Groups Urge Companies to Reject Canadian Tar Sands

In a letter from Sierra Club and ForestEthics, nearly 60 organizations are asking U.S. corporations to stop using tar sands.

Fifty-eight organizations, led by the Sierra Club and ForestEthics, released an open letter today demanding that companies take climate action. The letter calls on U.S. corporations with trucking fleets to join 19 other companies in avoiding fuel from refineries that take Canadian tar sands. According to the EPA, tar sands release as much as 37 percent more carbon pollution than oil from conventional crude.

“U.S. corporations have a critical role to play in President Obama’s ambitious plan to slash carbon pollution. With millions of cars and trucks, major corporations are in the driver’s seat when it comes to raising fuel efficiency and rejecting the world’s dirtiest fuel source,” said Michael Marx, the Sierra Club Beyond Oil campaign director.

Today’s letter is part of a campaign to transform the environmental practices of some of the biggest consumers of fuel in America: corporations. This comes on the heels of Sierra Club and ForestEthics’ launch of a campaign to force soft drink giants Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper to stop using tar sands and raise the efficiency of their cars and trucks.

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