environment Politics: filibuster reform Harry Reid
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 2: I’m In Washington, La La La La
Note the clever paraphrasing job.
Dear Majority Leader Reid,
A month away from the mid-term elections, it seems likely that Democrats will hold the Senate — so it is in a hopeful mood that I write to urge you to use all the persuasiveness of which you are capable to back filibuster reform when the next session of Congress opens.
The sidelining of meaningful climate legislation by the threat of a Republican filibuster was and is an outrage. While climate change wreaks its havoc too slowly to have an impact on the notoriously short attention span of an American citizen, it is nevertheless the most significant existential threat humanity has ever faced. The legislation crafted by Senators Kerry and Lieberman, while inadequate in many ways, was at least a start. What an ignominy for it to be bluffed into irrelevance!
It is essential for our nation’s survival that the Senate pass a robust climate bill. While a Renewable Energy Standard may be all that we can get in the lame-duck session, I urge you to push as hard as possible to get climate legislation back on the Senate floor, and make sure it passes. Which will require two things: first, having some strong conversations with the Senate Democrats who are unwilling to vote for cloture on a bill that is part of their own party’s political platform (frankly, they seem determined to ensure that the nightmare represented by Democratic control of the Senate never occurs again). And second: ending the abuse of the filibuster.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Arnold Schwarzenegger Koch Industries Proposition 23
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 28: He’s Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
The Seattle Times ran an AP story on Governor Schwarzenegger’s remarks about the companies promoting Proposition 23 in California.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday blasted the out-of-state oil companies that are trying to undermine California’s global warming law, saying they are motivated purely by greed.
Companies such as Valero Energy Corp., Tesoro Corp. and Koch Industries are spending millions of dollars to manipulate the will of Californians and “buy votes,” the Republican governor told the Commonwealth Club.
Their motivation, he said, is “self-serving greed.”
The Governator may be an idiot in many ways, but he’s on the money here.
Governor Schwarzenegger is exactly correct in his description of the corporations which are pumping money into California’s electoral process. Valero Energy Corp., Tesoro Corp. and Koch Industries are motivated entirely by greed — and a particularly short-sighted greed at that. By focusing entirely on profit in the short term, these corporations are endangering the natural ecosystems which sustain human civilization. Catastrophic climate change is not an abstract threat to some unspecified future generation; it’s happening right now in Pakistan (whose government may well be the first political casualty of anthropogenic global heating), and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. An economy shattered by climate chaos won’t be able to support major extractive industries; in their support of California’s Proposition 23, Valero, Tesoro and Koch are undermining their own chances of continued existence in the longer term. Along with ours.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Citizens United Proposition 23
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 25: The Immortal Sociopaths Have Money To Burn
Californians are evenly divided on Proposition 23. The Koch Brothers are a pair of evil bastards, all right. This one went to the L.A. Times.
One of the casualties of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision is likely to be meaningful environmental policies. The most comprehensive global warming law in the country is something of which Californians should be proud, and it’s terrifying to see corporate megabucks pour into the campaign for Proposition 23. Comparing the yearly profits of corporations like Tesoro and Valero Energy with the amounts they are spending on this campaign makes it very clear: it’s all about the Benjamins. Although it should be obvious that the best interests of the billionaire Koch brothers are far removed from those of the ordinary people for whom they pretend sympathy, the power of corporate money to persuade voters otherwise is staggering. If Proposition 23 is enacted, it is a certainty that any and all science-based climate policies in this country will be next up in the corporate crosshairs — and we will all lose.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Darrell Issa denialism idiots
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 24: I’m Going To Donate Some Money To Democrats Now, Thank You Very Much.
Darrell Issa is a terrible person and should not be allowed to gain control of anything beyond his TV remote control. But here he is, blustering that if Republicans take the House, he’s going to hold his very own inquisition into “Climategate.” Which, of course, would ultimately exonerate the scientists involved, as it’s been demonstrated over and over that they were guilty of nothing more than being human beings…but Issa doesn’t give a shit. He just wants to make things worse.
I sent this to the San Diego Times-Union, which services Issa’s district among others. I couldn’t find an article to hang it on, which probably means it’s doomed. Since it’s unlikely in any case that a California paper is going to print a letter from Massachusetts, this was probably a lost cause…but it felt better to say it.
Now I’m going to go and spread a bit of money around. While the Blue Dog Democrats have been absolutely infuriating and the Dems in general have been appallingly weak, the Republicans cannot be allowed to take control this November.
Should Republicans gain control of the House this November, Representative Issa is now threatening to hold hearings on the so-called “Climategate” scandal. Although three separate investigations have cleared all the parties involved of any wrongdoing, the California congressman apparently never got the news. Issa’s reflexive denialism is now the rule in the GOP, with almost every single Republican candidate in the nation embracing an agenda that, if enacted, would be terrible news for our country and the world. While an anti-science ideology is evident in the Republicans’ vehement opposition to evidence-based policies in general, it is in their readiness to reject and misrepresent the work of climate scientists that they put us all in grave danger. The laws of physics pay no heed to the obstructive political games of our feckless opposition party; as atmospheric greenhouse gases accumulate to dangerous levels, time is running out.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Ed Markey EPA heroes
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 16: One Of The Good Guys
Very tired. Looked through lots of newspapers but their coverage was all about the primary elections, with nothing I could link to climate. So I decided to send a fan letter to my Rep.
Dear Representative Markey,
I write to thank you for your ongoing efforts in the vital area of climate change. Two things are becoming more and more obvious. First, the upsurge in unusual and extreme weather all over the world is a consequence of the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — an increase directly caused by human activity. Second, the Republican Party is now the home of climate-change denialism. For example, an examination of voting records and public statements shows that every single GOP candidate for a Senate seat is a climate-change denier. Every one; no exceptions.
Because of the growing urgency of the problem, this is an exceptionally troublesome development. Never before in our nation’s history has an existential threat of such magnitude been treated with such indifference by so many. It is not, of course, just Republican Senatorial candidates who are “climate zombies;” some Democrats as well have fallen prey to an anti-science mindset that bodes ill for the futures of our nation and the world.
Given that robust legislative action is unlikely to happen in the current political environment (I can only imagine your frustration at watching the Markey-Waxman bill languish without action from the Senate) it is absolutely essential that any effort made to curtail the regulatory power of the Environmental Protection Agency be rejected. The EPA needs as much power as possible if we are to have a hope of accomplishing the needed regulation of greenhouse gases from American industries and consumers.
Please continue your work in this area. Generations to come will thank you for standing up for their right to sustainable lives on a healthy planet.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: EPA idiots
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 15: Bastards.
Your Dysfunctional Senate in Action. Another attempt to gut the EPA by cutting off its funding. This just makes my blood absolutely boil. The letter below will be faxed to all Democratic members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Dear Senators,
Voting to limit the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency is a profoundly wrong-headed thing to do. In the absence of genuinely robust legislation to address the looming threat of climate change (a threat already made real, for example, to the residents of Pakistan), the EPA is one of the last defenses against climate catastrophe.
The financial and environmental irresponsibility of large energy corporations is obvious to any thinking citizen — as is the fact that these entities are ready to invest staggering sums of money, not in cleaning up after the results of their incompetence, but in maintaining their own freedom to pollute. After BP’s astonishing demonstration of ineptitude and venality, is it really such a good idea to limit the EPA’s regulatory capacity? After observing the unethical and callous behavior of Massey Coal, can we really say with a straight face that the energy sector needs less regulation?
Given that the Senate is highly unlikely to provide the climate bill we need, a stronger EPA is all that’s left to protect this country’s ordinary citizens from the environmental depredations of the world’s largest polluters.
When the matter comes up in committee, please vote against any amendments which would limit the Agency’s scope or cut its funding.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: China
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 14: Shut ’em Down!
China appears to be getting its shit together. Does this mean that if we are to solve the climate problem, we must abandon the ideals of participatory democracy? It’s beyond me to figure that one out.
After years of being one of the planet’s most environmentally irresponsible nations, China now seems anxious to make up for lost time, reinforcing investment strategies focusing on renewable energy technology with stricter accountability standards for greenhouse gas emissions. Would that America could do likewise. While there are many bugs remaining in the Chinese bureaucratic systems, the fact is that imposing strict limits on emissions is the right thing to do, at all levels from local to global. Economic health requires environmental health; the idea that these two are necessarily in opposition is a profoundly damaging notion. China’s policy-makers seem to be figuring this out, and in the process offering an example to the rest of the world. The United States, alas, is held captive by the denialists in the Republican party, who seem determined that we will be left behind in the worldwide move to reality-based climate and energy policies.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: climate legislation Harry Reid renewable energy standard
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 12: In Some Parallel Universe, We Got Off Fossil Fuels in 1935.
Well, there are small mutterings that the Senate might try to pass a drastically stripped-down version of climate legislation in the lame duck session post-November. To wit, a Renewable Energy Standard, which would provide specific targets for alternatives to fossil fuels, and encourage them with tax credits.
Sometimes I think that writing to Harry Reid will actually put a jinx on it. Then I remember two things. First: I’m not superstitious. Second: Harry Reid has been wimping out on legislation for far longer than I’ve been writing letters.
Sorry, kids. It’s been fun.
Dear Senator Reid,
Environmentally aware citizens have had a steady diet of disappointment over the course of the past eighteen months. We knew that nothing would happen under a Bush presidency, but we did have hopes that the Obama administration would be able to muster the energy and political momentum to get wide support for meaningful climate legislation. Instead, we have witnessed failures of will from Democrats, exacerbated by failures of conscience and intellect from Republicans.
Now we are simply hoping that a single small crumb remains of what could have been a nourishing meal. What’s left of our aspirations for climate legislation? A Renewable Energy Standard.
Such a standard would be America’s first long-term policy supporting clean energy. Without such a policy, investors cannot plan for the long term; infrastructure cannot be developed; markets cannot be nurtured. When we do finally decide to get serious about climate change, we’re going to need those long-term plans, that infrastructure, those markets.
While we dither, China has left us behind; a recent study confirms that China is now the world leader for clean energy investment — a position that once was ours.
An R.E.S. would trigger investments and create jobs — not just jobs rebuilding older infrastructure, but jobs and opportunities for our country’s workers that will keep growing in the decades to come. We need a clear and unambiguous policy signal from our government: clean and renewable energy is the future of America, and we believe in our country’s future.
Please ensure that a Renewable Energy Standard comes to the floor of the Senate. It’s not what we were hoping for, a year and a half ago. But we’ll take it gladly.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama Bill McKibben timidity White House
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 11: Inspiration or Expiration?
An email from Bill McKibben:
Dear friends,
I just walked out of a disappointing meeting with the White House: they refused to accept the Carter solar panel we came to Washington to deliver and said that they would continue their “deliberative process” to discuss putting solar panels back on the White House roof.
My 9/11 letter to POTUS:
Dear President Obama,
I just heard that your staff refused to accept the solar panel that Bill McKibben and his team brought back to the White House after thirty years. Apparently you are going to continue the “deliberative process,” rather than simply saying “yes” to an idea that is obviously a good one — an idea that has broad-based support all over America.
An idea that would motivate thousands of people to get moving and put solar panels on their homes.
An idea that would give a boost to American manufacturers of renewable energy technology — manufacturers who are being left in the dust by China’s advances in this area.
An idea that would demonstrate your genuine commitment to energy independence.
An idea that would help mobilize the nation around the battle against climate change.
Alas, what we get instead is a deliberative process.
A deliberative process that won’t motivate anyone. A deliberative process that does nothing for American manufacturers. A deliberative process that says nothing about energy independence or climate change.
How long will this deliberative process take? Perhaps until after the elections? I have news for you and your team: the Republicans don’t care whether or not you install solar panels; they’re insane, and they’ll pillory you over trivialities regardless.
How hard would it have been to say “yes”?
Yours Regretfully,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: climate change New York Times pakistan
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 7: By “God,” Do You Mean “The Industrialized West?”
The New York Times had a front page story on Pakistan and its misery. It’s taken them a while.
HATA SIAL, Pakistan — When the governor of Punjab Province arrived recently in this small town with truckloads of relief goods for flood victims, his visit was as much a political mission as a humanitarian one. His message to the hundred or so displaced people gathered under an awning was that the government was there for them. Long after floodwaters subside, Pakistanis will face a lack of housing, food shortages and price spikes, among other hardships.
“The people say this was an act of God,” the governor, Salman Taseer, said in an interview after reassuring the crowd. “But what comes now, they say, is the act of man. If we don’t deliver, they will not forgive us.”
The “act of God/act of man” construction gave me a nice hook for the letter.
To the suffering Pakistanis, the floods that have destroyed their lives may seem an “Act of God,” and their government’s paralysis an “act of man.” But the grim reality is that the greenhouse effect brought about by the West’s profligate consumption of fossil fuels drastically increases the probability of catastrophic weather events. Thus, the floods are as much an act of man as the dysfunctionality of the Pakistani government. And just as Zardari’s administration is stymied and near-helpless in the face of this disaster, America’s national politics is mired in a quicksand of anti-science rhetoric that has rendered it unable to address humanity’s most pressing problem, or even to acknowledge that the problem exists. Global climate chaos is going to give us many Pakistans, each with an overwhelming share of human misery. Will we admit our own responsibilities, or will each new climate disaster still be an “Act of God?”
Warren Senders