The United States of America's Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels

There comes a time when a country's citizens must choose not to degrade the national and world environment that belongs to their descendants. There comes a time when they must choose, as a nation, to no longer promote and utilize fossil fuels as their primary energy source.

We, the undersigned, declare that this change has begun and must continue until the United States finally develops energy technologies that are truly sustainable.

As conscientious and far-sighted people, under God, we believe fossil fuels cannot continue to be the primary source of energy for our society. Fossil fuels pollute our environment and force us to depend on other nations to sustain our energy needs. Extracting fossil fuels from the earth destroys delicate and precious ecosystems. Burning fossil fuels for energy emits into our atmosphere chemicals that pollute and disrupt the natural chemical balances of our earth causing various environmental problems such as global warming.

In signing this Declaration, we accept that global warming is a reality. We accept that ours is the generation that must make significant changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (especially that of carbon dioxide) and deal with other environmental problems so that future generations can enjoy a sustainable earth.

We will work towards eliminating fossil fuels from our society by:

1. establishing an aggressive plan to cut gross personal and business energy use by identifying and adopting economically justified energy efficiency,

2. replacing our dependence on fossil fuels with renewable energy* that do not pollute our environment, as they become practical,

3. educating our people to the importance of these changes, and

4. insisting that our government embrace and support these changes through the following means:
a) funding research and development of renewable energy technologies as a national priority,
b) offering tax incentives to promote efficiency and renewable energy sources,
c) identifying and removing barriers to efficiency and sustainable energy technologies, and
d) requiring all public institutions to be constructed as energy efficient and equipped with the best available renewable energy technology that is practical.

*Note: Due to the environmental problems associated with nuclear energy, the undersigned do not define nuclear energy as a renewable or sustainable energy source.