Check out these interesting and exciting events during March and April. Find out how you can learn more about our environment and what you can do to make Minnesota a more environmentally friendly place.

If you or your organization have events you would like to have listed here, please contact Kim LaBo, klabo@cleanwater.org, 612.627.1513.

Take action to protect Minnesota's Nuclear Moratorium

Minnesota's progress on the path towards a clean and renewable energy future will be in danger if we allow more nuclear reactors to be built in our state.

Allowing the construction of new nuclear reactors in Minnesota will lead us off the renewable energy path that has made this state a national leader. Minnesota’s moratorium on the construction of new nuclear reactors was enacted for a good reason – reactors are expensive to build and threaten our precious water resources. Plants being built in Texas and Florida are projected to cost over $17 billion each. The nuclear plants currently operating in Minnesota are allowed to withdraw almost 390 billion gallons of surface and groundwater each year. That’s more than the amount of drinking water allotted to the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester and Duluth combined!

Take Action - Ask Sentator Klobuchar to protect children’s health by reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Parents of newborn babies are excited about all the new things their children will experience in their lifetime. Unfortunately, many of their experiences will be harmful to their health. In fact, most babies are exposed to chemicals that have the capability to cause severe, long-term health problems before they are even born.

In "The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act", our partners at Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families examine the link between toxic chemical exposure and rising rates of diseases such as cancer, learning and developmental disabilities and reproductive problems.

[Minnesota] –Minnesota agricultural producers and rural community leaders today firmly expressed their support for the passage of strong, comprehensive federal climate and clean energy legislation in 2010.

The leaders spoke during a conference call organized by 1Sky Minnesota and Clean Water Action. The call was part of a 1Sky-organized nationwide effort this week to profile the urgency of climate solutions and to shine a spotlight on attempts to weaken the ability to use the Clean Air Act to crack down on dirty coal plants.

"As parents’ awareness of potential toxins in the home has grown in recent years, so has their anxiety. Minnesota has helped lead the way to regulate worrisome chemicals, and federal reform may be next."

The article quotes Clean Water Action organizer Kim LaBo, speaking with concerned parents at a recent event in St. Paul. "We're operating in this virtually unregulated environment," she says. " We have 80,000 chemicals put into products, and less than 10 percent have been tested. There is an opportunity coming out that would really change how we do things in the United States. We have a 30-year-old law. It's broken. It's not protecting our health."

Find out about the real costs of nuclear power and what it does to our environment. Our factsheets will give you the information you need about why nuclear power is the wrong energy source for Minnesota.

Why we should uphold the nuclear moratorium (pdf, 997 kb).

The true costs of nuclear power. (pdf, 857 kb).

The continuing problem of nuclear waste. (pdf, 724 kb).

Adding nuclear plants will be bad for our water. (pdf, 635 kb).

You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader properly installed to view PDF documents. You can get it free from Adobe.

President Obama was right to emphasize the job creation potential and economic stakes for America's leadership on global warming solutions in his State of the Union address this week.

Strategic use of federal stimulus monies is one of the best ways to jump-start the nation's transition to a clean energy economy. Planned investments in high speed rail, new energy efficiency technologies, clean energy start-ups and entrepreneurs can deliver the right combination of near term and longer range benefits.

By re-asserting the imperative for U.S. action and leadership on global warming, the President signaled the urgency and importance of Senate action to complete work on comprehensive energy and global warming legislation begun by the House.

From Minnesota Public Radio

A New York Times series on America's water supply is raising serious concerns about the amount of unregulated chemicals in the country's drinking water and the EPA's outdated monitoring system.

Guests

• Jane Houlihan: Vice president for research at the Environmental Working Group.
• Lynn Thorp: National campaign coordinator and senior policy specialist for Clean Water Action.

Location(s)

Clean Water Action is pleased to serve as a sponsor for the 12th Annual Citizens in Action Workshop. We hope that you will attend and take advantage of this opportunity to learn from a variety of experts and visit with elected leaders including Representative Frank Hornstein.

Learn about:

• How you can get involved in the political process.
• Becoming a community activist.
• How to use the new tools available for communication.

Take part in roundtable discussions about issues that matter to you. Hear and speak with local and state elected officials, including Representative Frank Hornstein.

The workshop is free and open to the public.