Earth Day 2001: A Clean Energy Revolution

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Earth Day 2001: A Clean Energy Revolution

31st Earth Day Promotes Renewable Energy

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, Apr. 11 -/E-Wire/-- Soaring energy prices and the threat of summer power shortages give the Earth Day 2001 Clean Energy message a new edge.

"America has an historic opportunity to lead the world into the solar era," said Denis Hayes, Chair of the Earth Day Network and former director of the federal Solar Energy Research Institute. "Instead, President Bush has proposed a budget that slashes the solar energy budget by 54 percent. Bush would cut the wind energy budget by 48 percent, the geothermal budget by 48 percent, and the hydrogen energy budget by yet another 48 percent.

"Such crippling cuts in America's most promising energy sources echo the disastrous assault on renewable energy made by the Reagan Administration 20 years ago," said Hayes. "In real dollars, Bush proposes to spend less than one-fourth as much on solar energy as the Carter Administration spent. If the Carter solar program had not been scuttled in 1981, America would be obtaining more than 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources today, and California would have no energy problem."

"Most of the world's environmental problems are tied to our use of polluting energy sources," said Jan Thomas, U.S. Program Director for Earth Day Network. "From urban air pollution to global warming; from destruction of pristine lands to nuclear waste; from endangered species to endangered humans - whatever your individual concerns about the environment, they are probably linked to energy."

Earth Day 2001 will educate, inform, and motivate tens of millions of individuals around the world to play a part in the transition to clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency. The Earth Day Network website at www.earthday.net offers personal and political actions to help bring about a healthy environment and a clean energy future. It also is a guide to Earth Day activities all over the world.

In the U.S., renewable energy and energy efficiency will be the focus of many of the over 600 events scheduled to take place across the country for Earth Day. Non-governmental organizations, local governments, faith-based groups, schools and businesses are among the many constituencies organizing activities. Planned events include Earth Day fairs with stages powered by solar energy, symposia, exhibits, demonstrations, conferences, walks, runs, river clean-ups, school energy audits, and other activities highlighting environmental protection.

Earth Day Network (EDN) currently encompasses more than 5,000 groups in 184 countries. Its mission is to achieve a healthy and sustainable world by linking groups worldwide and providing them with the information and resources to combat environmental ills.

EDN is chaired by Denis Hayes, the national coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970 - an event that is often credited with starting the modern environmental movement. Hayes was also chair of the first international Earth Day celebration in 1990, and of the 30th anniversary of Earth Day in 2000. Former Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, is EDN's Honorary Chair.

For more information about Earth Day or Earth Day Network, please visit our website at www.earthday.net

Evelyn Guerra, +1 [REDACTED-PHONE]

http://www.earthday.net

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