Toward the New Year and A Stronger Approach

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We write with immense gratitude for your past support, as well as with hope for the New Year. This should be our moment, and so we are turning to you, as the year ends, for your additional support. Will you join us, to ensure our ability to take our efforts at Climate Protection and Restoration Initiative (CPR Initiative) to a new level?

Towards the New Year we are determined to elevate the conversation, including both to galvanize an informed public and to help federal policymakers appreciate that far, far more can be done under existing bedrock environmental law, to address the climate crisis.

It is towards that end that we have collaborated on a series of public hearings on the central question, What More Should the United States Do on Climate?

That initiative included, towards the close of 2022, a hearing that we held in conjunction with (and in the Chambers of) the City of Boulder, Colorado. See here. Also, towards the close of the third quarter of 2023, we held our second such public hearing, this time in conjunction with the University of Hawaii School of Law and the Hawaii Sierra Club. Please see here. And now, we have set our third such hearing for January 25, 2024, this time in Santa Barbara, California in concert with the Community Environmental Council there. See here.

These hearings are essential to the establishment of a rich record for the Environmental Protection Agency’s consideration – as well as, if necessary, a reviewing court. And the truth is, we couldn’t have done it without your critical support.

In addition, as Dan Galpern wrote recently in his note to you, we are hard at work on our second effort to compel our nation’s leading environmental agency to phase out fossil fuels and the greenhouse gas pollution that derives predominately from the production, processing, distribution and use of oil, gas and coal. Indeed, some of these pollutants, including methane, also directly damage the health of humans and animals. As with our 2022-23 initiative, we will turn to you for your endorsement and sponsorship as soon as we file at EPA headquarters.

Thank you, again, for considering this year-end appeal. Your support will resonate in our work, as we take effective action together, in 2024, with renewed determination.

Sincerely yours,

Donn Viviani Board President (Honolulu, HI)	John Fitzgerald Board Vice-President (Sedgwick, ME)	John Birks Board Treasurer (Ramona, CA)	Lise Van Susteren Board Secretary (Washington, DC)
Nelson Bonner Member of the Board (Santa Fe, NM)	Stefanie Herrington Member of the Board (Montecito, CA)	Cathy Orlando Member of the Board (Sudbury, Ontario)	Daphne Wysham Member of the Board (Port Townsend, WA)