Breaking: The Sierra Club and Steelworkers jointly endorsed Barack Obama

[nam78_two]

This is truly one of the most important issues of this election year, however much the media wants to ignore it.

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Message from Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club to members:

I'm proud to say that this morning in Cleveland the Sierra Club and our friends at the United Steelworkers (USW) jointly endorsed Barack Obama for President.
The Sierra Club and Steelworkers jointly endorsed Barack Obama as the change our country (and planet) needs.
Will you volunteer to help elect Barack Obama to the White House this year?
I believe Senator Obama is the change our nation needs, and the volunteer members of the Political Committee and the Board of Directors of the Club agreed when they voted to endorse him. Barack Obama is the leader who will put America on the path to a clean energy economy that creates and keeps millions of jobs, spurs innovation and opportunity, and makes us a more secure nation.

I'm asking you join me in standing behind Barack Obama this year. Will you pledge to volunteer time between now and November 4th to help elect Barack Obama President of the United States?
Click here to pledge:
http://action.sierraclub.org/obama2008

I know many of you are already engaged in the election, and we'd love to hear about why you're working for change. Just click the link above and let us know what you're doing.
This year, the Sierra Club will work hard to elect Barack Obama. But come next year, we'll work just as hard to make sure Obama's administration delivers on the bold, serious, and urgent action on climate change we need now to leave our children a safer planet. It's going to take all of us.
As USW President Leo Gerard said, the Sierra Club and his union "are standing together in support of Barack Obama because we all share the common goal of putting America back to work by building a clean energy economy." Gerard said he believes Obama is committed to "breaking the chokehold Big Oil and the other polluting energy industries have on our economy and future."

Senator Obama's green jobs/climate change platform is impressive:
Senator Obama has presented a bold and comprehensive plan for addressing climate change that relies on what the world's scientists have told us needs to be done. His plan includes a "cap and auction" system that would cut our carbon dioxide emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
His plan requires that polluters pay for the global warming pollution they emit and would invest the money generated from those credits into clean energy, green jobs, and aid for the lowest-income Americans affected by higher energy costs.

His plan calls for 25 percent of U.S. electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025, and for improving energy efficiency in the U.S. 50 percent by 2030, and would create tens of thousands of jobs in growing industries while at the same time reducing the amount Americans spend on energy bills.
It's going to take all of us to elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States, and it's going to take everyone concerned about global warming and the future of this planet to engage in both the election and our work to curb climate change. Click here to pledge volunteer hours and tell us why you're working for change.

Thanks for everything you do to protect the planet,

Carl Pope
Executive Director

P.S. Here are some high points of Senator Obama's environmental platform. To get more information, visit http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/

"Change is an energy policy that puts a price on pollution and makes the oil companies invest their record profits in clean, renewable sources of energy that will create millions of new jobs and leave our children a safer planet." -- Senator Obama, May 20, 2008

The Obama Environmental Record

Opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Opposes the storage of nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain repository being built in southern Nevada.
Promises to restore environmental protections that the Bush administration rolled back by executive order.
Calls for tougher pollution regulations on factory farms or concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs).
Primary cosponsor of the Lead Poisoning Reduction Act, which aims to protect children from toxic lead poisoning.

The Sierra Club was an early backer of State Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary for his run to the U.S. Senate, basing our endorsement on "his strong record of support for clean air, wetlands protection, and clean energy."
Paid for by the Sierra Club Political Committee, http://www.sierraclub.org/, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.


:applause: :applause: :applause:

[Hope And Change]

1. Yay....K & R!

[nam78_two]

2. This Sierra Club member will be working hard to get President Obama in the WH

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Coexist]

3. .

[phrigndumass]

4. K/R for the great news!

Now we're cookin' with gas! :thumbsup:

[nam78_two]

5. Just say no to President 24% rating from the LCV (gag) McCain

:bounce:

[flpoljunkie]

6. An interesting pairing!

[nam78_two]

7. The Blue-Green alliance

http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/site/c.enKIITNpEiG/b.3227091/k.E4AB/Blue_Green_Alliance.htm

The United Steelworkers (USW), the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Green for All and the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of the USW and Sierra Club, have launched the national Green Jobs for America campaign. Running through the fall, the campaign will focus on a commitment to clean, renewable energy to make the U.S. more energy-independent, to help end our dependence on fossil fuels and to create hundreds of thousands of green jobs. Read our press release. Visit the campaign web site.


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E0DB1531F93BA35755C0A9609C8B63&scp=2&sq=blue+green+alliance&st=nyt

National Briefing | Labor: Steelworkers And Sierra Club Unite
by STEVEN GREENHOUSE (NYT)
Published: June 8, 2006
The nation's largest manufacturing union, the United Steelworkers, and largest environmental group, the Sierra Club, are forming an alliance to promote energy independence and fight global warming and toxic pollutants. The union has long been a leader within labor in cooperating with environmentalists. The two groups said a central goal of their partnership, the Blue/Green Alliance, would be to reassure workers that measures to improve the environment need not jeopardize jobs. The union, with 850,000 members, and the Sierra Club, which has 750,000, said their partnership should help bolster the influence of unions and environmentalists. STEVEN GREENHOUSE (NYT)


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/business/businessspecial2/26collar.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=blue+green+alliance&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar
NEW LABOR Jim Albert, a technician for General Electric, climbing to the top of a wind turbine in Sweetwater, Tex., where the turbines stand as tall as 20-story buildings.

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By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: March 26, 2008
EVERYONE knows what blue-collar and white-collar jobs are, but now a job of another hue — green — has entered the lexicon.

Skip to next paragraph
Multimedia
Back Story With Steven Greenhouse (mp3)
Enlarge This Image

Michael Nagle for The New York Times
RAISING THE ROOF James Wells of Sustainable South Bronx, a nonprofit group that plants vegetation in the area, working on a Bronx rooftop garden.
Presidential candidates talk about the promise of “green collar” jobs — an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines. Labor unions view these new jobs as replacements for positions lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing. Urban groups view training in green jobs as a route out of poverty. And environmentalists say they are crucial to combating climate change.

No doubt that the number of green-collar jobs is growing, as homeowners, business and industry shift toward conservation and renewable energy. And the numbers are expected to increase greatly in the next few decades, because state governments have mandated that even more energy come from alternative sources.

>> More at the link.

[Cha]

8. Steel Green..I

love it..thank you, nam78 two!

[nam78_two]

9. Thank you for the kick!

:hi:. Can you imagine the difference an environment (and science)-friendly president will make after 8 years of shrub :)?

[Cha]

10. I am imagining it..our

country coming back from the brink of the abyss:hi:

[last1standing]

11. Excellen endorsements!

K&R!

:kick:

[RichardRay]

12. Now THAT is a very cool endorsement!!

Not an obvious pairing, is it? I don't know, have the Sierra Club and USW had joint endorsements, or any other political action, or even a BBQ together before?

If not, then this should give a few folks whiplash. :-)

[nam78_two]

13. It is isn't it?

I think this is a part of the Blue-Green alliance I posted about upthread :). The Repukes are soon going to find that the time when they could divide people (e.g. set Blue-collar workers against environmentalists) may be coming to an end.

[cbayer]

14. A lot of the religious right have taken up Environmental issues as well.

Another potential alliance.

This is great news.

[FrenchieCat]

15. The media ignored both the Governor's conference

video here of that: http://cbs4.com/video/?id=[e-mail]

and these two very important endorsements.

I am writing a letter and sending as an LTTE to every national paper that I know of.....via http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/