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:
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.
Many bad deals were made to help pass a major climate and energy bill in the House. Some of the most egregious were brokered on behalf of corporate agribusiness by Rep. Collin Peterson (D - Minn.) and his Agriculture Committee.
Now we have to pressure the Senate to fix the House's compromises.
The $600M investment by Exxon into Synthetic Genomics, J. Craig Venter's synthetic biology company, is just the latest in a string of controversial and what should be eyebrow-raising investment deals between the oil industry and synthetic biology research ventures. The BP-Berkeley deal was the first major investment by Big Oil into synthetic biology research, in which BP invested $500M over 10 years to fund researching synthetic biology for the development of new biofuels in 2007. Since then, almost all major oil companies have invested, steeply, in synthetic biology research for biofuels. Here is a report from ETC Group outlining all of these investments.
Congressional Leadership rewarded Representative Peterson for throwing a temper tantrum by eviscerating the climate and forest safeguards from the biofuels mandate in order to buy a handful of votes to pass the already flawed Climate Bill in the House. Environmental champions Chairmen Waxman and Markey caved to Peterson when threatened to hold key democratic votes from the climate bill. If the Senate passes something similar and this becomes law, biofuels that produce more global warming pollution than gasoline will be used to fulfill the biofuels mandate. Recap: In order to pass a "climate bill", provisions that help reduce global warming pollution were cut at the behest of corporate agribusiness.
Congress has a historic opportunity this year to pass legislation that dramatically reduces greenhouse gas pollution and puts us on a path to clean energy. Unfortunately, that opportunity could be squandered this week when a deeply flawed bill comes to the House floor.
