FORWARD WIDELY, E-MAIL, TWITTER, TWEET, FACEBOOK!!!
Senator McCaskill needs to hear from us now more than ever! A
handful of US Democratic Senators, including McCaskill,
are saying that we should wait to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate
change legislation until after the November elections are complete. This
is ridiculous! We need action to mediate climate change now! We need renewable
energy jobs, now—jobs that can’t be outsourced and we need to build
a new clean, green, renewable energy economy NOW!!!
Fortunately, Senators
Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham are moving forward with their bipartisan efforts
to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. But, Senator McCaskill NEEDS to hear from us NOW if she's going to get
on board! She needs to know we want her to move forward now, as well as keep
the Clean Air Act intact and stop resulting corporate giveaways!
When it comes to
climate, the environment, and many others the fight often comes down to wealthy
corporate execs and overflowing corporate coffers versus what’s healthy for
people, the environment and their bottom line!! It’s one fight we CANNOT
AFFORD TO LOSE!!!
Big corporations protect
their bottom line and work tirelessly--in front of and behind the
scenes--to do so. There are members of Congress, some taking large donations
from Big Energy and other American corporations, trying to roll back powers of
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by severely weakening our long upheld
Clean Air Act (specifics below)! Their efforts have multiplied as the
government has moved to enforce EPA laws, ruled on by the conservative Supreme
Court. In 2007 the Court decided CO2 and various tailpipe emissions were
required to be regulated by the EPA, under the Clean
Air Act, as pollutants that endangered public health. The Court’s decision is
called the “endangerment finding. The “endangerment finding” is good for public
health, but an endangerment to the corporate bottom line!
Climate science has been
under vicious attacks---read these links for more:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/51735
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/top-us-scientists-stolen-emails-0314.html
We will talk climate
change more later.
Dirty fossil fuels are
usually portrayed as a cheap source of energy. This is absolutely false! We
should remember “we get what we pay for”. Take a look
at these “hidden costs” of our energy. Factor them into your energy bill:
___ Taxpayer government
subsidies have been granted for decades to some of the biggest profit making
corporations on the planet. These strong corporations want to keep getting our
“giveaway”, taxpayer subsidies while stating they can’t afford to protect
public health or abide by laws that support it.
___ Consider the cost of
human health, what does it cost to have and treat cancer, asthma, diseases
caused by mercury poisoning or other fossil fuel related pollutants.
___ Consider the cost of
a human life and it’s lost potential. What does it
cost you, the taxpayer/government for those lost lives and illnesses? What does
it contribute to rising health/life insurance rates?
___ Consider asthma---
the #1 cause for missed school days---what does this one thing cost our public
educational system? What are the health and human costs of a dirty environment?
Try putting these
“hidden costs” into your bill to see what you are really paying for this false
sense of cheap energy. The truth is we are paying plenty---it’s just
hidden---not in the proper column on our utility bills.
Now, let’s look at good
business, suppose you are an energy company and planning for “business as
usual”, not for tightening resources and the competition for these resources we
know is coming. To stay in business you would have to be smart or fail. You
would have long ago started moving away from dirty, finite fuel sources and
started moving quickly toward renewable, cleaner, cheaper, market-stabilizating, American investment creating jobs that can’t
be outsourced, contributing to greater national security for the same or less
investment dollars than for present day dirty, unhealthy, environmentally
degrading, even irresponsible leadership and products of our present Big Energy
industry.
We haven’t even gotten
to climate change yet. The reasons to “do the right thing” are overwhelming
enough without it. But, to understand the crisis, we have to look at it. These
are costs we are already paying and will have to continue to pay. Whether
humans are contributing or not, we will pay. The science is strong. There is
agreement that humans are contributing and there is not a lot of time to
act----If we didn’t believe the science, but it was actually right ----if we
could have made a difference, but chose not to---that’s insanity. If we do the
smart thing anyway, for all the other intelligent reasons---well, how bad would
a renewable, sustainable, clean energy future be?
Here’s a look at some
climate change costs:
___ Expenses for more
and heavier damaging weather related events, killer floods, heat waves,
droughts, etc.
___Costs of climate
refugees, societal destabilization and heightened tension between countries
___Costs to
agriculture---food, water and other resource shortages
___Costs to replace
roads, buildings, businesses, schools, homes, etc. from weather related damages ----See: Weather Threatening Homeland
Security: (Now, 13 Presidential Declared Disasters in the State of
Missouri, as of the start of the spring rainy season 2008.) www.komu.com/.../KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/cd121333-80ce-0971-01ef-11392435e63c
Emissions need to be reduced to around 350 PPM.
___ Costs to the
insurance industry and higher premiums for all
___ Costs to the energy
industry for power outages, downed lines, damaged supply sources and rising
prices
___Costs to the
environment, repair and cleanup
___Costs to tourism and
other industries/business
Climate science has been
under vicious attacks---read these links for more:
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/51735
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/top-us-scientists-stolen-emails-0314.html
Lastly, we cannot forget
what, for many, is possibly the biggest reason to take action now---our sacred
duty, the spiritual and moral obligation we have to creation, our family,
friends and neighbors, our brothers and sisters around the world, and all
life on our cherished planet earth. We must accept the fact that Americans,
with under 5% of the world’s population, have, for the
last approximately half century, used just under ¼ of the world’s resources. We
must take responsibility for this and start leading the way to a renewable,
sustainable, energy-efficient future for everyone on the planet! How people use
energy and build their lifestyles is now a social and environmental justice
issue.
We must take action NOW! Contact Senator Claire McCaskill this week. Ask her to keep all our
environmental laws in tact (see various weakening efforts below and the
SEMA Homeland Security link) and work to support renewables
over non-renewable sources. It must be pointed out that nuclear energy,
has not stood the test of the marketplace, costs 5 times more than renewable
sources to build, plants take nearly 10 years to build so won’t be
available before renewables with storage solutions,
there is 75 years left of uranium; and, unless it’s 4th generation
nuclear technology-- not ready for market for about10 years-- it is an
exceedingly, wasteful, poor, risky investment for taxpayers. Urge
Senator McCaskill to deliver a strong, effective
climate abatement bill focused on a clean, renewable, green energy economy
without further stalling or delay!
Once you’ve contacted
Senator McCaskill, please follow through with Senator
Bond and your U.S. House Rep, Leutkemeyer, in this
District. Continue the conversation with state and local government reps too.
Discuss these issues with everyone: family, friends and co-workers. FORWARD
THIS MAIL. ASK OTHERS TO CONTACT THEIR REPS TOO!!!
Please call both
offices for each representative, send email to each and, if possible, a hard
copy letter by post!! (Contact information
below)
Ask them to oppose the
following along with other points above:
1) Currently, members of
both the House and Senate are launching an effort to overturn the endangerment
finding and prevent the long standing Clean Air Act from doing what it is
designed to do -- protect the public by regulating harmful air pollutants. In
the Senate, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is leading the charge in
the senate with a recently introduced "resolution of disapproval,"
and has support from most Republicans as well as a few Democrats. She already
attempted and failed to do this once last fall, with an amendment to an
Appropriations bill, but the senate refused to consider the measure.
Murkowski's new effort, however, requires only a simple majority to pass (51
votes), making it more of a real threat, and one that climate advocates must
defeat.
2) In the House of Representatives, several similar bills have been
introduced that aim to gut the Clean Air Act:
These lawmakers, who seek to reject the
recommendations of science and public health experts, all receive massive
campaign contributions from fossil fuel lobbyists Big Oil and Dirty Coal. While
they claim to be protecting Americans from supposed costs that Clean Air Act
regulation would bring, their efforts are nothing more than an attempt to
protect the profits of Big Oil and Dirty Coal. In the context of our overall
fight to combat global warming and pass comprehensive climate legislation, it
is critical that we prevent additional members of Congress - especially those
who face challenging upcoming elections - from signing onto these blatant
attacks on science and public health.
Contact Info:
Washington offices: D.C. Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Columbia offices:
Websites for email
submissions:
McCaskill
(573) 442-7130 http://mccaskill.senate.gov
Bond (573)
442-8151
http://bond.senate.gov
Luetkemeyer
(573) 886-8929 http://luetkemeyer.house.gov
THANK YOU FOR TAKING
ACTION THIS WEEK----SPREAD THE WORD!!!
Sincerely,
Monta Welch
Founder/CEO Columbia
Climate Change Coalition
http://ColumbiaClimateChangeCoalition.org