Friends of the Earth believes our energy use should not make us, or the planet, sick. We promote conservation and the use of clean energy, and we fight to end our unhealthy relationship with harmful energy sources that endanger humans, cause pollution and exacerbate the climate crisis.
Follow the links to learn more about our work to promote clean energy and efficiency as well as our effort to fight harmful energy sources including bad biofuels, big oil, dirty coal and other dirty fuels, and risky nuclear reactors.
Read the latest news and updates from our energy campaigns below:
President Obama's climate negotiators are in Copenhagen, joining leaders from across the globe for the critical two week climate conference. Friends of the Earth U.S. president Erich Pica and staff members Nick Berning, Kate Horner, Karen Orenstein, Ian Illuminato and Elizabeth Bast are reporting in a variety of ways on what's happening both inside and outside those talks. We're working with more than 400 colleagues in the Friends of the Earth international network to push President Obama and other leaders of developed countries to lead the way to a strong and just global agreement to tackle climate change.
Check back here regularly from December 7 - 18 for videos, pictures, notes and ways you can become involved!
Our Health and Environment Campaigner, Ian Illuminato, will be joining the rest of our team in Copenhagen on December 13. Ian’s mandate during the negotiations will involve lobbying for stricter assessment of risky technologies, which are being promoted to help with the climate crisis.
There is pressing concern that in the panic to respond to the climate crisis, governments and industry will promote risky ‘techno-fix’ solutions that will actually make our situation worse. It may seem like a bad science fiction plot to consider spraying nanoparticles of sulphur in the upper atmosphere to act as a giant planetary sunscreen, or dumping iron nanoparticles in the ocean to trigger giant algal blooms that will supposedly suck up carbon dioxide. However these and similar proposals are beginning to attract qualified support from previously skeptical quarters. Despite the clear need for it, there is a serious shortage of well researched critical information available about the applications and implications of nanotechnology and synthetic biology for climate change and in the areas of energy production and use.
One biofuel issue that you do not see much information on this website is the "Blend Wall". The blend wall is the amount of ethanol that is allowed to be blended into a gallon of gasoline. Currently, this is limited to 10% of a gallon of fuel. The reason for this limit is because EPA must certify the safety of fuels in order to be legally used, and often times mid-level blends of ethanol (such as 15% or 20%) can cause harm to air quality and engines. Because the Renewable Fuels Standard Mandate, the law is actually requiring the consumption of more biofuels than what fits under the blend wall. Friends of the Earth has been following this issue for quite some time, on both the legislative as well as the administrative fronts.
Biodiesel currently received a $1.00 per gallon subsidy when blended into diesel fuel. This subsidy is through a tax credit, which is to expire at the end of 2009. This credit is given irrespective of the impact that this fuel is having on the environment or economy. In fact, it is possible for the subsidy to apply to the dirtiest of biofuels, including imported palm oil from Malaysia or soy biodiesel from Brazil. Friends of the Earth and other environmental organizations called for this subsidy to be renewed for only a year--instead of the five year norm. This way, next year when other biofuel subsidies are up for renewal, the utility of these subsidies can be weighed based on performance instead of fuel type.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the nomination of controversial nominee Joseph Pizarchik to be the head of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement by a voice vote. Senator's Bernard Sanders (I-VT) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) were not at the vote, however, they both submitted requests that they be recorded as no votes on the nominee. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) also submitted a statement voicing his concern with the nomination.
When the House of Representatives started working on a clean energy bill last winter, we were optimistic that the bill would be strong. After all, we were coming off an election in which a large majority of the electorate voted for bold change, and supported the candidate who spoke out strongly about the need for clean energy. Congress had a chance to pass a bill that would keep the climate stable, provide us with a secure energy future, and create millions of new jobs that could revitalize our economy.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) ill-conceived plan for a nuclear park at a key site in the DOE complex has hit a wall after a persistent challenge by Friends of the Earth. Although never developed as a departmental policy, the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management began its own secretive initiative and quietly negotiated with contractors to pursue a subsidized “energy park” at the sprawling Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.
The Renewable Fuels Standard, as passed in the 2007 Energy Bill, is one more step closer to being finalized. Comments to EPA's draft regulation, released in the Spring 2009, were due September the 25th of 2009. The Environmental Community, including Friends of the Earth, wrote brief comments on this issue and were overall supportive with the general approach the EPA took to protect natural lands from biofuel, accounting for global warming pollution from biofuels, and applying sustainabiltiy standards to the fuels. However, we also made some specific recommendations for how EPA could improve the effectiveness of the rule.
Senator Harkin, along with Senators Grassley and Nelson, attempted to scrap funding for EPA to finish their lifecycle analysis of global warming pollution in the 2010 Senate Appropriations Bill. The target of their fury was the inclusion of emissions from deforestation and other forms of land use change that occurs indirectly from increased biofuels production in the lifecycle assessment of biofuels for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Luckily, a large coalition of groups, including Friends of the Earth, rallied against this move, resulting in Harkin withdrawing his amendment and allowing EPA to continue it's critical work to finalize their life-cycle analysis.
A broad coalition of more than 300 faith, human rights, social justice, and environmental groups have composed and sent a letter to U.S. senators calling for energy and climate legislation that is much stronger than the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House of Representatives June 26. That bill contained massive giveaways to polluting special interests and would fail to ensure a rapid transition to clean energy.
