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Letters of Support, Petition, Endorsement

  • Oct. 2020  Letter to PA House of Representatives opposing SB 619.  50 signed, organized by Penn Future.
    • The undersigned members of the conservation, business, clean energy, clean water, environmental protection, and faith communities in Pennsylvania ask for your OPPOSITION to Senate Bill 619 (P.N. 857 – Yaw). SB 619 is a dangerous bill that seeks to gut Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law by fundamentally changing the Clean Streams Law – enacted in 1937 to protect Pennsylvania’s abundant water resources – to exclude from its definition of “pollution” any “accidental discharge, spill or release that does not cause a violation of” a limited list of 15 water quality criteria, such as temperature, color, and bacteria. Senate Bill 619 also jettisons spill reporting requirements to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection leaving our waters unprotected from serious pollution events.
  • Nov. 2019   We have sent two letters in support of environmental activists as part of the Amnesty International Write for Rights annual letter writing campaign.  Please join us by going to that site and submitting your own letter !
    • Support letter for the Grassy Narrows Community.  Over the past 50 years, toxic mercury has poisoned rivers and fish vital to the Indigenous Anishinaabe community of Grassy Narrows. Because of government inaction, generations of young people have grown up with devastating health problems and the loss of their cultural traditions.
    • Support letter for Marinel Sumook Ubaldo. Marinel Sumook Ubaldo was 16 when she knew she had to fight to find a way to protect herself and her community from the disastrous effects of the climate crisis. She survived the deadly Typhoon Yolanda in 2013 to become a leading youth activist, dedicated to ensuring governments around the world confront the climate crisis and tackle its effects on her community, and others like them.

 

  • Oct. 2019 Letter to Congress written by the Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign in support of the RISE act.
    • “On behalf of our millions of members and supporters nationwide, we urge you to support S.1460, the Retirement Investments for a Sustainable Economy (RISE) Act of 2019, introduced by Senator Merkley, and HR. xxx, its House companion introduced by Representatives Tlaib and Pressley.The RISE Act would would create a fossil-free “Climate Choice” investment option under the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the federal government’s retirement plan. Adding this new fund to the TSP lineup will provide federal workers greater choice and flexibility as they plan for retirement, while protecting them from the increased risk and volatility of investments in fossil fuels.”

 

  • Oct. 2019  Fossil Free Pitt Coalition Support Letter (Note: groups and individuals may sign this letter up to Feb. 2020)
    • Letter to the Administration and Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh demands a vote on divestment of the university endowment from fossil fuels  on February 28th, 2020, and full divestment from fossil fuels by April 2020.  “Injustice is a risky investment. The University of Pittsburgh has millions of dollars invested in fossil-fuels assets. You are complicit in the climate crisis. Today we demand you be held accountable. “

 

  • August 2019  Coalition letter that calls on Pennsylvania State Representatives and Senators to support
    legislation to support PA energy efficiency standards.

    • We the undersigned organizations, businesses, and community leaders write to respectfully ask you
      to support soon-to-be introduced legislation by state Representatives Wendi Thomas and Jennifer
      O’Mara to promote energy efficiency standards for a set of appliances sold in Pennsylvania.
      Energy efficiency is a crucial tool for reducing air and global warming pollution, and saving consumers
      money on their utility bills.

 

  • August 2019   Letter organized by Food and Water Watch to US senators asking them to Oppose the Department of Energy Financially Backing Dirty Energy Projects
    • “we, the undersigned community, health, environmental, and public interest groups, are writing to urge you to SUPPORT including the provision passed in the House bill, HR 2740, that ‘clarifies that the Department of Energy’s Section XVII Loan Program is providing loans only to clean energy projects that avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases.‘  Additionally, we ask you to OPPOSE any effort to allow the Department of Energy (DOE) approval of the Appalachia Development Group’s “ADG’s” application for a $1.9 billion Title XVII loan guarantee, for a massive fossil fuel and petrochemical infrastructure project (Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub Project) to be located in the Ohio River Valley region of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, or Kentucky.

 

  • May 2019   350Pittsburgh invited a number of groups concerned about air quality, climate change and greenwashing to sign on to our outreach letter regarding EQT sponsorship of the Children’s Theater Festival.
    • “Once upon a time, Snow White ate a poisoned apple. After a long sleep she woke up and everything was okay. How long can your students wait for everything to be okay?… Like a candy house in the woods, the vibrant theater conceals the harmful effects of its sponsors. EQT ranks 8th on PennEnvironment’s list of companies violating rules meant to protect the environment and public health….We are asking protectors of kids to make known to the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust that it is past time for them to relinquish their ties with EQT. Please consider either not attending the Children’s Theater Festival this year and letting PCT know why, or attending and declining to take a program booklet, or taking a program and mailing the cover back to PCT with a letter, or simply giving them a call to express your concern.

 

  • July 2018  Letter to ALCOSAN board re investing in large green infrastructure projects.
    • 350Pittsburgh supports a green-first approach to fixing our region’s CSO problems. Pittsburgh will spend over $2 BILLION on fixing these problems so we need this money to serve multiple goals. We want to 1) clean our rivers, 2) reduce flooding and basement backups, 3) revitalize our neighborhoods and 4) prepare for the larger rainfalls brought on by climate change.

 

  • June 2018  Coalition Letter for 100% Renewable Energy organized by Penn Environment
    • “On behalf of the organizations signed below, we are writing to ask you to cosponsor legislation proposed by state Representative Chris Rabb in the PA House of Representatives and Senator Chuck McIlhinney in the PA State Senate to help us tackle one of the greatest threats facing our planet—climate change.”

 

 

  • Dec 2017  Allegheny County Health Department: Hold McConway & Torley steel foundry to health-based emission standards
    • For over 150 years, Pittsburghers have been forced to breathe the emissions from the McConway & Torley steel foundry, one of the dirtiest polluters in the country. Allegheny County Health Department needs to finally listen to years of community concerns and hold this facility to a standard emphasizing public health. Located less than a mile from Arsenal Middle School, this facility releases dangerous neurotoxins such as manganese and a history of emitting at unsafe levels. At least 6 times between 2011 and 2015, the Health Department measured manganese levels above the EPA safe limit. It is past time for them to be held to a standard that prioritizes the health of our community.

 

  • May 2017  AG Shapiro:  Open an investigation into ExxonMobil on matters related to climate change
    • Climate change poses a serious threat to every resident of Pennsylvania. From the health impacts of heat waves, damage to agricultural crops, and a more favorable breeding environment for vectors of West Nile virus, to the dangers of extreme rainfall and flooding, no corner of the state will be spared. In spite of these risks and with no regard for the residents of Pennsylvania, the Trump Administration has moved aggressively to gut the full array of federal climate protections. To keep the nation on track toward a safe climate future, states must take the lead in protecting their residents. A critical step in doing so is ensuring that Pennsylvania consumers and investors are effectively protected against unfair and deceptive practices related to climate change. We write to urge that you open an investigation into ExxonMobil on matters related to climate change.

 

  • March 2017  Beaver County Peace Links events endorsement
    • The most dangerous wall that Donald Trump might actually build is a big ugly fortress blocking the road to peace. He says he is ready to restart the nuclear arms race. His views on the Middle East defy reason and history. And he just “loves war”.  While we know that people across the country will begin to stand up against this warmongering, we also know that western Pennsylvania needs to step up and into this battle. We need to be better organized and we must amplify our unified voices.  To this end, we have invited the leaders of two national organizations to speak.   …. Kevin Martin leads Peace Action, the largest grassroots peace network in the country….Michael McPherson leads Veterans for Peace.

 

  • March, 2017   AG Shapiro: Investigate the DEP
    • We are writing to you to request that your office conduct an investigation of the Department of Environmental Protection’s handling of citizen complaints related to unconventional gas drilling in the Commonwealth. Findings of a three-year investigation by a team of investigative journalists at Public Herald reveal an agency that is not up to the task of protecting Pennsylvanians from fracking. The authors further allege that the agency committed misconduct at a system-wide scale. ……Public Herald’s research adds significant weight to claims of regulatory neglect. Investigators fought with DEP for three years to obtain information on fracking-related complaints. What they uncovered is jarring. DEP has received over 9,400 complaints related to gas and oil impact. Within this data, the Public Herald, a nonprofit investigative news source, alleges to have identified at least 177 water contamination investigations wherein DEP committed one or more of three types of official misconduct: malfeasance, misfeasance, and negligence.

 

  • Nov 11, 2016 Morocco COP22 The Sky’s Limit : no new fossil fuel development.
    • One year ago in Paris, the world came together to finalize a new agreement to address the climate crisis. Together, countries committed to “[h]olding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”Now, the Paris Agreement has entered into force and the time has come to fulfill the commitments made within it.  Therefore, we, as  civil society organizations representing millions around the world, call on world leaders to put an immediate halt to new fossil fuel development and pursue a just transition to renewable energy with a managed decline of the fossil fuel industry.

 

  • Aug 5, 2016 Letter to EPA
    • As community and municipal leaders who care deeply about our constituents’ water quality, increasing water and sewer bills, and the cost that municipalities, and ultimately ratepayers, will be forced to bear for our region’s clean water compliance investment, we are concerned about the direction of ALCOSAN’s tunnel plan.

 

  • June 23, 2016 Letter to Allegheny County Health Department
    • REF: Air Monitoring Network Plan for 2017 (Public Comment)    Thank you for the opportunity to comment on ACHD’s referenced submittal to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The attached “public comment” document is offered by Protect Our Parks and the other grassroots groups and individuals listed below.

 

  • April 11, 2016 Letter to President Obama
    • On behalf of our environmental, social justice, indigenous, and health organizations, who collectively represent millions of Americans, we formally petition you to exercise your authorities under the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act (“Appropriations Act”)(1) and the National Emergencies Act (“NEA”)(2) to declare a national emergency to address climate change and, pursuant to such a declaration, prohibit the export of U.S. crude oil.

 

  • Dec 23, 2015   Letter to Mayor Peduto and City Council
    • I write on behalf of the Steering Committee of Pittsburgh350 to express our support for Divest Pittsburgh’s campaign calling on you and the Pension Board to immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuels, as well as divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within five years.

 

  • Nov 2, 2015 Global FrackDown Letter to World Leaders
    • For the Global Frackdown to Paris in 2015, over 1,200 groups from 64 countries, including over 700 organizations based in the United States, signed this letter urging world climate leaders to say “au revoir” to fracking:   As the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris (COP 21) approaches, we implore you to take bold action. This means not just setting emissions -reduction targets, but also by explicitly addressing the fundamental, science-based need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.