Friends,
In June, I was invited to the White House in Washington, D.C. and met with President Barack Obama and senior advisors. I shared the outpouring of concern that Caroline citizens are voicing about the potential impacts on our town of fracking, a gas extraction method involving the underground injection of millions of gallons of water and chemicals. Incredibly, in the largest petition in Caroline’s history, over half of our town’s voters have urged the town to ban fracking.
It’s been inspiring to see similar stories unfolding in communities across our state and country; citizen campaigns have prompted 52 municipalities to ban fracking, including Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Syracuse. But energy companies are fighting back. Our northern neighbor, the Town of Dryden, is gaining national attention for the Town Council’s courageous stand against fracking and a gas company lawsuit.
From Occupy Wall Street to West Virginia mountain tops, people are rising up to transition away from the dirty energy that is threatening our health, polluting our politics, and jeopardizing our future.
That’s why tomorrow I am traveling back to D.C. to join thousands of others in encircling the White House to urge President Obama to stand up to the dirty energy lobby and keep his promise to “end the tyranny of oil” — starting with halting the Tar Sands XL Keystone Pipeline.
And we not stopping there. Last Saturday in Ithaca, 600 volunteers delivered an energy-saving light bulb to 12,000 households in a single afternoon. Inspired by “Lighten Up Caroline,” it was New York’s largest-ever distribution effort of its kind and will bring two-thirds of a million dollars back into our local economy.
Warm wishes,
Dominic