuel efficiency standards. Without these
amendments, the
final version of Bush energy plan that passed the House is still
dirty,
dangerous and doesn't deliver for consumers.
The House defeated the Arctic amendment 206-222. The amendment,
offered
by our champions Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Nancy Johnson of
Connecticut, would have stripped Arctic drilling language from the
Bush
energy plan. Rep. Markey also offered the amendment to increase
corporate
auto fuel efficiency standards (also called CAFE standards) by closing
the
loophole exempting light trucks and SUVs from fuel economy standards.
This amendment was also voted down.
The fight for a new energy future now moves to the Senate, which is a
much
more favorable playing ground. Energy and Natural Resources
committee
chair Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico), an opponent of drilling in the
Arctic,
is crafting his own energy plan. The oil industry and their
allies in the
Senate - mainly Sen. Murkowski of Alaska - will try to include Arctic
drilling language in the Senate bill, so we can expect votes on the
Arctic. We also expect votes on fuel efficiency standards, and
that the
oil and auto industries will once again try to defeat any attempts to
increase standards, make cars cleaner and save consumers money at the
pump.
Down below we've provided a list of how representatives from your
state
voted, along with the number for the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121
or
202-225-3121). You can let your representative know how you feel
about
their vote by first checking down below to see how they voted, then
calling the switchboard, asking to be transferred to their office (if
you
don't know who your representative is, the switchboard can tell you
based
on your zip code) and leaving a message (we've provided a sample
message).
Please let us know you're making this call at:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=228
We'd like to keep a count of how many people call.
I'll let you know when votes in the Senate get closer and ask for your
help again, but until then I wanted to thank you for your support and
keep
you up to date on what happened.
Sincerely,
Athan Manuel
Director, the state PIRGs' Arctic Wilderness Campaign
http://www.NewEnergyFuture.com
http://www.SaveTheArctic.com
HOW REPRESENTATIVES IN YOUR STATE VOTED -
A vote of yes (y) on the Arctic and CAFE votes is a vote in the public
interest, a vote of no (n) on the final bill is a vote in the public
interest.
District Rep. CAFE
Arctic Final bill
FL01 Scarborough Y
n y
FL02 Boyd
Y n N
FL03 Brown n
Y N
FL04 Crenshaw n
n y
FL05 Thurman Y
Y N
FL06 Stearns n
n y
FL07 Mica
n n y
FL08 Keller n
n y
FL09 Bilirakis Y
n y
FL10 Young Y
n y
FL11 Davis Y
Y N
FL12 Putnam n
n y
FL13 Miller n
n y
FL14 Goss
n n y
FL15 Weldon n
n y
FL16 Foley n
Y y
FL17 Meek
n Y N
FL18 Ros-Lehtinen Y
n y
FL19 Wexler Y
Y N
FL20 Deutsch
Y Y N
FL21 Diaz-Balart n
n y
FL22 Shaw
n n y
FL23 Hastings n
Y N
CALLING INSTRUCTIONS
The number for the Capitol Switchboard is 202-224-3121 or
202-225-3121.
You can let your representative know how you feel about their vote by
first checking how they voted, then calling the switchboard, asking to
be
transferred to their office (if you don't know who your representative
is,
the switchboard can tell you based on your zip code) and leaving the
following message, as appropriate:
IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTED YES ON BOTH AMENDMENTS -
You: Hi, my name is _________, and I'm calling from (town). I'm
calling to
thank you for voting to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
and to
improve fuel efficiency standards for light trucks.
IF YOUR REPRESENTATIVE VOTED NO ON ONE OR BOTH OF THE AMENDMENTS -
You: Hi, my name is _________, and I'm calling from (town). I'm
calling to
say I'm disappointed that you didn't vote to . . .
[IF THEY VOTED NO ON THE ARCTIC VOTE] . . . protect the
Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge.
[IF THEY VOTED NO ON THE CAFE VOTE] . . . improve fuel efficiency
standards for SUVs and light trucks.
Please let us know you're making this call at:
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=228
We'd like to keep a count of how many people call.
