Get Radical. Get Some Rest.

by Matt Carmichael, from Resurgence (from Utne.org)

In Prozac Nation, a memoir that struck a chord with millions of readers, Elizabeth Wurtzel writes, “I don’t want any more of this try, try again stuff. I just want out. I’ve had it. I am so tired. I am 20 and I am already exhausted.” Despite the fact that we are surrounded by labor-saving devices, despite the elevation of convenience and comfort above almost all other values, a profound sense of tiredness seems to be one of the defining features of modern life. And our world is as exhausted as we are. Our ecosystems are stretched far beyond their limits, and social structures like families and communities battle for survival.

The natural response to tiredness is to rest. Modern consumer culture, however, doesn’t like rest; “time is money,” we are told. Every second saved by a dishwasher or a car must be paid back double in longer working hours. In the gym, exercise (which is freely available in the nearest park) is sold at exclusive rates so that we can do it while we’re watching television. Even rest itself is commercialized and repackaged as “leisure.”

Returning to truly replenishing forms of rest would demand a reevaluation of tiredness—all the different kinds, each of which leads to negative personal, social, and ecological consequences. In doing so, we would address the problem of unsustainability, which is, after all, the essence of tiredness.

When we are tired, we know we cannot carry on in the same way for long. In evaluating all the ways we’re tired, we confront what makes life unsustainable. For us, and for our world.

First, there’s sleepiness. When we do not sleep properly, our brains run on depleted energy; compassion, creativity, imagination, and reason are lost, and the reptilian fight-or-flight brain takes over. Some psychiatrists have suggested that depression is a symptom of sleep loss, rather than the other way around. A shortage of sleep is associated with obesity, road accidents, torture, and war.

In ecological terms, 24-hour culture means more emissions and more consumption of the earth’s limited resources; we find ways to justify new runways, new wars, space tourism, and drilling for oil under melting arctic ice.

The solution, of course, is sleep. When the emperor of Persia asked his Sufi master how best to renew his soul, he was told to sleep as much as possible because “The longer you sleep, the less you will oppress!” We sacrifice sleep for time, but that time becomes less fulfilling—and robs the earth of resources.

Another kind of tiredness is fatigue: a tiredness of activity. We live in a hyperactive culture where more is continually demanded of us. Unions have to fight to maintain vacation allowances and workday limits. Life proceeds at a pace that belongs not to the human scale, but to the industrial scale. Fossil fuels allow us to travel great distances at inhuman speeds without feeling tired. The tiredness we would have felt does not disappear, but is displaced onto the ecosystems that support our existence. It turns out that the toddler who observed the airplane “scratching the sky” was right.

I used to look askance at evangelical Christian athletes who would not compete on a Sunday. Now I think we should follow their example. We are tempted to avoid rest because we think we will produce more, but what we produce is less wonderful.

We should also consider ennui, which is tiredness of stasis. Ennui is all about that feeling of being stuck in a rut, of going nowhere. It is extraordinary that in our hyper­active society so many people are bored. Bored young people hang around the streets causing trouble. Bored soldiers commit acts of atrocity in military prisons. Workers are forced to choose between the boredom of the production line and the boredom of unemployment. Television, computer games, and prescription drugs temporarily screen us from the effects of boredom, but it comes back to haunt us in poor mental health, addiction, crime, and disease.

It seems logical that the antidote to ennui is activity. However, as we have seen, we are very active—even hyperactive. We need to replace activities that isolate mind from body with activities that involve the whole person in a valuable process. There are many sources of wisdom to help us here. Gandhi viewed work as sacred. Dutch historian Johan Huizinga showed how play is fundamental to human welfare, and the Kama Sutra explores the spiritual significance of sex. Martial arts generally developed as forms of meditation, ritualizing movement in order to replenish body and mind. In agriculture, one alternative to a static monoculture is crop rotation: Moving the crop replenishes the soil.

Perhaps the most prevalent form of tiredness in our society is satiation, tiredness of consumption. Our society has an obesity problem that extends far beyond the body mass index. Shopping is a chief “leisure activity.” We continue to consume rapaciously because we are wedded to ownership, but the real effects of satiation are unwelcome. They first show up in the environment, where the raw materials for all this consumption must be found. Then they appear in unequal societies and unjust legislation that favors the obscenely wealthy.

The answer is sacrifice. Every year Muslims fast during daylight hours for the month of Ramadan. This is a striking example of the use of sacrifice for the benefit of an entire community. Christians and Jews tithe. Sikhs practice hospitality and share food; monks take vows of poverty; vegetarians and vegans refrain from eating meat; ethical consumers refuse to buy the shiny trinkets that are constantly advertised.

We are increasingly aware that capitalism is failing to make sense for our lives; money is not making us happy. But many of us who are ready to change are not aware of any alternative. So we carry on rushing around, making money, buying temporary happiness.

In a culture so dependent on activity—on consuming, producing, and achieving—rest becomes a radical form of protest and a catalyst for change.

Matt Carmichael is a writer, teacher, and activist. Excerpted from Resurgence(May-June 2008), a British magazine dedicated to raising awareness of spiritual and ecological issues; www.resurgence.org.

Five Conservation Priorities for the Obama Administration

By Bob Bendick from The Nature Conservancy

In the first sentences of his inaugural address on January 20, President Barack Obama spoke of the threat to our planet from the way we use energy. The environment is once again on the front page.

But, then, the history of conservation in this country has never been linear. Progress has come in fits and starts in response to disasters, to scientific discoveries, to inspired leadership.

It has been a long time since we’ve seen one of those jumps forward — but now, today, the ingredients for unprecedented environmental change for the better are here:

• A reawakening of public concern brought on by climate change and the need to move to lower-carbon sources of energy;
  
• A new administration not just committed to environmental progress, but disposed toward building the consensus that will make action possible;
  
• A renewed reliance of the value of science in shaping effective environmental policy; and
  
• A recognition of how completely unsustainable the excesses of the last decade have been.

The Nature Conservancy's Conservation Priorities

While the prospects for positive change are good, from the The Nature Conservancy’s perspective, that change must be different from that which has come before. Separate conservation victories are not enough to meet today’s problems.

In every one of our primary areas of concern, the challenge and opportunity are to bring the pieces together, to address our environment in the way that it exists — whole, connected, functional and beautiful.

In this context here are the Conservancy’s highest public policy priorities for the next two years:

1. Passing carbon cap and trade legislation that will drive overall reductions in carbon emissions by as much as 20 percent by 2020 and at least 80 percent by 2050.
   While this is an immense challenge in today’s economic climate, such legislation can help revive our economy and improve our quality of life through investment in energy conservation and new energy technologies and by providing a source of funding for the planned adaptation of natural landscapes to a warming Earth.
2. Creating a new generation of Federal funding and landowner incentive programs to complete networks of conserved land and well managed working landscapes sufficient to withstand the pressures of climate change and continuing urbanization.
   The design of these systems should be guided by the State Wildlife and Forest Plans already authorized in law and should include re-investment in and protective management of the nation’s remarkable legacy of Federal lands.
   
3. Encouraging Congress to provide the direction and resources to the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture to restore water resources in whole watersheds.
   Such a move means re-evaluating the operating criteria of the nation’s dams, supporting more large scale restoration projects like that in Florida’s Everglades, passing National Fish Habitat Legislation, and better coordinating the use of the 2008 Farm Bill programs to assist farmers, ranchers and forest land owners to reduce polluted runoff.
   
4. Bringing together state and Federal agencies to better plan out the future of our coastal regions — either through new legislation or through re-authorization of the Coastal Zone Management Act.
   Through such action, we should decide as a nation in a cooperative way what should be protected, what can be restored, where to put various human uses like wind power and other energy development, and how to respond to sea level rise and increased storm intensity.
   
5. And helping to restore America’s conservation standing in the world by our actions here at home, by our ratification of international environmental treaties and by increasing U.S. funding and technical assistance for conservation in the developing world.

Accomplishing all this means a greater role for the President’s Council on Environmental Quality to reduce wasteful competition and overlapping of agency authorities and to convince the public and private sectors -- as well as urban and rural interests -- that they all share and must take responsibility for our one connected environment.

It suggests ultimately, as the Conservancy said in its transition recommendations to the Obama Administration, that “the United States should build on its rich conservation tradition to create a framework of healthy air, land and water that will protect natural systems and around which the next generations of Americans can build secure and rewarding lives.”

All of this is easily said, but very, very difficult to accomplish. The new President expressed an understanding of this, of the new level of commitment required to overcome the problems of our nation and our planet. That is a good start and familiar territory for conservationists. So it is my hope and expectation that with our expertise in moving from ideas to accomplishing tangible conservation progress on the ground, the Nature Conservancy will be there to help.

Obama's Inaugural Speech

Text of President Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as prepared for delivery and released by the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day - because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort - even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will define a generation - it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

The Associated Press

More info:
Obama's agenda on Energy and the Environment
Stay informed with the White House's new blog

Neil Young gives gas guzzlers a new life -- as tire-smoking hybrids

By Sean Callebs, CNN

On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor.

Car buffs may think it's sacrilege to tear apart an automotive classic, but Young wants it to have a new life as a fuel-efficient hybrid.

"If we're going to make a difference, truly make cars more environmentally friendly," Young said, "we have to make that emotional connection."

Young said everyone has a connection with an old car like the Lincoln.

It only took about an hour for Johnathan Goodwin and his four-man team to pry the engine out of Young's Lincoln. He'll have the new engine installed in 45 days. Watch Goodwin show off a biodesel hotrod »

Talking about the old motor, Goodwin says, "Of course, it's not fuel efficient at all. It's a big polluter, one of the biggest rawest forms."

The Lincoln's new electric engine will power the car and when it begins to lose juice, Young will simply flip a switch and the car will run on biodiesel fuel until the electric motor is recharged. "A 19-foot-long car, the longest car ever made at its time. Two and half tons, the heaviest car at its time," Young said, "And it can get 100 miles to the gallon, not 10 miles to the gallon."

Young renamed his car Linc-Volt, and is making a movie about the transformation, which he hopes to release next year.

Goodwin is making a name for himself -- and his company, H-Line Conversions -- by turning gas-guzzling behemoths like Hummers, Cadillac Escalades, Jeeps and other big American cars into clean-power machines.

The first thing he does is remove the old inefficient engine -- even if it's a brand new vehicle -- and replace it with a diesel engine that can run on biodiesel.

"It's the transformation of what I call old technology to new technology," Goodwin says.

Here's his analogy: Remember 15 or so years ago when a cellular phone was the size of a brick. Now it's a lot smaller, because the industry underwent a ton of changes over the years.

The same kinds of advances are made in engines. But since it's so expensive, changes to cars are made in leaps, not tiny steps.

What's the drawback of his method? You guessed it. Cost.

"It's not cost-effective for someone to run out and spend $40,000 to double the fuel economy, but I have no shortage of customers," Goodwin says.

Including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's having his Wagoneer converted to biodiesel.

Goodwin, 37, drives a 1987 gas burning Wagoneer, rents his home and will sheepishly tell you he didn't graduate from high school.

Expect to hear a lot more about Goodwin in the future.

Companies are knocking down the door to work on projects with him.

Goodwin's developing a download that can be installed in a car's computer and improve the mileage by five to seven mpg without losing performance. He expects it to cost about $200.

Ask Goodwin what his favorite project is, and he answers, "the next one" but the Linc-Volt project has been special. "We're going to prove you can have your cake and eat it too so to speak," Goodwin proudly boasts.

Find out more about the Linc Volt:

LincVolt website - Repowering the American Dream
Goodwin-Young: Linc-Volt at X-Prize

America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2007: Upper Delaware River, New York

From American Rivers

Threat: Proposed Power Line

Summary
One of America’s first Wild and Scenic Rivers, the Upper Delaware River now faces a threat that would not only harm the river, but set a chilling precedent for the rest of our nation’s river treasures. A corporation has proposed a massive new power line that would cut through the Upper Delaware River corridor, undermining the river’s outstanding natural characteristics that support the local tourism-based economy. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must respect the federal protection afforded the Upper Delaware by keeping the power line out.

The River
In many ways, the Scenic and Recreational Upper Delaware River was an obvious choice as one of America’s first Wild and Scenic Rivers. Unobstructed from Hancock to Port Jervis, New York, the river winds through forests and farmland, past cliffs and villages, providing habitat that supports abundant wildlife populations, including bald eagles. The river supports world-class trout fishing as well as American shad, striped bass and river herring.

The scenic beauty of the Delaware River and valley is readily accessible by millions of people who live within 150 miles of the river. More than 500,000 people are drawn to the river annually to take part in the recreational opportunities available, including sightseeing, boating, camping, hunting, fishing, hiking and bird watching. Not surprisingly, tourism is the largest industry in the region, providing jobs to 10 percent of the local population and $65 million to the local economy in Pike County, Pennsylvania. In Sullivan County, New York, the year-round population more than triples on typical summer weekends.

Additionally, more than 17 million people get drinking water from the Delaware River basin, including New York City and Philadelphia residents.

The Threat
New York Regional Interconnect, Inc. (NYRI) is proposing an electric transmission corridor in the Upper Delaware River Valley. The proposed
1,200 megawatt high-voltage power line would begin in New York near Utica and extend 190 miles to Rock Tavern in Orange County, following the Upper Delaware River for 73.4 miles. The transmission corridor would require clear-cutting all trees and vegetation and regular spraying of herbicides within
a 100-foot wide swath along the river, harming fish and eliminating significant
amounts of wildlife habitat and beneficial vegetation along the river’s edge. The proposed power line would also cross numerous streams, creeks and other wetlands along the river. Moreover, the power line construction would also require buying out local landowners and taking property by eminent domain.

Construction of this power line would do irreparable harm not only to the Upper Delaware, but would set a bad precedent for the management of all rivers in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Indeed, the 1986 Wild and Scenic River management plan for the Upper Delaware specifically rejects major electric transmission lines within the river corridor as an “incompatible use.” Ignoring that clear direction and doing permanent damage to the unique values that led to the Upper Delaware’s inclusion in the System in 1978 would threaten the ability of river managers around the country to protect our unique Wild and Scenic Rivers.

What’s At Stake
Congress originally included the Upper Delaware River in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System for its scenic, recreational, historic, environmental and cultural assets. The intent was to protect this corridor for the enjoyment and benefit of present and future generations. The power line would diminish recreational opportunities and the revenue they generate for local communities,nd would decrease property values. It would cause harm to the river and the wildlife it supports, and it would undermine the spirit of the National Wild and Scenic designation for rivers across America.

New York state does need to address the reliability of its electric transmission system, but it needs to be done in an environmentally responsible manner that respects the rights of local communities and property owners and serves the public interest. The NYRI proposal does not meet that standard. Alternatives including locating the power line along other pre-existing transmission corridors would be significantly less damaging to the local economy and wildlife.

What Must Be Done
The DOE is considering an application to designate the Upper Delaware River Valley as part of a National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC), which would allow NYRI to circumvent New York state’s review and permitting process. The DOE should reject this application. The proposed project would lie almost entirely within New York state, and the New York State Public Service Commission permitting process should not be trumped by a NIETC designation that would be squarely at odds with the river’s National Wild and Scenic designation.

Furthermore, to ensure the reliability of New York state’s electricity system, the DOE should look at the recommendations from New York state’s regional transmission planning organization, the Independent System Operator
(NYISO). All alternatives that do not endanger a valuable public resource should be fully evaluated and considered.

Take Action
www.americanrivers.org/endangeredrivers

Contact
Peter Raabe, American Rivers, (202) 347-7550 Ext. 3006, Praabe@Americanrivers.Org

Marcia Nehemiah, Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition, (570) 685-8774,
Marcia@Mailhosts.Net

Sue Currier, Delaware Highlands Conservancy, (570) 226-3164, Info@Delawarehighlands.Org