Anniversary of Exxon-Valdez - help us submit these LTEs to your paper!
Great Lakes Organizer Gal
favorite LTE from the choices below, click on this link...
http://capwiz.com/awc/dbq/media/
...and enter your zipcode! OK, so 3 more steps! Then select the
paper(s) you want to send your letter to, then paste the text from a
letter below into the text box (or alter as you wish, or write your own
letter) and click submit!!!! It's that simple!
Just don't forget to include your name, address and phone number -
though the website has a section where you do this. And contact me
with questions! Thanks for doing your part!!
Erika
312-795-3744
Dear Editor,
As today marks the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill,
we should all reflect on the dangers inherent in oil production. Given
the most recent spill on Alaska's North Slope, and the largest in its
history, I am bewildered by last week's budget vote in the Senate to
open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and
drilling. Haven't these catastrophic spills demonstrated that oil
production will never be safe nor clean. I cannot believe that our
Representatives have chosen to open up more fragile and irreplaceable
ecological treasures to the perils of oil production.
Purportedly, the reason for the latest spill was corrosion
of oil pipeline, and the responsible party, British Petroleum, has
publicly said that they will devote more resources to enhanced pipeline
maintenance. But they also broadcast this claim to Alaskans before the
2006 North Slope spill, and evidently their promises are not enough to
prevent disaster. We cannot trust oil companies to protect our fragile
wilderness, and our Representatives should not trade environmental
protection for oil lobby money. The Senate has already sold the Arctic
Refuge out, but I hope that our Representatives in the House take their
responsibility as stewards of American land more seriously and vote
down this environmentally devastating budget.
Sincerely,
Dear Editor,
Today marks the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill, and
I can't help but draw comparisons to the most recent spill on
Alaska's North Slope, the largest in its history. We are being
conditioned to accept these terrible environment disasters as a
necessary evil of energy production. And the dirty reality of oil
production has had little effect on Congress and the Bush
Administration, as evidenced in their renewed attempts to open the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
First, if oil spills are inevitable given the inherent
invasive and unsanitary nature of the drilling process, then why open
more area to inevitable environmental ruin? We must preserve some
areas intact or else future generations will have no idea what pristine
wilderness looks like. Second, there are other ways to produce energy
that have a much more benign impact on the environment, and this should
be the course of energy development for the future. We as a electorate
need to reject the notion that energy must be environmentally
destructive, and push for greater investment in clean energy
technology.
Sincerely,
Dear Editor,
As today marks the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill, I
can't help but recall the countless pictures in the media of dying
birds covered in oil slick. And I can't understand why Congress and
the Administration wants to open up more pristine wilderness in Alaska
to drilling, subjecting more animals to the same potential horrible
fate. The most recent spill on Alaska's North Slope reminds us that
these catastrophes will keep happening because oil drilling in
inherently dirty and dangerous.
Why invest in an industry that promises more environmental
damage and wildlife devastation, when there are cleaner technologies
available? Congress needs to lead the way to a cleaner energy future
by rejecting the Administration's plan to open the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, and instead invest in renewable energy technology.
The House of Representatives' upcoming vote on the federal budget is
the perfect opportunity for our Congressmen to stand up for a cleaner
and greener future.
Sincerely,
Dear Editor,
Today marks the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill,
and Alaskans are still feeling its effects even today. Several weeks
ago Alaska's North Slope experienced the worst oil spill in its
history with over 200,000 gallons leaked onto the tundra. How can we
afford to continue investing in this dirty and damaging enterprise?
Future generations deserve a cleaner, not dirtier future,
and through investment in renewable energy technology this future is
possible. Renewable technologies already exist, but their development
depends on government sanction and support. The first step is for the
pro-drilling contingent in Congress and in the Administration to remove
themselves from the payrolls of big oil. Our nation's future is more
important than campaign and lobbying contributions.
We must pressure our Representatives to be leaders for a
cleaner and more secure future founded on renewable energy technology.
Sincerely,
Dear Editor,
On the day of the Exxon Valdez spill anniversary, I hope
those Senators who voted for the federal budget last week are unable to
ignore their guilty consciences. Passing a budget that depends on oil
lease profits from opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is
unconscionable given the dirty reality of oil production. As the
Alaskan North Slope spill several weeks ago reminds us, there is no
clean and environmentally safe way to harvest oil.
Oil companies line the pockets of our Representatives in
order to garner support for drilling, instead of investing resources in
the maintenance of their own decaying pipeline infrastructure. It's
the Bush Administration and the pro-drilling Congressional contingent
that needs to quit its addiction to oil (money). We need
Representatives who are forward-thinking and scrupulous, not drilling
advocates who share the beds of big oil.
Oil production is inherently environmentally dangerous,
especially given the negligence of the oil industry. How many more
spills can Alaska afford? It's time for a shift of attitude in
Washington towards a cleaner future based on renewable energy
technology.
Sincerely,