environment Politics: capitulations climate bill concessions idiots Joe Lieberman John Kerry
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Month 4, Day 24: Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Dear Senators Kerry and Lieberman,
I am close to despair. I’ve just finished reading the details of the upcoming climate legislation you’ve been working on with Senator Graham. It appears that, in your eagerness to bring big oil interests on board, you’ve given away the store. I was never particularly optimistic that we would get the bill we need, which is to say, a bill that shuts down the fossil fuel industry as quickly as possible — but I had hopes that we would get a bill that didn’t completely capitulate to the demands of our Corporate Overlords.
Seriously — removing the EPA’s authority to regulate CO2? That’s not just a concession, that’s abject surrender. Removing the ability of individual states to set tougher standards than the Federal government? This is specifically a measure designed to undercut California’s emissions requirements, and is in every respect a giveaway.
The whole bill is loaded with goodies for oil, gas and coal companies. And what’s there for the planet? For all of us whose children’s children are going to be struggling for survival on a planet rendered uninhabitable by our collective failure to act in our own best interests? Almost nothing.
And the best part? I’m willing to bet that you won’t get more than a single Republican vote for this piece of craven capitulation. In fact, it would not surprise me if Senator Graham were to vote “No.”
But perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps there are hidden gems buried in the fine print that will help us apply genuine regulation to CO2 emissions. Perhaps you’ve figured out how to persuade oil company CEOs that their companies will stop being profitable around the time the human race becomes extinct. Perhaps you’ve figured out how to persuade James Inhofe that waiting for the Rapture is not a viable energy policy. Perhaps you’ve figured out how to persuade Don Blankenship that we need to stop burning coal.
If you can do those things, I’m sure you can persuade me that the long-anticipated climate legislation is an excellent and honorable piece of work. I will await your response.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Harry Reid immigration reform Nancy Pelosi
by Warren
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Month 4, Day 22: I Never Understood Football, But I Think I Know What “Punting” Means
Democratic leaders are pushing ahead with plans to move comprehensive immigration reform legislation this year — even if it means punting on energy legislation until next Congress.
(snip)
During the meeting, Reid “reiterated his intention to move forward” this year on immigration reform, one aide said, adding that Pelosi agreed it is a top priority, even beyond energy legislation.
“The Speaker did agree that if faced with a choice between energy and immigration, she’d go with immigration,” the aide said.
However, a House Democratic aide insisted that Pelosi’s comments were aimed only at the timing of the two issues, and that she meant that immigration could advance before energy reform.
So….a letter to Nancy and Harry:
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid,
I was distressed to read in today’s “Rollcall” that the priority treatment accorded to immigration reform is apparently making it more likely that a comprehensive and robust energy and climate bill will have to wait until after the 2010 elections.
There is not much time left for us to get things done if we are to have a hope of making a difference. Many climatic tipping points have already been passed. Arctic methane is beginning to enter the atmosphere; the oceans are approaching dangerous levels of acidity. Atmospheric CO2 is well above safe levels and climbing. The worst-case Venusian scenarios outlined by Dr. James Hansen have moved out of the realm of wild speculation and are now statistically significant probabilities. And meanwhile, our representatives in government are anxious — about their own political safety.
Let me be clear: there will never be a time when it is “politically safe” to make robust and meaningful climate/energy legislation come to pass. Why? Because the time lag between climate action and climate effect is longer than the elected term of a U.S. Senator, let alone a Representative. Thus, there is no mechanism in our electoral system that encourages longer-term thinking. But this is an explanation, not an excuse.
America and the planet need this bill to be passed; we need it to be comprehensive and robust, and we need it to have regulatory teeth. The lives of our descendants hang in the balance. There is no time to lose; no time to waste. We’ve put off genuine climate action for decades. Don’t put it off again.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: ECPA Hillary Clinton Steven Chu
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Month 4, Day 21: Good Work!
I read about a gathering of representatives from all over Latin America that took place in Washington, the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas Ministerial, hosted by Dr. Steven Chu. Hillary Clinton’s statement to the group are worth reading in their entirety…and it’s worth watching Secretary Chu’s opening remarks:
So I wrote him a letter of support.
Dear Secretary Chu,
It was with great pleasure that I read about the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) Ministerial which you hosted recently in Washington. It is crucial to the long-term health of the planet that the USA embrace new energy technologies, making sure that they are made available to nations across the world. The ECPA is a vital element in this process.
The actions of governments and communities throughout South America demonstrate what can happen when sustainability is taken seriously by people at all levels, from ordinary citizens to the highest reaches of government. The use of indigenous energy sources is not only a stimulus for local economies, but an essential element in the fight against global climate change.
But there are massive economic forces allied against energy localization — forces whose profits are threatened by any move away from fossil fuels. As our government moves closer to passing climate and energy legislation, the oil and coal interests will disseminate ever more misinformation, making a robust bill less and less likely. Please use the power of your position to convey to the President and to members of Congress that the United States needs to lead the world on this issue; if we cannot lead, we must at least support energy sustainability initiatives in Latin America and the rest of the world. Right now, the Carbon Lobby is doing all it can to make sure that no one gets free from the deadly addiction to fossil energy — and our lawmakers are enabling them.
This can’t go on. The eyes of the world are upon us; what we do in the next few years will determine whether future generations inherit a sustainable and beautiful planet, or an economic and environmental catastrophe.
The Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas is a great start. We need to do more; there is so much more to do.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: letters to the editor meta
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I’ve had a few successes…
Here’s some photographic evidence of the actual impact of my letter-writing campaign:
The New York Times:
The Boston Globe:
Two letters to the Medford Transcript:
environment Politics: financial reform Harry Reid
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Month 4, Day 20: Their Cash, Our Trash
A version of yesterday’s letter, this one to Harry Reid.
Dear Majority Leader Reid,
As financial reform legislation comes to the floor of the Senate, it’s important to recognize that the gutting of America’s economy is deeply and powerfully linked with the destruction of America’s environment. Irresponsible short-term thinking, motivated entirely by considerations of immediate profit, is at the root of both our financial crisis and our climate emergency.
Only a vigorous regulatory regime can keep giant corporate interests from exploiting legislative loopholes to the detriment of our financial and environmental health. Economically and environmentally destructive behavior is rooted in a systemic bias toward short-term economic thinking. As long as it is based on a model of unregulated consumption, our economy will remain unsustainable. Big banks buying and selling incomprehensible credit derivatives; cheap plastic junk that winds up in oceanic garbage patches — this is the face of unrestrained and short-sighted consumption, and it’s profoundly damaging to our country and to the world.
We need our corporations to focus on long-term thinking, something which is currently discouraged by the terms of corporate charters. We only have a little time left to determine whether we will leave our descendants a meaningful future or an exploitative dystopia. To fix the climate, we must transform our economy, making it essential that the largest economic forces in the country give back more to the Earth than they take out.
We can’t afford to lose this one.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Chris Dodd economy financial reform John Kerry
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Month 4, Day 19: Turning Your Money Into Trash
Financial reform is very important, not only because Goldman Sachs and the rest of the shark pack have ripped the guts out of our economy, but because these mega-bankers care as much about the environment as they do about the people below them on the economic ladder. That is to say, not at all. Unsustainable environmental practices go hand in hand with unsustainable business practices, and it’s time to make sure that shit is absolutely never going to happen again.
Dear Senators Kerry and Dodd,
This letter is about the connection between climate legislation and financial reform.
Any reasonably robust climate bill will be fought tooth and nail by business interests in this country, which is a sure indication that environmental legislation needs to be coupled with financial reform. Ultimately, our destruction of the environment is rooted in a systemic problem in our economic thinking. Our economy is largely built on an unsustainable practice: buying things and turning them into trash as quickly as possible. This happens on Wall Street when the big banks buy and sell incomprehensible credit derivatives to one another, and it happens on Main Street when our stores sell us cheap plastic-wrapped junk that breaks and winds up in a landfill a week later.
An economic model based on turning things into trash will ultimately destroy our nation, and us along with it. We tell our children to contribute to society, to leave things better than we found them — but unless we can end our reliance on consumption as a way of life, our fine words are nothing more than hypocritical prating. The next few decades will determine whether we live in a world that offers our children and their children a meaningful future or a landscape clogged beyond recognition with toxic trash. We can’t fix the climate unless we transform our economy — until we focus our power and attention on living in ways that give back more to the Earth than we take out.
During the debate on the financial reform bill, it is my hope that you will point out to your colleagues in the Senate (and to the nation) that what unsustainable financial practices have done to our economic health, unsustainable consumption habits are doing to our environment. Our nation, and the world, can afford this no longer.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama National parks teddy roosevelt
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Month 4, Day 17: National Park POTUS
RL Miller writes about President Obama’s approach to our national park system, and provides me with fodder for a letter. Too tired to write eloquently; I’m falling asleep at the keyboard.
Dear President Obama,
It was great to learn of your memorandum addressing “America’s Great Outdoors Initiative.” It is crucial that we as a nation learn to conserve our land and natural resources, integrating state, local, and tribal leadership with federal support and partnerships. Most important for those of us who pay attention to news on climate issues is your commitment to “use science-based management practices to restore and protect our lands and waters for future generations.” That’s good news; science-based management is reality-based management, something the previous administration could have used a lot more of.
While it’s absolutely crucial to build conservation initiatives from the local level up, the role of the federal government is crucial. Teddy Roosevelt, as you remarked, made America’s national park system into one of our greatest resources, and he did it through decisive use of the powers of the federal government; while his use of the Antiquities Act in creating national monuments was criticized as socialistic (sound familiar?), his bold vision preserved the Grand Canyon.
The input of local residents is important — but familiarity may breed contempt, leading locals to take a priceless national resource for granted. By all means, talk with local residents, but remember that they’re citizens of a nation. Bold and resolute action in the conservation of our natural resources is essential.
Most important for the long run is to restore a love of the land and the environment to the American people. We should expand our National Park system, increase hiking trails and allocate federal funds for schoolchildren’s field trips up the mountains. Many city dwellers have no access to our beautiful open spaces, and children especially suffer terribly from “nature deprivation syndrome.”
If we are to have a hope of addressing the terrible threat posed by global climate change, we must make it possible for every citizen to know and love our country’s natural resources. While they are vital for tourism, and for their own intrinsic beauty, our national parks and forests are also part of the struggle against climate change: they’re “carbon banks,” capturing carbon in the form of trees, keeping it from entering the atmosphere. Trees and forests are our first line of defense against global warming, which is why it’s crucial that all proposals for acquiring wilderness must be evaluated on the carbon absorption of the land — its carbon footprint.
The damage that has already been done by political pandering to crass anti-environment interests is incalculable. For the sake of our parks, our forests, our country, our citizens and our planet, I hope your words about “science-based management practices” are matched by your actions.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Ben Nelson
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Month 4, Day 14: Because Someone Told Me So…
A diarist at DK who goes by the handle patrickz wrote a piece the other day called “John Kerry Is Trying To Pass A Climate Bill and He Needs Your Help.” To my pleasure, he referenced me and my letter-writing campaign (using the word “epic,” no less)….and included a sample letter of the sort he asks people to send to Ben Nelson, of the famous “Cornhusker Compromise.”
So I did. It’s not as good as patrickz’s but that’s okay.
Dear Senator Nelson,
I write to you as as a concerned citizen. It is my understanding you do not support the American Clean Energy and Security Act in its present form, because it includes “cap and trade” — and that you are firmly against any kind of “carbon tax,” because you believe that incentives for innovation and infrastructure development are the best way to move the country towards energy efficiency and environmental responsibility.
Well, incentives are certainly important; no argument there. But it is an undeniable fact that the best incentive to lower CO2 emissions is to price carbon according to its true cost, which necessarily includes the health impacts of atmospheric particulates from coal, the poisoning of our national rivers and streams, the expensive wars we wage to protect our sources of oil, and the destruction of the polar ice caps. To burn our energy resources, pushing Earth’s climate to a point of no return — this is truly generational theft, for it may take thousands of years for our planet to recover from the damage we’ve done and the damage yet to come. Simply put, there isn’t any tax high enough to recover these costs. Furthermore, it’s also quite clear by now that increased conservation and a transition to green energy will improve our standard of living, not destroy it. The only things that will be affected negatively are the quarterly balance sheets for big oil and big coal companies. Unless we start now, we haven’t a hope of avoiding economic and environmental catastrophe.
Please change your mind on this issue. A bill without a price on carbon is a terrible mistake. Our descendants will not forgive us our failure to act responsibly.
Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: coal Graham Kerry Lieberman Natural Gas
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Month 4, Day 13: Not King Coal
I read a terrific piece at Kos about a politically viable strategy for weaning the US off its terrible coal addiction. So I appropriated a chunk of the piece, shuffled the clauses around, changed some verbs and punctuation, filed off all the serial numbers, and I’m now going to send it off to the Senators in charge of the climate bill.
Dear Senators Kerry, Lieberman and Graham,
As the recent tragedy in West Virginia reminds us, coal mining is a dirty and dangerous business. The true cost of coal includes places like Southeast Ohio, where even the cows have cancer; it includes hundreds of thousands of cases of black lung disease, and it irrefutably includes huge CO2 emissions which lead to global warming. And yet, these factors are never considered when we think of how “cheap” coal is as a source of energy.
In the long run, America needs to stop burning coal, and it needs to stop burning oil. The hidden costs of fossil fuels aren’t going to stay hidden much longer, now that the polar ice caps are melting and catastrophic climate change is just around the decadal corner. On the other hand, it’s not politically or economically realistic to think that we can start decommissioning these coal fired plants any time soon. A switch to natural gas would lead to massive price hikes in that commodity, creating conditions for poor people to freeze to death, and US agriculture’s total dependence on fertilizers created with natural gas would mean that food prices would closely track heating costs.
If we are to accomplish a lessening of CO2 emissions from the US energy system, we must be pragmatic. The legacy of coal and natural gas-fired electrical capacity is both a burden and a blessing. We need to focus on using coal and LNG as part of a strategy to integrate renewables into the electric grid — on thinking of renewable electricity is a way to conserve our fossil fuel resources rather than as a way to replace them. If every megawatt of power produced from renewables can keep a megawatt of coal or gas fired capacity offline when it’s available, we can start reducing our country’s grossly disproportionate carbon footprint.
If this strategy is coupled with a vigorous national push to reduce energy wastage, we might have an energy policy that actually accomplishes something. What we don’t need is a “political solution,” where our CO2 emissions are simply augmented with a lot of hot air.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama James Hansen Sophie Prize
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Month 4, Day 10: Saturday POTUS
I figured I’d send the President a letter urging him to take James Hansen more seriously. I mean, now that he’s won the Sophie Prize and all.
Dear President Obama,
I write to urge you to extend public recognition from your Administration to Dr. James Hansen, the eminent climatologist who has just been awarded the Sophie Prize. Especially given that Dr. Hansen was subjected to flagrant censorship by the Bush administration, it would be a significant gesture for you and your environmental experts to acknowledge the value and relevance of his work. It would be even more appropriate for you to offer Dr. Hansen a place in your administration’s climate-science team; his work is of the highest possible quality and the greatest possible significance.
The Bush Administration’s suppression of Dr. Hansen’s results is shocking and shameful (although it was a foregone conclusion that it would do no good, I wrote them letters at the time protesting this terrible behavior). The appalling fact is that our national politics has been infected with a virulent and pernicious form of stupidity; George W. Bush and his anti-science cohort were (and are) symptoms of this disease, and because his conclusions failed to fit their predetermined narrative, Dr. Hansen had to be censored.
While your administration is an enormous improvement on its predecessor, I am still waiting for signs that you can address global climate change with the degree of urgency that is needed. One such sign would be a public acknowledgment that Dr. Hansen was shamefully treated by the previous administration — and that he is a scientist of immense value to the fight against catastrophic climate change.
Such an acknowledgment would be both morally appropriate and scientifically sound. We need James Hansen’s voice, now more than ever.
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders