A Message from the Sierra Club for California Residents - Do This!

Your Action Needed NOW to Reduce Greenhouse Gases from Fuels in California



To Everyone Concerned About Global Warming:

One way in which the state’s global warming law, AB 32, calls for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is by requiring cars and trucks to use low carbon fuels. But the devil, as always, is in the details. The state Air Resources Board (CARB) is about to specify those details in a regulation. But industry lobbyists are trying to make those regulations weak.

The Sierra Club will be testifying at the April 23rd hearing as the CARB board listens to arguments about this regulation.

You can help fend off attempts to weaken it by taking a moment to send this message (suggested text below) to CARB:

Please personalize your message if at all possible.

Here is the suggested email text to send to mnichols@arb.ca.gov

Please send a copy of your email to us at globalwarmingaction@gmail.com



Mary Nichols, Chair

California Air Resources Board
1001 "I" Street
P.O. Box 2815
Sacramento , CA 95812





Dear CARB Chair Nichols,

Thank you for your support of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).

I hope that the Board will pass a very strong LCFS, without any loopholes. Specifically:

· Please make sure to account accurately for GHG emissions from land use change when converting land to production of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Taking land out of use for growing food can lead to cutting down forests or tilling fallow land to make up for lost food crops. This would release large amounts of GHG.

· Please require use of ultra-low carbon fuels to produce electricity, for example from solar and wind power. That will reduce GHG emissions much more than modestly low-carbon fuels like ethanol. If we simply bring more fuels like ethanol into the state, consumers in other states may turn to oil. That in turn will not incentivize developers of electric vehicles, as well as of wind and solar power.

· Since some methane – a GHG even more powerful than CO2 – escapes from landfills even with the best methane capture technology, please do not allow landfill gas to be classified as a low-carbon fuel until all of its emissions can be accounted for.

Another option for symbolic adoptions - some of my favorite places by my favorite environmental organization - the Sierra Club:

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More on the World Without Us

I was just checking out their web site, and it's really cool. The multimedia art on NYC is neat, and this week's journal post is of an exchange of the author with the formal local Sierra Club staffer, Raena Honan (now of Flagstaff), regarding population and the club's policies. Nice.