2016 Action Report

ACTION REPORT

An Update on our Postcard Issues

 

November 2015: In preparation for the Paris Climate Conference, we urged Pres. Obama to strengthen our US pledge and to commit to meet our national energy needs with 100% renewable energy by 2050—a challenging but achievable goal. He kept our reduction pledge at the previously proposed 26-28% greenhouse gas reductions by 2025, relative to our 2005 emissions level, and didn’t make a commitment to 100% renewable energy. 

December 2015: We asked for an increase in US funding for UN agencies for Syrian refugees. Two months later, Sec. of State John Kerry announced an additional $602 million for that purpose. We also urged an increase in the number of Syrian refugees our country would take in, and the number increased several-fold to 12,500 for FY 2016.

January 2016: As we requested, Pres. Obama went to Hiroshima for the Aug. 6 commemoration of the 1945 atomic bombing by the US. We also urged him, again, to take US nuclear weapons off instant alert, which he has not yet done. 

February 2016: In response to a concerted call by a large number of environmental groups, Sec. of the Interior Sally Jewell called a halt to all coal leases on federal lands for 3 years to allow for an overall review since this program seemed to contradict US climate change policy goals.

March 2016: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received public comment on decommissioning regulations for closed nuclear power plants. We recommended that each parent operating company be made to pay for the entire cleanup of a closed plant, and that the Emergency Planning Zone for each plant not be diminished until the fuel rods are removed from the highly vulnerable spent fuel pools. The NRC has not yet released its final regulations.

April 2016: The Senate has not yet voted on funding on the Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Budget that includes upgrading our B61-12 nuclear bombs. These dangerous weapons have a lower nuclear yield, but undiminished destructive power due to a highly improved guidance system.

May 2016: Despite our efforts, the EPA has not yet cancelled its plans to raise the allowable levels of radioactivity in drinking water during nuclear disasters, including incidents at power plants.

June 2016: As we requested, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management put in place a 5-year ban on all off-shore leases for oil and gas in the Arctic and along the East Coast.

July 2016: We urged senators to co-sponsor S.J. Res. 32, which opposed sales of US weapons to Saudi Arabia, until we could be assured that those weapons would not be used against civilians in Yemen. An additional 2 senators signed on.

August 2016: We thanked the EPA for its regulations on limiting methane leaks from NEW oil and gas operations. We asked it to do the same for EXISTING operations. The EPA has now opened a major study to do exactly that.

September-October 2016: The call went out to be active citizens in this election: We hope you will continue to be a strong voice in the upsurge of activity that's expected due to these troubled times. 

November 2016: President Obama has not yet used his authority to de-alert our nuclear weapons and declare a no-first-use policy.

December 2016: As pressure mounted from 2020 members and many thousands of others, the US Army Corps of Engineers halted construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The President has not yet used his authority to permanently halt all fossil fuel leases on federal lands and waters, including the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico, or refused permits for tankers and barges to move the Alberta tar sands oil through US rivers and coastal waters.

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