Broad Coalition Urges President Obama to Tackle Climate Change for Our Families and the Planet
January 7, 2013
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Congratulations on your reelection.
Thank you for raising the threat of climate change during your speech in Chicago on November 7th. As you said during the campaign, “Climate change is not a hoax. More drought and floods and hurricanes and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future. And we can do something about it.”
We couldn’t agree more. Climate change threatens the health of our families, our communities and our planet. It is the great challenge of our time and our response will leave an historic legacy.
We urge you to continue underscoring the threat of climate change with the American people and to build on the historic vehicle standards and other progress you made during your first term by taking three decisive steps to curb dangerous carbon pollution:
- Raise your voice. Elevate the issue of climate disruption and climate solutions in the public discourse. Connect the dots between carbon pollution and extreme weather, and lead the public discussion of what we need to do as a nation to both prepare for the changes in climate that are no longer avoidable and avoid changes in climate that are unacceptable.
- Use your executive authority. You have the authority under existing law to achieve urgently needed reductions in the carbon pollution that is disrupting our climate and damaging our health. Most significantly, you can set standards that cut carbon pollution from America’s aging power plant fleet at least 25 percent by 2020 while boosting energy efficiency and shifting to clean energy sources. Power plants are our largest source of carbon pollution and you have the authority and responsibility to clean them up under the Clean Air Act. This will create tens of thousands of clean energy jobs, meet the pollution targets you set for the country, and restore U.S. international leadership.
- Reject dirty fuels. We should not pursue dirty fuels like tar sands when climate science tells us that 80 percent of existing fossil fuel reserves need to be kept in the ground. More specifically, the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is not in our national interest because it would unlock vast amounts of additional carbon that we can’t afford to burn, extend our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels, endanger health and safety, and put critical water resources at risk.
Hurricane Sandy made it tragically clear that many communities are extremely vulnerable to climate change. We can and we must build back better—with investment in sustainable infrastructure, not the kind of carbon-intensive development that helped drive this problem in the first place.
Cutting carbon pollution at home and rejecting dirty fuels will establish America’s leadership and credibility, enabling you to create clean energy jobs in the United States while forging an effective international coalition to cut global carbon pollution. We urge you to elevate climate solutions to the top tier of your domestic agenda and America’s bilateral and global diplomatic priorities.
We pledge to work with you every step of the way to secure a healthy future.
Mr. President, you have the power and the support you need to tackle the climate crisis. Your leadership can establish a new American legacy we can all be proud of.
Sincerely,
| Bill McKibben | President | 350.org |
| Mary Fifield | Co-Chair | Amazon Partnerships Foundation |
| Scott Steen | CEO | American Forests |
| Wm. Robert Irvin | President | American Rivers |
| Mildred Real | CEO | American Verde |
| Patricia Dudley | President | Bethel Heights Vineyard |
| Angus Duncan | President | Bonneville Environmental Foundation |
| Chair | Oregon Global Warming Commission | |
| Mindy S. Lubber | President & CEO | Ceres |
| Robert Wendelgass | President | Clean Water Action |
| Ellen Ingmells | Co-Director | Climate Justice League |
| Gregg Small | Executive Director | Climate Solutions |
| Jamie Rappaport Clark | President & CEO | Defenders of Wildlife |
| Stuart Liebowitz | Convener | Douglas County Global Warming Coalition |
| Kathleen Rogers | President | Earth Day Network |
| Trip Van Noppen | President | Earthjustice |
| Tom Athanasiou | Executive Director | EcoEquity, USA |
| Maura Cowley | Executive Director | Energy Action Coalition |
| Margie Alt | Executive Director | Environment America |
| Carol Werner | Executive Director | Environmental & Energy Study Institute |
| Fred Krupp | President | Environmental Defense Fund |
| Michael Noble | Executive Director | Fresh Energy |
| Erich Pica | President | Friends of the Earth U.S. |
| Bob Dingethal | Executive Director | Gifford Pinchot Task Force |
| Mike Clark | Executive Director | Greater Yellowstone Coalition |
| Phil Radford | Executive Director | Greenpeace |
| Gary Cohen | Executive Director | Healthcare Without Harm |
| Kimberly Baker | Forest & Wildlife Advocate | Klamath Forest Alliance |
| Stephanie Tidwell | Executive Director | Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center |
| Tom Kelly | Director | KyotoUSA |
| Joe Uehlein | President | Labor Network for Sustainability |
| Gene Kapinski | President | League of Conservation Voters |
| Elisabeth MacNamara | President | League of Women Voters |
| Rob Garrity | Executive Director | Massachusetts Climate Action Network |
| David Yarnold | President & CEO | National Audubon Society |
| Ai-jen Poo | Director | National Domestic Workers Alliance |
| Thomas C. Kiernan | President | National Parks Conservation Association |
| Kesner Flores | Executive Director | National Tribal Environmental Council |
| Larry Schweiger | CEO | National Wildlife Federation |
| John Echohawk | Executive Director | Native American Rights Fund |
| Frances Beinecke | President | Natural Resources Defense Council |
| Sara Patton | Executive Director | Northwest Energy Coalition |
| Andrew Sharpless | Chief Executive Officer | Oceana |
| Steve Kretzmann | Executive Director | Oil Change International |
| Andrea Durbin | Executive Director | Oregon Environmental Council |
| Kathleen Newman | Co-Chair | Oregonians for Renewable Energy Policy |
| George Jugovic Jr. | President & CEO | PennFuture |
| Catherine Thomasson, MD | Executive Director | Physicians for Social Responsibility |
| Tom Bowerman | Project Manager | PolicyInteractive |
| John Seager | President | Population Connection |
| Chris Steinkamp | Executive Director | Protect Our Winters |
| Sarah Egger | President | Puget Sound Students for a Sustainable Campus |
| Amanda Starbuck | Energy Finance Program Director | Rainforest Action Network |
| Dan Becker | Director | Safe Climate Campaign |
| Michael Brune | Executive Director | Sierra Club |
| Dr. Stephen A. Smith | Executive Director | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy |
| Fahim Ferdous Promi | PR Agent | Take Back the Tap, Rutgers |
| Maggie L. Fox | President & CEO | The Climate Reality Project |
| Bob Doppelt | Executive Director | The Resource Innovation Group |
| Will Rogers | President & CEO | The Trust for Public Land |
| Jamie Williams | President | The Wilderness Society |
| Peter Bahouth | Executive Director | US Climate Action Network |
| Roberto Carmona | Advisory Board Member | Voces Verdes |
| Peggy Shepard | Executive Director | We Act for Environmental Justice |
| Patrick Sweeney | Director | Western Organization of Resource Councils |
| Ruth Musgrave | President | Wildlife Policy Consulting |
| Nicole Rom | Executive Director | Will Steger Foundation |
| Osprey Orielle Lake | Founder & President | Women’s Earth & Climate Caucus |
| Cate Owren | Executive Director | Women’s Environment & Development Organization (WEDO) |
| Daniel Cantor | Executive Director | Working Families Party |