Tar sands pressure builds, though EU vote delayed
Over 16,000 emails were sent to Norman Baker and Nick Clegg last week, demanding they support the EU's tar sands ban.
Greenpeace re-brand the Department for Transport
Image © Liam Barrington-Bush
In the week before a planned vote on the EU’s Fuel Quality Directive (which would effectively ban European tar sands imports), People & Planet spurred a letter writing action that was picked-up by Greenpeace and 38 Degrees, and resulted in over 16,000 emails to Norman Baker and Nick Clegg demanding they stand up to Canadian Government and industry lobbying and vote for the ban!
At the last minute, however, the vote was delayed until January’s meeting.
While the pro-tar sands forces may have been hoping to defuse some of the pressure built up by the Guardian’s lobbying revelations, Greenpeace’s occupation of the Department for Transport, or the thousands of emails we were able to heap on to Baker and Clegg in the days before 2 December, we know things won’t be any different in January and our movement will continue to grow!
We’ve updated our e-action (so keep spreading the word!), and we’ll be announcing new plans before Christmas to make sure the UK Government doesn’t think it can get away with letting the tar sands industry write Britain’s climate change policies.
Thanks to all of you for that took a stand, and special thanks to UK Tar Sands Network, UKYCC, 350.org and George Monbiot for their extra efforts in support of last week’s action!
