Dear Washingtonian,
I’m getting arrested this Saturday morning at the White House – and I won’t be alone. I’ll be joined by dozens of activists from across the country, including Nebraska farmers and Baltimore doctors and the great nature writer Bill McKibben. We’re going to peacefully sit outside the White House until the police arrest us because we want President Obama to make a simple decision: Stop the proposed $7 billion tar sands pipeline from Canada to Texas.
This pipeline, if built, would lock America into decades of addiction to the dirtiest petroleum fuel known to man. If the tar sands fields of northern Alberta are fully exploited, it would be mean “game over” for the climate, according to NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen.
That’s why ten prominent leaders from the DC region – ranging from restaurateur Nora Pouillon to poet E. Ethelbert Miller – have called for Obama to exercise his power to stop the pipeline. Protesters will be gathered outside the White House every day from August 20th - September 3rd. Join other CCANers as we protest on Aug. 22nd or sign up for another day and help dramatize the point.
Our message is clear: No tar sands! Yes wind power! Instead of fueling American cars for decades with planet-warming, landscape-wrecking tar sands oil, we should power a new fleet of electric cars in our region -- forever -- with clean, renewable wind power from the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. Indeed, Maryland has enough harness-able offshore wind energy to power over a million electric cars at a cost of just over $1 per gallon. The choice should be a no-brainer for Obama. But we need your help to get him to listen on Aug. 22 or another day during our two-week protest.
Speaking of help, get out your calendar and mark some exciting upcoming events you won’t want to miss. The first is CCAN’s Moving Planet action in Maryland and Virginia on Saturday September 24th. On that day, people from all walks of life will be creatively riding wheeled objects that don’t pollute – bikes, skateboards, baby strollers, unicycles, roller skates – in parades across the state. Our goal is to demonstrate that we all live on a "moving planet" that can and must move toward clean energy. Sign up here for our local events in Annapolis and Alexandria!
Then on October 13th, let CCAN pour you a drink and feed you some good food at our annual Toast to Climate Heroes night in DC. We’ll be handing out awards to heroes like climate blogger Joe Romm, Maryland Senator Rob Garagiola and Virginia Senator Adam Ebbin. Please come and have fun. To join the host committee of this event, please click here.
Onward,
Mike Tidwell
