ENERGY

Despite the fact that the planet is warming up fast due to human activities — namely, our hefty greenhouse gas emissions — the Bush administration continues to enable our addiction to fossil fuel-based energy. By avoiding smart-energy policy choices while supporting policies that would meet projected energy demands, the administration is moving us away from a sustainable future based on energy efficiency, conservation, and locally produced renewable energy sources.

Not only that, but numerous efforts are underway to open up our already embattled public lands to continue our fossil fuel dependence through coal, oil and gas, oil shale and tar sands, and liquefied natural gas development — as well as uranium mining and milling and the construction of energy corridors and long-distance electric transmission lines. All in order to meet the nation’s insatiable energy demands.

The Center is fighting these threats to the future of our public lands. We’re working to stop oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Western Arctic Reserve in Alaska, as well as on the Los Padres National Forest north of Los Angeles. We’re opposing liquefied natural gas on the West Coast, and in the Rockies we’re going after oil shale and tar sands development — the production of unconventional fuels that represent a step backward, not forward, for both the economy and the planet. In the Southwest, we’re fighting energy corridors and electric transmission-line projects that would access fossil fuels to supply energy, and we’re also working hard to stop the uranium-mining boom from wreaking irreparable harm on public lands.

Already, the Center’s efforts have stopped devastating projects on millions of acres. We do our work not only to protect species and ecosystems and curb global warming, but also because in this day and age, fossil fuel development on our public lands undermines the very reason these lands were set aside — to save natural places for future generations to enjoy.