Fossil Fuel Policy Reform

The United States’ addiction to fossil fuels is having devastating impacts on the West’s wildlife, wild places and wild rivers. 

WildEarth Guardians works to break the fossil fuel addiction. We promote renewable energy and energy efficiency to lessen the demand for fossil fuels while at the same time attacking fossil fuels at the most opportune points in its filthy lifecycle. 

To truly understand these consequences, you have to consider the lifecycle of the fossil fuels:

Extraction

Drilling for oil and natural gas and mining for coal destroys wildlife habitat by ripping it up and fragmenting it. Extraction also produces copious amounts of air pollution like smog and greenhouse gases. It also  poisons both ground water and surface water with toxic chemicals and salts and depletes ground water and surface water that wildlife and humans depend upon.

Transportation

Transporting fossil fuels requires massive amounts of energy, produces air pollution from this energy, requires building roads through habitats, pipelines, and power lines through  sensitive natural areas.  It can also poison the land from leaks, spills and other accidents.

Consumption

Burning fossil fuels in our power plants, in our homes and in our cars accounts for nearing 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and over 90 percent of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and acid rain and haze-forming sulfur dioxide emission. Mercury, lead, arsenic, dioxin, radioactive material and a whole host of other toxins are also released by our coal-fired power plants. Power plants are also usually one of the biggest consumers of water, second only to agriculture.

Waste Disposal

Sadly, fossil fuels’ toxic life ycle does not end at the power plants.  For example, the U.S. produces approximately 129 million tons of coal combustion solid waste per year.  This acidic toxic stew of heavy metals eventually can find its way into ground water and wildlife habitats.