Energy & Environment

In his State of the Union address this week, the president focused his speech on the need to spur economic growth and boost America’s middle class. Included in his proposal was the need to make “America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing” and to take “control of our energy future.” While these are worthy goals, the president failed to outline the necessary steps to achieve them. Absent from the president’s speech were two powerful engines of growth – the Keystone XL pipeline and the development of America’s abundant coal reserves. Rather than harness the potential of the America’s rich energy resources, the president sadly continues to block these important opportunities to create jobs and advance our energy security. The administration’s "all-of-the-above but nothing-from-below" energy policy is harming the middle class.

As a mother of three I am always concerned about my children’s health. Like most moms, I don’t want my kids drinking too much sugary soda or eating things that are bad for them. That’s why when I see our Governor making a display in the national media about drinking hydraulic fracturing fluid; I scratch my head a little bit.

It turns out that the fracking fluid that our governor is guzzling is actually a glycol-based product from the oil company, Halliburton, not the typical toxic concoction of non-disclosed chemicals, sometimes including benzene and diesel, that is most frequently used in hydraulic fracturing operations for oil and natural gas drilling. He failed to mention this when he appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at a February 12th hearing titled “Opportunities and Challenges for Natural Gas.”

In recent months, the press has been replete with reports that America is on the verge of achieving energy independence. For example, a recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that by 2020 the U.S. will surpass Saudi Arabia to once again become the world’s largest oil producer.  By 2030, according to the IEA, the U.S. could be a net oil exporter.

The role America’s energy producers play in advancing our economy continues to be alternately ignored and mischaracterized. Recent comments from the Administration on oil and natural gas tax provisions demonstrate a deeply flawed understanding of the U.S. tax code as it pertains to the thousands of independent producers that ensure the continued development of the job-creating energy our nation relies upon.

President Obama began his second term on the right foot when he stated during his inaugural address that “we will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations . . . The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But American cannot resist this transition. We must lead it.”  As co-chairmen of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), we wholeheartedly agree with the resident’s sentiments and encourage him to expand upon them during his State of the Union address.

Tonight, President Obama will address the nation at the State of the Union, laying out his priorities for his second term. Climate change is expected to be high on the list, especially following the Inauguration when the president declared that a failure to respond would "betray our children and future generations."

The president has set a goal for the U.S. to reduce emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020; however, the country lacks a clear national plan to get there- and to go even further.

Today, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is expected to testify before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during its hearing on opportunities and challenges for natural gas. Colorado is the epicenter of both the gas boom and the controversy over its impacts. Natural gas has been an economic boon to our state; it’s how many of us heat our homes and businesses and it can potentially be a cheap, clean and safe energy source for only hundreds of dollars each winter. Extracted properly, natural gas could be a piece of the solution to climate change and a path to reducing local air pollution, like Denver’s brown cloud.

With the announcement that the Sierra Club will engage in an act of civil disobedience for the first time in its 120-year history, this grassroots environmental organization is stepping up to join a long and honorable American tradition that civil rights advocates and so many others have used to strengthen American values.

In the 19th century, the searing injustice of slavery inspired Henry David Thoreau to lay out the principles of civil disobedience, even as he and other antislavery activists helped fugitive slaves reach freedom in Canada via the Underground Railroad. In the 20th century, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a courageous campaign of nonviolent resistance that ultimately prevailed over a caustic national legacy of racism and segregation. Now the threat of climate disruption, hammered home last year by wildfires, droughts, and superstorm Sandy, again tests our moral values.

After telling the world that he intends to “respond to the threat of climate change,” President Obama set high expectations for his upcoming State of the Union address.

Here are three significant steps to watch for as the President takes his case to the people. All can be done without a dysfunctional Congress:

•    Reduce domestic carbon emissions 20 percent by requiring modernization of all existing power facilities, most of which are carbon-belching coal-fired plants.
•    Halt construction of the Keystone pipeline from the United States to Canada that would support the dirtiest types of oil and gas extraction.
•    Ban oil and gas drilling in Arctic Alaska’s most environmentally sensitive areas.

Business leaders across our nation are demanding direction from Congress and the Obama administration on clean energy policies, seeking an established set of rules and regulations. This unusual push for government guidance comes because the industry knows it needs a shared blueprint to make the investment decisions that will grow businesses, reward shareholders, and create jobs. The production tax credit, for example, has demonstrated the positive impact of federal incentives to attract private investment in wind energy.