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Tips and Advice for Environmental Activists

July 29, 2008

The Bulletin for Environmental Activists

WASHINGTON, DC (RUSHPRNEWS)July 29, 2008 -1. Urge your senators to clean up our beaches. Contaminated beachwater can cause infections, rashes, diarrhea, vomiting and other harmful and uncomfortable symptoms in swimmers. To ensure that our beaches are safe for all, beach monitoring programs must be strengthened and the sources of beach pollution, most often stormwater and sewage, must be identified and addressed.

2. Tell your senators to vote Yes for clean, renewable energy

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You will also find these alerts in NRDC'S Action Center, which includes tools for taking action easily online, at http://www.nrdc.org/action

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Action Alerts
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1. Urge your senators to clean up our beaches

Contaminated beachwater can cause infections, rashes, diarrhea, vomiting and other harmful and uncomfortable symptoms in swimmers. To ensure that our beaches are safe for all, beach monitoring programs must be strengthened and the sources of beach pollution, most often stormwater and sewage, must be identified and addressed.

The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000 provides funding to help state and local governments set up beachwater monitoring and public notification programs.
While every coastal state now has such a program in place, many rely on slow and obsolete monitoring methods that can take up to two days to provide results. This leaves a dangerous window within which beachgoers may become sick from swimming unknowingly in contaminated waters. In addition, program funds currently may not be used to identify the sources of beachwater contamination or correct the problems.

In mid-April the House of Representatives passed legislation that would strengthen these weaknesses in the BEACH Act, so now it's up to the Senate to follow suit.

== What to do ==
Send a message urging your senators to push for passage of the Beach Protection Act (S. 2844).

== Additional information ==
NRDC's report, "Testing the Waters 2008," provides a guide to beach water quality across the United States. To see how your favorite beach compares, check out the report at http://www.nrdc.org/beaches/

== Contact information ==
You can send a message to your senators directly from NRDC's Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action If you prefer to call your senators, the Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

2. Tell your senators to vote Yes for clean, renewable energy

The Senate is expected to vote soon on a bill to extend federal tax incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies that will expire by the end of this year. Extending the incentives would reduce high energy bills, help reduce global warming pollution, and create high-tech jobs. The extension is also critical to avoiding significant harm to America's developing clean energy industries, which are already reporting layoffs and project delays as a result of the approaching expiration of the incentives.

The bill would extend incentives such as tax deductions for energy-efficient commercial buildings, and tax credits for efficient home heating and cooling equipment, residential solar power technologies and renewable energy production from sources such as wind energy. The bill also includes a new tax credit for plug-in electric vehicles, which promise to significant reduce our dependence on oil.

The incentives would last multiple years, which is essential for the sustained development of clean energy technology industries.
A disruption of the incentives would lead to further layoffs and a decrease in much needed private investment flowing to clean energy development. For example, allowing the renewable energy incentives to expire would lead to about 116,000 jobs being lost in the wind and solar industries.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill, the Jobs, Energy, Families and Disaster Relief Act (S. 3335), sometime this week.

== What to do ==
Send a message urging your senators to vote Yes on Jobs, Energy, Families and Disaster Relief Act (S. 3335).

== Contact information ==
You can send a message to your senators directly from NRDC's Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action If you prefer to call your senators, the Capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

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About NRDC
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The Natural Resources Defense Council is a nonprofit environmental organization with 1.2 million members and online activists, and a staff of scientists, attorneys and environmental experts. Our mission is to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.

For more information about NRDC or how to become a member of NRDC, please contact us at:

Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
Email: nrdcaction@nrdc.org
http://www.nrdc.org

Also visit:
BioGems -- Saving Endangered Wild Places A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council http://www.savebiogems.org

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