The Clean Air Act requires polluters to disclose their levels of emissions. Now producers of "biomass" power want a blanket exemption from reporting their emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution. Tell the EPA to hold all energy producers accountable for their pollution.

Biomass is a term that includes many different fuel types such as trees; construction, wood, and agricultural wastes; and more. Due to the differences among types of biomass, it makes no sense to assume that none of them contribute to global warming. Some forms of biomass can be part of the clean energy solution, but science shows that if done wrong, biomass can increase greenhouse gas emissions, undermining our climate goals.

Tell Senator Klobuchar to support the Feinstein amendment on BPA.

In September, the US Senate will decide on critical legislation that will affect the safety of the food supply in our nation. Unfortunately, Senators still need to be convinced that getting the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) out of our food and beverage containers is an urgent food safety issue that MUST be addressed in the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010.

Take a minute and send this urgent letter asking your Senators to support an amendment proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein that would get BPA out of baby bottles, sippy cups, infant formula and baby food as part of the Food Safety legislation.

Drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale is severely damaging our state's environment and local communities. The drillers are not paying to clean it up, and with fewer state dollars going to environmental protection each year, this is a dangerous mix. Take action now and demand that our state legislature impose a tax on the extraction of natural gas. The natural gas drilling industry in Pennsylvania is getting an unfair deal that puts our state's land, air, and water quality at risk for generations to come.

Tell them to support clean energy

Tell your Senators to support real clean energy not subsidies for dirty biofuels.

The U.S. Senate needs to hear from you that dirty bioenergy sources, like corn ethanol, are not the answer to our energy and climate crises. Right now, the Senate is deciding what to about these pressing issues. Some negative impacts of corn ethanol production:

• Uses large quantities of water and causes pollution and dead zones with its pesticides and fertilizers;
• Major soil erosion and depletion of nutrients in our soil, jeopardizing our ability to produce food and raising food prices;
• Requires large amounts of land which has led to the destruction of forests, causing biodiversity loss and massive impacts on water resources while actually worsening global warming;
• Has needed $20 billion subsidies and government handouts over the last five years, taking away from investment in actual clean energy sources;
• Uses a massive amount of energy, increasing coal and natural gas use.
  

It seemed crystal clear. When Consumers Energy recently shelved plans for a dirty, unneeded coal plant that would have saddled ratepayers and shareholders with billions in costs, it appeared as though the utility giant was finally seeing clearly.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Consumers is seeing about as clearly as if the board were wearing mud-covered glasses. That's the only explanation possible for the decision to pursue permits to drain wetlands in a watershed that directly impacts Lake Huron near Bay City for the new, dirty, costly, and unneeded coal plant. A plant, remember, the utility said was put on hold indefinitely.

By weighing-in today, you can make sure the state officials making the decision on the wetlands permit don't have the same vision problems.

The number one cause of pollution in New Jersey's waterways is phosphorus and nitrogen, two substances found in inorganic fertilizers. Fertilizer runoff is not only destroying important water resources, right now it is literally killing Barnegat Bay, one of the state's most important estuaries, ecosystems, and watersheds.

This comes at tremendous public health, environmental and economic costs from fish kills, cancer, and increased water treatment and rates to damaging New Jersey's multi-billion dollar tourism and fishing industries. Tell key legislators and the Governor that this is unacceptable.

What's in the products you use every day? The lining in a can of food? The mattress you slept on last night? Your children's toys? Or even the computer you're reading this on? In fact, the public has very little information about the chemicals in the products we use or their potential impact on our health or our environment.

More often than not, even the companies that made these products don't have this information because their suppliers won't tell them!

One of the major reasons for this is that chemical manufacturers have abused legitimate legal protections by claiming that this basic information is a trade secret or confidential business information.

What are all those chemicals in your shampoo? Your lipstick? your aftershave? And what do they have to do with asthma, breast cancer and learning disabilities?

Learn, share and help change this toxic mess: Watch The Story of Cosmetics, a 8-minute film exposing the ugly truth about personal care products - brought to you by Clean Water Action, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Annie Leonard's Story of Stuff Project and Free Range Studios, and take action to help pass the Safe Cosmetics Act.

Ask your U.S. Representative to join you in the fight to phase out dangerous chemicals and require chemical safety testing. Act now and spread the word. Show them you're no dummy.

Do you remember the crash test dummies featured in commercials and
ads for years? They were the nameless, faceless humanoids riding in
test vehicles that famously smashed into bridges, cars, semis, you name
it. They stood in for us in dangerous situations so we wouldn't be hurt.

Until now. Now, you and I are unwilling crash test dummies for the
special interests peddling their toxic stew of chemicals found in every
day products, but we have names and faces and families and lives. We
weren't invented to test chemicals in products, and we aren't dummies.

Ask the Mayor and the Austin City Council to ban petroleum-based plastic bags in Austin!

Photo by Romana Klee

The time has come for the Austin City Council to phase in a ban of petroleum-based plastic bags in Austin Texas!

Plastic bags are an environmental and visual scourge, as well as a threat to wildlife. Worldwatch Institute estimates that Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year - requiring the consumption of 4,300,000 gallons of crude oil.

The manufacture of plastic bags creates greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. At most, only 1% to 2% of these bags get recycled. The rest take up space in landfills, litter city streets, or find their way into creeks, rivers and oceans. According to the Society for Marine Conservation, more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die from eating or getting entangled in plastic each year.

The United Nations calculates that on average over 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating in every square mile of ocean. The City of San Francisco has estimated that it costs its taxpayers an average of 17 cents to dispose of each plastic bag.

Take action now: Ask the Austin City Council and Mayor Leffingwell to ban petroleum-based plastic bags.