Jim,

Tell CEQ it's Time for Federal Agencies to Start Factoring Climate into their Decisions.

Environmental impacts studies are a key tool that federal agencies use to evaluate the possible environmental costs of the permits they issue and the work they do. However, climate change is rarely factored into these decisions, allowing projects like coal power plants and mega-highways to move forward without owning up to their real impacts.

But the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is working to change this, and they need your help.

Let CEQ know that you support their work to make climate change a factor in the decision making process by sending a public comment today.

Environmental disasters happen because we turn a blind eye to the risks.

The BP oil disaster that is unfolding in the Gulf? The Deepwater Horizon was exempted from a detailed environmental impact study because three reviews concluded that a spill was "unlikely."¹

We cannot allow an oversight like this to occur again, and yet they happen every day because federal agencies are allowed to ignore the greatest threat to our environment -- global warming.

Tell CEQ we cannot wait any longer for new guidance requiring agencies to evaluate the risk to our climate when making decisions.

The new guidance that CEQ proposed isn't perfect. It exempts land management decisions from climate analysis, meaning efforts to cut forests or plow under prairies can move forward without addressing the critical role our wild places play in trapping carbon pollution.

Thank CEQ for starting the process by proposing to require climate be included in the decision making process, and tell them to finish the job by closing the loophole for land management.

Thanks for all that you do to protect the environment.

Mary Anne Hitt
Sierra Club Big Picture Campaign

P.S. Please forward this message and help spread the word to your friends and family!


[1] "U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study," Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post: May 10, 2010.