Transportation For America » Oil leak is capped, oil addiction still remains

Oil leak is capped, oil addiction still remains

July 16, 2010
By Stephen Lee Davis

Write to your senators today to tell them to support a climate and energy package that includes clean transportation options and reduces our dependency on dirty oil.

Exxon Valdez. Love Canal. Cuyahoga River.

These are just a few examples of high-profile environmental disasters that resulted in the swift enactment of landmark environmental laws.

We face a similar choice today.

Today’s news brings great hope that the leak in the Gulf of Mexico is finally capped. But our work is far from done. We still haven’t addressed the root cause behind the spill – the fact that our transportation system consumes 70% of the oil we use, driving us to riskier measures to obtain more oil.

In response to this disaster, leaders in the Senate are hoping to quickly move energy and climate legislation before the upcoming August recess. The bill they construct could be the beginning of the end of our oil dependency, or it could be yet another missed opportunity.

Will we respond to the crisis in the Gulf by starting to free ourselves from oil and finding ways to use less? Or will we resign ourselves to continued dependency and the inevitable risk of future oil spills resulting from that dependency?

Write to your senators today to tell them to support a climate and energy package that includes clean transportation options and reduces our dependency on dirty oil.

This week, Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid met with key Senate committee leaders to deliver the message that a climate package is past due, and President Obama had a meeting with key senators to discuss the same issue. Sen. Reid plans to bring a bill to the floor in July before the August recess – we have to act now to make sure senators hear our priorities.

It’s time to kick our addiction to oil and we simply can’t do it unless clean transportation is part of the solution. Just a few hours ago, T4 America sent a letter of support to Senator Merkley and 3 other Senators who released a bill yesterday for inclusion in the climate package that would actually address how much oil gets consumed for transportation and put us on a path to use less oil.

That bill, the Oil Independence for a Stronger America Act (S.3601), would help address our dependence on oil by providing Americans with cleaner transportation options. How can we even attempt to solve the climate or energy crises without making substantial steps to use less oil for transportation?

Click through to read the full letter to the four Senators from T4 America

Dear Senators Merkley, Carper, Udall, and Bennet:

We are writing to thank you for your leadership and Independence for a Stronger America Act (S. 3601), legislation to create economically strong, energy-independent communities.

We strongly support the policies included in Title IV to reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emission through providing American families and businesses with cleaner, more affordable transportation choices. The Oil Independence for a Stronger America Act will ensure future transportation investments made by state and local governments help the country meet oil saving goals and provide incentives for investments in clean transportation through a new competitive grant program. It will also provide commuters with increased public transportation benefits, which will reduce household transportation costs and ease congestion.

The strategies included in the bill to green the freight sector, which include shifting freight to rail and barge, are also critical to reducing our oil dependence. A shift to those more efficient travel modes will help produce significant benefits for the American people by easing congestion and improving air quality.

Again, we thank you all for your continued support of policies to address oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector through investments in sustainable communities and clean transportation. We look forward to continuing to work with all of you to ensure these policies are included in any energy package that moves forward in the Senate.

Sincerely,
James Corless
Director, Transportation for America