Crossposted from Sierra Club Compass

While watching all the tweets about today's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) public hearings in DC and Chicago on the agency's proposed carbon pollution safeguards, we saw this tweet from the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago:

Hmm, is the coal industry astro-turfing again? The coal industry has to pay people to say they support coal?

A little internet digging found us the ad on Craigslist, only the ad was already deleted, and the best we could find for a while was just this Google search showing part of the text (this is a screenshot - click to enlarge it):

Here's the ad on Craigslist - it's been deleted. Using some Google search skills (thanks, Dave Stroup!) with those words, we were able to piece together this much of the ad:

People needed to attend a public meeting (Tinley Park /Chicago) 

Reply to: px6mq-3031150602@gigs.craigslist.org (email address no longer valid)

Looking for people THIS THURSDAY, MAY 24 who want to make a couple of dollars for a few hours of your time.

All you need to do is wear a t-shirt in support of an energy project for two hours during the public meeting. We will be departing the Tinely Park convention center at 8:15 am for the meeting and we will be back by 1:30 pm. For your time we will pay you $50 cash and provide you lunch once we return to the convention center.

UPDATE - Here's a photo of the pro-coal t-shirts at the Chicago hearing. Thanks to ELPC for this.

Here's one of our folks talking to a person in a pro-coal t-shirt at the Chicago rally:

-- Heather Moyer, Sierra Club

Crossposted from Sierra Club Compass, originally posted 5/10/2012

Every year, massive oil companies like Exxon and Chevron make headlines for the billions in profits they rake in at the expense of our environment, our economy and the health of our families. And every year, those exact same companies reap the benefits of tax giveaways that are expected to total more than $110 billion over the next decade.

Today, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) offered a solution at a press conference today backed by a coalition of environmental and taxpayer groups. These two environmental champions introduced the "End Polluter Welfare Act" in the House and Senate, calling for a halt to this economic absurdity with the most comprehensive legislation to end tax subsidies for oil companies to date. 

Sierra Club proudly supports this common sense bill and - as Rep. Ellison noted today - so do a vast majority of Americans. 80 percent of Americans agree - it's time to put an end to tax giveaways for big polluters.

"The fossil fuel industry considers us their servants," said Sanders at a press conference held outside the U.S. Capitol Building today. "They don't deserve it."

While oil executives roll in record profits, they’re demanding tax handouts to support the very industry that puts the health of our kids at risk. There is no reason that American taxpayers should be forced to invest in the bloated dirty energy industry of the 19th century when the clean energy economy is already creating tens of thousands of new American jobs while protecting our families. Rather than supporting dirty, outdated fossil fuels, we should be investing in efficient technologies that will benefit every American - not just a handful of billionaire CEOs.

Still, Big Oil has fought tooth and nail to protect their subsidies before - and they're guaranteed to fight this legislation, too. That's why Rep. Ellison says the fight is just beginning.

"We have to work together to get the rest of the voices of the American people heard," he said. "Spread the word - the coalition is not yet big enough."

-Athan Manuel, Sierra Club Public Lands Director

Crossposted from Sierra Club Compass

It's amazing how much can change in a year. At this time in 2011, we were testing our hair for mercury as a way to encourage the EPA to adopt strong mercury pollution protections – which the agency did. I was also celebrating generating my first clean kilowatt of energy from brand new solar panels on my home.

A mere one year later, some jaw-dropping numbers have just come in: In the first quarter of 2012, coal made up just 36 percent of U.S. electricity generation – down from nearly 45 percent from the same period in 2011. That's a 9 percent drop in U.S. coal use in just one year.

The report, released this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), had even more bad news for big polluters. Electricity generation from coal may drop another 14 percent this year. The EIA also believes coal production will decline 10 percent in 2012.

Meanwhile, wind energy is thriving. In the first quarter of 2012, the U.S. installed 1,695 megawatts of wind, one of the industry's best quarters ever, up 53 percent from the same time last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Wind projects are creating jobs and economic opportunity across the country, with 32 new projects installed in 17 states in the first quarter alone.

by Timothy Jung

As we descended from the high ridge towards Cross River, we could hear rushing water. We soon stopped for lunch, and then made our way back to our starting point via a swampy snowmobile trail.

Slightly sun burnt and only a little tired, we returned to the Hwy 61 parking lot to head out and enjoy the remainder of the beautiful day!